Reaping Benefits

Yu Tian woke up slowly, confused as to where he was. He then remembered the events that had occurred, now alerted and hopping to his feet.

"Ah!" Yae cried out as she was nearly scared to death from Yu Tian's sudden actions, falling to the ground from his body.

"Oh." Yu Tian noticed the fox glaring at him angrily. "Sorry Zi Jin, didn't mean to startle you."

"It's fine." Yae rolled her eyes in exasperation, speaking with her light and refined voice. "Also, this princess's name isn't Zi Jin."

"Call this princess big sister Yae." She commanded.

Yu Tian nodded casually and began to observe his body, patting it down for injuries. "I see, sure."

"..."

The former god froze, slowly turning around and gave a deadpan stare downwards the little fox. He rubbed his eyes, unsure if he was still dreaming or just hearing things.

"Uh..." Yu Tian frowned, rubbing his temples and ears. "Am I hearing things?"

Yae's eyes narrowed in annoyance. She crawled over and smacked at Yu Tian's leg with her paw, staring deadpan at him with her amethysts. "I don't know, are you hearing things?"

"Wow." Yu Tian shook his head in amazement, bending down to a knee and picking her up. "I can't believe that you could actually talk."

Looking into his dark eyes that were as clear as water, Yae felt her skin heat up and looked away. The spirit fox remembered how Yu Tian saw her naked body in her human form, and began to feel extremely embarrassed about it again.

"Yae, huh. That's an unusual name." Yu Tian commented as he began to feel around and look over her body, before finally lifting up her tail. "So did anything else change?"

With an angry tick mark on her forehead, she smacked Yu Tian's face as hard as she could with a fully red face, escaping out of his grasp. "NO!"

"Ow." Yu Tian gave her a look of being wronged. "What's wrong about me seeing your body? I've helped you wash plenty of times when you were asleep."

"Ahh!" With another embarrassed cry of fury, Yae couldn't control her emotions anymore being reminded of everything and elegantly jumped up.

The demonic beast twisted in mid air and jump kicked Yu Tian in the stomach with her hind legs, winding him and sending him flying and rag dolling to the ground. "Oof!"

Yu Tian saw stars as he laid there in defeat, disoriented with dizzy circles in his eyes. Sheesh, just what was her problem?

...

"Bonk."

Yu Tian was forced to kneel and kept staring at Yae weirdly. She was still angry and continued whacking the former god over the head from time to time.

"So... Yae. About the-" Yu Tian tried to talk to her.

"Bonk."

However, the fox hissed at him and whacked him over the head again, cutting the conversation short. He sighed, deflating and deciding to give up for her to cool down.

Finally, the long period of silence that followed allowed Yae to regain control of her emotions. She cleared her throat, turning to the boy that was still giving her a pitiful and wronged look, with slightly teary eyes.

"Stop giving me that face." The fox looked away and sniffed disdainfully. "This princess here is older than you, so give me proper respect!"

"Alright, alright." Yu Tian held up his hands in surrender, an awkward smile on his face.

The demonic beast kept referring to herself as princess. He didn't know if it was exactly true or not, but just went along with it to pacify her.

The former god looked around and finally noticed the pool of dark mush. "So... Big sister Yae, is that the monster we killed?"

"Yes." Yae nodded, licking a paw gracefully. "This princess also absorbed its spiritual essence."

"Spiritual essence?" Yu Tian asked.

He thought for a bit and remembered on how demonic beasts had some other ways to cultivate other than humans.

For example, humans can increase the cultivation by absorbing Qi, or the spiritual energy of the world, into their bodies. Other ways to speed up this process includes consuming cultivation materials that contained high spiritual energy, or using formations to increase the absorption speed.

In terms of demonic beasts, they just had to eat and sleep to naturally cultivate. They may also devour the same resources with high amounts of spiritual energy, or even other demonic beasts to gain benefits to their cultivation.

Yu Tian still never heard about the absorption of spiritual essence though, so he was curious. Looking at the disgusting remnants of the creature's corpse and back at Yae, the former god couldn't imagine the little fox eating that.

Seeing his apprehensive look, Yae rolled her eyes. "The spirit fox race allows us to increase or cultivation by absorbing spiritual essence indirectly with our Qi, rather than having to directly consume like other demonic beasts."

"Ohhh." Yu Tian clapped in amazement and gave a thumbs up in understanding. "That's pretty cool. I never knew there was so much diversity for demonic beasts to cultivate."

"Hmph." Yae became somewhat smug from hearing the compliment, looking upwards proudfully. Yu Tian chuckled again with a sweatdrop, seeing the fox's princess attitude in full swing now.

He looked over his body again, noting that his injuries have pretty much all healed. There was still some dried blood on his skin, but almost all of the soreness have completely disappeared.

[Eyes of Eternity]

He then walked over to the well, using his eye ability to glance over and into it. Yu Tian was surprised to see that it has all dried up, with the bottom in plain sight now. "Hm."

"This princess used the rest of the water to help you recover from your injuries." Yae also walked over, noticing his actions. "After that monster died, the water started to recede."

"You better feel grateful." She sniffed.

Yu Tian nodded, then frowned when he remembered that blurry, naked figure. He slowly glanced over at Yae and gave her a weird look, causing her to frown back. "What?"

"How did you help me drink it?" The former god questioned, causing Yae to freeze up with her fur to stand on end. "Also, was there anyone else here? I thought I saw a girl-"

"Bonk."

"S-Stop daydreaming, pervert." Yae glared at him with a death stare as she smacked him on the head a few more times, making Yu Tian give up.

"Wait, there's something there." Yu Tian attention was drawn by an object that caught his eye. At the bottom of the well, there appeared to be something buried under smooth stones.

Climbing in, he didn't see Yae trembling with anger and embarrassment. The wall was large enough to where Yu Tian could comfortably scale down.

"This is..." Yu Tian's eyes narrowed when he arrived at the bottom.

It was a small dagger as black as night, seemingly made from obsidian. The former god continued to observe it with his eye, but couldn't make out anymore details regarding the weapon.

As Yu Tian bent down to touch it, the dagger emitted a crimson aura upon contact, causing his eyes to widen in surprise. A strange and dark energy emanated from his right hand, enveloping and consuming the dagger into itself, while a emotionless voice echoed in his mind.

[You have grown weak again, owner. I will awaken when you're strong enough.] 

[If not, I will consume you again.]

"What?" Perplexed, Yu Tian gazed at his hand with a solemn expression. "Who... Are you?"

Regrettably, there was no reply, and the peculiar events that just transpired vanished as quickly as it came.

"Yu Tian?" Yae was confused from his words. The little fox poked her head over the well, observing him carefully.

She couldn't discern anything else at the bottom aside from him, so Yae became a bit concerned with his ghostly expression and intense staring at his own hand. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." Yu Tian shook his head and replied with a strained smile. "Looks like there was nothing, I'll head back up now."

...

Ascending the stone, the former god found it surprisingly easy to grip onto, as if it had been dry for an extended period. When he emerged from the well, he brushed off the dirt from his clothes, lost in thought.

"Owner, huh?..." Yu Tian contemplated.

The dagger that was originally there disappeared into his hand like it never existed in the first place. Yu Tian felt that all of this was due to his second martial spirit, yet he only had more questions than answers again.

Regardless, the first thing they should do is try to get out of here. Yu Tian had no idea how long they've been stuck in this room.

"Let's try to find a way out now." Yu Tian said, looking at Yae. "I don't think we can try to head back the way we came in."

Approaching the now crumbled hole, he determined that it would take too much time to excavate and lift out the debris. "Do you know how long we've been in here?"

The demonic beast shook her head. "No, we might be trapped."

"Well, that's not good." Yu Tian grimaced. He rubbed his tummy and started to feel the hunger pangs setting in.

Not only did they not have any food here, but the water from the well also disappeared. If they didn't get out of here soon, both he and Yae will die from thirst or starvation here.

"I'm already a Rank 4 demonic beast, so maybe this princess can blast our way out." Yae suggested.

Yu Tian blinked at the little fox, only now realizing how strong her aura was as opposed to before. Yae really did rise a whole rank from absorbing the essence from the creature.

The former god observed his own body again and was just as shocked. He had also risen directly to a level 2 Qi Warrior in this short span of time.

This entire time, he was only checking on his body condition and injuries. It seems like this encounter for them in this death trap of a room was actually fortuitous.

By himself, he doubt he could damage the rocks enough to create a way out. However, Yu Tian remembered the interesting reaction caused by his lightning and Yae's lightning together.

With that amount of power, even the stone walls would be unable to withstand their attacks.

"Alright, I think we have a chance of getting out now." Yu Tian grinned.

...

"YU TIAN!" Yae screamed in anger and fear as she ran.

"Well, it kind of worked." Yu Tian replied unwillingly in defiance, scrambling to escape behind her.

The boy and fox continued to advance from the way they came, channeling their lightning in unison to blast away the debris obstructing their path. This method proved successful as they made it halfway through, but their continuous attacks eventually compromised the structure's integrity, causing it to start to collapse.

"Ow." Yu Tian protected his head as rocks kept falling down on his head and body through the narrow tunnel.

Yae was ahead of him and faster and maneuvering in the tight space, but the dust and gravel had already turned her golden fur to a dirty brown. However, she was smart enough to not worry about the small things when their lives were on the line.

"Cough." Yu Tian felt himself suffocating from the dust and dirt. Oxygen was cutting out and they were moving far too slow to get out in time.

Using his Qi, the former god empowered his body and launched forward with incredible speed on all fours. Yae squealed when Yu Tian's body suddenly caught up to her, his face pressing hard into her fluffy bottom.

Both of them got out just a second before the corridor finally collapsed on itself, causing another massive explosion of dust. Yu Tian landed hard onto his back, breathing heavily but laughing in exhilaration.

"Whew." He grinned tiredly. "Not even close. Isn't that right Yae?"

"Yae?" Yu Tian glanced up at the dirty fox with an innocent look, who suddenly towered over his head.

"Li. Yu. Tian." Yae's eyes were embarrassed and angry as she lifted a paw. Yu Tian was helpless as he watched it descend towards his face.

"Ahh!"

From then, screams from the boy and the furious sounds of a fox filled the cavern. Yu Tian could only helplessly receive the beating, still feeling confused and wronged as to what he did.

Females are crazy.