Chapter 3

Drifting through the forest of aurora redwoods with their barren trunks that reached to the sky for dozens of meters until they formed a thick canopy overhead, Xiao Huifen moved with the grace of a windblown snowflake. She’d yet to break into the sky realm, so flying was difficult except for short stints, but at the eighth level of the earth realm, she stalked her quarry at a speed far faster than even most birds of prey were capable of.

Not only was her speed beyond most of the dire beasts of this area, but she didn’t dare waste the tread of her Unyielding Azure Slippers in a place like this, so she traveled barefoot. The forest floor was made of soft dirt and thin grass cover with a sparce blanket of dead leaves so her biggest problem wasn’t comfort or staying injury free but missing every hidden damp patch of ground that might make her footfalls unsure. Even then, a timely freeze from her ice qi would save her from an embarrassing fall and an even more embarrassing sinking into the wet earth. Coming back with mud up to her knees would be unsightly even if she succeeded in her quest.

This was the Monolith continent’s southeastern region. This forest spanned thousands of kilometers, and she’d tracked her prey to the heart of it. The dire beasts here had reached the earth realm at the highest, so even though dire beasts were considered more powerful than a human of the same realm because of their monstrous physiques, Huifen wasn’t worried. She’d killed numerous earth realm dire beasts during her early levels in the earth realm, so now that she had reached large success and was in the latter stages, they were little more than fodder to her.

This region was called the Redwood Aurora because eighty percent of it was covered in forests made up of the similarly named tree. It was well-known as a place young cultivators came in the blood realm and especially the nascent realm when they were forming their dantians. Earth cultivators came as well, but the higher level beasts were rare, and the area was too big to hunt them with any consistency.

Huifen wasn’t here to chase one of these rare beasts, but a lowly blood level dire beast called the snow fox. It was rarely seen, and it was an even rarer event for someone to catch one. They weren’t formidable at their level, but their ability to run and hide made them a difficult beast to hunt even for earth cultivators.

That was exactly why she’d delved so deep into the Redwood Aurora—far deeper than cultivators normally traveled. The snow fox was more than just a rare beast that provided challenging sport, for it possessed a dire beast core with unique ice qi properties. It would be a great boon to help her break into the sky realm.

She was already the youngest cultivator to reach her level in thousands of years of the Monolith continent. How could she not also pursue the record of becoming the youngest sky realm cultivator in modern history?

Feeling a strand of elation bubbling up inside her at the thought, she circulated her ice qi according to the Heart of Ice technique to keep her emotions in check. Now was not the time to get carried away by passion. Her mind focused as her energy numbed her heart. All that mattered was her target.

With her perceptions stretched to the heights of their range, she took in the world around her. One of the reasons for her exceptional cultivation speed was her abnormal physique. Though there was nothing wrong with her meridians, which all cultivators used to collect qi from the world, she had no need of them in the traditional sense. Her physique was a gift from the heavens that had never been seen in Monolith or even on all of her home planet Lifestone to her or her master’s knowledge. It was called the Peerless Spiritual Body. What it really meant was that she could gather energy through her skin, blood, and bone.

Normally, energy couldn’t be gathered in the body until after the body cultivation realm. It started in the blood realm, which was the second large stage of cultivation. It was then that one could gather qi with their meridians and absorb some of it into their blood. Then at the third stage of cultivation, the nascent realm, one is able to begin the formation of their dantians. Even at the earth realm which came after that, one still relied on their meridians to absorb energy after their dantian has been formed and only in the sky realm, once one’s spirit had merged with the body, did it become possible to absorb qi through the skin. But Huifen had this ability since the day she was born. Regardless of realm, energy absorption was easy for her and had only improved as she progressed.

This was also why she dared to travel this deep into the Redwood Aurora on her own. Her ability to absorb energy also meant she was especially sensitive to the qi in her surroundings and could feel the world as if it were alive. Her perceptions spanned almost a kilometer in every direction, or three times that of someone else of the same cultivation, and the closer a living thing was, the clearer she could sense it.

She certainly felt the presence of the dire beast that was hiding up ahead and off to the side of the path that she was carving through the forest. It was at the earth realm, so of course it didn’t fear her. In this region, it was king.

She didn’t slow as she approached. With a single step, she bound more than ten meters before landing and bounding a second time with little more than a push of her foot. Her frost-blue gown draped over her shoulders like a thin robe. It had a V-shaped collar that was cut high enough to not be too revealing. The girls of her sect had enough problems without attracting any additional unwanted male attention. The dress hugged her thin, but powerful waist and fell to just above her ankles. As she moved, the skirt of her dress dragged behind her like a brazenly waving standard.

As soon as she darted passed the tree the beast was hiding behind, she felt its body tense as it prepared to lunge.

An Ice Lotus petal formed above her outstretched finger. Her sect was known for the infamous Ice Lotus technique that was as beautiful as it was deadly. In the simplest terms, it was a bomb of ice qi and its petals were razor sharp projectiles. One’s proficiency with the Ice Lotus was often judged by the number of petals a cultivator could summon, but Huifen didn’t even summon a complete lotus.

She spun in the air to face the beast as it jumped for her. Its snarl resounded as the timber wolf opened its massive jaws. This earth realm dire beast was more than five times Huifen’s size, and its speed was high for a beast of its realm, but she didn’t move from her path.

With a flick of her finger, the lotus petal shot forward, intercepting the timber wolf before it had halved the distance. It sunk into the left side of its chest. With a blast of her will, the lotus petal burst apart inside the timber wolf’s body, causing massive trauma as blood splattered out of numerous newly forming wounds all over its body.

It shook and whimpered.

While the wolf was still in the midst of its pounce, Huifen leaned forward, and with the swipe of the same finger she’d used to summon the lotus petal, she flicked the wolf on the forehead.

Its eyes were already rolling in its head, so it didn’t notice the motion at all. As the girl’s finger tapped its skull, it was like a giant hammer had fallen. The wolf’s trajectory was forced downward, and it slammed into the earth snout first.

Because of the weight differential, Huifen was tossed back but softly landed a few dozen meters away. She almost moved on before deciding it would be a waste of an earth realm beast core. It was a grewsome business digging out a core from the beast’s tough body, but it would be a big help to one of her sisters, and the local dire beasts would greatly benefit from devouring its corpse.

The wolf’s spirit slowly left its body like a phantom cloud with eyes. It could be dangerous, but because of the way and the ease in which she killed it, the lingering spirits would likely choose to flee instead of attack.

The initial confusion of the wolf-shaped ghost had it wandering around its own corpse in a stupor. It probably wouldn’t even have gained awareness before she was long gone.

Using a lotus petal like a scalpel as she stood back at a distance, she cut the creature open and carefully dissected it until she found what she was looking for. Taking a thick cloth out of her spatial ring, she cleaned the fist-size beast core before placing it in her spatial ring. In the next instant, she was gone.

She’d already been hunting the snow fox for three days. Twice she’d caught sight of it, and she saw traces of its unique ice qi even now. Despite it being hard to track, once she was on its trail, it was only a matter of time. Its endurance was greatly inferior to hers, so she just had to keep going until it ran out of energy.

After another hour, she felt it ahead and knew the time was approaching. She quickened her pace until the forest in her peripherals blurred. The distance was quickly vanquished, and she neared the snow fox’s current location. It seemed to have stopped. It looked like it was finally unable to keep running.

As she approached a clearing, she saw it sitting upon an enormous tree root at the base of an ancient redwood. The root was so large that it created a ridge as tall as she was that spanned more than twenty meters in length. She didn’t slow down and prepared to entrap the fox so she could carefully extract its core.

She saw the flash of eyes from a monstrous dire beast hiding in the gap between the earth and tree’s root before she felt its presence.

How is that even possible?

She was moving too fast to stop before she would come into range, so she sent a burst of ice energy out with her hand to divert her approach while still soaring across the ground.

The creature leaped out from the shadows to reveal its immense form that was twice as large as the timber wolf. It was another snow fox…

Her quick redirection had saved her from a direct confrontation with the dire beast. With a glance, she saw it was at least ten times larger than a normal snow fox, and its cultivation, she couldn’t discern. That could only mean one thing. Its cultivation was higher than hers.

Such a thing shouldn’t be possible. There were no reports of dire beasts with such a high cultivation in this region, but yet again, she’d gone deeper than anyone else would normally have reason to.

It wasn’t surprising, really, that a creature with such good hiding and fleeing abilities would be able to progress so far in this type of environment. Its ability would make it so that it lived longer than most other beasts and have far more chance to breakthrough to higher realms.

With Heart of Ice flowing at a steady rate, Huifen didn’t panic. She’d beaten low-level sky realm cultivators before, so it was possible that this snow fox still wasn’t her match.

As it landed close by at the end of its first lunge, she summoned a wall of thin ice to block its line of sight.

The next moment, the sheet of ice shattered as the snow fox’s maw and soul-piercing eyes crashed through it with no resistance. Floating in the air waiting for it was not one, but three perfect eighteen-petal Ice Lotuses. One was waiting for it head on, and the other two were hovering at both of its flanks.

As she launched herself backward into the air, she threw out her arms and the three lotuses exploded. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect. The rain of deadly ice petals caught it in the throat and the ribs on both sides.

The concussion slowed the snow fox’s momentum, and it fell to the ground but landed solidly on all fours. There was no visible damage. Not a drop of blood stained its pure white coat. That almost guaranteed that it wasn’t just a low level sky realm dire beast. It had to have reached at least small success, or the middle of its realm or higher.

Huifen knew she was in trouble as its wintery aura was pushed out of its body. Frost was left on the ground beneath it and coated the bark of the trees nearby in an instant. If it wasn’t mad before, now it certainly was.

Despite her obvious disadvantages, she still wasn’t ready to back down and flee. Not only had she already mastered the third technique of the Ice Phoenix Cultivation Tome, but she’d also mastered the fourth that most sky realm experts hadn’t even touched on. This was in large part due to her own talent, but also because she was the personal disciple of the Ice Phoenix Sect Master. There was no one more qualified to teach the Ice Phoenix Arts, and Huifen had worked herself bloody to take full advantage of her master’s teaching.

The snow fox stalked toward where she’d retreated less than fifty meters away. It held no fear of her after taking her last attack head on. The most surprising thing was that it didn’t look as if it had any intention of taking the younger snow fox and fleeing. It was unusual for snow foxes to even kill humans that had a lower cultivation than they did, but this one was looking at her like she was a tasty snack.

This was, in truth, the best possible scenario for what Huifen was planning. The fourth Ice Phoenix technique contained massive speed and power, but also a very short range. It held enough force to kill a low-level human sky realm cultivator with a single hit. If she succeeded, the snow fox should at least be injured, and she’d have the time to reassess whether she should run or keep attacking afterward. Either way, it would greatly drain her of her energy, so she’d have to react fast. She circulated the technique and waited for the creature to get in range.

The dire beast came slowly as if it was relishing the moment. Either its nature had become more vicious as its cultivation changed, or it had grown arrogant like most powerful creatures do when they realize nothing can harm them.

As if savoring the imagined taste of her flesh, its tongue drooped from the side of its mouth. The distance was shrinking between them, so it began lowering its stance and shortening its steps.

The frozen ground beneath its paws groaned and cracked as it erupted forward. The speed of its lunge was twice as fast as before.

Even so, Huifen was not unnerved. Heart of Ice rid her of any useless emotions. As she stretched out her arm before her, the action was far more complex and straining than what was visible to the eye. Ice qi rolled off her like the outstretching of phoenix wings, her power billowed. But it wasn’t wings that formed but five dreadful talons—the Talons of the Ice Phoenix.

The explosive force of her energy was so fearsome that even the snow fox visibly cringed in the midst of its leap toward her.

There was no delay between her talon’s forming and their piercing forward. With no way to avoid it, all the snow fox could do was take the attack head on. Its aura intensified as it desperately tried to defend.

Each talon approached from a different angle above it and at its flanks. These were no small ice shards but held the weight of many kilograms. They ripped into the dire beast’s defensive aura that dampened their impact, but not enough to block them entirely. Starting at its forward shoulders, five deep gouges were torn in its hide. They extended all the way down its ribs and back to stop before the weaker flesh of its belly.

The snow fox howled in misery, but its large size drove it on. Desperate to retaliate, it slashed out. Its giant paw solidly hit Huifen’s arm, and one of its opposing claw reached past her, ripping at her back with a swipe. She spun as she was thrown back.

Despite Heart of Ice, a moment of distress slipped through. She rolled as she collided with the ground and came to her feet with a helpful push of the hand of her unbroken arm. She saw the snow fox had collapsed when it landed and felt a flash of victory; then the monster shook its head from side to side before coming to its feet.

All her options had evaporated. She spun and tossed a recovery pill into her mouth as she fled. Sensing the bloody gash across her upper back and shoulder, she filled it with ice qi to stop the bleeding and seal the wound. Her arm seemed to dangle from her side, but her hand still worked, so she grabbed ahold of the front of her dress to hold it close to her body. As the Sect Master’s disciple, Huifen was one of the few earth realm cultivators that could safely train here alone, but that had all changed in an instant.

A sky realm monster had been hiding here in wait, and from the sound behind her, it wasn’t about to let her go.