Chapter 7: Every Debt Has Its Debtor!

Yan Zhao opened her eyes, the pain so sharp she sucked in a breath of cold air. Looking down, she saw a fluffy, silvery-white little fox biting her palm.

As she lifted her arm, the little creature dangled from her hand like a piece of dried salted fish, its tail swaying gently from side to side.

“What are you doing?” Yan Zhao was baffled. “Why did you bite me all of a sudden?”

The fox’s mouth was occupied, but a rumbling commotion from outside the cave answered for it.

Following the sound, Yan Zhao’s eyes, lit by the firelight, reflected a large, spherical black shadow. It was a ferocious Giant Brown Bear.

The Brown Bear was charging straight for the cave entrance, its massive body nearly filling the entire opening.

The little fox let go at the right moment, dropped back to the ground, and then nipped at Yan Zhao’s pant leg: Run!

Yan Zhao blinked, grasping the fox’s meaning, but…

“How do I run?”

The cave entrance wasn’t very wide to begin with. The Brown Bear, lunging in, completely blocked the only exit.

In a narrow path, the brave win. It seemed this fight was unavoidable.

Yan Zhao scooped up the little fox with one hand and stuffed it into her chest pocket. The fox’s tail brushed her chin like a feather duster.

Though the timing was terrible, a thought surfaced in Yan Zhao’s mind: In winter, having a tail like this wrapped around her neck would certainly be warm.

She grabbed a burning stick from the fire and hurled it at the Brown Bear.

The stick squarely hit the bear’s head, sparks flying into its eyes. It let out an infuriated roar, squeezing its eyes shut and shaking its head violently.

Yan Zhao seized the opportunity, charging forward and mercilessly plunging a sharpened wooden branch into its eye socket.

“ROAR!!!”

The Brown Bear erupted in a scream of agony, swinging its paw forward.

But Yan Zhao moved like an agile monkey, using one hand to push off the bear’s nose, leaping into the air. She flipped over onto the bear’s back, wrapping her arms tightly around its neck before stabbing down again with the wooden fork, blinding its other eye.

The Brown Bear went mad with pain, rearing up on its hind legs, trying to throw Yan Zhao off.

The cave ceiling wasn’t high. If Yan Zhao didn’t let go in time, her back would slam into the cave wall. With the bear’s berserk, brute strength, she’d be skinned alive, at best.

Yan Zhao smoothly released her grip on the bear’s fur, sliding down its back and landing on the ground.

By now, their positions had swapped. She was closer to the cave entrance and jumped out with a light leap.

The blinded Brown Bear tried to turn around within the narrow cave but slammed its head against the wall. Bear blood from its eye sockets splattered across the ground.

Once outside, Yan Zhao didn’t flee immediately.

She pulled an Explosive Talisman from her Universe Bag, slapping it onto the cave entrance. She channeled all of her not-so-abundant Dharma Power into it in one go.

Boom—

The talisman detonated with a thunderous blast. The entire cave collapsed, crushing the Brown Bear completely beneath the rubble.

The shockwave threw Yan Zhao back, sending her tumbling several times before she stopped.

But she scrambled up quickly. After getting to her feet, she didn’t check her wounds. The first thing she did was fish out the fox to see if her Spirit Pet was still alive.

The fox was also unharmed, though it had been knocked dizzy. Its pointy mouth was slightly agape, a tiny pink tongue lolling out.

“Quite tough,” Yan Zhao remarked. “Worthy of being my fox. Just like me.”

She patted the fox’s head, smoothed the fur along its back, and tucked it back into her pocket. She sat down on the spot to catch her breath.

About the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, the fox woke from its daze. It felt a jostling motion and smelled an overwhelmingly strong scent of blood.

Startled, it poked its little head out to look.

It was still in Yan Zhao’s arms. The distant cave was now a ruin of piled rubble. A pit had been dug out amidst the stones, surrounded entirely by blood.

Yan Zhao had dragged the Brown Bear from the stone pile and was busily skinning it.

Despite being covered in blood, her movements were clean and efficient. The blood on her body was likely not her own.

Even if she was injured, it probably wasn’t serious.

The little fox’s heart had just settled when a foul stench hit it directly, nearly overwhelming its composure.

Yan Zhao was holding a walnut-sized, black, bloody, and unbearably stinky bear gall right under its nose. “Want some?” she asked.

The little fox sneezed several times, threw a fierce glare at Yan Zhao, and then whoosh—retreated back into the pocket. Its rejection was clear.

“Tch,” Yan Zhao clicked her tongue. “You don’t know a good thing. This is bear gall, very nourishing. You’ll heal faster if you eat it.”

No matter what she said, the little fox hid and refused to come out.

It would rather die from its injuries than eat something so foul and fishy!

Since the fox wouldn’t eat it, Yan Zhao ate it herself.

She casually tossed the entire bear gall into her mouth, swallowed it whole without chewing, and then happily continued skinning the bear.

A bear skin this large could be spread out to cover a bed.

The bear’s shinbones could be sharpened into daggers for self-defense, and its teeth could be made into hidden weapons.

Yan Zhao’s meridians were blocked; she couldn’t cultivate. Any high-grade Magical Artifact in her hands was no different from an ordinary blade. She used them if she had them, felt no regret if she didn’t.

By the time she finished cleaning up, it was dawn. She cut off the bear paws, roasted them for a full meal, and made a portion for the little fox.

Although Ren Qingyue had already reached the Soul Formation stage and achieved Fasting long ago, she had lost all her Dharma Power from this injury. Turned into a little fox, she also got hungry. But she had never dined in such crude conditions before.

Yan Zhao’s cooking skills were also… difficult to describe. The little fox looked at the whole chunk of roasted bear meat Yan Zhao held to her mouth. The smoky scent of meat wafted across her face, but she felt absolutely no appetite.

“Not eating this either?” Yan Zhao was puzzled. “What do you usually eat?”

The fox didn’t answer, simply turning its head away.

Yan Zhao pursed her lips. “Fine, don’t eat it. I will.”

She took back the chunk of meat and devoured it in a few bites, her mouth gleaming with grease.

The fox was disgusted.

Yan Zhao’s stomach seemed like a bottomless pit. The Brown Bear, over ten feet tall, she ate two-thirds of it herself. The remaining third was kept for snacks.

The little fox looked her up and down, its dark green eyes full of disbelief.

You truly can’t judge a book by its cover. Who would have thought that Yan Zhao, with her thin, small, and frail-looking frame, could eat so much? Did she have a Universe Pouch hidden in her belly?

Yan Zhao ate and drank her fill just as the sky fully brightened.

She spread out her map to study the route ahead.

Out of the forest heading east for another ten-some miles would lead to the nearest mortal city. The city had an Immortal Cultivator market established by the Yunding Immortal Alliance. The disciples who had descended the mountain for training would likely come here first to resupply and gather information.

Besides this, the map also marked the location of the Bright Mirror Platform, far away in the north of Fuyun Sect.

Yan Zhao pointed at the map and said, “Let’s head west.”

Little Fox: “?”

Naturally, Yan Zhao didn’t explain her thoughts to the fox. Decision made, she put away the map, scooped up the little fox again, and muttered to herself as she set off: “All those herbs I gathered yesterday were wasted. I’ll pick some more if I see them along the way.”

Little Fox: “…”

The further away from Fuyun Sect they went, the fewer spiritual items were in the mountains. By the time they left the forest, Yan Zhao still hadn’t found many usable Stasis-Clearing Herbs.

At this, the little fox sincerely breathed a sigh of relief.

Yan Zhao didn’t dwell on it either, simply informing the little fox of this helpless fact: “Can’t find any herbs, and I don’t know any healing spells. Looks like you’ll just have to wait for your injuries to heal slowly.”

The little fox thought: It’s best that you’ve come to your senses.

Passing by a small river on the way, the little fox jumped down from Yan Zhao’s arms and tugged at her pant leg towards the water.

Seeing this, Yan Zhao picked it up by the scruff of its neck and pointed at its little nose, earnestly lecturing: “No, you’re injured. You can’t play in the water.”

The little fox was so angry it bared its teeth.

It’s not me, it’s you! You need to wash! Filthy and covered in blood, how can you stand it?!

It was as if Yan Zhao had copper walls built around her ears, completely blocking the fox’s intentions. Its insistence was wholly useless against her.

Just then, Yan Zhao’s nose twitched, catching a faint, elusive fragrance.

“Wait a moment,” she made a silencing gesture at the little fox. “Seems like there’s something nearby.”

She promptly stuffed the fox back into her pocket and began searching for the source of the fragrance.

Following the riverbank for another hundred or so steps, the aroma grew stronger.

Yan Zhao’s stomach rumbled twice, and she nearly drooled.

It smelled incredible. The scent of meat.

But she had never smelled meat this fragrant and wondered who was cooking by the river.

Yan Zhao’s nostrils flared, sniffing left and right. She quickly locked onto two people on the riverbank. To be precise, the campfire burning before them, with a few fish roasting on top.

The little fox poked its head out from her arms, its nose twitching too.

Delicious.

Yan Zhao looked down at it. “You want some of that fish?”

The fox hesitated slightly but nodded.

These grilled fish were much better than the roasted bear meat Yan Zhao had made.

As the fish finished cooking, Pang Da was just reaching out when a thin hand, like a small bamboo pole, suddenly appeared from the side and took the largest, most golden-roasted fish first.

Without a care for anyone else’s feelings, Yan Zhao brought the fish to her mouth and took a loud, crunchy bite. Crispy outside, tender inside.

She nodded in evaluation. “Tasty.”

It was the most delicious fish she’d ever had.

In broad daylight, the sudden, silent appearance of a woman covered in blood stunned the two burly, tiger-backed men.

Pang Da shot Pang Er a look: Who’s this?

Pang Er shook his head: Don’t know.

Pang Da suddenly remembered something, his face paling drastically. He gave Pang Er another look: Don’t you think she looks like that girl who was captured by the bandits last year and ended up fed to the wild wolves?

Pang Er shivered, his hair standing on end. No way?

In the brief moment of their silent exchange, Yan Zhao had finished half the fish and offered the other half to the little fox.

The little fox was also stunned. It thought Yan Zhao would at least greet the people before taking their food, not just reach out and grab it.

Whatever. It’s done now. We can just compensate them later.

The little fox extended a paw to take the stick the fish was skewered on. Although it was disgusted that Yan Zhao had already eaten from it, it was very hungry and didn’t refuse.

However, while taking the grilled fish, it also noticed something carefully: the bite mark on Yan Zhao’s palm seemed to have disappeared.

To Pang Da and Pang Er, this scene was utterly eerie.

Both men jumped to their feet and stumbled back over a dozen steps.

Pang Er slipped and fell into the river, getting swept away by the current.

Yan Zhao suddenly looked up, her eyes staring straight at Pang Da from behind her disheveled hair.

Pang Da let out a terrified shriek, his knees buckling. He knelt and banged his head repeatedly on the ground. “Every debt has its debtor! It wasn’t me who harmed you! You’ve got the wrong person! Please spare me! I’ll burn paper money for you when I get back!”

The little fox choked on the fish meat in its mouth, spitting it out.

Yan Zhao: “…Ah?”