Chapter 124: World 4 [10]

However, the bewildered emotion only flickered across Qin Guang’s face for a fleeting moment before he collapsed onto the ground, unconscious.

“Junior Brother?” Zhu Qiuyu saw the black Qi emanating from her junior brother, but she missed the momentary shift in his expression.

Luckily, Jing Ke had been paying close attention to Qin Guang’s state and didn’t miss the helplessness and confusion that appeared before he fainted. That was clearly not an expression Qin Guang could make in his possessed state; there must be more to this.

Jing Ke, having reverted to her Little White Tiger form, walked over and stepped onto Qin Guang. She then pressed her front paw against his forehead, attempting to use her innate talent ability to sense information.

Hm? How are there two completely distinct auras, or rather, consciousnesses residing in this person’s body?

Jing Ke was somewhat familiar with one of the consciousnesses. It was an aura she found extremely repulsive, belonging to that Qin Guang who constantly thought about her and wanted to make a contract with her.

But where did the other aura and consciousness come from? Had a remnant soul from the ancient tomb seized the opportunity to invade Qin Guang’s body? Or was it some other reason?

Jing Ke’s strongest talent lay in slaughter and combat. She wasn’t proficient in situations like this, akin to one body with two souls. She could only temporarily pat Qin Guang’s forehead with her paw, leaving him a wisp of spiritual power to maintain his consciousness.

“Awoo~” Detecting through their contract that her feeder seemed to be injured, Jing Ke called out to the slightly dazed Zhu Qiuyu.

“Little White Tiger, are you asking me to stay here and look after Junior Brother?” Zhu Qiuyu tried to understand Jing Ke’s meaning.

Jing Ke nodded. Seeing Zhu Qiuyu guarantee she would stay put, she headed toward the previous main tomb chamber.

The paths within the ancient tomb were intricate and complex. Even though Jing Ke could ignore most illusion techniques and illusion arts, by the time she successfully reached the main tomb chamber, the two humans and one demon had been fighting for about half an hour.

The red-dressed woman, who had originally been in human form, had transformed into her even more powerful true form: a seven-tailed fox with a flame-like intense red color. Her strength had also climbed to the Foundation Establishment Late Stage.

Moreover, there seemed to be a formation within the main tomb chamber that boosted her. Endless spiritual energy flowed into her body, allowing her to maintain high-intensity combat.

At the very beginning, Jing Ke and Captain Cheng had held the absolute upper hand when working together. But as time passed, the two expended more and more spiritual power, and their offensive methods began to become conservative, shifting more toward passive defense.

In contrast, the seven-tailed fox, after recovering her original form, was different. She attacked wantonly with her tails, had a constant supply of spiritual power for attacks, and fought with extreme abandon and pleasure. Occasionally, she could even use the main tomb chamber’s terrain and mechanisms to leave wounds on the two of them.

Sure enough, after Jing Ke arrived, she saw her feeder’s combat uniform slashed open, red blood flowing from her forearm.

Because the injury was on her right hand, and since the fox kept attacking it, the wound still hadn’t healed. Blood dripped steadily onto the ground.

“Woo-woo—” Although Jing Ke had sensed her feeder was injured, seeing her arm actually bleeding ignited her anger.

After a fierce, childish roar, Jing Ke used her bloodline suppression to make the seven-tailed fox hesitate for just an instant.

Immediately, Jing Ke pulled a top-grade spirit stone from her storage space, bit it into two or three pieces, and swallowed them. She then pounced directly at the seven-tailed fox, whose tail was nearly two meters long.

“Jing Ke, careful—” Wen Ruyue shouted, her body charging forward to help before her mind even caught up.

Then Wen Ruyue saw the Little White Tiger she could hold in her arms abruptly increase tenfold in size. The body length, originally over forty centimeters, instantly became over four meters. The now massive tiger effortlessly pinned the previously imposing seven-tailed fox to the ground with a front paw.

“Woo-woo—”

A true tiger’s roar erupted from Jing Ke’s mouth. As the sound wave imbued with spiritual power spread, it directly shattered the nearby illusion arts and illusion techniques, instantly restoring the main tomb chamber to its original appearance. The murals, their colors not yet fully faded, were revealed.

The seven-tailed fox, who had been enjoying the fight, was completely bewildered. Whether it was the innate pressure from the bloodline or the white tiger pinning her firmly to the ground, nothing allowed her to muster any thought of resistance.

“Jing Ke?” Wen Ruyue was also stunned. How had her Little White Tiger suddenly gotten so big? Wasn’t she still a little tiger in her growth period?

“Consultant Wen, is… is this the little cat from before?” Captain Cheng’s mouth fell slightly open. She wasn’t a cultivator with exceptional talent, nor had she been accepted as a personal disciple by the sect masters and elders of the Eight Major Sects.

But Captain Cheng still had the most basic common sense. Being able to pin a Foundation Establishment stage Great Demon to the ground with one paw, combined with such a highly recognizable appearance, this was undoubtedly a legendary ancient Divine Beast White Tiger, right?

“Yes, this is my contracted Divine Beast.” Wen Ruyue said, tilting her head back to look at Jing Ke, who now towered over her by a large margin.

“Contractor, stop spacing out. Quickly tie up this fox with the rope,” Jing Ke said. Her voice was cold and clear with a magnetic quality, vastly different from the youthful tone tinged with childishness she had in her little tiger form.

“Okay.” Wen Ruyue snapped back to her senses, took the Demon Binding Rope from her storage bag, and quickly bound the seven-tailed fox. She also fed her a pill that imprisoned spiritual power.

Seeing that the seven-tailed fox could only protest with her eyes, Jing Ke quickly transformed back into the Little White Tiger form. Using the fox’s fluffy tail as a springboard, she leaped back into Wen Ruyue’s arms.

“Your junior sister and junior brother, I’ve already rescued them. They’re in a tomb chamber very close to the exit,” Jing Ke said, unable to suppress a yawn.

But Jing Ke didn’t immediately lie down to rest. Instead, she licked the wound on her contractor’s arm, only settling back down after the healing was complete.

“Find them yourself later. I’m sleepy, need to rest.” After saying this, Jing Ke fell asleep just like that in Wen Ruyue’s arms.

Even her tail, which she usually liked to wag, was curled up tightly into a ball. It seemed she was exhausted, even more fatigued than the last time she healed survivors’ wounds.

After sensing Jing Ke’s state through their contract, Wen Ruyue worried that such an overdraft of spiritual power would have aftereffects on the Little White Tiger. She began trying hard to send Jing Ke a little spiritual power through their contract.

The good news: Wen Ruyue’s attempt succeeded. She could feel the spiritual power within her slowly transferring through the bond.

The bad news: Jing Ke didn’t seem very willing to accept the spiritual power feeding, only absorbing her spiritual power at a very slow rate.

Forget it, some was better than none. She would call and ask Senior Sister Yu later for advice.

–

The people were rescued, and the seven-tailed fox, arguably the main culprit, was captured. This mission could be considered a complete success.

However, in her deep sleep, Jing Ke didn’t change into her mimicry little cat form but remained in her original Little White Tiger appearance.

After the battle, Wen Ruyue immediately called Yu Sijin, informing her of Jing Ke’s situation.

“It’s nothing serious, just an excessive overdraft of spiritual power. Resting a bit more will be fine. The fact that a Divine Beast can awaken in our era is enough proof of the Heavenly Dao’s favor towards it. As long as it’s not a fatal wound, recovery is generally achieved through rest.”

Yu Sijin quickly provided an answer that put Wen Ruyue at ease. “The method to help the Little White Tiger recover quickly is also very simple. Once you get home, use spirit stones to set up a small Spirit Gathering Array, and let the Little White Tiger lie on the formation to rest.”

“Okay, thank you, Senior Sister Yu.” Wen Ruyue carefully noted this down and thanked her repeatedly before hanging up the phone.

To prevent too many people from learning of Jing Ke’s identity, when Wen Ruyue carried the Little White Tiger out, she covered her with a spare jacket of her own, concealing Jing Ke completely.

It was only after meeting up with the First Action Team that Wen Ruyue found her junior sister, squatting on the ground, and her still unconscious junior brother at a side entrance.

“What happened to Junior Brother?” Wen Ruyue asked, holding Jing Ke.

Zhu Qiuyu didn’t hide anything. She recounted her and Qin Guang’s experiences in full detail, including but not limited to how Qin Guang was suspected of being affected by an illusion.

In Zhu Qiuyu’s description, their actions this time had indeed been somewhat reckless. They hadn’t reported the clues they found while tracking the female celebrity in time but had become overly confident and started acting privately.

Their subsequent encounter was easy to guess: they were discovered by the seven-tailed fox midway through their pursuit and were tied up and trapped in the tomb passage.

“Eldest Senior Sister, according to our investigation, that female celebrity didn’t borrow anyone else’s fortune. Strictly speaking, she merely took back the fortune that originally belonged to her,” Zhu Qiuyu said, obediently sitting beside her eldest senior sister.

“Explain in detail,” Wen Ruyue said, holding Jing Ke, her fingertips gently rubbing the soft fur on her belly.

“Eldest Senior Sister, do you know who is buried in this ancient tomb?” Zhu Qiuyu asked. “There are murals in the main tomb chamber.”

“Murals?” Wen Ruyue’s eyebrows arched slightly. She recalled the main tomb chamber after Jing Ke’s tiger roar had shattered all the illusions. “It seems there were, but I didn’t pay attention.”

Wen Ruyue’s attention had been entirely focused on Jing Ke at that moment; she hadn’t had any mental energy to spare for the murals on the walls.

Zhu Qiuyu said, “Judging from the content of the murals, the owner of the ancient tomb should have been a general who died in battle. During her lifetime, she led a great army to defeat foreign tribes, saving the country from disaster. She was later posthumously honored by the emperor as the Loyal and Valorous Duke and granted the title of Grand Preceptor.”

“However, that era had many coexisting kingdoms, not a unified state, so it received little attention in official history books,” Zhu Qiuyu added.

“Does that general who died in battle have a relationship with the mission target, Cai Meng?” Captain Cheng, who was driving, asked from the driver’s seat.

“Yes, that seven-tailed fox has a deep connection with the tomb’s owner. She seems to consider Cai Meng the reincarnation of that general,” Zhu Qiuyu said. “The seven-tailed fox didn’t elaborate on the most specific details, but from how she treats the ancient tomb as her territory, it’s very likely she was that general’s wife in life.”

“The seven-tailed fox didn’t give other people’s fortune to Cai Meng. Instead, she established an ancient contract with her, allowing Cai Meng to share her own fortune.”

Zhu Qiuyu paused. “If I’m not mistaken, when that seven-tailed fox tied up Junior Brother and me, she only seemed to want to teach us a lesson; she didn’t actually intend to kill us.”

Captain Cheng frowned. If there was already karma between the seven-tailed fox and Cai Meng, and if the so-called fortune was provided to Cai Meng by the seven-tailed fox, then the Special Administration Bureau really had no grounds to take action against the fox.

“Did you investigate any other clues?” Wen Ruyue asked.

“It seems not. The seven-tailed fox had already discovered us by then…” Zhu Qiuyu said quietly. Noticing her eldest senior sister frowning and staring at her, she very smoothly and immediately admitted her mistake.

“Sorry, Eldest Senior Sister. I was too reckless and arrogant. I overestimated my own strength and essentially delivered myself to become the seven-tailed fox’s prisoner,” Zhu Qiuyu said with her head bowed.

If she weren’t sitting in the back seat with Wen Ruyue right now, Zhu Qiuyu would have definitely knelt down for real and clung to her eldest senior sister’s leg to apologize.

“You…” Wen Ruyue had many things she wanted to say, like asking her junior sister why she hadn’t called to notify her sooner, only sending a coordinate location at the very last moment.

Slowly exhaling, Wen Ruyue chose to swallow these belated lectures. “A ten-thousand-word self-criticism, handwritten and submitted to me within three days. Then, you will obediently stay in the sect grounds to cultivate. You are not allowed to leave until New Year’s Day.”

“Eldest Senior Sister, does Junior Brother also have to write a self-criticism?” Zhu Qiuyu asked weakly. She had already taken all the blame. Would her eldest senior sister perhaps show some leniency to her junior brother?

Although her junior brother was the one who proposed the idea, she was the older one with higher cultivation. She should take the initiative to bear the responsibility.

“His self-criticism word count is doubled. He’s only at Qi Condensation 6th Floor, yet already so bold. If he breaks through to Foundation Establishment, would he dare to directly challenge a Golden Core Great Demon?” Wen Ruyue said with a cold face.

Wen Ruyue: “Both of you reflect properly in the sect grounds. If there’s a next time, I’ll personally supervise your cultivation for three months. I’ll teach you the proper posture to withstand a beating for longer.”

“Yes, Eldest Senior Sister. Junior Brother and I will definitely reflect seriously.” Zhu Qiuyu forced a smile that was uglier than crying.

After about three minutes of quiet, Zhu Qiuyu, who couldn’t sit still, noticed the Little White Tiger sleeping exceptionally soundly. Based on Zhu Qiuyu’s impression of the Little White Tiger, shouldn’t the tiger have been happily wagging its tail and watching the show while she was being scolded by her eldest senior sister?

“Eldest Senior Sister, why is the Little White Tiger still sleeping? Is it ignoring me?” Zhu Qiuyu asked cautiously.

“No, Jing Ke overused her ability, so she needs time to recover,” Wen Ruyue said.

The guilt and regret in Zhu Qiuyu’s eyes intensified. “Eldest Senior Sister, please tell me what the Little White Tiger likes! I must repay her!”

“You can repay her the most by just cultivating peacefully and not acting recklessly,” Wen Ruyue said bluntly.

Zhu Qiuyu touched her nose. Realizing she couldn’t refute her eldest senior sister’s words, she remained perfectly silent.

–

Forty minutes later, the off-road vehicle stopped at the entrance of the East Province City Special Administration Branch.

Zhu Qiuyu was assigned by Wen Ruyue to go to the hospital to look after Qin Guang. Wen Ruyue herself, carrying Jing Ke, and Captain Cheng entered the interrogation room together. They began interrogating the seven-tailed fox, whose spiritual power had been temporarily sealed.

If everything Zhu Qiuyu said was true, and Cai Meng had only used fortune willingly provided by the seven-tailed fox, without involving other people, then after completing the standard procedures, the Special Administration Bureau wouldn’t imprison the seven-tailed fox but would release her.

This wasn’t because the Bureau was kind-hearted, but because of certain agreements between the Bureau and Golden Core stage Great Demons.

The Bureau couldn’t forcefully detain spirits/monsters unless they had actively harmed or killed humans. Correspondingly, those Great Demons also had to ensure that registered spirits/monsters wouldn’t wreak havoc in the human world.

Inside the interrogation room, the ropes binding the seven-tailed fox had been removed and replaced with a rose gold bracelet engraved with imprisonment runes.

“Name,” Captain Cheng said as she pulled out a chair and sat down, wasting no words.

The seven-tailed fox leaned back in her chair, glancing at the two people before her, her eyes full of disdain. But upon noticing Wen Ruyue holding the Little White Tiger in her arms, she subconsciously straightened her back, a hint of lingering fear surfacing.

There was no helping it; Jing Ke in her white tiger form had left a significant psychological scar on the seven-tailed fox. The moment she was pinned to the ground by the other party, she had even sensed the scent of death, thinking she would lose her life right there.

Wary of Jing Ke’s presence, the seven-tailed fox had no choice but to frown and reluctantly state her name.

“Gu Qi. Gu as in ‘One Glance Captivates a City,’ Qi as in ‘Uncommon and Extraordinary Character.'”