Chapter 91: The Sword King

The five-tailed fire fox narrowed its eyes and looked Shen Duo over with curious interest.

“How did you do that?”

Shen Duo had not expected it to ask her anything, much less such a strange question. She was covered in burns, and the wound on her abdomen was still bleeding. She had no mind to deal with this red fox’s inquiries.

Pressing her lips together, she stared at the giant fox before her. “I don’t understand what you mean.”

A flicker of displeasure passed through the sharp eyes of the five-tailed fire fox. It asked more directly, “Why does your sword aura never run out?”

Back then, if not for the soul pact it had made with her, You Sha would never have known about the Saint Radiance energy within her body. This fox, even as a divine beast, would not be able to see through it. So Shen Duo remained calm.

“Why should I tell you?” Aside from the phantom beast bound to her by contract, she would never let anyone else know this secret. That was what her mother had told her in her memories.

The girl before it was already battered beyond recognition, a pitiful ruin before a strong being like it. To a weakling like Shen Duo, it could send her to the afterlife with a single claw.

What right did such a person still have to pride and stubbornness? Its willingness to give her the chance to speak the truth was already a great honor.

“Human, I warn you, do not make me angry!” The five-tailed fire fox had lived for centuries at this waterfall by the Celestial Peace River, and this was the first time it had ever met someone like Shen Duo, who would not take a toast but would insist on drinking a punishment instead.

The corner of Shen Duo’s mouth curved faintly, and she paid its words no heed at all.

The five-tailed fire fox was thoroughly enraged. Flames erupted around it, growing ever higher, and then a mass of true sun fire surged toward Shen Duo, encircling her.

The heat was so intense that the pool water near the fox’s back began to boil.

Shen Duo only felt a superheated fireball, heavy with overwhelming pressure, crashing toward her. The vast disparity in strength left her with no chance to resist.

Beng Yi cried out anxiously in her heart.

At that very instant, a strange thought entered Shen Duo’s mind. Almost on instinct, she acted on it.

She saw the light array of the Six-Star Formation flashing beneath the five-tailed fire fox, enveloping it in an instant. In the next second, the fireball that had been about to strike Shen Duo vanished without a trace.

Shen Duo silently recited the contract words You Sha had taught her.

The five-tailed fire fox struggled and roared within the illusion formation. After what felt like a very long time, Shen Duo finally sensed a thread of intimacy forming between her heart and the five-tailed fire fox.

Before she could even react, a dazzling light flashed beneath her feet.

Then the wounds that had covered her body miraculously healed completely. More than that, Shen Duo felt strength surge through her entire being.

Lifting the longsword in her hand, she slowly coated the blade with sword aura. The originally rich green aura turned into a pale cyan.

She had advanced.

She had gone directly from Sword Saint to Sword King.

Shen Duo could hardly believe it, but then she remembered what Beng Yi had once told her: if the phantom beast bound by the Saint Radiance energy was stronger than its master, the master would also be elevated. And the reverse was true as well.

Then Shen Duo heard a dull voice say, “Five-Tailed Fire Fox Lou Jingbai greets my master.”

Shen Duo had consumed too much mental energy and was somewhat drained at the moment, but she still could not help feeling shocked. The thought that had flashed through her mind earlier had actually succeeded.

In that split second, she had used the Saint Radiance energy to force a phantom beast contract with the five-tailed fire fox. Though the fox resisted, it had still succeeded.

However, this was a forced contract, and it had consumed a great deal of her mental strength. She could also faintly sense that if she ever encountered a phantom beast stronger than the five-tailed fire fox, this method would no longer work. That also made Shen Duo realize that, with her current strength, using the Saint Radiance energy would at most allow her to subdue divine beasts of about five stars.

Even so, on the present Saint Radiance Continent, such a thing was unprecedented.

Being forced into a contract had made the five-tailed fire fox extremely irritated, but once the contract was complete and it sensed the Saint Radiance energy within Shen Duo, it was astonished. To receive the blessing of a treasure as precious as Saint Radiance energy was the dream of countless phantom beasts. To think it had encountered such fortune today; humiliation had become luck.

Thinking of it that way, the forced contract was not quite so hard to accept.

As for Shen Duo, she was also a little ashamed of what she had just done. But there was no other choice. Otherwise, she would have had to take Beng Yi and flee to another plane.

“Lou Jingbai, from now on, just call me Shen Duo, or Xiao Duo.”

Beng Yi had not expected the matter to be resolved in this way. In the blink of an eye, a mortal enemy that had been trying to kill them a moment ago had become a comrade at their side.

Still, it was good to have Lou Jingbai join them. Beng Yi felt that his own strength was truly pathetic. From now on, with Lou Jingbai protecting Shen Duo, he could train in peace and improve his own power.

“Lou Jingbai, fox, I’m Beng Yi of the Iron Wing Silver Wolf clan.” Beng Yi still could not speak aloud, so he introduced himself in his heart.

The five-tailed fire fox Lou Jingbai narrowed his fox eyes, gave him a rather haughty look, and snorted with obvious disdain, as if he thought very little of Beng Yi.

Shen Duo felt a headache coming on. She was beginning to wonder whether the fleeting decision to use Saint Radiance energy to form a phantom beast contract with Lou Jingbai had been right or wrong.

It looked as if they were already showing signs of internal strife right after meeting.

“You! Just because you’re a divine beast doesn’t mean you’re so great!” Beng Yi was provoked as well.

High-tier phantom beasts were all incomparably proud and could not be easily stirred up. After all, they were beasts of the wild; even if they could take human form after further evolution, the blood of ferocity and the instinct to fight still ran deep within them.

The five-tailed fire fox lifted its five scarlet tails and paced back and forth before Beng Yi. “At least I can talk. As for you, you can only howl like a wolf!”

Beng Yi was so provoked that he bared his teeth and almost lunged forward to bite him just to vent his anger.

Watching the two beasts interact, Shen Duo shook her head in exasperation.

“Enough. Stop arguing. We should rescue the others first.”

Only then did Lou Jingbai remember what Shen Duo had said earlier. She had mentioned the stone cave near the waterfall because she wanted to save her friend who was inside.

Lou Jingbai shook his five enormous fox tails. His massive body suddenly shrank until he became a little red fox no bigger than a palm.

He nimbly leaped onto Shen Duo’s shoulder. His fluffy tail swayed back and forth, the tip tinged with black. His two triangular ears were rounded at the ends, and the four little paws were also black at the tips. With those wet, bright eyes and the way he tilted his head to look at you, he was so adorable it was almost absurd.

Shen Duo was once again speechless in the face of these high-level magical beasts. She deeply suspected that the stronger a phantom beast was, the cuter its form became—just like Lou Jingbai. If he appeared in front of others in this shape, who would believe he was the domineering divine beast, the five-tailed fire fox?

For now, I’ll post this first and correct the typos slowly later.