Chapter 2
Edward Quan ·
04
In the middle of the night, the heat woke me.
I looked down. Sometime while I slept, the snow-white beast had burrowed beneath my quilt. She was hot as a little brazier.
I lifted the covers to let the air in and stroked her curly fur.
“Are you uncomfortable?”
She said nothing. Silent as a stone.
I picked her up and carried her into the courtyard.
Cool wind brushed past. Moonlight fell on her, giving her fluffy coat a faint glow.
I wrapped her in my spirit energy and quietly nourished her. Together, the moonlight and my energy finally eased the burning heat of her body.
Her breathing grew long and even.
I waited patiently.
Sure enough, before long she began breathing hard again, each breath quick and strained, as though she were choking.
I released more energy, pouring it into her with barely a thought for the cost.
Had my master seen me, she would have been beside herself and scolded me furiously.
But that was how I had always been. Once I chose someone, I gave them everything, holding nothing back.
I had done it for those three in my previous lives. Why should I become stingy with her in my fourth?
What made her less deserving than those ingrates?
Whatever they had received, she would have too.
Whatever they hadn’t received, I would find a way to give her!
I increased the flow again.
At last, she took human form in my arms.
A little girl curled against my chest, her tiny face flushed, her sleep restless. I took off my outer robe and wrapped it around her.
Holding her, I stayed in the moonlit courtyard.
Gradually, the choking subsided. She settled into peaceful sleep and burrowed against my chest.
After trying for some time without success, she seemed to realize she wasn’t inside a cave.
She woke slowly.
I saw her eyes.
Purple, sparkling like jewels, with traces of spirit energy moving within them. Paired with her cloud of white hair, they gave her an indescribable elegance.
I was suddenly uncertain.
Was she really a mongrel? How could she be so beautiful?
She looked just as confused.
Her violet eyes blinked. “Who… are you?”
I smiled. “Guess.”
She frowned, then quickly noticed my spirit energy enveloping her.
“What… what are you doing?”
“Nourishing you.”
“With your own energy?”
“What else would I use?”
She fell silent.
The longer I looked at her, the happier I felt with my choice.
“Do you have a name?”
She nodded.
“I’m Mo Jinghong. And you?”
After a long silence, she answered softly. “Yin Hai.”
“That’s quite a bold name.”
Again, she had nothing to say.
I brushed the loose hair away from her forehead. “Will you form a contract with me?”
She pressed her lips together.
“Forget it.”
“Why?”
“I don’t think you can afford to feed me.”
“Why not try? Do you eat that much?”
She stared into my eyes.
At last, she said slowly, “My name means Drinking the Sea. What do you think?”
“I’m willing.”
“If you aren’t afraid of the trouble, then we can form a contract.”
“All right.”
I bit my fingertip and was about to draw the contract seal on her forehead when she tilted her head away.
“If you really don’t want to, we can leave it,” I said.
“It isn’t that.”
“Then what?”
“How can you bind me with such a low-grade contract? Are you looking down on me?”
I raised an eyebrow.
A contract beast demanding a stronger bond. That was new.
The other three had refused higher-grade contracts at any cost, because those would prevent them from escaping. All had insisted on the lowest-ranked Alliance Contract, leaving themselves greater freedom.
This female beast really was different.
“What kind do you want?”
“A Heart-Bond Contract.”
She turned back, an arrogant smile in her eyes. “From the heavens to the underworld, as long as that bond remains, you’ll never get rid of me.”
I laughed too.
“It needs blood drawn from the heart. Aren’t you afraid it will hurt?”
Rather than showing fear, she mocked me. “If you’re scared, there’s still time to regret it. I told you I eat a great deal. You may not be able to keep me fed.”
“I don’t have many virtues, but I can work hard. I’ve raised every kind of fussy beast there is. Don’t worry. However much you eat, I’ll do my best for you.”
She watched me quietly for a long time. The mockery slowly left her eyes.
“Idiot,” she muttered.
“What was that?”
“I said, if you’re going to take my heart’s blood, hurry up. Stop dawdling.”
05
She talked tough.
Then the needle barely touched her chest, and she fainted.
Her body was fragile as paper.
I had to abandon drawing her blood and warm her with spirit energy again.
For three whole days, I never once interrupted the flow.
She really did eat as much as she claimed.
Even the Black Dragon, the biggest eater of the other three, would have had more than enough energy to leap about in delight.
But she absorbed it all and only just managed to wake. Her little face remained deathly pale.
“You… you kept giving me energy all this time?”
“Yes.”
“But we…” She felt what was happening within her body, then exclaimed, “We haven’t even formed the contract!”
“No.”
She stared.
“Aren’t you afraid you’ll lose everything and get nothing back?”
“What else could I do? Watch you die?”
She pressed her lips together.
“How about an Alliance Contract for now?” I suggested. “Once you’ve grown a little and become stronger, we can make the Heart-Bond Contract.”
“With an Alliance Contract, I can leave whenever I like. Doesn’t that frighten you?”
“If you insist on leaving, what can I do? I’ll have to accept my bad luck.”
She glared.
“Are you made of cotton? Why are you such a pushover?”
“A contract is something both sides agree to. You can’t force it.”
“Didn’t I already agree to a Heart-Bond Contract?”
“You fainted before the needle even reached your heart. How could I dare try it now?”
That silenced her.
“Can’t you think of something? You damned idiot!”
“The only solution I can think of is to wait until you’re bigger and stronger.”
“So you don’t intend to keep me.”
“I never said that.”
“You’ll feed me even without the Heart-Bond Contract?”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
She narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “You clearly still don’t understand how much I eat.”
“You swallowed three days of my energy before you could even get up. You think I don’t understand?”
“What is that tiny bit worth? Look, I’m still in a child’s form. Have I grown at all?”
“Who raises a spirit beast to adulthood in a few days? It takes years—decades.”
“Hmph. Don’t compare me to those useless low-grade beasts.”
I tilted my head and studied her.
“Quite a claim. What exactly are you, then?”
“Not telling.”
“Why?”
“We haven’t formed the Heart-Bond Contract. I might frighten you to death.”
“And afterward, you won’t?”
“That’s different.”
“How?”
She gave me a sidelong look. “It just is.”
“All this mystery and concealment is hardly honorable.”
“You’re raising a spirit beast, not a gentleman.”
I scratched my head.
Fair point.
06
Day and night, I held her in my arms.
She shrank into a little ball against me and absorbed my energy without pause.
A bottomless pit I could never fill.
I wanted to sit down and cultivate to replenish what I had lost, but she wouldn’t let me go.
“I told you I ate a lot. Do you believe me now?”
I lay weakly on the bed and turned to look at her.
“You’re doing this on purpose.”
She hesitated.
“I am not.”
“Whatever you say.”
I turned away and closed my eyes.