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  “Yeah,” Xiao Feng finally replied to Lianhua. “It actually worked.”

  “That is news worth celebrating. Does that mean that you are a beast master now?” Lianhua asked, a quiet awe seeping into her tone. Beast Masters were existences that were valued by any sect for their talents in taming and domesticating spiritual beasts along with seeking and acquiring spiritual beast eggs and they also could not be trained in the traditional way, so to become one was no different from guaranteeing one’s future and securing preferential treatment.

  “Not quite, I’d imagine,” Xiao Feng sheepishly replied. “I have none of the technical knowledge that Beast Master Zen possesses and my bond with Nova only grants me the ability to communicate with her, not other spiritual beasts.”

  “No…va…, is that the little one’s name?” Lianhua spoke his bonded Xuhu’s name as if it belonged to a foreign tongue and in all fairness, it did for her.

  “It’s what she liked,” Xiao Feng enthusiastically replied and in response, Nova leapt onto his lap. “Whoa, easy there!”

  “My human speaks the truth!” Nova boisterously declared through her yips, which Xiao Feng could now understand, as she rubbed her little snout against his chest.

  “That tickles, Nova,” Xiao Feng chided her, only to be summarily ignored.

  Lianhua’s eyes glimmered with interest as she watched Nova, before turning her gaze towards Xiao Feng and speaking. “But you can communicate with other spiritual beasts.”

  “Pardon?” Xiao Feng asked, a little taken aback by Lianhua’s sudden deduction.

  “You can communicate with the little one, right?” Lianhua asked.

  “To a degree,” Xiao Feng carefully replied. Beast Master Zen had mentioned that he could communicate telepathically with his bonded umbral fang, but Xiao Feng didn’t know the extent and limitation of said communications and his own bond was clearly not normal.

  “Well then, you can communicate with other beasts if the little one is willing to translate for you,” Lianhua pointed out.

  Xiao Feng froze, before the realization hit him and he blurted out, “Is that why Beast Master Zen is so good at managing so many spiritual beasts?”

  “He has mentioned this before, yes. It is why one needs a bonded beast to be recognized as a Beast Master and why without one, no matter how proficient a cultivator might be in theory, they can never be recognized as one.”

  “That… makes a lot of sense,” Xiao Feng admitted, internally chiding himself for not having reached the same conclusion himself. “Give me a moment, I need to talk to Nova.”

  “Using telepathy?” Lianhua asked, her eyes twinkling with interest.

  “Yep, well, I think anyway. Here goes nothing,” Xiao Feng lowered his gaze, his eyes landing upon Nova’s silver ones. Once again, he felt the connection between them, how easily he could push his consciousness in her direction and switch perspectives. But this time, instead of focusing the entire consciousness, he tried to limit it just to his thoughts.

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  Nova. Are you there?

  “I am there, my human. But what need is there for us to communicate through thoughts? I can understand your spoken word well enough!” Nova exuberantly replied.

  Uhh… is it just me or did your grammar suddenly jump up by a few levels?

  “Since we swore the three oaths, I feel smarter, my human! My thoughts flow clearly, I can express myself with great clarity and I understand a few concepts that are unfamiliar to the ancestral memories. Like this grammar you speak of!”

  Riiiight and that’s totally a normal thing for bonded beasts. We’ll just go with that for now. Now, Nova, did you feel uncomfortable when my consciousness, er, entered your body? I hope it didn’t hurt.

  “Nope, my human. It felt ticklish and the back of my eyeballs felt itchy, but there was no pain!”

  Then would you mind if I tried again? I need to check something.

  “My soul belongs to you, my human. Do as you wish.”

  Taking a deep breath to compose itself, Xiao Feng willed his consciousness in Nova’s direction.

  Once again, he had stepped into the body of a baby void fox and this time, instead of being overwhelmed by the unfamiliar sensations that came with the heightened sensitivity and superior olfactory senses of a spiritual beast, he focused his attention inwards, on her beast core.

  Just like a cultivator could sense their dantian, a spiritual beast could naturally sense it’s beast core, so it wasn’t difficult for Xiao Feng to search inwards and let his instinct guide him.

  An initial examination revealed that the amount of Qi a Beast Core could hold was definitely more than a fledgling cultivator’s, for Nova had just stepped into the world a few minutes ago yet the amount of Qi contained in her Beast Core approached the capacity of a late-layer Qi Gathering Cultivator, which was a rather terrifying realization.

  Xiao Feng inspected more closely and sure enough, while one half of the beast core was dominated by Phantom Qi, the other half that would normally belong to unattuned qi was now shared with another attunement.

  Namely, the wind attunement.

  Having discovered what he had wished to, Xiao Feng pulled his consciousness back.

  “It tickles, my human. Scratch me behind my ears.”

  Xiao Feng obliged his bonded beast and the contented purr that escaped her as her form sunk onto the padded floor of the alchemy vault.

  Say Nova, could you do me a favor?

  “What is it, my human?”

  Don’t use your er, phantom qi in public. Like ever, until we find a way to conceal its traces. You should have access to a second affinity now, it’s my wind qi. And I can teach you how to use it.

  “Why, my human? The Ancestral Memories may not show me the entire way when it comes to Phantom Qi, but I am confident that I can bridge the gaps in my comprehension by practicing!”

  See, that’s the thing, Nova. If you use your phantom qi, powerful people like Soul Emperor Xueyun are going to show up. They’re going to take you away from me, Nova and I can’t stop them.

  Nova’s ears that were upturned and twitching excitedly as she took in the world around her, drooped as she shook her tiny head, “I do not wish for that, my human. I will not use my phantom qi, I promise. And the ancestral memories tell me that as long as I do not reveal my phantom qi to the world, other predators cannot sense its presence. That is the way of the phantom.”

  Xiao Feng immediately felt guilty, despite the incredible revelation that Nova had just made. It was as if he was stopping a baby bird from stretching its wings, yet he had no choice but to do so if he wished to stop an eagle from snatching it up in its sharp claws.

  “Thank you, Nova,” Xiao Feng gave her crown a gentle rub. “Now, how about we all celebrate this momentous occasion with some masala chai?”

  “What is Masala Chai, my human?” Nova asked the question in enthusiastic yips.

  Well, I suppose you could call it a beverage passed down by the ancestors, Xiao Feng conveyed the thought to his bonded beast and he didn’t need telepathy to see that her excitement had suddenly skyrocketed.

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