(ps: Three updates every day this month. Time to go all out! My new book is starting, and I've rarely asked for votes before. But I'm starting now! Everyone, throw all your recommendation votes my way! I badly need the support of my brothers and sisters!)
As a matter of fact, Chu Yun had long planned to raise the Heavenly Fox into an offensive Demon Beast.
Offensive power came in two forms: physical combat and Daoist Arts.
Physical combat meant reinforcing the body with demonic essence and striking head-on, as with the Leaping Technique. Daoist Arts attacks were things like Minor Pill Fire and water bullets.
In Chu Yun's mind, the Heavenly Fox was born to be a seed for Daoist Arts attacks!
The Heavenly Fox was gifted by nature, with far greater reserves of demonic essence than other Demon Beasts. It also had the potential to wield nine attributes. Each time its cultivation reached a certain stage, it would grow a tail representing one of those attributes.
A nine-tailed Heavenly Fox could learn Daoist Arts of nine different attributes. With all nine tails swaying, fierce flames blazed into the sky, monstrous waves surged, golden halberds burst forth, green wood rolled onward, and wild winds and thunder raged. All nine Daoist Arts unleashed together, as if the Nine Heavens were enraged and calamity descended from above! They blanketed the world, impossible for anyone to withstand!
What was a Heavenly Fox?
When a Heavenly Fox grew angry, the very heavens trembled with wrath. Its nine tails swayed together, and its nine Daoist Arts could command the weather, unleashing the most vast and dazzling attacks. An endless barrage of firepower.
That was the Heavenly Fox. Even among peerless Demon Beasts, it was blessed with extraordinary talent! To not raise it into the strongest Daoist Arts attacker would be to slight the heavens' gift!
However, reaching the realm of great mastery was still a distant, lengthy road. The wealth needed to raise it to that level would exceed the combined worth of ten Shu Family Islands. As for Chu Yun, he had only a hundred Earth-Fiend Stone Coins on him.
But wealth alone wouldn't be enough. He also needed exceptionally powerful Daoist Arts of the nine attributes.
Such peerless arts were far beyond the likes of Minor and Major Pill Fire. They stood at the pinnacle of the world's Daoist Arts and imposed strict requirements on the Demon Beasts that cultivated them. The slightest rumor would shake the world and inevitably draw countless experts vying to seize them.
Fortunately, in his previous life, Chu Yun had explored hidden places and sought out secrets. He knew of several perilous, secluded places that held peerless Daoist Arts.
"The Dunhuang Sand Eye holds a Golden Sand Strange Tome recording peerless Daoist Arts of the metal and earth attributes. The Green Ox Valley conceals a peerless true scripture that concerns the five elements. Besides those, there's also a sunken ship on the seafloor, where a Daoist Arts jade slip left behind by a legendary figure records divine techniques..."
As Chu Yun thought it over, his heart began to itch with anticipation. But those places were either extreme secret realms or guarded by vicious Demon Beasts. With his current strength, trying to seize their treasures would be asking for death.
Even the Star Sea Dragon Palace, which had no guardians at all, was near Wei Family Island. If he went to claim that hidden treasure, he would likely attract the islanders' attention. Once word got out, experts would come to fight over it, and he'd end up making a wedding dress for someone else.
In his previous life, Chu Yun had been a first-rate explorer of hidden places and secrets. Those hidden realms and divine treasures were the greatest wealth in his memories. But with his current strength, he truly couldn't act recklessly.
"You have to eat a meal one bite at a time. You can't stuff yourself fat in one go. Isn't that right, Little Heavenly Fox?" He sighed and spoke to the fox.
The Heavenly Fox immediately perked up its ears and raised its little head, gazing at its master with bright black eyes, full of confusion. Its intelligence wasn't yet enough to comprehend such complicated words.
Still, whatever its master said was right. Its master's path was the bright and proper road. It had to cling tightly to its master's leg!
The Little Heavenly Fox's eyes sparkled. Though it couldn't understand what Chu Yun meant, that didn't stop it from nodding along blindly.
Chu Yun couldn't help smiling. He patted the Heavenly Fox on the head and chided it with a laugh, "You little flatterer!"
The Little Heavenly Fox's eyes lit up. It didn't know what "little flatterer" meant, but it could sense the joy in Chu Yun's heart. Its big, snow-white tail swished back and forth, and it was overjoyed.
Chu Yun glanced at its big tail. Its fur was fluffy and white as snow, with a silky sheen. The tip was faintly red, making the Heavenly Fox look even more delicate and adorable.
That tail represented the fire attribute.
When it hatched, it absorbed the essence of the nine attributes and successfully achieved Foundation Establishment. But to draw out those latent powers, it still needed to grow its other tails. For now, the Heavenly Fox could only use Daoist Arts of the fire attribute.
Fire-attribute Daoist Arts were powerful in their own right, and sometimes they could inflict the added effect of burning. They also had a strong advantage against the many Demon Beasts in the forest that primarily wielded the wood attribute.
Add to that the Heavenly Fox's peerless quality and Chu Yun's seasoned experience, nearly demonic in its depth. With that combination, they wouldn't fare well in the forest's interior, but on the outskirts, they could roam wherever they pleased.
Without noticing the passage of time, they practiced hard until the sun set and the moon rose, and night blanketed the forest. Only then did the man and fox, who had been wreaking havoc across the outer forest, stop to rest.
More than a dozen wild Demon Beasts had died at their hands. In just one afternoon, the Heavenly Fox's cultivation had grown from ten years to eighteen!
Its progress surpassed that of the Sea Burst Crocodile and Green Fang Snake, which had each swallowed Ascension Essence Pills worth ten thousand Earth-Fiend Stone Coins.
In fact, the effects on the Heavenly Fox's growth had been even greater. Besides essence, a Demon Crystal contained a Demon Beast's hard-won experience and Daoist Arts.
However, a Demon Crystal couldn't be transferred to another person for absorption unless you had killed the Demon Beast yourself. It also had a very short shelf life: if it wasn't absorbed within half an hour, it would dissipate into the world on its own.
Of course, Ascension Essence Pills also had their uses.
For example, a Lesser Demon with ninety-nine years of cultivation would become a Great Demon after advancing one more year. It would have to survive the Great Demon tribulation before it could advance further.
In that situation, it wouldn't be wise to fight Demon Beasts and absorb their Demon Crystals. If it won a hard-fought battle, it would have to face the tribulation exhausted and grievously wounded, with a very low chance of success.
At a time like that, it would be better to feed it Ascension Essence Pills. Raising its cultivation by a year would let it face the tribulation at full strength, greatly improving its odds.
Lady Shu feared that injuries from battle would affect the Sea Burst Crocodile and Green Fang Snake's performance in the second assessment. So she spared no expense, spending twenty thousand Earth-Fiend Stone Coins on twenty Ascension Essence Pills. It was a lavish hand, and a great waste.
In Chu Yun's view, it wasn't worth it.
Especially since the final result was still Chu Yun's victory...
Lady Shu was in an utterly foul mood. She had spent a fortune raising the cultivation of two Demon Beasts, only to lose at the coming-of-age ceremony. Not only had she lost, but her reputation had also taken a serious blow, and her beloved Shu Er had been beaten into a pig's head and was now lying in bed, unable to get up for at least half a month.
The word "failure" wasn't enough to describe her tragedy.
A crushing defeat. A total failure. A failure beyond all measure!
Sitting blankly in a dim room, Lady Shu's face was as pale as frost and snow. She stared fixedly at the dressing mirror before her.
In the mirror, she could make out a face.
Her makeup was gone. Her skin was sallow and dull, her face lined with wrinkles, her eye bags bruised purple, and her expression despondent and despairing. The merciless passage of time and the cruel facts were like the sharpest of chisels, coldly carving their deepest, most indelible marks into the face that had once shone with such radiance.
Decades! Decades of restraint and suffering, and at last she had found a glimmer of hope, only for this to happen!
Lady Shu clutched her chest, feeling wave after wave of suffocation and despair.
In a daze, the figure of a young man appeared in the mirror. He wore plain clothes, and his deep-set eyes held bone-chilling cold and hatred.
Chu Yun?
"Shut up! When did I ever accept you as my godmother? You're not worthy of being my elder!"
"One day, I'll return here openly and honorably."
"I'll snatch the inheritance of Shu Family Island right out of your hands!"
The young man in the mirror suddenly twisted his face and spoke to Lady Shu in a sinister voice.
"Ah! You ungrateful whelp, you little beast!" Lady Shu let out a shrill scream, her whole body convulsing like a black cat whose tail had been stepped on, flying into a frenzy.
She snatched up whatever she could reach and threw it at the dressing mirror with all her might.
The mirror shattered with a crash. Chu Yun's apparition vanished, and only then did she gasp for breath before gradually calming down.
"No. I won't allow it! I've endured for decades, and I'm almost at the end. I absolutely won't let Chu Yun, that little beast, ruin everything!" Her well-kept hands now twisted together like clawed chicken feet, veins standing out.
Her eyes gleamed with unprecedented madness and coldness!
"The coming-of-age ceremony is best of three. Unless Chu Yun forfeits, I have no hope. Of course he won't forfeit on his own, so I'll just have to make him forfeit against his will. Chu Yun, you forced my hand! You forced my hand! Heh heh heh, hahahahaha..."
Her cold laughter rippled through the darkness, and the room's temperature plummeted. Chilly winds swirled, as if ghosts and specters were darting through the room.
Light as a feather, warm and soft.
It was like returning to the womb. Chu Yun felt an overwhelming sense of comfort. It was also like soaking in a hot spring; he could clearly feel a warm current flowing through his body, filling every limb and bone with an indescribable ease. Every cell in his body rejoiced.
He let out a contented groan and opened his eyes.
He was awake.
It was already the next day.
The scene before him was still the volcanic cave where he had first taken the egg to incubate. Chu Yun blinked and remembered. After sunset the previous day, he had continued practicing until midnight before returning to the cave to rest.
With the Heavenly Fox by his side that night, he had been many times safer than before and slept soundly.
He stretched, and his bones made a string of faint cracking sounds. Taking a deep breath, Chu Yun felt refreshed. He was brimming with energy, as if he had strength he could never exhaust.
He paused, finally realizing that something had changed in him.
Now, whenever he focused his gaze, the scene before him changed. A faint red layer covered certain objects, and red wisps drifted through the air.
"Is this fire-attribute essence? I can already see fire essence this early? Have I gained Fire Eye?" Chu Yun was delighted. He quickly turned his gaze to the Heavenly Fox, which had already been looking up at him, its watery eyes waiting for breakfast.
Chu Yun couldn't help smiling. With a hint of gratitude and delight, he began to feed it.
He knew that all these changes in his body were thanks to the little fellow before him.