Naked Sword Art

Chapter 196 - Unlikely Ally

When the fighting was over, Xiao Hei waited patiently for Xiao Fang to call her over, but the signal never came. After more time passed, she eventually got tired of waiting and started to peek over the rocks to see how Xiao Fang was doing. To her surprise, Xiao Fang was quietly roasting some beast meat over a fire.

She looked around to see if there were any more tiered beasts still lurking in the area, but not only were all the beasts killed, all of their beast cores were clearly extracted from their bodies as well.

’That’s strange,’ Xiao Hei thought. ’Why isn’t there any blood on his hands.’

There were lots of small puddles here and there so she eventually came to the conclusion that he must’ve washed it off after extracting all of the beast cores.

Since it seemed safe, Xiao Hei finally called out to him through a spirit transmission.

{"Fang, is it safe?"}

Xiao Fang looked up at Xiao Hei as she was peeking over the rocks then he looked back at the fire in front of him before he replied.

"Yeah, you can come out now."

Xiao Hei finally jumped out of her hiding spot while carrying the Supreme Elder in her arms. She assumed he was just cooking something, but when she finally reached his side she saw the glowing blue orb that was resting on his lap.

"Is that what I think it is," Xiao Hei asked.

"Mn. I got it from him," Xiao Fang said as he gestured at the abnormal beast that was cooking over the flame.

Xiao Fang let Xiao Hei hold onto it to inspect it more closely. Once she confirmed what it was, her eyes lit up with joy.

"Blue rank! It’s a Saint-Grade beast core!" Xiao Hei said excitedly.

...

From Xiao Fang’s memory, the rankings for beast core rarity went:

Black, Blue, Purple, Red, Gold.

Corresponding names are:

Ordinary, Saint, Demon, Legendary, Celestial.

Ordinary beast cores are used for spirit cultivating or to make weapons. However, if rare beast cores above the Ordinary grade are cultivated and absorbed there is a chance that it could provide cultivators with a special ability.

...

"Did you only get one? I thought there were 2 abnormal beasts here," Xiao Hei asked.

"There are. The other one is over there," Xiao Fang said.

When Xiao Hei saw what Xiao Fang was pointing at, a chill ran up her spine. Standing only 10 meters away, the cannibal abnormal beast was silently standing in the shadows.

Xiao Hei crouched down then quickly hid behind Xiao Fang as he was sitting on a rock and slowly rotating the abnormal beast meat over the fire. She peeked around him to look at the cannibal abnormal beast who was still standing in the shadows, but she only looked at it for less than a second before hiding behind Xiao Fang again.

She peeked then hid, then did it again, never looking at it for longer than a second. However, the third time she peeked, she finally built up the courage to look at it for more than a second, but the moment the cannibal beast looked back at her she cutely screamed and quickly hid behind Xiao Fang once again.

Xiao Fang had never seen Xiao Hei so curious yet scared at the same time, he found it a bit amusing.

"Don’t be scared, Xiao Hei. Go say hi."

"Are you kidding? It’s a cannibal, remember, what if it thinks I look tasty and tries to bite me?" she whispered the last sentence.

"Oh? I thought you enjoyed foreplay," Xiao Fang teased.

Xiao Hei shook her head disapprovingly.

Xiao Fang then took the piece of abnormal beast meat away from the fire, ripped a small piece for himself then handed the rest to Xiao Hei to go give to the cannibal abnormal beast.

"Fang, is this really a good idea?"

Xiao Fang looked up and stared at the cannibal beast with a mischievous gaze before eating the piece of meat in his hand.

"Let’s find out."

...

Xiao Hei eventually carried the large piece of meat towards the cannibal beast, but she only took a few steps before she stopped. She turned her head to look back at Xiao Fang, but Xiao Fang only gestured for her to keep going. It almost seemed as if this was all just one big joke to him.

’Hmph, meanie.’

When Xiao Hei was less than 3 meters away from the beast, she stopped again then lifted the piece of meat over her head.

"Hello, Mr. Cannibal. Please don’t eat me," she said cutely.

The cannibal abnormal beast crouched down then titled its head in confusion as it stared at Xiao Hei. Even though she looked like a cute little human, she didn’t smell like one. In fact, she didn’t smell like anything at all, smelling her was like taking a deep breath of fresh air. So pure and refreshing.

The cannibal beast took the meat from Xiao Hei then she quickly returned back to Xiao Fang.

"Hahaha. Did you see that? I did it. That was so scary. Feel my heart, it’s beating so fast," she said before making Xiao Fang squeeze her boob.

"I know, I can hear it beating from here," Xiao Fang smiled before patting her on the head.

Without asking, Xiao Hei casually sat on Xiao Fang’s lap then started playing with his blue rank beast core. She eventually looked up at him then asked,

"Why haven’t you absorbed it yet?"

"I was waiting for you."

Xiao Hei seemed confused, so he explained.

"I’ve never done this before. When we get back I’ll need you to guide me through it, like you did with Xun Wei."

"Ah, I see. Does that mean we’re finally going back?"

"Yeah, we should get back before the Supreme Elder wakes up."

"What are we waiting for, let’s go~" Xiao Hei said impatiently.

"Not yet, there’s something I want to do first," Xiao Fang said.

Xiao Hei stopped moving around and watched as Xiao Fang approached the cannibal beast. When he was only about 5 meters away he stopped, then reached into his spatial pouch and tossed something over to the cannibal beast.

When the cannibal beast looked at what it caught, it immediately recognized what it was. It was Xiao Fang’s ’Nameless’ guild nameplate, the same one Xiao Fang wore around his waist.

Despite not being able to read it, it held great meaning to the cannibal beast. What it held in its hand was the identity of its benefactor. Should it ever encounter anyone wearing the same nameplate it will know they were a part of the same group Xiao Fang was in.

...

Xiao Fang carried the Supreme Elder then Xiao Hei jumped on his back. He looked back at the cannibal beast one last time then finally left.

Once they exited the cave, Xiao Hei finally asked what she was dying to know.

"Hey, Fang, there’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you."

"You want to know why I spared it, right?"

"Y-yeah. It just doesn’t make sense why you would spare it after trying so hard to find it."

"We’ve come to an agreement. Let’s just say the cannibal beast will be more useful to me alive than dead."

Xiao Hei suspected that Xiao Fang wasn’t telling her everything, but it didn’t concern her so she didn’t push for answers.

...

Xiao Fang’s time on the 7th floor was short, but sweet. He harvested plenty of cultivation resources, perfected his [ Divine Sword Cutting Air ] technique, and made one of the most unlikeliest of allies. The only thing that didn’t go his way was when he learned that consuming beast meat on this floor didn’t provide him any benefits to his body cultivation at all.

In the end, Xiao Fang benefited greatly from this trip, and made every bit of the 6,000 merit points he spent worth it.

.

.

.

Later that day, Supreme Elder Quan woke up to a splitting headache. Seeing that she was laying by the entrance of the 7th floor, she began to recall all the events that took place leading up to the moment she was saved by the man with the violet eyes.

’Did I imagine it?’ She thought.

No matter how she thought about it, it didn’t make sense. There shouldn’t have been a man on that floor, especially a man with violet eyes. She began to wonder if there was a guest elder in the sect she didn’t know about. Whoever it was, she wanted to personally thank them.

Since this person saved her life, she wanted to know who it was. She didn’t know who it could be, but she had a pretty good idea where to start.