41 A Mysterious Pond (1/2)

She barely saw the shadow of the creature much less its appearance. Its small frame flickered about and rushed forth. Ming Yue prepared to guard against the oncoming attack when the shadow suddenly changed directions, sending out a blade of wind from the left. It shot around, bouncing from tree to tree, circling her and sending out more attacks.

It was too fast for her to chase after and so, she could only defend herself. She watched carefully and waited for an opportunity to strike. Her only chances occured when the beast changed directions. However such openings were extremely short, she only had milliseconds to react and she had to predict its moves as well.

She concentrated, slowly building up her inner force. She needed just one strike to stop it in its tracks.

As the shadow reached the ground to the right of her, her sword blurred as she struck at the very moment, the shadow landed.

It yelped in pain and dropped on the ground. Ming Yue's sword had cut its leg, rendering it unable to move. It snarled at her but felt fear towards her.

She approached the mysterious creature and recognized it.

”A Mistral Fox,” she exclaimed in surprise.

The Mistral Fox was a rare creature, known for its speed and more for its fur. The fur of a Mistral Fox had a rare silver gray hue and despite having little practicality, it was a beautiful fur that many noble woman longed for. However, the elusive beast was hard to catch because of its agility. Killing it was of no use to her. Although, it could strengthen her wind affinity if she consumed it, it would not help much as she had already absorbed the blood of a Roc. Furthermore, she was curious as to why, the Mistral Fox attacked her. They were very passive creatures who used their speed to escape rather than attack.

She walked up to it and carefully picked it up, not caring for the blood in her clothes. It struggled to break free but found it impossible to escape her grasp. Xiao YIn cooed at the fox, as if it was trying to say that it was safe.

Ming Yue walked to a nearby stream, proceeding to clean its leg and bandaged it. It was extremely confused by her actions. However she was a young girl after all, it would be hard for her to not help it.

She left her cultivation spot and brought the fox along. It had a small frame was only a bit bigger than Xiao Yin, who was about a foot tall. Ming Yue still wanted to explore the rest of the area before she left.

As the three of them walked around, the fox's ears perked up and began sniffing around. As if it found something, the Mistral Fox struggled intensely to get out of her arms, even more so when they first met.

Ming Yue saw the desperation in its eyes and placed the fox on the ground, following it. When the fox finally stopped, she looked ahead, wondering what it could've been that made it so excited. However, excitement was the last thing she thought when she saw what it was, the bloody corpse of another Mistral Fox.