154 The central region of the forest 3 (1/2)

The young girl glared at the white fox; the nine-tailed fox glared at An Fei with a mixture of hate and dumbstruck astonishment.

Two equally speechless and surprised beings stood across each other in the central region of the forest, separated only by a heavily cracked steel sword missing its handle.

The uneasy silence struck deafening chords in the ears of the innocent and frail creatures hidden within the grass, their pitiful hearts trembling and attempting to leap from their throats to dash across the grass a stream of scarlet.

”This…”

An Fei clutched her heart with her right hand as she murmured with an apprehensive expression on her countenance.

Her eyes remained riveted to the damaged sword hovering in the air, her left hand unconsciously trailing to the butterfly sword sheathed on her waist.

The handle-less sword with its unceasing song of war and malevolent reaping of lives; it now lay before her, damaged to an extend one would forlornly shake their head and mourn it farewell.

That was the sword that had reaped the lives of many fierce and deadly creatures at her bidding and protected her life numerous times prior to her attaining the functionality of the … but cracks assaulted its core…

Just what was she to do?

Caw!

The little raven screamed in worry, its senses prickling with an intense danger.

The little creature bravely leapt from its perch to soar into the nearby branches, its feathery and disheveled head poking from the shelter of leaves at it gazed at the young girl's hesitant visage with a tinge of angst and encouragement.

”I…”

An Fei whispered to herself, the fingers of her right hand curling against her bosom as she fretted in her mind.

Her consciousness glancing through the sea of perception at the reserves of spiritual essence within her heart, the young girl raised right hand, the palm facing the cracked and ruined steel sword that continued to restrain the disaster known as a nine-tailed fox.

She decided to take a risky gamble; a gamble she had devised from her observations of the steel blade as she traversed through the Wu Ji Forest.

”The steel blade only requires spiritual essence to manifest its physical existence.”

”Regardless of its motions or the time it remains in the world, it doesn't consume any spiritual essence within my body following its manifestation.”

”Upon receiving sufficient damage to its foundation or structural core, the equivalent quantity of spiritual essence is consumed from my body…”

The young girl rapidly murmured to herself, her consciousness rapidly sifting through her memories of her interactions with the handle-less blade and her notes of the .

From the initial reaping of the white rabbit, the massive python, to the numerous creatures she had fought against while trekking through the undergrowth of the Wu Ji Forest, the flashes of memory submerged the young girl's consciousness until her surroundings of the nine-tailed fox had vanished from her attention.

The steel blade could morph from its form to that of a white lotus petal at her command; the converse was equally true. The conversion did not require any spiritual essence, and was effective instantaneously.

The inscriptions decorating the length of the blade could provide a supplementary effect to its emission of bloodlust and murderous intent.

An Fei was not sure on its exact effect when utilized, the she was aware that the intensity of the scarlet radiance was solely under the consciousness of the handle-less sword.

If it removed an equivalent quantity of spiritual essence upon receiving damage that pierced into the foundations and compromised its structural integrity, then…

”Then… I… I only need to…” An Fei whispered, the dull scarlet of her irises flashing with a submerged, but recognizable intent suffused with determination and resolve.

”I only need to reconstruct the sword once again, utilizing spiritual essence. Similar to filling in the mold with a suitable liquid to constitute a level surface.”

At the young girl's command, the ball of spiritual essence encapsulating her heart unraveled a thin thread.

The thread of spiritual essence wove through her bloodstream and meridians to converge at the palm of her right hand, before erupting into the physical world with a pale blue light.

Shua!

The crimson eyes of the nine-tailed fox constricted at the sight and familiar sensation by the spiritual essence emanating from the human girl's body before its sight, a crippling shred of danger rushing through its heart.