The Heart of a Swordsman

The panther transformed into a girl as it shrank. She was just a few inches smaller than Xiao Fang. She had long black hair, haunting black eyes, jade white skin, and the only thing she wore was a nearly transparent black gown. Her proportions were unimpressive, but due to the lack of volume in her twin mountains it made her seem even more fragile.

She blinked her relatively large eyes at him a few times, but he was too dumbstruck to react.

"You just... but- but you were."

"Clearly you know nothing about the spirit cultivation world", she sighed. It was as if she were talking to a country bumpkin about technology.

"So is there any other reason why you can't take me as your spirit pet?" she asked.

Xiao Fang furrowed his brows in annoyance. She had a solution to every excuse he threw at her.

He took a few seconds to think of something, but the more he thought about it the more he felt it wouldn't be a bad idea to bring her along. The only problem he could think of was how Li Lian would react about this.

"Alright, I'll do it," Xiao Fang replied hesitantly.

"Yay," she said excitedly before requesting:

"Give me your hand," she smiled mysteriously. Xiao Fang raised a hand and she accepted it with both her hands, guiding it to her boob.

Xiao Fang, the man that has ravaged countless beauties, was unaffected by the feeling of her unimpressive hill.

"What are you doing?" he asked casually.

"I need you to fill me up with your spirit energy," she replied casually back.

Xiao Fang didn't want to waste anymore time here so he did what she said and transferred some of his spirit energy into her.

His spirit energy engulfed her, but only after she started consuming it did it start to fade away. It looked as though it was entering her through her pores. It was an interesting sight to behold.

She gasped.

"A dual cultivator," she thought in surprise.

She found it strange that he seemed unaffected when he touched her chest. From the stories she's heard, dual cultivators are all supposed to be sex hungry animals.

"Mmm~ You're spirit energy is inside of me, it's so hot,” she teased playfully.

Xiao Fang retracted his hand as soon as those words left her mouth, already regretting his decision to help her.

"You better control yourself,” he side eyed her before turning to leave.

She smirked at his words then turned back into a panther, but to Xiao Fang's surprise she was as small as a cat.

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A spirit animal can only be contracted to one person at a time. Once they do, they can learn any spirit cultivation technique that their owner has learned. They can also teach any spirit cultivation techniques that they have previously learned from their past owners.

The size of a spirit pet in its animal form directly correlates to the current spirit cultivation level of their owners. In the future, Xiao Fang will need to supplement her with spirit energy from time to time to keep her alive and healthy. Though they can last many months without it, they can't last forever. If Xiao Fang were to die, she can only stay next to his body till she rather starves to death or finds another cultivator to make a contract with.

Before her owner died he told her to scare away anyone that tried to find him using a technique called 'Fear', he never said what to do if someone were to pass through it so she put her self interests first and used this opportunity to survive.

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She explained all of it to Xiao Fang as she rested on his shoulder and exited the cave.

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Meanwhile, Li Lian, Xun Wei, and Gao Chen were in a bit of a sticky situation. The reason their path had the least number of rats in it was because there were the most number of iron golems buried in the walls.

The first golem was taken care of by Gao Chen, but the second required all three of them to take down. They decided to take a break but were spotted by a 3rd iron golem. They escaped and were now in hiding.

"Dammit, that Xiao Fang is trying to get us killed," Li Lian said.

"I'm sure he'll get here soon," Xun Wei smiled bitterly before taking out 2 pills for Gao Chen to eat.

"We'd have a better chance getting out of this alive if he's at his strongest," she thought.

Gao Chen was breathing heavily with his head resting back on the wall. When he saw the way Xun Wei offered him some spirit pills he felt warm. No one in the Black Paradise sect treated the boys kindly, especially the beautiful girls. It was at that moment that he decided to try to take Xun Wei as his wife.

"There's no way she'd settle for that blind coward," he thought.

"I'm too tired, please feed it to me," he said.

She cupped the spirit pill in her pretty jade-like hands and brought it to his mouth. He picked it up with his tongue, inevitably licking her palm in the process. Xun Wei's brows furrowed when she felt his wet tongue tickle her palm.

"How vulgar," she thought.

Li Lian's eyes twitched in annoyance. "How could he act so brazenly perverted in front of me," she thought but since meeting Xiao Fang her tolerance to these kinds of things had gradually loosened up.

Xun Wei held the stamina pill next in her hands, but she hesitated to feed it to him. This time she pinched the pill with her two fingers and prepared to drop it in his mouth, but just before she could drop it, his mouth closed around her two fingers. She squealed as she pulled her fingers out of his mouth, wiping his saliva off on her robes.

When Xun Wei looked back up she noticed Gao Chen was gone.

"Hm? Where did he-"

*BOOM!*

Gao Chen's body crashed miserably against the wall almost 15 meters away, knocking him out cold for a few seconds.

"That's what you get, you fucking pervert," Li Lian said as she held a clenched fiery fist up to her chest.

Truth was, she held back quite a bit considering their situation, if he were Xiao Fang that punch would have seemed like a light slap on the wrist. All this time she's been fighting Xiao Fang, she was inevitably training her body cultivation.

Unlike spirit cultivators who need a cultivation method to cultivate their spirit, body cultivators didn't need a method to start cultivating. They just needed to push passed their limits in any form of physical training.

Xun Wei didn't know whether to thank her or fear her.

The sound of the crash was so loud that it exposed their hiding spot. The two girls ran. When Gao Chen realized what was happening he also began to flee.

"If I don't kill that fucking bitch today I'll regret it for the rest of my life," he thought.

After all these missions he did with her he couldn't even get to see her bare arms or legs, much less her private parts. For all the misery and torment she put him through, the very least he could do was take her life.

The iron golem threw a large boulder at them and it zipped through the air  with a frightening velocity.

*BOOM!*

It crashed on the ground like a meteorite.

The ground cracked all over and it became increasingly difficult for them to flee. Gao Chen used this opportunity to return the favor to Li Lian.

A ball of light formed over his palm then he threw it at Li Lian. It hit her leg and she fell to the ground.

"Gao Chen you son of a bitch," she cursed at him as he passed by.

Gao Chen looked back and became terrified when he saw her crazy, fiery, and intimidating aura. She looked like she spawned from a pit of lava from the way her hair and eyes burned.

If she were to survive this, he thought he might have to live in hiding for the rest of his life, but when he saw the iron golem catch up to her his worries lessened.

"You reap what you sow, bitch," he smiled menacingly.

Her right leg was badly injured, but it was quickly healing because of her fiery, but nurturing, aura.

She looked back and saw the iron golem standing over her. It had a proportionally smaller head, but its large body and giant arms were clad in iron.

Xun Wei saw everything play out and remembered the first thing Xiao Fang had taught her about being a swordsman:

"If you cannot save a life, take it..."

Xun Wei ran up the fairly steep walls then jumped at the iron golem just as it raised its arm up at Li Lian. It saw Xun Wei in the air, so it swung its large fist at her.

Xun Wei was in striking distance from its head, but when she saw its large iron fist just a fraction of a second away from hitting her she chose to defend.

[ Every learned Swordsman knew that one must always attack and defend simultaneously in a fight. However, when you can only do one, you must always attack and not fear meeting another man's sword! ]

This is what it meant to be a swordsman. Fearlessness was their greatest virtue.

Xun Wei didn't have the heart of a swordsman yet and in a battle of life and death, this could be her biggest downfall.

The iron fist smashed into her body and sword, and she was sent flying 30 meters away. She crashed miserably onto the wall and her body created a small crater. Her left arm and a few of her ribs were broken. She coughed up mouthfuls of blood and her body became bloodied.

The iron golem approached Xun Wei and forgot about Li Lian. Xun Wei was as conscious as the faint strength she had holding onto her sword.

Li Lian's eyes began to water. She had been so rude to Xun Wei, but Xun Wei still put her life on the line to help her.

"Xun Wei, run!" she cried out, but Xun Wei couldn't move. The iron golem stood before her with a fist raised and Li Lian's heart ached.

"Xiao Fang, why aren't you here," she thought as her tears finally fell. Her heartbeat raced, and every beat hurt her chest.

"Xiao Fang, please help her," she thought as her body trembled.

The iron golem's fist finally shot out and Li Lian closed her eyes as she screamed.

"Xiao Fang!!!"

A strong breeze blew past her.

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[ Iron Cutting Iron ]