Chapter 552 – The Blood Fox in danger!
Moon Aiko woke up refreshed from her sleep. She was wondering if there were any other Elders running around amok, so she would check the tunnels later.
For now, she had to get rid of this serpent, since she couldn't move once again.
Nüwa had an insane grip even when she was smaller, which caused Aiko issues.
Shaking her head gently, Moon Aiko waited until this serpent woke up.
Chang'e was still squirming around, wanting to get a piece of her new 'treasure', but Moon Aiko would not allow it.
...
Moon Aiko woke up inside a dream once again.
"How did it go?" Mei spoke lightly, but there was some urgency in her voice.
"A few Elders were wiped out, but I'm not sure if it's all of them." Aiko answered back, still feeling sleepy.
Mei opened and closed her mouth, hesitating to speak about something.
"What is it?" Aiko yawned, wanting to go to sleep.
"Blood Fox was captured." Mei said openly, but felt guilty about it since her calculations were off.
"..." Aiko stiffened and stared at Mei.
"The Delegations protected the Elders, so they were bolder than before, calling allies from nearby Empires..." Mei sighed. It felt like she really regretted this...
"Oh..." Aiko nodded her head and 'smiled'. "You wouldn't mind telling me which, right?"
Mei shivered. She never saw Aiko like this.
Mei hesitated, but eventually told Aiko.
"... Isn't that like all of them?" Aiko was speechless.
Mei scratched her face. "Just don't go and fight them."
"Don't worry, 'I' won't be fighting them." Aiko smiled sweetly, but a sense of dread overtook Mei.
"Okay..." Mei felt weird. "You can return or try to find Blood Fox." She gently nodded her head.
"That's obvious." Aiko nodded her head. It was time to use her new friends~!
...
Moon Aiko woke up from that weird dream, but she knew what she was supposed to do.
The first thing would be-
*BITE!*
"AH!" Nüwa woke up from her pleasant dream with quite the severe flinch.
"My tail." Nüwa cried out while Moon Aiko jumped down.
She stretched before readying herself to leave.
"You are leaving already?" Nüwa felt puzzled.
"My companion got captured, so I will raise a small hell over here." Moon Aiko said lightly, but there was even more iciness and indifference in her voice this time.
"Reduction in population would help." Nüwa nodded her head. She was not against it at all. She was troubled that there were so many humans around and that the Beasts didn't want to fight them openly.
"It will be a nice reduction~" Moon Aiko hummed.
"Come visit us again." Nüwa waved, but she would definitely convince Chang'e to move this place to where Aiko was, so that she could visit easily.
...
Moon Aiko went outside and called her new friends.
"I didn't think you would call us so soon." The Holy Deer was the most surprised.
"I just need to raise a small hell~" Moon Aiko hummed sweetly, but the Beasts shuddered. She then explained her plan and what they were supposed to do.
Moon Aiko hummed. Now that this was finished, the Witch Aiko would guide stampedes all over the island!
But first, she would condense the maddening scent into a marble that would be released remotely through a speck of her Soul.
Aiko, as she was, had enough Soul stored that she could do it without harming her actual Soul, so this was the best way to go about things.
She would need a few thousand and litter them all over the empires.
Along the way, she would also check the places where Mei said the Blood Fox was supposed to be.
Witch Aiko kept making the small marbles. They were not that hard to make, but they did require a bit of Vitality to properly enclose them without causing her issues.
She didn't want or need to be swarmed by monsters yet.
'To think the empire with the lost princess would retaliate like this.' Witch Aiko shook her head. She would visit them personally a bit later, so she could wipe them out if necessary.
This whole plan involved a lot of Karma, but the Heavenly Dao was STILL busy with the Immeasurable Disaster, which caused it to lessen the rules for everyone to make everything work in its favour.
Little did that little shit know that this would massacre a whole continent...
...
Witch Aiko arrived at the first scene? She didn't have any proper tracking abilities, but she could already see that many people ran over here.
She also noticed that some traces were 'lighter' than others, which meant that they were either female assailants or the Blood Fox.
Witch Aiko searched around before moving to another place, where she did the same.
She did this over and over again while staying inside the shadows.
-----
The Headhunters were hiding in a nearby cave, watching the numerous Beasts run past or scout this place.
"We have struck gold this time, Boss." One Headhunter said.
"Who would've known that the Fox Elders would willingly leak the whereabouts of their Foxes?" The boss shook his head. Thanks to that, they obtained peerless beauties with limitless potential. Especially the one that controlled blood.
"But it seems quite a few Beasts are looking for them, especially that strange Fox that lurks in the shadows." Another Headhunter said, feeling quite oppressed by her.
"You shouldn't have contracted that Fox." The Boss clicked his tongue. "This all happened because you are a horny dog!"
"Bullshit! If you were in my place, wouldn't you do the same?!" The blood one was too big of a beauty to be sold like that, and it just so happened that he was missing a personal Beast.
The others looked away. They couldn't really refute it, since they also wanted one.
"The Fox is leaving." The scout breathed a sigh of relief.
Suddenly, there was a shadow behind him.
"Knock, knock~" That oppressive Fox was just before them. "You thought I wouldn't notice this place, you little shit~?"
They immediately drew their weapons.
-----
Witch Aiko noticed that the faint connection with the Blood Fox was still there, but it was quite muddy.
It took her a while to pinpoint the place, and it was all thanks to her Table Map.
It allowed her to see Beasts and, especially, humans around this place.
Thus, she was able to pinpoint the location and scare the living shit out of them.
It was a simple strategy: Pretend to leave and then appear before them!
Witch Aiko's tails changed into those familiar hungry mouths.
Witch Aiko trained her eyes on the Blood Fox. She was still with vacant eyes.
Witch Aiko's emotions were in turmoil, but she was frighteningly calm.
The first human attacked, but before that attack could reach her, he was devoured by her tails.
Whenever she took a step, someone lost their mind and attacked her, thus losing their lives in the process.
All but one were killed.
"Hm?" Witch Aiko was confused why her tails didn't devour this one, but then she noticed when she used her eyes.
His Soul was connected to the Blood Fox's. They were bound together.
'Is this the Contract?' Witch Aiko tilted her head. The lazy beauty was using her brain at astonishing speed.
Her tails pinned him to the ground.
"I-I can give you anything! You want those Foxes, Treasure-" The Headhunter panicked. He never imagined that a simple Contract would attract such a monster.
"Shhhhhh." Witch Aiko bit her lip as she sat on top of him.
Now this would definitely be something he enjoyed, if not for her crazed blood-red eyes.
He could feel something gripping his Soul and trying to rip it out of his body. Her eyes were turning into more mouths, making him despair for his life.
He was a Soul Cultivator. His Soul could be considered a top-notch nutrient for Soul-type Beasts, one of which was right in front of him.
He wanted to talk, he wanted to plead. He wanted to give everything back, but he was not allowed to.
Those tails silenced him as the Fox worked on him.
"Ah, so it works like this." Witch Aiko nodded her head.
The body was not a vessel for the Soul, but the Soul tethered itself to it.
That also explained the stories about the ones that possessed their victims.
The so-called 'incompatibility' was just an excuse so that they didn't need to say: "I picked an ugly body." or "I picked a body with frail Spiritual Roots."
Witch Aiko now understood how it worked.
The vessel was nothing more than just a cup for a spider. The spider would weasel its way inside and, using its cobwebs as tethers, allow it to stay there forever.
*Snip*
His body trashed wildly, yet his Soul was undamaged.
*Snip**Snip**Snip*
Witch Aiko licked her lips as she kept snipping and snipping and snipping until his Soul was no longer tethered to the vessel, the body.
"Please spare me! I know I was wrong!" The Soul could finally scream for its life, as there was no way that Aiko could block its mouth.
[Primordial Devouring Fire-Fox Glass Vessel]
Aiko pulled this thing that was still unfinished, but it could still keep a single Soul inside without damaging it due to outside influence.
This was important, but there was another important thing about this.
It blocked the connection between the Blood Fox and him.
Well, the connection would still be there, but he wouldn't be able to send any kind of signals or commands to her.
Storing him inside. She turned the heat off. This was very important; otherwise, the Soul would be devoured, and with it the Blood Fox would be devoured too.
The Contract was simply too vicious. Not only would it limit your Soul and Mind, but it would also use the connection to shield the human Soul.
What that meant was that during a fight, if the human was supposed to be injured to the Soul, his Beast would take the hit instead of him.
So if the human died, the Beast would die. If the human was injured in the Soul, the Beast would take it instead. The Beast would also have locked evolution paths, so that they couldn't grow stronger than the user and thus break the Contract.
If the Beast tried to break the Contract, not only would their Soul be damaged, but their Beast Core would be damaged too.
The more Witch Aiko read into this, the more livid she turned out...