Little fox? Wasn't he supposed to be asking that question? He looked at the cute little furry face that was pure white. It blinked its clear turquoise eyes at him and then yawned cutely. Chen Wentian was still baffled when it spoke again.
"Are you dumb?" The fox asked.
"Of course not!" He replied quickly.
"Oh, good. You can talk. Your name?"
She, it was obvious from the fox's voice that it was a female, had a haughty tone like she was too good for him. It only made him more confused. She got a bit impatient and waved her twin tails about. It was beautiful to see and not threatening in the least.
"My name is Chen Wentian." He said politely.
"Tch, what kind of fox name is that? It sounds terrible!"
He was stumped once again, "I'm not a fox."
"You're very obviously a shadow fox, are you retarded?" She was getting very annoyed.
Oh... Chen Wentian finally wrapped his head around his appearance. He was in his shadow soul body which just happened to be a shadow fox. Nobody had ever even seen his shadow before, let alone speak to it so had never been an issue. He concentrated his spiritual energy and morphed into a smoky shape of his human self.
"Ah! I see." The little white fox seemed very excited suddenly.
There was a flash a light and there was now a human girl sitting on the bed instead of the fox. She was so small and delicate, with an aura of innocence like a budding flower. She wore a snow-white robe that was lined with a familiar silver fur. Her tender feet and dainty hands were visible, showing off her porcelain skin and perfect complexion. She was still very obviously a fox from her twin tails that remained after the transformation as well as the pair of twitching ears on her head that poked out of the long silver hair that cascaded around her shoulders and onto the bed.
When he finally focused on her face, he found himself frozen in shock. His mind became blank as his soul felt a mysterious tremor. How could there be such a beautiful girl in this world... Her face was astoundingly perfect, each of her features exquisite to the extreme. He compared her to all the great beauties he had ever met in his life and found that they all paled in comparison. She was a goddess; how else could one look as perfect as her?
"You became dumb again..." The fox girl said sadly, seeing the silly expression on his face.
"No no no, I'm fine!" Chen Wentian said, quickly coming back down to earth, "What's your name?"
"My name is Jasmine." She tilted her head, "Are you lost? How did you find your way in here?"
"I'm really good at getting into trouble." Chen Wentian shrugged.
Jasmine's lips slightly turned upward at his lame joke. Her smile only made her perfect image even more captivating. It soothed his mind and warmed his heart; he couldn't help but become mesmerized again. They stared at each other for a while before he found his voice again.
"I've been spying on the Beast God Sanctum and I accidentally found this prison. As a shadow fox, naturally I can go where I please within the darkness." Chen Wentian said, "I can help you get out of here."
Jasmine scoffed, "You? Don't play jokes with me."
She pointed to the exit, "Little fox, you better get out of here. Don't play around. Hurry, before the lion comes back... otherwise you'll be locked up like me..."
Tears welled in Jasmine's eyes as she thought of her situation. She pulled her knees to her chest and buried her face, hiding from his view. Chen Wentian felt his own heart break when he heard her sob. He sympathized with her feelings. She must have been imprisoned here by He Zicheng for a long time.
He tried to think of how to handle this. He went over the available facts so far and realized why his shadow anchors were misbehaving. Jasmine was a divine beast, a Nine Tailed Fox to be specific. Although she only had two tails, he knew instantly as soon as he saw her beast form. Nine Tailed Foxes were gods among of foxes and all fox species including the shadow fox knew this by instinct. Shadow anchors created by his shadow fox would naturally be affected by a Nine Tailed Fox's innate soul power. Such soul interference could not be stopped by the imprisonment array which only locked away spiritual energy. The level of interference and the depth of this cave prison in addition to the power of the inscription array indicated that this little fox had already broken through to the Spirit Lord Realm.
This was the Beast God Sanctum's secret; they were hiding an immortal divine beast! If this news was divulged, it would shake the entire continent...
Beasts in the cultivation world were categorized into different classes that included spiritual beasts, wisdom beasts, origin beasts, and divine beasts.
Spiritual beasts were ordinary beasts that used spiritual energy. As they cultivated, they would gradually gain intelligence. Once their intelligence improved to allow for human speech, they would evolve into wisdom beasts.
Wisdom beasts were much more powerful than ordinary spiritual beasts and all beasts that entered the first immortal realm were guaranteed to be wisdom beasts. It was also possible to find rare occurrences of mortal wisdom beasts as well. Chen Wentian, for example, met his shadow fox while it was still at the Spirit Initiate Realm and it had already obtained its wisdom. It was one of the luckiest moments of his early life as such a wisdom beast was worth more than the entire net wealth of an average Spirit Lord.
The ability to turn into human form was even more difficult and rare and such beasts were known as origin beasts. Chen Wentian's shadow fox had only been a wisdom beast but became an origin beast after merging with him. It was an unexpected but fortuitous result of his soul art. Ordinary immortal beasts rarely became origin beasts and it took several more breakthroughs for one to obtain human form.
The little fox in front of him was not an origin beast but a divine beast. A divine beast had all the abilities of the other beast classes but were much rarer and they also had unique powers that touched upon the realms of mythical gods. Dragons, phoenixes, and qilins were also divine beasts.
Divine beasts usually resided in holy lands to protect themselves against greedy human cultivators. They had incredibly long lifespans even without reaching the immortal realms so there was no telling just how old Jasmine was. It was extremely strange for a divine beast to appear in a backwater region like the Eastern Sanmu Subcontinent.
Jasmine opened one eye to see that the shadow fox was still standing beside her. He was spacing out again, thinking of who knows what. It had been a nice surprise to finally meet an origin beast, especially in this place. But she knew there was no way a Spirit Initiate Realm fox like him could help her, even if he was an origin beast.
"Chen Wentian, you idiot! I told you to leave for your own good but you don't want to listen... fine! Fine! I won't talk to you anymore!"
She didn't know why she felt so angry or why she was yelling. Perhaps she was losing control over her pent-up sadness and despair. Maybe she just didn't want to see another beast like her suffer at the hands of He Zicheng. Hot tears streamed down her cheeks but she didn't hide it this time. She silently cried as she recalled the bad memories from the last few months.
After a long time, Chen Wentian finally finished organizing his thoughts. He knelt down so he was looking straight at Jasmine, his shining black eyes found her tear stained turquoise gems and there was a mysterious connection between them.
"Jasmine, trust me. I have a plan..." His voice was soft but filled with confidence.