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  Xiao Feng studied the baby kit with a searching gaze, his own expression betraying his nervousness as he waited for a response.

  The world seemed to move in slow motion as the baby kit angled her slender neck to get a better view of Xiao Feng’s visage and two pairs of eyes, one human brown and one beast silver, met.

  “You… like me?” The baby kit asked, the boundless enthusiasm in her tone replaced with a burning curiosity.

  “I suppose so,” Xiao Feng replied in English, knowing that it was unlikely that his predecessor was trying to learn his home language from what part of Xiao Feng’s memories had been absorbed by him during the transmigration process.

  “From a different realm?” The baby kit asked, her tone turning eager. “A realm where there are beasts of metal that roar ferociously? A realm where there many curious scents, too many that make dizzy thinking about them and the two-leggeds live in giant castles that kiss the sky?”

  “Yep,” Xiao Feng nodded. “That’s my home.”

  “Very colorful!” The baby kit declared. “I like it. I also like that you like me! We both from different lands and now we are here,” Without warning, the baby kit began to nuzzle against Xiao Feng’s leg, as if she were seeking comfort and warmth from one of her own kin.

  Xiao Feng was content to stand there, finding the baby kit’s warmth akin to the embrace of an old friend he was meeting after ages, so tender were the emotions gushing out of her.

  “Do you have a way to return to your pack?” The baby kit asked after reluctantly pulling away from him, both her tails wagging in slow harmony, her tone sounding contemplative.

  “That’s unlikely enough for me to say no outright,” Xiao Feng replied, sticking to english for his answer. “No, this is my home now.”

  “Neither of us can return to our packs, then,” She replied, revealing that even the boundless energy contained within her little body had its limits, as her tone felt somber. “Not for now,” She added and her tone regained that childish exuberance.

  “Not for now, huh,” Xiao Feng whispered, not daring to actually believe in those words.

  “Do not worry, my human!” The baby kit snapped Xiao Feng out of his reverie, her tone light and cheerful once again. “My ancestral memories lay down a path for those that have been separated from their packs. The ancestors are wise as always!”

  My human, huh? Well that bodes well, Xiao Feng thought, as his meeting with the hatched baby kit proceeded unlike anything he had experienced before and yet, surprisingly amiably for how little he knew about well, anything. “And what wisdom do the ancestors have for us?” He decided to ask, his tone earnest.

  “There is no reason for the predator to be afraid, for it is us who hunts and the hunted who must fear us. We must venture out into the wilds, seeking new trails that leads us to even newer prey. We must hunt, to feed the body and strengthen the self, we must mark new territory, fight for it and defend it— for one day, we will unite with our packs and then, the pack will grow once again. The untamed wilderness is only daunting because we have yet to explore it fully, after all,” The baby kit explained through the words of another, her tone laden with pride in her mighty ancestors.

  “We will reunite once again, eh?” Xiao Feng muttered under his breath. “Well, I suppose now that you put it like that, I’m pretty foolish to worry about what I have no power to control. Just need to keep moving forward.”

  “My human not foolish,” The baby kit protested. “You care about others around you, even those not of your pack. I am not of your pack. Yet you saved me. Ancestral memories do not speak of helping others. The predator only cares about self and pack. Even pack mothers do not care for the offspring of another pack, but you do. Ancestral memories logical, but not perfect. Or…” The baby kit growled with a vehemence that startled Xiao Feng. “Or my own pack not try to hunt me. You care more for me than pack mother. You my human.”

  Xiao Feng was completely stunned by the emotional intelligence in the baby kit’s words, but even that surprise didn’t stop raw instinct from taking hold of him as he dropped down to one knee and met the baby kit’s gaze.

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  “Friends,” Xiao Feng said the terms of their bond aloud. “Vyn kareth se tyn kareth,” He spoke softly, but in his words were a thundering declaration that caused the white landscape to rumble beneath them.

  Neither of them noticed as the sacred words, “My blood is your blood” had been spoken aloud.

  The baby kit met his gaze with such a raw, primal intensity that it would have caused Xiao Feng to shudder in any other situation. He could feel it in the air now, the work of something ancient, far older than even the ancestors of the proud void fox kit before him.

  “Vyn kareth se tyn kareth,” The baby kit, no his kit, repeated. Then she added, “Friends, now and till I draw breath.”

  Nothing else mattered from thereon, besides completing the bond.

  Xiao Feng pressed his forehead against the baby kit’s.

  “Vyn rayse se tyn rayse,” was spoken in chorus.

  Flesh had been given for flesh.

  “What is your name?” Xiao Feng asked, now closing his eyes, no longer requiring them to sense the presence of his kit.

  “I want you to choose,” She replied.

  “You are from a realm of darkness and smoke. But you no longer reside in that realm. In this realm, you will shine brighter than any of your kin and you will let them realize the gravity of their mistake. You are Nova, the star in the sky that shines silver brighter than any other.”

  “I am Nova.”

  With their eyes closed and their foreheads pressed against each other, the final words were spoken in unison.

  “Vyn velour se tyn velour.”

  “My soul for your soul.”

  Those final words were spoken, just like that.

  Thousands upon thousands of Li away, in the deepest reaches of the Primordial Wilderness, the most ancient of forests in the entire continent of Tian, a man clad in furious red robes that were embroidered in patterns of gold that depicted various spiritual beasts, who was currently lying upon a simple cot and had been half-dozing up until moments ago with a gourd of alcohol clutched in his right hand, opened his eyes.

  His facial features could only be described as wild, as a scraggy golden beard met long, brilliant crimson hair and incandescent orange eyes that burned with the fury of a boiling volcano.

  “The first union in a millenia and you want to unleash the hundred poison tribulation upon the younguns. How ruthless, as usual,” The man declared and the next moment, razor-sharp claws that were hued in the appearance of heated metal burst free from the dips between his knuckles.

  He slashed outwards and four lines of flaming claws blinked through the forest at a slight upward tilt, passing through trees, spiritual beasts and the heavens know what else without leaving a mark on them.

  Thousands of miles were crossed in a few seconds at most and the tribulation clouds that were beginning to take shape above the Alchemy Division of the frontier sect began to burn and the flames didn’t stop until they had converted the tribulation clouds into those wild, incandescent flames that seemed to burn with an insatiable hunger.

  The flames continued to burn in the spot where the tribulation cloud had been, burning and consuming the space itself that made up the spot and revealing the void that lay behind it.

  The stunning scene only lasted a few seconds as the shattered space was repaired with incredible speed by an unseen force and the flames were smothered out a moment later.

  Now, tribulation clouds begun to form over the man clad in those furious red robes, who was taking a deep swig from his relatively small gourd.

  With alcohol dripping down his chin, the crimson haired man lazily turned his gaze to the sky and spoke, “Planning to blow up this entire forest just to slaughter a cultivator before his time, are you?”

  The tribulation clouds slowed.

  “Just because you had a bad experience with a union a few millennia ago doesn’t mean that you can take it out on the younguns, you know,” The crimson-haired man addressed the heavenly dao as if he were speaking to an old acquaintance. “It’s unwarranted and you know it. So back off, I’m not planning on ascending just yet.”

  The tribulation clouds dissipated.

  “That’s what I thought,” The crimson-haired man declared. “Get outsmarted once and hold a grudge for the rest of time. How mature.”

  A bolt of lightning struck the crimson-haired man’s head.

  A small incandescent flame that had appeared above his head absorbed it and grew larger.

  “Well I suppose I deserved that,” The crimson-haired man admitted. “I need to meet these brats and give them a lesson or two,” He said, before taking another long swig from his gourd. “Hm, I’ll give them two decades. Yes, two decades is fine.”

  Then the crimson-haired man lay back down on his cot and returned to the state of half-slumber. A loud yawn escaped his lips, offering a glimpse at the two small but deadly sharp fangs peeking out from behind his lips.

  A few moments later, the ostensibly human cultivator had returned to his nap, with the hints of a wolfish smile visible upon his lips.

  Maybe Sephari had something left to show him, after all.

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