Nine Astra Skies

'Something bad is going to happen to Little Tanuki, isn't it?' Compelled by this deep-seated distress, Ye Chen instinctively sprung from his spot and bolted out of his door.

By that point, the white figure had already leaped over the castle wall before diving into the first grove outside of Ye Castle.

"If I get caught for being outside at this unholy hour by any of our watchmen, there's going to be no end to that storm! Best not let my father, granduncle and others know about this," Ye Chen murmured. Hence, he activated his astral body and his senses were immediately lucid enough to remotely locate every single watchman — the clansmen in-charged of taking care of the household while everyone else was asleep — lurking vigilantly in every tenebrous corner of the Ye Castle.

Ye Chen deftly evaded their line of sights as well as the traps that were designed to ensnare nightly intruders, hidden in the castle grounds. After he got to the wall safely, he vaulted himself over and dashed into the woods. Very quickly, he astral-located a scurrying tanuki.

What did it sense that was so important that had led it to run off like that?

Ye Chen did not stop to entertain his own question. Instead, Celestial Chi started to revolve within his body for him to sustain his stamina as he chased ahead, with sceneries darting by his sides in a flurry of blurred images.

It was about two hours later after the chase when he realized that he had trespassed into the deepest part of Lianyun Mountains. Scanning his surroundings, Ye Chen knew that he had stepped into one of the restricted zones the House of Ye had repetitively warned against on countless occasions.

There were many of such restricted areas in Lianyun Mountains — places where every responsible senior in the family had always caution their juniors to never tempt fate in. Specifically, they cited the presence of formidable and lethal advanced-Stage mystical beasts as the sole reason. There were a few ignorant juniors who did trespass once, but they never came back again.

Ye Chen could almost hear his father's voice telling him to not go any step closer, and his feet responded by slowing down into a shuffle. Yet, the young man was just as quick in rationalizing his own violation of the ban. After all, since his astral sense had achieved new acuity in terms of the width of its detection, it could now reliably substitute the nightly limits of his vision. If he remained vigilant enough to avoid crossing paths with any mystical beasts, Ye Chen was sure he would be fine.

His momentary uncertainty had allowed Little Tanuki to add more distance between the two of them. Upon realizing that, Ye Chen quickly restarted his pace and charged to wherever his astral sense guided him.

While on his way, his astral body had already detected at least five or six Eighth Stage mystical beasts, all of which he had dexterously and safely evaded while a little voice in the back of his head remarked about how true his seniors' warning was. Had it not been the fact that he had awakened his astral body, disregarding their warning would have instantly turned into an indirect act of suicide. Facing off lone mystical beast may be somewhat manageable, but what if they came in packs?

His travel through the woods went on for about an hour until he found himself at the mouth of a narrow mountain pass. Barren cliffs stood at each of his sides forebodingly, leaving the only passage wedged between them to be about two or three feet wide as it led into the deepest unknown of the mountains. Ye Chen knew a hazard the moment when he saw one; if there was any confrontation with a mystical beast while traveling along this mountain pass, he would be trapped.

He was certain that Little Tanuki had passed through here. However, after a very brief hesitation, he raced right into the passage.

It was another ten minutes sprint before suddenly, the scene before his eyes changed into something completely different from what its uncomely entrance had suggested. A lush, grassy clearing about ten miles wide in radius leaped into his sight, painting a stark contrast with the dreary, barren cliffs that surrounded it. Beautiful meadows adorned the grassy plain while a small creek whispered close by. It was quite a sight to behold.

"To find a wonderland secluded by perilous cliffs is really beyond my expectations," Ye Chen muttered in awe. He turned around as he admired the soaring cliffs reaching into the clouds above. His heart was viscerally praising the marvels of nature.

As he continued to saunter through this strange clearing, he started to become more aware of the abundance of tanuki cadavers lying close by. It seemed like they were all bitten to death. Most of these dead tanukis appeared to be very different from Little Tanuki. Although most of them had a single tail with either sallow, ashen or calico fur, some others appear to possess two tails. However, their second tail was just a bub.

'Is this where Little Tanuki came from? I wonder what happened to its family,' Ye Chen thought as he observed. He may not have noticed it, but in his mind, Little Tanuki had ceased to be "just another tanuki". The amount of sentience and intelligence displayed by his friend had resembled too much of humankind.

However, he did notice that the area was very suitable for cultivation. Perhaps due to the cliffs enclosing the area, the clearing was concentrated with Celestial Chi, but Ye Chen was not sure about the source of it.

Nonetheless, the young man was hardly interested in the Celestial Chi here anymore. With a reservoir as immense and potent as the Flying Dagger in his head, Celestial Chi from natural sources, in their pitifully diluted motes, were like scraps to him.

So, he continued to trudge deeper into this strange wonderland until he finally found Little Tanuki.

It was standing before a large stain of dried blood with watery eyes, grief-stricken.

That pool of blood was probably what was left of Little Tanuki's beloved relative. Ye Chen sighed quietly and crouched down as his right hand gently stroked Little Tanuki's back.

"Don't be sad, Little Tanuki," Ye Chen said, trying to comfort his friend.

Little Tanuki had probably been standing at the spot for a while now. Upon seeing Ye Chen, it immediately tried to cloak its emotion even though it did not succeed in hiding the morose in its eyes. Then suddenly, Little Tanuki's ears perked up in high alert.

A thought flashed in Ye Chen's head, 'What now?'

Maybe Little Tanuki had sensed an omen of danger because it had suddenly decided to leave its spot. Squeaking, it called out to Ye Chen before dashing to a distance.

So, Ye Chen followed until a few minutes after, he found Little Tanuki standing on the clearing. It was sniffing the air quietly as if looking for something before it suddenly stopped short on a spot and started to dig its paws into the mud.

"What are you looking for, Little Tanuki?" Ye Chen asked questioningly before crouching on his knees to help the little creature out.

Clearing the tuft of grass away, Ye Chen realized that the mud on this area was quite soggy and loose. Could it be that something was buried there?

He continued to dig for a while before his hand suddenly wrapped onto a dense object that was lodged in the earth, shocking the young man. He dug deeper at the behest of his own curiosity and finally, after combing away all of the mud, he had uncovered a wooden chest with a delicate décor from the mud. The chest was likely made out of Lingxiang wood. Despite the dampness of the earth that had enclosed it, the wooden chest was not the slightest bit rotten.

"Does this belong to the tanuki clan? Can I open it?" Ye Chen turned to Little Tanuki.

It nodded.

He proceeded to open the chest and a thick, refreshing aroma instantly burst out. Inside, an embroidered silk pouch lay next to three enigmatic, antiquated books. As he loosened the pouch and opened it up, Ye Chen was greatly shocked. As it turned out, this silk pouch was, in fact, a Heaven-Earth Pouch — a very special pouch with disproportionately large storage space inside despite its small appearance. It could be used especially to store a large number of things while on the go.

A single Heaven-Earth Pouch could cost about thousands of Chi-amassing Pills, but this embroidered silk Heaven-Earth Pouch appeared to be larger than those normally found in the market. Imagine how much of the price this could fetch!

When Ye Chen peered into the content, it had shocked him even more. There were about fifty or sixty pills inside. In fact, after a meticulous calculation, it seemed that there were fifty-three Chi Deposition Pills in total.

Then, there were two other pills that stood out. They were maroon in color, and about as big as a pigeon's egg or three times the size of a Chi Deposition Pill.

Ye Chen took in a sharp breath. If a single Chi Deposition Pill could equal to a few hundred Chi Amassing Pills, then fifty-three of them entailed an insane amount of wealth! Indeed, this would be the revenue generated by the House of Ye for over ten odd years. On top of that, although he did not know what the other two pills were, it gave a nagging impression that they were worth even more than the rest.

Ye Chen turned his attention to the books and thumbed through the pages; there were three of them.

The first book, 'The Grand Supreme Way of Alchemy' was a book about the ways of cultivating pills. The second book titled, 'Celestial Scripture on Mystical Beasts Cultivation' was a book detailing the ways a mystical beast could cultivate itself such that they could attain their ultimate form. Lastly, the third book, 'Palm Puncturing the Cosmos' was a treatise of a set of martial arts, completed with its cultivation system along with six of its corresponding martial techniques.

He may have given all of these items a passing glance, but Ye Chen already knew how much each of them merited. In fact, just possessing one of them was enough for a family to court with calamity should the knowledge of its existence ever come to light!

"Let's return Ye Castle at once!" Ye Chen stood up immediately and turned to Little Tanuki as he uttered his decision before stashing the objects with him.

Just as they were about to leave, both the human and the tanuki heard a few chilling howls that echoed outside the mountain pass.

Little Tanuki started to shudder at the sound, prompting Ye Chen to spy a glance at it. He couldn't fathom what kind of animal would give Little Tanuki so much fear.

He extended the reach of his astral senses and found out that three large Demon Wolves, each about two feet large, were hurling themselves to their direction!

"Demon Wolves, and three of them too! Quick, hop onto my shoulder!" Ye Chen cried out frantically. This would be his first time facing three Seventh Stage wolves, and Ye Chen's heart was pounding. He was uncertain as to whether he could overcome them at all.

Little Tanuki obeyed him and jumped up to his shoulder immediately.

Ye Chen started to run down the path in the mountain pass.

Precisely then was when the three Demon Wolves, guided by their olfactory capabilities, locked Ye Chen as their target. They stared at the man and the tanuki perching on his shoulder from a distance, as their glowing blue eyes pierced through the blinders of the night like heralds of impending demise.