Death… And Me

Chapter 4472: The Pause

Before Rean left with the fox, a surprising question came from Roan. He glanced at the little creature resting comfortably on Rean’s shoulder before asking, ”How come you still haven’t given her a name?”

Rean stopped for a moment and turned around, scratching the back of his head awkwardly. ”I... am curious to see how she will turn out. I did say I wanted it, after all. But at the same time, I’m not entirely sure if I should keep her around. So, during our next Elite Exploration to gather resources, perhaps it would be better to let her go somewhere far away from Besgol.”

Roan narrowed his eyes. ”And that’s why you aren’t giving her a name. It’s hard to believe you’d actually think that far ahead. Is this how you’re trying not to get too attached?” He paused for a brief moment before adding, ”Are you still you?”

”You mean?” Rean looked genuinely puzzled.

”You are basically the manifestation of meaningless attachment,” Roan answered bluntly. ”This version of you, trying to keep some distance, is even creepier than you already are. And believe me, you are already bizarre to disgusting levels when you are acting normally.”

Rean’s face immediately darkened. ”Hey! Couldn’t you have said that nicer?”

”Hmph!” Roan snorted. ”I’m already being quite generous.”

*Rawr!*

The fox immediately complained as well, glaring at Roan as if defending Rean’s honor.

”That’s right, girl. Show him! No, forget it. He isn’t worth our time,” Rean said as he gently rubbed the fox’s head. ”Let’s go!”

Roan glanced at them one last time and then decided to ignore it.

It didn’t take long for Rean to register another simple mission outside Besgol before leaving the region with the little fox on his shoulder.

Kentucky also left soon afterward, and no one needed to ask where he was going. He had spent almost an entire year cultivating without a proper break. There was only one place he would willingly spend his free time.

Meanwhile, Roan headed toward one of the Godly Subjugation Guild’s training facilities to familiarize himself with his newfound strength. Celis had nothing better to do, so he simply followed along.

—

After nearly a year of accompanying Rean in and out of Besgol, the little fox had grown considerably stronger. She could already fight ordinary Godly Spawn creatures on her own and even put up a respectable fight against stronger spawns. Judging purely by her combat ability, she could already be compared to a Late Stage Anchor God cultivator.

However, there were several obvious differences between her and every other known race.

Whether Demon Beast or Spirit, both ultimately followed the standard cultivation system. In the Anchor God Realm, cultivators were incapable of controlling energy outside their bodies, regardless of race.

Spirits suffered the most from that restriction because most Spirit races naturally specialized in manipulating energy remotely. Without the ability to project energy beyond their bodies/cores, many ascended Spirits became almost powerless during the entire Anchor God Realm. Native Celestial Plane Spirits avoided that problem by being born directly in the Aura God Realm, but ascenders still had to climb through the Anchor God Realm like everyone else before they could truly fight at all.

The fox, however, clearly belonged to neither category.

She definitely wasn’t powerful enough to be considered an Aura God, yet she could manipulate flames outside her body without the slightest difficulty. Every time she fought, crimson-golden flames spiraled around her, eventually forming those rotating fire spheres that acted as both offense and defense.

Could that prove she was actually a Godly Creature then?

The answer was still no!

Godly Creatures suffered from the exact same restriction. Godly Spawns couldn’t manipulate Godly Energy outside their bodies either, and since Godly Spawns were equivalent to Anchor Gods among cultivators, the limitation remained exactly the same.

That only made the mystery surrounding the little fox even greater.

Rean had watched her fight dozens of times throughout the past year, and every battle made one fact clearer than the last. Her control over those flames kept improving at an astonishing rate despite the fact that, by all logic, she shouldn’t even possess that ability yet.

There was another mystery as well.

Rean couldn’t determine what cultivation system she actually followed.

She didn’t belong to the Godly Creature system of Godly Spawn, Godly Beast, Godly Predator, Godly Horror, Godly Apex, and so on.

Neither did she follow the cultivators’ path of Celestial Realm, Anchor God Realm, Aura God Realm, Zone God Realm, Law God Realm, and the others above.

Whatever she was, it was something completely different from every race Rean had encountered since arriving in Besgol.

*Rawr! Grawr!*

The fox suddenly bit through the head of a Tomacai Caiman, a Godly Spawn creature she had just defeated. Since it was already dead, she quickly dug out the Godly Crystal hidden inside.

*Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!*

*Gulp!*

As soon as she finished, she happily sprinted back toward Rean before jumping onto his shoulder again.

*Rawr!*

Rean couldn’t help but laugh as he stroked her soft fur. ”Yeah, you are getting pretty good. You hunted those three Tomacai Caimans in less than a minute. Even if they’re only average among the Godly Spawn races, the fact that you can do it on your own, outside the Sacred Relic’s Influence, after less than a year, is something to be proud of.”

*Rawr!*

The fox immediately puffed out her chest and nodded repeatedly, looking incredibly pleased with the compliment. By now, it had become obvious that she understood most of what Rean said, even if she still couldn’t respond with actual words.

That intelligence alone separated her from Godly Creatures.

Normally, true intelligence only started appearing around the Godly Tyrant level in very rare cases and became common only after reaching the Godly Colossus level. These were the sixth and seventh ranks of Godly Creatures, respectively. Yet this little fox possessed remarkable intelligence despite not even reaching the equivalent of a Godly Beast.

”Well,” Rean continued thoughtfully as they resumed walking, ”you do use Godly Energy just like everyone else, so you aren’t completely different. I really wonder how your breakthroughs are going to work.”

There was one more factor that puzzled Rean. It didn’t matter how he looked at it. Godly Pressure didn’t cause her any problems. She never got weakened.

*Rawr, rawr, rawr!*

”Okay, okay,” Rean laughed, already understanding what she wanted. ”Let’s head to the next area.”

The mission this time required collecting the hides of several Godly Creatures, and there was no particular rush. As always, Rean refused to interfere unless absolutely necessary. Every single kill had to be earned by the little fox herself.

The result was that Rean remained outside Besgol much longer than the mission actually required. By the time they finished, they had accumulated far more hides than necessary, and they had even encountered another group of cultivators completing the same assignment. Fortunately, both sides simply exchanged greetings before going their separate ways.

Eventually, the three weeks Roan had given everyone to rest came to an end.

”Alright...” Rean muttered as he looked toward the distant outline of Besgol. Then he lowered his head toward the fox resting comfortably on his shoulder and gently rubbed behind her ears. ”Time to head back... and perhaps find you a new home.”