Bond of the Beast

True to his word, Li Kai appeared the next day with the materials necessary to form a demonic beast bond. When he first appeared, he kept the butler between himself and me, as if worried I would go ballistic on him for the effects of the purification pill. Although I really, really wanted to pummel him with my fists, logic prevailed. I knew it wasn't his fault the pill had such nasty side effects. Besides, he outclassed me greatly, I wouldn't be able to lay a finger on him ... yet. Li Kai, you will pay for my suffering one day!

Li Kai didn't like the look in my eyes and shuddered involuntarily.

Li Kai had arrived in the middle of breakfast and I was still in my cute, fluffy pajamas. Even though it wasn't a training day, I was worried that Li Kai would suddenly have me train today and ruin this wonderful set of pajamas. I had spent an entire afternoon designing them with the tailor. It would be terrible to see them tarnished.

Fortunately, Li Kai had other business to attend to after bonding Rosie and me together. I felt that he was reluctant to go. It was as if he derived enjoyment from seeing nice things ruined.

The ritual of bonding Rosie and me felt like some sort of satanic sacrifice. A circle was drawn on the ground and a multifaceted shape was drawn within. It wasn't quite a pentagram, but it was close enough to make me sweat upon seeing it. It had nine points instead of five. Spirit stones were placed at each point the shape touched the circle.

Spirit stones are stones that have absorbed a large amount of qi and transformed. Usually, they are hewn off of a much larger spirit vein. Sometimes they are also mined out of areas that failed to become spirit veins. They are both a cultivation resource and a currency. I always hated this dual nature. In my mind money should be money, and resources should be resources. What if bread were a currency, would I eat it or bargain with it? The notion was pure nonsense to me. At least gold or silver could be converted between items and currency with little to no loss. Spirit stones, once consumed as a resource, were absolutely worthless. Thankfully the Seeker family primarily traded in cold, hard gold and not a fickle resource like spirit stones.

Li Kai placed Rosie and me within the formation then stepped back and activated it. The lines on the ground glowed. A transparent dome came into existence over our heads. Dark storm clouds gathered in the previously clear sky. Glowing dust, no, it was pure qi, floated in the air, and traced magical patterns throughout the dome. At the same time, Rosie and I also both left the ground, as if gravity no longer affected us. My hair and Rosie's fur started to float upwards. Qi gathered into a Glowing line between Rosie and me. At the ends of the magical tether, it branched out, connecting to our 9 meridians. The surroundings grew brighter while the sky grew darker. A magical hum warbling like an electrical engine grew louder and louder.

It was then that dark skies were parted by a beam of light and a cacophonous boom echoed through the valley. Lightning struck at the center point between Rosie and me at the center of the not-a-pentagram. In the same instant, at a speed equal to the lightning bolt, Rosie's body turned into energy and was drawn into the tether connecting us.

A pendant formed in front of my chest. It was a golden loop with a pattern etched into it that looked like fur. Pointy ears sat atop the golden loop and, resembling the tail of a 'Q' a fluffy tail came out of the bottom of the loop. At the center of the golden loop with foxlike features, a blue gem appeared, reminding me of the color of Rosie's eyes.

This was how beast bonds were formed in Eternia. It had benefits and drawbacks as compared to the tattoos other places used. The jewelry beast bonds formed in this region allowed for the easy trade of demonic beasts, especially the large beasts that would not fit into the narrow alleys of a market. This also gave more freedom to the demonic beasts. If given the shell of the jewelry, in this case, the golden loop, they could freely travel where they willed, making them free beasts. But they would have to guard that piece of jewelry carefully, as anyone claiming it could enslave them. The bond was also very one-sided, the beasts had to give everything, while the cultivators gave nearly nothing.

The sapphire dissolved and reformed the shape of Rosie in front of me. The golden loop remained in front of me, I grabbed the loop before it cluttered to the ground. Li Kai handed me a necklace chain and I attached the golden fox loop to it. Now I would always have a part of Rosie near my heart and in this way, she would be protected from the corruptive influence of her demonic bloodline. However, she would now be influenced by my heart instead. While I possessed her talisman, she would be nearly unable to resist my commands. In this aspect, it was the exact same as the tattoos. She may even suffer a backlash and be injured or killed by disobeying a command.

I felt bad for doing this to Rosie, but it was the only way I knew to protect her. There had to be a better way. A way that allowed an equal partnership between beast and man. But I imagined very few cultivators would be interested in such a bond, just weirdos like me. Any such bonding rituals had long been lost.

After checking on me to ensure I was fine, and then making a rude face at Rosie, which Rosie returned in kind, Li Kai left the villa again. When he returned the following week, the next phase of my training began.

During the intervening weekend Vivian sought me out, she wondered where her cuddly kid sister had disappeared to. I had my heavy blanket trained well during the last three months. I showed her Rosie. At first, she was jealous I had found a new cuddle companion, but then she joined us, and Rosie instantly became her favorite. Rosie nearly didn't know how to handle all the attention she kept getting hyper after being petted too much. That night I nearly had a heat stroke being trapped between my sister and Rosie, with Vivian reaching over me to pet Rosie. I had the servants get lighter, more breathable blankets after that.

Li Kai continued training me in swordplay and martial arts. At this stage, I could no longer increase my strength through exercise. So I only did a basic exercise routine to maintain my strength. The remainder of the training days were dedicated to learning from Li Kai.

Li Kai informed me that the only way to increase strength now during the mortal realm was through the purification pills, but that it was best to space them out a bit. I would be taking them eight more times. I groaned at the thought of going through that putrid torture eight more times.

The rest of the time Li Kai would be training me in various techniques and giving me trials to increase my ability to comprehensively utilize my strength. On paper, I should have been able to beat that demonic fox silly without taking a scratch, but I didn't have the comprehensive abilities honed through trials of blood and fire to properly utilize that strength. Now that I had properly experienced a bloody battle, Li Kai was further honing and tuning my strength.

Throughout autumn Li Kai also taught me various other weapon techniques. Obviously, the Dancing Sword Sect preferred the sword, but they weren't above using another weapon in a pinch. Above all, one must survive. The pride of a sword sect meant nothing in front of surviving until the next battle. He even taught Rosie a few techniques useful to canines and felines. Li Kai appeared to be a big grump, but he was a softie inside.

After he grounded Rosie and me in the basics, he taught us a few combination techniques. This increased our effective combat strength by severalfold and was why cultivators would seek out beasts to bond with. Without combo attacks, we were just two individual fighters, benefiting each other only coincidentally. Combo attacks made us a single entity with more than double our individual strength.

Finally, he taught me footwork. Many of my techniques were lacking without supporting footwork. Now I could parry, sidestep, and dodge with ease. I could approach my enemies while maintaining my advantage as well. It took a few weeks to unlearn my terrible self-learned footwork.

My gains during the next period were BASIC MARTIAL ARTS LVL 3, INTERMEDIATE MARTIAL ARTS LVL 3, BASIC SWORDSMANSHIP LVL 3, INTERMEDIATE SWORDSMANSHIP LVL 3, WEAPONMASTER LVL 2, BEAST MASTER LVL 2, and FOOTWORK LVL 2.

Through my tutor, I also gained LANGUAGE(ETERNIAN) LVL 3, LANGUAGE(CENTAURIAN) LVL 2, GEOGRAPHY(ETERNIA) LVL 2, and DIPLOMACY LVL 2.

I had made tremendous gains during this period and winter rapidly approached, as well as my birthday. My sister and I both had birthdays on the winter solstice. This would be this body's sixth birthday, but it would be my first birthday since transmigrating. I excitedly looked forward to the day. The birthday traditions here were essentially the same as on Earth. Like any young girl, I couldn't wait to see what presents I would get.

I was also excited to give Vivi the present I prepared for her. Even with the assistants I forced upon her, Vivian was still running all over the warehouse and, because she had to appear professional, she wore dresses and skirts, which weren't ideal for that kind of work. So with my knowledge of fabrics and clothing designs from my previous life, I worked hard with a tailor to design a work dress. Or at least it looked like a dress, it was actually a romper. The legs were loose and frilly giving the appearance of a dress. In addition, the fabric was waterproof, breathable, durable, and wicked away moisture. To top it all off it was easy to wash. The romper dress was dark purple at the bottom and faded to a pale lilac at the top. The Seeker family crest adorned the chest of the dress. It may seem rude to give a work-related gift to someone, but for a workaholic like Vivian, it was perfect.