My Two Mighty Spirit Beasts - Chapter 2

Utterly exhausted, I lay down where I was, on the soft rug.

The door opened again. This time, it was Shen Zhu, my White Tiger.

At the sight of my bloodstained clothes, he hurried over and gathered me into his arms.

“Sister. Who hurt you?” he asked, each word deliberate.

“My master and my junior sister.”

Shen Zhu fell silent for a moment. His tiger’s tail, which he couldn’t quite keep hidden, curled around me. “Once we’ve formed our bond, I’ll beat them up for you.”

A spirit beast could only use magic to attack other people after forming a bond.

But I had no intention of bonding with Shen Zhu.

He was bloodthirsty and volatile, and in recent years he had grown increasingly unhinged. This very moment was a case in point.

Even while using his spiritual power to heal me, he pressed his forehead against mine and continued spouting madness.

“Once we’re bonded, you’ll belong to me completely.”

He caught my chin, his dark eyes brooding. “You aren’t allowed to look at anyone else. You can only be gentle with me.”

I had raised Shen Zhu from a cub. He used to be calm, noble, and aloof.

I couldn’t say when it had started, but he had become increasingly clingy. He wanted to keep me at his side every moment of every day.

Once, I exchanged a few extra words with a junior brother, and Shen Zhu sulked for hours. As soon as we returned to our courtyard, he pinned me against the apricot tree.

His fangs sank into my shoulder. His eyes were scarlet, tempting me toward an abyss.

“Why were you talking to someone else? Why won’t you look at me more?”

“Don’t you want a taste of me… now that you’ve raised me?”

His possessiveness bordered on pathological. No matter how I tried to guide him through it, nothing helped. I had become his inner demon.

A spirit beast like that could easily suffer qi deviation and would be unable to help its master through an immortal tribulation.

So I had privately decided to find another.

Shen Zhu still had his face buried in my hair, sniffing softly. “Even your hair smells lovely.”

He suddenly went still.

“Sister… why do you smell of another spirit beast?”

“Have you been seeing someone behind my back?”

He set me down and slowly looked around. His gaze stopped on my bed.

There, his clothes disheveled, Xun Mu was waking up.

He saw me first and gave me a faint smile. “Master.”

Shen Zhu shot to his feet and turned to stare at me. “Sister. Why is the Vermilion Bird in your bed?” he asked, enunciating every word.

His brow was furrowed, his expression taut. The air around him felt oppressive.

Apparently oblivious, Xun Mu tidied his clothes with elegant movements and came toward me. “Don’t lie on the floor, Master. It’s dirty.”

He bent to pick me up, but Shen Zhu seized his wrist the moment he reached out.

Shen Zhu’s eyes were menacing. “Who said you could touch her?” he ground out.

“Lying half-dressed in her bed—were you trying to seduce her?”

He scooped me into his arms and watched Xun Mu warily. “I’m the only one in her heart. Don’t even think about her.”

Xun Mu merely raised an eyebrow. He held his hand out to me again, his eyes clear and bright. “Master,” he called gently.

“Shut up!” Shen Zhu snapped through clenched teeth.

His voice was low and rough, his displeasure unmistakable. “Be good, Sister. Send him away.”

Both spirit beasts stared at me, waiting for my answer.

I arranged my expression, wrapped my arms around Shen Zhu’s neck, and let tears fill my eyes.

He panicked at once, fumbling to wipe them away. “Sister, are your wounds still hurting?”

“A-Zhu,” I choked out. “Master wants you to bond with my junior sister.”

He froze, then blurted, “No. I’m yours. I’m not going anywhere.”

“She’s coveted you ever since she saw that you’d developed seventy percent of your power. Master can’t bear for my bonded beast to be stronger than hers either. He insists we exchange beasts.”

I didn’t dare tell him the truth. If he knew I was playing along so that I could become a true immortal, he might go mad and succumb to qi deviation.

His gaze filled with sympathy. “So they beat you like this because you refused to give me up.”

I couldn’t very well contradict him, so I went along with it. “I tried my best, A-Zhu.”

At that very moment, the door opened for a third time.

My junior sister had returned. She said she had come to take Shen Zhu home.