"Alright, now we are ready to head to the eternal blossom sect," Mu Ting said with a sigh as he finished packing few of his things inside the spatial ring. He looked around the room to see if there was anything missing and if he needed to add anything.
His eyes fell on the tiny fuzzy spirit that was playing with the rooster head. Well, technically she was just wondering what she was supposed to do with it.
"Throw it away," he said nonchalantly looking around the room. He paused for a while when he thought of something.
"Or," he said as he raised his hand and pointed at the rooster head. The head immediately flew towards him and before it could reach him, it burned down in mid air.
"Simply burn it away," he chuckled seeing it disappear in the air. It felt nice to vent out on something.
The spirit looked at him and simply turned away. It did not want to deal with its master who disappeared as soon as they made the soul contract.
Right before she was about to float away, she got stuck in mid air as if something was pulling her or better restricting her.
"Huh?" she struggled a bit but the force only got stronger.
"You too," he grabbed her by her tail and pulled the struggling spirit.
"You are coming with me too the Vermillion bird peak, little girl." He said with an apathetic face but he surely seemed to be enjoying communicating with her.
"Really? But…" she was surprised as she asked him what it was about, yet she was caught up with wanting to go and not go.
"There will be many people, right?" she asked with a slightly trembling voice.
"Yes, I mean it is the annual tournament for the cultivators of all age and place, so why not?" he said as he placed another container of weird pills inside his spatial ring.
"There will be many people," he added as he went to the door while holding the spirit.
"What? You nervous?" he asked looking at the unsettled spirit on his hand. That was when he remembered a very important detail.
"Your name? I think I did give you a name when we made a soul contract right?" he asked looking at her suspiciously. He had way too many contracts to figure out which belonged to her, as he had to leave as soon as forming contract with her.
The soul bond was not that stable and string yet for him to know remember anything about her. He had only told her about a problem he had before secluding himself in the valley.
"You did give me one." She said when she was faced with this question. Now that she thought about it, he really did not care that much about name. Not until he said that she had one.
"It's Zise." The spirit said from where it was currently being held.
"Because you said I was purple." She said with a scorn in her voice when she thought about how simple it was for naming her. He saw her purple, he named her purple.
Mu Ting stared at the spirit in his hand for a while when his face broke in to a bright smile.
'What's that smile for?' she looked up at him with an urge to roll her eyes but waited calmly. She did not have *eyes* that she could actually roll.
"I have a good naming sense, I see." He nodded his head feeling a little proud of himself. He never really interacted with his contracted spirits much but this one gave off a different vibe to him.
Plus, considering the fact that she was a formless spirit, he had the feel that he needed to take extra care of her. He did not want her doing anything that was unknown or unguarded by him. She was a new born spirit from what he saw and also, regarding that she was still an undeveloped and unstable spirit, he felt it was more necessary to take care of her.
After all, their spirit was connected by a contract nonetheless. He did not want harm to his own spirit.
"Okay Zise, we are going now." Mu Ting said as he locked the door of his room behind him. He knew he had to take her with him no matter what.
"Really?" Zise felt the want to protest against him but to no avail. He was her master and there was nothing else she could do about it.
"You don't like humans?" Mu Ting asked while they were walking through the hallway.
"Oh right, of course you do. How could I forget you are a formless.." his voice trailed off as he thought how stupid it was of himself to ask that question.
It was similar to asking a fat person if they were fat or asking a thin person if they were skinny. It was an obvious answer but he chose to be stupid and ask it anyway.
"It runs in your nature." He added with a not-so-friendly smile.
Zise was silent as she listened to Mu ting chatter away his thoughts. She really did not have anything to say to him.
She did not always hate human. She actually loved them to bone. She loved being among humans but maybe other humans did not see her as one.
So, she was here now.
She hated humans but she was more afraid of them. The fear and resentment all turned to hatred which made her what she was.
Her master now, mu Ting was the only one with whom she was comfortable. He was the only human she could feel okay with it. Maybe it was because when she saw him in the deep forest on the border of the western and southern province, she was a little moved by the fact that he was in pain.
Pain!
That hurt like hell!
Pain was not good!
She did not want to experience it again and seeing someone else like that, experiencing pain and writhing in anguish brought out empathy in her heart. She herself had an unstable spirit force at that moment.
So, she decided to go in a contract with him.
"Master, I have a question." She said when she thought of something important.
"Go on."
"Remember when I met you at the forest," she said as she observed the face of her master from beneath.
"Why were you willing to go in a contact with me despite knowing there were going to be problems?"
She wanted to know if desperation was the only reason.
"I was desperate." He said without thinking much.
"Ohh.."
He was indeed desperate. He did not have much time to train with spirits.
Considering the problem with his golden core, it was more than known to him what was going to happen of he tried to force himself through breakthrough.
He did not have much spirit force. His golden core could not take the pressure anymore since he was trying to fill a pot with all the water of the ocean.
He needed one more container for it.
And it appeared right before him at that time. It was a lonely wandering spirit and that purple and malicious aura of resentment it gave off, there was no doubt about it.
It was a formless! One of those creatures of darkness who were staying low for a few centuries and only breaking the peace once in a while where the people were weak.
But did he have a choice?
No, he didn't.
With the last bit of his remaining strength, he drew an array on the ground with his own blood. He chanted a spell and activated the formation that could draw the nearest spirit around him to the circle for a contract.
It did not matter if it was consensual of forced.
The chain will be there.
But luckily for him, the spirit turned out to be a quite docile now and he could even sense the feeling of pity and kindness coming from it. It could have been his momentary hallucination due to the pain he was feeling inside his golden core, but it really did not matter.
He needed it! And he needed it now!
"Do you agree to enter this pact with me?" he asked to the spirit that was now surrounded by an invisible barrier of bright light. There was nowhere to escape.
"Even if you don't, I can force you to submit." He said as he gritted his teeth when he did not get any answer from the spirit.
"I do!" A clear voice of a young female echoed inside his head after he was dome asking the question.
There was no doubt about it. It was the spirit that was talking to him. Although he had npt expected her to agree with him that easily, he was more than happy to not be forcing something into submission.
As soon as the both parties s had agreed to the contract, the light that surrounded the spirit engulfed both of their bodies and glowed brightly, lightning the whole place.
Once it subsided, they were finally in a spirit bond.
And here they were now. Finally after one week of the contract, they were talking with each other.
"I am human too, you don't hate me or do you?" he asked with a suspicious look.
"No."
Her answer was sharp and clear.
Still, she wanted to avoid contact with other human as much as possible. She felt they were too unsightly and disgusting…