Black Phoenix Heir

Chapter 106: Chapter 106 — A Place to Go

Chapter 106 — A Place to Go

After a few hours of traveling, Victor and Lyra finally began to slow down.

Victor was the first to stop.

He raised one hand, signaling for Lyra to do the same.

She came to a stop several feet behind him without saying a word.

Lyra stared at him quietly.

Why is this human stopping?

Victor crouched slightly and looked ahead through the trees.

The forest was quiet.

He moved forward carefully, scanning the surroundings.

Then, without warning, his body disappeared.

Flash Step.

Victor reappeared directly above a large beast that resembled an enormous bull.

The beast barely had time to raise its head before Victor’s fist came crashing down.

Monkey Fist.

A concentrated burst of Spiritual Energy surged through his arm.

Boom!

His fist slammed directly into the top of the beast’s skull.

At almost the exact same moment, Lyra emerged from Victor’s shadow beneath the beast.

Her twin blades flashed.

Two clean strikes severed the beast’s legs.

The Rank Ten spiritual beast collapsed.

The entire fight had lasted only a few seconds.

Victor landed beside the corpse and smiled.

"I just know this thing is going to taste good."

Lyra looked at him with a faint expression of disgust.

Victor chose to ignore it.

Within minutes, he had gathered everything necessary to make a fire.

Soon, flames crackled between the trees.

Victor began preparing the beast.

He carefully carved away the tougher portions of meat before cutting the rest into manageable pieces.

Then he reached into his pack.

Lyra watched him pull out a small container.

He sprinkled its contents over the meat.

Adjusted the fire.

Checked the meat.

Then added another small amount of whatever was inside the container.

Lyra stared.

This human is really weird.

She had seen people cook before.

But Victor treated the process as though he were performing some kind of important ritual.

Eventually, she stopped paying attention to him.

She sat cross-legged beside the fire and closed her eyes.

For the first time since leaving the chamber, she allowed herself to truly think.

The past few weeks had been strange.

Almost incomprehensible.

Not long ago, Victor had been nothing more than another human.

One she had wanted to kill.

Now she was sitting beside him beside a fire while he cooked food.

The thought itself was ridiculous.

Yet here she was.

Lyra opened her eyes and looked across the flames.

The Soul Bond had been a tremendous boon.

Her strength had increased tremendously.

Her soul power had awakened.

And yet, despite all of that, she had reached the same wall she had been fighting against for years.

The peak of the Tempered Beast Realm.

Her cultivation refused to move any further.

Lyra clenched her hand.

She refused to accept that this was where her path ended.

There had to be a way.

And now, for the first time, she had another possibility.

Perhaps the Soul Bond itself was the answer.

If she could break through this ceiling, everything would change.

She would become stronger.

And she needed strength.

Strength to find her parents.

Strength to destroy those humans.

The ones who had made her hide in a bush while she watched helplessly as her parents were beaten, restrained, and carried away.

She wanted them to pay.

But all of those goals required the same thing.

Strength.

Lyra looked down at her hands.

For the first time in years, she allowed herself to consider the possibility that she might actually be able to surpass Rank Ten.

The thought frightened her almost as much as it excited her.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Victor’s voice.

"Well, do you have any ideas on where we should head next?"

Lyra looked at him.

Her usual glare immediately returned.

"No."

Victor blinked.

He smiled slightly.

"Well, we could always go back to the Lava Rock region and stay with the Monkey Clan until we figure out this whole Soul Chain situation."

Lyra stared at him.

"Are you stupid?"

Victor’s smile disappeared slightly.

"The Shadow Fox Clan and Lava Rock Monkey Clan are enemies. What makes you think you can bring me into enemy territory?"

Victor’s eyes widened.

"Oh."

He hadn’t known that.

He thought for a moment.

"Well, why don’t we go to the Shadow Fox territory?"

Lyra stared at him again.

How stupid is this human?

"Again. Stupid question."

Victor waited.

"The Shadow Fox Clan hates humans, if you couldn’t tell already."

Victor nodded slowly.

"That makes sense."

Lyra shook her head.

She looked down at the ground, where a few small insects crawled through the dirt.

Victor was quiet for a moment.

Then he spoke.

"I have another option."

Lyra looked at him.

"Of course you do."

Victor ignored the comment.

He reached into his pack and pulled out the map.

He spread it across the ground beside the fire.

There weren’t many places left for him to go.

The deeper forest was still completely out of the question.

Victor remembered the panther.

Even after everything he had gained since then, he wasn’t foolish enough to believe he could survive against a monster of that level.

He would die within seconds.

His eyes moved across the map.

There were only a couple of locations within the outer forest that he could realistically reach.

One immediately caught his attention.

A symbol resembling a crypt.

Victor studied it.

Judging by the map, it was roughly four or five days away from their current location.

He stared at it for a moment.

Then his eyes shifted toward Lyra.

He looked back at the map.

The more he thought about it, the more sense it made.

They could explore the crypt.

And while they did, they could continue figuring out what the Soul Bond had done to them.

Victor pointed toward the map.

"This is the map of the area."

Lyra looked at him.

"Obviously."

She looked back down at the map.

She had no idea what she was looking at.

So this is a map?

She had never seen one before, let alone learned how to read one.

But she wasn’t about to admit that.

"We can go check out this crypt," he said. "It’ll give us somewhere to go while we’re waiting to figure out what’s happening with the Soul Chain."

Lyra looked at the map.

"Whatever."

Her voice remained indifferent.

Inside, however, curiosity had already taken hold.

The chamber they had just left had contained things beyond anything she had imagined.

Who knew what a crypt could contain?

Perhaps even something that could help her break through her cultivation limit.

Lyra’s eyes lingered on the map for another moment.

She quickly looked away.

She would never let Victor see how curious she was.

"Okay, then it’s agreed," Victor said. "We’ll go this way."

Lyra didn’t respond.

Her attention returned to the insects crawling through the dirt.

Victor shook his head before turning back toward the fire.

The meat appeared to be finished.

He grabbed a piece that had been cooked over a stick and walked over to Lyra.

Without saying anything, he held it out to her.

Lyra looked at the food.

Then at Victor.

He didn’t say anything.

He simply handed it to her before walking back and grabbing a piece for himself.

He sat down and took a bite.

Lyra stared at the meat in her hand.

She looked annoyed.

But the moment she caught the smell, something changed.

Her eyes widened slightly.

A tiny glimpse of excitement appeared within them.

She quickly tried to hide it.

Then she raised the meat toward her mouth.

For the first time since they had been forced together, Lyra found herself genuinely curious about something Victor had done.

She took her first bite.

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