"Your Disciple will firmly engrave this lesson into his heart," Lucas bowed deeply and replied.
"Still, it's good that you caught this anomaly before someone was hurt," Celestina smiled and praised, "Good work, my Disciple."
Lifting his head, Lucas couldn't help smiling lightly. He was not a vain child, but no one disliked being complimented.
Composing himself quickly, Lucas asked the all-important question, "What do you mean by the icicle being formed from 'Ice Attribute World Qi', Master?"
"World Qi tends to take on the attributes of its surrounding environment," Celestina explained, "It's a long and gradual process, but it's also not uncommon. In a volcanic region, for instance, the ambient World Qi generally has a Fire Attribute, while in an ocean region, it takes on a Water Attribute."
"Spirit Qi can also be given specific attributes through special methods, allowing Cultivators to use powerful elemental techniques. There are even some Cultivation Techniques that depend on absorbing and refining World Qi with specific attributes to boost such abilities, though those are quite rare and none can be found in the Rockwell Kingdom," Celestina added.
While this new information was fascinating to Lucas as it seemed to open up the possibility of wielding fireballs or hurling lightning bolts from his fingers, he had a more immediate question he needed to ask so he promptly focused, "If that's the case, how could there be strong Ice Attribute World Qi here?"
Sinking into contemplation, Celestina seemed to be puzzling through this mystery, but eventually she just shook her head, "I have no idea. There's nowhere in the Rockwell Kingdom that's cold enough for long enough to find this kind of concentrated Ice Attribute World Qi. In fact, I doubt there's anywhere in the entire South-Central Region of the continent where one can find such an environment unless its atop the highest glacial mountains of the Darr Kingdom."
Lucas gawked in shock. The South-Central Region Celestina mentioned encompassed the Rockwell Kingdom and its neighbouring nations.
That was a landmass which included 5 kingdoms, spanning several million square kilometres!
Shaking her head, Celestina continued, "This fox pup is also highly unusual. I've never heard of such a species before, but it's clear that she comes from a powerful bloodline."
"How can you tell that, Master?" Lucas asked curiously. He was also aware that this little kit was unusual, with her abnormally cold body temperature and her 3 tails, but none of that seemed to indicate she was particularly strong.
"She can hide from my senses," Celestina explained with a deep frown, "Only a species with remarkable Bloodline Abilities could pull something like that off."
"What's a Bloodline Ability, Master?" Lucas asked.
In response, Celestina rapped her knuckles on his head, causing Lucas to squat down in pain.
Snorting, the red-head General scolded, "Didn't I just warn you to reign in that curiosity of yours?"
Glancing up with teary eyes, Lucas looked quite pitiful as he rubbed his sore head.
Sighing to herself, thinking this Disciple of hers would never learn, an exasperated Celestina still explained, "Certain species of beasts have special abilities that they are born with or gain access to as they grow older, like the ability to breath fire or even to float without wings. We refer to these as Bloodline Abilities."
"Wow…" Lucas was amazed and wondered aloud, "How powerful does a species have to be to possess a Bloodline Ability?"
In response to this question, Celestina actually wore a worried look on her face as she replied, "It's almost unheard of for Wild Beasts to possess Bloodline Abilities. Only some species which can reach the Ninth Order sometimes develop them, and even then, it's not guaranteed. Normally, it's only the strongest Spirit Beast species that regularly manifest Bloodline Abilities."
"Master, are you saying that the little glutton of a fox cub I randomly found hiding in a crate is a Spirit Beast?" Lucas asked with a fair bit of incredulity.
Nodding with a solemnity that contrasted greatly with her Disciple's disbelief, Celestina said in a grave tone, "I'm almost certain that's the case. And, given that she can manifest her Bloodline Ability at such a young age, she must belong to a lineage more extraordinary than any I have ever heard of."
For a moment, Lucas was too taken aback by this new revelation that he failed to notice the concern in his Master's tone, but after coming back to his senses, and seeing Celestina tensed up and vigilantly scanning their surroundings, he quickly came to a terrifying realization.
"A cub from an incredibly powerful species of Spirit Beasts that can perfectly conceal themselves…" Lucas muttered aloud, unconsciously stepping closer to his Master as he too began looking around nervously.
Silence fell upon the pair as all the shadows around them seemed to shift and sway, concealing horrifying threats.
It wasn't until a couple minutes later that Celestina slowly relaxed with a resigned look on her face, "Worrying won't help us. With a Bloodline Ability that allows even a baby from their species to hide from my senses, if her parents were around, and they thought we kidnapped or hurt their child, we'd be dead no matter what we tried to do."
This statement naturally didn't give Lucas much comfort, but it did allow his thoughts to start churning again as he reasoned out, "If she's really that young, she couldn't haven gotten far from her parents… unless she was abandoned?"
"Impossible," Celestina immediately denied, "At the very least, her parents should be Seventh Order Spirit Beasts, but I'd reckon they're much, much stronger than that. Even if beasts are generally more fertile than humans, at that level of strength, they too find it difficult to have offspring. There's no way they would have abandoned such a young, precious cub."
"If that's really the case…" Lucas stated hesitantly, "Then I don't think her parents are around, or anywhere nearby for that matter."
Unclenching her fists, Celestina nodded, "Agreed. Since this is one of the wagons brought back from out in the town, given her injury, she must have been inside it the whole time, which means it's been at least a few hours since she slipped into that crate. Foxes are nearly as fast and agile as wolves, and their senses are no less sharp, so if she had strong parents nearby, they would have retrieved her long ago."
Letting out a long sigh, Lucas stepped away from his Master, though a frown still adorned his face as he pondered, "We may not have to worry about her parents for now, but that doesn't mean they won't show up at some point. On top of that, we have a new mystery to solve as well."
Climbing back into the wagon, Celestina and Lucas both walked over to the crate where the tiny fox was now happily chowing down on the hot soup Lucas had brought for her.
Looking down at the pup, Celestina felt another headache coming on as she watched the little creature blissfully eating away without a care in the world, "If she wasn't abandoned, and she didn't come here on her own, how did she get here?"
Nothing about this little fox's sudden appearance made any sense, but then again, many events following and including the massive explosion didn't make sense.
For the moment, there seemed to be only one logical course of action, "We need to take careful care of her."
"En," Lucas whole-heartedly agreed with his Master. Beyond the moral and emotional reasons for not abandoning the little fox, just the prospect of letting her starve to death or be eaten by some other beast, only for her parents to come looking for her, was enough of an incentive to take very good care of this kit.
Finally seeming to notice she was being watched, the fox pup lifted her soup-stained head from the bowl and blinkingly looked up at Lucas before letting out a small yip, as if to say 'thanks for the food'. When she looked over at Celestina, however, the kit visibly shrank back, seemingly still cautious of her.
Pursing her lips, Celestina declared, "I'd prefer to take care of this little one personally, but…"
"I understand, Master," Lucas got the message and stepped up, "She seems afraid of you, so I'll look after her for now."
Pausing for a moment, Lucas smiled helplessly and added, "Besides, Master has many things to attend to that require her to frequently move around. On the other hand, I mostly stay around the Manor, so it makes more sense for me to do it anyways."
Saying so, Lucas reached out slowly and began stroking the young kit's head, trying to calm her down.
Celestina wanted to disagree, thinking it would be dangerous leaving this pup in Lucas' hands, but given the current circumstances, she was forced to nod, "Very well. I'll leave her to you. Make sure she's well taken care of; you've undoubtedly been marked with her scent by now, so if anything happens to her and her parents suddenly appear…"
Lucas shuddered, but didn't shrink back, continuing to pet the young fox as he nodded solemnly to indicate he understood.