Chapter 108: The Girl and the Red Fox
“What a cute little fox, can I touch it?”
The red fox bared its teeth.
The Nether Lord patted the red fox’s head and said to the human little girl, “You can, go ahead and touch it.”
“But it looks like it’s going to bite .”
So, the young girl pinched the red fox’s snout, lifted it up, and presented it to the little girl. “Don’t worry, it’s a beast, not a demon.”
The little girl was then satisfied, gently stroking the fox’s fluffy fur.
“Nether, what are we eating today?”
“Rabbit. Granny Long and I hunted quite a few rabbits… and a wild boar.”
“Great! We won’t go hungry today!”
The young girl smiled faintly; she liked seeing others smile because of her efforts.
That was a sense of belonging.
The Nether Lord soon brought the red fox back to her place.
Lifting the cloth door curtain of the tent made from wood and fabric, the girl released the red fox’s snout and set it down.
“Don’t run around. If you run, you’ll die.”
The red fox arched its back, fur bristling.
“You’re the sa as , abandoned by your clan. You should know how hard it is for a lone creature to survive here, let alone one as weak as you.”
The girl sat at the edge of the simple stone bed and said, “If you want to leave, you’ll have to wait until your wounds heal.”
There was a deep, bone-revealing gash on the red fox’s leg. Without tily treatnt, that leg would likely bear a lasting injury.
“Humans aren’t like beasts. They don’t have strong healing abilities. They’re fragile—once hurt, they can easily die. So, humans invented many herbs.”
The girl took out a handful of green herbs from a nearby iron jar and slapped them onto the red fox’s wound with a smack.
The red fox grimaced in pain, baring its teeth.
“Bear with it.”
Soon, a voice called from outside the tent, “Dinner’s ready!”
The girl turned back to the red fox. “Don’t run off. I’ll bring you sothing to eat.”
Before long, the girl returned with food.
She said calmly, “Everyone’s food is rationed. You haven’t been accepted yet, so you don’t have a share. I’ll split mine with you.”
The red fox sniffed the rabbit at she handed over, then bit off a chunk and ate it.
It let out a hoarse cry.
The girl understood what it ant. “Why do you share what you hunted with others?”
“Last year, the flood drowned a lot of crops, so we don’t have much food.”
The red fox spoke again, “That’s not what I asked.”
The girl glanced at the red fox. “Though it’s hard to understand, among humans, the weak are protected by the strong. I did hunt the prey, yes, so I can eat a little more—but not too much… Even if I go hungry, I have to leave more food for the pregnant won of the tribe.”
“But it was your prey.”
“We are all one.”
As a girl of the Spirit Clan, she had never imagined that one day she would have to roam around for food.
But she eventually accepted it. She was still not strong enough—not to the level of fasting—so she still needed to eat.
The girl said, “The reason humans can live with such resilience is because of this mutual aid among their kin. You wouldn’t understand. The law of the strong devouring the weak in beast clans doesn’t apply to humans. Humans always think about the continuation of their kind.”
The red fox couldn’t be bothered to respond.
Yet the girl’s voice flowed on, gentle as a clear spring, “Don’t expose that you possess spirit. Humans are not kind toward demons.”
When one gained intelligence, one beca a demon.
Without intelligence, one was a beast.
The red fox was a demon capable of restraining its instincts, not a re beast.
It rested its fluffy tail beneath its head, curled up into a ball, and said nothing.
The girl’s voice murmured on like rippling water, “Rember, you owe a life—and a life to the human race.”
Qiu Yuehan returned to her senses.
The river water had grown cold. The surroundings were quiet again. The river lanterns had all drifted away, like ti itself slipping past.
The sky had completely darkened.
How long had it been?
Qiu Yuehan didn’t know, but when she reached the fabric shop, its lamps were still lit.
The female shopkeeper called out loudly, “Why so late? My little shop stayed open two extra hours just for you!”
“I’ll pay more.”
Qiu Yuehan tossed a small pouch to the shopkeeper.
The shopkeeper’s face lit up with joy. “Co often—oh, do co often!”
She loved doing business with cultivators from Dao sects.
They paid neatly and asked few questions.
The shopkeeper thought this was all thanks to Daoist Chang’an, who had brought her such polite custors.
Wait… this female cultivator didn’t seem to be from the Dao Sect of the White Domain. Oh well, sa thing—she was from the mountains anyway.
Qiu Yuehan took the robe. It was a black, wide-sleeved Daoist garnt, the sa design as the Jade Palace’s robes, only the white had been dyed black.
She nodded in satisfaction, then changed into the new outfit.
Black hair, black clothes—she looked like a clear, bright moon shining in the darkness.
By the ti she reached the foot of the Heavenly Mountain, a faint light had already appeared in the distance.
Dawn was breaking.
Her Junior Sister stood at the doorway, smiling teasingly. “Senior Sister, where did you go? Off to et your Young Master again behind my back?”
If it had been the past, Qiu Yuehan might have been left speechless by such teasing.
But today, she rely shook her head. “I went to comprehend the Red Dust Sword Dao. The cultivation thod of the White Domain Dao Sect truly has its rits.
Cultivation—cultivation—one shouldn’t just stand aloof upon the mountain, or one might forget what it ans to be human.”
Xia Lianxue froze for a mont.
“Senior Sister, why are you dressed all in black? Weren’t your usual clothes just fine?”
Qiu Yuehan spoke softly, “Sotis one must change one’s style.”
In the past, dressed in white, Qiu Yuehan looked like a cold, distant sword immortal from the heavens. Now, clad in black, her hair cascading like a waterfall in the night, she seed more like a killer demon.
Could changing one’s clothes really make such a difference?
For no reason, Xia Lianxue sensed a strange aura from Qiu Yuehan—sothing she couldn’t quite na. It was the sa unpleasant feeling she once had when facing Lu Changyuan.
That’s it.
Senior Sister had also cultivated the Young Master’s thod. Now, she too had started favoring black robes.
That wasn’t a good sign.
She couldn’t let her Senior Sister beco like that.
So Xia Lianxue said, “When does Senior Sister plan to climb into the Young Master’s bed?”
“Hm? Hm?!”
Qiu Yuehan suddenly ca to her senses. “Junior Sister, what nonsense are you saying!?”
Xia Lianxue teased, “No such thoughts? I thought Senior Sister had already tried all sorts of tricks with the Young Master behind my back. After all, with that demon mark on your body, I imagine there are plenty of ways to ‘play.’”
“Junior Sister! What are you saying! I never had such thoughts!”
“Never?”
Qiu Yuehan bit her lip. “Never!”
“You’d better not.”
Xia Lianxue’s gaze turned faintly cold, making Qiu Yuehan feel as if ants were crawling all over her—utterly uneasy.
“Let’s go then, Senior Sister. We should head to the Spirit Clan.”
A small white gauze palanquin appeared before Qiu Yuehan—it was a magic artifact sent by Jiang Jiayi.
Inside, the space was about the size of two beds, padded with fine cushions made of the best fabrics, and adorned with white veils and strings of milky pearls.
At the center, there was even a tea table—for brewing tea while on the road.
Qiu Yuehan sat inside, and Xia Lianxue raised the palanquin, turning it into a streak of flowing light.
“Junior Sister, what’s the situation with the Fox Clan now…?”
She thought of the red fox from her dream—sohow, she just wanted to ask.
Resting her chin on her hand, Xia Lianxue gazed at the scenery outside. “Sa as always. Once they reach the Fifth Realm and take human form, they co to the cultivation world to fight female cultivators over n. In recent years, they’ve even learned the Pleasure Sect’s techniques—makes them even fiercer at stealing n.”
“The Fox Clan is still centered around the Snow Foxes?”
Xia Lianxue looked slightly surprised. “Yes. After all, Snow Foxes are blessed by nature—compared to common Red Foxes, Snow Foxes are closer to the Dao.”
Qiu Yuehan asked casually, “Then is there any record of a Red Fox attaining the Dao?”
“That, I don’t know. You’d have to ask their current clan leader. The demon clans are weak these days. Most beasts with spirit can’t awaken intelligence, much less Red Foxes, which are among the hardest to awaken.”
Xia Lianxue watched the clouds drift past.
Then she laughed suddenly. “It’s all the Young Master’s doing. He said the cultivation world cannot allow powerful demon clans to exist. The demons must keep fighting among themselves without rest.”
Qiu Yuehan was montarily stunned—she truly had no impression of what Lu Changyuan had done.
“The demons don’t know?”
Xia Lianxue sneered. “The lesser demons don’t even think of themselves as one race. As for the greater demons—they know. But if they don’t cooperate, the swords of humanity will fall upon them.”
At that instant, Qiu Yuehan suddenly felt that Xia Lianxue carried the bearing of the Palace Mistress Jade herself.
Among the twenty-one most powerful sects of the cultivation world, one of the rare Jade Radiance cultivators, she spoke with the ease of autumn wind sweeping fallen leaves: “This world belongs to humanity. The other ten thousand races—can only act according to our will.”
The sharp winter wind howled through the skies.
Qiu Yuehan thought to herself.
So be it.
What was there to ponder?
It was nothing but a dream.
With the Supre Pure-Spirit Forget-Immortal Technique within her, Qiu Yuehan had no fear of anything strange possessing her body.
She failed to notice that not far away, Xia Lianxue was staring wide-eyed at her.
In that instant, Xia Lianxue could no longer sense Qiu Yuehan’s ti—Qiu Yuehan seed no longer a person within ti, but rather a lonely moon standing high above the heavens.
“Senior Sister?”
Qiu Yuehan shook her head. “Didn’t sleep last night. Feeling a bit tired, so I’m easily distracted.”
Xia Lianxue felt that Qiu Yuehan was becoming more and more shaless with her excuses.
First, she said the cold pond’s water was hot—now she blad it on drowsiness in broad daylight.
“Junior Sister, I heard sowhere that the Spirit Clan once lived upon a great tree.”
Xia Lianxue suddenly stretched out her hand, brushing Qiu Yuehan’s forehead with the back of it. “You don’t have a fever. Why have you been talking nonsense lately, Senior Sister?”
Qiu Yuehan shrank back slightly. “Just curious.”
“Senior Sister also listened to those Spirit Clan stories? The ones saying their people used to live on a world-tree? That tree was called Jianmu—but that’s just legend.”
“Where do the Spirit Clan live now?”
The little fairy in a white dress replied matter-of-factly, “Mount Long.”
Beyond the northwest seas, west of the Dark Waters, there stood a towering mountain—its na, Mount Long.
Beneath it dwelled beings with blue hair and pointed ears, who commanded yin and yang, life and death—they were called the Long Spirits.
Long Mountain… Long Mountain.
Qiu Yuehan murmured the na softly.
For no reason, a faint ache rose in her chest.
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