Forbidden ground, stone cavern, stone bridge. The day-and-night playing and singing in the cavern had ceased. The peerlessly elegant white fox stepped down from the zither platform and looked at the one dead and one alive before the pavilion, letting out a faint sigh. After learning of Yue Qianchou's Master's fate, she had given the matter some thought and once asked Yue Qianchou whether he wanted her to leave the mountain and make a trip to Daluo Sect. The latter knew that with the white fox's late Tribulation stage strength, killing a few people would be as easy as chopping vegetables.
For the sake of avenging him, the white fox had actually prepared to leave this forbidden ground that had trapped her for over two hundred years. For that sentiment alone, Yue Qianchou was grateful. Yet he refused without the slightest hesitation. What he said next even made the white fox's fur stand on end... A teacher for one day, a father for life. A father's vengeance must be repaid by his son; it was only right and proper. He wanted Daluo Sect to leave neither chickens nor dogs behind, to accompany his Master in burial!
The peerless beauty said nothing more. Though she too had once killed hundreds in a fit of rage, that had been only in a moment of fury. Daluo Sect probably had several thousand cultivators. To slaughter all several thousand of them and leave neither chickens nor dogs behind—she could not bring herself to do it. Moreover, Daluo Sect had stood in the Cultivation World for thousands of years; hidden dragons and crouching tigers lay within. It was not something she could simply wipe out with a word. It seemed Yue Qianchou would have to avenge himself.
Seeing that her younger brother did not seem to have spoken carelessly, the white fox's face faintly revealed worry.
Yue Qianchou wore a miserable smile. With a wet cloth in hand, he wiped the bloodstains from his Master's face. As he changed his Master into clean clothes, he saw several wounds that had pierced straight through his Master's body. The muscles in his face twitched, his fists clenched with crackling pops, and he roared, "Daluo Sect!" His voice echoed through the stone cavern for a long time.
Once Hao Sansi's corpse had been cleaned up and restored, Yue Qianchou had just picked it up to enter the Golden Pearl when the white fox in the pavilion said, "Brother Chou, wait!"
Yue Qianchou froze, looking at her in confusion. He saw her pick up her ancient zither and gracefully walk out of the pavilion. A purple curtain of light immediately appeared around her, blocking her way. The white fox sighed faintly. "Two hundred years ago, perhaps I could do nothing about you. But now, you still think you can stop me?" With that, her crimson lips parted slightly, and she blew a breath toward the purple curtain. Ripples spread across the purple light, and a gap opened in its center. The white fox slowly walked out through the opening. Behind her, the purple curtain closed again before vanishing.
Heavens! She had actually come out! Yue Qianchou said in astonishment, "Sister Bai! What are you doing?"
"Did Brother Chou not once invite me to live in that so-called territory of yours? Have you changed your mind now?" the white fox asked with a radiant smile.
Heavens! She had actually smiled! The saying "one smile topples a city, another topples a kingdom" surely described a woman like her. Yue Qianchou smiled bitterly. "If Sister is willing to come, this little brother could not ask for more. How could I possibly regret it? Sister, take my hand."
As he spoke, he freed one hand. The white fox did not mind that it had held a dead man, and her slender jade hand lightly clasped it. Feeling that softness in his hand, Yue Qianchou's heart stirred slightly. Yet today, he had no mind for such filthy thoughts. He immediately focused his mind on the Golden Pearl. In an instant, the figures before the pavilion vanished without a trace.
Inside Qingguang Grand Hall, the Sect Master was discussing matters with a group of elders when the small bell hanging to one side of the hall suddenly rang crisply. Everyone turned to look.
"Eh!" Sect Master Liu Changqing said strangely. "Could the fox spirit from the forbidden ground have come out? Come, let us take a look!" With that, he was the first to fly out of the hall, followed by figure after figure.
The group arrived at the stone cavern and saw that the pavilion was completely empty. They looked at one another in dismay.
"Sect Master Brother! If I remember correctly, the array laid here is the Purple Light Demon Trapping Array. Anyone trapped in the pavilion cannot leave unless they reach the mid Tribulation stage. Could it be that this fox spirit has already reached the mid Tribulation stage? That is impossible! If she truly had reached the mid Tribulation stage, there should have been no small commotion when she underwent the heavenly tribulations at the early and middle stages. How could we possibly not know?" A gaunt old man walked to the silent Liu Changqing's side as he spoke. This old man was the elder who had first pleaded for Liu Zhengguang, Wu Baoru.
Liu Changqing silently shook his head, indicating that he did not know either. Naturally, they did not know the reason. What cultivators did was originally an act of defying heaven and changing fate. Forcibly raising one's cultivation was likewise an act of defying heaven. Once one's cultivation reached a certain level, one naturally suffered heaven's punishment. That was the origin of tribulation crossing.
But after the white fox reached the Nascent Soul Middle Stage, she had never cultivated again. Naturally, there was no act of defying heaven by forcibly raising her cultivation, and heaven's punishment could not find its way to her. That her strength had unknowingly reached the late Tribulation stage was entirely thanks to that Golden Pearl. Even the white fox herself found it strange—why had no heavenly tribulation come when her cultivation reached the late Tribulation stage?
"Alas! It seems we must report this matter to Master, who is cultivating in seclusion at the rear mountain," Liu Changqing sighed.
"We must disturb Master over this?" Wu Baoru was slightly startled. Frowning, he said, "Did Master not say in his early years that we could release this white fox after trapping her for a hundred years? Before, she simply did not wish to come out herself, so we cannot be blamed. Now that she has come out on her own, it saves us the trouble. Why must Senior Brother disturb Master? Master is currently at the critical juncture of breaking through from the early Tribulation stage to the mid Tribulation stage. We only just disturbed him over Daluo Sect's affairs. If we go again now, would that not be inappropriate?"
Liu Changqing formed hand seals and flicked out four streaks of white light, which shot toward the pavilion's four pillars. Purple lightning crawled over the pillars, revealing four talismans. Liu Changqing formed another seal and shouted, "Retract!"
The four talismans became four streaks of purple light and flew into Liu Changqing's sleeve. Only then did he turn and look at everyone. Shaking his head, he said, "Junior Brother, you know only one side and not the other. The fox spirit committed wanton slaughter in the mortal world; her crime deserved execution. Yet Master imprisoned her not for any other reason, but because he saw at the time that the white fox would certainly break through to the Nascent Soul Late Stage within a hundred years. Thus, he made an agreement with her: if she wished to leave this imprisonment after one hundred years, she had to swear an oath to join Qingguang Sect. Otherwise, she would remain imprisoned until she agreed. Alas! Master did this only so Qingguang Sect could gain another capable hand. Who could have imagined that now..."
The elders looked at one another in dismay. It seemed none of them knew the reason. They had all been misled by the widely circulated rumor.
"Master truly exhausted every ounce of thought for Qingguang Sect," Wu Baoru sighed. "He even made plans for a hundred years later."
Liu Changqing nodded. Then, as if suddenly recalling something, he frowned and said to Wu Baoru, "There is another matter that will require Junior Brother to put some thought into. Junior Brother Hao's disciple, Yue Qianchou, has no spiritual roots, yet he can actually cultivate. It is truly inconceivable. We must get to the bottom of this, so I will leave it to Junior Brother. Remember, you must uncover the truth!" His final sentence carried a somewhat sinister tone, with meaning worth pondering.
"Yes! Junior Brother must get to the bottom of it!"
"Senior Brother! We are counting on you!" Once the others heard that this was the matter, they all chimed in. Wu Baoru laughed heartily. "I understand. I certainly will not fail the Sect Master's and all my senior and junior brothers' trust."
For such a group to be so concerned over something, it naturally concerned their own interests. If they truly figured out the mystery surrounding Yue Qianchou, then their descendants below the mountain who lacked spiritual roots could openly join Qingguang Sect and cultivate. This was precisely what everyone hoped for.
Holding her ancient zither, the white fox looked around this space spanning nearly a thousand meters in surprise. Yue Qianchou had long told her about it, but seeing it for the first time still left her somewhat astonished. She had never imagined that such a tiny Golden Pearl could contain so vast a space. It had much the same marvelous effect as the storage pouches used by cultivators, but storage pouches obviously could not possess such a large space, nor could they be like Yue Qianchou's, able to grow flowers and grass within while even keeping small animals.
Yue Qianchou had told her that this place also had day and night. If not for the purple chaos surrounding its distant edges, it was almost no different from the outside world. The white fox bent down and picked a wildflower, holding it beneath her nose between slender fingers. She inhaled its long-missed fragrance, listened to birds chirping by her ear, and an involuntary radiant smile spread across her face. Her beautiful eyes swept about, and her expression clearly showed that she liked this place very much.
Suddenly, a tinkling sound reached her ears. Looking back, she saw Yue Qianchou holding a sword and busily working around an exposed boulder. Her lotus steps shifted lightly as she walked over and asked, "Brother Chou! What are you doing?"
"Making a stone coffin for Master." As he spoke, the sword in his hands chopped until stone chips flew everywhere. The white fox frowned slightly and held out her hand. "Give me the sword."
"Hm?" Yue Qianchou paused in surprise and handed the sword to the white fox without understanding why. Her graceful figure unfolded, her white robes fluttering. She tossed the ancient zither aside, where it stood in the distance, then inserted the sword beneath the boulder and lightly lifted. The enormous boulder, nearly a zhang in diameter, rolled into the air. Seeing how effortlessly she did it, Yue Qianchou was left dumbstruck.
As the sword twisted and turned, "Whoosh! Whoosh..." several streaks of sword light shot toward the boulder spinning in midair. It was like cutting tofu with a knife, with barely any sound at all. Then a black shadow fell. The white fox lightly extended her sword, catching the stone pillar, now smooth on all six sides, and slowly setting it on the ground. She withdrew the sword, and a flash of light swept past with her white sleeve. A thick stone slab flew off the pillar and landed on the ground.
If Yue Qianchou still could not see what the white fox was doing, he might as well smash his head against a wall and die. This fox-spirit Sister was clearly seeing that he was working too hard and lending a hand in his place.
"Stop!" The white fox paused at the sound. Yue Qianchou came over, snatched the sword from her hand, and shook his head. "Thank you for your kindness, Sister, but it is better for me, as Master's disciple, to make his stone coffin myself." With that, he climbed atop the stone pillar and began digging away with clangs and clatters.
The white fox frowned. She knew he wanted to show filial devotion, but with his cultivation, if he used too little strength, he could not dig into it; if he used too much, he feared damaging it. At his current speed, who knew when he would hollow that stone pillar into a coffin.
Looking rather helpless, the white fox reached into the scented pouch at her waist and pulled out a pair of jet-black gloves. "Catch!"
Yue Qianchou casually reached out and caught them, asking doubtfully, "What are these for?"
The white fox said helplessly, "My fox clan naturally prefers living in caves. This is a magical artifact passed down by my clan's ancestors, called the Mountain-Piercing Claws. With them on, even the hardest stone cannot stop you from piercing mountains and digging caves. They have another benefit as well: they can sense the abundance or scarcity of spiritual energy. Thus, my clan's ancestors often used them to search for places thick with spiritual energy, then dig caves there to live in. Put them on and infuse them with True Qi, and you can use them." Everyone, please give some recommendation votes! Another chapter will be rushed out this afternoon as an offering!
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