Lan Mu had never imagined that he would turn into the legendary White Nine-tailed Fox.
Though he only had the appearance of a fox, he exuded a breathtaking charm.
Simply standing atop the mountain, draped in starlight and moonlight, facing the wind, with nine tails dancing behind him, gave him an ethereal air.
"This energy..."
Lan Mu discovered that his tails had absorbed the moonlight, its energy flowing into and being stored within the centermost tail.
"Only this tail can absorb Moon Essence? What are the other eight for? Just for looks?"
Lan Mu could not figure it out, so he looked again at the mist he had condensed with a single thought.
The mist had originally drifted loosely around him, but at his command, it gathered and formed a Water Mirror.
With another thought, the mist dispersed and returned to invisibility.
"Have I really become a monster? Is this really the Nine-tailed Fox from mythology?"
It took Lan Mu a long time to accept the reality. He had never expected that he could even transform into creatures from myths and legends.
Tales of the Nine-tailed Fox had existed since ancient times. Legends of it could be found throughout East Asian cultures, and this strange beast, both demon and immortal, was described in ancient Chinese, Japanese, and Korean texts.
There were even related records in small Southeast Asian countries and India. Yet regardless of where the myth came from, the descriptions of the Nine-tailed Fox were largely the same.
At first, the Nine-tailed Fox had been an immortal beast, as the saying went: "When the world is at peace, it appears as an auspicious omen." It signified a prosperous nation and a wise emperor.
But from the Song Dynasty onward, it gradually became demonized into a fox demon, representing Fox Charm and calamity. It became synonymous with seductive evil and spread to countries far and wide.
But no matter what, the Nine-tailed Fox was a shared symbol of East Asian culture. Ask anyone, and they would surely picture a figure of peerless beauty.
"But... I'm a man!"
Lan Mu was speechless, left disheveled in the wind.
Turning into an elf had been one thing, but why had he become a Nine-tailed Fox too? Was he supposed to go out and enchant the masses?
"Legend says Nine-tailed Foxes are adept at taking human form. They usually appear before the world in all sorts of human guises, so convincingly that they can pass for the real thing."
"How do I transform?"
A Nine-tailed Fox could be seen hopping around atop the mountain, its tails sweeping over trees, soil, and rocks without touching even an inch of them.
It seemed as if a thin Energy Barrier separated it from the dust, keeping the white fox immaculate and its luxurious white fur forever pristine.
The Nine-tailed Fox was not small, about the size of a dog. If its enormous tails were stretched out, its total body length was over four meters, with the tails alone accounting for 2.8 meters.
Then, its nine tails suddenly wrapped around it, turning it into a fluffy white ball.
When the tails unfurled, where was the white fox? A young man lay quietly upon the stone, completely naked, his skin smooth and fair.
But that was not all. The nine tails still swayed from his backside, their fur tickling him.
"Damn... can't the tails transform?"
Lan Mu struggled for a long time, but he could not figure out how to put away his massive tails. Gathered together, the nine tails were far larger than he was, floating behind him like a billowing snow-white skirt.
His ears twitched twice. When he reached up to feel them, Lan Mu despaired.
Not only could he not retract his tails, but the fluffy fox ears stood perkily upright as well, twitching now and then.
With a wave of his hand, mist gathered into the shape of a mirror. Lan Mu looked at himself and sighed.
"My transformation is way too amateurish. I clearly look like a monster!"
The Lan Mu in the mirror still looked like himself, but his eyes were crimson, his short hair hung loose, and two fox ears poked through his black hair. Behind him, nine huge tails formed a backdrop.
It was clearly his own appearance, yet his temperament was completely different. He radiated astonishing charm from within, and every movement carried a heart-stirring allure.
"Ah..."
Lan Mu let out a long sigh, dropped to his knees, and slumped forward in utter dejection, his heart as dead as ashes.
"With a transformation like this, it makes no difference whether I transform or not."
"And this transformation came more than a day later than last time. It took a full eight days before I transformed, so Fang Moqi should have already left after the seven-day mandatory period ended."
"Looks like I can't keep our appointment... If I entered Kuala Lumpur looking like this, I'd probably shock the world, right?"
Lan Mu stroked his enormous, canopy-like tails, utterly helpless.
If he only had beast ears, he could hide them. But with these nine huge tails, was he supposed to say he was cosplaying?
Lan Mu could only resign himself to it and decided to honestly endure the seven-day mandatory period deep in the mountains.
"I've had enough of these transformations... Can I turn into something more badass next time?"
He could not help muttering a few complaints, when he heard a voice like that of an infant speaking.
The childlike voice was clear and ethereal, its tone striking straight into his heart as its echo drifted away on the mountain wind.
Though he could speak human language, hearing that voice made Lan Mu lose even the will to complain.
He sat cross-legged on the ground, hugging his own nine large tails as he idly studied them.
Several hours passed quickly. The moon had long set, and the morning sun rose with the dawn.
After absorbing Moon Essence all night, his fourth tail began swaying instinctively the moment sunlight appeared.
Unlike the coolness of Moon Essence, a scorching energy poured into his body before finally settling within the tail.
"So sunlight can be absorbed too?"
After a night of research, Lan Mu's thoughts suddenly opened up.
"So the fourth tail absorbs Solar Energy... That means there are only three left that I don't understand..."
Lan Mu examined himself and discovered that all the Nine-tailed Fox's abilities came from its tails.
The first tail represented transformation. It could transform him into anyone, theoretically making him indistinguishable from the real person. But everything relied on instinct, and his transformation ability was inadequate. He could never transform away the fox ears and tails, leaving him with only the sort of monster appearance often seen in television dramas.
The second tail was purely an illusion ability. As for its exact use, he still could not figure it out. Instinctively, it only gave him the ability to beguile others, such as charming a clouded leopard into obediently lying beside him like a tame pet.
The third tail was his ability to control mist. It could fill the area around his body with mist, making it dense enough to block vision at its peak. He could gather or disperse it at will, controlling it however he pleased, but it had no offensive power whatsoever. Even gathered together, it was merely a pool of water.
The fourth tail absorbed Solar Energy, but it was stored inside the tail, and he had no idea what it was for. To this day, Lan Mu had not discovered how to use Solar Energy.
The fifth tail was the same. It absorbed Moon Essence and stored it away. Other than feeling pleasantly cool, it was utterly useless.
The sixth tail was impressive. It covered his body in a thin layer of force field, allowing him to block external objects at will. Not only could it keep away dust, it could even protect him. Its defensive ability was rather weak, though. When he forcefully stabbed himself with an arrowhead, it still pierced his skin and left a white mark.
By that measure, he would still be injured if struck by a powerful bow or crossbow, let alone a firearm.
As for the remaining three tails, he had not discovered any use for them at all. They seemed to exist purely to look cute.
The sun gradually climbed higher, and the mountaintop remained exposed to the blazing sun. Protected by the force field of his sixth tail, Lan Mu did not have to worry about sunburn.
He spent the entire day peacefully absorbing Solar Energy, only stopping when dusk approached.
Watching the setting sun, he rose and lazily stretched, feeling as though he had just woken from a nap.
"Could this be cultivating by absorbing the Essence of Sun and Moon? It feels nice. I'm not tired at all, and I can't even feel time passing..."
"But... why am I hungry?"
After basking in the sun all day, Lan Mu felt languid from head to toe, yet he was shocked to find his stomach empty and gripped by hunger.
"Am I not an immortal beast? Even if I'm a monster... I shouldn't be getting hungry, right?"
"So cultivation requires eating too... This..."
Lan Mu did not know what he wanted to eat, so he could only run down the mountain to search the forest for food.
However, out of habit, he leaped directly off a rock and ran down the steep mountainside, forgetting that he was no longer the White-haired Lion.
"Ah!"
Lan Mu tumbled down in a miserable heap, rolling down the mountain without any of the White-haired Lion's grace.
He experienced once again the terror of falling off a cliff. His body rolled and slammed into rocks and branches, while his tails instinctively curled into a ball to protect him.
By the time he landed, he was dizzy and disoriented. His fair skin was covered in wounds, with minor abrasions in several places.
"Good thing the sixth tail's force field protected me. Otherwise, after rolling all the way down, I'd definitely have broken bones and torn tendons."
The sixth tail's protection was fairly reliable. After falling for so long, he had not suffered any serious harm.
But he soon grew frustrated and thought gloomily.
"Why am I so pathetically weak? Am I even a monster? Is there really such a weak monster?"
"No strength, no speed, just good looks? A decorative monster?"
Then Lan Mu thought about it. Perhaps it was because he had transformed into human form. Transforming into human form had also inherited humanity's frailty.
With that thought, Lan Mu canceled the transformation and returned to his Nine-tailed Fox form. A handsome great fox entered the forest.
Sure enough, the fox's body was far more agile than a human's. It was still a beastly form, better suited to the natural environment. Human bodies had degenerated too much and were simply unfit for roaming freely through the mountains and forests.
If he had gone down the mountain in beast form earlier, he would not have tumbled all the way down. Hopping down the mountain, he would definitely have been more agile than a human.
"A tapir? Another tapir. No appetite. Not eating it!"
"A snake? So gaudy. Disgusting. Not eating it!"
"A deer? No appetite for that either. Not eating it."
"A bullfrog? Fuck! Get the hell away from me!"
Lan Mu wandered through the forest, running here and there, but could not find anything he wanted to eat.
In searching for something edible, Lan Mu followed his instincts completely. Whenever his body had no appetite for something, he decisively refused it.
After wandering through all the woods near the foot of the mountain and encountering all kinds of animals, he finally found the prey his heart craved.
"Birds... So I want to eat birds..."
Lan Mu climbed a large tree on all fours, slowly approaching a nest. There were several tiny chicks inside, while an unknown bird about the size of a sparrow perched on a branch nearby.
But the moment Lan Mu drew near, the bird became alert. It shrieked and beat its wings, flying up to guard the nest.
Lan Mu hardened his heart and pounced, but the bird evaded him.
He himself landed with one of the chicks from the nest in his mouth.
Ignoring the adult bird's cries, Lan Mu curled up his fluffy tails and decisively ran away.
When he stopped and spat out the chick, it had already been instinctively drained of blood and turned into a corpse.
Looking at the corpse again, he had lost his appetite.
"Fuck... I only wanted to drink blood..."
The bird was too small. Lan Mu had only taken a small mouthful of blood. At this hunting efficiency, he was about to cry.
At that moment, a wild chicken with brilliantly mottled feathers entered his sight.
The Nine-tailed Fox's overwhelming craving surged forth again!
Lan Mu pounced, but the rooster was fierce and imposing. It glared at him and pecked, flapping its wings as it hopped into the air at low altitude, looking extremely intimidating.
What was more, several Wild Chickens charged out from the forest. Lan Mu was pecked several times, and even with the force field protecting him, he felt pain.
He vaguely felt that he could not win in a head-on fight! He could only turn and run.
"A Nine-tailed Fox! A Nine-tailed Fox..."
"Are you really a demon beast? Why can't you even hunt?"
But when he ran, the Wild Chickens refused to let him go, actually chasing after him in a huff.
Lan Mu grew furious. He was a demon beast, after all! Even chickens dared to bully him?
Did they really think an Auspicious Omen wasn't a monster?
His second tail swayed slightly. Lan Mu stopped running and sat crouched in place, facing the chickens.
The Wild Chickens charged toward him aggressively, then suddenly became docile. They gazed at the Nine-tailed Fox with infatuation and slowly approached.
"So hunting isn't done with claws... It's done with skills..."
That's more like it, Lan Mu thought. He bit down on a wild chicken's neck, and after taking only one mouthful, it collapsed dead.
He repeated the process, draining all of the Wild Chickens of their Vital Blood.
As for Lan Mu, he stopped immediately after drinking a little blood. He had no desire whatsoever for meat.
But after drinking so little blood, Lan Mu did not feel satisfied. He always felt that these things were too low-grade and simply not enough.
"It feels like even if I drank a ton of blood, I still wouldn't be full..."
"This probably isn't what a Nine-tailed Fox truly eats..."
"God... what am I supposed to eat?"
Before you continue