Enchantment

September 1st, the fourth day of his transformation into a Nine-tailed Fox.

At noon that day, he had been foraging at the foot of the mountain. Before he knew it, he had followed the river at a run and arrived at the edge of the Great Han Mountain Nature Reserve.

Wooden villages, domesticated Asian elephants, Malay people dressed in vivid colors.

Upon seeing the human village, Lan Mu hurriedly stopped and merely watched from afar.

After lingering for a moment, Lan Mu flicked his nine tails and left.

He was living freely in the mountains. It was best not to provoke humans.

Although he could speak while transformed into a fox, this was a foreign country after all, and the language barrier meant he had nothing to communicate with the Malay people about, especially not those in a native village.

The Nine-tailed Fox darted through the jungle, his body appearing especially long.

When running, he did not want to hold his tails high in the air, as that looked terribly ugly. He could only let them float behind him parallel to the ground.

This made his magnificent nine tails resemble ribbons trailing from his rear, like a white rainbow streaming through the air as he ran.

He chased a wild chicken without needing claws or fangs. As he swept past it, his nine tails gave a light brush and stole its vital essence.

Lan Mu did not stop running, yet his hunt was already complete. The wild chicken collapsed and died in weakness.

This elegant method of hunting was something he had devised after gradually becoming familiar with it over the past few days.

He did not need to use claws and fangs like ordinary animals. Any part of his body that touched a living creature could absorb its vital essence.

On his way back to Great Han Mountain, he casually drained two Wild Chickens.

Suddenly, he stopped and climbed a large tree.

Not far away, a little boy in ethnic clothing was shouting in an incomprehensible language as he fled in panic.

Three wild jackals chased after the boy, baring their teeth and dripping saliva. They looked cruel and vicious, and even Lan Mu felt his fur stand on end at the sight.

"More than three..."

Lan Mu discovered another four wild jackals circling in from the flank. Seven jackals in total were surrounding and attacking one little boy.

The boy was clearly from that village he had seen earlier. Perhaps he had wandered too deep while playing and encountered the jackal pack in the jungle.

Jackals resembled both dogs and foxes. They were fierce and brutal, favored hunting in packs, and wore down their prey's stamina before swarming in to tear it apart.

Seeing himself surrounded, the boy hurriedly tried to climb a tree. But he was too small and the trunk too thick, so his body kept sliding down.

His head was covered in sweat, and every time he slipped, he let out a crying shout.

The jackal pack watched him from below, drooling as they prepared to leap up and tear him apart at any moment. The boy's hands were scraped raw by the bark, but even as blood flowed, he did not dare let go.

Just as the jackals crouched low, about to spring with their hind legs, Lan Mu finally let out an angry cry.

"Ying, ying, ying!"

It was not that he was trying to act cute. The Nine-tailed Fox's voice simply could not be changed no matter what form he took. It would always sound like a baby's cry.

The jackals and the boy followed the sound with their eyes. High on the branches of a nearby tree crouched a beautiful white fox.

The boy stared blankly at the fox, then suddenly noticed its nine tails. His eyes went wide, and with two startled cries, he actually fell from the tree.

He landed on his backside, too stunned to react. Dropping right into the middle of the jackal pack, he should have been torn to pieces the next second.

Yet the jackals did not swarm him. The boy stared blankly as all seven ignored his existence, drooling as they looked toward the fox and slowly approached it.

The jackal pack had been enchanted by Lan Mu, all drawn beneath the tree where he stood.

"This idiot, why isn't he running..."

Seeing the boy still sitting foolishly on the ground, Lan Mu shook his head inwardly.

"If you won't leave, I will!"

He leaped down from the tree. As he descended, his tails drifted like floating silk, as though a cloud of white had fallen from the sky.

After he ran several hundred meters, the jackal pack had chased him for several hundred meters as well, remaining enchanted by Lan Mu the entire time.

Lan Mu swept his tail, and the seven wild jackals died blissfully as their vital essence was drained dry.

Easy, simple, elegant, and without a trace.

A few minutes later, back at Great Han Mountain, he stood energetically atop the peak. His tails spread like a canopy as he absorbed the essence of the sun.

Other than cultivating, he truly had nothing else to do.

As time passed and the sun slanted westward, he drew in his tails.

Only then did he notice that the little boy was silently watching him from below the mountain.

"Huh? He followed me?" Lan Mu was speechless when he saw the boy sneaking glances at him.

Saving someone's life had not meant much to him. But he had overlooked the extraordinary appeal his Nine-tailed Fox appearance held for humans.

Though he had not enchanted the boy, the child had still followed him here. It looked like he had been standing there all day.

After thinking it over, Lan Mu decided to slip away. He could not exactly silence the boy, could he? Besides, he was hiding deep in the mountains and would turn back into a human in three days.

He rushed down the mountain and vanished into the jungle in a flash. This time, he used his full speed. The little boy could not possibly keep up and was soon left behind.

As the sun set, the jungle quickly grew dark.

After staying in a tree for two hours, Lan Mu could no longer stand it.

"The jungle is full of bugs... It's pitch-black, and who knows what might ambush me at night..."

Lan Mu was not a fearsome beast like the White-haired Lion, one that naturally intimidated animals. On the contrary, he attracted animals and stirred up some sort of desire in them. He had no idea what kind of weird passive ability that was.

And there was no Moon Essence to absorb in the jungle, so he could only turn back helplessly.

When he returned to the foot of Great Han Mountain, he was shocked to discover that the little boy was still there!

He was crouching against a rock, looking frightened and lost.

"No way. You're this persistent?"

"Could it be that he can't find his way back? Right... He's probably only eight or nine years old. The jungle at night is far too dangerous for him."

After considering it, Lan Mu decided that the mountain was his best place to stay, and it would not do to have the boy waiting there all the time.

If he ignored him and the boy got carried off by some wild beast at night, that would be bad too. He might as well escort him home.

Lan Mu stepped forward on snow-white limbs and lightly ran up to the boy.

The boy looked at him in delight and rattled off a long string of words.

"I can't understand a word you're saying..."

Ignoring him, Lan Mu gave two ying-ying cries, then turned and walked away.

Sure enough, the boy followed close behind. This time, Lan Mu deliberately walked slowly, intending to protect him on the way home.

Lan Mu still remembered the route to the village. He led the boy through the jungle, and even if they encountered wild beasts, a single enchantment would settle the matter.

The little boy curiously watched his gorgeous tails and slowly reached out to touch them.

The moment he touched one, Lan Mu's fur stood on end.

"Don't touch me! How dare a little brat touch me?"

Lan Mu suppressed the urge to drain his vital essence. Turning around, he glared at him with bared teeth and a fierce expression.

The little boy jumped in fright, hid his hand behind his back, and lowered his head, not daring to try anything else.

"Hmph!"

Lan Mu strode onward. Many wild beasts approached them along the way, confirming his suspicions.

"Does the Nine-tailed Fox really attract animals? What exactly is drawing them over?"

Lan Mu noticed that many animals seemed to be following a scent...

"Could it be that I have some strange fragrance? Why can't I smell it?"

Before long, Lan Mu heard human voices shouting in the distance, seemingly calling a name.

"Bolanggu? Could that be your name?"

Lan Mu looked back at the boy and saw joy appear on his face as he hurried toward the source of the voices.

"Mm, it really is his family looking for him..."

Having accomplished his task, Lan Mu retreated the moment he saw a large group of people holding torches in the distance.

"Bolanggu... You said a Nine-tailed Fox saved you? Lying isn't something a good boy does..." the boy's father said as he held him.

The boy was named Bolanggu. He insisted, "It's true! It's true! Such a beautiful, beautiful fox... It had nine tails, pure white! And it smelled so good!"

"Haha, your son is hilarious. Our people have lived here for generations. If there were Nine-tailed Foxes on Great Han Mountain, we would have seen them long ago!" his father's friend said with a laugh.

More than twenty grown men from the village had come, and they all burst into laughter. Clearly, they did not believe the little boy. They only thought he had been frightened badly and was talking nonsense.

But Bolanggu remained adamant, constantly looking back in hopes of seeing the breathtaking fox spirit that had saved him.

Seeing how certain Bolanggu was, and that the longing in his eyes was genuine, a dark-skinned man rolled his eyes and said, "I remember smelling a fragrance drifting over from afar earlier. It was like flower fragrance, but also like body scent. Do you think it really could have been a Nine-tailed Fox?"

"Hahaha! Saisibin, you actually believe Nine-tailed Foxes exist? Don't tell me you're craving women?"

Everyone in the village laughed at the dark-skinned man, Saisibin. He did not mind and merely fell into thought.

The next morning, Saisibin left early with a bow and arrows on his back, heading deep into the jungle alone.

When he passed the place where Bolanggu had encountered danger yesterday, the strange fragrance had already dispersed. He recalled the mountain Bolanggu had described and headed there.

Along the way, he discovered many animal carcasses, their flesh dried and cracked, their eyeballs shriveled.

"Not a single wound, and they weren't killed by a blunt weapon either... This..."

After discovering the animals' strange manner of death, Saisibin was filled with curiosity and headed straight for Great Han Mountain.

When he arrived at Great Han Mountain, he did not see the legendary Nine-tailed Fox.

He was somewhat disappointed, but he still refused to give up searching.

After circling around to the back of the mountain and walking a long distance, he suddenly froze, then began trembling all over.

"A fox... A Nine-tailed Fox!"

A Nine-tailed Fox was basking in the sun on the shaded side of the mountain, in the only place that received sunlight.

Its nine distinct tails were spread out like a peacock's display, breathtakingly beautiful beneath the sunlight.

"Evil spirit! Demon!"

Saisibin showed no reverence for the Nine-tailed Fox. His first reaction was to draw his bow and nock an arrow, but he soon lowered it again.

"No, no, I can't hit it from this distance..."

Suddenly, delight filled his face, and he let out a sinister chuckle.

"Hehe... My fortune is coming!"

Saisibin turned and ran, his figure vanishing into the jungle.

The Nine-tailed Fox on the mountain noticed nothing.