Phantom Shadow Demon Trace

Volume 2: Phantom Shadow Demon Trace, Chapter 24: Are You Insane? Who Is Your Wife?

"Be careful," Tang Ruowei said to her. "On the night you performed in the Dingguo imperial capital, some of you were summoned by the Crown Prince of Dingguo to his pleasure boat. Can you tell us what happened afterward?"

It seemed that by this point, those demons had resumed their human forms and used magic to excavate this cave underground to hide themselves.

Dirt fell in brushes from overhead. Outside the earthen cave, someone let out a shout, calling to the group, "Come out, you demons! We have already discovered you; hiding is useless!"

However, just at that moment, the ground suddenly trembled.

"Why is this guy so weak?" Zuo Yanfei asked, puzzled.

"I'm dying."

Tang Ruowei asked, "Why would you do such an activity? If you needed money, I feel like doing anything else would be better than exposing yourself like that."

"Absolutely not."

"Are you alright?"

"This matter starts from when I arrived in Cangzhou. After arriving here, none of us had human currency, so we thought of a way to earn some money. That is why I started the idol activity with my maidservants."

The White Fox shook her head. "How could someone die just from being bitten on the shoulder? My teeth aren't poisonous. I suspect it was done by those human cultivators chasing us. When I jumped out the window, I seemed to see someone floating above the pleasure boat."

The White Fox hesitated for a moment. Behind her, a woman with a fiery red fox tail whispered a warning, "Your Highness, humans cannot be trusted!"

Tang Ruowei also heard a gasp coming from the darkness.

"This is a word from a foreign language, from a small island far beyond my homeland. It means 'idol,' which refers to someone who is admired and sought after by others." The White Fox stopped her subordinate.

"I told you, for this trial, I will only intervene if you encounter a Foundation Establishment Stage cultivator that you absolutely cannot handle."

The White Fox explained.

"The Crown Prince of Dingguo, you remember him, right?" Tang Ruowei stood behind Bai Qiuran, looking at him with a complex expression.

Zuo Yanfei vigilantly held a short spear horizontally and asked, "Who is it?"

"What is an 'idol'?"

The White Fox waved her hand. "In short, our group became more and more famous. Later, we received an invitation from a big shot in Dingguo, so I took them to the Dingguo imperial capital to perform. Then, that night, after the performance ended, someone suddenly came to invite me, saying the Crown Prince wanted to have a word with me, so I followed him."

Tang Ruowei replied in a low voice.

"Your identity, you shouldn't be an ordinary type of demon, right?" the leading White Fox asked vigilantly.

Perhaps it was because Bai Qiuran's intermittent "painful" groans were working, but a rustling sound echoed in the darkness. Immediately after, a black-haired girl dressed in white with fur decorations, accompanied by several other girls in differently colored dresses, walked out from the darkness.

Tang Ruowei also became vigilant, while only Bai Qiuran remained calm and collected, looking as if he were completely oblivious to the danger.

"In short, after going to that pleasure boat, the Crown Prince had everyone else leave the boat, and then he lunged at me to hug me."

Zuo Yanfei asked.

"He kept shouting things like 'wife' and 'my lady.' I thought to myself, are you insane? Is every woman you see your wife? I bit him on the shoulder, jumped out the window, and escaped along the canal. I didn't even get to taste the food. Later, after we left the city, a group of human cultivators chased us, and we fled all the way here."

Tang Ruowei and Zuo Yanfei exchanged a look, feeling speechless.

"So, you only bit the Crown Prince, you didn't kill him?"

"Demons capable of shapeshifting are at least equivalent to cultivators at our level. Furthermore, demons are spiritually intelligent; there is no guarantee they don't have innate supernatural abilities. Junior Brother Bai, hide between me and Ruowei."

Bai Qiuran replied via Spiritual Sense, "I am here naturally to help you eliminate factors you cannot handle. Rest assured, you can proceed with your plans; I won't let that guy affect your trial."

A look of hesitation flashed across the White Fox's face, and then she said, "Fine, I will tell you."

Tang Ruowei and Zuo Yanfei asked.

"Hmm?"

She coughed, and then began to recount the whole story to the three of them.

Following Zuo Yanfei, the three moved forward through the tunnel. This cave had been opened up using magic, and the interior was quite spacious. The three walked for a few minutes, and then a white shadow suddenly flashed in front of them.

A look of disgust flashed across the White Fox's face.

"It's not like it's a big deal anyway."

These girls were all beautiful, and behind them swayed a varying number of differently colored fox tails.

She looked expressionlessly at her master, who was shamelessly leaning against Zuo Yanfei, and said indifferently, "Sister Yanfei, don't worry. He has Master's Magic Treasure protecting him; he can't be killed."

"We won't hide the truth from you: we were commissioned by the Emperor of Dingguo to investigate this matter."

With a muffled thud, Tang Ruowei saw Bai Qiuran clearly freeze for a moment, then he clutched his back and, with a very theatrical posture, intentionally fell to the ground.

"He said there was good wine and good food prepared, after all."

Taking advantage of Zuo Yanfei not paying attention, she leaned close to Bai Qiuran and whispered, "Master, what are you doing here again?"

Then she turned and said to the people in the darkness, "Please put aside your hostility. We are not with those who are chasing you. Look, our teammate is so weak. We are only here to ask about the full story of the Crown Prince of Dingguo's death. Can you come out and talk to us?"

"Ouch!"

"This..."

"Fine."

"Okay, Sister Zuo."

Following the path of the earthen cave downward, Tang Ruowei led Bai Qiuran and Zuo Yanfei into a spacious cavern.

"Why should we tell you?"

"Junior Brother Bai!" Zuo Yanfei placed Bai Qiuran on the ground and stood up. "There is a group of cultivators outside, likely from a sect, hunting you down to use your inner cores for alchemy. If you are innocent in this matter, we can lend you a hand. Let's help each other: you help us catch the real culprit, and we help you escape their pursuit."

Zuo Yanfei drew her two short spears, not joining them together.

Bai Qiuran shamelessly ran between his junior and his disciple to accept their protection, without a shred of shame.

Suddenly, relying on her affinity with the surrounding earth, Tang Ruowei sensed something approaching from behind. She dodged to the side in advance. A gust of wind struck as a snow-white fox tail shot out from the darkness at high speed, carrying a demonic wind, grazing her face and slamming heavily into Bai Qiuran's back.

No one in the darkness answered her, but in the surrounding dark space, the whoosh-whoosh-whoosh sounds grew faster and faster.

Zuo Yanfei immediately knelt down with concern, pulling on Bai Qiuran's arm.

The white-haired young man rolled around on the ground shamelessly, looking like a clown.

Zuo Yanfei lowered her head in thought, occasionally exchanging glances with Tang Ruowei. Neither of them would believe the White Fox based on her word alone, but what the White Fox said did indeed match the situation they had verified.

"Why did you go?"

The White Fox looked a bit embarrassed.

Bai Qiuran's shouting suddenly rang out, interrupting the fox. He gasped as if in great pain, groaning, "My shoulder! It's shattered! The Magic Treasure Master gave me... it's shattered too..."

"I thought, if I don't go, it's a waste. Not eating it would be a waste too."

"Ouch."

"Ahem, well, personal hobby, just a personal hobby."

"Your Highness!"

The girl dressed in pure white came before Tang Ruowei and the others, while the remaining foxes surrounded them. She then said to them, "Humans, what do you want to talk about?"

"Alright."