"Xiao Jiu, why are you slacking off again?"
"If you don't study properly, how will you condense Vast Righteous Qi?"
The cave was not dim. Night pearls hung from the walls, casting a soft glow.
Gu Anzhi looked at the little white fox before him, less than a foot tall. His expression was stern, and his voice severe.
He wore an ordinary, worn old robe. More than half his hair had turned white, making it clear that he was no longer young.
Yet he was in excellent spirits, his gaze blazing.
"Teacher... I... I was wrong..."
The little white fox lowered her head in embarrassment, her eyes reddening as though she were on the verge of tears.
Though she had the form of a fox, she inspired such pity that one could not bear to see her cry.
"I promised A-Li that I would teach all of you to condense Vast Righteous Qi."
"Your eight elder sisters have all been obedient. Even Xiao Liu, the slowest, condensed Vast Righteous Qi half a year ago."
"Xiao Jiu."
"Why are you always so unwilling to study seriously?"
"Only once you have condensed Vast Righteous Qi can you enter the 'Nine-Heart Demon Lotus,' allowing you nine sisters to seize its essence, purify your bloodlines, and become Three-Tailed Spirit Foxes!"
Gu Anzhi wore an expression of frustration at her failure to live up to expectations as he shouted angrily.
"Teacher... I want to study hard too... but I just can't take it in..."
"I don't want this either..."
Tears streamed from Xiao Jiu's fox eyes as she sobbed.
She held a book in her paws, filled with neatly written passages by sages.
"Alas."
"Xiao Jiu."
"A-Li and I loved each other for twenty years. Before she died, she entrusted all of you to me,