Vengeful

At Guo Jinchuan's warning, Shen Mu immediately checked his charge.

With his nimble body, the Three-Tailed Demon Fox narrowly dodged Zhang Bohan's Dragon Claw Hand.

The Three-Tailed Demon Fox had just spent its last strength, with none yet recovered, when Shen Mu charged at it again.

But because of Guo Jinchuan's warning, Shen Mu's blade slowed for a moment.

That gave the Three-Tailed Demon Fox a chance to escape. It suddenly crouched low, nearly flattening its body against the ground.

The Moon Embroidery Saber skimmed past its three bushy tails, whipping up a howling gust of wind.

A crafty glint flashed in the Three-Tailed Demon Fox's eyes. It suddenly thrust off the ground with all four limbs, trying to escape their pincer attack.

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Yet in the next instant, a crooked smile tugged at Shen Mu's lips.

He abruptly kicked out with tremendous force, and the Three-Tailed Demon Fox seemed to run straight into his foot.

Only then did the Three-Tailed Demon Fox realize it had fallen for his trick. Shen Mu had deliberately used his saber to distract it, when in truth he had been concealing this lethal kick.

In fact, as soon as Guo Jinchuan had warned him, Shen Mu had changed his attack. He'd used the Moon Embroidery Saber as a feint to hide his real strike.

Clearly, the Three-Tailed Demon Fox hadn't expected its opponent to be so cunning.

It had just exerted all its strength. Now, suspended in midair with nothing to push off against, it couldn't change its trajectory. All it could do was watch Shen Mu's right foot rapidly grow larger before its eyes.

With no other choice, the Three-Tailed Demon Fox wrapped its three tails around itself.

"Thud!"

Shen Mu's kick landed squarely on the Three-Tailed Demon Fox. Its tails absorbed most of the force, leaving only thirty percent to strike its body.

But even that was enough to leave the Three-Tailed Demon Fox dazed and bleeding from the mouth.

The force of Shen Mu's kick sent it flying onto an Origin Mulberry Tree nearby.

Having suffered such a humiliating blow, the Three-Tailed Demon Fox's fur bristled. It bared its fangs and glared viciously at Shen Mu, looking ready to fight to the death.

The others surrounded it. Seeing that the Three-Tailed Demon Fox was injured, their eyes lit up.

"Brother Shen, nicely done!"

Guo Jinchuan laughed loudly, and the other Guardians gave Shen Mu admiring looks.

Shen Mu smiled. "That beast's been chased by all of you for so long, it's already exhausted. I just got lucky."

"Everyone, we agreed beforehand that we'd make this fellow into a fox-fur shawl. Once we sell the pelt, we'll split the money. No objections, right?" one of the Guardians called out.

The intent behind his words was obvious: he wanted to make sure no one would keep the Three-Tailed Demon Fox's pelt for himself.

"Agreed!"

Everyone answered in unison, accepting the proposed split.

Seeing this, Shen Mu wore a strange expression. Celebrating before the champagne was uncorked was never a good sign.

The next moment, everyone launched an attack on the Three-Tailed Demon Fox.

Yet with the Origin Mulberry Tree as a shield, the fox darted through the dense branches, easily avoiding their attacks.

The Three-Tailed Demon Fox had finally realized it, too.

On open ground, injured as it was, it wouldn't have escaped their assault.

But with the Origin Mulberry Tree to help it, their attacks were far less effective, and it could dodge them with ease.

The others grew increasingly frustrated. That damned beast was slippery and troublesome as an eel.

They tried to drive it down from the Origin Mulberry Tree, but the Three-Tailed Demon Fox simply leaped to another one.

Meanwhile, more Guardians had heard the commotion and were hurrying over.

The Three-Tailed Demon Fox seemed to understand that if it stayed any longer, it might never get another chance to escape.

It dodged another round of attacks and landed on a neighboring Origin Mulberry Tree.

Then it turned and shot Shen Mu a vicious glare from among the crowd, as if committing the man who'd hurt it to memory. It bounded through the trees, and vanished in the blink of an eye.

"Damn it!"

Everyone looked grim. None of them had expected things to turn out this way.

After all that effort, the fox had still escaped.

Shen Mu, standing among the crowd, wasn't surprised at all.

Once the Three-Tailed Demon Fox had realized it could use the Origin Mulberry Trees to evade their attacks, everyone had held back to avoid damaging the trees.

"That beast is too cunning," Guo Jinchuan said in frustration. "If I'd known this would happen, we should've let Shen Mu cut it down with one slash."

"Now that the beast's escaped, we can all head back."

"..."

After chatting for a few moments, the others could only leave in disappointment.

"What a pity. We went to all that trouble and still couldn't catch the beast," Zhang Bohan sighed once they were gone.

Shen Mu laughed. "It's incredibly fast, and it had the Origin Mulberry Trees to use as shields. Unless a Deacon steps in, catching it won't be easy for Guardians like us."

Zhang Bohan nodded in agreement. "That's true."

Shen Mu also understood why everyone had been so eager to hunt the Three-Tailed Demon Fox.

The main reason was probably that life in the valley was so dull they'd wanted something to do.

Even if they'd managed to catch the Three-Tailed Demon Fox, its silver would've been split among more than ten Guardians. Each person would've ended up with only a few taels.

The Guardians were short on silver, but a few taels probably weren't much to them.

Shen Mu changed the subject. "Brother Zhang, you said that fox was called a Three-Tailed Demon Fox. Does it count as a demon beast?"

"It does."

Zhang Bohan nodded with a smile. "The Three-Tailed Demon Fox is a demon beast, but it's a variant."

"In the Dark Night Beast Forest, there's a first-rank demon beast called the Ghost Moon Snow Fox. They live in groups, move incredibly fast, have white fur, and striking blood-red eyes."

"Only the leader of a Ghost Moon Snow Fox pack has the right to mate."

"Normally, the cubs they bear look just like Ghost Moon Snow Foxes. But there's always a chance of a variant appearing, like the Three-Tailed Demon Fox we just saw, which is born with three tails."

"Among Ghost Moon Snow Foxes, Three-Tailed Demon Foxes are considered ill-omened. The pack leader kills them as soon as they're born."

"But in rare cases, a female Ghost Moon Snow Fox will secretly raise her cub without the leader's knowledge, then let it leave the pack and survive on its own."

"The one we encountered probably came out of the Dark Night Beast Forest and wandered into Emerald Cloud Valley. It's likely not even fully grown yet. An adult Ghost Moon Snow Fox has the strength of a first-rank demon beast. Even all the Guardians in this valley together wouldn't be a match for one..."

Hearing this, Shen Mu couldn't help but sigh.

He could imagine that the Three-Tailed Demon Fox's life had been doomed to misery from the moment it was born.

It had probably been unable to survive alone in the Dark Night Beast Forest, and had no choice but to leave in search of a chance to live elsewhere.

But it had wandered into Emerald Cloud Valley and been discovered by the Guardians, leading to this whole incident.

"That fellow's clever, though."

Shen Mu looked in the direction the Three-Tailed Demon Fox had gone and murmured, "I hope it manages to leave Emerald Cloud Valley safely."

Zhang Bohan looked at Shen Mu and chuckled. "Brother Shen, they say foxes are very vengeful. That beast gave you a nasty glare as it left. It might come back one day to get even, so you'd better be careful."

Shen Mu's lips twitched. Remembering the look the Three-Tailed Demon Fox had given him as it left, he smiled. "If it really dares come back looking for trouble, I won't mind turning it into a fox-fur shawl!"

Though he said that, Shen Mu couldn't help feeling uneasy.

Judging by the expression on the Three-Tailed Demon Fox's face as it left, it really might come back for revenge.

That would truly be a disaster out of nowhere.

"Haha!"

Zhang Bohan laughed heartily and chatted with Shen Mu for a while longer before leading the outer members to the next Origin Mulberry Field.

Shen Mu put the matter out of his mind and began practicing the Army-Breaking Saber Technique. The once-bustling Emerald Cloud Valley fell quiet again.