Clouds and mist shrouded the summit of Azure Luan Mountain.
A magnificent, gilded hall towered majestically.
Glazed tiles, purple-gold pillars, white jade floors, and luminous pearls suspended overhead.
Exotic flowers and rare herbs vied in splendor, while auspicious beasts and precious birds wandered among them.
Behind the great hall stood an exquisitely elegant, heated pavilion.
Outside the pavilion lay a meticulously tended flower garden.
An old man in a scholar's robe shuffled through the flowers, holding a purple-clay teapot.
His hair and beard were snow-white, his face lean. At first glance, he possessed something of an immortal's bearing, detached from the mortal world.
He was none other than the master of Azure Luan Mountain, the Demon Emperor of Spirit Mountain's Seventh Cave-the Blue Fox Ancestor.
He hummed an unknown tune and tipped the purple-clay teapot in his hand.
What poured from the pot was neither clear spring water nor sweet dew, but streams of thick, crimson liquid.
Nourished by the blood, the lush, lovely flowers suddenly shook their stems. As their petals opened and closed, they revealed mouths bristling with sharp teeth.
"Drink, drink..."
The Blue Fox Ancestor narrowed his eyes and stroked an enormous blossom with a kindly expression, as though caressing one of his own descendants.
"Drink a little more and grow nice and strong, so you can guard my home for me."
Once he had finished feeding the flowers.
The ancestor straightened, thumped his lower back, then let out a long sigh.
"Ah..."
That sigh held an inexhaustible desolation.
His Blue Fox clan was born clever, versed in yin and yang.
Here in Spirit Mountain's territory, they might not rank among the strongest fighters, but their natural gifts had still allowed them to flourish.
But what did that matter?
A demon was still a demon.
In the