One morning, five years after Yi Shuyuan had fired up the furnace to refine pills.
At the southern foot of Heavenly Battle Mountain, a little fiery-red bird flew across a mountain stream. She glanced at the animals drinking beside it, then climbed steadily into the sky to survey the land from above.
Sunlight shone from the east, gilding the little bird in gold. Yet this was not sunlight alone: a fleeting radiance lay within it. Seen from afar at that moment, a phantom outline seemed to surround her, as though her wings should have been larger and her tail feathers longer.
Indeed, eyes were watching the little bird from far away.
Some of the monsters within a thousand miles of Heavenly Battle Mountain already knew that an immortal was refining pills in the mountain. But all had tacitly chosen to keep the news secret, and could not resist coming to look from time to time.
Naturally, the fox demon was no exception. In fox form, she stood in a forest outside Heavenly Battle Mountain, gazing at the distant sky and the little bird who had briefly revealed herself beneath the morning sun.
Another gray fox lay beside her, watching the same direction.
"Did you see that, Sister? That's one of the Heavenly Realm's Four Direction Venerable Gods, Southern Spirit General Zhu Li. The other three must be guarding the other sides of Heavenly Battle Mountain."
The gray fox sighed while staring at the distant sky, but the red fox immediately stretched out a paw to cover her eyes.
"Sister, don't stare like that! She'll notice!"
The gray fox swatted the paw away.
"What's wrong with looking? She's probably noticed us already. Ah, we barely had a chance to begin with, and now we can't even get closer for a look."