Wei Xiao Pang

Seeing the state I was in, Granny Liu realized that the Immortal inside me had emerged. After a moment of shock, she too dropped to her knees, burying her head between her hands and not daring to look up.

"L-Little Jie..." Grandpa stared at me, dumbfounded.

I was completely unconscious at the time and had no idea what happened. Everything I knew came from what Grandpa told me afterward.

The Immortal's spirit had appeared once when I was three, but Grandpa hadn't seen it. This time, he witnessed it firsthand. Hearing my voice change into someone else's, and seeing the enormous fox silhouette behind me with its eight tails constantly swaying, scared him half to death.

Fortunately, it didn't last long. Once the second son of the Zhang Family fainted, the enormous fox silhouette behind me vanished as well.

Then my body went limp, and I collapsed.

Grandpa hurried over and scooped me up.

"Sister, come take a look at Little Jie! What's wrong with him?" Grandpa cried in alarm.

Only then did Granny Liu rise. She glanced my way, walked over, and reassured Grandpa, "Don't worry. Little Jie is fine. Just like last time, he'll recover after a few days of rest. The Fox Immortal inside him already has eight tails-a millennium great demon, without a doubt. Having seen one today, this old woman can say she hasn't lived in vain."

Granny Liu looked rather excited as she spoke, her body trembling slightly.

Grandpa carried me home on his back. I slept for two full days before waking up again.

Once I woke, I was no different from usual, as lively and energetic as ever.

The second son of the Zhang Family was fine too. The Yellow Weasel had put him through quite an ordeal, leaving him bedridden for three days, but he eventually made a full recovery.

Later, Granny Liu explained what had happened with the Yellow Weasel. It could trade its life for a human's because it released a toxin in its foul-smelling farts that caused hallucinations. Those hallucinations were so realistic that they could frighten someone to death. Both the fifth and second sons of the Zhang Family had been poisoned by the toxin the Yellow Weasel released. The difference was that the fifth son lived alone, so no one noticed anything wrong with him. The second son was lucky because he lived with his wife. If she hadn't summoned Granny Liu and Grandpa, he probably would have died too.

Granny Liu also explained why the Yellow Weasel itself died when it used its toxin to confuse someone. Although its poisonous fumes could cloud a person's mind, they weren't powerful enough on their own. To make them more effective, it had to immerse itself in that same state. If it wanted to kill someone, it had to kill itself too. Only by temporarily entering that state could it bring the poison inside its body to its full potency and kill its victim.

The white-tailed Yellow Weasel that had controlled the second son of the Zhang Family was another matter altogether. It didn't merely release poisonous fumes. Its cultivation was already advanced enough to control a living person and make him perform all sorts of complicated movements.

And that was how the incident ended. Every three years, a calamity struck. Either I died, or someone else did. Those who died must have been closely connected to me.

Yet through it all, I could only endure it, powerless to do anything.

Granny Liu said this was my fate. I couldn't escape these calamities, and neither could the people connected to them.

Perhaps one day, some extraordinary opportunity would let me defy heaven and change my fate. But that day certainly hadn't come yet, and Granny Liu didn't have the power to do it either.

This time, Granny Liu stayed at our house for several more days, leaving only after I woke up.

Before leaving, Granny Liu specifically warned my family not to let me go outside on the day I turned nine. The third calamity would be the most dangerous, and one mistake could cost me my life. If I survived the calamity at nine, things might become a little easier afterward. She didn't know how much longer she could keep me safe, but she promised she would come.

Once the matter was settled, life at home returned to normal. I was no different from any other child now. I ate regular meals with my family and no longer drank blood.

The Yellow Weasels and foxes still brought wild game to our house every few days, helping put better food on our table.

Sometimes, when I was alone, I would still see those Yellow Weasels and foxes secretly watching me from a distance.

In the blink of an eye, another three years passed.

Life was normal throughout those three years, and nothing happened. Like the other children, I started elementary school. I was now in second grade.

My birthday fell right in the middle of the busy farming season. The whole village was hard at work, and my family barely had time to look after a child.

Anyone who has lived in the countryside knows that during the autumn harvest, the wheat is harvested one field at a time. The combine harvester won't wait for you. When your family's turn comes, someone has to be there, or it will move on to someone else's wheat.

Back then, the whole family depended on the harvest from those fields. Food came first; nothing mattered more.

Besides, nothing had happened to me in those three years, so the calamities had gradually begun to fade from everyone's minds.

But my family still remembered Granny Liu's warning about the third calamity. My parents went to work in the fields and specifically asked Grandpa to stay home and watch me.

My ninth birthday happened to fall on a weekend. I stayed home doing homework, and at noon, Grandpa and I ate lunch together. He was getting old, and once he'd eaten his fill, he became so drowsy that he decided to take a nap. Before lying down, he sternly told me that I was not to leave the house under any circumstances that day, or he would spank my backside raw.

But before Grandpa could fall asleep, the village pig butcher suddenly came in and asked him to help slaughter a pig. He said the pig he'd just bought was so big that even two or three people couldn't hold it down.

Grandpa didn't want to go at first, afraid I might sneak out that day. But they were all from the same village, and refusing to help wouldn't have been right. So he warned me once more not to leave the house, then hurried off with the butcher.

Not long after Grandpa left, a cuckoo's call sounded outside the window.

That was the secret signal between Wei Feng and me. Wei Feng was in my class at elementary school. Ever since I was little, none of the village children had wanted to play with me. They all called me a freak.

But Wei Feng was different. He was my closest friend, and we always had fun together.

Wei Feng was a chubby boy, and everyone in our class called him Xiao Pang.

Hearing Xiao Pang's signal, I quietly walked to the window and opened it. His big, round face appeared in front of me. He grinned and whispered, "Little Jie, come on. Want to catch grasshoppers?"

"What do you mean, catch grasshoppers? Grandpa won't let me go out. If he catches me, I'll definitely get a beating. Can't you study properly for once instead of thinking about playing all day?" I said unhappily.

"Little Jie, you're hardly in a position to lecture me, are you? I'm second from the bottom in our class, but you're dead last. How can you tell me to study harder?" Xiao Pang said.

He had a point. I really was the worst student in our class-not because I was stupid, but mainly because I didn't like studying. My family hardly pushed me, either. Their greatest wish was for me to grow up healthy. Nothing else really mattered to them anymore.

In the end, I couldn't resist the temptation. I secretly climbed out the window and followed Xiao Pang out of the village.

At that age, all we wanted to do was play. The more adults forbade something, the more we wanted to do it. It was the age when children were at their most mischievous. I imagine plenty of people went through the same thing and got more than a few beatings for it.