Even Seeing Is Not Believing

"Fox Seventh Aunt, what nonsense are you talking about..."

Hearing Yin Yunze say that, Spirit Medium Wang's expression changed at once. She kept saying those words, but her overbearing bluster was clearly crumbling.

Only now did Spirit Medium Wang belatedly remember.

Ever since that day of startling thunder half a year ago, the evil spirits and wild gods in this area had vanished without a trace.

But since their disappearance did more good than harm, most people were actually happy to see it happen.

As for what exactly had happened, Spirit Medium Wang, who didn't know the details, had simply assumed the thunder that day had scared the evil spirits and wild gods away.

So when Yin Yunze appeared, Spirit Medium Wang simply assumed that Fox Seventh Aunt had sneaked back.

After all, anyone capable of making a living elsewhere wouldn't have holed up in this rundown temple, acting as some bullshit fox immortal hated by people and ghosts alike!

But setting that assumption aside, Spirit Medium Wang realized that the commotion yesterday really wasn't something Fox Seventh Aunt could have caused.

A chill ran through her heart. Spirit Medium Wang's eyes darted about uneasily as she racked her brains for a way out of her predicament.

Just as Spirit Medium Wang finally realized something was wrong, Yin Yunze used his new skill, Illusion Technique, on her without hesitation.

The next moment, Spirit Medium Wang suddenly felt a chill, and her surroundings instantly grew much dimmer.

She instinctively turned her head and looked around, only to discover to her horror that Spirit Medium Wang was the only one left in the rundown temple.

Spirit Medium Wang swallowed and was just about to back away when she felt someone grab her lower leg.

Her pupils shrinking rapidly, Spirit Medium Wang slowly lowered her head. She saw a girl with disheveled hair and shattered features glaring at her, her face covered in blood. "Big sister, why did you push me down..."

"Ah!"

With a scream, Spirit Medium Wang hurriedly turned to run.

But the moment she turned around, Spirit Medium Wang found herself in a graveyard filled with burial mounds.

As Spirit Medium Wang watched, countless arms, some rotting and others stripped to the bone, reached out of the graves.

They clawed aside the grave dirt, and countless figures crawled out of the earth, staggering toward Spirit Medium Wang.

Spirit Medium Wang might have played at ghosts and gods in front of others, but she had never seen anything like this.

She had nearly lost the ability to think, and all Spirit Medium Wang could think about was getting away from here as quickly as possible.

But as soon as Spirit Medium Wang moved, the little girl clinging to her leg pulled on it. She lost her balance and fell onto her backside.

In that brief delay, countless corpses had already reached Spirit Medium Wang.

Seeing the countless corpses surrounding her, walking or crawling toward her, Spirit Medium Wang was so frightened that she immediately began to wail:

"Ah! Get away! I didn't mean to! It wasn't me! Get away! Let go of me! I was wrong... Please..."

But this terrifying scene existed only before Spirit Medium Wang's eyes.

To the other three, Spirit Medium Wang had suddenly screamed and started talking nonsense.

Well, she had fallen because Zhao Wan was still holding her leg.

But when Zhao Wan saw Spirit Medium Wang start rolling on the ground and even wet herself, she quickly let go and hid to one side.

Watching Spirit Medium Wang make such a spectacle of herself, Yin Yunze, the one behind it all, could only say that she hadn't had enough exposure to horror movies.

He hadn't even gotten started, and she was already like this.

"Mother, what's wrong? What's wrong? Mother?"

Spirit Medium Wang had already rolled around on the ground several times before Laizitou reacted. He hurriedly released Sun Qin and hugged Spirit Medium Wang.

At first, Laizitou only tried to wake Spirit Medium Wang by shaking her, but he eventually realized he couldn't wake her at all.

"Mother, don't blame me!"

Gritting his teeth, Laizitou ignored the fact that she was his own mother. Drawing on the experience Spirit Medium Wang had taught him in the past for helping others recover from spirit possession, he raised his right hand high and slapped her hard across the face.

The slap, enough to give an ordinary person a concussion, landed on the old woman and actually brought Spirit Medium Wang out of the Illusion Technique.

It took Spirit Medium Wang another moment after waking to realize that the person in front of her was her son, Laizitou.

"You..." As soon as she opened her mouth, Spirit Medium Wang realized something was wrong and ran her tongue around inside it.

She opened her mouth and spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva, mixed with three or four badly worn teeth.

Looking at the teeth in the bloody saliva, Spirit Medium Wang rolled her eyes and promptly fainted.

Seeing Spirit Medium Wang faint again just after waking up, Laizitou realized something was wrong too.

Without putting his mother through any more, Laizitou glared fiercely in Yin Yunze's direction.

"You stinking fox, this is all your fault!"

Watching Laizitou play the thief crying "Stop thief," Yin Yunze was sorely tempted to retort.

But Yin Yunze also knew the man probably wasn't someone he could reason with, so he didn't intend to try.

This time, Yin Yunze switched to the second way of using the Illusion Technique.

It was no longer a single-person illusion like before, visible only to Spirit Medium Wang.

Sun Qin and Zhao Wan saw it too: a great white fox, taller than a person and covered in snow-white fur, suddenly emerged from the clay fox statue. Most striking of all were the nine great white tails behind it, dancing ceaselessly as though they had minds of their own.

A fox that big should have been a fearsome beast, frightening at a glance.

Yet looking at the nine-tailed white fox, which shimmered faintly with a pearly white glow, the group felt only a sense of holiness.

"Nine-tailed fox... the Nine-Tail of Qingqiu Fox..."

Seeing this, Sun Qin, who was holding Zhao Wan, couldn't help murmuring those words.

Zhao Wan, meanwhile, looked at the white nine-tailed fox with shining eyes and said joyfully, "Lord Fox Immortal has manifested!"

Laizitou, on the other hand, was stunned for a moment at first, but his stubborn streak soon took over. Gritting his teeth, he said, "Even with nine tails, isn't it still a fox..."

"Do you really think so?"

As Yin Yunze asked the question in return, Laizitou saw the nine-tailed white fox before him suddenly grow much taller.

Like a balloon being inflated, the nine-tailed white fox grew from taller than a person to the height of a house, then rose higher still until it was like a towering mountain.

Laizitou, who was no short man, stood before the nine-tailed white fox and felt that a single paw was as tall as a wall.

Even the small section of translucent claw protruding from its fleshy paw was as long as Laizitou was tall.

And it was still growing!

Laizitou was stubborn, not stupid.

Such a vast difference in size was enough to crush all his courage.

Just then, Laizitou noticed something else that made his liver and gallbladder split with fear.

He saw an ant half the height of a person strolling leisurely past him.

The sight was so far beyond Laizitou's understanding that he stood there at a loss.

Sun Qin and Zhao Wan saw it too.

Looking at the mountain-like nine-tailed white fox, Sun Qin found it hard to calm herself for a long time.

Zhao Wan, on the other hand, already believed in Yin Yunze wholeheartedly, so she didn't feel much at the sight of the giant nine-tailed white fox Yin Yunze had turned into.

Instead, after seeing the giant ant, she turned and asked Sun Qin a question.

"Mother, why is the ant so big?! Did Lord Fox Immortal make it bigger?"

"The ant didn't get bigger." As the cleverest of the three people still conscious, Sun Qin naturally understood what had happened. "We got smaller! Lord Fox Immortal made us smaller!"

Looking carefully around, Sun Qin readily spotted the wooden table in the distance, towering into the clouds, and the copper coins scattered across the ground, each as big as a bed.

"H-how is that possible..." Hearing Sun Qin's words, Laizitou found it hard to accept.

But looking at the mountain-like nine-tailed white fox and the ant that hadn't crawled far away yet, he had no choice but to accept the reality.

Surveying the three different expressions, Yin Yunze was quite satisfied with the effect of the Illusion Technique.

Whenever he needed to play at ghosts and gods in the future, he could count on this Illusion Technique!

Although the Illusion Technique was only one skill, it actually had two applications.

The first was the single-target use he had employed on Spirit Medium Wang. Its effects were more detailed, and, influenced by the target, it could automatically evolve corresponding images in response to their thoughts.

The second was an illusion like the one now, visible to everyone in an area. Besides making himself bigger, Yin Yunze felt he could also create effects such as a ghost wall that kept people going in circles.

But this second application consumed far more Power of Incense Offerings than the first, and lacked the first's automatic completion. Its level of detail depended entirely on Yin Yunze's own control and refinement.

To save Power of Incense Offerings, and to avoid exposing any flaws,

Yin Yunze wasted no time once he had conducted an initial test of its effects.

"Look me in the eye!" Looking at Laizitou's terrified expression, Yin Yunze said, "In your eyes, am I still just a fox?"