Fox Fire Sets Courage Ablaze

Hearing the voice from that towering height, Laizitou's legs went weak, and he dropped to his knees.

Sun Qin, however, saw sparks fly as Yin Yunze's sharp teeth struck against one another while he spoke.

The sparks fell from the sky, and rather than being blown out by the wind, they grew larger and larger.

At first, they were only the size of sesame seeds, but by the time they hit the ground, they had become a green fireball the size of a washbasin.

Sun Qin didn't know whether Yin Yunze had done it on purpose, but as luck would have it, the fireball landed right on Laizitou's head.

In an instant, a great fire blazed atop his skull.

At a glance, he looked like a giant candle.

"Ah, hot, hot, hot! I'm on fire! Help!"

Feeling the searing pain on his head, Laizitou slapped at the flames like a madman. The last of his courage vanished, and he began pleading nonstop. "I was wrong! Please spare my life, Lord Fox Immortal! Please, spare me! Lord Fox Immortal, have mercy!"

At the sight of Laizitou's miserable state, Sun Qin couldn't help hugging Zhao Wan tightly.

At the same time, the stench of burning flesh began to spread.

Although the Illusion Technique could affect sight and hearing, it had no effect on smell or pain.

So the green flames burning on Laizitou's head were real.

This was the second skill Yin Yunze had obtained, Fox Fire.

Of course, the visual effect now on display had been enhanced by the Illusion Technique.

In reality, Yin Yunze had only thrown a fireball the size of his fist, with its incense offering output reduced.

Not long after it landed on Laizitou's head, it had burned out.

The pain Laizitou felt now was instead caused by his own frantic slapping.

After all, as someone who had received a modern education, Yin Yunze harbored no great malice. Although Spirit Medium Wang and Laizitou had wanted to rob him, he had not intended to take their lives over it.

Besides, burning someone alive was a little too cruel.

At the very least, Yin Yunze's scalp tingled just thinking about it, let alone actually doing it.

Still, although he had not intended to burn Laizitou to death, Yin Yunze was somewhat dissatisfied after seeing Fox Fire's actual destructive power.

Even at its lowest output, Fox Fire had only burned away what little hair Laizitou had and raised a few large blisters. To Yin Yunze, who was accustomed to modern firepower, that was still a little too weak.

To put it bluntly, Yin Yunze felt that even the fireworks set off during the New Year packed more firepower than Fox Fire!

Still, it was at least a skill with a touch of the supernatural, and his only offensive skill at that, so Yin Yunze could only hold his nose and accept it.

At least, combined with the Illusion Technique, it was enough to frighten these rustic mountain folk.

Weren't the incense offerings of faith provided by Sun Qin and Zhao Wan shooting up?

After pondering the effects of the two skills, Yin Yunze realized that both seemed to have something to do with his identity as a fox immortal.

Fox Fire went without saying. It even had "fox" in its name; who would believe it had nothing to do with a fox immortal?

The Illusion Technique was also practically bound up with fox immortals, and could even be called their specialty.

Dream Entry and Blessing, on the other hand, seemed to be skills common to incense gods such as earth gods.

But for the time being, he had no one to use one of those skills on, while the other did not seem suitable to test right now. So after getting a general understanding of the two skills, Yin Yunze turned his attention back to Laizitou.

By now, Laizitou had scratched his head into a bloody mess, yet he was still wailing and screaming on the ground.

Yin Yunze couldn't help frowning. After stopping the entire illusion, he couldn't be bothered to waste any more words. "Take your mother and get lost!"

"Yes, yes, yes! I'm going, I'm going!"

When the surroundings returned to normal and the mountain-sized nine-tailed white fox became a clay statue again, Laizitou didn't dare say anything more. He hoisted the unconscious Spirit Medium Wang onto his back and staggered out of the ruined temple, blood pouring from his head.

After Laizitou left, Sun Qin stared fixedly at Yin Yunze and asked, "Lord Fox Immortal, are you really..."

Now that he had evidence to back up his boast, Yin Yunze stuck to it all the more firmly. "Didn't I tell you? I am a nine-tailed fox of Qingqiu, Green Hill Yi Yun himself! Do you believe me now?"

"I do!" Zhao Wan bobbed her little head repeatedly. "Lord Fox Immortal's true form is so big! So amazing! He just opened his mouth, and there was such a huge fireball..."

Hearing Zhao Wan's innocent, vivid description of what had just happened, Yin Yunze merely smiled to himself.

To these ignorant people of ancient times, or to those mountain spirits and ghosts, Yin Yunze's display based on modern special effects was a dimensionality-reduction strike.

Faced with heavenly soldiers and generals made from paper figures, someone might find the courage to take a gamble and fight.

But faced with a nine-tailed white fox as big as a mountain, one whose teeth merely had to strike together as it opened its mouth to speak for a fireball to fall...

Searching his own heart, Yin Yunze doubted he himself would dare bet it was fake.

After all, the nine-tailed white fox might have been fake, but the fireball's destructive power was real.

A simple illusion might be exposed, but combined with Fox Fire, which could cause real harm, the effect was a case of one plus one being greater than two.

The same skills naturally produced different results in different people's hands.

Using a skill and knowing how to use one were two different things.

Someone who merely used skills in this situation might only think of playing gods and ghosts and hoping to scare the other party to death, or setting up a ghost wall and spending who knew how long wearing the other person down until they died.

Or else, they might throw caution to the wind, trust in brute force to work miracles, and unleash Fox Fire at full power to burn the other person to death.

Not only would that take time and effort and consume a great deal, something might still go wrong.

Combining the skills as Yin Yunze had done was what saved effort and maximized their effect.

At least, judging by how Laizitou had been scared out of his wits, Yin Yunze thought he wouldn't dare show his face before him again for a while.

"So, what exactly happened?"

Although he had already driven Spirit Medium Wang away, Yin Yunze still asked what had happened to them during that time.

"Lord Fox Immortal, this is what happened."

After that encounter, Sun Qin's attitude toward Yin Yunze had grown even more devout. "Just now, the village chief brought this money collected from the villagers... Then that old witch came with her scabby-headed son, saying it wasn't safe here and that she would keep the money safe for you, Lord Fox Immortal. She wanted to take it away... I hadn't received your permission, Lord Fox Immortal, so of course I refused, and then..."

Sun Qin's account did not come as a surprise to Yin Yunze.

His gaze fell on the bundle of copper coins mixed with bits of silver. After a moment's thought, Yin Yunze said, "Exchange these for gold for me!"

Yin Yunze had already learned from Sun Qin that the exchange rate between gold and silver in this world was not the usual one to ten, but one to seven.

In fact, that was normal.

Even in ancient times in Yin Yunze's own world, the exchange rate between gold and silver had often been within one to ten.

At its lowest, it had even been one to five.

Only after the Age of Exploration, as silver flowed in in large quantities, had the exchange rate between gold and silver gradually widened.

By Yin Yunze's time, the exchange rate between gold and silver had reached nearly one to ninety.

In other words, if he put in a little more effort and exchanged this money for gold, Yin Yunze could instantly multiply his returns more than tenfold.

For that reason, even if it delayed the time it took to recoup his costs, Yin Yunze still wanted to exchange it for gold.

"I understand."

Sun Qin couldn't help feeling a little happy at Yin Yunze's instruction.

Sun Qin was no fool. Naturally, she understood that this was a sign Yin Yunze was beginning to trust her.

Without trust, who would dare hand you such a large sum of money and ask you to exchange it for gold?

Leaving aside the possibility of running off with the money, there was room for trickery in the exchange rate alone.

True, it had been one to seven before, but what if the price had now dropped to one to five?

And if you exchanged it for gold at one to five and reported it as one to ten when you returned, wouldn't you pocket half as your cut?

So, without real trust, who would hand you the money to handle?

As everyone knew, the accountant who kept a company's books might be an outsider. But the cashier who actually handled the money was often someone close to the boss.

After receiving this assignment, Sun Qin also gathered her courage and asked, "Oh, Lord Fox Immortal, Village Chief Song asked me to ask you: are you satisfied with their sincerity? If you are, when may they receive your gift of water?"

Yin Yunze thought for a moment and settled on a time. "Starting tomorrow at noon."