Volume 5 Chapter 85
by Need_More_SleepVolume 5 + Chapter 85: The Red Fox God
Xia Yi returned to the fork in the road, but the little fox was nowhere to be seen waiting for her.
She slipped her hands into the pockets of her coat and frowned in confusion.
“Has Fox-radish developed senility or something? Not only does she forget things, she even runs off everywhere.”
After all, she had followed the little fox’s instructions and gone to the distant hill, yet she had neither found any magical beast nor seen a treasure chest.
And when she returned, even the little fox herself had disappeared.
“Fox-radish~ Fox-radish~ Fox-radish~~~”
Xia Yi raised her voice and shouted loudly.
She was trying to call the little fox out.
“Little fox!”
“You pink-fur nuisance!”
“Wiggly fox!”
She even shouted all of Yue Liu’s nicknames.
Under normal circumstances, if the little fox heard that, she would definitely rush out immediately and storm up to her in a huff.
Yet after quite a long while passed, the surroundings remained completely silent.
“Did Fox-radish really get lost?”
Xia Yi became even more puzzled.
She began searching for the little fox’s trace.
If the fox had gone in some direction, she should have left marks on the ground, such as paw prints pressing into the grass.
But she couldn’t find even those.
Rustle… rustle…
While Xia Yi was thinking, she heard a strange sound from somewhere not far away.
“Little fox, that’s you, right?!”
Thinking it was the little fox, she ran toward the source of the sound.
After the silver-haired girl had left, quite some time passed. Then, on the branch of a cherry blossom tree, a bundle of pink fluff opened its eyes and jumped down from the tree.
It was Yue Liu.
Because her fur was also pink, she had almost blended perfectly with the cherry blossoms. If she intentionally hid herself, she was indeed not easy to spot.
“My nemesis… just wait for me outside,” the little fox murmured to herself as she looked in the direction Xia Yi had gone.
After thinking about it for a long time, she had decided to face the Forbidden Trial alone. So she had fabricated a lie to lure Xia Yi away.
Once the Forbidden Trial was over, she would come back out and find her nemesis again.
And if she couldn’t come back out after the trial ended…
At least outside was safe. At the very least, her nemesis would not be placed in danger.
“Why have I become so strange…? I clearly agreed to let my nemesis come along, yet at the last moment I no longer want her to participate…”
The little fox spoke quietly.
Even she herself didn’t understand it. Somehow, her feelings toward Xia Yi lately had grown complicated and strange. They were no longer the same as before, when all she wanted was simply to defeat her nemesis.
The pink nine-tailed fox turned around, leapt into the grass, and headed off in the correct direction.
Next, she would have to face the Fox God’s Forbidden Trial alone.
Along the way, Yue Liu recalled a conversation she once had with the Nine-Tailed Fox Emperor. It had been about the Fox God of Fox Hill,
The one known as the Red Fox God.
The Red Fox God accepted the worship and offerings of the fox clan, becoming the deity they revered. The god protected Fox Hill, while the fox royal family inherited the Fox God’s bloodline and served as subordinates, helping govern the people.
In the era when the Fox God had first ascended to divinity, Fox Hill had been plagued by all manner of ferocious monsters: a giant serpent with eight tails, tengu that could soar high through the sky, towering giants carrying wine gourds…
These powerful creatures ran rampant everywhere, leaving the fox clan unable to live in peace.
The Fox God set out on a campaign and wiped out those monsters one by one, bringing the fox clan into a brief era of peace.
However, that peace did not last long. In the years that followed, the fox clan’s fate was far from smooth.
At one point in time, the Fox God became extremely violent and irritable, occasionally unleashing terrible disasters within Fox Hill itself, claiming the lives of many foxfolk.
That terrifying state was no different from that of an evil god. Those days marked the darkest period in the history of Fox Hill.
In the end, the Nine-Tailed Fox Emperor of the royal family risked his life to offer counsel, persuading the Fox God to change course. The god eventually returned to a benevolent and kind nature, and Fox Hill once again entered a peaceful era, until the day the Fox God left this world.
Later, people discovered that in a certain place on Fox Hill, traces of the Fox God’s aura had been left behind. Anyone who came into contact with it could obtain the Fox God’s power, perhaps even awaken the Fox God’s bloodline.
This caused many members of the Nine-Tailed Fox clan who possessed inherited bloodlines to flock toward it.
However, those who attempted to control such overwhelming power inevitably paid a terrible price, often meeting tragic ends.
According to the Nine-Tailed Fox Emperor, the trial to obtain this power was known as the Forbidden Trial. Unless absolutely necessary, members of the Nine-Tailed Fox clan would never approach it lightly.
This was everything the little fox had learned from her father about the Fox God and the trial.
Even without encountering the Fox God directly, she had already awakened her bloodline, an extraordinary talent in itself.
But under the current circumstances, she could no longer slowly cultivate that bloodline. She needed to rely on the Forbidden Trial to completely awaken the Fox God’s power within her.
“Hm? What’s that…?”
Suddenly, the little fox stopped walking. She heard something and pricked up her ears.
Faintly, perhaps because of her shrine maiden abilities, she could hear a call summoning her.
“It’s ahead! Lord Fox God is calling me!” the little fox exclaimed, immediately quickening her pace and running forward, disappearing into the depths of the cherry blossom forest.
…
…
“Hm? Why haven’t I found her yet? Where did the little fox run off to?”
After hearing movement earlier, Xia Yi had followed the sound, but she still hadn’t caught sight of the little fox.
She did not venture too deeply into the cherry blossom forest. Instead, she searched the surrounding area for quite a while, yet still found nothing.
Rustle… rustle…
Xia Yi heard movement again.
“Fox-radish, you’ve played enough hide-and-seek!!”
Xia Yi was running out of patience. Raising her hand, she controlled her chant, released magic, and summoned a huge snowball before hurling it forward.
Whoosh!
A mysterious figure leapt out of the bushes. It moved incredibly fast and darted into another patch of grass.
Although Xia Yi hadn’t seen it clearly just now, she distinctly remembered,
It looked like a fox… with nine tails.
“Well now, Fox-radish, even at a time like this you still won’t show yourself?”
Xia Yi repeated the same move and launched another snowball.
The nine-tailed little fox dodged again. But this time, things were different. The princess summoned an ice wall, blocking the fox’s escape route.
“Hmph. Trying to run?!”
Xia Yi burst forward with swift movement, grabbed one of the tails, and lifted the fox into the air.
“Ying-ying-ying!”
“Don’t ‘ying’ at me. Little fox, you actually dared to mess with, ”
Xia Yi had been about to teach the fox a lesson, but as her gaze lowered, her words suddenly stopped.
Wait.
This wasn’t the pink little fox.
It was red.
“You insolent outsider! To show such disrespect to this god, divine punishment!!” the red nine-tailed fox shouted angrily while struggling in Xia Yi’s grasp.
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