Chapter Eighty-Four: There Are White Foxes in This World

The moment Jiang Lin drew a frying pan from his embrace, the two fox-eared girls immediately stepped back. Their teeth lengthened little by little, carrying a distinctly vicious air.

Their hair was also in disarray, with stray tufts standing on end, as if they had been startled into fluffing up.

"What the—"

The two beast-eared girls dropped low to the ground. Their pupils narrowed to slits, and three snow-white tails swayed back and forth. The entire temple was filled with a sinister, demonic aura.

For some reason, looking at them, Jiang Lin felt that if their hair were blond and they were dressed in a ninja outfit covered with spirals, that would be quite the thing.

"Woof-wail-woof!"

The husky pup stood on Jiang Lin's side of the line, barking at the two foxes.

Still, Jiang Lin felt that this dog's barking was off.

How could a husky go "woof woof woof"? That was not nearly clever enough. It seemed he would have to teach it the proper way to howl like a husky later.

With the frying pan in hand, his left palm tapping his right, Jiang Lin lifted the hair over his forehead and looked at the two fox-eared girls with a teasing smile.

"So you've cultivated three tails already. Not bad. You should be at the Sea-Viewing stage, right? And they're white too—quite rare..."

Among all the demons in the world, besides the dragon-serpent kind, flower sprites, and grass sprites, the most representative were fox demons.

A fox demon is born with one tail. Enter the final realm of the lower five stages, the Furnace-Building stage, and gain a second tail; enter the middle five stages, beginning with the Cavern-Dwelling stage, and gain a third. After that, the Sea-Viewing stage adds another tail, the Dragon Gate stage another, and so on, with one tail gained for each advancing realm.

Most fox demons were kind by nature and liked scholars, using a scholar's vital energy in their cultivation, even developing a certain noble righteousness in the end. That much was true.

But there were also many fox demons who liked to take a more unconventional path.

For example, some fox demons did not merely absorb a person's vital energy, but also blood essence, specifically targeting vigorous young men; after one night, those men would turn into dried corpses.

Or take that fox-demon aunt from the Sun and Moon Cult. Jiang Lin often went there to stock up, and once, while chatting with her in the courtyard, he asked what her dream was.

That fox-demon aunt said her dream was to become a kept woman... that way she would not need to struggle anymore, and could eat and drink well every day...

Although Jiang Lin had spat out a mouthful of water at the time, after thinking about it later, it seemed not unreasonable.

He too wanted to be a pretty boy, kept by some empress or sect mistress or the like—how wonderful that would be, enough to save himself twenty years of effort... no, two thousand years!

But unfortunately, he still had a master to support, and now there was also the adorable Little Nian Nian, so Jiang Lin had no choice but to abandon that grand dream.

However, when he returned to the Sun and Moon Cult and again went there to stock up, Jiang Lin asked whether the fox-demon aunt's dream had ever come true.

As it turned out, the aunt shook her head, her face full of melancholy...

Yet Jiang Lin felt that if this fox-demon aunt ever succeeded one day, she would probably break through the Core Formation realm and step into the Nascent Soul stage. After all, such an obsession was itself a form of the Dao heart...

In addition to the number of tails representing cultivation level, the type of fox was also very important, and the rarest of all was the white fox.

There are white foxes in the world.

It was said that these foxes were descendants of ancient divine beings, akin to a mythic beast fruit from a certain pirate tale. Their cultivation flowed more smoothly and harmoniously with the Great Dao, and their strength was even more formidable.

However, white foxes were exceedingly rare, generally appearing in the Demon Realm beyond the Nine Continents, in the territory of the Myriad Demons Continent. Moreover, white foxes were proud and aloof, disdainful of absorbing the vital energy or blood essence of others, and instead relied on their own cultivation to attain the Dao.

But that raised the question: why would such an exalted and noble aristocrat among demons become assassins? Could it be that they had been sent by the Lonely Demon Cult?

That did not seem likely either. Although the Lonely Demon Cult was somewhat more famous than the Sun and Moon Cult, and much more notorious, its overall strength was not that great. It was probably comparable to the righteous Dragon Gate Sect. How could it possess such a rare species?

As he thought, Jiang Lin looked at the two white foxes before him while patting his frying pan, and a bold idea took shape in his mind.

Either the sects of the Myriad Demons Continent were cooperating with the Lonely Demon Cult, or these were spies sent by the Demon Realm.

After all, the Demon Realm had been eyeing the Nine Continents for no day or two.

But in any case, the force behind this was certainly more than just the Lonely Demon Cult.

Or could it be that his fame had already spread to the Myriad Demons Continent, and one of the white fox ancestors had secretly fallen for him, only for her disciples to grow jealous and decide to eliminate him?

Damn it. That did not seem impossible either...

"What is that utensil in your hand? Why did it suddenly appear?"

One of the buxom foxes spoke first, though the two of them still kept their bodies taut, as if they might pounce and rake his face at any moment. Though when beast-eared girls made such a posture in human form, it was very easy to make one's thoughts wander.

"Oh?" Jiang Lin raised the frying pan in his hand. "This thing is called the Queen's Pan. It was made by a friend of mine from the Mechanist school named Little Black. When danger arises, it can grow larger on its own. The metal used is titanium alloy. Never mind, you probably would not understand anyway."

The two fox-eared girls furrowed their brows. Though they did not understand the nonsense this person was spouting, they continued to ask, "How did you discover us?"

"How did I discover you? That's simple enough." Jiang Lin's lips curled upward with maddening amusement. "I was recently drained of vital energy by mountain spirits and have not fully recovered yet. Under normal circumstances, kind beast-eared girls would not bear to try draining the vital energy of a weak scholar like me again. But you actually harbored ill intentions toward me! Is that not suspicious enough?"

"Just because of that?"

"Of course not." Jiang Lin's lifebound flying sword shot out from his acupoints. With one hand on the sword and the other on the frying pan, he stood ready. "There is a down-and-out novelist in my sect. He told me that when fox demons and scholars get together, it's usually one-on-one tutoring, so the poor scholar won't be overworked by weakness and exhaustion. But you two are giving me a double lesson together. That is very wrong indeed."

"Finished asking?" Jiang Lin smiled at them. "If you're done, then it's my turn. You're not from the Lonely Demon Cult, are you?"

Whoosh.

The instant Jiang Lin finished speaking, the two beast-eared girls shot toward him together. Jiang Lin sidestepped, and the already dilapidated floor of the temple was carved with two deep gouges by their claws.

"We had originally intended to let you die cleanly. It seems, Young Master, that you refuse to admit the truth." The elder of the white fox sisters said, "Please do not blame us, Young Master."

"Hmph! You think this is two against one?" Jiang Lin pointed at them with the frying pan. "Doggy! Let's go together!"

"Woof... wuff... wuff..."

The dog, which had originally been full of vigor, barked once more, but its voice grew lower and lower. Then it actually hid behind Jiang Lin's heels, standing on its hind legs, its trembling paws clutching tightly at his trouser leg...