She crept over quietly, sat by the bed, and leaned down to stare at Lin Yao.
With her eyes closed, Lin Yao could only feel her frantically beating heart intertwining with Yun Niang’s icy breath. Yun Niang deliberately extended a finger and scraped it against the bed board, producing a creaking sound. Seeing that Lin Yao kept her eyes shut, she suddenly reached out to grab at her Heart Gate—
Lin Yao abruptly opened her eyes. Yun Niang stretched her lips into a smile and tugged at the corner of the quilt. “You kicked off the covers—I was just trying to cover you up.”
“But you forgot to retract your fangs—”
Yun Niang’s smile froze. She pursed her lips, tucking two sharp fangs back into her mouth, then blew a breath toward Lin Yao with a half-smile. “Sleep now. There’s a good show to watch tomorrow!”
Suddenly, Lin Yao’s eyelids grew heavy, and she fell asleep.
“Don’t blame me. I didn’t want to harm anyone either,” Yun Niang murmured, gazing at the sleeping Lin Yao. “Originally, I planned to elope with Shaoyan after tomorrow’s wedding. If we truly couldn’t escape, then we would just die together.”
Abruptly, a glint flashed in Yun Niang’s eyes, and a murderous aura condensed around her. She stared fixedly at Lin Yao’s chest. “But you came, and I changed my mind! Shaoyan can become human again, and I no longer wish to die! So, you must die—”
With that, fur sprouted from her limbs, and her hands and feet transformed into sharp claws. Just as her pointed claws were about to pierce Lin Yao’s Heart Gate, Yan Wuyou burst through the window and slapped a Talisman onto her forehead. At the same time, Lin Yao—who had been feigning enchantment-induced slumber—gathered Purple Fire in her palm, swiftly rose, and struck it into Yun Niang’s chest—
Wailing in agony, Yun Niang screamed as the smell of scorched fur filled the room. When the two lit a lamp, they saw it was a fox.
“Yun Niang, stop being so deluded—” Bai Shaoyan limped upstairs.
Yun Niang shifted back to human form, staring at Bai Shaoyan in disbelief. “Shaoyan, was it you… you who told him?”
Bai Shaoyan shook his head.
“From the very beginning, I knew ‘Senior Brother’ wasn’t Senior Brother,” Yan Wuyou said calmly. “The handwriting on the invitation was the same, but the pressure varied drastically. Gravely ill and barely able to hold a brush, yet still insisting on marriage? Something must have happened. Senior Brother could only reach out to us by sending wedding invitations.”
His gaze sharpened as he continued, “When I finally saw Senior Brother, his complexion was radiant and glowing, showing no trace of illness. But when he cut paper, it took him three attempts to complete a single stroke. Isn’t that contradictory?”
Xiao Yuanzi scratched his head. “Why would that be?”
Yan Wuyou fixed his gaze on Bai Shaoyan. “Senior Brother, even now, are you still unwilling to tell the truth?”
Bai Shaoyan looked at Yun Niang and sighed. “Yun Niang, what’s meant to come will always come.” With that, he dragged his crippled leg to the table, sat down, and began to recount slowly…
Lingxia Village lay at the foot of Maoling Mountain. Maoling was vast and lush, connected to countless stretches of primordial mountain ranges. Deep within these mountains, some naturally formed spirits dwelled, mostly active in the highlands and rarely causing harm to humans.
Yun Niang was a fox from the highlands. No one knew how many years she had lived there, but over time, she slowly cultivated into a spirit.
Bai Shaoyan’s parents were ordinary farmers in Lingxia Village. Hardworking and capable, they lived a decent life and had even built a two-story house for Bai Shaoyan’s future marriage. Unfortunately, fate had other plans. When Bai Shaoyan was ten years old, he followed his parents up the mountain to gather chestnuts and unexpectedly encountered a wild wolf. This was no ordinary wolf—it was on the verge of becoming a Demon, with crimson eyes and terrifying strength!
The family of three could neither escape nor fight back. To save Bai Shaoyan, his parents desperately clung to the wolf Demon, enduring its vicious bites so he could flee down the mountain. The frail Bai Shaoyan watched helplessly as his parents died under the wolf Demon’s claws.
But how could a ten-year-old outrun a wolf Demon? Just as the beast opened its bloodthirsty maw to strike, a brown fox suddenly darted from the forest and slammed into the wolf Demon—
Staggered by the impact, the wolf Demon tumbled to the ground. Consumed by overwhelming rage, Bai Shaoyan forgot his fear. He grabbed a branch from the ground and stabbed fiercely at the wolf Demon.
Crack! The branch snapped, barely scratching the wolf Demon’s hide. As the enraged beast lunged at him again, the fox launched another attack. Its body suddenly swelled, growing larger than the wild wolf—
It was a Fox Demon!
The wolf and fox tangled in a fierce struggle, but the wolf soon lost ground. Seizing the opportunity, the Fox Demon delivered a fatal blow, tearing into its neck—the wolf collapsed, twitching, until even its faint whimpers faded away.
Warm wolf blood splattered across Bai Shaoyan’s face, cooling and hardening as he stared at the corpse, his seething anger partially subsiding.
The Fox Demon was badly injured too. It licked its wounds and approached him. Bai Shaoyan despised Demons. Though he didn’t understand why this Fox Demon had attacked the wolf and inadvertently saved him, he believed all Demons were inherently cruel. It might still kill him now. So, he scooped up a handful of gravel and hurled it at the creature—
To his surprise, the Fox Demon didn’t attack. It merely whimpered softly, then shrank back to its original size—the same as when he first saw it. It turned sideways, cautiously extending one hind leg, and whimpered again.
Seeing no hostility from the Fox Demon, Bai Shaoyan relaxed slightly. Noticing it persistently showing him its leg, he leaned in for a closer look. About an inch above the paw was a moderate-sized brown scar, where fur could no longer grow, leaving a bald patch on its otherwise fluffy limb—an unsightly mark.
“Are you the little fox that got caught in the trap in the plum orchard last year?”
The Fox Demon nodded.
It could understand human speech! Indeed, last year in the plum orchard, a young fox had stumbled into a trap and injured its leg. Bai Shaoyan, pitying it, had set it free.
“So you’re a Demon who repays kindness.” Remembering his parents’ gruesome deaths, he gritted his teeth and spat, “Leave. Don’t do evil, or I won’t spare you.” Bai Shaoyan started walking downhill, but the Fox Demon limped after him from a distance. He initially ignored it, but then reconsidered—he would soon need villagers to help retrieve his parents’ bodies from the mountain. If they discovered this fox was a Demon, they would surely kill it.
He stopped abruptly, turned around, and snarled, “Get lost! Stop following me—” Without looking back, he continued his descent.
He listened to the little fox’s whimpering gradually fading behind him, tears streaming uncontrollably down his face.
After returning to the village, with the help of the villagers, Bai Shaoyan buried his parents. From then on, the little fox would sneak over to see him every night. At first, he would chase it away, but after several attempts, seeing it stubbornly persistent, he stopped paying it any mind.
Later, he resolutely packed his belongings, preparing to go to the Jade Capital Pavilion to learn Spells, determined to eradicate all demons and monsters in the world to console his parents’ spirits in heaven. On the night before his departure, instead of ignoring it as usual, he opened the door and called it inside.
“Little fox, I’m going to become a Demon Hunter.”
The little fox froze for a moment, as if not understanding what a Demon Hunter was, but it was overjoyed that Bai Shaoyan wasn’t chasing it away and was even speaking to it. Its eyes instantly lit up like starlight, nodding and wagging its tail excitedly at him.
Bai Shaoyan shook his head and, as if guided by some unseen force, reached out to pat its head.
“I’m leaving this place,” he said, gesturing with his hands. “In the future, after I become a Demon Hunter and learn my skills, I’ll hunt down demons and eliminate threats. You’re a demon too. If you dare harm anyone, I won’t show any mercy, understand?” With that, he made a chopping motion with his hand near its neck. The little fox wasn’t frightened at all; instead, it rubbed its head against his hand.
Demons must have good and bad ones too, just like humans.
Thinking this, Bai Shaoyan let the fox stay. That night, the young Bai Shaoyan and the little fox slept side by side. He quietly told it many, many things, just as he would have with his family when his parents were alive. He poured out all the words he had intended to share with his loved ones to the little fox…
The next day, Bai Shaoyan left Lingxia Village. The little fox accompanied him all the way to the ox cart before reluctantly returning to Maoling. Fifteen years passed, and the little fox cultivated a human form and found Bai Shaoyan.
“After that, I left the Jade Capital Pavilion and returned to Lingxia Village, planning to marry Yun Niang.” Bai Shaoyan stopped abruptly at this point.
“What about your leg?” Yan Wuyou asked.
Yun Niang began to sob, choking out, “It’s all my fault. As soon as I cultivated my human form, I rushed down the mountain in a hurry. I accidentally revealed my tail in front of people, and the villagers surrounded me, wanting to kill me. Shaoyan tried to save me, and that’s why they broke his leg—he nearly lost his life!”
“Yun Niang, I’m already dead. Why won’t you believe it?”
Everyone was shocked by these words!
Bai Shaoyan smiled bitterly. “Stop clinging to false hope. Let go.”
“No—” Yun Niang’s voice was filled with anguish. “You did nothing wrong. Why should you pay with your life? Don’t tell me the villagers were innocent. They attacked without even understanding the situation—they’re the ones who deserve to die—”
She turned to look at Lin Yao, as if possessed. “As long as I kill you, as long as I kill you, Shaoyan will live!” With that, a fierce glint flashed in her eyes, and she struggled to lunge at Lin Yao.
Yan Wuyou drew a Talisman and struck her with it. “You know it’s impossible to succeed. Why torment yourself like this?”
Bai Shaoyan watched Yun Niang’s suffering with pity but felt helpless. He could only sigh and continue, “After my leg was broken, Yun Niang’s demonic nature erupted, and she wanted to kill the villagers. I persuaded her not to harm anyone, but her resentment remained. So, she used the Soul-Stealing Demon Art to briefly cloud their minds.”
“In the end, it was my own doing. Not long after my leg was broken, I passed away.”
“Yun Niang refused to accept reality. She forcibly imprisoned my soul within this body, using her own vital essence to sustain my life. But her essence is limited—if this continues, she will inevitably exhaust her energy and die. So she began draining the life force of villagers each month…”
Upon hearing this, He Lian Mingche slammed his palm on the table: “What a sin!”
“No wonder every household kept their doors tightly shut when we entered the village—they were having their souls stolen by a demon…” Xiao Yuanzi murmured.
Lin Yao furrowed her brow: “Then these villagers…”