Chapter Nine: The Fox Demon

Gradually, my consciousness grew more and more blurred, to the point where I had lost the ability to think altogether.

I remembered often hearing people say that, when facing death, the mind would be flooded with beautiful memories.

As expected...

It was all a lie. When true death approaches, there is no time to think of anything else.

The only feeling that remains is panic.

No one can truly face life and death calmly; at best, it is a pretense.

At this moment, I was only a step away from death, my soul ready to depart from my body.

Yet, just as I surrendered completely, golden light burst forth from my body.

In an instant, Old Jiang was blown away by the golden glow, and even the ghost woman standing nearby was not spared.

They both collided with the walls of the interrogation room and then crashed to the floor.

Who was Old Jiang? With a single hand braced against the ground, he launched himself toward me once more.

Yes, notice my choice of words—he flew toward me.

Mid-air, Old Jiang clasped his palms together, joined his index fingers, and again aimed for the center of my brow.

Just as he touched my brow, golden light erupted again. No matter how hard Old Jiang tried, he could not harm me in the slightest.

At the same time, my consciousness rapidly recovered, and my bloodied eyes flashed with two fierce red beams.

Old Jiang, seeing this, hurriedly dodged, but he was unlucky—he got struck on his left shoulder by the red light.

Disheveled and battered, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, Old Jiang retreated and stared at me, as if pondering something.

The ghost woman’s gaze was also full of confusion as she looked at me.

Even I didn’t know what had suddenly made me so powerful; I secretly wondered if it was the Nine Palace Nether Arts showing their might.

Faced with my sudden outburst, Old Jiang dared not act rashly for a while. After calculating with his fingers, his expression suddenly changed dramatically, his face full of disbelief, and he muttered to himself,

“This is impossible, impossible.”

Old Jiang seemed unwilling to accept the result and calculated again twice, but the outcome remained the same.

The ghost woman, seeing Old Jiang like this, was surprised. She had followed him for over a hundred years, but had never seen such a reaction.

Unable to contain her curiosity, she asked Old Jiang,

“Mr. Jiang, what’s wrong?”

Old Jiang shook his head, still staring at me in silence.

After a long while, he seemed to finally accept reality, sighed deeply, and said to the ghost woman,

“He’s the one we’ve been searching for.”

The ghost woman was stunned, her face filled with disbelief. She pointed at me and asked,

“Him?”

Old Jiang nodded, saying nothing more.

I understood roughly what they meant—it seemed they had been searching for me all along.

The ghost woman walked around me, as if trying to discover something unusual.

Since I knew she and Old Jiang were together, my guard against her heightened, even though she had saved me last night—Old Jiang had nearly killed me just now.

I resolved that, should the ghost woman make a move against me, I would not show mercy. After all, people are selfish; I am no saint, and anything that threatens my life must be eliminated.

At this thought, I frowned. Why was I thinking this way? I remembered I wasn’t like this before—now I was prone to violent thoughts.

As I calmed myself and reflected, I realized my personality had changed completely since returning from the Underworld.

The old me would never have had the courage to venture out late at night.

What had happened to me? Could it be, as Old Jiang said, that the Emperor had given me the “Crimson Demon Eyes,” which would slowly erode me?

The ghost woman seemed disappointed, unable to find anything special about me, and returned to Old Jiang’s side.

Old Jiang said to me helplessly, “Let’s go. It seems we can only take you to see my master; only he can save you.”

I shot Old Jiang a glare and retorted, “Are you crazy? Do you really take me for a fool? You can’t kill me, so you want to trick me into seeing your master and let him finish the job?”

At this, Old Jiang’s nose twisted in anger, his beard bristling as he snapped,

“How can you be so ungrateful, unable to tell good from bad?”

“Are you a good person? Who just nearly killed me?” I replied, equally annoyed.

Old Jiang flung his hand in fury and snorted,

“Let’s go, Wei Yan. This one is beyond saving—let him slowly turn into a demon.”

So the ghost woman’s name was Wei Yan. No wonder she was so beautiful—with a name as lovely as that.

Wei Yan said to Old Jiang,

“Mr. Jiang, isn’t that unwise? We went through so much trouble to find him—are we just going to give up? How will we explain this to your master?”

Then, Wei Yan turned to me and said,

“I think you misunderstand Mr. Jiang. He means no harm. There are things we cannot tell you yet, but you will understand in time.”

She continued,

“Are you curious about who I am? Actually, I am a fox spirit, but I can assure you, if you come with us, you will not be harmed.”

Wei Yan’s sincere eyes and flawless, delicate face made her irresistible—I could not bear to refuse her.

No wonder people say beauty is a dangerous thing, that even heroes cannot resist a beautiful woman.

Even though Wei Yan was a fox spirit, I found myself taken in by her.

Instinctively, I asked how long I would need to go; if it was too long, I wouldn’t agree, since my cousin would worry if she didn’t see me.

Wei Yan smiled slightly, as if pleased with herself,

“Don’t worry, it won’t be long. As for your cousin, I can have one of my sisters disguise themselves as you for a while.”

Disguise? How would that work? I asked, puzzled.

Wei Yan chuckled, “You don’t even know about the art of transformation? That’s one of the fox spirits’ signature abilities.”

I had always thought Wei Yan was a ghost—never expected her to be a fox spirit. Once again, my understanding of the world was reshaped.

It seems this vast world holds countless mysteries and unimaginable things.

If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, who would believe that monsters truly exist?

Wei Yan, seeing I had no intention of replying, remained unembarrassed. She came to my side, extending a fair, jade-like hand,

“It’s a pleasure to meet you. My name is Lin Wei Yan—you may call me Wei Yan, or Yan’er.”

Looking at her delicate hand, I suddenly felt awkward about shaking it and replied shyly,

“Hello, I’m Chu Yun.”

Old Jiang, not far away, sounded impatient as he urged us,

“Enough, stop dawdling. Let’s hurry. If we’re late, my master will go into seclusion.”