V2C33

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She had been stabbed, and a chunk of flesh had been cut off from her right arm, yet there was no blood, only a purple mist that could no longer coalesce.

That little girl, there must be something odd on the sword! Vixen stared at the sword in her hand. I don’t know if it was her blurred vision or the oddity of the sword, but there seemed to be a thin layer of silver light covering Xuanji’s body, reflecting her pale cheeks, she didn’t look like a real person.

A sword that can damage her spirit, she’s afraid it’s not a mortal weapon, if they continue to fight with her like this, she will be at a great disadvantage. Once she is vitally damaged, the spirit will be destroyed. With this in mind, the fox rolled on the ground, dodging another stab from Xuanji, and transformed into a purple mist that entered the fox’s body.

Once it returned to its original body, the fox moved and jumped up with an agile flip of its tail, squeaking in panic and trying to runaway towards the door.

How could Xuanji allow her to escape? With a stroke of her finger, her heart moved with her mind, and in a split second, more than a dozen huge fire dragons were summoned, roaring towards the door and blocking the way. Zi Hu, having survived the thirty-six tribulations and not being afraid of water and fire, rushed forward without blinking an eye, but as soon as she touched the fire dragon, she felt a sharp pain and her whole body was burnt.

She screamed, dodged away and looked down to see that a chunk of her beautiful purple hair had been blackened by the fire.

It was Samadhi[1] fire!

The purple fox had no time to wail, but out of the corner of her eye, she saw the ghostly white figure fleeing to her side in the blink of an eye, she ducked her head and ran, but with the fire dragons circling around, there was no way to escape, only anxious squealing.

Feeling the wind behind her, she looked back in despair. The girl in white, her clothes flying, in the light of the fire, the two eyes are deep and bottomless, the face has no trace of an expression.

She knows what people look like when they are angry, they will roar, or cry, or they will turn red and start attacking erratically. She just never saw someone like this, no expression, no emotion, coldly looking at her, as if there was no deep-seated hatred within towards her, she just wanted to kill her, very simple, just kill her.

“I didn’t kill your brother and the others!” Zihu couldn’t hold back her fear any longer and screamed, “No, I didn’t kill! I didn’t kill Zhongli City’s men either! I’ve never killed anyone before! Don’t come near me!”

But it was as if she hadn’t even heard… No, or maybe she had, she tilted her head a little, even with a hint of naivety.

In the next moment, the sword in her hand was raised and was about to pierce her without hesitation.

Zihu closed her eyes in despair, waiting to die.

So what? Her eyes were asking her: So what?

Yes, to kill someone, or a demon, or anything else for that matter, do you need a reason? Do you need it? She was stronger than her, and that was the perfect reason.

The beautiful fur of the purple fox fluttered as the clear sound of wind roared past her ears.

It’s a deadly wind.

She’ll be dead soon.

A pair of hands suddenly passed through the fire dragon and gently picked her up. Then, Ting Nu’s hoarse voice rang out, “Don’t kill her, she hasn’t done anything wrong.”

Xuanji’s action stopped abruptly, and the tip of his sword was pressed against Ting Nu’s heart, just two inches short of piercing it through.

She stared at him in a daze, as if she didn’t know him.

Ting Nu smiled faintly at her and said softly, “Let her go, won’t you?

The sword in Xuanji’s hand fell to the ground with a bang, and she somewhat blankly touched her head, seemingly not knowing where she was. The fire dragons circling around her disappeared in an instant, leaving only black burn marks all over the ground, evidence of the viciousness of Samadhi Fire.

“I…”? Xuanji was still not able to react and looked dumbly at the trembling purple fox shrinking in Ting Nu’s arms, shrinking and crying, she seemed about to faint.

As if he was trying to teach a disobedient child a lesson, Ting Nu slowly stroked the soft and smooth fur of the purple fox and softly said, “Now you know how powerful you are, right? You’re always boasting that no one in the world can take you. In the future, don’t be so capricious. If you want to save him, you can think of other ways.”

Xuanji finally came back to her senses and looked around in confusion. She seemed to remember what had happened, but when she tried to think about it, she couldn’t remember the details. She pointed at the wailing purple fox and mumbled, “Did I beat her up like this?”

Ting Nu smiled bitterly and sighed, “No matter who did it, she lost. Your brother and the others are fine, so they must have escaped themselves. The heavens are merciful, so give her a chance to live.”

“No.” Xuanji’s words made the purple fox shudder again, and she simply rolled her eyes and passed out.

What? It’s not like the demon she imagined. Shouldn’t she be shouting menacingly, “Come and kill me! Let’s see what you can do!”

Ting Nu said, “The men who were captured by her before are all kept in the Yixin Garden at the back of the mountain. She has practiced the art of fox charming, but she is very timid. All day long, she yells about gathering yang, but when she picks them up, they can’t do it, so they end up being kept in the back where she teaches them the way to get rid of the old and accept the new.[2]“

Xuanji was dumbfounded. So, not only is she not a villain, she’s actually a good demon?

“Why didn’t she… say so before? And she doesn’t look like a good person either, she’s never used the technique of harvesting yang and nourishing yin before?

Ting Nu replied, “She is a fox, and it is in her nature to be vague. Although it is said that fox demon spirits are good at harvesting yang and replenishing yin, this is not the only way. If it weren’t for the recent…news of the demon’s arrival, she wouldn’t have abducted men up the mountain. She is timid by nature and does not dare to go up to the captives, but she is reluctant to let them go, so they can only stay in the Yixin Garden. I think that even if you hadn’t come here in the end, your friends and brothers would have been fine.”

Are you serious? Xuanji is very suspicious, but she saw this dead fox abducting people away, and she’s so flirtatious that she doesn’t know if Sifeng and the others are really okay!

Ting Nu smiled, “Trust me, I won’t lie to you.”

Xuanji then nodded, “Alright. Then don’t kill her yet, take her with you. I’ll go find Sixth Brother and the others first, and then go to the Yixin Garden to see if it’s as you said, and then let her go.”

Ting Nu held the fox in his arms and stroked her fur, saying, “Good. You should get our of here as soon as possible, if you leave later, there will be unfortunate.”

What kind of misfortune? Xuanji is getting confused again.

Ting Nu said, “Some other people are also trying to save that demon. They should be here soon.”

※※※※

Zhong Minyan and the others took advantage of the purple fox’s absence to sneak out of the room. The fox’s lair is so large that there are countless forks in the lair, each of which is exactly the same length. The three of them walked around for a long time, before finally realising they were lost.

“This is just like walking through a maze…” exclaimed Ruo’Yu, raising his hand to touch a black iron candlestick. This is the fifth time they have passed this place.

Yu Sifeng, who had fallen under the spell of the Purple Fox and was still unable to move, was being carried on Zhong Minyan’s back, suddenly said, “Make a mark here.”

Ruo’Yu did as he was told and drew a line under the candlestick with the Judges’ brush[2].

“Go left.” When they came to a fork in the road, Yu Sifeng instructed again.

The fork in the road on the left was exactly the same as the marked one, so Ruo’Yu used the judge’s brush to draw two lines under the candlestick there.

Whenever there was a fork in the road, Yu Sifeng ordered to go to the left, and the number of marks made by the judge’s pen increased from one to six or seven. At the end of the journey, Zhong Minyan was tired and wiped his sweat as he sighed, “How many forks are there? This fox’s lair is huge!”

Yu Sifeng looked around and gently said, “We’re almost there, we’ll be able to get out soon. I was right, this is the Nine Palaces Array. All we have to do is to keep turning left and turn right at the ninth fork and we’ll be out of here.”

Zhong Minyan knew that at this critical moment, it was best to listen to Sifeng. He is a brother who is good at both literature and martial arts, as well as good-looking, and he couldn’t help but joke, “I finally understand why your Palace Master asks his students to wear masks to cover their faces. If a man like Sifeng were to walk the streets unmasked, he would make all the young girls follow him to death.”

Ruo’Yu laughed, and Yu Sifeng hummed lightly, not sure if he was shy or angry. After a while, he said, “I don’t know if Xuanji has escaped or not, but it would be great if she could escape with Linglong and wait for us in Zhongli City.”

Zhong Minyan sighed and shook his head, “If she had enough sense to know when to advance and when to retreat, she wouldn’t have been Chu Xuanji. I’m sure she wouldn’t have left. She must have been wandering around and probably gotten lost.”

If it’s really like what Zhong Minyan said, and Xuanji is still here, that’s not good.

Yu Sifeng was in a hurry and whispered, “Wait…no, we have to find Xuanji first.”

But once this was said, the three of them could only stand dumbofunded.

How to find it? This place is simply a huge maze, and they don’t know if Xuanji ran into that fox, but even if they find her, what can the three of them do without their power? It’s just a case of throwing oneself into a trap.

“Let’s go out first. If we confirm that they’re not there, it won’t be too late to come back up.” Ruo’Yu said hesitantly.

“How can we do that? By the time we get back they may already be…!” Zhong Minyan said urgently.

“But what can we do now that we’re helpless?”

“We can’t just let them die!”

After hearing their argument, Yu Sifeng sighed and said, “Minyan, put me down. You guys go out first. I’ll stay here and look for Xuanji and Linglong. Remember to set the signal when you go out, maybe they will see you and come to join us.”

Zhong Minyan saw that he was walking crookedly and said, “How can you find them in such a state? Forget it! Ruo’Yu, you take him out. I’ll find them!”

Yu Sifeng shook his head, “If you don’t know the Nine Palaces, you’ll be trapped inside. I’d rather…….”

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[1]:三昧 (sān mèi) literally ‘three dark/obscure’, is another name for the Buddhist term Samadhi. In Buddhism, it is the last of the eight elements of the Noble Eightfold Path.

[2]: 吐故纳新 (tǔ gù nà xīn) – an idiom which literally means ‘to breathe out stale air and breath in fresh (air)’. Figuratively, it means to let go of the old (ideas, things, etc) and accept the new.

[3]: 判官 笔 (pàn guān bǐ) – pàn guān meaning Judge/Official or Public Servant. bǐ meaning pen or writing brush. Used previously in the chapter The Truth About Qu Ru (2) to draw the Bagua / Eight Trigrams in order to find the demon.

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