At midnight, shadows crowded the trees on the rear mountain. A pale blue foxfire drifted through the forest, now near, now far. Looking closely, one would see a little red fox, not even knee-high to a person, carrying a lantern. It wore a glittering golden robe and had a bundle on its back even larger than itself.
The little fox hid behind a tree and poked its head out. “Young Master~ Young Master~ I’m here~”
“Shut up.” Xiao Chunhe brought a fist down on its head. “Are you trying to wake every fox on this mountain?”
The little fox turned to look at Xiao Chunhe, who had appeared at some point without its noticing, and clutched its head aggrievedly. “I was already being really careful.”
“Did you bring everything?” Xiao Chunhe asked.
“Everything!” The little fox untied its bundle and offered it up like a treasure. “The little cloth fox from your room, Young Master, your Yingshi Token, the fan needles dipped in deadly poison, the gold-thread soft armor no blade can pierce, the cloak that hides demonic qi… Oh, and your favorite pillow.”
Xiao Chunhe crouched beside it in front of the bundle, picked up the little cloth fox, and held it beneath his nose to sniff.
The little fox leaned over and sniffed too. “There’s no smell. I aired it in the sun for you.”
“Who told you to air it?” Xiao Chunhe glared at it. “My wife’s scent is gone.”
The little fox said, “No it isn’t. Last time you got drunk and hugged it while crying, your tears already covered up the scent of that human.”
Xiao Chunhe grabbed the cloth fox by the tail and whacked it over the head with it. “Are you still drunk?”
The little fox hugged its head, rolled onto its back, and exposed its belly in surrender. “I was wrong, I was wrong!”
“Tsk. Stop acting so foxlike. Have some human dignity,” Xiao Chunhe scolded.
The little fox said, “But I am a fox.”
“All right. I don’t need you anymore. Go back.” Xiao Chunhe tied up the bundle and slung it over his shoulder.
“Young Master, why are you suddenly packing? Are you going far away?” The little fox pattered after him on all fours, sticking close to his feet and looking worried. “Did you get the heart of that child at Xingyang Temple? Does your ankle still hurt?”
Xiao Chunhe stopped and looked at it in annoyance. “Why are you so long-winded? Go, go, go.”
“I can’t! The clan leader told me to take good care of you. If you travel far away, what will happen to your illness?” The little fox was close to tears. “What will you do on the fifteenth of every month without the clan formation protecting you?”
Xiao Chunhe grabbed it by one ear and lifted it up. The ghostly blue fire lit his handsome face into something sinister and frightening. “Say one more word and I’ll eat you right now.”
The little fox shuddered in fear. “Then what about Yue Jingming? Young Master, weren’t you going to kill him?”
Xiao Chunhe’s face fell at once. “Of course I’m going to kill him. Actually, not killing him would be fine too. In any case, not now. I really do like him a little… I have my own plans.”
The little fox covered its mouth in astonishment. “Heavens, you like Yue Jingming?!”
“I like him today. Maybe the day after tomorrow, or the day after that, I won’t anymore,” Xiao Chunhe said with complete confidence. “What you can’t have always seems best. Instead of killing him now, then thinking about him forever and turning it into a knot in my heart, I might as well get him first and have my fill. Once I’m about to tire of him, I’ll strike and kill him. That way I won’t develop a heart demon that interferes with my cultivation.”
The little fox was almost dizzy from following his logic. “That… that actually sounds reasonable.”
“Hmph. Being human and being a fox are not the same. Human hearts are hard.” Xiao Chunhe narrowed his eyes cunningly.
Of the countless people in this world, how many truly loved one another? How many stayed together until their hair turned white? They would only end up sick of the sight of each other in the end, so why should he force himself to suppress what he wanted? He refused to believe that with his ability, he could not suppress this demon-gu.
“Go tell the clan leader I’m traveling far away to gain experience. If he asks about my illness, tell him I’m going precisely to look for the cure, so he doesn’t need to worry. Go!” Xiao Chunhe lifted the little fox and hurled it far into the woods. Fox and lantern turned into a point of light that gradually disappeared.
Footsteps approached. Xiao Chunhe vigorously kneaded the bundle, breathed out, and the enormous bundle instantly shrank until it could hang at his waist.
“What are you doing here?” Yue Jingming’s voice sounded behind him.
“Couldn’t sleep. Came out to calm my mind.” Xiao Chunhe turned around. “Why aren’t you sleeping either?”
“There was demonic qi on the rear mountain. I came to look.” Yue Jingming swept his gaze over him. Only after confirming nothing was wrong did his grip on his sword loosen slightly.
Xiao Chunhe smiled at him. The Daoist had probably come out in a hurry, wearing only a simple white robe, with his hair unusually let down and tied loosely behind his head. There was even a faint pillow mark on his habitually cold, handsome face, softening him by several degrees.
“Well, you actually didn’t meditate tonight?” Xiao Chunhe walked to his side and, as expected, caught the faint scent of pine.
“After sending dead souls onward, one picks up ghost qi. I need to bathe, burn incense, and recuperate.” Yue Jingming turned with his sword in hand. “Let’s go.”
Moonlight spilled across his face like silver frost, his nose casting a sliver of shadow. Xiao Chunhe walked beside him and stared for a while before suddenly poking the corner of his jaw. “Brother Jingming, you have a mole here.”
Yue Jingming turned to look at him, faint puzzlement in his eyes.
“Right under the bone. You can’t see it in a mirror.” Xiao Chunhe stretched and naturally draped an arm over his shoulder. “Hey, am I the first person to discover it?”
Yue Jingming tilted his head to look at the hand on his shoulder. “Take it off.”
“Don’t be so stingy.” Xiao Chunhe grinned. “Or do you simply not trust yourself, and think I can steal your soul just by doing this?”
He deliberately leaned in extremely close, brushing his nose against the strands of Yue Jingming’s hair beside his cheek, then murmured, “You even washed your hair. It smells so good.”
Yue Jingming abruptly tightened his grip on his sword and turned his head to glare at him. “You…”
“Come on, come on. I want to go back to sleep.” Xiao Chunhe straightened and pushed him forward by the shoulders. “I’m exhausted, I’m exhausted.”
Yue Jingming let himself be pushed along, then frowned and looked back. “Do not push me.”
“I have to. If I stop pushing you, I won’t be able to stop myself from kissing you.” Xiao Chunhe applied a little more force. “Out here with the sky as our canopy and the earth as our bed, if we start burning like dry kindling again, it would be terribly improper.”
Yue Jingming: “…”
The next morning.
Yue Jingming opened his eyes and found himself staring straight at the little cloth fox sitting obediently on his pillow. The stitched scar along its tail was still there, but someone had sewn a tiny orange pendant onto one ear.
The little red fox bobbed its head at him, then was lifted away, revealing Xiao Chunhe’s dazzlingly beautiful face. Propping his head up with one hand and holding the little fox in the other, he said brightly, “Morning, Brother Jingming.”
Yue Jingming shot upright. “Why are you in my bed?”
“You didn’t lock the door, and the window was open, so I came in.” Xiao Chunhe looked baffled. “You never said I wasn’t allowed.”
The room was saturated with the fox demon’s rich fragrance. Yue Jingming rubbed his brow with a headache.
“Here’s your little fox back. You’re not allowed to throw it away again.” Xiao Chunhe placed the cloth fox on his shoulder and lightly hopped off the bed. “Otherwise I really will get angry.”
He lowered his head and sniffed his own clothes. Only after confirming that he had picked up plenty of pine fragrance did he stretch in satisfaction, open the door, and walk out refreshed. “Morning, Brother Liang!”
“M-morning.” Liang Yun stared at him coming out of Yue Jingming’s room. Surprise gave way to sudden understanding. “You two made up again?”
“What married couple carries a quarrel overnight?” Xiao Chunhe said smugly. “My Jingming is the most reasonable person in the world.”
Yue Jingming picked up the little cloth fox and silently sighed.
This fox demon… truly was difficult to deal with.
*
“Treasure? Oh, Brother Xiao, you mean this.” Liang Yun took a box made of pure gold from inside his robes. Dozens of enormous colored gemstones were set into its surface.
Xiao Chunhe’s eyes instantly went straight.
Yue Jingming pressed down the paw that was already itching to move.
“Ahem. I’m only looking.” Xiao Chunhe cleared his throat. “What’s inside?”
“The greatest treasure under Heaven,” Liang Yun said mysteriously. “I wouldn’t show it to ordinary people, but we brothers have been through life and death together, so I’ll let you take a look.”
He carefully manipulated the mechanism on the box and slowly opened it, revealing the treasure’s true form. Lying inside was… a copper spoon.
“This is the greatest treasure under Heaven?” Xiao Chunhe asked suspiciously.
“Don’t judge it by its appearance. They say it contains the secret to eternal youth and immortality.” Liang Yun lowered his voice. “His Majesty has always sought immortals and pursued the Dao. This treasure suits his wishes perfectly. My mission this time is extremely important.”
The instant he finished speaking, the Myriad Demons Scroll on Yue Jingming suddenly grew scorching hot and began stirring as though trying to escape.
“What’s happening?” Xiao Chunhe pulled out the compass he had stolen back from Yue Jingming. The palm-sized compass was trembling nonstop.
Three invisible currents of true qi suddenly whipped chaotically through the room, instantly knocking tables, chairs, and stools everywhere.
“Ow!” Xiao Chunhe cried out and released the compass. It flew away, then shot straight back and nearly struck him.
Yue Jingming raised an arm to shield him behind his body. The Myriad Demons Scroll actually flew out of his sleeve as well. After a burst of total chaos, the three surging currents of true qi gradually settled.
Liang Yun climbed off the floor with a bruised face and looked darkly at Yue Jingming. “Brother Yue, you could at least have shielded me too.”
Yue Jingming said, “Sorry. I didn’t have time.”
“Look.” Xiao Chunhe clung to Yue Jingming’s shoulder and pointed at the center of the wreckage.
Yue Jingming followed his finger. The Myriad Demons Scroll floated upright in midair. The compass hung motionless before it, while the copper spoon floated above the compass. Somehow, the three objects had formed a strange state of equilibrium.
“What is going on?” Liang Yun stared. “These three things look…”
“Like parts of one mechanism.” Xiao Chunhe rubbed his chin and came closer. “This compass is a keepsake my mother left me. With a particular spell, it can supposedly find any demon I want to find. It’s just never actually worked.”
“Never worked?” Yue Jingming gave him a long, dark look.
Back when Xiao Chunhe had given him the compass, he had sworn that it could locate the moyao. That, too, had apparently been a lie.
“Haha. We didn’t know each other very well back then.” Xiao Chunhe laughed dryly.
Liang Yun asked, “Then what is this blank scroll?”
“The Myriad Demons Scroll my master gave me. It can sense the demonic qi of great demons. I carry it for protection,” Yue Jingming said.
Almost simultaneously, the compass and copper spoon trembled. Black lines slowly emerged across the formerly blank Myriad Demons Scroll.
Xiao Chunhe leaned in for a closer look. “It looks like a map?”
“Hey, something else is appearing!” Liang Yun pointed to the southeast corner of the scroll. The spoon’s handle was pointing southeast as well.
Two sections in the southeast of the map brightened. In one appeared images of a fish demon and a painted-skin demon; in the other appeared two foxes. All of the images gave off a murky white glow.
“Those are the two monsters from Jiarong County and the fox-demon siblings from Dengling.” Xiao Chunhe suddenly realized what he was seeing. After a moment of thought, he said, “These are all demons you subdued. Why are they appearing on the scroll?”
Yue Jingming frowned.
“There’s another one here. That’s the snake demon, I recognize it!” Liang Yun pointed to an inconspicuous corner. “There’s an image of the snake demon here too.”
“Step back.” Yue Jingming formed seals with both hands and poured more true qi into the compass and copper spoon.
Soon, as they filled with true qi, the copper spoon shook more and more violently. More and more blurred images began appearing across the Myriad Demons Scroll until they nearly covered the entire thing. Aside from the few demons Yue Jingming had subdued, whose images glowed white, all the others gave off black qi in varying shades. One location was darker than all the rest, the black qi pouring from it so heavily it almost seemed capable of drowning the room.
Liang Yun and Xiao Chunhe were too shocked to speak.
“Are all of these great demons?” Xiao Chunhe murmured. “How can there be so many?”
Liang Yun said, “If the image of that snake demon marks Changyu County, then the place with the densest black qi must be…”
“The capital.” Yue Jingming’s expression was grave.
“Could the moyao be in the capital?” Xiao Chunhe asked.
“His Majesty is in the capital. How would that thing you call a moyao dare?” Liang Yun said anxiously. “Isn’t this supposed to hide the secret of immortality?”
“If immortality were so easy, would your family ancestor have been willing to offer this thing to the emperor?” Xiao Chunhe scoffed.
“Well, of course not,” Liang Yun said with complete righteousness.
Ye Shijiu pushed open the door and came in, staring in shock and confusion at the bizarre scene before him before raising his hands to sign.
The three grown men did not know sign language and had no idea what he was saying. They merely looked at one another, then nodded in unison.
Liang Yun said, “Let’s try it. Maybe it really can find him.”
“That would also confirm whether this scroll truly can locate demons,” Xiao Chunhe agreed with a nod.
Yue Jingming took out two glowing green beads. “You gave me these back then. Perhaps they will work.”
“Ah, Cen Shuang’s eyeballs.” Xiao Chunhe flicked his fan. “If we really can find him, we can find a clue to the moyao.”
Liang Yun slapped the table. “Count me in. Even if I have to give up presenting this treasure, I still have to eliminate a menace to the people. We cannot let that villain roam free!”
Yue Jingming placed the two beads into the copper spoon. Compass and spoon began trembling together, while the Myriad Demons Scroll rustled violently in the wind they stirred. A moment later, the spoon handle pointed straight toward the center of the scroll. Beneath the black qi, the faint outline of a savage ghost face could be seen.
“This place is…” Liang Yun’s eyes lit up. “Zhongzhou!”
Xiao Chunhe smacked his folded fan into his palm. “Then we go to Zhongzhou.”
Both men turned to Yue Jingming at the same time. Yue Jingming said, “This time, no matter what, Cen Shuang must die.”
Ye Shijiu strained to read their lips, looking utterly lost.
Xiao Chunhe tapped him on the head with his fan and summed it up succinctly. “Come on. Your big brothers are taking you to get revenge.”
Liang Yun threw an arm around his shoulders, brimming with righteous indignation. “I’ll say it for you. If we do not avenge this blood feud, we swear we are not men!”
Ye Shijiu looked past him toward Yue Jingming. The kindhearted but icy Daoist did not object at all. Instead, he nodded.
Ye Shijiu looked at the three men before him. Amid his bewilderment and disbelief, his nose suddenly stung with emotion.
“Let’s go.”
The west wind swept down the leaves, white frost blanketed the earth, and beneath an azure sky distant mountains rolled away into the horizon. Several swift horses raced out of Changyu County and galloped all the way toward Zhongzhou.