The Ninefold Profound Alluring Fox laughed softly. His long, narrow eyes shimmered with moisture, and a faint layer of enchantment seemed to envelop him. The coldness between his brows and eyes melted away in an instant.
He tilted his head slightly. A natural languor entered his expression, lending him a careless air. His red lips parted, and a glimpse of pink tongue swept across his white teeth, enticing anyone who saw him to rush forward and ravish him.
“You… really aren’t tempted by me?” the fox asked slowly. “But I very much want to eat you.”
Madam Ji Xiao recoiled as if facing a mortal enemy. She retreated five or six steps before barely regaining her balance, then tried to sound fierce despite her fear. “I was ordered to come and bathe you. Don’t push your luck!”
The fox laughed even more delightedly. “Ha ha ha. Very well. I won’t make trouble for a hen like you.” Then he fixed his gaze upon Madam Ji Xiao and said gently, “Come over and undress me…”
Madam Ji Xiao closed her eyes briefly and suppressed the tide of desire in her heart before approaching as usual.
Watching from the side, Xu Ziqing was dumbstruck. Every glance and smile exchanged between the Ninefold Profound Alluring Fox and Madam Ji Xiao nearly made his scalp tingle.
He held his senior brother’s hand and believed he had considerable resistance, yet even as an uninvolved bystander he had to admit that this fox was formidable indeed, almost impossible to withstand.
Thinking this, he looked toward Yun Lie, astonishment naturally showing in his eyes.
Yun Lie transmitted, “His beast core is sealed. Otherwise, his power would extend far beyond this.”
Xu Ziqing drew a deep breath and suppressed the tumult in his chest.
Of course. If the fox really could throw the cultivation world into chaos, as his senior brother had said, his abilities surely went far beyond stirring people’s hearts.
Madam Ji Xiao approached and pulled a mechanism beside the stone frame. After several clicking sounds, the chains holding the fox so tightly slowly lengthened and loosened.
The Ninefold Profound Alluring Fox seemed accustomed to the process. He raised his arms slightly and flexed his waist, gradually slipping free of the restraints. He stepped down from the stone frame on his long legs. The chains continued to extend as he moved, but remained securely fastened to his wrists and ankles, granting him only a little freedom of movement.
Every breath and gesture he made was intoxicating. His long hair fell all the way to the backs of his knees like a dark waterfall or a bolt of silk.
Yet neither a waterfall plunging from the heavens in sprays of jade-like droplets nor a lustrous bolt of smooth silk could rival the beauty of his black hair.
The fox walked directly toward the right. An arched doorway opened there, leading to a chamber floored with luxurious beast pelts and lined on both sides with blue-green rock. The whole place seemed exceptionally clean, with an unusual beauty.
At the far end of the pelts was a pool. Spiritual qi surged so abundantly from its waters that it gathered above the surface in the indistinct shapes of strange beasts resembling dragons and foxes, seeming on the verge of solidifying yet ready to dissipate at a touch.
Xu Ziqing was stunned. He had seen many spirit veins and spirit stones, so how could he fail to recognize that this pool, only several dozen chi across, was actually built of spirit stone? By his rough reckoning, it must have consumed most of the enormous spirit stones from a third-rank spirit vein. Yet it was not being used for cultivation, but for bathing! What a colossal waste.
The Ninefold Profound Alluring Fox smiled faintly and stepped straight into the pool.
Once half his body was submerged, he left his black robe on, floating upon the water. His extraordinarily pale skin, warmed by the steam, took on a flush of pink, making his beauty even more striking.
Madam Ji Xiao looked neither left nor right. Kneeling beside the pool with a ladle, she scooped up water to bathe him and used a square cloth to wash his body from head to foot.
The fox lifted his face and smiled. “Won’t you come in?”
Madam Ji Xiao hesitated. Not even daring to remove her clothes, she stepped into the pool opposite him and carefully continued washing his body and hair. She worked conscientiously, her expression growing more solemn. Even so, her face was flushed, and her breath had grown warm and faintly uneven.
The scene was certainly intimate, but whatever allure filled the steamy air, the woman affected by desire in the water did not dare lower her guard for an instant.
The Ninefold Profound Alluring Fox leaned lazily against the pool’s edge. He lifted one finger and gently caressed Madam Ji Xiao’s cheek, tracing down her neck toward her collarbone, where he lingered and stroked. Each movement made her tremble slightly. She washed him faster and faster, longing to finish and leave before she lost control.
The atmosphere grew ever more heated. An unspoken intimacy drifted throughout the room like a lingering fragrance, spreading in delicate strands until it seemed to seep into the bones.
Xu Ziqing watched with his heart pounding. He could not help taking a step backward and repeatedly reciting inwardly, One must not look at what is improper. One must not look… He hurriedly wanted to close his eyes.
Yet for reasons he could not explain, he raised his head again and looked toward his own senior brother.
What he saw was like being drenched in icy water, chilling him to the bone.
His senior brother’s eyes were frozen with frost. Murderous qi surged around him and was almost ready to spill out.
Xu Ziqing was badly startled. Every distracting thought vanished, and he hurriedly released more true essence to conceal their auras even more tightly. If they carelessly let anything leak, how could they expect to escape unharmed?
Thinking this, he immediately squeezed his senior brother’s palm.
Yun Lie’s murderous aura subsided at once.
Xu Ziqing breathed a sigh of relief and smiled when he looked at him.
Yun Lie lowered his eyes slightly and transmitted, “I nearly compromised our undertaking.”
Xu Ziqing was briefly puzzled, then understood.
Because Yun Lie cultivated the Ruthless Slaughter Sword Dao, which froze his seven emotions, he was exceptionally sensitive to unorthodox arts that aroused people’s seven emotions and six desires. Although he could not be seduced by them, resisting such techniques inevitably made his own response more forceful and domineering.
The Ninefold Profound Alluring Fox’s art was too powerful. The longer Yun Lie observed it, the more his killing intent surged. Such a reaction was a natural defensive instinct of sword cultivators who practiced his Dao.
Xu Ziqing was delighted to have been able to help his senior brother for once, though a secret embarrassment soon followed.
If his heart had not already belonged to someone, he might have been unable to resist the Fox King’s power at all. In the end, it was because he had fallen in love with his senior brother first that his mind had remained clear; only because he was clearheaded had he noticed something amiss with Yun Lie…
While this small incident unfolded, Madam Ji Xiao had hurriedly finished bathing the Ninefold Profound Alluring Fox. She looked thoroughly entranced, with only a sliver of clarity left in her eyes.
She dared not linger. Straightening her clothes, she hastily found her way out.
Her footsteps receded, followed by the heavy sound of a door closing, and silence returned.
Steam still filled the chamber. The Fox King slowly straightened in the pool and stood.
His bare white feet rested against the blue-green flagstones, the contrast distinct as flawless jade. His long black hair and black robes clung tightly to him, creating an alluring impression even more provocative than complete nakedness.
Then the Ninefold Profound Alluring Fox raised his eyes and looked directly toward the place where the two martial brothers were concealed.
He smiled and stretched leisurely. “I wonder where my visitors have come from…” His voice held a faint huskiness that made it even more alluring. “…After watching for so long, have you seen enough?”
Xu Ziqing’s heart tightened, but he did not move.
Yun Lie was more experienced than he was and naturally would not be provoked by a single remark.
Nevertheless, the words made them even more wary of the Fox King, especially because his eyes truly were fixed on their hiding place.
The fox did not seem surprised by their silence. He took a couple of steps and said softly, “My inner core is sealed, and I cannot escape by myself. Panshan has imprisoned me here and will give me no opportunity to flee.” He walked over to the bed and sat down, one leg bent. “That is why this chamber is protected by a restriction… No one, whoever they may be, can send their spiritual sense inside.”
The fox’s seductive power was immense, and King Panshan knew his abilities well. Even someone who merely observed him through spiritual sense might be driven to infatuation through his methods. Furthermore, these foxes were a spiritual species born of heaven and earth, innately capable of manipulating others’ seven emotions and six desires. Thus, however remarkable Xu Ziqing’s Wood-Escape Aura-Concealment Art might be, the fox had detected the change in his emotions earlier.
Having heard this explanation, Xu Ziqing remained suspicious but began to waver.
Yun Lie sent his spiritual sense outward. As expected, the moment it touched the chamber’s outer boundary, it immediately dissolved and could go no farther. That ring of resistance was plainly the restriction that also prevented spiritual senses from outside from entering.
Only then did Yun Lie say aloud, rather than by spiritual transmission, “Ziqing, release the art.”
Hearing Yun Lie’s voice, the Ninefold Profound Alluring Fox raised his brow slightly. “Oh?”
Xu Ziqing obeyed and quickly dispelled the technique.
Their two figures were revealed at once.
The fox’s gaze lingered briefly on their clasped hands.
Even so, Xu Ziqing did not let go.
If anything untoward occurred here, he still had to be ready, did he not?
But the Ninefold Profound Alluring Fox only looked for a moment. His eyes then fell upon Xu Ziqing’s shoulder, and his smile broadened. “So it was my child who brought you here… Our blood qi is connected. No wonder she was able to find me.”
Xu Ziqing froze. Was Xue’er really his child? With that thought, he withdrew the Qingyun Needle from Hu Xue’er.
To his surprise, the next instant a shrill scream erupted from his shoulder. A white streak shot outward like lightning, rushing straight at the Ninefold Profound Alluring Fox!
Over the last six months Hu Xue’er, as a rare species, had already grown sharp little claws. But Xu Ziqing had not wanted this spirit beast to taste blood so young, and she had never truly used them. Now she bared those claws, and a trace of bloodred light appeared in her eyes!
Xu Ziqing was astonished. What was going on?
He could not help looking at his senior brother. Yun Lie shook his head slightly, evidently no wiser.
Xu Ziqing prepared himself to respond if the Fox King attacked.
But the young fox did not succeed.
The Ninefold Profound Alluring Fox lifted one hand and struck. The chain around his wrist rang sharply as he knocked Hu Xue’er away!