An old man with a white beard landed in front of Xiao Chunhe. His expression was kindly, and he wore a smile. “Young Master of the red-fox clan, this old man is Bai Su of the white-fox clan. Your mother, Xiao Ning, Clan Chief Xiao Wen of the red foxes, and I were the closest of friends.”
Xiao Chunhe’s expression was unfriendly. “Never heard of you.”
“Back then, your mother borrowed a great deal of demonic power from me to save you. I had no choice but to enter seclusion to recover. I only just emerged and learned that you betrayed Zixu Mountain.” Bai Su sighed. “Xiao Wen has always been softhearted. I have also heard about the sins you’ve committed. Child, it is not too late to turn back from the wrong path.”
Xiao Chunhe: “Old bastard, mind your own damn business!”
Bai Su: “You—”
Xiao Chunhe sneered. “Your white foxes have practically all been captured, and you still have the leisure to meddle in red-fox affairs!”
Bai Su snapped, “You don’t know what’s good for you!”
The moment the words left his mouth, Bai Su transformed into an enormous nine-tailed white fox and lunged ferociously at Xiao Chunhe.
Ye Shijiu glanced over in alarm. “That fox is huge!”
Xiao Chunhe’s demon form was already enormous, but the nine-tailed white fox before him was more than three times Xiao Chunhe’s size. Demonic qi surged around it as it opened its jaws, seemingly ready to swallow Xiao Chunhe whole.
Xiao Chunhe gave a cold snort and flicked his fan, shooting poisoned needles outward. To his surprise, demonic qi protected the white fox, slicing the needles cleanly in half. The fox bit straight down at Xiao Chunhe, only for the “Xiao Chunhe” in its mouth to dissolve into crimson charm incense. The white fox hurriedly spat it out, and “Xiao Chunhe” became a hard stone.
“Phantom stone!” Xiao Chunhe called from the distance. The stone shot straight back into his hand. He gave a provocative smile. “Old bastard, fooled you, didn’t I?”
After being disrespected again and again, Bai Su’s anger burned even hotter. There was no possibility he would let Xiao Chunhe go now, and he immediately gave chase.
Seeing this, Yue Jingming landed and set Liang Yun down. “Brother Liang, leave quickly.”
Liang Yun said anxiously, “No! You’re at your weakest right now. If your yuan core gets swallowed, everything will have been for nothing!”
“It will be fine.” Yue Jingming handed him several talismans. “These conceal your aura. Demons will not be able to sense you for the time being.”
“Brother Jingming!” Liang Yun could only watch as Yue Jingming raced toward Xiao Chunhe and the nine-tailed white fox. He stomped his feet in frustration.
“Master, I’m coming with you!”
“Eldest Senior Brother, wait for me!”
Ye Shijiu and Fang Jingyi spoke at the same time, only to stop in unison.
“There are two little Daoists here too.” A child who looked no more than six or seven landed on a tree branch with a grin. “Seventeen- or eighteen-year-old Daoists taste the best. Not too fat, not too stringy. Perfectly balanced.”
“Man-Eating Child, leave this one to me.” Feng Qingying pointed at Ye Shijiu. “He’s ruined things for me several times.”
The Man-Eating Child rubbed his hands impatiently. “Fine, fine. Take whichever one you want. Hurry up and finish them so we can go help Old Bai, or we won’t get a share of Yue Jingming’s Golden Core. That old fox loves hogging everything for himself.”
Feng Qingying said, “With a disturbance this big, we’re hardly the only group after his Golden Core. Tonight should be entertaining.”
“Don’t even think about it!” Ye Shijiu drew his sword and charged.
Feng Qingying had restored a good deal of her cultivation with precious medicines, but facing Ye Shijiu still shocked her. “Your cultivation has increased this much in only a few days?!”
Ye Shijiu grinned.
He forced Feng Qingying back several zhang. She stared in disbelief. “How is this possible? What did you do?!”
“Obviously this Daoist Master is naturally gifted!” Ye Shijiu slung the sword up, leapt into the air, gripped it in both hands, and chopped straight down at her. “Die!”
Fang Jingyi looked at the jade-white, adorable little child before him and could not quite bring himself to attack. “Hurry up and leave. A little kid shouldn’t get mixed up in something like this.”
“This venerable one is old enough to be your grandfather!” The Man-Eating Child suddenly attacked and lunged at him.
Fang Jingyi instinctively raised an arm to block. The child bit straight into it. His crooked saw-like teeth were razor sharp, and Fang Jingyi felt a burst of agony as his arm was instantly torn bloody. At once he stopped caring whether the opponent looked like a child and kicked hard at the boy’s stomach.
To his horror, the child’s belly transformed into a massive bloody maw and snapped toward his leg. Fang Jingyi went pale, already too late to dodge, when a heavy sword dropped from above and smashed the child to the ground.
Fang Jingyi hurried backward, still horrified, and turned to find Liang Yun wearing the exact same expression.
“B-Brother Liang?” Fang Jingyi said shakily. “Th-thank you for saving me.”
“N-n-no need to thank me.” Liang Yun’s face was paper-white. The arm he had used with all his strength to throw the heavy sword was still trembling violently.
Seeing the Man-Eating Child getting back to his feet, Fang Jingyi hurriedly said, “Find somewhere to hide. Leave this to us!”
Liang Yun nodded repeatedly, turned, and ran.
Elsewhere.
Xiao Chunhe watched Bai Su closing in and cursed inwardly. He stopped short and transformed into an enormous red fox. Yet compared with the nine-tailed white fox before him, he was much smaller. Worse, on the fifteenth he had released a great deal of blood into the formation, leaving only a thin layer of demonic qi around his body.
But the red fox’s eyes were full of viciousness and battle intent. The demon-gu, dormant for so long, finally surged toward his heart again. Hideous black veins instantly spread over his body. He glared savagely at the white fox before him, a warning growl rumbling in his throat.
Bai Su looked at him and said, “Xiao Ning really did give you the Saintess bloodline. You are a monster.”
Xiao Chunhe’s eyes turned bloodred. He opened his jaws and lunged for Bai Su’s throat.
Bai Su’s demonic power was profound. One paw struck straight at Xiao Chunhe’s chest. Xiao Chunhe cried out in pain but fought even more fiercely, biting hard into Bai Su’s foreleg and instantly pouring charm poison into his body. Bai Su gave a cold snort. “Petty tricks.”
Xiao Chunhe was violently flung away and crashed through more than a dozen thick trees. Bai Su had clearly noticed the old wound in his chest and struck there again. Xiao Chunhe still did not dodge. He narrowed his eyes, prepared to trade injury for injury, when at the critical moment the Clear Breeze Sword dropped from the sky and blocked Bai Su’s blow. Yue Jingming immediately leapt onto Xiao Chunhe’s back.
Xiao Chunhe froze and twisted his head toward the Daoist on his back. “Didn’t I tell you to run first?”
Yue Jingming had only just broken through and had already forcibly taken a blow from a nine-tailed white fox. His face was deathly pale, yet he still had the leisure to stroke the thick fur on Xiao Chunhe’s back. “I was worried about you.”
The fox seemed thinner than before. Even the red-orange fur felt a little rougher beneath his hand.
The bristling fox demon: “…Stop petting me!”
Without the slightest hesitation, Yue Jingming transferred much of the spiritual qi he had just accumulated into him. “If we fight together, we may still have a chance. If we separate, I’m afraid we’ll simply be defeated one by one.”
Xiao Chunhe stood on all fours with a sour fox face and snorted irritably. But he could not deny that with Yue Jingming on his back, he felt overwhelmingly reassured.
I want to bury this stinking Daoist in my belly fur and lick him senseless.
The spiritual qi accumulated from a newly formed Golden Core was incomparably precious. The red fox, previously at a disadvantage, suddenly grew larger. Its dull fur began to shine brilliantly as demonic qi gathered continuously around Xiao Chunhe. He absorbed Yue Jingming’s spiritual qi without hesitation. When he lifted his head again, he had become an enormous, majestic fox blazing all over with golden light, making even the nine-tailed white fox before him look diminished.
“Daoist, have you gone mad?” Bai Su cried in shock. “That is the most precious spiritual qi from your Golden Core! Giving it to this half-demon is nothing but a waste!”
Yue Jingming said heavily, “He is my Dao companion. What is mine is his.”
The golden fox lashed its tail and lifted its chin arrogantly. It sneered, “Old bastard, you dare try to steal my Dao companion’s Golden Core? Even I couldn’t bear to steal it and eat it!”
The instant he finished speaking, he shot toward Bai Su like lightning. Yue Jingming gripped the fur at the back of his neck and immediately began circulating qi to control his sword.
“Put it away!” Xiao Chunhe barked. “As long as I’m here, you’re not dying!”
Immediately after forming a Golden Core, the meridians throughout the body were at their youngest and most fragile. They had to be nourished by spiritual qi for several days before normal circulation could resume, much less be forced into a life-and-death battle with a great demon. If Yue Jingming forcibly circulated power now, he could cause irreversible damage. That was exactly why so many demons had rushed here to seize the Golden Core. Once Yue Jingming recovered, none of them would be his match.
Xiao Chunhe had only read a little about forming a Golden Core, but he understood that much. Otherwise he would never have told Yue Jingming to leave first.
He moved swiftly, dodging Bai Su’s increasingly violent attacks. Yue Jingming touched the talismanic markings Xiao Chunhe had left at the center of his chest. “Chunhe, I need to alter the markings on you.”
“What?!” In the middle of the fight, Xiao Chunhe flicked an ear in confusion and nearly turned his head, almost getting killed by Bai Su’s next strike. Cold sweat instantly broke out over him, forcing him to focus completely on the old demon in front of him.
Even with the spiritual qi from the Golden Core helping him, the gap between a half-demon red fox and a nine-tailed white fox was too great to bridge. If this continued, they would simply be worn down until they died.
Yue Jingming stopped hesitating. He bit the pad of his middle finger and silently recited an incantation, quickly altering the markings on his own chest. Dazzling golden light flowed along the red thread connecting the center of his chest to Xiao Chunhe’s, surging into Xiao Chunhe and changing the corresponding markings there as well.
In the middle of battle, Xiao Chunhe suddenly felt an immensely powerful current of golden “true qi” pour into him. The golden qi swept tyrannically through his meridians and flooded madly into his dantian. He was horrified, but with part of his attention still occupied by Bai Su, the golden qi forced its way through. It spiraled powerfully around his demon core, mending the cracks in that turbid, blackened demon core one by one, after which a vast flood of true qi poured through every limb and bone as though it cost nothing at all.
Faint thunder rumbled in the sky.
Before Bai Su could react, the red fox seized his tail in its jaws and hurled him away.
Bai Su was not the only one caught off guard. Xiao Chunhe himself froze in shock. He tentatively pressed one paw against the ground, and the entire mountain began shaking uncontrollably.
He turned toward Yue Jingming. “What happened to my demon core?”
Yue Jingming soothed him by stroking the back of his neck. “I formed a Dao-companion bond with you. This way, I can share half my Golden Core with you, and I can use your demon core as well. You can also help protect my meridians. Then we can fight together.”
The huge fox before him stared with its mouth hanging open. “I… you… You’re insane. You really are insane.”
“If I did not do this, neither of us would survive today.” Yue Jingming motioned for him to look ahead.
Xiao Chunhe turned. The nine-tailed white fox was slowly getting back to its feet, and behind it appeared more than a dozen pairs of greedy, sinister fox eyes. Worse still, foxes were not the only threat. Great demons were closing in from every direction, surrounding the man and fox in the center.
Xiao Chunhe’s entire body went taut, the fur on his tail standing on end. Through gritted teeth he asked, “With this bond, can we beat them?”
Yue Jingming gripped the fur at the back of his neck tightly and answered calmly, “You have four legs. We can outrun them.”
“I—” Xiao Chunhe cursed, opened his jaws, and spat out a cloud of charm incense. While the demons were thrown into confusion, he turned and bolted into the sky.
These experienced great demons naturally had no intention of letting them escape. Some had already prepared to intercept them in midair. Yue Jingming immediately formed seals and chanted, borrowed Xiao Chunhe’s demon core, and scattered a handful of talismans. The yellow paper exploded the moment it touched demonic power. The Clear Breeze Sword followed close behind, blocking one attack after another.
Xiao Chunhe fled while exchanging techniques with the pursuing demons. Even supported by Yue Jingming’s Golden Core spiritual qi and half of the Golden Core itself, their spiritual qi, true qi, and demonic qi all ran short. In more than twenty years of life, this was the first time he had ever been chased so miserably, and also the first time he had ever run this hard.
If I don’t run hard, I die!
“If you hadn’t forced this damned Dao-companion bond on me, at worst only you would have died!” the enormous fox cursed while running. “Now look at this. I can’t get away at all!”
Yue Jingming continued casting techniques as he said, “Dao companions are supposed to share life and death.”
“This is forced buying and selling!” Xiao Chunhe shouted. “I never agreed to this Dao-companion bond. You tricked me into marriage!”
A blast of demonic qi came toward them. Xiao Chunhe ducked, and Yue Jingming immediately flattened himself against the fox’s back, disappearing into the fur. A cold gleam followed. Bai Su, now in human form, descended from the sky and struck straight toward Yue Jingming’s dantian.
“Chunhe!” Yue Jingming shouted.
“Got it!” Xiao Chunhe whipped his tail. With a poof, he transformed into human form and summoned the phantom stone, throwing it to Yue Jingming.
Yue Jingming caught the phantom stone and slapped two illusion talismans onto it. Borrowing Xiao Chunhe’s demonic qi, he instantly constructed an enormous illusion realm. Xiao Chunhe then used Yue Jingming’s No-Thought One-Mind Art, pouring countless thoughts into the illusion. The demons pursuing them were caught off guard and swept inside.
“We delayed too long. Go!” Yue Jingming held out a hand.
Xiao Chunhe looked at him, seized his hand, and shouted, “Go!”
They had not gotten far when an enormous explosion thundered from inside the illusion. A violent gale of demonic qi swept across the entire mountain forest. The two people controlling the illusion were instantly hit by the backlash and fell to the ground together.
“Petty tricks! I advise you to come out and accept death instead of wasting effort on useless nonsense!” Bai Su’s voice drew nearer.
The enormous shadow of the nine-tailed white fox slowly covered them.
“Tsk.” Xiao Chunhe knelt on one knee and looked up at Yue Jingming across from him.
His meridians were in agony and he could no longer sense his demon core. Yue Jingming was probably in even worse condition.
Yue Jingming reached out and wiped the blood from the corner of Xiao Chunhe’s mouth. Xiao Chunhe closed his eyes briefly. “Yue Jingming, today we really may become a pair of doomed lovers on the run.”
Yue Jingming pinched the fox ears that had popped out beyond Xiao Chunhe’s control. “They come out when you’re afraid too?”
Xiao Chunhe glared viciously. “You stinking Daoist, we’re about to die and you’re still worrying about irrelevant things!”
Yue Jingming smiled. “Now you finally look like you used to. It seems dying together with me makes you very happy.”
Xiao Chunhe flushed with anger. “I think your qi deviation never got better at all!”
“Mm.” Yue Jingming nodded. “Perhaps I entered qi deviation the first time I met you.”
Xiao Chunhe said with tragic indignation, “What use is saying something this sappy when you’re already at death’s door?!”
Yue Jingming grabbed his hand. “We are not quite at death’s door yet. After all, your four legs run very fast.”
The enormous nine-tailed white fox passed directly over their heads. Xiao Chunhe and Yue Jingming held their breath and did not dare move.
Several more figures swept above them immediately afterward, but none discovered them.
Xiao Chunhe looked at Yue Jingming and raised one eyebrow in surprise. He mouthed, “What happened?”
Yue Jingming mouthed back, “Illusion.”
Xiao Chunhe narrowed his eyes and instantly understood. “You made another illusion inside my illusion.”
Yue Jingming nodded. “It will not last long. Before they realize what happened, let’s run.”
Xiao Chunhe seized Yue Jingming’s face and kissed him hard on the mouth. “Good Daoist, you’re so clever!”
Yue Jingming stared at him in surprise.
“…” Xiao Chunhe wrinkled his nose fiercely. “I’ll settle the rest of our accounts with you later!”
Yue Jingming nodded and casually stroked the large tail swishing back and forth beside him.
Finally coaxed him back to normal.