CHAPTER 187: SECRETS OF THE RED FOX ROYALS

"Apart from illusions and enchantments, the Nine-Tailed Red Fox possessed something even more wondrous.

"In human form, their beauty was, without exception, unrivaled across the world. The stronger their royal bloodline, the more breathtaking their appearance became, and the greater the boon they offered cultivators.

"When news spread that the Nine-Tailed Red Fox bloodline had vanished, some cultivators deliberately formed fox-hunting organizations. They lived year-round within fox territories, capturing young Red Fox royals whose cultivation was still weak.

"After sealing their powers, they forced them to take Transformation Pills, forcing them into human form."

Nine-Tailed Red Fox asked, "And then? What became of those Red Foxes?"

Sensing the tremor in Nine-Tailed Red Fox's voice, Nantian Wan'er quickly stroked her fur and asked softly, "And after that, no more powerful Nine-Tailed Red Foxes were ever born?"

"Heh, heh..." Jun Laoye gave a mocking laugh toward the roof. "After that, they were reduced to playthings, sold like commodities, or used as catalysts to refine illusions and enchantments.

"The royal line of the fox clan was scarce to begin with. Once the fox royals were gone, the hunters turned to ordinary Red Foxes capable of cultivation. After hundreds of thousands of years of slaughter, their numbers dwindled until, in the end, even ordinary Red Foxes vanished from the continent."

Jun Laoye tilted his head back and let out a bitter laugh. "Originally, foxes preying on humans and humans hunting foxes were both part of the natural cycle, something acceptable to heaven and earth. But those cultivators knew no restraint. They drove the foxes to extinction, treating those capable of human form as... as... sigh... I can hardly bring myself to say it."

Nine-Tailed Red Fox roared from within Nantian Wan'er's arms. "Say it! What did they treat the fox clan as?"

A massive phantom rose behind her, twisted and ferocious, its killing intent soaring to the heavens.

Jun Laoye sighed, clenching his teeth. "They were treated as objects of carnal trade. To be used that way might still have been bearable; at least it meant they stayed alive. But once their beauty faded, or once their owners grew tired of them, they were discarded.

"Some were beaten back into beast form and turned into decorative corpses. Others had their cultivation stripped while still in human form, their skins sold to sects specializing in illusion arts, made into conduits for illusions and enchantments."

"Ah! How could they be so cruel? Those were living beings!"

"What wrong did we Red Foxes commit? We only wished to live in this world!" Red Fox's fur bristled as she let out a heart-wrenching roar. "After all these years, has our bloodline never produced another Nine-Tail? Has not a single leader risen to resist?"

"There have been... but what good did it do?" Jun Laoye gazed at the phantom looming behind her and sighed. "Even if one appeared, the Nine-Tailed Red Fox would be captured immediately. After all, growing strong takes time.

"But I did read in the Demonic Beast Revelation of one Nine-Tailed Red Fox. Strictly speaking, she was an Eight-Tailed Red Fox. Ten thousand years ago, one such fox resisted for a time. But her fate... was not a good one."

"What on earth happened..." Red Fox's rage swelled. Her eyes burned crimson as she leapt from Nantian Wan'er's arms, advancing on Jun Laoye step by step. "The number of tails is determined by bloodline. That is our source of power. However many tails we are born with, that is how many we will always have. Mutation does not exist."

"That's why... I wasn't certain when I mentioned it earlier," Jun Laoye faltered, looking up at Red Fox, now thirty zhang tall. "And this story... I fear you may not be able to accept it."

"Speak! Or I'll kill you first..." Red Fox opened her bloody maw, bellowing at him. "What happened to that fox?”

"Lady Red Fox, I will tell you. But first, allow me to offer my apology." Jun Laoye bowed deeply. "The records from ten thousand years ago say she may have been an ancestral Red Fox, or perhaps one awakened from ancient slumber.[1]

"She first appeared in the Central Continent. But not the Central Continent as we know it today," Jun Laoye said with a shake of his head. "The records speak of a land far larger than the one that exists now."

"Get to the point..." Nine-Tailed Red Fox exhaled heavily, blowing Jun Laoye several meters back. "I don't care for rambling. I want to know what became of that Red Fox."

"Very well..." Jun Laoye coughed lightly, steadying his tone. "The first time she revealed herself was in the Beast Arena of the Central Continent. That day, the arena was hosting an auction. The ones on sale were ordinary Red Fox royals. But among the spectators, hidden in plain sight, was a true fox clan expert."

When the auction began and the Red Fox royals were brought out, the arena instantly spiraled into chaos. Before the crowd could settle from their frenzy, one of the foxes suddenly transformed into her true form. Towering three thousand zhang tall, her body filled the entire Beast Arena.

At first, the cultivators thought it was just another spectacle arranged by the arena. Excited, they believed they were about to witness a peerless beauty. But when eight tails unfurled behind the Red Fox and her cultivation surged into the Human Core Realm, they realized what they were facing was a calamity.

The Beast Arena became a living hell. In just three breaths, all thirty thousand cultivators inside lay dead. Not one of them perished under the Red Fox's claws. Instead, they died at each other's hands. Some were hacked apart, their bloody limbs strewn across the ground. Others strangled themselves while laughing madly, until their voices fell silent.

"The Fox Clan’s arts of charm and illusion... there’s no doubt this was the royal bloodline of our Red Fox Clan," Red Fox looked at Jun Laoye, trying her best to keep calm. "And after that?"

Jun Laoye said softly, "So long as a Human Core Realm Red Fox doesn't wish to die, she cannot be killed. Unless dozens of Human and Heaven Core Realm experts join forces, she can easily overwhelm ordinary cultivators, even with only eight tails."

He sighed. "But unfortunately... This was the Central Continent. And if there was one thing the Central Continent never lacked, it was powerful cultivators."

"That Red Fox was preparing to leave with her kin when a cultivator at the Earth Core Realm stepped out from behind the arena. He told her he held three thousand Red Fox cubs, and that if she left, he would slaughter them all.

"The Red Fox froze at those words. With the few she had just rescued at her side, she walked toward that man. But the moment they reached the center of the arena, hundreds of formations erupted from the ground and the sky, sealing them within."

"This is impossible. Red Foxes are born with a sharp sense of danger. She would never have trusted him so easily."

Jun Laoye lowered his voice. "The problem was that he spoke of three thousand Red Fox royals. At that time, the entire population of the Red Fox Clan barely exceeded ten thousand. Even if his words might have been false, she had no choice but to investigate."

Red Fox glared at him, her voice breaking into a roar. "Even if she only went to test it, she had already reached the Human Core Realm, which was almost the pinnacle of cultivation on the continent. How could those formations have held her?"

"You're right." Jun Laoye nodded. "She broke free of the formation in an instant."

He lowered his head, silent for a long while, then went on. "But this was the Central Continent, where high-level cultivators are never scarce. The instant she escaped, countless experts rushed in. They fought with everything they had. Though the formations only restrained her for three minutes, that was enough for more than a hundred Earth Core cultivators, over thirty Human Core cultivators, and three Heaven Core Realm sect elders to arrive at the arena.

"The moment they appeared, the Red Fox realized she had been deceived. There were no three thousand cubs at all. She had no choice but to fight.

"Her strength was overwhelming. Even against a hundred peak cultivators, she did not falter. Their battle raged across tens of thousands of li, through the city, beyond its walls, and westward into a dark mountain valley. Relying on her innate illusions, she had already slain half of them and was about to break free. Yet compared to humans, what beasts lack most is a ruthless and sinister heart.

"That same Earth Core Realm cultivator exploited her weakness a second time. While she fought at the front, he slipped behind, stole away the cubs she had rescued, and used them to force her into submission."

Red Fox's voice cracked into a mournful cry, her eyes brimming with tears. "And then? What happened to her? Did she escape, or..."

"Alas..."

Jun Laoye's long sigh shattered the last of her composure. Red Fox collapsed, gasping sharply and trembling uncontrollably.

Nantian Wan'er looked at her with pity. She stepped up to Red Fox's paw and gently patted it again and again, hoping to bring her even the slightest comfort.

Lu Chen exhaled slowly. He hadn't witnessed the massacre himself, but he knew the cruelest pain was hearing of one's own kin butchered while being powerless to stop it.

Red Fox's grief dragged him back to Greenheaven Village, to the memory of his own people cut down by cultivators, not out of hatred, but for the sake of a secret realm token, or even just the chance of one.

1. An ancestral Red Fox was one that had undergone bloodline reversion, awakening the dormant power of its ancient forebears long thought lost. ☜