CHAPTER 188: THE LAST NINE-TAILS OF THE RED FOX CLAN

Lu Chen reached out to stop Jun Laoye, signaling him not to go on. But Red Fox cut him off before he could act. "Go on. Let him finish. I can still take it in this state."

Glancing at her strained condition, Jun Laoye hesitated. "Do you really want me to say it? But... Lady Red Fox, you—"

"Speak. What's done is done. I need to know who the culprit was."

"Alright," his voice grew heavy. "The battle dragged on for too long. In that time, cultivators from all corners of the Central Continent had rushed in. There were simply too many of them."

He stopped abruptly. He had meant to give her a moment to brace herself, but that silence struck her harder than any words.

"There were far too many. In the end, every cub was slaughtered, and that Red Fox was captured."

"Pff—" Blood spurted from Red Fox's lips. Her body went limp as she slumped down, voice ragged with despair. "What became of her in the end? A Red Fox of the Human Core Realm... surely she wouldn't have died so easily."

"That Red Fox didn't die."

Hearing this, Lu Chen felt Red Fox breathe out a sigh of relief. But Jun Laoye's next words made his heart sink.

"But she might as well have..." Jun Laoye glanced at Lu Chen and continued softly. "She was besieged by countless cultivators. They couldn't kill her outright, so they sealed her in a great formation, slowly grinding away her cultivation."

"Where was that battlefield?" Red Fox gnashed her teeth. The fifth floor of the Scripture Hall crackled with the pressure of her energy. "Boy, where is that battlefield!"

"Red Fox..." Lu Chen's chest tightened under the crushing weight of her killing intent. He steadied his voice. "Calm yourself. That Red Fox is still alive. We're strong enough now to save her."

"The battlefield was—"

Nantian Wan'er cut in quickly. "Brother Jun, wait. Let Sister Red Fox gather herself first."

"No need..." Forcing down her killing intent, Red Fox shrank to a meter in height and leaned against Nantian Wan'er, panting heavily. "Boy, keep talking. Where was she sealed? Did she die in the end?"

"I believe it was the Central Continent's Forbidden Soul Valley... but I don't know if she survived. Too much time has passed. Even the Demonic Beast Revelation gives only a vague account. I've never heard of such a valley in the Central Continent. It may not exist at all."

"Forbidden Soul Valley?" Red Fox lifted her head, eyes narrowing as recognition glinted within them. "That place does exist. It lies in the Central Continent indeed, or used to. If the battle took place there, then I can see how she was sealed so easily. The terrain itself is a colossal formation."

"With the slightest trigger, any formation cast there multiplies its power a thousandfold, while the terrain itself suppresses other spells by thousands of times."

Her tone changed, a flicker of excitement breaking through. "If the battlefield were in Forbidden Soul Valley, then that Red Fox must have been sealed indefinitely. She couldn't have died."

"Hahaha, if that's the case, all the better." Lu Chen smiled. "At least your clan still has a high-level cultivator left."

Red Fox's tone dropped again. "To be sealed in Forbidden Soul Valley is the best outcome... but far too many years have passed. Even if she wasn't killed, her chance of survival..."

"Don't jump to conclusions so quickly. Hear me out first," Jun Laoye deliberately softened his voice to ease her mood. "I believe the Red Fox should be fine. After transcending into immortality, a cultivator's lifespan is measured in tens of thousands of years. All the more so for a Red Fox at the Human Core Realm."

He cleared his throat. "You remember earlier, when I said I wasn't certain about her number of tails?"

At once, Lu Chen and the others felt their stomachs tighten, fearing he was about to crush the fragile hope he had just built.

Catching Lu Chen's stiff smile, Jun Laoye rubbed his head with an awkward grin. "Don't look at me like that. What I'm about to say may actually be good news for Lady Red Fox."

He turned back toward her. "If I remember correctly, every tail of a Red Fox royal carries its own span of longevity. Unless killed outright, that Red Fox should have had an exceptionally long life."

Red Fox nodded. "The fox clan is indeed born with this gift. But the lifespan of an Eight-Tailed Red Fox and that of a Nine-Tailed are worlds apart. The two simply can't be compared."

Red Fox glanced at Jun Laoye with a sigh and slowly curled into a ball. "Kid, I appreciate your kind intentions. I know you want to bring me good news. But if that Red Fox had only eight tails, then no matter how strong her cultivation, she couldn't have survived in that formation for more than two hundred thousand years."

"Lady Red Fox, hear me out first. I never said she was truly an Eight-Tailed Red Fox."

Lu Chen caught the shift in his tone and quickly asked, "What do you mean by that? You've been calling her an Eight-Tailed Red Fox this whole time, so why say she isn't now?"

Jun Laoye looked toward Red Fox and explained, "That fox was indeed an eight-tail, but at the same time, she was also a nine-tail. Her ninth tail was no more than a tiny tuft of fur, so small it seemed as if it wasn't there at all.

"Like this..."

He released a stream of spirit qi, shaping it into the image of a ferocious fox. Rotating the blue projection, he pointed at the tails. "This little tuft here. That's what I meant. You could call it a ninth tail, or say it wasn't one at all."

He swept his gaze over the three before him, and he chuckled softly. "I'm not that well-informed, but that's how the records describe it. I can't say for sure if it was truly a ninth tail."

Lu Chen turned to question Red Fox, but stopped. The hatred had vanished from her face, replaced by a flicker of excitement and anticipation.

"Red Fox, you..." Lu Chen asked cautiously.

Her eyes stayed fixed on the projection, her voice trembling. "Brat... was that tiny tuft golden, or at least streaked with golden light?"

"How did you know?" Jun Laoye frowned, puzzled. "The record does say about two-thirds of the tuft was golden. Is this some secret art of your clan?"

"No... our clan only ever had one such case." Red Fox suddenly rose to her feet, stepping in front of Jun Laoye. She pressed her paw against his forehead to draw out his memory. "Don't resist, boy. I only want the truth. I won't harm you."

"Uh... alright." Jun Laoye froze at the touch, then nodded blankly, focusing his mind. "I won't resist. But Lady Red Fox... Do you know this fox? You seem unusually excited."

"Yes, yes! It's her! It's her!" Red Fox ignored him, stepping away as wild laughter burst from her lips. "Heaven has not forsaken me. Heaven has not forsaken the Red Fox Clan! After hundreds of thousands of years, I've finally seen you awaken!"

"Red Fox... the one you're talking about is..." Lu Chen, watching her lost in ecstasy, asked cautiously. "Could it be that this person is very important to you?"

"Not just important to me. She matters to my entire bloodline, to the entire Fox Clan," Red Fox laughed again, the gloom from hearing Jun Laoye's story cast aside. Her nine tails lashed and churned behind her, radiating pure exhilaration. "If she's still alive, then the Red Fox Clan has not perished. As long as she lives, the Fox Clan will live on!"

"She... who is she?"

"She is my youngest sister... and the most gifted Red Fox in the history of our clan."

Red Fox twirled in circles around Nantian Wan'er, her tails sweeping wildly, no different from an overjoyed young girl. The noble, elegant bearing she once carried in the small world had completely vanished.

She stopped at last and turned to Lu Chen. For the first time, she opened her heart to speak of her past. "Back then, to withstand the coming calamity, my father, my clansmen, and I personally sealed her beneath the Green Hill of Southern Mountain to cultivate, hoping she could change our fate.

"At that time, Lord Beast King had not yet emerged. To alter our destiny, every one of my clansmen pinned their hopes on my sister. One after another, they chose to face the calamity head-on, pouring all their years of cultivation into her body.

"Her ninth tail became the vessel of that energy. Its fur slowly turned gold. My father said that once two-thirds of the ninth tail had turned golden, she would awaken, and our clan's tribulation would pass.

"But before she could complete her cultivation, the calamity struck without warning. Father told me to stay behind and wait for her awakening, while he led the entire Nine-Tailed Red Fox Clan into the formation that the fox clan's ancestors had left behind to face the tribulation.

"Father's method worked. My sister and I both survived, but my father and the others never returned..." Her voice wavered with sorrow, though only for a moment before excitement quickly rose again. "Still, Father's wish was fulfilled. At least the Nine-Tailed Red Fox bloodline was preserved, not wholly lost to the calamity. But that also meant my sister and I became the last two Nine-Tails of our lineage."