Chapter 1 — The Nine-Tailed Fox Who Loved Sweet Potatoes

I, Hu Youyou, am universally acknowledged as the supreme good-for-nothing of the Green Hill fox clan. I possess a mere three tails, and to make matters worse, they are covered in coarse, mottled fur. My paternal cousin, Hu Miji, is the pride and darling of our lineage—a magnificent creature blessed with six pristine, snow-white tails and the unbound hopes of our entire bloodline. Consequently, I have been reduced to her personal, ambulatory blood bank, forced to yield my vital heart’s blood month after month to fuel her cultivation. The elders of the clan piously declared this to be my highest honor. They all believed me to be utterly submissive, a weak and spineless pushover who swallowed every humiliation without a murmur. That was, until the very day Hu Miji came once more to drain my life force so she might force her way into the Seven-Tail realm, and I shattered the jade bowl she thrust before me into a thousand merciless pieces.

No more, I told her. Ask again, and I shall snap your legs in two.

The entirety of Green Hill erupted in shrieks of outrage. They cursed me for an envious wretch, a vicious harpy, an ungrateful dog biting the hand that fed it. What they could not possibly know was that the six magnificent tails I kept carefully concealed beneath my robes were each far thicker and more luxurious than Hu Miji’s entire waist. Nor did I care to let them fathom that my forbearance over all these endless years had nothing whatsoever to do with the so-called glorious future of Green Hill, nor was I nursing some grand ambition for revenge. I merely wanted to pry apart the dilapidated stone pedestal resting within our ancestral hall. Rumor had it that the ancient founding patriarch of our Nine-Tailed Fox clan had concealed a legendary, peerless delicacy right within that very stone before ascending to the heavens. I had been starving for a full ten thousand years; who on earth had the leisure to play affectionate sisters with a bunch of fools?

Youyou, my dear, your elder sister knows how hard this is on you, but please endure just a little longer, Hu Miji purred, her voice dripping with artificial sweetness as she held out a pale jade bowl. She stood upon the threshold of my dilapidated wooden shack, looking utterly immaculate and untainted by the dust of the mortal world, accompanied by several elders whose faces wore dark, menacing expressions. The sunlight caught her six fluffy, immaculate white tails, making them shimmer as if brushed with a veneer of pure gold. And there I sat, cross-legged upon my wretched cot, nursing a meager three tails of mixed yellow and grey fuzz protruding from my lower back, looking every bit like a beggar who had wandered into a king’s banquet. This was already the third time this month. Every single visit, she trotted out the exact same tiring performance. First came the lofty appeals to familial duty, followed by the sweet assurance that elder sister would never forget her dear sibling. Then out would come the chilling, hollow silver needle, plunging deep into my heart to extract a bowl of scalding, vital essence. This heart’s blood was the very foundation of our fox clan’s spiritual root. My cultivation was already pitifully weak to begin with, and each time I was drained, I would be plunged into such profound debility that I remained bedridden for half a month, utterly incapable of even maintaining a human form. Meanwhile, she—Hu Miji—surfed wave upon wave of my stolen blood to achieve terrifying breakthroughs in her cultivation, skyrocketing to become the most dazzling genius Green Hill had witnessed in a century. The elders glared at me, their gazes heavy with the heavy-handed expectation of absolute obedience.

Hu Youyou, what are you gaping at now? Just how precious do you think Miji’s time is? Can you possibly shoulder the blame if you delay her cultivation? The Third Elder stroked his wispy beard, his tone dripping with severe reprimand.

I kept my head bowed, staring down at my wrists which had withered down to mere bone and skin. In the past, I had endured. Because I desperately needed the persona of a useless waste to quietly pass my days without drawing undue scrutiny. But yesterday, old Grandfather, who tended the ancestral hall, had secretly whispered to me that lately, the stone pedestal inside had begun making strange, bubbling noises every single night, accompanied by the rich, unmistakable fragrance of roasted sweet potatoes. At that instant, my dormant heart jolted back to life. The personal journals left behind by our ancient patriarch clearly stated that the stone pedestal was a seal—a seal guarding the very snack he had loved most in his mortal days, known as the Nine-Turn Heavenly Fragrance Honey Rodent, though everyone simply called it honeyed sweet potato. It was said to mature only once every ten thousand years. Calculating the auspicious dates, the time had finally arrived. If I remained as weak and feeble as a wet noodle, let alone mustering the strength to pry open a stone pedestal, I would probably not even have the breath left to crawl toward the aroma by the time it filled the air. When it came to matters of the belly, nothing in this universe mattered more. Hu Miji saw that I remained motionless, so she took a soft step forward, pushing the jade bowl closer to my nose while wearing an expression of deeply wronged innocence: Youyou, are you angry with elder sister? I promise you, this truly is the very last time. I raised my head and stared into her flawless, unblemished face. Such an actress. Truly a masterclass in deception. I slowly extended my hand. Hu Miji flashed a smile of profound understanding, and the elders around her nodded in collective satisfaction. Look at that; this good-for-nothing knew how to bend with the wind after all. Then, right before the eyes of this gathered audience, I accepted the jade bowl. And let my fingers simply go limp.

Clang!

The pristine white jade bowl plummeted to the floor, shattering into countless jagged pieces. The dark, sticky residue of my blood from our previous session splashed wildly across the wooden floorboards. The entire shack plunged into a dead, suffocating silence. Hu Miji’s gentle smile froze stiffly upon her porcelain face. The Third Elder’s whiskers trembled with sudden, unadulterated fury.

You… you have lost your mind! he shrieked, pointing a trembling finger straight at my nose.

I slowly hoisted myself off the bed, stretching my wrists until a series of sharp cracking echoes broke the silence.

I said, I glared directly at Hu Miji, biting out each word with deliberate slowness, I will not give you another drop.

Have you gone stark raving mad?! A young clan enforcer roared, lunging forward with a heavy hand outstretched to grab my arm.

I did not even flinch. At the exact microsecond his fingers were about to brush my sleeve, a single tail slithered out from behind my back—the very leanest, most coarsely furred tail of the three—and whipped through the air with the blinding velocity of a striking viper.

Thud!