Chapter 7 — The Nine-Tailed Fox Who Loved Sweet Potatoes

The thick wall of ice trembled violently, fracturing into a web of jagged fissures. I narrowed my eyes. So be it. Heaven has a path you refuse to tread, but Hell has no gates, yet you still rush to force your way in. Slowly, I raised my hand. Behind my back, a tail silently turned as rigid as tempered steel, its tip flashing with a lethal, frigid light. You wish to come and pay me a visit? Very well. I promise to give you a memory that will last a lifetime.

A second impact, far more ferocious than the first, shook the cavern. The ice wall I had erected to seal the entrance finally gave way, shattering into a blinding flurry of crystalline shards. The Third Elder, leading seven or eight burly family guards radiating a murderous aura, forced his way inside.

"Fox You You! How immensely bold of you to blockade the cave entrance and openly defy the Patriarch's decree!" The Third Elder bellowed, taking the lead and pointing an accusing finger right at me.

Then, he froze. Every single man who had surged in behind him froze as well. The entire group stood as if struck by a paralysis spell, rooted to the spot in utter foolishness, their jaws hanging open wide enough to swallow a whole chicken egg. Their eyes were locked, transfixed, upon the space directly behind my back. There, nine colossal tails, as pristine and white as freshly fallen snow, swayed with an unhurried, leisurely grace over the ice dust on the ground. Each single tail emanated a majestic pressure that struck sheer terror deep into their marrow.

"Nine... Nine-tails..."

A guard’s voice trembled uncontrollably, and the weapon in his grasp clattered heavily against the frozen floor.

"How... how is this possible..."

The Third Elder’s eyes bulged as if they might pop straight out of his skull. He rubbed them frantically, convinced his vision was playing cruel tricks on him. Slowly, I turned around to face them, a gentle, amiable smile gracing my lips.

"Third Elder, esteemed guests, good evening."

I deliberately revealed only three of my tails, keeping the remaining six coiled and hidden within the shifting shadows behind me.

"With so many of you visiting this impoverished dwelling in the middle of the night, might there be some urgent matter?"

The Third Elder stared daggers at me, his expression shifting rapidly from sheer shock and disbelief to a twisted, ferocious ugliness.

"Playing ghosts and casting illusions!" he roared, as if shouting to pump up his own faltering courage. "Do not imagine that using some cheap parlor trick to manifest a few tails will be enough to frighten us! You useless piece of trash, no matter what you say today, you will hand over your blood!"

He remained steadfastly convinced that I was merely employing an optical illusion. And understandably so—who on earth would ever believe that a notoriously weak "three-tailed good-for-nothing" could suddenly transform into a magnificent Nine-tailed fox?

"Get her! Take her down!" the Third Elder commanded.

Though terror gripped the guards' hearts, the elder’s direct orders could not be disobeyed. Exchanging apprehensive glances, they gritted their teeth and lunged forward all at once. Several colorful rays of fierce spiritual energy ignited within the dim, shadowy cavern, weaving together into a vast, shimmering net that plummeted directly toward my head. I stood firmly in place, not budging an inch. The exact fraction of a second before that web of energy was about to descend upon me, a single tail behind me twitched. Not three tails, nor any illusions. It was a genuine, snow-white fox tail, condensing terrifying, overwhelming spiritual power. Like a resurrected white python of myth, that tail traced a razor-sharp, flawless arc through the air at an unimaginable speed, producing a piercing, shrieking howl as it tore through the atmosphere.

A crisp, resounding crack echoed through the space. The massive web of spiritual energy woven by a half-dozen powerful experts shattered into nothingness like fragile window paper before a tempest. Before they could even register what had happened, the momentum of the tail continued unchecked, sweeping horizontally outward in a devastating arc.

A series of heavy, muffled thuds shook the stone. Those seven or eight guards were struck as if hit by an invisible, colossal sledgehammer. One by one, they vomited blood and flew backward through the air, crashing violently against the ice-encrusted walls before sliding down into limp, boneless heaps upon the ground, instantly incapacitated.

A single strike. A mere single strike, and the chilly silence of the Cold Ice Cave was restored.

Only the Third Elder remained, standing utterly alone amidst the wreckage. Cold sweat poured in a relentless torrent down his forehead. He finally understood with stark clarity that this was no illusion. This was raw, unadulterated, absolute power. Slowly, deliberately, I unfurled the remaining eight tails behind me, displaying all nine in their full, magnificent glory before his terrified eyes. The nine giant fox tails filled the cavern almost entirely, and the crushing, oppressive weight of my peerless aura left him scarcely able to breathe.

"Third Elder," I smiled, taking a slow, unhurried step toward him, "do you still happen to want my blood?"

His legs began to tremble uncontrollably.

"You... exactly who are you..." he rasped out in a hoarse, broken whisper.

"Me?" I paused right in front of him, tilting my head slightly. "I am simply Fox You You, the very same three-tailed piece of trash that all of you have looked down upon for so long."

Reaching out, I gently patted his pale, aged cheek.

"Tell me, if I were to dismantle these old bones of yours piece by piece, would the Patriarch punish me, or would he praise me for ridding the clan of an arrogant elder who bends the truth and brings chaos to Qingqiu?"

The Third Elder’s face grew paler than the surrounding walls of ice. With a heavy, hollow thud, he dropped straight to his knees.

The Third Elder knelt with absolute decisiveness, his aged bones shaking like a sieve in a gale.

"Nine... Nine-tailed Lord... spare my life... this humble old man was blind and had fat clouding his vision..."

He began to kowtow frantically, his forehead slamming heavily against the unforgiving ice floor with a rhythmic, sickening thud. Watching this pathetic display, I found myself mildly amused. Just moments ago, every other word out of his mouth was "vile creature," yet now he addressed me as "Nine-tailed Lord." How swiftly the man changed his tune. Ignoring him entirely, I stepped past his kneeling form and walked over to the guards sprawled across the ground. I inspected them one by one. Mm, they had merely broken a few bones and were simply knocked unconscious. None of them were dead; my restraint had been quite precise.

Afterward, I walked toward the cave entrance. A gentle flick of a tail behind me easily swept away the remaining chunks of rubble blocking the exit. Pausing, I turned my head to glance back at the still-kowtowing Third Elder.

"Get up," I said indifferently.

As if granted a royal pardon, he scrambled up with trembling limbs, not even daring to raise his head to look at me.

"Go back and report this to the Patriarch, and to Fox Mijiang as well," I instructed casually as I stepped out into the open air. "Tell them that I have taken a sudden liking to the stone dais inside the ancestral hall."

The Third Elder snapped his head up, his face a mask of sheer disbelief.

"What... what stone dais?"

"The very altar where the spirit tablets of the founding ancestors are enshrined," I added sweetly. "I am heading over there right now to rip it up. If the lot of you prefer the ancestral hall not be completely demolished to the ground, you had best not try to stop me."