Chapter 82

“Where are you taking the Master?”

A chilling voice that seemed to freeze the air.

Rising as though a deity had descended, Lin floated in mid-air through sorcery and gazed downwards. The Hoyo clan fox spirits, who had been singing for freedom, collectively faltered.

“Huayo?! Ho, how did you…?”

The elder hastily checked the barrier, but it was still functioning normally. The confusion talismans attached to the trees were also intact.

The elder could not even begin to guess how Lin had used some form of sorcery to track their location.

Reading his alarmed expression, Lin spoke as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

“Lin is the Master’s slave. Did you think I wouldn’t know where they are?”

Whether it’s magic or sorcery, if one can handle mysticism at a certain level, backtracking a binding curse to locate someone is no issue.

Most importantly, once the soul-binding chain is placed, not even Mirabel could remove it—let alone something as inferior as an old three-tailed fox’s low-level sorcery.

“Bring me the Master.”

Since barely surviving an encounter with the blood wolf, Lin’s obsession with Carami had skyrocketed.

Carami had been kidnapped by the Hoyo clan, who already weren’t fond of her. There was no way this situation would pass peacefully.

One of the Hoyo members, aware of this more than anyone, pressed their sharp nails into Carami’s neck.

“W, wait! Don’t move! I’ll puncture this human girl’s neck if you make a wrong move!”

“….”

“Go away, Huayo!”

The Hoyo member retreated slowly while keeping their guard on Lin, but something grabbed the hand that had been threatening Carami.

Glancing down, the Hoyo member saw a tree branch coiled around their arm. It was the spirit of an ancient, dried-up tree ghost, the Bear Ghost of the Withered Tree (枯木鬼), which had reached out and ensnared them.

Before they could react, the ghost snapped the arm cleanly with a dry crack.

“Kkkkkaaaaahhh!”

The fox spirit screamed in agony and fell to their knees, as the rest of the Hoyo clan, now in utter panic, lost all composure.

They had been surrounded by the spirits of Mount Baeyun without even realizing it.

And none of them dared to attack Lin. It was as if the spirits were submitting to her.

The law of the jungle. The strong devour the weak, and the weak succumb to the strong.

Youmon follow this simple principle—they bow down to those stronger than themselves.

If they had been obeying the bear ghost as the strongest presence within Mount Baeyun thus far, then the logical conclusion was to now obey Lin, who had clearly surpassed the bear ghost.

“Wait, just a sec!”

The Hoyo clan began to realize their dire situation.

There would be no mercy.

A merciless slaughter commenced.

Will-o’-the-wisps scorched the Hoyo clan, while the Bear Ghost of the Withered Tree crushed their joints, folding and breaking their bones as if creating intricate paper-crafted art.

A towering bird-like youkai, the Ghost Bird (怪鳥), descending from the sky, snatched up two Hoyo members in its talons and flew off to some unknown destination.

It was pure chaos.

“P, please! Forgive us! You’re the master, right? Stop her! Huayo, please stop her!”

One quick-thinking Hoyo member begged Carami for their life. With a faint smile, Carami gently but firmly pushed them away.

“Lin, the elder must be spared. Only they know the location of the shrine.”

“Alright, got it. Let them live.”

The implication was clear, and upon hearing it, the Hoyo clan members paled completely.

That day, a new wail of spirits joined the choir of Mount Baeyun.

***

Back to the fox den.

Three figures returned.

One was Lin, who looked relatively unchanged despite the dust and tangled hair, not much different from when they had left.

Another was Carami, also no worse for wear, save for faint scars around the wrists where bindings had been tied.

The last was the fox elder, whose gait was unsteady, a change marked by the loss of two of their three tails—burnt and torn away.

Though the elder might regain their tails eventually as a three-tailed fox capable of absorbing spirit power, their immediate concern was their life.

The rest of the Hoyo clan had all been devoured by youkai, leaving this elder fox as the sole survivor of this den.

Even this one might not last much longer.

The two led the limping elder forward, weaving through an empty village before stopping in a secluded spot. Reciting an incantation, the elder caused the earth to ripple, revealing a hidden underground staircase.

The dark, subterranean passage was pitch black, the air thick with dust, and the smell was stifling from years of abandonment.

Lin conjured a fox-light to act as their guide and continued their descent.

The path took the form of a labyrinth, with spells cast at regular intervals along the route. These spells, if not deactivated, would trap intruders in permanent hallucinations, leaving them to perish underground.

Only the elder knew how to deactivate these spells, rendering their survival paramount.

After walking for approximately thirty minutes, Carami, with her hands behind her back, hummed a tune as Lin’s pupils flickered faintly, sensing an irresistible pull from somewhere ahead.

Finally, the group reached their destination. As Lin inserted a fox-light into nearby lanterns, the flames danced to drive the shadows away.

What was revealed was a small shrine.

A stone altar.

A fox-shaped sculpture.

Behind the altar was a grand mural of a massive fox, its nine flowing tails connecting the heavens and the earth, exuding an air of majesty.

But what caught Lin’s attention most was the golden fox bead resting atop the altar. Unlike the rest of the shrine covered in dust, it emitted a radiant glow akin to the sun.

The elder spoke.

“This is the sacred site of our race, built by our ancient ancestors who were confined within Mount Baeyun.”

A time when the nine-tailed fox was revered as a deity by their clan, not just another youkai. These Hoyo clan members erected this shrine to honor their divine fox.

The orange fox bead was a crystallization of the sealed power of the nine-tailed fox, also the reason why the youmon dared not invade the fox den—out of fear of the fox’s power.

Of course, as centuries erased the nine-tailed fox’s history, the shrine’s existence was also forgotten.

Out of curiosity, Carami reached for the fox bead.

“Kwhaa!”

“Ow!”

The bead erupted in flames, prompting Carami to immediately retract her hand.

“You’d better leave it alone. It won’t let anyone but a true nine-tailed fox approach.”

“But how did it end up here?”

“That… I don’t know. There’s no record.”

Had they collectively summoned some wind to carry it here?

Or did they perhaps use mechanical devices?

After a brief moment of serious thought, the elder snapped back to attention.

“Such details aren’t important now. Once this bead is taken, the forces holding back the nine-tailed fox will begin their counterattack in earnest.”

“Lin, hear that? We’re good to go.”

“Got it, loud and clear.”

“When did you people dare say such a thing? You’ll share the same fate! You should be content with what you have and hide…”

“Unfortunately, it’s not what we want. The Master desires the slave to achieve full liberation.”

To achieve this, the fox bead must be claimed, and the power of the nine-tailed fox must be inherited.

“You can’t simply take it if you wish to. Without passing the trials of the nine-tailed fox, you’ll be consumed.”

“We wouldn’t be here if we intended to retreat. Lin?”

“Yes.”

Lin approached the bead slowly, taking a deep breath. Sensing the calling of fate, Lin gingerly placed a hand on the bead.

Instantly,

Whoosh!

A fierce inferno erupted, enveloping Lin. Though Lin’s body remained in the shrine, their consciousness was carried away like flowing water.

The consciousness drifted into a void of pure darkness.

Lin scanned their body, confirming their form through touch. The sensation was ambiguous, like existing on a boundary between reality and illusion.

“What should I do here?”

Nothing but endless darkness.

What trials will manifest in this void?

As Lin tilted their head in confusion, colors began to fill the darkness. What emerged was the familiar fox den, with the Hoyo clan members moving about as if nothing had transpired.

The immediate frown that crossed Lin’s face led to them conjuring fox flames, which dissipated harmlessly like phantoms.

Could this be a trap?

Were they deceived by that old fox?

But the bead’s power felt genuine.

Upon closer inspection, the fox den was subtly different from their memories—details like the arrangement of buildings or the Hoyo clan members themselves, all differing in minor but noticeable ways.

The déjà vu was strong, yet Lin couldn’t recall the exact scene.

This growing discomfort led Lin to crease their brow just as a commotion began to sound in the distance.

“Children, didn’t your mother tell you not to play with Huayo?”

A mother fox leading her offspring away.

As though being pulled apart from—

Itself.

It looked like Lin, but not the current Lin. Barefoot, dressed in tattered rags, covered in fresh wounds, with only one tail—a very young Lin.

No, this wasn’t the Lin they knew from recent months. This was far deeper in the past, the Lin from many years ago.

Realizing this, Lin finally understood the strange, pricking sense of déjà vu. This was the fox den from long ago.

Lin had roughly surmised the nature of this trial.

Liberation from the past.

That was the challenge bestowed by the nine-tailed fox.

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