The Little Fox's Immortal Cultivation Encyclopedia

Chapter 136 Fox's Guesses

The fox stopped what it was doing and looked down.

The floodwaters that had just submerged half the village were slowly receding along the cracks. The water came quickly and went quickly, soon disappearing completely and revealing the silt beneath.

The fox stretched out its paws, looked at the mess on the ground, hesitated for a moment, and instead of touching the muddy road, it stepped on the scattered pots and pans and leaped toward the antique shop.

The red fish flicked its tail, intercepting a stream of water, and carried the pot forward: "Finally, it's calmed down. If it had flooded any further, the village would have been gone."

Hu Nianshuang let out a long breath and spat out her demon core: "What exactly happened after Brother went into the water?"

"What else could it be? It must be that little fox disturbing our peace. Look at that arrow, it must have stolen it, which is why those ghosts are so angry."

The fox ignored the fish, jumped onto the roof of the antique shop, and looked around. The flood came suddenly, and many villagers were not in their houses. However, as far as the eye could see, although most of the villagers were covered in mud and looked disheveled, they were all unharmed.

"The fox was underwater just now—" The fox returned to the house, cleaned up briefly, and recounted its previous experience.

"I told you to be careful. Things can't always be solved with tricks and schemes. Look at you, you didn't listen to me, and now you've suffered the consequences!"

The fox sensed the improvement in its hidden energy, then looked at the arrow in its paws, and couldn't figure out where it had suffered a loss.

"Don't look at me like that. You were lucky this time because your sister and I were thinking of you. Otherwise, you would have been trapped down there and no one would have known. If you dare to cause trouble like this again, I won't care if you live or die. I'll make sure you're haunted by evil spirits and suffer the consequences!"

That makes some sense; we were indeed a bit rash this time. The fox readily agreed, saying, "You're right, I will reflect on my actions."

Whether or not to change it depends on the fox's mood.

The red fish had a lot to say, but it couldn't utter a single word after gurgling for a long time.

Hu Nianshuang listened attentively, then frowned slightly: "So, the spirits of those soldiers still retain their senses and are hiding underwater?"

The fox shook its head: "No, they don't seem to be sentient. To me, they seem more like some kind of lingering trace."

The fox pointed to the ground with its paw: "Like this ground, the water has receded, but the soil is still damp."

"Is that what you call lingering resentment, unwillingness to accept defeat, and bitterness?"

"It doesn't look like it."

Unlike Hu Nianshuang, who was encountering Yin Sha for the first time, the fox had relevant experience. Although there were still many things it couldn't be sure of, it could find the strange things by simply matching them one by one with those from Tao County.

It paused for a few moments, gathered its thoughts, and then voiced its conjecture.

"Objects in the water are more well preserved than those on land. The bodies of the soldiers who died in battle did not decompose for a long time, and later the entire battlefield was buried with them. It is normal that some of their will could remain."

The fox spoke with increasing confidence: "That's right, one of the functions of the Peach Branch Yin-Locking and Evil-Breaking Array is to eliminate resentment. Since there is no external interference here, lingering resentment will naturally remain."

"As for why they can coexist with the villagers and won't attack them before the fox disturbs them—" The fox hesitated slightly, then said carefully, "It should be that their lingering resentment is not a grudge, but a purer kind of obsession."

"Furthermore, Fox felt that compared to the chaotic resentment of other wandering spirits, the lingering resentment of all of them was twisted into a single force, even—"

"It even overwhelmed the enemy's resentment, and in turn, permeated and influenced the yin energy."

Hu Nianshuang, having cultivated the Daoist method of following the common people, was more perceptive of human nature and said with understanding, "Sister understands. It is not that she is unwilling to accept her own death, but that she cannot let go of the unfinished uprising."

Having been through much of the world, she had encountered not high-ranking officials or nobles, but she often associated with scholars and literati. While these people lacked the integrity of these righteous rebels, they frequently mentioned them in conversation. Although it was merely a topic of mutual flattery, it still gave Hu Nianshuang some insight into their situation.

The fox looked at Hu Nianshuang and pondered for a moment: "In that case, the fox understands why Xiao Gu's lingering spirit helped the fox leave, and why it made this arrow obey the fox's command."

Red Fish silently watched the two foxes talk back and forth, looking as if they had suddenly realized something. She felt a little anxious: These people who run on the shore are too hard to understand. I don't even understand the thoughts of my followers, and now some rebels have come.

"The underwater rebels also regard the villagers as part of the Great Xuan, so they control the Yin Sha and try not to harm them." The fox belatedly realized, "No wonder there isn't even a chicken in the village. Apart from the living, no other creatures are treated this way."

Hu Nianshuang's eyes crinkled into crescents; her brother truly had a special fondness for chickens.

"No chickens to eat, no crops to grow... how do the people here live? Do they somehow consume yin energy as if it were moonlight?"

Having listened silently for a long time without being able to get a word in edgewise, Hongyu suddenly had an idea and hurriedly spoke up: "I saw them using fake antiques to turn into real antiques at the village entrance before."

The fox paused, not immediately responding, but its ears twitched slightly.

The door was flung open, and Ah Sheng rushed in, panicking: "This painting—"

He looked up and saw the scene inside the room:

A red fox squatted on his bed, curling up comfortably in the mattress, with only its two fiery red tails showing, casually draped over the edge of the bed, the tips of its tails half-curled up and not touching the ground.

On the table was a pot that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, and a red fish with shimmering scales had half its head above the water, its mouth opening and closing without suffocating.

Only the beautiful woman remained the same as when he left, sitting dignifiedly, her figure as graceful as bamboo.

"Ya-youkai!"

He took a half step back, tripped on the threshold, and his hand loosened. The painting he was holding did not fall, but flew straight towards the fox.

The fox examined the painting for a few moments, then showed it to the two: "The scene in this painting is exactly the same as what I saw in my illusion."

"He spoke!" Ah Sheng's eyes widened. "And it's...it's Young Master Qing's voice!"

His thoughts raced, and suddenly it dawned on him: "You ate Young Master Qing!"

Upon hearing this, the fox suddenly turned its head, its amber eyes staring straight at Ah Sheng. As Ah Sheng trembled and almost ran away, the fox opened its mouth, and a head squeezed out, revealing a face that was deformed and purple from being squeezed.

"I died a terrible death—"

Ah Sheng's eyes rolled back, and he collapsed to the ground unconscious.

"Brother!" Hu Nianshuang sighed helplessly.

The fox looked completely innocent: "The fox was just fulfilling his guess."

Hu Nianshuang helped Asheng up, turned to the painting, and said softly, "When you see this painting, it seems you understand something. Xiao Gu can't let go of his fallen men."

"He couldn't let go of those nameless, faceless soldiers buried at the bottom of the river, so his lingering regret transformed these fake artifacts into real ones, becoming proof that the soldiers had ever existed."

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