The Little Fox's Immortal Cultivation Encyclopedia

Da Liu was curled up on the man's chest, sleeping soundly.

Li Lang frowned, his tone icy: "Last night, the Peach Blossom God stirred strangely. I summoned you to investigate, and what did you do? You brought back a snake?"

Shen Erlang affectionately stroked the snake scales, answering a question that seemed unrelated: "Da Liu is waiting under the peach tree. Even though I've become this inhuman and ghostly creature, it still recognized me at a glance."

"I'm asking you what you did last night!" Li Lang slammed his hand on the table.

"Last night I went out and overheard people talking about the new snake charmer in town. I searched all over Pingkang Ward, going to every post station and inn, but I still couldn't find him. What do you think? Should I give Da Liu to them to raise?"

"Do you even have a sense of how dangerous this is for us?! My connection with Him is so weak I can barely feel it anymore!"

"I adopted him when he was only this big." Shen Erlang stiffly gestured a size the size of a palm. "Actually, I should have released him when he was just two feet long, but this little guy is too spiritual and clings to me every day. I've been alone all my life, and he's like my son."

Li Lang froze, as if remembering something, and the fierceness on his face dissipated somewhat.

The room fell into a deathly silence.

After a long pause, Li Lang slowly exhaled: "Go, take it to Qingling, and see if the mountain god is still there..."

He paused, a bitter smile appearing on his face, his voice filled with exhaustion and despair: "Forget it, what's the point? You should just cross the Green Ridge and head north. If you can catch the cold, you might be able to hold on for a few more days."

Without hesitation, Shen Erlang turned and left. He slowly reached out, wanting to press the mechanism on the wall, but the door opened by itself.

A tall, slender man in a blue Taoist robe greeted him with a smile: "I've heard so much about you."

"cloud……"

Li Lang suddenly stood up and tossed several sachets from the table. Abbot Yun calmly caught them. The next moment, the sachets burst open, and a rich floral fragrance instantly filled the entire shop.

"...Master?" Shen Erlang's stiff voice finally managed to utter the second half of the sentence.

"Run!" Li Lang pulled out a small crossbow from his sleeve and shot it into the pink mist. Then he reached under the table and touched the back wall, whereupon another door opened. He rushed toward the back door, only to be blocked by a figure.

"Greetings, Grandmaster Uncle." The young Taoist priest, barely twenty years old, dared not open his eyes to look at him, his tone carrying a strange sense of guilt.

"Ha!" Li Lang reached to his waist and a soft sword slid into his hand. He thrust it straight at Qingzhu's heart, but seeing that the young Taoist priest neither dodged nor flinched, he twisted his wrist, and the soft sword drew a strange arc in the air, changing from a thrust to a slash, and instead attacked Qingzhu's waist and abdomen.

"Injured," Qingzhu murmured.

"boom--"

The soft sword struck flesh, yet produced a metallic clang.

Li Lang felt a numbness in his wrist, and the soft sword almost slipped from his hand. He refused to give up and exerted force in his wrist again, wanting to stab again.

A strong hand was already pressing down on his shoulder.

"Grandmaster Uncle, don't be angry. I'll teach this disrespectful brat a lesson later." Abbot Yun didn't lessen his strength, and Li Lang's body went limp, about to fall down.

Master Qingzhu shrank his neck and quickly reached out to support him.

Li Lang struggled, "You clearly inhaled my face powder!"

Yun Guan urged her to speak, pointing to the talisman pressed under her tongue, then resumed her gentle demeanor: "Grandmaster Uncle, please don't mind. It's normal to not remember things as one gets older."

"Master, which of us is disrespectful to our teacher?" Qingzhu muttered to herself, not daring to say it aloud. She dragged Li Lang outside, saying, "Grandmaster Uncle, please forgive me. The matter was urgent, and this was a last resort. Please don't take it to heart."

Shen Erlang quietly moved his feet, trying to slip away while Li Lang was being dragged away. But Abbot Yun suddenly turned around and his gaze swept over Shen Erlang's chest.

Shen Erlang's heart tightened, and he pressed the large willow branch on his chest further in.

"Don't hurt me..."

Abbot Yun walked over, gently raised his hand, and placed a talisman between the man's eyebrows: "Don't speak, your body and soul are not in harmony and you need to rest quietly."

"If you continue like this, I won't be able to explain it to the fox spirit."

"A fox spirit?" Shen Erlang's eyes were full of doubt.

……

"A fox spirit?" The mother shrew's voice was full of disbelief. She and several baby shrews huddled together in a bundle full of food, carried on the chest of a dark-skinned man riding a tall horse.

The city gate was in sight, and the guards had already been ordered to clear a path. The man did not slow down and charged straight into the city.

Last night, the magistrate invited Pu Shunnian, who was familiar with the environment of Qingling, to come and find the shrew family, carrying a soapberry bracelet as proof.

What lies beneath the Peach Blossom Tree is merely the most concentrated cluster of Yin energy underground. After the formation was destroyed, the extent to which the Yin energy had spread underground, and how many hidden dangers it harbored, remained unknown. They urgently needed an assistant skilled in earth-movement techniques to investigate.

Shrews are not only good at digging holes, but they are also a kind of rat spirit. They might even be able to command all the rats in the city to explore together. At the very least, they can leave their bodies.

The queen bee has a family to bring, so arrangements need to be made in advance. The county magistrate also ordered the beekeepers in the city to make preparations, and the queen bee will be brought over in a while.

The shrew, however, was unaware of all this. Pu Shunnian was tongue-tied and, given the difference between humans and demons, didn't know how to speak, so he simply put down the bracelet. Upon seeing the token, the mother shrew assumed the fox spirit was in trouble and, without a word, hurriedly followed Pu Shunnian to repay his kindness.

It was only when it got to the city and heard everyone talking about fox spirits and fox deities that it realized something was wrong.

"We haven't seen the fox spirit in our house for just a few days. How did it become a god in Tao County, with so many people worshipping it?"

"Could it be that the fox spirit summoned us here to bestow upon us the title of a great general?"

The mother shrew blinked repeatedly, lost in thought.

The third child peeked his little head out from the gap in the bundle, looking around at everything with curiosity.

It looked around and was suddenly drawn to two cats.

Next to a wonton stall, a black and white cat had half its body inside an open, empty cloth bag, seemingly unable to get out. An orange cat crouched behind it, tilting its head to examine it for a moment before extending its paw and pressing it against the bag. The soft cloth deformed under its paw, gradually shaping into the form of a cat.

"Mom, look! That cat is saving other cats. Are they sentient beings too?"

"No, no, that cat is so mean, it's trying to suffocate that cat!"

The mother shrew slapped the child back into the bundle with two slaps: "Have you forgotten what your mother said? Don't think that just because you've become a spirit you're not afraid of cats anymore."

"And besides, do you think you know as much as I do? Let me tell you, that cat wasn't saving the cat, nor was it harming it. It just saw the bag and thought it was a warm and sheltered place, so it wanted the cat inside to come out quickly so it could crawl in and lie down comfortably. As for whether the cat inside is dead or alive, or whether it can get out, well, that's another story."