The Little Fox's Immortal Cultivation Encyclopedia

"In that case, I shall take my leave. If things go well, you may see the messengers of the underworld in your dreams." The old man in plain clothes bid farewell and turned to leave.

Xu Sheng escorted them to the door before returning to the courtyard. He first helped E'niang and her mother back to their room, then turned back to tidy up the black umbrellas in the courtyard, leaving only the few by the door of the house.

The fox was also helping, but it only dismantled the section where it was squatting. It used its paws to push the umbrella aside so that the sunlight could shine directly on its fur.

Xu Sheng was completely unaware. After busying himself for a while, he finally finished tidying up and pushed open the door to enter the house.

The fox shifted its position, making sure every inch of its body was exposed to the sun. It yawned, but didn't fall asleep. It half-closed its eyes, sometimes staring at the doorway, sometimes looking into the house.

The courtyard gate was quiet. Inside the house, Xu Sheng and E Niang were whispering to each other. Everything seemed perfectly normal, and there was no sign of any underworld messengers.

A strange feeling suddenly arose in the fox's heart. Something was wrong. It scanned the area again, pricked up its ears to listen to the sounds around it, then sniffed the air intensely. Finally, it even used its magic to scan the yard, but still found nothing.

The courtyard was quiet, without a single person in sight, except for a fox lying beside the gate, vigilantly and attentively surveying its surroundings.

"Wait a minute, how did the fox become Big Yellow, guarding someone's house like this!"

The fox then realized what was happening, quickly leaped onto the wall, and sat down in its usual spot. Now it finally felt right; this was where the fox belonged.

The fox changed from sitting to lying down, lying in a familiar spot, basking in the familiar sun. A familiar drowsiness naturally welled up in its heart, and the fox skillfully drifted off to sleep.

When I opened my eyes again, the world was already dark. A pale crescent moon hung in the corner of the sky, casting its pale light.

The fox yawned, sat up, and was about to stretch its tail towards the moon when it suddenly stopped. Its lower abdomen trembled slightly, and its two long tails swayed behind it, shattering the moonlight.

A shattering sound came from the air, and heaven and earth, along with the moonlight, dissolved together. The fox opened its eyes in reality and found that a thick fog had enveloped the entire courtyard. The gate was wide open, and outside was darkness, with only layers of fog churning.

The fox flicked its white tail, and a streak of fire shot out and flew outside the door. The mist suddenly stopped, and a figure gradually emerged from it. First, there was a black short robe, then a face that looked to be about forty years old, with ordinary features and no distinguishing characteristics.

"Such pure divine power!" The newcomer clapped his hands in praise. "The fox spirit is truly skilled, able to wash away all the impurities in people's hearts and transform them into cultivation."

"However, according to the records of the Mountain God Bureau, the local earth god should be the Mountain God of Falling Peach Slope, so where did the fox spirit come from?"

"You bad person, you sneakily scare the fox while it's sleeping." The fox didn't answer, but instead calmed down and carefully questioned the voice.

"Why doesn't the fox spirit answer? Could it be that my little test has angered the fox spirit?" The underworld official bowed and said, "My surname is Su, and I am a lowly ghost messenger from the Swift Reporting Department. I pay my respects to the fox spirit."

The fox leaped down from the wall and transformed into a man in blue robes, concealing both tails within his body to prevent their tips from wagging and revealing his feelings.

The fox looked directly at the underworld official and chuckled, "The Swift Reporting Division is in charge of human good and evil, reporting crimes immediately without delay. So you are the magistrate of the Mount Tai Swift Reporting Division, I've heard so much about you. But judging from your attire, you're not some lowly underworld official, but rather a deputy magistrate, aren't you?"

"How could I dare to be angry when I meet a dignified deputy commander?" the fox returned the greeting with a sarcastic tone. "May I ask what brings you here, sir?"

"Is it the goose that failed its test, or the black pig that was reborn into the wrong body, or the old man in plain clothes who has been living a carefree life in someone else's body for many years, or has someone come to break up this loving couple, this human and ghost?"

The fox paused, raised an eyebrow, and added, "Oh, I forgot. You couldn't have come all this way just to apologize for those ghostly attacks on the city, could you?"

"You dare scare the fox? The fox will be furious with you!"

The underworld official's smile froze: "You little fox, you certainly have some discernment and a sharp tongue. Since you know my identity, how dare you be so insolent? Aren't you afraid I'll take you back to the mountain and give you a severe beating?"

"I have accumulated a lot of good karma," the fox said, glancing sideways with an air of self-righteousness. "And what I said is all true."

Su Yinchai choked, looked the fox up and down, and said, "You are a pure cultivator, yet you receive offerings from the mortal world. You have protected the people of a city and made great contributions. Your virtue is truly rare."

"Little fox, would you like to become an official?"

"Entering the Three Mountains and being granted an official position would elevate one to the ranks of immortals, making it legitimate and no longer a wandering immortal in the mortal realm. Wouldn't that be wonderful?"

The fox nodded: "That mountain god disappeared more than forty years ago; I haven't seen him."

"What?"

"Didn't you ask me about the mountain god?" the fox asked innocently.

Su Yinchai choked again, then sighed, "It seems the fox spirit has quite a few grievances against us."

"Who told me to keep cleaning up your messes?"

"Thank you for your trouble, Fox Fairy." Su Yinchai cupped his hands. "This matter was due to our oversight. I apologize to the Fox Fairy."

He continued, "Shall we solve them one by one?"

"Alright, let's start from the beginning. What's the background of those demons?" the fox asked directly.

Su Yinchai sighed helplessly, "The fox spirit's question is the most difficult to answer. It's not that I'm deliberately hiding it, but these people have only recently emerged in the south, and their actions are secretive and unpredictable. We know very little about them."

I don't believe it.

"Let's start with the black pig, as this matter is also related to those demons," Su Yinchai changed the subject. "In recent years, the number of wandering souls has been increasing. Yinchai on duty often encounter them, and when they do, they naturally bring these wandering souls back to their residences for resettlement."

"For these wandering souls, we usually have each department conduct a step-by-step investigation and classify them into four categories based on their good and evil deeds. Those whose crimes are minor and whose punishments are light will be added to the register of the dead and allowed to enter the cycle of reincarnation again."

"But no one expected, no one noticed, that a demon had infiltrated all the way, evading all the checks, and managed to sneak into the Five Paths Division that governs the order of reincarnation, taking the opportunity to cause trouble and disrupt the laws of reincarnation, which is why the person was reincarnated into the wrong body."

"I don't believe it." The fox just shook its head. According to the voice, the Three Mountains are a huge force that governs all the spirits in the world. Reincarnation is of utmost importance. How could it be so easily exploited?

"Don't say the fox spirit doesn't believe it, we don't believe it either. The rules in the manor are strict, and there is a supervisory office above that monitors all the underworld officials and reviews all kinds of cases, yet such a big mistake still happened." The underworld official spread his hands. "Does the fox spirit know how busy the Taishan manor is now? Even the manor lord has been alarmed."

"So, have you found anything?"

"No. But if you're willing to take a position in the government, and we become colleagues, I can tell you some of my private speculations."

"Heh heh," the fox sneered.

If they joined Mount Tai, would the fox still be able to bask in the sun every day like this?