Becoming a Fox Spirit from Under One Person.

A fox pendant woven from straw rope was handed to Wei Shufen. The girl cherished it, rubbing the fox's head with her thumb for a long time, and then picked up a small peach-shaped pendant with the character "安" (peace) written on it.

It is the "An" in Chen Ruoan's name.

···

The two sisters, Shu-ning and Shu-ying, gradually noticed that their sister Shu-fen had changed her appearance.

She no longer touches dangerous and vicious Gu poisons, nor does she insist on going to dangerous places to search for strange insects and herbs. Instead, she often carries a bamboo basket and jumps around in the countryside, or sits on the stones in the stream, staring blankly at the wooden comb and small pendants.

Occasionally, someone would see a boy with an umbrella walking with her, his figure as ethereal as mist, and no one could ever discern his true form.

That winter was unusually mild for Wei Shufen, and she spent December in comfort and joy.

But as January drew to a close, a lingering, inexplicable melancholy settled in her heart.

Wei Shufen knew that Chen Ruoan was waiting for a reply from the troops stationed outside the village. Once the letter reached Qinghe Miao Village, these comfortable and carefree days would come to an end.

“Grandma,” Wei Shufen called out to her master.

"How many times have I told you not to call me 'Grandma'?" the woman, who looked to be in her thirties, said angrily.

"But Grandma will become the Great Gu Master of Qinghe sooner or later. If she is a Great Gu Master, won't everyone in the village call her Grandma?"

"Whatever you say," the old woman said helplessly.

"Grandma, when will the letter be back?"

"Why are you starting to worry about the letter too?"

"Think about it, Uncle Ming, Third Brother, Erquanzi, so many people went out with him, and not a single one of them has replied."

Wei Shufen knew that thinking this way was bad, but many people in Qinghe Village had the same idea: they had all died outside long ago.

The old woman remained silent. At that time, the Northern Expedition had just begun, and the local officials were not clear about their willingness to participate in the war. They only sent a few thousand people to deal with the matter perfunctorily.

The group of Miao men were so excited by the hype that they followed along without really understanding what was going on.

No one knows where these people went or which group they joined afterward.

"Ah~"

The master and apprentice both sighed deeply.

Just as Wei Shufen was about to leave, news came from the Grand Master of Gu in Qinghe: the men who had gone out to the battlefield had finally returned with news.

"Yes, there's news?"

"Shufen, go take a look," the old woman instructed.

Wei Shufen headed towards the Great Gu Master, but her steps were slow and sluggish, as if someone had poured dozens of kilograms of cement into the soles of her shoes.

Upon arriving at the wooden building in the center of the Miao village, Chen Ruoan was already standing under the tree in front of the door.

"Master, he's alive, he's alive, he's still alive!"

"They won, and then headed northeast." Zhou Kang was so excited that he was incoherent, but when he thought about his son going to support another battlefield, he slapped himself a few times.

"Damn it, I still have to worry about him!"

Now, it's hard to say whether to be happy or sad.

Wei Shufen stood at a distance and waited for a long time before slowly walking forward.

"You've waited for us?"

"We've arrived. Everything is fine, at least for now," Chen Ruoan replied.

"Will you come back after you leave? Think about it, Uncle Ming's letter will eventually be sent back to Qinghe. If Master Kang misses you, you'll have to come and take a look, won't you?"

Wei Shufen lowered her head and whispered, her index fingers touching each other helplessly in front of her chest.

Chen Ruoan thought for a moment and said, "No, perhaps I can set up a memorial tablet in the village. However, I haven't made any contributions to the village these past few days, so I can't be shameless enough to ask."

"It's fine to leave it at my house."

One person's incense offerings, one person's memorial tablet.

Wei Shufen spent half a day cleaning the unused storage room in her house. A memorial tablet that she had carefully carved herself was placed on the table. Since there was no proper incense burner, she used a commonly used Gu pot as a substitute.

Incense is lit, and wisps of smoke curl around the memorial tablets, adding a touch of tranquility to the simply decorated ancestral hall.

Chen Ruoan stood before the memorial tablet and solemnly bowed, saying, "I have had a very pleasant time with you these past few days. I hope we will meet again someday."

Unfortunately, they ultimately failed to forge a positive relationship.

Chen Ruoan clearly felt that his relationship with Wei Shufen was already very close, but he still couldn't figure out what the criteria for judging the Wishing Tree were.

In one's mind, amidst the fluttering ribbons and the delicate red threads, an inescapable karmic entanglement suddenly appears—how could any obsessive-compulsive sufferer bear this!

Wei Shufen responded casually, "Okay."

Chen Ruoan nodded and smiled, his body swirling with Qi, and in an instant, he transformed into a black spirit fox. His fox tail swept away a wisp of smoke, and his toes trod on the thin mist as he gracefully flew straight towards the west.

This trip is to Sichuan.

Wei Shufen stood frozen in the courtyard, sitting there for most of the day.

Her gaze lingered on the name on the memorial tablet, then shifted to the Gu jar on the table, her heart feeling empty and frantic.

Feeling uneasy, and realizing it had been a long time since she had gone out to catch insects and pick flowers, she picked up her bamboo basket and ran wildly towards the remote mountains.

In a crevice of the cliff, she saw a dark-colored flower quietly blooming, blending seamlessly with the stark mountainside—a sight she had never seen before.

After a long and arduous climb, the flowers were finally in sight.

Wei Shufen reached out to pick it, but just as her fingertips were about to touch the petals, the rock beneath her feet suddenly loosened, and she was suspended in mid-air.

A feeling of weightlessness washed over her, and she instinctively closed her eyes, but the warm, soft sensation she had expected did not appear at all.

"Bam—"

"Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!"

Wei Shufen crashed heavily to the bottom of the cliff, her body covered in wounds, her limbs trembling with pain.

She struggled to lift her head, gazing at the drifting clouds torn apart by the wind on the horizon, and murmured softly:

"You really left?"

"If I had known, I should have found a way to break that demon core. In the end, it was just that my skills were not good enough."

···

"Achoo—!"

The dark fox shadow suddenly sneezed amidst the swirling clouds and mist, its fluffy fur bristling in a few strands, and its tail tip impatiently swept away the thin mist beneath it.

Chen Ruoan belatedly realized that he had forgotten to remind Wei Shufen of something before leaving.

The divine tablet can bestow a trace of divine will, which, in essence, can be used as a single-threaded video call.

"Never mind, as long as we make offerings, Miss Shufen will find out sooner or later."

“Speaking of which…” Chen Ruoan complained to the precious tree in his mind: “Tree, can’t you see the atmosphere? I’ve done everything I should have done on this trip to Qinghe, how can it not count as forming a good connection?”

The precious tree remained silent.

Chapter 65: Stirring Up the Wizard's "Nest"

Beginning in 1927, chaos broke out in the surrounding areas of Ningxia.

This area was under the jurisdiction of the Sichuan Army, and the Yi and Han people lived together, causing constant friction. Tribal conflicts and banditry occurred frequently. Various warlords ostensibly flew the flag of the National Revolutionary Army, but in reality, they each guarded their own defense zones and carved up their own territories.

As the fox traveled along, it saw that the mountain roads were blocked, opium was rampant, the common people were suffering, and the entire southwestern border was full of undercurrents, with not a trace of peace.

Further on, the Yi Mountains stretch for eight hundred miles across the heart of southwestern Sichuan, their peaks rising like waves.

The mountains here have a temper; some peaks are capped with snow, while some sunny slopes exude warmth. Occasionally, a few dark green spots emerge from the withered meadows, and tenacious life peeks out in the cold wind.

One mountain can have four seasons, and every ten miles can bring different weather.

When the fox landed, the sky was clear and blue. But as soon as it rounded a mountain ridge, clouds and mist surged up, creating a vast expanse of white.

Swish!

The fox trod through the snow, its paws crunching as it sped through the forest, pursued relentlessly by its enemies, their shouts deafening.

"Quick, chase after them! They're just ahead!"

"Damn it, how come there isn't a single footprint in such obvious snow!"

"Nonsense! It would be abnormal if such an excellent spirit didn't even have some kind of flying technique! If such an outrageous spirit were willing to form a contract with me, I would be willing to give it the legendary Five Elements Essence!"

"Pah! You've got all the good things that a wizard should have, haven't you?"

···

As Chen Ruoan fled, he questioned the ghost leader beside him: "What kind of place is your hometown? How come there are so many sorcerers there?"

"The land belongs to Ning, and the mountain is the Daliang Mountains. I never knew there were so many extraordinary people outside."

The mountain was steep and the cliffs were sheer. Ordinary people could not match the speed of a fox. Once Chen Ruoan leaped to the top of the mountain, he completely shook off the pursuing sorcerer.

A group of Liangshan shamans gazed at the mountain, sighed sadly, and left dejectedly.

"It turns out they disturbed the wizards' lair. As soon as the wizards smelled the elves, they all came running after them."

It's not that Chen Ruoan is bragging, but his fur is a valuable commodity in the eyes of hunters;

In the eyes of the wizards, he himself is probably similar to a mythical Pokémon, or a rare "native" that the Tin Man discovered when exploring the planet.

Within the Liangshan region, foxes are more dangerous than humans.

Chen Ruoan transformed into human form, circled back to the mountain peak, and planned to change into clothes that were more in line with the local customs and traditions.

After searching diligently, he finally found suitable clothes in a shop and spent a large sum of money.

He wore a cloth shirt on his upper body, with a sheepskin jacket over it. He covered the fox ears with a black felt hat, wrapped the fox tail around his side waist, and secured it with a waist belt.

Simple and steady.

The thick clothing had a slight blocking effect on the emission of the fragrance. Fox could understand why Xia He, before meeting Zhang Lingyu, liked to wrap herself up like a dowdy and awkward "fat penguin".

Chen Ruoan opened her umbrella, her feet sinking into the thin snow, searching for the houses nestled in the mountain valley.

The old ghost's real name was Zhao Shanhai. He had spent the longest time in the Yin-Yang realm, and his memories of his homeland had long since faded with time. He could no longer recall how to navigate the mountain path back then.