Chapter 2
The little fox watched as Li Yundong consumed the Human Origin Gold Pill. She was speechless. She was screaming inside as if losing her mind, “What kind of coincidence is this? You didn’t swallow earlier or later, yet you just had to swallow now! How come grandpa heavens doesn’t choke you to death!”
She wanted to stop him, but she did not dare move even the slightest bit due to fear of being discovered. Because just outside the window, there were two ruthless characters well known throughout the cultivation world.
After Li Yundong gulped down several mouthfuls of water, his throat immediately felt much better. A pleased smile appeared appeared on his face. Completely carefree, he fell asleep once more.
The two women outside the window heard the sounds from inside the room. After a while, the woman with a cold voice said, “Forget it. It doesn’t seem to be here. Let’s return first. That fox spirit can’t escape from the palm of our hands anyways.”
The lively sounding girl let out a soft sigh. “It’s just that letting it end like this, it’s so disappointing.”
With those words, the two women transformed into two streaks of azure light and rapidly took their leave.
Even though the little fox wanted to blow up on the inside, she forcefully suppressed her impulses and stayed on Li Yundong’s chest motionless.
After ten minutes or so, the two streaks of azure light returned to the balcony. Moments later, the slightly cold sounding women leaked a sigh. “It seemed it really isn’t here. Let’s leave.”
Her voice contained an inexpressible sense of disappointment. The two women once again transformed into two streaks of azure light and left.
Only at this point did the little fox jump off of Li Yundong’s chest. With a single swirl, she transformed into human form. Baring her fangs and brandishing her claws, she threw herself at Li Yundong, hysterically shouting, “You bastard, return my Human Origin Gold Pill!”
However, after she pinched at Li Yundong for a while, a sudden force repelled her away. Her body was flipped over to the side.
The little fox stared with teary eyes at Li Yundong as a bout of rainbow light gradually shined forth from his body. She felt aggrieved and heartbroken, and sad at being wronged.
She knew, this was the Human Origin Gold Pill dissolving in Li Yundong’s body. The medicinal power had started to take effect. It was affecting Li Yundong’s meridians and his flesh.
Thinking of all the difficulties she had endured in order to steal the Human Origin Gold Pill, her original plan had been to use the pill to advance directly from a three tailed fox to a six tailed fox. Never would she have thought that through a series of coincidences, everything ended up benefiting this guy!
Watching the miraculous light flow on Li Yundong’s body, the little fox’s lips pouted more and more. Tears welled up around the rim of her eyes. ‘I hid here and there carrying this immortal pill, but didn’t even have time to absorb even the slightest medicinal power! And now, after so much hard work and living in fear for so long, all her hard work ended up benefiting this guy!’
The more the little fox thought about it, the more wronged she felt. This time, everything’s already ruined. She isn’t even afraid of attracting the two pursuers anymore. She could only cry to express her inconsolable heartbreak. It was like raindrops on a pear blossom, like tears fallen from an apple rose.*
The cries of the little fox were resounding, but steel and concrete sealed the apartment like a cage, not even the slightest sound leaked outside. Unexpectedly, the two terrifying pursuer did not reappear.
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The little fox cried for a while. The volume of her wailing gradually decreased, but her sobbing would not stop. Her stomach released a series of growls.
She was hungry.
Come to think of it, having been pursued the entire way, she had not slept for several days. The luxury of a meal had been even less of a consideration.
People are iron and food is steel.** Demons need to eat too!
The little fox hatefully glared at Li Yundong. If this guy did not eat the Human Origin Gold Pill, she would eat him up right now!
The little fox wiped her tears and blew her nose. Her eyes, which had turned completely red from crying, started to look around the room, searching for signs of food.
One search later, the little fox focused on the cup sitting atop the coffee table. She picked up the cup and took a look, only to find that all the water had disappeared. Li Yundong drank all of it until not a drop remained!
The little fox fumed with bitterness. She smashed the cup at Li Yundong. A puff of qi was released from Li Yundong’s body in response, repelling the cup to the side.
Seeing this, the little fox knew it represented all the medicinal power had been dissolved. The qi in Li Yundong’s body was now extremely vigorous. She could not help but start crying once more.
After crying for a bit, the little fox truly could not withstand her hunger. Using her nose to sniff around the room, she searched for food all over the place. Even as she searched, she complained of her misery to herself, “Master is completely right. These mortals are bad, each worse than the other. I just met this one and he ate my Gold Pill!”
Everyone says dogs have a good sense of smell. Foxes are not any worse in comparison.
Even though the refrigerator door was tightly closed, the little fox was able to find the kitchen based on smell.
The little fox had lived deep in the mountains since infancy, cultivating in the Fox Zen Sect. She had never visited the mundane world and only knew a little of secular things. In fact, she did not know what a refrigerator was.
The little fox mulled over the unfamiliar object for a bit. She carefully attempted to open the refrigerator door. Light appeared in front of her and inside the refrigerator, she saw various kinds of food.
Despite the little fox not knowing why the refrigerator would light up after she pulled open the door, the current her did not care enough to consider this matter. She also did not care to deal with her sorrow and heartbreak. With one final sob, she began to gorge herself.
Li Yundong swallowed the Human Origin Gold Pill. The medicinal power of this Gold Pill ravaged the insides of his body. From his meridian to his flesh, it could be called a mortal shedding bone exchanging*** transformation.
This was equivalent to those wuxia novel scenarios where a senior monk who achieved dao uses Marrow Washing Scripture and Tendon Exchanging Scripture to help a guy wash his marrow and exchange his tendons.
Once the little fox had finished eating, she returned to Li Yundong’s side and sat in lotus position in front of him. Her grudged filled eyes were fixed upon him.
Because Li Yundong lived by himself since the second year of senior middle school****, his character is lazy and undisciplined, thus his build is slightly chubby. As the medicinal power of the Human Origin Gold Pill circulates in his body, the little fox could clearly see with her naked eye Li Yundong’s muscles rapidly shaking.
This was especially true of the tendons and blood vessels under his skin. Their movement was like countless mice rushing forth and fro inside his body, making his skin move like waves, rising and falling continuously.
The little fox knew this was the behavior associated with medicinal power flaring up to the limit. This kind of medicinal power would not only wash marrow and replace tendons, it would even replenish the body’s vital energy deficiencies.
Li Yundong’s presence flourished. The virgin yang qi inside his body was stimulated by the Gold Pill medicinal energy. Slowly, it left the HuiYin acupoint causing a tall tent to slowly form between his legs.
The little fox’s heart was completely filled with unvoiced grudge as she grumbled to complain to herself, thinking the past could not be changed. At that time, her gaze suddenly fell upon the little tent on Li Yundong’s lower body. She was dazed for a moment. Then an idea sprouted violently in her mind.
‘This guy ate my Human Origin Gold Pill. Why can’t I wait for the medicinal power to take effect, then slowly teach the guy to cultivate? Once he successfully builds his foundation, I can steal yang to supplement yin, suck him dry, and absorb all his cultivation for myself.’
‘Isn’t this even more useful than me consuming the Human Origin Gold Pill directly?’
Thinking such thoughts, the little fox could not help but beam with joy. Her fox tail even started to wag.
At this time, Li Yundong was at the most crucial step of absorbing the medicinal power. After her realization, the little fox changed her perspective. She voluntarily helped Li Yundong stand guard.
What she did not expect was that once the medicinal power circulated, it would continue for three days.
Several tens of hours later, the little fox could not endure the wait. Taking into account all those days of living in fear, she could not endure it any more. So her body leaned over and she fell asleep at Li Yundong’s side.
Just as the little fox unwittingly slipped into slumber, the rainbow lights on Li Yundong’s body slowly disappeared. He dazedly got up from the carpet. His hand rubbed at his aching head, which seemed like it wanted to split in two, before he attempted to brace himself.
This attempt ended up with his hand on something warm and soft. Li Yundong was immediately distracted. He tilted his head and look down.
With a single glance, a droning sound went off in Li Yundong’s head as if something exploded.
At his side, there was a girl. Her hair was done up in twin braided tails, pure black in color. Her eyebrow were straight out of a painting. Her mouth was delicate with ruby lips. Her eyelashes were long and thick; they fluttered and trembled. Her eyes were tightly closed, as if dreaming of something bad. Her body was fully curled up.
And Li Yundong’s hand had landed on the girl’s chest. The girl did not wake up. Not only that, on the contrary, she wrapped her arms around his and spoke up in her dreams, “Master, Chan-er knows her wrongs. Chan-er shouldn’t have left the mountain without permission. Don’t punish Chan-er.”
“This!”
“This, this, what’s this supposed to be?”
Li Yundong’s mind was completely blank. His entire person seemed to have turned to stone, frozen on the spot without any signs of movement. Sweat broke out all over his body.
‘How come there’s a girl this beautiful beside me?’
Li Yundong used all his might to recall what happened before he fell asleep. But the alcohol he consumed would only allow him to remember his confession towards a beauty at school and the subsequent rejection. Afterward, he ran to a roadside shop and got really drunk. He could not remember anything from after that.
He could not even remember how he had made it back home.
Is it possible that this beauty brought him back?
Li Yundong could not help but look down and carefully assess the girl beside him.
The girl wore a dress cut in ancient fashion woven from what seems to be silk or possibly wild silk. However, the girl’s skin was exquisite, even finer than the sleek fabric of the dress. Her skin was white like snow. Her height could not be estimated because she was all curled up. Nevertheless, based on the feeling transmitted from his hand, a softness that could not be contained by a single palm, she had an excellent figure.
“Since when did I ever encounter this kind of luck with women?” Li Yundong’s head was a mess. His male instincts did not want to pull away from the girl’s softness. He even wanted to explore the girl’s secrets a little more. However, a sudden ring from his cellphone, allowed him to guiltily withdraw his hand from the girl’s chest.
The instant Li Yundong pressed the button to connect the call, a voice came through, “Li Yundong! Do you know that you’ve skipped class for three days! Do you want credits this term? Do you want to graduate?”
Li Yundong was dazed, “Is, is this class president?”
“Nonsense! Who else could it be?” The voice on the phone abruptly rose another octave.
Li Yundong’s head of full of fog. Did he perhaps get drunk for three whole days?
He smiled in an embarrassed manner and carefully asked, “This, class president, what’s the date today?”
“Today is May 23! Did you become an idiot?” The voice in the phone was distinctly brought under control. But this just meant another storm was brewing.
Li Yundong turned his head around and looked at the clock beside the living room television. He was surprised to find he truly did sleep for three days.
“Got it. Got it. I’ll come to school right away!” Li Yundong disconnected his cellphone without delay.
He rushed to the bathroom in a fluster to brush and wash up. His clothing that smelled like alcohol was also chaotically replaced with a set of blue casuals. Like that, he hurriedly took his leave.
Hastily making his way to school without stop, Li Yundong found himself full of questions. ‘Who is that beauty in my home? Why is she at my home? I didn’t commit some act that was violent and illegal, right?’
After Li Yundong left, the little fox who was alone in his apartment flipped over in her sleep and suddenly woke up.
Her eyes opened to find the room completely empty.
This shock scared her so much that her entire complexion turned pale. ‘The guy who ate my Human Origin Gold Pill, he didn’t ran away, did he?’
The little fox’s limbs were ice cold. If that guy escaped, then her entire plan would just turn out to be wishful thinking.
She quickly touched the carpet to find it still warm. That meant he had not gone far, so she calmed down a bit inside. Sniffing at the air, her mood dramatically improved, ‘his scent was still here!’
With that in mind, the little fox got up with a swish and started to pursue Li Yundong by his scent.
~~~
*梨花带雨,海棠落泪 – the literal translation is raindrops on a pear blossom, Malus spectabilis weeping: Malus spectabilis is a type of Chinese crabapple tree shrub thing that is mostly cultivated for its aesthetic value, basically beautiful flowers. Oh and it’s considered a type of japanese rose, This phrase is basically used to describe a crying beautiful woman who is beautiful when crying.
**人是铁，饭是钢 – the literal translation is human is iron, food is steel: There’s various way to interpret this but the end meaning is basically food is important. It is part of or perhaps a short version of 人是铁，饭是钢，一顿不吃烦得慌. 1) Iron (Gan) and Steel (Tie) come together to form Steel (GanTei) the word couple. So humans and food belong together. 2) If you take the cut off part into consideration, human is iron but rice is stronger than human, it is steel, having no rice is bad. 3) Human is iron but after eating rice, he becomes steel. Obviously our fox spirit is not human but ren can also mean person or people.
*** I just did this in LOTS: “Tuo Tai Huan Gu 脱胎换骨 – shedding of one’s mortal body and exchanging of bones: basically it is a vast improvement. In daoism, it is part of the process to become xian. To be reborn as an immortal or superior mortal.”
**** Chinese School System. In Canada, we have secondary school (9-12). In America, there’s high school (9-12). The Chinese use little (xiao), middle (zhong), big (da), where big is college/university. Midde consists of 3 years of junior middle school (zhongxue) and another 3 years of senior middle school (gaozhong: literally tall middle).
Foxes are quite evil aren’t they?