Thunder crackled on the skies, the looming dark grey clouds started to cover the blue skies and the bright sun made the skies above darkened like a night skies without any stars.
Tang Li Xue was flying with lightning speed across the skies while looking above her head.
She frowned deeply as a very bad feeling started to creeping inside her heart.
Tang Li Xue suppressed her anxiousness and increased her speed to maximum, her slender figure covered by her crimson phoenix dress turned into a streak of the bright red line on the dark somber skies.
With Tang Li Xue's current strength, she could reach the Foxes Home in only one and a half-day if she was flying with her full speed.
Tang Li Xue managed to arrive back at Foxes Home in the next morning.
However, the choking gloomy atmosphere has already covered the entire Foxes Home which shown that Tang Li Xue's bad premonition was not wrong at all.
Tang Li Xue hastily entered the Foxes Home's shabby wooden gate and directly went to Instructor Lan's house.
Along her way, Tang Li Xue found that every fox lived in this Foxes Home was already changed.
They were no longer as warm and energetic as before.
On the contrary, they shut the door of their house tightly and hiding inside it while taking a peek at her from their window.
All of their stares were cold and unfeeling, full of suspicion and distrust. It made Tang Li Xue felt really uncomfortable.
Tang Li Xue quickened her pace and she arrived at Instructor Lan's house not long after that.
She did not hesitate to knock the door a few times.
"The door is unlocked. You can come in." Instructor Lan's sweet gentle voice resounded from inside the house.
Tang Li Xue opened the door and stepped into Instructor Lan's house but she immediately stunned when she saw Instructor Lan miserable state.
Instructor Lan lied down on her bed with the face as pale as a piece of white paper.
Her right arm had already gone only leaving an empty loose sleeve. Tang Li Xue also did not see Instructor Lan's silky black-furred tail anymore.
"Instructor Lan!" Tang Li Xue ran over to Instructor Lan and held her left hand full of worry.
Although, Tang Li Xue already knew that all of these including the Instructor Lan in front of her were only an illusion made by the wooden bridge but she could not help to feel worried when she saw Instructor Lan's current condition.
Because no matter if this were real or not, Tang Li Xue already spent several years under Instructor Lan's teaching in this illusion so she also already had some emotional attachment with Instructor Lan.
"Xue'er! My beloved student... you finally come back..." A beautiful smile was blooming on Instructor Lan's pale face and she tried to stand up from her bed.
Tang Li Xue quickly held Instructor Lan's shoulder and helped her up but the moment Instructor Lan sat on her bed, she immediately coughed out several mouthfuls of blood.
Tang Li Xue patted Instructor Lan's back while channeling her vitality energy to Instructor Lan's weak sickly body to make her feel better.
After Instructor Lan felt a bit better, Tang Li Xue took out her handkerchief and wiped Instructor Lan's blood on her mouth.
"Xue'er... I am so sorry!" Instructor Lan lowered her head to Tang Li Xue and apologize but it worsened her body condition and she coughed out several mouthfuls of blood again.
Tang Li Xue kept channeling her vitality energy to Instructor Lan but she frowned when she found out that Instructor Lan's wounds were too severe and Tang Li Xue could no longer cure her anymore.
In fact, Instructor Lan was only a half step away from death. She could only hold until now by relying on her sheer of willpower.
" Xue'er, my life will not last long anymore so listen to me carefully but you must promise me to not act rashly after that." Instructor Lan gripped Tang Li Xue's hand tightly with her only left hand.
'Sigh... Fortunately, this is only an illusion! But this situation is also a good lesson for me. The next time I get some [Recovery Pills], I must save it so I can use it to cure the people closest to me when I am encountering the critical situation like this in reality!' Tang Li Xue thought.
"Instructor Lan, I promise I will never act rashly. You can rest assured and tell me what happened after I left." Tang Li Xue held Instructor Lan's left palm tightly with both of her hands.
Instructor Lan told Tang Li Xue what exactly happened after she left the Foxes Home slowly but even so, Instructor Lan started to breathe heavily and sweat began to pour out from her forehead.
.....
...
.
Everything seems peaceful Foxes Home at first after Tang Li Xue left but unfortunately, it did not last long.
One year after Tang Li Xue left, the other instructors including instructor Lan started to recruit some new students as usual.
After screening them through several trials, they joined the Foxes Home like Tang Li Xue and the others.
But who knows that some traitors were still managed to slip in and mixed between them, they assaulted all of the instructors when the instructors let their guards down.
The traitors successfully killed some instructors and crippled many of them including Instructor Lan. They also stole many valuable treasures from Foxes Home's storage house.
When all the traitors tried to break out from the Foxes Home, they even slaughtered many innocent foxes along their way and made all the Foxes Home's residents losing their trust to any outsiders.
However, those were not the only things they did!
They were also abducting many fox cubs as their hostages... including Tang Li Xue's best friend, Yaya!
And their whereabouts were still unknown until now!
Tang Li Xue gritted her teeth in anger and hatred the moment she heard that. Her mesmerizing topaz blue eyes immediately turned grim full of sharp murderous intent.
Now she knew why Instructor Lan apologized to her before.
It was because Instructor Lan felt really guilty to her since Instructor Lan could not protect her beloved student's best friend.
Tang Li Xue kept reminding herself that all of these were only an illusion to calm down.
Actually, if these were reality Tang Li Xue could simply push the <> button in Yaya's status window to recall Yaya back into her system storage.
Then she only needs to push the <> button again to summon Yaya out to her side.
Unfortunately, Tang Li Xue could not do that in this illusion since the 'Yaya' in here was not the real one but also a part of the illusion.
Tang Li Xue continued to listen to Instructor Lan's story...
It was revealed a few weeks ago that the traitor foxes were actually under the slave contracts with humans as their masters.
The traitor foxes came back to the Foxes Home with their human masters and they also brought back all their hostages with them.
Of course, they all did not come to make peace!
They demanded the Foxes Home to surrender and let them enslaved all the foxes in the Foxes Home!
The Foxes Home refused their demand and immediately activated the protection formation to prevent the traitor foxes and their human masters from entering here!
In a fit of rage, the traitors' masters swore to kill one fox cub every day if the Foxes Home did not surrender to them.
Many a.d.u.l.t foxes in the Foxes Home ran outside to save their cubs and in the end, they accepted to be enslaved by those despicable humans.
It was already a few weeks after that so there were more than ten fox cubs already died in their hands outside the Foxes Home.
Almost half of the foxes in the Foxes Home already enslaved by those despicable humans in order for their cubs to be spared from being killed.
If this continues, the Foxes Home would surely be crumbled apart.
"More than half of the instructors in the Foxes Home already died or crippled because of those traitors. We don't have enough strength to oppose them so Xue'er... please, help us to fight them back! With your powerful strength, you should be able to... cough... cough... oeeeekh!" Instructor Lan puked out a large amount of blood from her mouth.
However, she still gripped Tang Li Xue's hand tightly with her remaining left hand. Her weary sleepy eyes stared at Tang Li Xue full of hope, trust, and expectation.
Tang Li Xue clutched Instructor Lan's left palm with both of her hands and swore to her with the solemn expression: "Instructor Lan, leave everything to me! I promise I will use my every effort to protect the Foxes Home with all of my strength!"
Instructor Lan's beautiful smile blossomed for one last time as she slowly closed her weary eyes with contented expression and hugged Tang Li Xue's slender body in delight.
Her left hand slumped down from Tang Li Xue's grip as she was gone forever from this world.
Tang Li Xue almost bawling out loud when Instructor Lan stopped breathing in her embrace but she kept reminding herself that this was all only an illusion while sobbing softly.
Tang Li Xue made Instructor Lan's tombstone and buried Instructor Lan's dead body in her backyard.
Although this was only an illusion but it did not mean she could just casually throw Instructor Lan's dead body away randomly.
When Tang Li Xue was still mourning the Instructor Lan's dead and held the funeral ceremony for her teacher...
"HEI, PATHETIC FOXES! We come back again today! Who wants to surrender today quickly come out and you can reunite with your child! Like usual if you submit to us we will not kill your child! But if you are not... hehehehe!"
The loud hoarse voice resounded through the entire Foxes Home and even Tang Li Xue could clearly hear it from inside the Instructor Lan's backyard.
