When it was nearly dark, Hu Jiaping, who had been sleeping soundly under the tree all day, finally woke up. This irresponsible teacher had actually slept the entire day without moving once. When he got up, his hair was covered in grass roots and leaves. The children all looked at him with disgust, and whatever respect they had felt for him vanished completely.
“How’s your practice going?” He slowly stood up, yawning and stretching as he walked over listlessly, as if he had not fully woken up. “Those who can fly, show me.”
In an instant, more than ten long swords flew up with a swish. Apart from a few heaven-sent geniuses who could already fly across all the islands of the academy, most of the children could at least slowly and safely fly from this island to the northern island.
The only one standing motionless on the ground was Li Fei.
Hu Jiaping narrowed his eyes and looked at her for a while. “Can you not read? Or do you not want to fly?”
Li Fei was silent. She truly did not know what to say. Today had been terrible.
Hu Jiaping bent down to look at the name plaque at her waist and read her name one character at a time.
“Jiang—Li—Fei. That’s a nice name. You have such a refined name, but can you not read?”
Li Fei said quietly, “I can read…”
“Then you can’t learn it?”
She fell silent again.
Hu Jiaping looked at her and sighed, then said flatly, “One meal is twenty taels. Listen carefully, all of you. No one is allowed to bring her food. Otherwise, I’ll throw all of you down. If you still can’t fly tomorrow, one meal will be forty taels. If you still can’t learn the day after that, I can only take you to see Teacher Zuo Qiu. Was this year’s second selection too easy? To think it selected a disciple like this.”
After saying this, he yawned and walked towards the edge of the island. Suddenly, he leapt up and turned into a swirl of wild wind and falling leaves, scattering with a rush before disappearing completely.
Li Fei’s feet seemed nailed to the ground. She lowered her head and stared fixedly at a spot in front of her shoes, saying nothing.
Ji Tongzhou deliberately walked past her and laughed loudly. Even after he had gone far away, she could still hear him shouting, “I’ve never seen such a useless idiot. She can’t even learn sword flight! Hahahaha! Trash like that will be kicked out of the academy soon, right?”
“Li Fei…” Baili Gelin moved closer, wanting to comfort her, but Ye Ye pulled her back and shook his head. “…At a time like this, let her be alone.”
The people in the open space gradually scattered. The bleak sunset began to fade, and night descended, but Li Fei still did not move.
Embarrassment, humiliation, pity—she was not afraid of any of these. She could accept any scolding. But Hu Jiaping’s words had struck precisely at her sore spot.
She had not entered the academy through her own ability.
The nine-tailed fox had helped her pass the second selection and then vanished without a trace. Whether he had helped her or harmed her no longer mattered. The cruel truth lay before her: she could not find any way to learn sword flight.
Her nose felt sour. Li Fei sniffed hard and looked around blankly. Everything was pitch-black. The wind rang cold and clear. She was the only person left standing in the open space.
Suddenly, a helpless feeling rose from the bottom of her heart. This emotion, impossible to dispel, made her long to find someone to talk to. But who? There was no one here. Gelin? Changyue and Ye Ye were probably with her. She did not want too many people comforting her.
Dragging her sore, weak legs, she slowly returned to the disciple quarters. In the courtyard, all the doors were tightly shut. Faint lamplight shone through the windows. Lei Xiuyuan’s door was also closed.
What was that crybaby doing? He called her Boss all day long. Was he thinking about her now?
Li Fei stared blankly at the wavering bit of lamplight in his room. In her heart, there was a kind of hope. Was she hoping someone cared about her a little? Hoping someone could understand her helplessness at this moment and encourage her with a few words? Or perhaps hoping someone would notice her and comfort her gently?
She herself did not know what she was hoping for. She only knew that when she was sad, she still hoped a friend could stand beside her.
As if their hearts were connected, the door of Quiet Profound Room suddenly opened. Lei Xiuyuan immediately saw Li Fei standing in the courtyard in a daze and looked surprised.
“Boss,” he called softly. “You… you’re back…”
Li Fei forced a smile. “You’re still coming out this late?”
He walked to her side and searched through his sleeve for a while. Then he took out a handful of candies and placed them in her hand, saying softly, “Although Teacher said no one can bring you food, eating some candy should be fine. Boss, you must be hungry.”
Li Fei smiled again, somewhat surprised and also touched. “…Did you come out to look for me?”
He nodded. “Hurry and eat. It’s too late, so I’ll go back now. Boss should sleep early too.”
The door of Quiet Profound Room soon closed again. The courtyard was silent. Li Fei lowered her head and looked at the candies in her hand. They were round and neatly wrapped in white paper.
Because of these few candies, the helpless feeling in her heart was slightly soothed.
Having friends felt very good.
Li Fei slowly pushed open her door and entered. The room was empty, and her heart seemed empty too. She did not know what to do with herself. Every movement felt like it was happening in a dream, somewhat unreal.
She adjusted the bronze mirror and began undoing her braid in front of it. Reflected in the mirror was a dejected face. Her eyebrows were thick and dense, like they had been drawn with ink. Beneath them were two eyes that were large but not beautiful. Her nose was neither big nor small, her mouth neither big nor small, and her face neither big nor small. It was an extremely ordinary face, one that looked six or seven parts similar to her master.
Master…
Li Fei let out a long sigh. Her tears felt as if they were about to fall.
To stop those useless tears from falling, she hurriedly sniffed, unwrapped one of the candies Lei Xiuyuan had given her, and threw it into her mouth.
Sour!
The candy was so sour her teeth almost fell out. What kind of candy had Lei Xiuyuan taken? Her tears were forced out by the sourness, and she hurriedly spat it out.
“Oh my, it’s only been a few days. Why are you crying now?”
Without warning, that long-absent hoarse voice suddenly sounded beside her ear.
Li Fei sprang up so violently she knocked over the bronze mirror.
“Old sir!” She did not even know whether she was excited or thrilled. He was still here?! He had spoken!
“Why are you shouting?” he said impatiently. “Making a fuss over nothing.”
Li Fei’s current mood could no longer be described as surprise and joy. It was more like suddenly grabbing a life-saving straw while drowning. She did not even bother wiping her tears and said urgently, “Where have you been these past few months? I kept calling you, but no one answered! I thought you had left!”
He gave a humming laugh. “These past few days, I finally finished digesting that tiny bit of demonic aura. The moment I woke up, I saw you looking this stupid. Sure enough, without someone guiding you, an idiot like you can’t do anything properly.”
Although she did not want to admit it, he was actually right. If not for his existence, she probably would not even have passed Chufeng Academy’s first selection. How could she be an academy disciple now?
“You’ve already entered this academy? This room is quite spacious. Not bad.” The candle flame flickered lightly. A breeze circled inside the room. The half-closed window was suddenly blown open, and the hoarse voice came from beside it. “Only you live here? Excellent, excellent.”
Li Fei asked curiously, “Where are you? Why can’t I see you?”
“Here.”
The voice lingered in front of her. Li Fei looked around, but the room was still empty, without even half a figure. She was stunned. “Where?”
“Here, you idiot!”
The voice seemed to come from behind the oil lamp. Li Fei moved the lamp aside in disbelief and saw a tiny white fox crouching on the table, not much bigger than her thumb. Its two mung-bean-like eyes were a miserable green, but full of intelligence. Although the fox was tiny, it held its head high and its chest out, its little head lifted proudly with an extremely arrogant posture.
Li Fei was stunned. Wh-what was this tiny little fox?
“…You really are that fox demon!” she cried.
Before, she had only suspected it. Now that she saw his appearance, she was completely certain that he was that fox demon. Why? He had attached himself to her, yet no immortal had noticed?
No, no, now the problem was even more complicated. His voice was so hoarse that she had imagined him as a stern, cold-looking old man. But… what was with this tiny, delicate, adorable appearance?
The little white fox looked at her with contempt and arrogance. “Ignorant fool! I am the legendary nine-tailed fox! Not some ordinary fox demon!”
Li Fei stared at his tiny, fluffy body. The terrifying and beautiful nine-tailed fox had become the size of a thumb, and somehow this made him look strangely cute. Even his nine tails looked like nine little cotton balls. Yet he insisted on lifting his head so high, putting on an expression of looking down on all living beings.
“Pfft—”
She truly could not hold back and laughed softly. After laughing, she quickly covered her mouth.
“Rude thing!” he snapped, his eyes widening roundly.
“S-sorry…” Li Fei tried hard to hold back her smile. “You’re… so small.”
She remembered that on that day in Qingqiu, he had been enormous.
His intelligent eyes narrowed slightly, and there was a trace of frustration and anger in his voice. “With less than one-thousandth of my demonic aura, it’s already impressive that I can let you, my host body, see me! Other people can’t see me!”
“Host body?” Those three words sounded very bad.
He said flatly, “These days, I’ve been transformed into one strand of your hair.”
Hair?!
Li Fei subconsciously touched her head. The moment she thought that one strand of her hair had been transformed from a fox demon, her expression became very strange.
“There’s no need to be so surprised,” he said impatiently again. “You agreed to save me yourself. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to attach myself to you.”
“When did I agree?” At the time, she had clearly just been scared silly!
“How would I know? I only know I was able to attach myself. In your heart, you wanted to save me.”
Li Fei fell silent. Perhaps he was right. When he had looked at her with pleading eyes, she had already wanted to save him. Of all the demons she had seen, their eyes had been muddy and empty, without intelligence or reason. He was the first demon she had ever met who could speak and whose eyes were full of spirit. And at the time, he had been gravely injured.
“Why did those immortals want to hunt you down? You must have done many bad things, right?” She instinctively placed demons on the side of evil.
The fox proudly narrowed his eyes and said coldly, “Humans have the way of humans. Immortals have the way of immortals. Demons also have the way of demons. How can the affairs of the world be divided merely into good and bad? All living beings simply run about for desire and profit! I am a thousand-year nine-tailed fox. From something as small as a single hair to something as great as a thousand years of demonic power, everything about me is a treasure immortals need. Where there is profit, people naturally pursue it! If I had not encountered my year of calamity, how could my demonic power have been completely sealed? With those few fools, in ordinary times, they could never have harmed even a hair on me! I needed to find a safe place to recover the demonic power sealed inside my body. By luck, I unexpectedly met you in Qingqiu… With the seafall descending, perhaps this too was heaven’s will.”
Li Fei felt his words were very profound and could not quite understand them for a while. She could not help falling into a daze.
The fox crouched quietly on the table. Suddenly, its pointed nose twitched, as if sniffing something, and it asked, “What are you holding in your hand?”
Li Fei opened her palm. “Oh, these are candies my friend gave me. I couldn’t fly on a sword, so the teacher punished me and wouldn’t let me eat. He was afraid I’d be hungry, so he brought me some candy.”
The fox gave a contemptuous snort. “Eating these candies will only make you hungrier. What kind of friend has such bad intentions? And how is it that you can’t fly on a sword? Right, I saw you crying earlier. Have you run into some difficulty? Speak quickly!”
A demon was a demon. He spoke directly and cleanly, without dragging things out.
Li Fei took a long breath. Her luck really was not bad. Just when she was in despair, a new path had appeared.
She explained that she could not draw spiritual energy into her body or circulate her inner breath, which meant she could not learn sword flight. As she spoke, the fox laughed. In the end, he burst into wild laughter.
“Those fools! How could their low-level cultivation methods possibly work for you? You are different from them. You don’t need to go through all that trouble in the first place!”
Li Fei’s heart stirred. She asked softly, “What’s… different about me?”
Teacher Zuo Qiu’s question last time had suddenly made her realise that she was different. Before, she had never paid attention to those details. But now that she thought carefully, even she could notice the abnormalities: she could not eat meat, mosquitoes and insects did not bite her, she did not fear miasma or demonic aura, and she practised a breathing method completely opposite from others…
She was too different from everyone else.
What exactly… was she?
He gave an arrogant cold snort. “That is none of your concern! You little baby who hasn’t even shed her shell yet only needs to know that those cultivation methods are completely useless to you! All right, I don’t have much time. I can only stay awake for one or two quarters every ten days. Enough nonsense. I am going to teach you a cultivation method. Listen carefully—”
Li Fei had originally had a stomach full of questions to ask, but he clearly had no intention of discussing them. She had no choice but to gather her focus and listen intently to his explanation.
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