Countless thunderbolts streaked across the sky, dark clouds layered upon layer, and the sound of rumbling thunder resounded through the land.
At this moment, a little fox is going through the ‘heaven’s test’ on Baishou Mountain.
This little fox is a nine-tailed white fox. Her body is very tiny, with huge, white, fluffy tails about twice to triple her body size. Nine well-maintained tails, some waved beautifully in front of her, some sat quietly on the ground, and some stood proudly behind her back, which is stunningly gorgeous altogether.
Yet, it is pitiful that her snow-white tails and furs all got burned up due to the strikes of lightning striking her. Parts of her body are scorched, parts of her skin have fallen off piece by piece, and the blood stained all over her body, making her look extremely miserable.
The little fox got struck by the judgemental lightning again and fell to the ground. She tumbled several times before stopping, blood leaked through the corner of her mouth, and her pointy ears and all her furs crunched due to lack of strength.
She looks toward the cloud that is preparing the last lightning of her ‘heaven’s test’. Her left eye is blue like the lake, and her right eye is red like the burning flame, interestingly unique, but touches of fear and helplessness flashed within these large and round eyes, and the body trembled slightly.
She let out a whining cry and licked one of her tails that almost got charred bald, seeing this makes her heart ache so much. Then she gritted her teeth and made up her mind. Just at the moment of the last judgemental lighting striking, both of her eyes turned red, and all of her furs stood up as she jumped into the lightning with nine of her tails covering her just like a white and gentle protective cage.
The rumbling sound of the thunder!
It feels like the entire world is shaking.
The judgemental lightning lasted a long time, and when it was finally over, a little fox covered in bruises fell from the sky and landed among the soft meadows.
The wind blows through the grass. Not sure how long it has been, but all the living beings gradually resume their activities within Baishou Mountain. The little fox in the meadow has finally woken up, her eyes have returned to their normal color in black, looking all sweaty and extremely exhausted.
She spaced out a little, then realized how her body had changed. She successfully passed the ‘heaven’s test’ and is now a true nine-tailed heaven fox!
She is so happy, it is like all the pain has disappeared.
Both of her parents are nine-tailed foxes, so she was born as one too. Compared to the wild foxes who have to cultivate themselves from one tail, it can be said that she was already born at the top of the pyramid.
Generally speaking, she should have gone through the ‘heaven’s test’ a long time ago and officially become a heaven fox, entering the ranks of immortals.
However, due to her laziness, and the way she likes to just ‘go with the flow’ with things, along with some other reasons, it took her several hundred years before she was ready for the ‘test’. Both of her parents, older brother, and foxes in her clan have already entered the ranks of immortal and gone to heaven, so she is the only nine-tailed fox left in this world.
But it is all fine now because she can finally reunite with them.
She happily started licking her furs. According to the countless ascensions she observed in the past several hundred years, the ladder from heaven would soon descend and take her to heaven. Therefore, she should take the time to tidy herself and look pretty.
Just while she licks herself, she suddenly froze.
What is that scorched, dark, and rough-looking strip-shaped item? Why does it look so familiar? And there is more than one of them!
One, two, three…… She counted them stiffly, and the ominous thoughts in her mind became stronger and stronger. In the end, she counted to nine.
Her whole body became stiff, then she turned her neck bit by bit, and looked toward her hip.
There are supposed to be nine big and fluffy tails, but now there’s nothing but an empty fox hip with charred and convex fur.
Not! A! Single! Tail! Is! There!
The wind blows gently on the Baishou Mountain, the sun shines softly, birds sing, and the insects chirp melodiously; all peaceful and nice.
Suddenly, a shrill howl of a fox rose from the ground, piercing the sky, and frightening all living beings to tremble and hide synchronically.
……
“Xiaohu, please stop crying.” On the Mountain of Fox, a seductive woman wearing a red coat, who looked like someone in her thirties or forties is trying her best to comfort a young girl in front of her who is wearing a white dress and crying so hard that she will probably pass out soon.
“Why, why, my tails……Woo, woo, woo, my tails!!” The girl almost cried her eyes out, hugging the pile of scorched tails in her arms, her heart aches so much, she can’t bear it at all: “ Xiao Ba, Xiao Ba, what should I do? All of my tails are gone, woo, woo!”
Although the girl had no makeup, her appearance looked pure and beautiful. Her black hair is tied with just one fluffy white stripe-shaped hair tie, and because it was done quite messy, half of the hair is tied up and the other half lay on her shoulder. Her eyes are as big as chestnuts and red all around them from the crying, making her look pitiful, but even more loveable.
A touch of jealousy flashed in the eyes of the seductive woman, but soon disappeared, she sighed: “I don’t know much about nine-tailed foxes since I’m just an eight-tailed and a red fox……None of our tails is suitable for you, so your only bet is to find foxes in your clan, and see if any of them can spare you a tail.” As she spoke, her expression got more and more worried, “ Since you have no tails, you can’t be regarded as a nine-tailed heaven fox, so the ladder won’t come for you.”
However, she is the only nine-tailed fox left in this world, so where can she go and find a tail for herself?
Bai Xiaohu is about to burst into tears again.
She touched her hip: “Can I grow it out?”
The woman looked at her helplessly.
Bai Xiaohu was also discouraged. When a nine-tailed fox loses its tail, it is gone forever unless they obtain heaven-defying cultivation; otherwise, it is impossible to grow it out.
She began to think carefully: since none of the foxes in her clan seem to remain in this world, where should she go to find a tail?
Suddenly, she recalled that a long, long time ago, she met a little white kitten who was so small and weak, it got bullied badly by other cats and demons. She stood up for the little white kitten and tagged the kitten along to play with her. She liked the kitten very much and felt bad that it could only live for a little more than ten years, so she plucked nine very important pieces of fur from each of her tails and gifted them to the kitten, helping it to cultivate into a nine-tailed cat.
She hasn’t seen the kitten ever since, so they could have already ascended, or still live in this world. If they are still in this world, since their tails were cultivated with her furs being the foundation, maybe they can be transplanted back to her hip?
She’s not going to ask for much, just one. She will be good as long as her hip isn’t so empty, and she will find other ways to get the rest of her tails back.
She immediately started looking for the white cat, but hundreds of years had passed, and she didn’t even know their name, so how could she find them?
She visited the places where she first met the white kitten, then she traveled all over the places where she once showed off to the white kitten, and she also broke into the territory of the cat demon clan, and got chased away as an intruder.
Bai Xiaohu’s courage has faded over time
as an extremely indoor fox who hasn’t traveled out of her house for hundreds of years. It is like she traveled the amount of distance she will ever travel in her life during this time frame.
She also senses that she is getting weaker because her cultivation has dropped several levels after losing her tails, and because the ladder didn’t come for her, she can’t heal the bruises from the ‘heaven’s test’ in heaven’s fairy pond.
Finally, one day, Bai Xiaohu gritted her teeth and decided to use more than half of the remaining spiritual power to draw a formation to find the white cat. She sat on the ground, legs crossed, pierced each of her fingers and let the blood drops float in a circle around her body, and chanted a spell with hand seals to combine all the blood drops into the center of the formation.
Bai Xiaohu’s face suddenly became extremely pale as she opened her eyes and looked toward the formation. How can it be? That white cat is neither in heaven, nor in this world, but instead reincarnated into a mortal human, and is now in a lower-class world that is raging evil energy, which will cause it to collapse soon.
Bai Xiaohu’s expression changed knowing she can’t go to heaven and the remaining spiritual power is barely enough to take her to that lower-classed world, but if she can’t heal her bruises, she will never be able to come back.
Should she go or not?
Bai Xiaohu touched her fluffy hair tie imagining it was her precious tails. Her eyes are filled with sadness, the hair tie was made from her fur, and because she is always healthy and rarely sheds, it took her entire lifetime to collect enough fur to make this hair tie.
Then she touched her back where her tails were supposed to be, and looked up to the sky; her parents and brother are still up there waiting for her.
Determination flashes in her eyes, and she takes a deep breath and performs the hand seal to form the formation. Yet, the next moment, Bai Xiaohu suddenly paused and ran out of the formation. She puts the house she used to live in into her interspatial treasure, along with all the spiritual plants she grew, the little spiritual pond she loves to bathe in, and the pretty rocks she collected. Then lastly, she grabs the little chicken demon who is sleeping peacefully in their nest, sniffing with sadness: “MengMeng, let’s go.”
The fluffy, little, black chick woke up startled, turned, and looked at her, opening its eyes wide and confused.
Bai Xiaohu took a final glance at Baishou Mountain where she lived for more than 500 years. Her eyes were full of nostalgia and anxiety about the future. Then she stepped into the formation, performed the hand seals, and disappeared.
This world has lost the trace of its last nine-tailed fox.
Thank you so so much for picking up this novel!
