Amber’s eyes blazed with fury, her breath uneven, the colors in her gaze swirling rapidly into a sharp focus.
“Do you know how he died?” Yan Liu continued, her voice tinged with mockery. “He bit off his own tongue. I leaned in to kiss him and discovered he’d already done it—bitten his tongue and bled to death. Such a chaste and unyielding man… I’ve truly never met another like him.”
Her words stoked Amber’s rage to a breaking point. Around them, the trees began to sway violently, their branches and leaves trembling with a sound like roaring waves.
Yan Liu remained still, narrowing her eyes as she waited. She was bound by her oath of peace between the two clans—Amber had to strike first for her to retaliate.
For all their cunning and deception, fox spirits were unwaveringly loyal to their promises.
“Run, Sister!”
A shout rang through the air as a black marten, bristling with fur and baring its teeth, suddenly leapt from above, landing between Amber and Yan Liu. It let out a fierce growl, glaring at Yan Liu.
Yan Liu laughed. “Well, look who it is. Our little would-be man-spirit. Not bad—your roar almost has a masculine tone to it.”
“Run, Sister! I’ll hold her off!” cried Li Luo again, baring his sharp teeth.
“She can’t attack first. She swore an oath!” he added quickly when Amber hesitated. “Don’t worry, I won’t fight her—I’ll just block her. Now go!”
Yan Liu’s face darkened.
Amber hesitated no longer. She turned abruptly, hoisted Mo Xie onto her back, and vanished behind the trees.
“This doesn’t add up,” Xuan Ye remarked once Ban Xia and Chi Xue arrived. “If Amber knows Mo Xie, if they’re connected somehow, then everything we’ve heard may very well be a lie.”
“Mo Family Village!”
Both Xuan Ye and Ban Xia exclaimed at the same time, realizing the crux of the situation.
Back in Mo Family Village, amidst the wooden stilted houses, the group heard the sound of a baby crying.
Peering through a narrow gap in the window, Xuan Ye caught sight of the scene inside—a man and a woman tied up, clearly hostages.
“Come on, little ancestor. Haven’t I already fed you? Stop crying, please? Just wait until today is over, and I’ll let your parents go. It’s only half a day. Deal?”
A young girl, no older than fifteen or sixteen, stood in the middle of the room, holding a chubby baby. She was pacing back and forth in exasperation, her face scrunched with frustration.
“Meow… fur…” The baby wailed louder, babbling nonsensically.
The girl sighed in resignation, pouting as she revealed her true form. Her head shifted, and sleek, snowy fur replaced her hair—she was a white marten.
“Fur… meow!” The baby squealed with delight, immediately stopping its cries. With tiny, chubby hands, it reached out to grab at her fur, yanking out tufts one by one in gleeful satisfaction.
“You idiot! Two years old and still nursing—your mother has spoiled you rotten!” the girl grumbled indignantly, her round eyes rolling in frustration, making her look irresistibly cute.
“Ya Jin isn’t a bad person!” Chi Xue suddenly blurted loudly from the window.
The situation forced Xuan Ye’s hand. Without hesitation, he kicked down the door and stormed inside.
“What’s your connection to Amber?” he demanded, locking eyes with the girl.
At the sight of him, the girl shuddered, dropping the baby onto the floor with a thud. As the infant screamed in indignation, the girl’s snowy fur bristled with alarm. In her panic, she accidentally yanked out a large tuft of fur from the top of her own head.
“I’m not connected to Sister Amber in any way!” she stammered quickly.
Amber’s shaky pretense quickly began to unravel after just a single exchange.
“So, Amber is your sister,” Ban Xia observed, crouching down next to the young marten girl. “And what’s your name, little sister? Are you afraid of the heat?”
“My name is Yan Zhi,” the marten girl replied with a pout, her eyes brimming with unshed tears. “Why are you asking if I’m afraid of the heat? I am! I also hate mosquitoes.”
“Oh, no big reason,” Ban Xia said, her tone deliberately nonchalant. “It’s just that our esteemed master over there has a pill furnace. You know, it’s used to refine elixirs by roasting little spirits. If you’re afraid of the heat… well, that’s going to be rough. You’d be roasted in that furnace for forty-nine days straight!”
A mash-up of The Legend of Sword and Fairy and Journey to the West, Ban Xia’s scare tactics were far from original.
But Yan Zhi clearly fell for it. Her lips quivered for a moment before she broke down completely, shouting, “I will never take you to find Sister Amber! Even if you burn me, I won’t!”
Meanwhile, Amber had carried Mo Xie to a secluded part of the forest, deep and shadowy, where she stopped to wait.
As a beast, each species carried its own unique scent, undetectable to humans but unmistakable to their own kind. Amber knew the other martens would have no trouble finding her.
Sure enough, after a while, the underbrush rustled, and a small black marten poked its head out.
“Sister!” cried Li Luo as he emerged, his tone subdued.
Amber nodded and motioned for him to come closer. He leapt forward, sprawling at her feet.
“What should I do?” Amber murmured, gently stroking Li Luo’s fur.
Li Luo didn’t answer. He knew she wasn’t looking for advice, just comfort. So he rested his head on her knee, his bright, glistening eyes fixed on her.
“If I die, Sister, don’t avenge me,” Li Luo said after a moment, his tone light, as if joking. “Just go live the life you want.”
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