As the blood mist gradually dispersed, Vieya frowned.
Even though the flesh had been crushed to pieces, Xubing’s soul body still existed—like a blood-red relic bead suspended in midair.
The fox claw that was about to dissipate suddenly solidified again, lashing violently at the blood-red relic bead, whipping the corpse. A powerful shockwave instantly swept outward.
But such an attack did not work.
Huangliang’s expression behind the mask grew grave as she increased the force in her hand.
The knights hesitated, swords held but daring not to advance, and cast questioning looks toward the Inspector in charge of this operation.
The Inspector froze. He also couldn’t figure out what kind of fit this mysterious fox-masked woman was having, but then he suddenly rembered that there was still a Holy Sword swordmaster beside him—soone who nominally held a higher office than he did.
That’s right. Troubles like this—only she could make the call.
His eyes imdiately lit up. He hurriedly looked at Vieya and asked,
“Uh, um, Swordmaster... what do you think about the situation here...?”
“No rush. He isn’t dead yet.”
“He?”
“The target the fox-masked woman is attacking. Next, can you follow my command?”
“...If it’s the Swordmaster, then anyti,” the Inspector replied respectfully.
Stories about this generation’s Swordmaster had circulated long ago between the Tribunal and the Church. Moreover, she had even been formally appointed to a high official post while being a monster girl. Accordingly, officials like them would give a very high degree of cooperation in certain matters.
“Good. Take this opportunity to pull the wounded back first. As for the rest, watch my signal...” Vieya said, her gaze heavy.
And she seed to be starting to understand where that sense of familiarity on the fox-masked woman was coming from.
It must have been several years, right?
Vieya pondered as past mories quietly awakened.
She recalled the white-furred fox she had encountered back when she was searching for the truth about Flaviel on Mount Aisa... yeah, that little fox. Although this ti there wasn’t a big fluffy tail trailing behind her, mory wouldn’t be wrong.
However—xxlkk says: welco to read this book on the fan-fiction site tongrenxsw!—she seed to have forgotten the fox’s na... Hu Seven? Or Hu Eight? Or was it Hu Nine?
Vieya wracked her brain, but in her mories there was only that handful of snow-like, fluffy softness from the other party’s big tail.
“Is the 【Mo Ke Riverside Scroll】 in your hands?” the fox-masked woman suddenly asked Vieya.
“It is.”
“I wish to borrow it—”
“You can.” Vieya nodded imdiately.
The next second, Aislin and Phoenix both shot her strange looks.
“Don’t worry. I know her,” Vieya explained calmly. “And we don’t know how to use that scroll anyway. This is a good chance to let her demonstrate it for us.”
“You know her?”
Tiya froze for a mont. She looked at Vieya, then at the fox-masked woman who was standing there quietly waiting, and her gaze turned comical as she made a gossiping sound,
“Wow... you really didn’t sit idle all these years, huh! But Aurora has been thinking about reorganizing the party pretty often. To be honest, among all of us, she’s probably the one with the deepest obsession with the party. Haven’t you considered it?”
Vieya shook her head and said nothing.
She took out the scroll and tossed it in the fox-masked woman’s direction.
“Thank you...”
The fox-masked woman caught the scroll, spread it open in her hands, and once again softly chanted the sa incantation Xubing had recited before,
“O Guardian of Jacob, I pray You be the lamp before my feet and the light upon my path. When the wilderness veils the Promised Land, may Your pillar of cloud and torch of fire never be extinguished. Grant the pilgrim’s endurance, that every footprint may beco a verse of praise, until I enter the rest flowing with milk and honey.”
This ti, she recited the entire incantation before Vieya, every word clear.
The mont the final word of the incantation fell, the scroll flared with light!
In the next second, she extended a finger, injected magic power, and formally unfolded the 【Mo Ke Riverside Scroll】. Everything within the painting began to revive! The sound of flowing water, the chirping of birds, children’s laughter at play... everything began to unfold and spread across the street.
Like a vivid little world descending here. A moist breath dampened their noses, and moss crept over the shattered streets.
All the knights showed expressions of shock. Faced with this unknown situation, they retreated in unison.
“Hm... so this little thing is yours? It looks pretty unique...”
The fox-masked woman reached into the painted world and fished out a Mirage Demon Pearl no larger than a thumb. She examined it between her fingers for a mont, then tossed it to Vieya.
“The activation incantation for the 【Mo Ke Riverside Scroll】 is the one I just used. When using it, you need to inject energy into it—magic power, divine power, the Five Elents, even blood and qi will do.”
She paused, then continued, “As for how to store and retrieve things, I’ll demonstrate that for you next.”
With that, she turned her head toward the blood-red energy relic bead imprisoned in the fox claw not far away.
“The simplest thod is physical retrieval. For cultivators above the second tier who can control objects through the air, it’s not difficult.”
In the next second, the relic bead that was crashing around inside the fox claw trying to escape was dragged straight into the scroll!
“Closing the scroll completes the sealing. And the thod to close it is also very simple—once you’re sure the target has been stored and sealed, cut off the magic power supply. Normally speaking, cultivators below the god tier have no possibility of breaking free.”
As the scroll closed, the anomalies on the street gradually faded away.
At the sa ti, the blood-red relic bead inside the scroll slowly lost its color, turning into the sa gray-white tones as the background.
Thus.
One of the Lower Three, the Profound Earth Dice Lord—completely sealed.
The fox-masked woman let out a light breath, tossed the scroll back to Vieya, then raised her hand and waved it in the air.
The [N O V E L I G H T] next second, she suddenly retreated, revealing her true form as a nine-tailed white fox. Her body was enormous, spanning dozens of ters. She let out a low roar toward Vieya, then turned her head and charged out of the knights’ encirclent. With a single leap of several hundred ters and a few flashes, she vanished completely.
“—Stop her!” the Inspector shouted belatedly, hurriedly trying to lead the troops to intercept her, but Vieya raised a hand to stop him.
“She’s already outside Aydin City’s range. What you saw just now was only a fox-hair avatar. You can’t stop her.”
Vieya looked at the scroll in her hands, then raised her head and sighed again. “I’m tired. Leave the cleanup and reconstruction work here to you. If compensation is needed, just contact the Magic Academy directly.”
“...Haha, how could we ever make you pay, Swordmaster? We’ll reimburse this with public funds! Public funds!”
The Inspector hurriedly smiled along, waving for the knights to write up damage reports according to procedure, while fawning over Vieya.
“Does Your Excellency have ti later? I’m planning to host a banquet at the best restaurant in Aydin to welco you!”
“There’s no need for a banquet. We still have other matters to attend to—we’re leaving imdiately,” Vieya shook her head.
“I see... then how about coming to my teahouse for a cup of tea and a short rest?”
“No.”
Vieya declined politely and led Aislin’s group out of Aydin.
...
At the sa ti.
In a corner of Aydin City, the fox-masked woman appeared again. Leaning against a wall, she removed her mask and looked toward the city gate, falling into silence.
She knew—that was the direction Vieya and the others had left.
Not long after, a red-furred fox spirit crawled out of a trash bin. She first scanned the surroundings warily, then shook a banana peel off her ear before trotting over to the fox-masked woman. Rubbing her hands together, she asked,
“Sister Xiaoqi, was that just now... eting our benefactor? She hasn’t co to the forest to see us all these years... is she doing well?”
“Quite well.” Hu Xiaoqi patted the red fox’s head and said softly, “It’s dangerous outside. Rember to pull your hat down tight when you go out.”
“It’s fine, Sister Xiaoqi! If I hide in trash bins, humans can’t find !”
“Mhm. Very good.”
“Heehee, Sister Xiaoqi, then when can we go ho?”
“When... mm, when I finish my cultivation and beco a true nine-tailed fox. Then I’ll take everyone ho together.”
...
Above the grasslands, blue skies and white clouds.
A fiery red great bird carried three people as it flew leisurely, the airflow cool and the sumr breeze gentle.
“Tsk. I just pinched my fingers and did a quick divination, and I saw that you and that fox spirit have quite a deep karmic entanglent!” Tiya said mysteriously, crowding up to the sli like a shaless daoist. “Karmic entanglent is good! Oh right, want to calculate your romantic luck too? For an old friend, I’ll give you a ninety-nine percent discount!”
“Get lost.”
Vieya shoved Tiya away in disgust, sat cross-legged on the bird’s back, and said flatly,
“When we reach the grassland tribes’ activity zone, you get off. Don’t co back to the Elven Forest with us.”
Tiya’s eyes flew wide open in shock, a question mark popping up over her head: Eh?
“If you have spare capacity, help Aurora and her people,” Vieya added softly. “Although the First Prince is dead, there are still plenty of remaining competitors. I’m worried they’ll run into dangers we didn’t anticipate. With you there, things will go much more smoothly.”
“......”
Tiya was rendered speechless by the sli, her gaze full of resentnt.
Everyone worries about everyone else—just not about , huh?
“Fine. I understand everything now. An unloved child is just a blade of grass,” Tiya ground her teeth and said gloomily. “I’ll do exactly what you said!”
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