Chapter 108
Chapter 108
The boy’s expression immediately turned fearful when he heard me.
He regarded me timidly and stammered, “B-big brother… Huihui doesn’t understand what you mean.”
I looked at the little fellow and grinned, baring my white teeth.
“I said you can stop using your illusory glamour spell. Maintaining it tires you and forces me to expend qi. The amount is tiny, but why waste it?”
The boy still stood there in uncertainty. I chuckled, turned my palm upward, and released a stream of invisible qi.
Ordinary people naturally could not see it with the naked eye. But practitioners, ghosts, evil beings, mountain spirits, and monsters could.
The boy’s face changed dramatically. He retreated several steps and seemed ready to flee, yet either did not dare or did not wish to leave.
His expression shifted several times before he finally asked timidly, “Big brother, you’re not an ordinary person? You’re…”
“As you can see, I’m a practitioner. Otherwise, think about it–what sort of idiot would casually follow you out here?”
I shrugged helplessly and pointed at him.
“We’re in the middle of nowhere, miles from any village or shop, and a child suddenly crawls out of the weeds. Not only that, but he’s fair and tender, with perfectly clean clothes. It would be stranger if nothing were wrong.”
“Oh…”
Huihui lowered his head and clutched the hem of his shirt in both hands, looking aggrieved–though the gesture itself was also an illusion.
“I haven’t met many people, so I didn’t know. Big brother, I’m not an evil creature. My sister really is hurt, and I had no other choice.”
I waved a hand.
“All right, all right. I know. Do you think I’m stupid? I sensed the faint demonic aura around you, but there was no baleforce or miasma. You probably haven’t committed any terrible crimes. Show me your true form. I promised to see your sister, and I will.”
“Oh, all right. Thank you, big brother.”
As the boy spoke, white smoke erupted around him with a soft pop.
When the smoke dispersed, a small gray fox about the size of an adolescent farm dog stood before me.
He was not large, but he was extremely plump.
His fur was very fluffy, making him look round, and his legs were shorter than those of an ordinary fox.
“So you’re a gray fox?”
I smiled slightly.
There had never been a boy–only a fox that emerged from the weeds to stop me.
If an unaffected third party had watched from a distance, they would have known that I had been speaking to a fox the entire time.
Yip, yip, yip.
The little gray fox gazed at me with bright eyes and cried out.
He was only a fox spirit and naturally could not speak human language.
Master had told me that even after animals awakened intelligence, gained wisdom approaching that of humans, and cultivated arcane power, they still could not speak.
Their bodies simply lacked humanlike vocal organs.
No matter how powerful their cultivation became, they could not violate that natural law–or, put another way, the law of Heaven!
Although animal spirits could not speak human languages, they could cast glamour spells and other illusions. They made humans believe they were people, then transmitted thoughts directly, creating the impression of a spoken conversation.
In reality, only the human spoke aloud. The spirit sent whatever it wished to express directly into the human’s mind.
I laughed as I looked at him. “Your name is Huihui, right? You’re pretty cute.”
Yip, yip, yip.
Fox cries emerged from his mouth, but his thoughts entered my mind directly: Thank you, big brother!
“Let’s go. Keep leading the way. I want to see what happened to your sister.”
“All right, big brother. She’s in a cave just ahead. It isn’t far.”
Huihui bounded nimbly through the forest, while I found the terrain slightly more troublesome.
Fortunately, Master had said that besides the various schools of techniques forming our primary cultivation, hand-to-hand combat was the most important discipline within the eclectic arts.
It strengthened the body and allowed a practitioner to retain greater fighting power than an ordinary person even if all the qi in their body was exhausted during battle.
My bazi might have been exceedingly light and my fate unusual, but cultivating arcane arts and practicing martial techniques had still given me far greater endurance than other boys my age.
Thus, even while following the little gray fox through trackless forest, I barely managed to keep from falling too far behind.
After about ten minutes, we reached the side of a hill where two low mountains met. A cave entrance lay hidden among the weeds.
“Big brother, it’s here! My sister and I live here.”
Huihui yipped, looked back at me, then turned and slipped into the cave.
I hesitated and felt the contents of my pocket. Good. I still had plenty of talismans, and the qi inside me was abundant.
Even if this was a deception, I possessed enough strength to escape or kill my attackers.
And if this young spirit truly needed help, lending him a hand would do no harm.
Of course, I was not some utterly selfless saint.
Even if he meant no harm, my assistance would come with conditions.
I had been curious from the beginning: why could a fox this young cast such a powerful glamour spell?
Many spirits with considerably deeper cultivation could not deceive me.
For example, the weasel that tried to harm Second Uncle and was ultimately killed possessed respectable cultivation, but its illusions could fool only ordinary people.
This little gray fox, however, truly had deceived me at first.