The mountain cul-de-sac was silent save for the ragged, shallow breathing of the fallen fox maiden.
She lay curled upon the bed of damp mountain moss. Her slender frame shivered wildly as the Ghost-Weeping venom surged through her spiritual channels. The jagged iron dagger protruding from her left shoulder had begun to smoke with an acrid, purplish vapor, corroding the surrounding flesh into a dark, rotting slurry. Spiderwebs of black venom had already climbed past her jawline, threatening to breach the spiritual core nestled within her chest.
Lin Xiao hopped over the gravel with a set of soft, elastic bounces, coming to rest beside her outstretched hand.
“Omniscient Dao Spirit,” Lin Xiao queried urgently within his mental sea. “What’s her immediate body status? Can we purge that necro-toxin without damaging her spirit veins?”
A bronze chime chimed softly in his mind:
“Sixty-eight seconds,” Lin Xiao thought, his azure surface firming with focused resolve. “Time to work.”
Lin Xiao didn’t possess human fingers or surgeon’s metal tongs, but his stretchy non-Newtonian body was infinitely more versatile than any mortal razor knife. Extending a pair of slender, semi-solid azure tendrils, he wrapped them carefully around the handle and barbed shaft of the iron dagger. Instead of wrenching the metal free by brute force Lin Xiao secreted a micro-layer of slippery, lubricating bitter-salt mucus along the wound track. It would have torn her subclavian artery and caused fatal hemorrhaging.
At the same time, he used a low-hum magnetic deep ring pulse to gently vibrate the barbed teeth inward.
Pop.
With a gentle, easy motion, the poisoned dagger slid cleanly from her flesh without spilling a single drop of fresh blood. Lin Xiao opened a small void fissure on his upper rim, swallowing the blackened iron dagger whole into his internal fire:
GLOOP.
“Barbed implement digested,” the Dao Spirit reported instantly. “Toxin stopped. Twelve pounds of trace iron marrow added to reserves.”
With the external foreign object removed, Lin Xiao focused on the lethal poison already circulating through her veins. Moving his fluid body forward, he wrapped around her shoulder and neck in a cool, semi-clear sapphire cocoon.
His internal fluid was naturally bitter-salt, supersaturated with pure oxygen, wood-element life-force from the ancient iron-bamboo groves, and the boundless generative essence of ancient chaos. Adjusting his internal heat to a soothing, body-warm balance, he infused a stream of golden chaos dew directly through her pores and into her damaged spirit veins.
The effect was instant and breathtaking.
The foul, purple spiderweb veins that had spread across her throat and cheek began to sizzle with faint, sweet-smelling steam. Like dark ink being washed away by a pouring mountain downpour, the rotting black poison was broken down into harmless minerals and absorbed into Lin Xiao’s outer mantle. Beneath his semi-clear touch, the torn muscle fibers and broken tiny blood vessels of her shoulder knitted together at the cellular level. Within twelve heartbeats, the jagged wound closed entirely. That left behind nothing but smooth, fine china skin without a single trace of scar tissue.
To stabilize her empty spiritual sea, Lin Xiao extruded a small, rounded bead of warm, honeyed chaos nectar, gently placing it between her dry, parted lips.
The maiden’s eyelashes fluttered.
A long, shuddering gasp broke from her chest as the warm nectar dissolved over her tongue. It sent a radiant wave of pure, pure life force flooding into her heart. Her violet eyes opened slowly, glazed with the lingering terror of the hunt, expecting to see the mocking grins of slavers and the cold gleam of iron chains.
Instead, she found herself resting against the soft, cool embrace of a gentle azure sphere that smelled faintly of mountain spring water and roasted wild tea.
“Easy there,” a warm, floating voice echoed softly in her ears. “Don’t try to jump up just yet. You’ve had a rather eventful afternoon, and your spirit veins are still settling.”
The maiden blinked, her vision clearing.
Standing five paces away, sitting politely on his haunches like an obedient guard dog, was the sleek black hound. His ruby eyes watched her with calm intelligence. Dangling upside down in the branches of the hardwood tree on the far embankment were the two unconscious slavers. Meanwhile, the third rogue lay face-down in the dirt, fully scared to move.
And resting against her side was the semi-clear blue creature, its curved white eye crescents crinkling with cheerful hospitality.
“You... You saved me?” she whispered, her voice trembling like a reed in a winter gale. She lifted a slender, trembling hand to touch her left shoulder, finding only clean, flawless skin where the poisoned dagger had torn through her flesh. “The Ghost-Weeping venom... It was inside my heart channel. Not even a Grade-3 Golden Dan elder could have cleansed it without scorching my spiritual root.”
“Well, I’m not a Golden Dan elder,” Lin Xiao replied with a pleasant bounce. “Just a blue fellow who happens to have a very efficient stomach system. How are you feeling? Any lingering dizziness or stomach cramps?”
Tears welled in the corners of her large violet eyes. She struggled to sit up. Her ragged vermilion robes fell loosely around her shoulders. Then she stared at the blue slime with an expression of deep, almost painful respect.
“Why?” she choked out, her voice breaking. “Why would a supreme sky sovereign of the great wilderness waste divine medicine on an outcast stray? In the eyes of the human sects and beast warlords alike, spirit foxes are nothing more than alchemy cooking pots, decorative pelts, or playthings for auction blocks.”
Lin Xiao tilted his rounded dome, letting out a soft sigh.
“Because nobody deserves to be chased through the thorns with barbed chains,” Lin Xiao answered gently. “Life is hard enough without cruel people inventing new ways to torment each other. What’s your name, young lady? Where is your family?”
At the mention of family, the fox maiden’s shoulders slumped, an ancient, choking sorrow clouding her features.
“I have no clan,” she whispered, staring down at her calloused, briar-scratched palms. “My ancestors were the Nine-Tailed Starry Foxes of the Northern Peaks. But three hundred years ago, our divine tree withered. Our bloodline degraded into ordinary red foxes. The Crimson Flame Pavilion discovered our old family valley three months ago. Then, their hunting elders slaughtered my father and uncles for our beast cores. The rest of us were branded with slave runes and stripped of our names.”
She pulled back her ragged vermilion collar slightly. She showed a faint, ugly circular brand scarred into her collarbone. A crude iron mark shaped like a vulture’s claw, beneath which was inscribed a single, humiliating human character: Seven.
“They took our dignity, our heritage, and our names,” she said. Her voice dropped to a hollow whisper. “In their ledgers, I’m only Slave Number Seven. I escaped during a transport convoy through the mountain pass. But I have nowhere to return to. In the three realms, there’s no place for a nameless fox.”
Lin Xiao looked at the ugly brand, his fluid core rippling with quiet, resolute warmth.
A number is for cardboard storage boxes and inventory manifests, Lin Xiao thought. Never for a living, breathing soul with thoughts and dreams. In my old logistics depot, even the stray warehouse cats had names and bowls of warm milk. If the world outside this forest refuses to give her a home, then this valley will be her shelter.
“A number isn’t a name,” Lin Xiao spoke aloud. His voice took on a clear, ringing timbre that seemed to harmonize with the deep underground currents of the mountain. “And the past is merely silt washed away by the river.”
He floated gently upward, hovering at eye level with the weeping fox maiden. He extended a soft azure slime arm. He lightly touched her brow right above the bridge of her nose, directly between her expressive, twitching ears.
“You ran through the thorns without bowing your head,” Lin Xiao said softly. “Your heart is tough as flowing water. Your spirit shines brighter than the stars above the bamboo canopy. From this day forth, beneath the canopy of the Grand Lonely Forest and the witness of heaven and earth, your True Name shall be Su Ling’er—graceful as water, bright as the sky spirit.”
The name Su Ling’er left his lips. Then, the quiet mountain cul-de-sac blew up with blinding, sky glory!
BOOOOOM!
A pillar of pure, radiant starlight—intertwining pearl-white moon-white and brilliant vermilion fire—dropped straight through the canopy of the Broken Tooth Ravine! The ancient leylines beneath the limestone bedrock trembled with a sweet-sounding hum, channeling vast torrents of ancient chaos qi across Lin Xiao’s tendril directly into the girl’s brow!
The ugly vulture brand on her collarbone didn’t merely fade. It shattered like brittle glass, the cursed demonic ink dissolving into sparkling motes of golden dust!
Within her spiritual sea, the ancient genetic shackles that had imprisoned her bloodline for three thousand years burst apart like rotten hemp cords!
Crack! Crack!
From beneath her vermilion robes, behind her single trembling tail, two extra tails burst forth! They didn’t look like ordinary red fox fur. All three tails swelled into luxuriant, nine-foot plumes of spotless, snow-white sky silk, each tip blazing with a radiant ruby ember that danced with harmless, purifying fox-fire!
Her ragged auburn hair lengthened, cascading down her back like a waterfall of midnight black glass silk woven with silver starlight. Her slender figure grew poised and regal, her fox ears twitching with the heightened senses of a sky maiden. The spiritual aura streaming from her body skyrocketed through the roof!
Qi Gathering Mid... Qi Gathering Peak... Foundation Stage Early... Tier-2 Peak Beast Maiden!
A crisp chime echoed in Lin Xiao’s mind, with the Dao Spirit’s triumphant readout:
The blinding starlight slowly pulled back, settling into a gentle, warm halo that danced around the newly awakened fox maiden.
Su Ling’er opened her eyes.
Her amethyst irises now possessed the depth of the boundless night sky, glittering with nested rings of golden sky wisdom. She looked down at her hands. They were now soft, fair, and brimming with calm spiritual power, then back at her three amazing snow-white tails that swayed behind her with mesmerizing, fluid elegance.
She was no longer Slave Number Seven. She was no longer a hunted stray.
She was Su Ling’er, daughter of the Celestial Fox, reborn from the boundless chaos of a living sovereign.
With trembling movements full of infinite grace, Su Ling’er sank to her knees upon the green moss. She pressed her forehead against the cool earth before Lin Xiao. Her three white tails curled with deep awe across her back, tears of deep, overwhelming joy dripping from her cheeks onto the mountain loam.
“The heavens were cruel, but Lord Xiao gave me life, gave me dignity, and gave me my True Name,” she vowed, her voice ringing with the clarity of a silver bell that rang through the ravine. “From this breath until the stars crumble and the rivers turn to dust, Su Ling’er’s wisdom, her bloodline. Her life belong only to Lord Lin Xiao and the safe hall!”
Lin Xiao gave a warm, happy little wobble in the air.
“Now, now, no need to bump your head on the rocks, Ling’er,” Lin Xiao said cheerfully, gently nudging her shoulder with an azure tendril until she sat upright. “We don’t do too much kowtowing here. What matters is that you’re safe, whole, and hungry. Come on—down by the river, Old Ba has been minding the camp. Uncle Tie has a five-foot bronze wok seasoned with wild boar fat. Let’s get you a hot meal.”
Su Ling’er wiped her eyes with her long silk sleeve, a radiant, breathtaking smile blooming across her face for the first time in her life.
“Yes, Lord Xiao,” she replied softly, rising to her feet with royal poise. “Let’s go home.”