As the sky was darkening, Hu Jiaping, who had been sleeping soundly under the tree, finally woke up. This irresponsible instructor had slept for an entire day without moving an inch. When he got up, his head was covered in grass roots and leaves. The children looked at him with disdain, any respect they might have had completely vanished.
“How’s your practice going?” He stood up slowly, yawning and stretching as if he hadn’t fully awakened. He walked over listlessly, “Those who can fly, show me.”
In an instant, over a dozen swords began to dance in the air. Apart from a few exceptionally talented individuals who could fly across all the islands of the academy, most of the children could now slowly and safely fly from this island to the northern one. Only Li Fei remained motionless on the ground.
Hu Jiaping squinted at her for a while and asked, “Can’t you read? Or do you not want to fly?”
Li Fei remained silent. She didn’t know what to say. Today had been terrible.
Hu Jiaping bent down to look at the name tag on her waist, reading her name syllable by syllable: “Jiang—Li—Fei. Not a bad name. You have such a scholarly name, yet you can’t read?”
Li Fei said in a low voice, “I can read…”
“Then you can’t learn?”
She fell silent again.
Hu Jiaping looked at her and sighed, saying indifferently, “Twenty taels of silver for one meal. Listen up, everyone. No one is allowed to bring her food, or I’ll throw you all off. If you still can’t do it tomorrow, it’ll be forty taels for a meal. If you still can’t do it the day after, I’ll have to take you to see Instructor Zuoqiu. Was this year’s second selection too easy to produce such a disciple?”
With that, he yawned and walked towards the edge of the island. Suddenly, he leaped up, transforming into a whirlwind of falling leaves, scattering with a whoosh, and disappeared.
Li Fei’s feet seemed nailed to the ground. She lowered her head, staring fixedly at a spot in front of her shoes, not saying a word.
Ji Tongzhou deliberately walked past her, laughing loudly. Even from a distance, they could still hear him saying loudly, “I’ve never seen such a useless fool who can’t even learn sword flight! Hahaha! Such an idiot will surely be expelled from the academy soon!”
“Li Fei…” Bai Li Gelin approached, wanting to comfort her, but Ye Ye pulled her back, shaking his head, “…Let her be alone for now.”
As people gradually dispersed from the open area and the bleak sunset began to fade, night fell, but Li Fei still hadn’t moved.
Embarrassment, humiliation, pity – she wasn’t afraid of any of these. She could accept any scolding, but Hu Jiaping’s words had hit her right where it hurt.
She hadn’t entered the academy on her own merits.
The nine-tailed fox had helped her pass the second selection and then vanished without a trace. Whether this was ultimately helping or harming her no longer mattered. The cruel reality was right before her eyes: she couldn’t find any way to learn sword flight.
Her nose felt a bit sour. Li Fei sniffed hard and looked around blankly. It was pitch black all around, with only the sound of the wind. She was the only one left standing in the open area.
Suddenly, a feeling of helplessness welled up from the depths of her heart. This inescapable emotion made her wish she could find someone to talk to, but who? There was no one here. Should she find Gelin? Changyue and Ye Ye would surely be with her, and she didn’t want too many people comforting her.
Dragging her tired legs, she slowly walked back to the disciple quarters. All the doors in the courtyard were tightly shut, with faint lamplight seeping through the windows. Lei Xiuyuan’s door was also closed. What was that crybaby doing? He was always calling her “Big Sis,” was he thinking about her now?
Li Fei stared blankly at the flickering light in his room. There was a kind of expectation in her heart. Was she hoping someone would care about her a little? Hoping someone would understand her current helplessness and offer a few words of encouragement. Or perhaps, notice her and comfort her gently? She wasn’t sure what she was hoping for, but when she was feeling down, she still wished she had a friend by her side.
As if sensing her thoughts, the door of the Jingxuan Chamber suddenly opened. Lei Xiuyuan caught sight of Li Fei standing dazed in the courtyard and immediately looked surprised.
“Big Sis,” he called softly. “You… you’re back…”
Li Fei forced a smile, “Why are you out so late?”
He walked to her side, fumbled in his sleeve for a moment, and pulled out a handful of candies, placing them in her hand. He said in a low voice, “Although the instructor said we can’t bring you food, eating some candy should be fine. Big Sis, you must be hungry.”
Li Fei smiled again, both surprised and touched. “…Did you come out to look for me?”
He nodded, “Eat quickly. It’s late, I’m going back. Big Sis, you should sleep early too.”
The door of the Jingxuan Chamber soon closed again. The courtyard fell silent. Li Fei looked down at the candies in her hand, round and neatly wrapped in white paper. Her feeling of helplessness was slightly comforted by these few pieces of candy.
It felt so good to have friends.
Li Fei slowly pushed open the door and entered her room. The room felt empty, and so did her heart. She felt at a loss, every movement seeming unreal, as if in a dream.
She straightened the bronze mirror and began to undo her braids in front of it. The mirror reflected a dejected face. Her eyebrows were thick and dense as if painted with ink. Below them were two large eyes that weren’t beautiful at all. Her nose was neither big nor small, her mouth neither big nor small, her face neither big nor small. It was an utterly ordinary face, bearing a six or seven-tenths resemblance to her master.
Master… Li Fei let out a long sigh. She felt like her tears were about to fall.
To prevent her useless tears from falling, she quickly sniffed and unwrapped one of the candies Lei Xiuyuan had given her, popping it into her mouth – sour! The candy was so sour it nearly made her teeth fall out. What kind of candy had Lei Xiuyuan given her? Her tears were forced out by the sourness, and she quickly spat it out.
“Oh my, a few days without seeing you, and you’re already crying?” Without warning, that long-absent hoarse voice suddenly sounded in her ear.
Li Fei jumped up with a start, knocking over the bronze mirror.
“Old Sir!” She didn’t know if she was excited or thrilled. He was still here?! He was speaking!
“What’s all the fuss about,” he said impatiently. “So dramatic.”
Li Fei’s mood at this moment could no longer be described as merely surprised and delighted. It was like suddenly grabbing a lifeline while drowning. She didn’t even bother to wipe her tears, urgently saying, “Where have you been these past few months? I kept calling you but no one answered! I thought you had left!”
He chuckled, “These past days, I finally managed to digest that bit of demonic energy. I just woke up to see you looking so foolish. Sure enough, without someone to guide you, you can’t do anything right, you fool.”
Although she didn’t want to admit it, he was right. If it weren’t for his presence, she probably wouldn’t have even passed the initial selection for Chu Feng Academy, let alone become a disciple here.
“You’ve already entered this academy? This room is quite spacious, not bad.” The candlelight flickered slightly, a gentle breeze swirled in the room, and the half-closed window was suddenly blown open. The hoarse voice came from the window, “You live here alone? Excellent, excellent.”
Li Fei asked curiously, “Where are you? Why can’t I see you?”
“Here.”
The voice lingered in front of her. Li Fei looked around, but the room was still empty, without a single shadow of a person. She was stunned, “Where?”
“Here, you fool!”
The voice seemed to come from behind the oil lamp. Li Fei incredulously moved the lamp aside, only to see a white fox no bigger than her thumb crouching on the table. Its eyes were like green beans, a sickly green color, yet full of spirit. Although the fox was tiny, it held its head high, its posture extremely proud.
Li Fei was dumbfounded. What… what was this tiny fox?
“…You are that fox spirit!” she exclaimed.
Before, she had only suspected, but now seeing his appearance, she was completely certain he was that fox spirit. Why? He had attached himself to her, yet not a single immortal had noticed. No, no, the problem was even more complex now. His voice was so hoarse, she had imagined he would be a stern, severe old man with a cold face, but… what was this adorable, tiny creature doing here?
The white little fox looked at her with disdain and arrogance: “Ignorant fool! I am the legendary nine-tailed fox! Not some ordinary fox spirit!”
Li Fei stared at his tiny, fluffy body. The terrifying and beautiful nine-tailed fox had shrunk to the size of a thumb, unexpectedly becoming cute. Even his nine tails looked like nine little cotton balls. Yet he still held his head so high, putting on an air of looking down on all creation.
“Pfft—” She couldn’t help but let out a light laugh, quickly covering her mouth afterward.
“Insolent creature!” He was furious, his eyes wide open.
“S-sorry…” Li Fei tried hard to suppress her laughter. “You’re… so small.”
She remembered that day in Qingqiu, he had been enormous.
His spirited eyes narrowed slightly, a hint of frustration and anger in his voice: “With less than a thousandth of my demonic energy, it’s already not bad that you, the host body, can see me! Others can’t see me at all!”
“Host body?” Those three words didn’t sound good at all.
He said indifferently, “These past days, I’ve been transformed into one of your hairs.”
Hair?! Li Fei unconsciously touched her head. The thought that one of her hairs was a transformed fox spirit made her expression suddenly very strange.
“No need to be so surprised,” he began to grow impatient again. “You agreed to save me yourself, otherwise I couldn’t have attached to you.”
“When did I agree?” She had just been scared stiff at the time, hadn’t she?
“How should I know? I only know that I was able to attach, so you must have wanted to save me in your heart.”
Li Fei fell silent. Perhaps he was right. When he had looked at her with those pleading eyes, she had already wanted to save him. Of all the demonic creatures she had seen, their eyes were all clouded, without spirit or intelligence. He was the first talking demonic creature she had met, with eyes full of spirit, and he had been severely injured at the time.
“Why were those immortals trying to kill you? You must have done many bad things, right?” She instinctively regarded demons as the bad side.
The fox narrowed his eyes arrogantly and said coldly, “Humans have their ways, immortals have theirs, and demons have theirs too. How can the affairs of the world be simply divided into good and bad? All living beings merely chase after desires and benefits! I am a thousand-year-old nine-tailed fox. From a single hair to a thousand years of demonic power, all are treasures coveted by immortals. It’s human nature to pursue profit! If I hadn’t encountered an ill-fated year, how could my demonic power have been completely sealed? Normally, those fools wouldn’t have been able to touch a hair on my body! I needed to find a safe place to recover the demonic power sealed within me, and by chance, I met you in Qingqiu… With the descent of the Sea Calamity, this must be the will of heaven.”
Li Fei found his words very profound and couldn’t quite understand them for a moment. She fell into a daze.
The fox crouched quietly on the table. Suddenly, its pointed nose twitched, sniffing at something. He asked, “What’s that in your hand?”
Li Fei opened her palm, “Oh, it’s candy my friend gave me. I can’t do sword flight, and the instructor punished me by not allowing me to eat. He was afraid I’d be hungry, so he brought me some candy.”
The fox snorted disdainfully, “Eating these candies will only make you hungrier. What kind of friend is so malicious! How come you can’t do sword flight again? Oh right, I saw you crying earlier. Have you encountered some difficulty? Tell me quickly!”
Demons were indeed demons, speaking without beating around the bush, very straightforward.
Li Fei took a long breath. Her luck was not bad. Just when she was in despair, there came an unexpected turn of events.
She explained how she couldn’t draw spiritual energy into her body or circulate her inner energy, which led to her inability to learn sword flight. As she spoke, the fox laughed more and more, until finally he burst into wild laughter: “Those fools! How could their low-level cultivation methods possibly work for you? You’re different from them. You don’t need such troublesome methods to begin with!”
Li Fei’s heart stirred, and she asked in a low voice, “How am I… different from them?”
Instructor Zuoqiu’s question last time had suddenly made her realize her uniqueness. Before, she had never paid attention to these details, but now thinking carefully, she could notice the abnormalities herself: unable to eat meat, not being bitten by mosquitoes, not fearing miasma or demonic energy, practicing an opposite breathing method… She was too different from others.
What exactly… was she?
He let out a cold, arrogant snort, “You don’t need to worry about that! You’re just a hatchling who hasn’t even shed its shell. All you need to know is that those cultivation methods are completely useless for you! Alright, I don’t have much time. I can only be conscious for one or two-quarters of an hour every ten days. Let’s cut the chatter. I’m going to teach you the method of cultivation now, listen carefully—”
Li Fei originally had a belly full of questions to ask, but he didn’t want to talk about it. She had no choice but to focus her mind and listen attentively to his explanation.