Chapter 461 Fox Mutants
Sapphire and Violet talked as they strode, although they never once let down their guard.
But unbeknownst to them, Chu Xun was following right behind them. With his magic, they could never have known.
Through halls and corridors, the women passed through until they reached a deserted corner of a remote chamber inside the castle. Violet looked around carefully to make sure no one was watching, then she quickly twisted an orange-glazed lamp hanging from a pillar.
Rumble!
The ground trembled and a portal opened at where a flat wall once stood.
Sapphire and Violet peered around again cautiously before slipping inside and the door slowly slid shut.
They did not see Chu Xun perching right at the top of the pillar. He had been there, watching every move they had made. He waited for minutes before he finally glided down and he twisted the glazed lamp.
The stone door groaned open and Chu Xun dove inside.
Swoosh!
He barely stepped inside when a white bolt of energy came whizzing at him like a lightning blast.
Chu Xun drove his heels into the ground and launched himself well out of the way of the blast.
Rumble!
The stray energy bolt missed him and an explosion of gravel and dirt left a wide hole in the ground.
Swoosh!
Another white bolt of light came, barreling straight at Chu Xun’s face this time.
Chu Xun raised a hand and parried the bolt with his bare hands. He gasped aloud. It was not an energy bolt, but a tail.
But before he could catch his breath, another white jet of light screamed at him.
Chu Xun summoned his powers, his very self emitting a bright purplish radiance. Then he stomped hard, releasing a powerful pulse that shook the earth and a terrifying fissure cracked open on the ground, scaring Violet and Sapphire enough that they stood back.
“Save your strength; you’re no match for me,” said Chu Xun.
Violet and Sapphire stared at Chu Xun warily.
Chu Xun took a beat to observe them, then he yelped with surprise, “Ah!? You’re foxes?! No wonder you’re so cunning!”
Even he had fallen into their cunning trap.
“So you pretended to be asleep?” growled Violet.
Chu Xun smirked. What a dumb question. That he was standing here before her was already a blatant “yes”.
“You really are remarkable,” chirped Sapphire, her flirtatious eyes flashing with a strange glint.
“You are powerful. In fact, the most powerful one I’ve seen before,” purred Violet as well, her eyes lighting up with the same weird glow.
Chu Xun’s gaze began to wander as his sight began to lose focus. He stumbled, nearly falling, as he struggled to keep himself steady in his nauseous delirium.
“What’s your name?” Sapphire’s eyes were now like a pair of vortexes spiraling rapidly.
“Samsara…” answered Chu Xun dazedly.
“Why are you here?” Sapphire pressed further.
“To explore these ruins and find treasure,” replied Chu Xun obediently.
Sapphire drew closer to Chu Xun and swung an arm, tossing into the air some dust-like powder. Chu Xun inhaled the powder.
“Am I pretty?” asked Sapphire.
“Pretty.”
“Are you a scoundrel?”
“I am.”
“How did you manage to stay conscious?” she asked again.
“I once found a strange pill and I consumed it. I have become immune to poisons since then,” said Chu Xun, his gaze still distant and his expression bewildered.
Violet gave off a burst of crisp laughter. “So that’s it. Heavens, was I so astonished? I was thinking if Scarlet’s drug had failed to work.”
“So what if he’s immune to all poisons? Much good that gave him,” sneered Sapphire. She said to Chu Xun, “You’re tired. You need a rest now. But remember my voice. You are not to get up until I call you.”
“I’m tired, I need a rest,” said Chu Xun with a blank stare, and he laid down on the ground and took a nap.
“So, what now, Sapphire?” asked Violet.
“I bet they’re here for the Soul-curing Flower. We cannot let them succeed,” Sapphire said with a glance at the sleeping Chu Xun. “Let’s take him to Scarlet.”
So the high and lofty Devil was carried by two women like a carpet roll. The world would laugh and tease him forever if anyone knew.
The journey took another half-hour until they came to a lone tower that sat in a secluded corner of the glen.
“What brings you two here?” an alluring voice echoed from inside.
The door of the tower swung open on its own.
Violet and Sapphire hoisted Chu Xun into the hall of the tower.
“We’re here because we miss you, Scarlet,” Violet piped.
“Really? Surely not. Those cakes that I made maybe,” said the bewitching voice, now with a tinge of sisterly affection.
A figure in red came down from the top. The woman reached the bottom of the stairs, clothed similarly in a dress made of translucent gauze that barely obscured her shapely figure, and its length failed to cover her fair and beautiful legs as she drew nearer, barefooted. The red dot on her forehead between her eyebrows sweetened the already breathtakingly beautiful features of her face.
“I’m afraid we have a problem, Scarlet,” said Sapphire.
The woman halted and saw that they were carrying Chu Xun and she instinctively tugged at her dress to adjust it.
“Don’t worry. Between the spell I’ve cast on him and the datura powder that you’ve made, he’s unconscious now,” said Sapphire.
“And he is the problem you spoke off?” said the woman called Scarlet, whom both Violet and Sapphire looked to with deference, “He seems pretty ordinary to me.”
“No, Scarlet. Out of the eleven of their party, he’s the only one who has been able to remain normal. Even the Ensnaring Temptation that you concocted failed to work on him. In fact, he nearly followed us all the way here,” insisted Violet.
Scarlet frowned. “Tell me more,” she said.
Sapphire recounted to her what happened, leaving out not a single detail.
Scarlet listened and she studied Chu Xun intently. “So he’s been able to maintain his senses because of that pill he once took.”
“So he says, but I don’t believe a word he says. But Sapphire was able to put him down, at least, and now here he sleeps, as dead as a log,” screeched Violet.
“Interesting,” remarked Scarlet, waving for Sapphire to let Chu Xun down.
Sapphire did as she was told.
Scarlet motioned for her younger sister to step back, and once she did, Scarlet went to a wall and slapped on one of the bricks.
The brick retreated into the wall and with a loud groan, the ground which Chu Xun was lying on sank suddenly, allowing him to fall into a hole.
Clank!
From inside the pit, a large iron cage rose up with Chu Xun trapped inside. The bars were all iron rebars as thick as a child’s arm.
“You’re being too careful, Scarlet. He’s under Sapphire’s spell. He will never wake up unless she gives the word,” said Violet.
Scarlet glared at her, “You’ve been tricked, fools!”
Sapphire’s face twisted with horror. With a hesitating look at Chu Xun inside the cage, she gasped, “D-did you mean… Did you mean that he allowed himself to be caught on purpose?!”
Scarlet nodded.
“Never,” breathed Violet, her eyes so wide with disbelief and shock written all over her face.
Scarlet scoffed. She looked up at the cage and said, “I know you are still awake. Or do you think pretending to be asleep will help your present predicament?”
All three pairs of eyes stared at Chu Xun, but he remained just as peaceful in sleep as a babe.
“Look, Scarlet. I told you, he’s under Sapphire’s spell. There’s no way he’s awake,” said Violet.
“And still you wish to keep up your act?” persisted Scarlet, ignoring her younger sister’s calls.
Chu Xun hardly moved an inch.
“I told you, Scarlet! He cannot wake up! Why can’t you believe us!” screeched Violet irately and she approached the cage, wanting to give Chu Xun’s nose a pinch to prove her point.
Scarlet’s face spasmed into horror, “No! Wait!”
Chu Xun’s eyes blinked opened and he grabbed Violet’s wrist.
“AAHHH!” she cried, panicking.
“Let her go!” bellowed Scarlet, her entire self radiating with a reddish glow.
“Now let’s not get hasty. All I need is a simple shake and her hand’s gone. She’ll have to spend the rest of her life as a three-legged fox,” cackled Chu Xun casually.
A frightened Violet immediately felt her powers sealed and she could not use an ounce of her strength.
“Be careful, Scarlet! He’s a powerful one!” cried Violet despite her distraught state, determined to warn her sisters.
Scarlet, her face fraught with cold fury, held Chu Xun in a fixing stare, “What do you want?”
“Nothing. I was just pulling your leg,” chuckled Chu Xun, releasing Violet’s wrist immediately.
The fox mutant was so surprised that for one moment, she shuddered before she sprang away, returning to the side of the woman they called Scarlet.
Even she and Sapphire were dumbfounded too.
“Are you all right, Violet?” Sapphire asked first and foremost.
Violet shook her head. She peered at Chu Xun with those large eyes of hers. Why did Chu Xun let her go?
“Come on, relax,” said Chu Xun, grinning, “I was only having a joke.”
Scarlet studied Chu Xun with not a hint of warmth. “Don’t think for one moment that this will make us believe you. I’m not falling for that trick,” she sneered.
Chu Xun smiled. “I come in peace. But I only want to know about this: why are you imprisoning us?”
“You really want to know?’ Scarlet broke into a coquettish grin.
Chu Xun nodded.
“Then you have all the time in that cage to think,” said Scarlet, her grin evaporating back into cold anger.
“That’s why they say ‘as sly as a fox’, I think. Look at how mercurial you are,” Chu Xun commented with genuine interest.
“You’re the fox here! What a devious schemer!” Violet glared at him.
“Wait, I thought you’re foxes?” asked Chu Xun.
“We’re fox mutants. Not ordinary foxes.”
Chu Xun nearly choked on his own saliva at that. He stared incredulously at Violet, thinking, “What on earth is the difference?!”
“Violet,” Scarlet scowled warningly at her younger sibling. She said to Chu Xun, “Do you know what is this cage made of?”
“The finest iron after thousands of years of tempering, mixed with some mithril,” guessed Chu Xun aloud.
That Chu Xun could correctly guess the secrets of her cage surprised Scarlet, although she quickly recomposed herself, “You’re a knowledgeable one, aren’t you? So since you know what my cage is made of, you know full well that you’ll never get out of here.”
“I won’t be so sure if I were you,” Chu Xun said.
“Some confidence. Let me tell you this: no one leaves this place at all,” said Scarlet. She reached for a switch that would retract the cage back underground.
“Wait,” said Chu Xun suddenly.
“I would advise you to behave yourself, or I’ll have to kill you now,” said Scarlet, her eyes flaring with malice.
“I only want to say that you can let your cage down, but I’m not going down,” chuckled Chu Xun. He gripped at the bars of the cage firmly and grunted harshly as he glowed with a purplish radiance as power surged into his arms.
Scarlet, Violet, and Sapphire all stared with disbelief.
Then, with sheer brute strength, Chu Xun pulled apart the iron bars – bars as thick as a child’s arm – to make a wide enough space to crawl through.
He stepped out easily and peered at the three women. With a relaxed simper, he said, “All right. You can let the cage down now.”
“That’s incredible,” gasped Violet bewilderedly.
Terrified, Scarlet barked to her sisters, “Both of you! Into the safe room now!”
Four white, bushy tails sprouted at her back.
“Wow,” Chu Xun blurted, “A nine-tailed silver-backed fox.”
A crimson shroud of light enveloped around Scarlet and the sheer intensity of her burgeoning aura thrashed and pitched violently like a storm.
Swoosh! Swoosh!
She swung all four of her tails at Chu Xun, and they lanced at him like spears.
Chu Xun fired four bolts in rapid succession; the energy bolts pummeled at the tails, forcing Scarlet away as the pulses of force from the impacts obliterated the furniture into scraps of wood.
Hum!
Undaunted, Scarlet’s aura hardly waned. Her tails came up, fluttering in the billowing storm churning because of her channeling powers.
Swoosh! Swoosh!
The tails radiated white glows and they shot like shafts of light, racing straight for Chu Xun.
Chu Xun sighed. Then a terrible rumble broke out like a monster awakening from its slumber and Chu Xun let loose a devastating burst of Hong Meng Immortal Qi that surged in waves towards all directions.
Scarlet’s face fell. She frantically summoned her powers to defend herself but to no avail; the waves of Hong Meng Immortal Qi smashed into her and she careened backward for several paces.
Chu Xun lunged, bolting forward with trails of mirages in his wake.
Shocked, Scarlet retaliated by thrusting her tails at Chu Xun, each of them driving forward like the shiny white tips of steel.
With a quick swat, Chu Xun parried away two of the tails, then, imbuing his other hand with Hong Meng Immortal Qi, he seized the other two.
Enraged and flustered, Scarlet glared furiously at Chu Xun. She tried to force Chu Xun backward and get free, but the latter was too powerful and she could not overpower him much less getting her tails back.
“You villain! Release my sister!” Violet pounced at Chu Xun.
Chu Xun shook his head wearily. Countless Reincarnation Lines shot into the air and constricted around Violet, wrapping her into a giant dumpling suspended in mid-air.
“Let them go, you scoundrel!” shrieked Sapphire, lunging at Chu Xun too.
Chu Xun’s eyes flared purple. With only his mind, he conjured an enchantment that imprisoned Sapphire inside. The barriers of light trembled and rippled as Sapphire desperately struggled to break free but the enchantment was just too strong.
Suddenly, Chu Xun released his grip on Scarlet’s tails. The fur at the end of the bush tails had shot up, turning as hard and sharp as needles.
“Die,” growled Scarlet, her face fraught with malice and anger. Her hands waved around with the grace of a dancer and a red orb, forged completely from Internal Breath, appeared before her, shining brilliantly like a miniature sun, containing great power.
Scarlet swung an arm, willing the red fiery ball to charge at Chu Xun.
Chu Xun casually raised a hand. Tiny, purplish bursts of Hong Meng Immortal Qi seeped out the tips of his fingers like silky webs, causing the air to warp. Then he clenched his fingers into a ball, seizing hard.
Rumble!
The fireball burst into cinders.
Scarlet grunted and staggered unsteadily, her face flushed with uneven shades of red as she grimaced with pain, a trickle of blood escaped the corner of her lips.
“You might be powerful, but not yet a match for me,” observed Chu Xun.
He knew enough to guess correctly that she was also an Immortal-level champion, albeit a newly-ascended one.
“Let’s us go, you villain!” Violet screamed from inside her Reincarnation Line cocoon, struggling to break free.
“Run, Scarlet!” screamed Sapphire.
“All right, all right. No need to impress me with your sisterly love,” chuckled Chu Xun. He waved a hand and the Reincarnation Lines were all gone, so did the enchantment that imprisoned Sapphire.
Shocked, Sapphire and Violet scampered back to Scarlet.
“Scarlet, are you all right?” asked Violet, filled with anguished concern.
“I’m fine; it’s nothing much,” said Scarlet.
She looked at Chu Xun. Whoever he was, this stranger had easily pried his way out from the cage made of the finest iron with his bare hands, then he effortlessly restrained both Violet and Sapphire before injuring her with barely a lift of his finger. That was proof enough about how incredibly powerful he was.
“What do you want?” she hissed.
“Truth be told, I’m only here for the Soul-curing Flower.”
“Impossible,” Scarlet snapped coldly.
The remark robbed every ounce of warmth from Chu Xun’s eyes as his gaze turned suddenly cold and dangerous and his aura burgeoned rapidly like a rising leviathan.
“No one stands in my way to the Flower.”
The Soul-curing Flower was everything to bringing back Hua Qingwu and he would never allow himself to be thwarted. He would kill anyone who would dare to stop him.
During their journey here, Chu Xun had heard Violet and Sapphire discussing the Flower. This was the only reason he had spared their lives, or else, all three of the fox mutants would have long been dead already.
“I need the Flower to save someone. Do not test my patience. The Flower’s mine. Stand in my way, and you’ll know the meaning of death,” warned Chu Xun threateningly.
Scarlet and her sisters shuddered. The cold ferocity that permeated Chu Xun’s gaze told them enough: he was not joking at all. This was a man prepared to do whatever it takes to achieve his target.
“You cannot take the Flower. We’ll be trapped here forever!” Violet retorted sharply.
“What do you mean?”
“We can only leave this place once the Soul-curing Flower has reached its peak maturity. We have a score to settle and we need to be free to leave this place, only then we can settle our score,” said Violet, her face florid with anger and hate.
“Tell me about it,” said a mildly interested Chu Xun.
“Let me tell this tale,” interjected Scarlet.
“As you have noticed, we are all mutants formerly nine-tailed silver-backed foxes,” she said, “We were nearly killed once when we were still young and the master of this place, a stranger called Periwinkle Sol, saved us. He bade us stay here and wait for the Soul-curing Flower to mature. That shall be our cue to leave this place to settle that score, at last, he told us.”
“I can bring you out,” muttered Chu Xun.
The remark made Scarlet tore her head into his direction at once with a glint of hope shining in her eyes, although she quickly shook her head. “No,” she said, “He saved us. For this, it’s only right that we repay him by guarding this Flower until it reaches full bloom. That’s the least we should do.”
That surprised Chu Xun, who felt respect and admiration for Scarlet’s honor and loyalty.
“How long more until the Flower reaches full bloom?” he asked.
“One more week.”
“Well, I’ll just wait here until it fully matures. That way, you won’t be breaking your promise.”
Scarlet stared at him, then she said, “I’d advise that you leave quickly. Master Periwinkle might come back as the Flower nears its full bloom.”
“What makes you say that?”
“He said so himself before he left,” said Scarlet.
Chu Xun giggled at that. “You might not have realized that much has changed in the world outside since your millennia-long watch began. For all we know, this Master Periwinkle might never come back anymore.”
“What’s impossible. He’s out somewhere on a pilgrimage; it’s nothing surprising that he hardly comes back.”
“Then when was the last time he came back?”
Scarlet paused to think, then she murmured, “Yes… It’s been so long… It’s been more than a thousand years…”
“So Uncle Periwinkle’s no longer coming back?” frowned Violet with apparent sadness. She appeared to be very attached to this Periwinkle Sol.
“Never,” said Sapphire, coaxing her sister, “Uncle Periwinkle’s powerful and mighty. I’m sure he’s only delayed. He’ll be back.”
“As I said, I’m taking the Flower later. Nothing will stop me. Not even this Periwinkle Sol.”
“Piffle. Even if Uncle Periwinkle is not here, there’s also the Flaming Qilin. You’ll never beat him,” Violet rebutted hotly.
“Win or lose, I’ll not back down,” said Chu Xun, his stare betraying a trace of sorrow. He must get the Flower. It was all he needed to review Hua Qingwu and he would do what he can or die trying.
“Why must you be so persistent? The Soul-curing Flower might be valuable, but surely not to the point where one would gladly sacrifice one’s life for,” observed Scarlet curiously.
“Because I need it to save my wife. She’s hurt. Very hurt. So hurt that she’s been asleep for far too long,” Chu Xun muttered. “I have vowed to do whatever it takes. Whatever. So long as she wakes up.”
Scarlet and her sisters could not believe what they had just heard. But the indescribable sadness in Chu Xun’s distant gaze told them enough – he was not lying at all.