Chapter – 25
When I turned my body and stepped back into the training grounds, the stench of blood that hadn’t fully faded yet rushed at me.
“Tsk. The smell’s still lingering.”
“Well, it is underground. The smell doesn’t air out easily, so it was a problem. You must’ve made quite a spectacle of it, huh?”
“There was no reason to go easy.”
That was true. If it was a bastard who’d kidnapped a child and even tried to abduct one of my subordinates, then he deserved to pay the price in full.
“What about the ten-thousand-year hasuo?”
“Here. You’ll eat it after returning to your true body, right?”
[Of course.]
After quickly returning to my true form, I looked at the item placed atop the fox’s hand, carefully wrapped in fine paper.
Seeing my reaction, the fox snickered, then unwrapped the paper and held out its contents to me.
“Here, Mountain Lord. Enjoy your meal. Jimo and I will stand guard.”
[Even if you hadn’t said so, that was the plan.]
Jimo, who had followed us at some point, snorted while shooting the fox a glare.
[I’ll eat well.]
Since medicinal herbs like this had to be consumed all at once, I steadied my breathing and prepared myself. Then I began chewing from the thickest end of the main body, crunching down piece by piece.
As the ten-thousand-year hasuo slid down my throat, the intense energy contained in each fragment surged in like a raging tide.
Ignoring it, I swallowed everything without leaving behind even a single root hair, then hurriedly lay down, closed my eyes, and focused on what was happening inside my body.
No matter how much of a spiritual being one was, energy that exceeded what could be accepted would ultimately destroy the body—a curse that could even claim one’s life.
In that sense, consuming the ten-thousand-year hasuo in my current state was like walking a tightrope.
Far more energy than expected was raging inside me. One wrong move, and my body might shatter.
But if I hadn’t handled energy of this scale before, that might’ve been true. I, however, had dealt with it countless times already.
I guided the relatively docile energy into my core, steadily expanding the mass of energy condensed there.
At the same time, I had to restrain the rampant energy, which made it far from easy.
Still, once a certain amount of energy had accumulated in my core, the problem resolved itself.
The moment I gathered enough, I could concentrate and control the surging energy of the ten-thousand-year hasuo in one place.
After all, my issue had never been control—it was always the total quantity of energy.
Absorbing this much energy will take quite some time…
But still, this was enough.
I couldn’t completely absorb all of the ten-thousand-year hasuo’s energy. Fully assimilating it would take far too long.
And I couldn’t afford to waste time like that with the matter of the Blood Cult weighing on my mind. So I absorbed only enough to keep the energy from running wild, gathering the remainder near my core.
I planned to absorb it gradually. Unlike humans, spiritual beings didn’t need something like regulated breathing and circulation.
With that thought, I opened my eyes, then turned my head and examined my body.
[You’ve grown.]
Perhaps due to the aftereffects of absorbing the hasuo’s energy, my fur had returned to a deep blue color.
My body had grown as well—enough that I now looked like I’d entered adolescence. Yes, yes. This was more like what a tiger should look like.
[Mountain Lord. Can you return to your size from before you ate the hasuo?]
The fox asked as it looked at me.
[Why?]
[To humans, this would look suspicious. You grew too suddenly.]
[I’ll change it before we go out. Let’s see.]
After wrapping my body with energy drawn from my core, I kicked off the ground and sprinted. I leaped at times, ran at full speed, even pushed off walls as I ran.
Compared to when I was a cub, my movements were far faster and lighter.
My muscles were stronger and more elastic, and my claws and fangs sharper and sturdier.
[Looks like you’ve recovered quite a bit.]
[I still haven’t absorbed all of the thousand-year hasuo’s energy, but… once I do, I think I’ll recover about twenty-five percent.]
[After eating that much, only that much recovery…?]
The fox muttered with concern, but to me, this was more than enough. After lightly stretching, I transformed into my human form.
“How old do I look like this?”
“Around ten. Maybe thirteen at most.”
“So my human appearance has to stay the same as before?”
“If not, they’ll start calling you a monster.”
“How rude, those humans.”
“When humans encounter something that doesn’t fit their common sense, they turn into terrified rabbits and try to wipe it out.”
“Hmm… then how about this?”
As I drew my form inward along with evenly distributed energy throughout my body, my field of vision suddenly shrank.
“Too young.”
“Then… how about now?”
“That’s perfect. Now go back to your true form and try changing your fur color.”
Recalling the sensation and advice from when the fox had changed my fur color before, I spread my energy again. The deep, lake-like blue gradually shifted into a yellowish hue.
[Oh, it works. It really works.]
I couldn’t help but smile in satisfaction as my fur changed exactly as I intended.
“So, can we stop looking for herbs for a while now?”
“Until this fully digests.”
“…Right. So we’ll need more later.”
The fox, seemingly having reached enlightenment, chuckled softly and shrugged.
“Well, that’s something to worry about later. Shall we go, Mountain Lord?”
“Go? Where?”
“To Luoyang. A little outing to celebrate your recovery. You haven’t really explored Luoyang properly yet, have you?”
“That’s true, but…”
“If you want to imitate humans, shouldn’t you learn how they live? Come on, let’s go have some fun.”
With a playful wink, the fox held out a hand to me. I sighed.
“…Even if I say no, you’ll just come up with a hundred reasons to drag me along, won’t you?”
“Well… isn’t it fine? Getting used to the human world will make imitation easier, and it’ll help with tracking those guys down. They’re humans, after all.”
At the mention of the Blood Cult, I furrowed my brow.
Just bringing it up made me feel unpleasant.
The anger I’d suppressed under the guise of training began to seep out, and I bared my teeth slightly.
“…Right. I can’t forget my purpose.”
“So you’ve decided?”
“Until now, I’ve focused only on training. Like you said, I do need to get used to things.”
“Great. Then it’s settled. Let’s walk around, mostly eating street food. We can see what kinds of things humans buy and sell.”
“…That actually helps?”
“Trust me, Mountain Lord.”
I wasn’t entirely convinced, but I could feel that he meant well. Without thinking, I reached out my hand. Naturally, the fox scooped me up into his arms.
…The fact that I was getting used to this bothered me.
As I lamented my fate internally, the fox—oblivious—smiled brightly and removed his mask. Then he reshaped his face entirely.
“Hey, didn’t you say changing facial features was difficult?”
“It is. But I practiced. Being the head of the Hao Clan means your life gets threatened more often than you’d think.”
What on earth have you been up to? I stared at him incredulously, but he just shrugged.
“Besides, walking around the human world wearing a mask is basically announcing, ‘I’m suspicious!’”
“That’s true.”
“And our appearances aren’t our real ones anyway. No reason to feel guilty about changing them.”
Grinning mischievously, the fox retraced our path. Judging by how he avoided places with signs of people, it seemed he didn’t want even those inside the Heavenly Moon Pavilion to notice us.
Luoyang, huh.
I only remembered that it was one of the largest human cities, and that when we came to the pavilion, it had been crowded and chaotic.
“Oh, right.”
“Hm? Something wrong, Mountain Lord?”
“While we’re at it, teach me how children talk. That big guy made a fuss about how a kid shouldn’t speak the way I do.”
I hadn’t never seen children, but the ones I’d seen were usually gathering herbs in the mountains.
They worked silently, so I’d never really heard children speak.
As for the Heavenly Moon Pavilion?
The children there all looked far older than their transformed appearances, so they weren’t exactly good references.
Since no one had questioned it before, I’d kept my way of speaking—but apparently not everyone agreed.
Was the problem really my speech, or just the pavilion people?
The fox seemed to ponder for a moment, then broke into a grin.
…That expression. He always made that face right before playing a prank.
“Your way of speaking is totally fine, Mountain Lord. You can just keep doing it.”
“…Really?”
“Totally! I guarantee it!”
“You always make that face right before messing with me.”
“Who do you think knows the human world better—me or you?”
When he put it that way, I had nothing to say.
“Alright, alright. Let’s go. People-watching!”
Still, one thing worried me about being around people.
Will the smell be okay?
With a slight concern that my nose might end up overwhelmed, I left the Heavenly Moon Pavilion together with the fox.
