Chapter 15 

Qi slowly gathered around the small tiger at the center of the room.

The tiger—his fur finally returned to its original blue glow—lay perfectly still with eyes closed, not even twitching.

Watching San-gun quietly cultivate, the fox also returned to his true form.

A black fox with nine tails.

He was younger than San-gun in age but still a spirit beast who had lived well over eight hundred years.

His sharp, gleaming eyes scanned the empty underground chamber, ears twitching constantly.

Using his true form, it wasn’t hard for the fox to extend his senses over all of Cheonwolru, even across the entire city of Luoyang.

As countless streams of information flooded into him, the fox bared his fangs slightly.

San-gun… Just what kind of being was she?

A spirit among spirits—one of the extremely rare beasts who had survived for more than a thousand years.
And not just any beast—she was a tiger.

There were very few tiger spirit beasts.
The reason was simple.

For most spirit beasts, ascension was their dream and ultimate goal.
But tigers didn’t particularly desire to become spirit beasts.

Even as ordinary animals, they were powerful and awe-inspiring enough to earn the title “Mountain Lord” from humans.

A single tiger could rule an entire mountain—sometimes an entire mountain range—as its domain.

They fought or drove out any potential rivals and reigned as kings of their territory.

Thus, tigers lived content lives, reproduced, and died when their time came.

But the San-gun before him was unusual in many ways.

A beautiful tiger whose accumulated inner power shone like deep blue water.

Although she was a top predator whose instinct was to kill, she didn’t eat anything but herbs and water.

Despite having the ability to hunt other spirit beasts, she never craved their inner cores.

Instead, she simply wandered mountain ranges quietly, cultivating.

Yet she was compassionate—whenever other spirit beasts sought help, she willingly assisted them.

And the fox… owed her his life several times over.

San-gun had never demanded repayment.

So when San-gun told him about the future she had experienced, the fox’s first instinct was to refuse to accompany her.

If the Blood Cult was truly that dangerous, he thought he should abandon human entertainment and destroy them himself while San-gun was weakened.

After all, the idea of San-gun—a thousand-year-old spirit beast—being used by humans and killed was… shocking.

How dare humans do such a thing?

But he couldn’t act on that rage.

San-gun, weakened and child-sized, had desperately blocked him—almost as if she believed he alone could not destroy the Blood Cult.

Remembering that moment, the fox tightened his jaw.

There had been a time when he strutted around, believing no spirit beast was stronger than him.

But after being chased by martial artists and having San-gun save his life multiple times, he changed.

He abandoned arrogance and instead blended into human society, studying their knowledge and wisdom.

He knew he couldn’t match San-gun’s natural strength, but human knowledge—the very thing that once threatened him—was something he could learn and wield.

He believed that if he mastered it, he might one day truly assist San-gun.

Humans coveted the inner cores of spirit beasts.
One day they would covet San-gun’s as well.
When that time came, the fox intended to protect her.

… He never thought the opportunity would arrive so soon—or in such a strange way.

San-gun had half threatened him, true, but he was genuinely worried for her safety.
Thus, instead of charging into the Blood Cult head-on, he changed plans—help San-gun first, then strike later.

As long as he stayed by her side, there were still many methods to eventually deal with the Cult.

There is no suspicious movement in the martial world yet.

It was fortunate that this time his disguise was the sect leader of the Hao Clan.

Because of that role, nearly all information from the martial world eventually reached him.

The Blood Cult… He had never heard of them before.
Five years as the Hao Clan’s leader, and there was hardly anything in the martial world he didn’t hear about.

So when San-gun first mentioned them, he’d wondered if she was joking.

But San-gun didn’t enjoy jokes, and her inner core’s qi had been so pitifully weak that it was terrifying.

Barely enough to keep her from falling into the level of a mere beast.

Worse, every time she spoke of the cult, her qi trembled with rage and hatred.

And beneath all of that… was fear.

Not fear for herself.
Fear that the fox and Jimjo might disappear—fear that everything around her was just a dream she might wake from.

Even when I sent people to investigate, not a single clue about the Blood Cult surfaced…

If they were truly as extreme as San-gun described, they should have been rejected by the evil sects and declared an enemy of the martial world.

Yet there was not even a whisper of their existence.

That meant only one thing:
They were hiding—and extremely well.

The fox decided to be cautious.

Information was power.
If San-gun’s warnings were true, the cult was not one to be underestimated.
They were probably accumulating strength quietly, remaining unseen.

Trying to expose them carelessly would only make them hide deeper.

If San-gun were at full power, a direct attack would be feasible…
But she wasn’t.

So the fox shifted focus: gather herbs and elixirs.
Help San-gun recover.

He had known her for centuries.

Once she regained enough strength, she would tell him everything about the Blood Cult.

Until then, her recovery mattered more than vengeance.

He would wait—prepare—observe.

The nine tails of the eight-hundred-year-old fox glowed faintly as his eyes flashed with determination.

***

My inner core—nearly empty before—had recovered to about one-tenth of its original strength.

Thanks to that, I could gather qi much faster than when I tried in Sehwa’s office.

Satisfied, I opened my eyes—
and blinked.

[What? You changed back to your true form?

The fox stretched lazily near the entrance, nine tails swaying.

[Since no one is here, I figured I’d relax in my true body for once.]

His ears flicked as he spoke.

[I was going to ask you this—doesn’t it tire you to maintain human form for so long?]

I poked fun at him, but he scratched his ear with his tail as if telling me to shut up.

[Anyway, since you’re here, want to practice something?]

[Practice? What kind?

[Shapeshifting. Wouldn’t it be really useful? Being able to freely adjust your human appearance while living among humans?

Well… I suppose. But it’s not easy.

The fox shook his head.

[Changing form in a way that doesn’t feel “wrong” to human eyes takes a lot more effort than you think.]

What?! But you do it effortlessly!]

Humans also put in a lot of work to look like someone else. Some even make artificial face masks.

[What’s that?]

[Pieces of pigskin and other materials shaped into a different face…
And the extreme ones? They peel the face off a freshly dead body and use that.

That’s disgusting. Even if humans are different from us, they’re still the same species—how can they do that?]

If they’re willing to do something that grotesque, it already proves they’re rotten. Such people can do much worse.

His answer made my ears droop in disappointment.

The fox used shapeshifting constantly, yet even he said this.
I realized it wasn’t realistic for me.

Foxes were naturally tricksters with many talents.
Tigers were… not.

At most, I could maintain a single human disguise.
Changing into different humans? Impossible.

I thought it’d be useful for infiltrating the Blood Cult…

Humans were easily deceived by appearances.
If I could change mine freely, it would’ve been a powerful trick.

I gave up on that hope and turned toward the fox—who had already shifted back into his human disguise.

[Fox. I’ve never actually seen your human form. I can sense your qi, sure, but I want to see how you made yourself look.

“Oh, that’s right. I never showed you, did I?”

The fox nodded and reached up to remove his mask.

The human face beneath it came into view.

Even through the mask earlier, I could tell he had a sharp jawline.
But now that I saw the whole face…

It fit him perfectly.

His skin was pale and flawless like white jade.
His nose was high and straight, his lips thin and tinted red.

His eyes were curved in a way that made him look like he was always smiling—
fox-like, playful, mysterious.

His black irises sparkled with a lively energy that felt distinctly unhuman.

Every individual feature was beautiful.
and together…

He was distractingly, dangerously stunning.