159: Chapter 159 Choice
At the mention of a tail, a chill immediately suffused White Fox Jiu's eyes.
She stared coldly at Li Shutang.
"Do you know who it is?"
The temperature of the entire cell dropped, the oil lamps on the walls dimmed, and the flames were pressed tight against the wicks by an invisible force.
The tail was her taboo.
Back then, she had cultivated bitterly for a hundred years before she could follow the scent to find her severed fox tail.
At that time, her tail was being worn around the neck of a Human Race Cultivator, and it had even been fashioned into a scarf.
White Fox Jiu was furious at the time.
She had nearly killed until her eyes turned red, slaughtering the entire Family of that Cultivator, over a thousand people in total, sparing neither old nor young.
It was just a pity.
After over a hundred years of circulation, that Human Race Cultivator had only obtained her fox tail from an auction, and he did not know whose hands it had originally passed through.
She had tried to investigate for a time, but in the end, she had gained nothing.
It was during this period that her reputation as the flower-faced fox began to spread louder and louder throughout both the Immortal and Demonic paths.
Now that she heard news about the tail again.
The hatred in White Fox Jiu's heart was stirred up once more.
Golden light burst forth from her eyes, and the phantom images of nine fox tails behind her suddenly unfurled, surging within the cramped cell like a blooming white lotus.
Cracks began to appear on the walls, the stone slabs on the ground vibrated, and dust from above fell down in rustling clouds.
The prisoners outside the cell also had faint golden light emerging from their eyes.
One by one, they raised their heads, faces tilted up, mouths agape, emitting muffled "he-he" sounds from their throats, as if pulled by some force.
Li Shutang stood there, motionless.
"I do indeed know," she said with a smile. "Come to think of it, this matter has some connection to the destruction of your Qingqiu."
White Fox Jiu's hair began to turn white again from the roots up.
She knew that since Li Shutang could bring it up, she wouldn't tell her easily.
There must be some condition involved.
She said: "What is the transaction you speak of?"
Li Shutang looked at her and said with a light chuckle:
"My request is very simple."
"I want to join your plan, oh... no, I should say, your script."
White Fox Jiu's brows furrowed.
"When all is said and done, aren't you just trying to snatch someone away?" Her voice turned cold.
Furthermore.
It wasn't as if she absolutely had to know about the past from Li Shutang's mouth.
As long as Jiang Xun's memory recovered.
She would naturally be able to know Jiang Xun's original thoughts.
"Hmph!"
Li Shutang took a step forward, and a massive sense of oppression, like the heavens and earth crushing down, descended upon White Fox Jiu's heart.
She asked curiously:
"If I wanted to snatch him, do you think you could beat me?"
White Fox Jiu was not afraid in the slightest; instead, she gave a cold, sinister smile and said:
"Then why don't you try it!"
She also took a step forward. "Guess what, when the time comes, will what you snatch be alive, or a corpse?"
This was a threat.
Having spent so much time with Jiang Xun, it was impossible for this fox not to have left a contingency plan.
Jiang Xun was now just a Mortal who had lost all his spiritual power; how could he possibly withstand her underhanded schemes?
A chill appeared in the depths of Li Shutang's eyes.
The two women stared at each other.
One was a Void-Piercing Great Demon, a nine-tailed demon fox, and the other was the consciousness of an expert in the Ascension Realm.
"Are you willing to kill him?" Li Shutang spoke first.
"There is nothing I am unwilling to do," White Fox Jiu said with an indifferent smile. "There is one point where I am very much like Jiang Hongyuan: if I cannot have something, no one else should even think about having it either."
"So you can feel free to try," she said with a chilling tone. "See if you can snatch him away from my hands unscathed."
Li Shutang stared into her eyes.
Suddenly, she smiled.
"I will not snatch him from you," Li Shutang said, her voice softening slightly. "I only want to let him make the choice himself."
"You must also be very curious to know whether Dao Xun truly loves you, right?"
Hearing this, White Fox Jiu fell silent.
She could not refute that Jiang Xun had already fallen in love with her.
It seemed like there was some love; the tone he used when calling her 'Wife' was very natural.
The warmth when he held her hand was real, and his gaze when he killed for her was very resolute.
The expression on his face when he told her 'Wait for me' in the cell was also very sincere.
But it also seemed to be missing a little something.
Missing what?
White Fox Jiu couldn't say; she just felt that there was something missing in Jiang Xun's eyes.
Although she had never experienced a true romance, her intuition from thousands of years told her so.
Jiang Xun had always been guarded against her.
Although it was extremely subtle.
It could even be said to be a normal reaction for an ordinary person, but she always felt something was wrong.
The long passage of time had added much experience to her.
"Do you also like him?" she suddenly asked.
Li Shutang was stunned for a moment.
She lowered her head and looked at her translucent fingers.
Her fingers shimmered with a faint light under the glow of the oil lamp, like a piece of ice about to melt.
"I don't know," she said, though her tone held some anticipation. "I only want to... be by his side once more, that is all."
She raised her head and looked at White Fox Jiu.
"So, do you agree or not?"
After pondering for a while, White Fox Jiu said: "I agree."
But the corners of her mouth curled into a mocking arc. "In any case, you will not succeed."
She had the confidence to make Jiang Xun truly fall in love with her.
The kind of love that is soul-stirring and heart-wrenching.
Li Shutang did not refute this.
She only smiled slightly. "When Dao Xun makes his choice, I will tell you everything you want to know."
White Fox Jiu stared at her.
"You had better keep your word."
"I never lie."
"Get lost." White Fox Jiu turned around, her back to her.
Li Shutang's body began to fade.
Starting from her feet, it turned bit by bit into mist.
The pale gold dress turned into golden smoke, her long hair turned into silver mist, and her brows and eyes turned into a stroke of ink bleeding into water in a wash painting.
And then she completely disappeared.
White Fox Jiu stood where she was, motionless.
Her hair began to turn black from the roots.
White hair turned grey, grey hair turned black, and in the blink of an eye, it was once again a head of raven-black hair.
Those Mortals inside the great prison all lost consciousness simultaneously and collapsed to the ground.
White Fox Jiu closed her eyes.
She wanted to refuse, but since the other party had already discovered them, she would not give up easily.
Moreover, with Li Shutang's strength in the Ascension Realm, it was hard to believe she wouldn't cause some kind of trouble behind the scenes.
It was better to just agree with her.
A ball of light made of silver threads appeared in White Fox Jiu's palm, and she said confidently: "His choice will only be me."
...