Chapter 43: Don’t Treat an Auspicious Beast Like a Monster
Chapter 43: Don’t Treat an Auspicious Beast Like a Monster
Lan Mu never expected to become the legendary Nine-tailed Fox.
Even though he looked just like a fox on the outside, he gave off a breathtaking charm.
Just standing on the mountaintop, under the stars and moon, facing the wind with his nine tails swaying, he naturally had an otherworldly aura.
“This energy…”
Lan Mu discovered that he used his tails to absorb moonlight. The moonlight’s energy flowed into the centermost tail and was stored there.
“Only this one tail can absorb moonlight? What about the other eight? Are they just for looks?”
Lan Mu couldn’t figure it out. He then looked at the mist that had formed instantly at his thought.
This mist was originally scattered around him. Driven by his will, it gathered and turned into a water mirror.
With another thought, the mist dispersed and returned to being formless.
“Did I really turn into a monster? Is this truly the mythical Nine-tailed Fox?”
It took Lan Mu a long time to accept this reality. He never thought he could transform into a creature from myths and legends.
Tales of the Nine-tailed Fox have existed since ancient times. Many cultures in East Asia have legends about the Nine-tailed Fox. This strange creature, part demon and part celestial, is described in ancient texts from China, Japan, and Korea.
Even small Southeast Asian countries and India have related records. But no matter which region’s mythology, the descriptions of the Nine-tailed Fox are mostly similar.
Originally, the Nine-tailed Fox was a celestial beast, said to: “Appear when the world is peaceful, as an auspicious sign.” It was a lucky omen for a prosperous nation and a wise ruler.
Later, starting from the Song Dynasty and onward, it gradually became demonized, turning into a Fox Demon. It came to represent seduction and misfortune, becoming a synonym for enchantment, and this idea spread to surrounding countries.
But no matter what, the Nine-tailed Fox is a shared symbol in East Asian cultures. No matter who you ask, the image they imagine is always one of peerless beauty.
“But… I’m a man!”
Lan Mu was speechless, feeling utterly disheveled in the wind.
Turning into an Elf was one thing, but why did he become a Nine-tailed Fox? Was he supposed to go out and charm the world?
“Legends say the Nine-tailed Fox is skilled at shapeshifting into human form. It usually takes on various human appearances, perfectly imitating them to fool people.”
“How do I change?”
A Nine-tailed Fox was seen hopping around on the mountaintop. Its tails swept through the forest and over soil and rocks without getting dirty at all.
It seemed like a thin barrier of energy kept the dust away, keeping the white fox spotless and maintaining its gorgeous white fur.
The Nine-tailed Fox was not small. Its body was about the size of a dog. If its huge tails were fully extended, its total body length would be over four meters, with the tails alone making up about two point eight meters.
Suddenly, it was enveloped by its nine tails, turning into a fluffy white ball.
When the tails spread out, where was the white fox? A young man lay quietly on the rock, completely naked, with smooth, fair skin.
But that wasn’t all. Nine tails still swayed on his behind, and the fur made him itch.
“Oh no… can’t the tails change?”
Lan Mu struggled for a long time but couldn’t figure out how to retract his huge tails. These nine tails gathered together were much bigger than he was, floating behind him like a fluttering, snow-white gown.
His ears twitched twice. He reached up and touched them, and despair set in.
Not only couldn’t he retract his tails, but the fluffy fox ears also stood perkily on his head, moving occasionally.
He waved his hand, and the mist gathered into a mirror. Lan Mu looked at his reflection and sighed.
“My transformation is too poor. This is clearly a monster!”
In the mirror, Lan Mu’s face was indeed still his own, but his eyes were blood red, his short hair was disheveled, two fox ears poked out from his black hair, and nine huge tails formed a backdrop behind him.
Even though it looked like him, his aura was completely different. He radiated a stunning charm from the inside out, and every movement was captivatingly alluring.
“Sigh…”
Lan Mu let out a long sigh. He knelt on the ground, slumping forward in dejection, his heart ashen.
“This kind of transformation… changing or not makes no difference.”
“And this time, the transformation happened more than a day later. A full eight days passed since the last one. By the time the seven-day Enforced Period ended, Fang Moqi should have already left.”
“It seems I can’t keep the appointment… If I entered Kuala Lumpur looking like this, I’d probably shock the world.”
Lan Mu stroked his huge, canopy-like tails, truly feeling helpless.
If he only had beast ears, he could hide them. But with these nine big tails, was he supposed to say he was cosplaying?
Lan Mu could only accept his fate. He decided to honestly spend the seven-day Enforced Period deep in the mountains.
“I’m sick of these transformations… Next time, let me change into something more imposing?”
He couldn’t help but complain, but the voice that came out sounded like a baby’s.
This childlike voice was clear and ethereal, hitting straight to the heart, its echo drifting away with the wind on the mountaintop.
Even though he could speak human language, after hearing this voice, Lan Mu didn’t even feel like complaining anymore.
He sat cross-legged on the ground, hugging his own nine big tails, idly studying them.
Several hours passed quickly. The moon had long set, followed by the morning sun.
After absorbing moonlight all night, when the sunlight appeared, his fourth tail instinctively swayed.
Unlike the coolness of the moonlight, a scorching energy flooded his entire body and finally settled in his tail.
“So I can absorb sunlight too?”
After studying all night, Lan Mu’s thoughts suddenly became clearer.
“The fourth tail absorbs solar energy… So there are still three I don’t know about…”
Lan Mu explored himself and found that all the Nine-tailed Fox’s abilities came from its tails.
The first tail represented transformation. It could transform him into anyone’s appearance. Theoretically, it could perfectly imitate them. But he relied entirely on instinct, and his transformation skill wasn’t good enough. He couldn’t change the fox ears and tail, so he could only maintain the monster-like appearance often seen in TV shows.
The second tail was pure Illusion Art. As for what it was specifically useful for, he couldn’t figure it out yet. It just instinctively gave him the ability to Charm people’s hearts. For example, he could charm a clouded leopard to lie obediently beside him, turning into a docile pet.
The third tail was his ability to control mist. He could make mist surround his body. At its peak, he could make the mist so thick it blocked vision. He could gather or disperse it at will, controlling it freely. But it had no offensive power at all. Even if he gathered it all, it would just be a puddle of water.
The fourth tail absorbed solar energy. But it was stored in the tail, and he didn’t know what it was for. So far, Lan Mu hadn’t discovered how to use solar energy.
The fifth tail was the same. It absorbed moonlight energy and stored it too. Besides a cool, refreshing feeling, it seemed to have no use at all.
The sixth tail was impressive. It could envelop his body in a thin layer of force field, allowing him to keep external things out at will. Not only did it have a dust-repelling effect, but it could also protect him. However, the protective ability was somewhat low. If he tried hard to stab himself with an arrowhead, it would still pierce his skin, leaving a white mark.
Calculating this way, if he were shot by a strong bow or heavy crossbow, he would still get injured, let alone by firearms.
As for the remaining three tails, he hadn’t discovered any use for them at all. They seemed purely for looking cute.
The sun slowly rose higher. The mountaintop was constantly exposed to the blazing sun. With the protection of the sixth tail’s force field, Lan Mu wasn’t worried about sunburn at all.
He spent the whole day calmly absorbing solar energy. Only as dusk approached did he stop.
Watching the sunset, he stood up and stretched lazily, feeling as if he had just woken from sleep.
“Is this maybe absorbing the essence of the sun and moon for cultivation? It feels good. Not tired at all, and I couldn’t sense time passing…”
“But… I can actually get hungry?”
After basking in the sun all day, feeling lazy from the inside out, Lan Mu was surprised to find his stomach empty and feeling hungry.
“Aren’t I a celestial beast? Even if I’m a monster… shouldn’t I get hungry?”
“So cultivation also requires eating… This…”
Lan Mu didn’t know what he wanted to eat. He could only run down the mountain into the forest to forage.
However, he habitually jumped directly off the rock and ran down the steep cliff slope, forgetting he wasn’t a White-maned Lion now.
“Ah!”
Lan Mu fell down in a sorry state, tumbling down the mountain, nothing like the coolness of the White-maned Lion.
He once again experienced the fear of falling off a cliff, his body rolling, bumping against rocks and branches, his tail instinctively curling into a ball to protect himself.
When he finally landed, he was dizzy and disoriented, his fair skin covered in scratches and bruises, with some places showing minor abrasions.
“Thankfully, the force field from my sixth tail protected me. Otherwise, rolling all the way down like that would have definitely broken my bones.”
The six-tail protection was quite effective; after falling for so long, he wasn’t seriously hurt.
But soon he felt annoyed and frustrated, thinking to himself.
“Why am I so weak? Am I even a monster? Are there monsters this weak?”
“No strength, no speed, just good looks? An ornamental monster?”
Then Lan Mu considered that it might be because he had taken human form; transforming into a human also inherited human frailty.
Thinking this, Lan Mu canceled his transformation and returned to his Nine-tailed Fox form. A handsome, large fox now stood in the forest.
Indeed, the fox body was much more agile than a human’s. After all, it was an animal form, better suited to the natural environment. The human body had degenerated and simply wasn’t fit for roaming freely through mountains and forests.
If he had descended the mountain in his animal form earlier, he wouldn’t have tumbled all the way down. Hopping and skipping down would definitely be more nimble than a human.
“A tapir? Another tapir. Not hungry, won’t eat it!”
“A snake? Too flashy and disgusting, won’t eat it!”
“A deer? Not hungry either, won’t eat it.”
“A bullfrog? Ugh! Get away from me!”
Lan Mu wandered through the forest, running around, but couldn’t find anything he wanted to eat.
To find something edible, Lan Mu purely followed his instincts. If his body felt no appetite, he simply refused to eat.
This way, he explored the woods near the foot of the mountain, encountering all sorts of animals. Finally, he found the prey he truly craved.
“Birds… so I want to eat birds…”
Lan Mu used all four limbs to climb up a tall tree, slowly approaching a nest. Inside were a few tiny chicks, and an unidentified bird about the size of a sparrow perched on a branch nearby.
However, as soon as Lan Mu got close, the bird became alert, shrieking and flapping its wings to take flight, protecting the nest.
Lan Mu steeled his will and pounced, but the bird dodged.
He landed with one of the chicks from the nest in his mouth.
Ignoring the mother bird’s cries, Lan Mu curled his fluffy tail and decisively ran off.
When he stopped and spat out the chick, it was already dead, its blood instinctively sucked dry by him.
Looking at the corpse, he no longer felt any appetite.
“Ugh… I only wanted to drink its blood…”
The bird was too small. Lan Mu only got a tiny sip of blood. With this kind of hunting efficiency, Lan Mu felt like crying.
Just then, a colorful pheasant appeared in his view.
The intense craving of the Nine-tailed Fox surged again!
Lan Mu lunged at it, but the rooster was fierce and imposing. With a glare, it pecked at him, its wings flapping as it leaped low to the ground, looking very imposing.
Not only that, but several more pheasants rushed out from the forest. Lan Mu got pecked a few times, and even with his force field protection, it still hurt.
He vaguely felt he couldn’t win in a head-on fight! He had no choice but to turn and run.
“Nine-tailed Fox… Nine-tailed Fox…”
“Are you really a monster beast? How come you can’t even hunt properly?”
But as he ran, the pheasants didn’t let him go, chasing after him angrily.
Lan Mu got furious—after all, he was still a monster beast! How dare even chickens bully him?
Did they think an Auspicious Beast wasn’t a real monster?
His second tail swayed slightly. Lan Mu stopped running, crouched in place, and faced the chickens.
The pheasants, which had been charging fiercely, suddenly grew docile, gazing at the Nine-tailed Fox with infatuation as they slowly approached.
“So it’s not about hunting with claws… it’s a skill…”
Lan Mu thought this was more like it. He grabbed one pheasant by the neck, sucked just a mouthful, and it fell to the ground dead.
He repeated this, draining all the pheasants of their Vital Blood.
As for Lan Mu, after drinking just a little blood, he stopped immediately, feeling no desire for the meat at all.
But with only that small amount of blood, Lan Mu didn’t feel satisfied. He felt these things were too low-level; it wasn’t enough.
“Feels like even if I drank a ton of blood, I still wouldn’t be full…”
“This probably isn’t the real food for a Nine-tailed Fox…”
“Heavens… what am I supposed to eat?”