Chapter 556: White Foxes
Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations
"Arrows ready! Arrows ready!"
Dozens of archers drew their bows in the formation and loosed their arrows in unison.
"Swish! Swish!"
The arrows moved along a curved path in the air gracefully, much like the shape of Death's scythe, and flew towards the white tiger steadily.
"Roar! Roar!"
The white tiger gave a ferocious roar as it jumped several yards away.
The rain of arrows covered a large area. Even though there was much friendly fire, many of the arrows landed on the white tiger's body.
"Ding! Ding! Dang! Dang!"
Metallic rings reverberated through the air as the arrows impacted the white light surrounding the white tiger's body and fell to the ground.
Even so, the white light flickered and looked as if it was fading.
Beasts could prey on humans but humans could kill beasts too!
Numerous soldiers sprang forth as the army officers called for a charge.
"Roar! Roar!"
The white tiger was a murderous creature and pounced on a chariot which shattered under its weight. It swept its tail, harder than any whip in the world, and let it crash into a Shang soldier.
The ferociousness displayed by the white tiger stunned the Shang soldiers, who were previously fearless fighters.
The white tiger sensed their vulnerability and pounced on a foot soldier. With its prey firmly in its grasp, the white tiger began to feed.
The screams of the Shang soldier filled the air. Meng Kuo's eyes widened as he witnessed the ghastly sight.
"Demonic beast! I must kill you!"
In a flash, Meng Kuo was in command of a chariot and drove it towards the frontlines.
"It's just a little demon which might not even have achieved full spiritual awareness…"
Fang Yuan shook his head. A spiritually intelligent creature would have run away by now. On the contrary, this white tiger was becoming more aggressive even though the protective white light around its body was dimming. It obviously had a death wish.
"Watch my arrows!"
Meng Kuo roared as his arrows assailed the white light surrounding the tiger.
He had discharged three arrows from his bow in one shot.
"Ding!"
The first and second arrows broke upon contact with the white light. The third arrow, however, was the straw that broke the camel's back. The white light offered no resistance as the arrow popped the eye of the tiger.
Poof!
There was a burst of blood.
The white tiger roared in pain and ran towards Meng Kuo in a fit of madness. Its remaining eye was filled with a crazed rage.
"Hei Zhong...the white tiger is yours to handle!"
Fang Yuan waved the sword in his hand and gave an order to Hei Zhong.
"Yes, master!"
Hei Zhong gave a battle cry and rushed over on foot with his trusty battleaxe.
He was just in time, for Meng Kuo had been knocked off his chariot by the white tiger and was about to get torn apart.
"Hey! Don't even think about hurting him, beast!"
Hei Zhong swung his axe up into the air and brought it down onto the tiger.
"Roar! Roar!"
The axe managed to cut into the front paws of the white tiger and blood was spilt. The tiger shrank away in pain and Hei Zhong took the opportunity to pull Meng Kuo to safety.
"Hmph!"
As Hei Zhong retreated, he exhaled a cloud of white mist. The white mist enveloped the white tiger and distracted it from Hei Zhong's ensuing attack.
Even though the large tiger was a demonic beast, it was at a loss as to what to do in the face of this seemingly divine technique.
"Loose the arrows!"
A severe voice rang out from behind and triggered a torrential hail of arrows.
A dark gleam joined the trajectory of the arrows and shot towards the white tiger. Whether it was by chance or not, Hei Zhong was in its path too!
"A flying sword!"
Hei Zhong turned around and was startled to see a smiling youth. It was the recovered Gentleman Jiu!
Gentleman Jiu had been humiliated by Hei Zhong and was saved by good fortune. Now, he was ready to avenge his honour by killing Hei Zhong. He was prepared to disguise the murder as collateral damage sustained in killing the white tiger!
"Swish!"
Another dark gleam flew overhead.
This was another flying sword and it was actually able to knock Gentleman Jiu's flying sword to the ground despite having been launched later.
This other flying sword's path of flight remained unchanged and approached Gentleman Jiu at an alarming speed.
"How do you also know the flying sword technique?"
Gentleman Jiu was stunned. The person who had launched the other flying sword was more skilful than he was. He could only fall backwards in a clumsy attempt to escape it.
The sword sank into the ground less than a foot away from Gentleman Jiu. It would have killed him if he had not taken one more step backwards.
"It's that Jie!"
He shot an uncertain look over at Fang Yuan and felt a seething hatred.
'Hmph! He doesn't know what is good for him!'
Fang Yuan could not be bothered to say anything.
He knew that his move would cause Gentleman Jiu to hate him but he would never take it lying down if a subordinate of his was being attacked.
No matter what Hei Zhong had done previously, he was Fang Yuan's slave now. How could Fang Yuan let anyone kill him?
Fang Yuan was perfectly fine with Gentleman Jiu hating him.
If Gentleman Jiu wanted to cross Fang Yuan, Fang Yuan would kill him without regard to his status.
Fang Yuan would kill even the Shang King if he made things difficult for Fang Yuan.
"Roar! Roar!"
The commotion with the flying swords happened in a flash and many of the soldiers were not aware of it.
Most of them kept their attention on the white tiger.
"Swish! Swish!"
The white tiger had lost the protection of the white light and was struggling with the arrow wounds on its body. One of its paws had been maimed and it was finally going away.
"Attack!"
Meng Kuo did not intend to let the beast escape. On his orders, a dozen Shang spearmen closed in on the tiger.
"Haha...I shall take your life!"
Hei Zhong let out a coarse laugh and brought his axe down onto the white tiger's neck!
"Poof!"
The tiger's head had been cut halfway off its neck. Blood spouted out of the large gash in streams.
"Roar! Roar!"
The gigantic tiger put up a terminal struggle where it broke a few spears and mauled a few soldiers to death. Finally, it collapsed to the ground and stopped moving.
Even in death, the tiger looked menacing.
Its ferocious aura was keeping the soldiers away from its body.
"Orders from Senior Fang: Our army has encountered a white tiger, which is a good omen. Skin it and present its fur to the King!"
A soldier moved up to the front of the procession and read out Senior Fang's decree.
A military order was not to be defied. A few soldiers approached the tiger gingerly until they were sure that the tiger was truly dead.
At last, someone cheered, and the others echoed their jubilation.
Fang Yuan observed the proceedings with a glint in his eye.
That night, the army set up camp and tiger meat was distributed to the men. It was a happy affair.
Fang Yuan walked alone out of the camp with an iron sword hanging at his waist.
The golden gleam in Fang Yuan's eyes helped him to see the shimmering white marks on the ground that formed a path in the dark.
"Indeed, there are two of these little fellows!"
Fang Yuan retracted his spiritual aura, dimmed the light in his eyes and turned off his spiritual tracer. After walking on for a while, Fang Yuan arrived at a small valley.
He could hear small chattering sounds coming from ahead.
Fang Yuan quickly hid behind a tree and extended the tendrils of his spiritual sense.
Although Fang Yuan had not recovered the entirety of his cultivation, he possessed a high level of magical energy that allowed him to scan his surroundings thoroughly within a radius of a few yards.
The silent glow of the moon, the gentle mountain breeze and leaves whirling close to the ground all contributed to the beauty of the night.
In the clearing ahead, two white foxes were bowing to the moon.
The foxes had tiny bodies and large bushy tails. They did not have the stench of common animals and had a strange fragrance on their bodies. Their eyes darted about animatedly and their movements were intelligent. They were surely elves of the mountain.
'In terms of raw strength, even ten foxes would not be able to match the white tiger. However, not even a hundred white tigers will be able to match the foxes' intelligence...is this what it means by a trade-off?'
Fang Yuan watched the foxes silently.
They had been snooping around the camp and were now bowing to the moon. The moonlight that had fallen on their bodies looked especially dense. They were obviously in the middle of a cultivation ritual.
Moments later.
The two white foxes had completed their cultivation and began to play with each other. They chittered away without a care in the world while Fang Yuan watched on in the distance.
He could not understand the language of animals.
"Forget it, it's just two little demons!"
Fang Yuan took a big step forward.
"Hey!"
"Swoosh!"
The white foxes had not expected anyone to appear from behind the trees and were startled. They immediately sped off like two white arrows.
"Swish! Swish!"
Fang Yuan flicked two stones towards the foxes.
The white foxes were hit and fell to the ground, their eyes glassy.
"These little creatures have been bad!"
Fang Yuan hoisted both foxes up by the scruff of their necks. Their fur was extremely smooth to the touch, which aroused in Fang Yuan a passing impulse to make a fur coat out of them. However, upon closer inspection, the two foxes barely had enough fur between them to make a pair of gloves.
He released them and let them drop to the ground. Light returned to the foxes' eyes but they did not move and pretended to be dead.
"Enough of this...if you carry on with this act, I'll kill and skin you two!"
Fang Yuan intimidated them by baring his teeth.
"Nng! Nng!"
The two white foxes clasped their paws together and pleaded for mercy.
"Enough, take on your human forms!"
Fang Yuan pursed his lips.
The two foxes shared a look and decided to accept their fate. They hung their heads in resignation.
The foxes seemingly absorbed the essence of the moon and transformed into two white-robed servant girls.
They hugged each other and looked at Fang Yuan fearfully as if he was a predatory beast.
"Oh? Your cultivation has reached such a high level?"
Fang Yuan was surprised.
"This isn't the conventional path of the demon race. This is more similar to the celestial dao!"
"What...what do you want?"
The two fox girls were bright-eyed and had white teeth. They were around 13 or 14 years of age and were nearly identical to each other. One of them had gathered enough courage to speak up but looked like she was going to burst into tears at any moment.
"Nothing. I just wanted to know who was spying on the army camp!"
Fang Yuan rubbed his nose. He was feeling somewhat guilty about bullying these kids.
Nevertheless, Fang Yuan was thick-skinned and let the feeling pass.
"Tell me honestly, what are your intentions?"
"Boohoo...we only wanted to steal the fur of the White Mountain Lady...boohoo...we don't mean any harm!"
The two fox girls were terrified and Fang Yuan could not help but find it funny.