Volume Three: Rising Fame - Chapter Fifty-Five: The Cunning Old Fox

A person's level of cultivation is fixed from birth, yet nothing is absolute. Rare talents and extraordinary treasures can slightly raise one's upper limit, and the same applies to strange beasts.

Generally, beasts and humans here appear similar; a beast's race determines its ceiling, but various circumstances can alter a beast's level.

For instance, the leader of a beast tribe is usually one rank higher than an ordinary adult beast. This is why Li Yu suspected that the robust white fox was indeed the head fox.

Had he taken the time to ponder deeply, he would have noticed the unusual details.

The white foxes guarding the small grove were no ordinary head fox’s doing; only a more formidable white fox could command such precise coordination.

Moreover, judging by its aura, the sturdy white fox was far from “old,” so why did the voice echoing in his mind sound aged?

This was because the fox communicating with Li Yu was another white fox hiding in the shadows, and every exchange was slightly delayed before the entire white fox tribe reacted—clearly there was a communication gap in between.

“A bit tricky,” Li Yu murmured softly. Suddenly, he glanced behind him; only the pure white snow fluttered in the air, yet just moments ago, he had distinctly sensed something stepping into his thunder domain. But after touching the thunder, it quietly withdrew, not daring to force entry into Li Yu’s spiritual realm.

“Cunning old fox... I actually thought these beasts were straightforward!” Li Yu thought, and with a flick of his mind, thunder exploded around him, waves of energy pushing outward, instantly clearing his surroundings.

In one spot, he caught sight of a fox tail blending seamlessly with the swirling snow. In the blink of an eye, the white fox vanished without a trace.

“Damn it!” Ying Yongge roared from midair.

Seeing that the area around them was now completely clear, Li Yu was no longer afraid of the white fox suddenly springing out. He leapt up and faced Ying Yongge from a distance.

At that moment, he understood why the Ninth Prince was so irritable.

Where eleven people had once stood, only their corpses remained. The old white fox had struck them while Li Yu and Ying Yongge were locked in combat, attacking silently from the shadows.

A fifth-grade peak white fox, amidst the swirling snow, had taken down these unsuspecting humans without a sound.

If the smell of blood hadn’t spread, Li Yu and Ying Yongge might not have noticed the white fox until one of them fell.

Now, their duel was about to pause.

Li Yu took a deep breath, cast a discreet glance into the distance, then fixed his burning gaze on the snow-covered ground below.

“How about a temporary alliance?” Li Yu turned to meet Ying Yongge’s eyes. After a moment’s consideration, he slowly nodded. “Let’s deal with this white fox first. It seems it won’t let us go easily.”

The blank patch Li Yu had cleared in the snow was already being filled again, and the white expanse was spreading. Clearly, the old white fox was stirring up trouble around them.

This confirmed it—this old white fox had no intention of letting them leave.

No one knew how high this fox could leap or which of them it was watching from the shadows.

It might be Li Yu, because he had seized the Snow Fox Vine from the tribe.

Or it might be Ying Yongge, because he had destroyed those vines. Perhaps the old white fox held a grudge against him.

Both were cautious, wary of provoking the other recklessly.

“Rest a moment... I’ll clear the vision below,” Li Yu said, noticing a terrible claw mark on Ying Yongge’s abdomen, dark blood staining his clothes.

“Mm-hmm,” Ying Yongge replied, his face pale both from injury and anger—his followers had been slaughtered almost to the last man.

Though a few were scattered elsewhere, the losses in this valley would severely weaken his journey through the secret realm.

Li Yu’s gaze fell to the snow below, where the swirling flakes were manipulated by various means to drift anew, even subtly rising upward.

“Neither humans nor beasts are sincere,” he thought, considering the ambush by the Ninth Prince’s men and the old white fox who had hidden for so long.

Truly, the schemes ran deep.

“Boom!”

A pillar of thunder flew from Li Yu’s hand, smashing into the ground.

On the white expanse, the thunder exploded, spreading within a span of several feet. Moreover, the shockwave carved out a small area of visible terrain.

“When desperate, precise strikes; when abundant, full coverage,” Li Yu muttered as lightning pillars formed in his hands, shooting towards the ground, starting from a point and expanding outward.

With thousands of thunder acupoints within him, Li Yu never feared wasting energy. His hands moved tirelessly.

“Howl!”

An adult white fox tried to re-cover the vacuumed area with snow, but as the lightning pillars rained down, it dodged the centers yet couldn’t avoid the spreading thunder.

“Hm…”

Expressionless, Li Yu saw a white fox finally reveal itself and casually sent down three lightning pillars, bathing the fox in blood on the spot.

“Howl!”

A disoriented fox’s howl sounded, then for a long while Li Yu failed to catch another.

Clearly, the old white fox was commanding from the shadows.

“Old foxes are always craftier,” Li Yu thought as, just as a lightning pillar was cast, a white shadow suddenly leapt from a stubborn patch of snow in the cleared area.

Its target was not Li Yu but Ying Yongge, who was recuperating.

“Die!” Li Yu was startled and fearful but did not let the old white fox attack the Ninth Prince. Instead, he intercepted and collided with the old fox.

This cunning old white fox posed a far greater threat than Ying Yongge.

Li Yu’s plan was to clear a safe zone point by point, then strike together with Ying Yongge against this larger threat.

The old white fox was even more devious. The adult white fox that had approached the lightning pillars earlier was likely its pawn, sent to test their power before it struck unexpectedly.

“Bang!”

The collision rang out sharply. The old white fox used the momentum to vanish back into the drifting snow, while Li Yu frowned deeply.

His arms, clad in gloves woven from special soft metal, bore several dents.

“Such sharp claws!” he murmured.