Volume Three - The Fox Spirit’s Tomb Chapter Forty - The Fox Spirit’s Past

After hearing what the two of them had to say, Li Kun and I were a bit bewildered. Logically speaking, corpse aura should be pervasive; why was it that only Li Kun and I could sense its presence, while the two men beside us felt none of its chill?

Suddenly, a thought occurred to me. I looked at the heirloom ring on my finger and said to Li Kun, "I think I know why we can sense the corpse aura while they cannot."

Li Kun looked at me, puzzled. I explained, "It must be because neither of them has ever entered a tomb before. The reason we can feel this aura is that we have been tomb raiding previously. Fortunately, we have this heirloom ring protecting our bodies from being eroded by the corpse aura; otherwise, the consequences would be unimaginable."

Hearing this, Li Kun smacked his lips and said, "Good grief, at least we in the Dragon-Seeking Master sect have the heirloom ring for protection. What about those wandering tomb raiders who work the earth and mountains? I reckon I’d have been tortured to death by corpse aura after just a few tombs."

I nodded, turned to Da Gou, and said, "Da Gou, if you feel anything wrong, remember to call me immediately. We will retreat if we have to."

Da Gou nodded and replied, "Don't worry, I'll be fine. For the sake of our village and the ancestors of Goutou Village, I will definitely hold on."

Hearing this, I stepped up to Da Gou and patted him on the shoulder, praising, "Da Gou, well done. You’re a true man."

Da Gou scratched his head in embarrassment. Seeing him like this, Li Kun, Xu Tian, and I all burst into laughter. I said, "Alright, let's go in."

The others nodded, then raised their flashlights to illuminate the space inside the stone gate.

Before us lay a great hall roughly the size of two basketball courts. It was clean and tidy, without a speck of dust. The ceiling was remarkably high—looking up, it must have been five or six meters tall.

Li Kun was startled by the height of the hall and sighed, "Good heavens, this Fox Immortal Tomb is truly built high. This height is almost equal to a two-story villa."

Xu Tian and Da Gou were also stunned by the hall. Xu Tian marveled, "The construction method here is truly strange; it can be called the work of a master. The construction techniques of the ancients are no less impressive than our modern craftsmanship."

After speaking, we began to carefully observe the style of the entire hall.

The stone walls were covered in stone murals. Each mural was nearly the same height as the hall, extending from the floor to the ceiling, and each was over two meters wide.

The hall was rectangular, like a small box. The center of the hall was empty and clean, with a massive stone pillar standing in each of the four corners. Carved onto these pillars were Fox Immortals; they resembled the ones in the Fox Immortal Temple, but their postures were vastly different. These carvings, however, were much clearer, looking so lifelike that it felt as if we were seeing the real thing.

Directly in front of us was a crescent-shaped wooden door. It was tightly shut, but after the passage of long ages, several holes had rotted through the wood, especially near the ground, where there were two small holes gnawed by mice. Apart from these, there was nothing else in the hall.

Seeing the interior, we all grew curious. Xu Tian and I stood before the murals to observe them, as we were clearly very interested in the past life of the Fox Immortal in this tomb.

Da Gou followed Li Kun toward one of the corner pillars, as the Fox Immortal carved there was particularly clear and vivid, as if standing right before them. The builders had even painted it, making it stand out remarkably. These four pillars were the only unique features in the hall.

As Xu Tian and I examined the murals, we saw a depiction of a beautiful woman standing on the surface of a lake. In the water was a fish with two spines on its back, though the creature's full appearance was indistinct, showing only the two spines breaking the surface.

These spines were arranged like sharp barbs, and judging by the mural, the monster seemed to be five or six meters long. The woman on the lake was confronting this monster, and beside her was a wooden stake with two children clinging to it.

On the riverbank, many people were kneeling, praying to the woman in the water as if worshiping a deity and seeking divine protection.

The mural offered no further details, so Xu Tian and I moved on to the next one.

We shone our flashlights upward. The same beautiful woman was depicted, but this time she stood not far from a massive tornado that was ravaging a village. When Li Kun and I looked at this village, we were surprised to see that it looked very similar to our Goutou Village, though it had many more houses.

The tornado was tearing across the land, sweeping livestock and houses into the sky, filling the air with debris. The woman appeared to be casting a spell, trying to block the tornado or change its course.

Seeing this, Xu Tian said, "This likely depicts the Fox Immortal pushing away the tornado to protect the village. The first painting we saw also depicted the Fox Immortal saving people and fighting monsters."

After speaking, we looked at the other murals and Xu Tian concluded, "It seems these murals record the Fox Immortal saving people or battling monsters and the forces of nature. The woman in the paintings must be the 'Good Immortal.' It seems there was no 'Evil Immortal' at that time. The local villagers revered this Good Immortal as a deity, which is why they built this Fox Immortal Tomb to express their respect."

I nodded and said, "It seems the villagers of Goutou Village had good reason to worship the Fox Immortal. It appears that since ancient times, the people of this village have revered her as a god. Furthermore, the place where we are currently standing should be the site of the original Goutou Village. As time passed, this place became completely abandoned, leaving only the current Goutou Village. It seems the problem arose after the arrival of that Evil Immortal, who activated the 'Double Dragon Intercepting Yin Array,' causing things to become what they are today."

Xu Tian nodded in agreement, though he asked with some confusion, "If the Good Immortal settled in this village to save the world, what is the background of that Evil Immortal? Why are they both residing in the same place now?"

I shook my head and said, "It seems there is much we do not know. If we want to understand the reason, we can only explore it slowly."

Xu Tian nodded and said, "Judging from the scenes in these paintings, the Taoist cultivation of that Good Immortal was likely beyond the reach of anyone in this world, perhaps even approaching the level of an immortal. Moreover, that Evil Immortal has been absorbing Yin energy in this tomb for nearly a thousand years; her cultivation and magic are surely no less than those of the Good Immortal."

I replied, "We can only hope that we don't run into the Evil Immortal first. If we do, I fear we will become real ghosts before we can even make a single move."

Xu Tian sighed, "Let's hope it's not the Evil Immortal."

Afterward, we turned to look at Li Kun and Da Gou, who were now observing the pillar in the front right. Seeing that they were still engrossed, we walked over to join them.

Li Kun looked at us as we arrived, rested his chin on his hand, and said, "You came just in time. Look, each of these four pillars is completely different."

He turned and pointed to the pillar on the left of the entrance, saying, "That one is carved with a fox that is pure white, with the appearance of a fox through and through."

He then pointed to the pillar on the right of the entrance and said, "That one is a bit different. It shows a fox standing like a human, with a slimmer, more elongated body, and it's wearing red clothes."

He gestured to the third pillar: "The third one has changed significantly. It has a human body, and while the hands and feet have grown out, it still has a tail, and the head is still that of a fox. Though it looks human, it's quite terrifying."

Finally, Li Kun turned back to the fourth pillar behind us and said, "This fourth pillar has changed completely. Look at this."

We looked up at the pillar. Li Kun said, "This is carved as a living human. The appearance is so devastatingly beautiful—the eyes alone make me drool. I finally understand why King Zhou was so infatuated with Su Daji; who could possibly resist this?"

It was indeed the image of a stunningly beautiful woman. Even though it was a static carving, the moment we looked at it, our eyes lit up. She was beautiful—truly, incredibly beautiful. Li Kun was right; while "devastatingly beautiful" described her appearance, the first glance made one feel that even those words were insufficient to capture her beauty.

Seeing this, I whispered, "It seems these four pillars illustrate the process of this Fox Immortal evolving into a human."