The Fox Spirit Raised by the Villain Wants to Defect - Chapter 62

When Xiao Yu regained consciousness, she vaguely felt something moving, her entire body being tossed back and forth.

She opened her eyes and saw only darkness.

“You’re awake.”

Coal Ball was resting on Xiao Yu’s face, close to her.

Sensing the familiar coolness, Xiao Yu snapped back to full awareness: “You’ve recovered?”

As soon as she moved, her body felt as heavy as water-soaked cotton, making it difficult to stir.

“I’m all better now,” Coal Ball said. As he spoke, he glanced sideways, a little afraid of the two (Nether Beasts), finding them quite fierce.

Before Xiao Yu woke up, these two Nether Beasts had helped him recover, then stared at him, emitting a sense of killing intent.

Coal Ball huddled beside Xiao Yu, anxiously waiting for her to wake, terrified that the two Nether Beasts might eat him.

“You were unconscious for a long time,” said the Nether Beast carrying Xiao Yu. It was pitch black, and its form was invisible, but the voice identified it as the same Nether Beast as before.

With the two of them present, Coal Ball dared not mention their plot.

Xiao Yu fumbled around her side but did not touch her Bamboo Flute Sword, Xiao Zhong Jian).

A sudden jolt of panic hit her, and she immediately asked, “Where is my sword?”

Only then did Coal Ball realize the sword was missing.

“It looks like we didn’t bring it.”

Xiao Yu was anxious and instantly said to the demon beast carrying her, “I must go back for my sword.”

The Nether Beast did not stop: “You have more important things to do right now.”

The other Nether Beast spoke: “Your innate talent can awaken my consciousness. The Nether Beasts here that have been assimilated all need you to awaken them.”

If they were to remain in a state of confusion, only knowing how to linger in this place, they would never recall who they once were. Without encountering Xiao Yu, they would not awaken.

Now that they were awake, they would not allow their own kind to continue being assimilated.

Xiao Yu did not answer immediately.

She quickly checked her body. Except for her right arm, she was almost fully recovered.

She had been unconscious at the time and didn’t remember what had happened, but since she was alive, it meant she had succeeded.

“There are countless Nether Beasts here; I can’t possibly awaken all of them.”

However, her words had no effect.

“Then we’ll go little by little. When you can awaken all of them, then you can leave this place.”

Xiao Yu clenched her left hand. She couldn’t stay here too long. She needed to get out. The situation outside was fraught with danger. If Wen Yu returned and couldn’t find her, he would surely worry.

“I need my sword back; that is my condition,” Xiao Yu insisted strongly. “If I don’t cooperate with you, those Nether Beasts won’t wake up.”

The nearby Nether Beast seemed to laugh.

“If you don’t awaken them as I say, you will be the one who dies.”

Xiao Yu was indeed afraid of dying now, but she was certain that these two Nether Beasts would not let her die.

Right now, in their eyes, she was a very important tool; they would absolutely not let her die.

“Then perhaps we should just die together. The two of you are such obvious targets; you could easily be surrounded by other Nether Beasts,” Xiao Yu retorted, equally impolite, a mutual leverage.

The Nether Beast seemed to be swayed, or perhaps they had never intended for Xiao Yu to die in the first place.

The nearby Nether Beast suddenly let out a shriek—a piercing sound that made Xiao Yu’s head ache.

Before Xiao Yu could ask, that Nether Beast spoke to explain: “We’ve traveled too long. To go back would be troublesome. I’ll lure a few Nether Beasts here. Once you awaken them, I will send them to look for it.”

Soon, Nether Beasts approached, watching them menacingly. They seemed wary of the two dominant Nether Beasts and did not move closer immediately.

Seeing those glowing spots, Xiao Yu still couldn’t help but shiver.

“Come, try it. Let us see what you are capable of.”

Xiao Yu propped up her upper body and activated her new ability. Like using the Charm Technique, it was driven by thought. She locked onto the few Nether Beasts. A faint fluctuation spread from around Xiao Yu. She could only feel her consciousness scatter like a tendril, touching several obstacles and shattering them.

The glowing spots vanished, and simultaneously, she received the acknowledgment of the Nether Beast.

“Your ability works.”

From the words, Xiao Yu heard an implied meaning: she had proven her ability was useful and, for now, had value to be exploited.

“Then, can you help me find my sword?”

The Nether Beast let out another low growl. The awakened Nether Beasts scattered and quickly ran off.

Xiao Yu did not completely let down her guard. She did not know how many Nether Beasts were waiting for her to awaken here. If her power was insufficient and she were to be continuously trapped, the longer the delay, the more danger she feared she would be in.

When she first arrived, the Nether Beast had said that any demon beast that came here would be assimilated. This place was outside the Three Realms and unsuitable for her survival.

“Where are you going now?”

Xiao Yu desperately wanted to leave this place quickly. Her new innate talent had been realized, the goal was achieved, and now only finding the exit remained.

Before that, she had to escape from these Nether Beasts.

Wait…

They had survived here for over a hundred years; they must know the exit!

“You know the way to leave here, right? You didn’t tell me at the time and even guided me to awaken this Nether Beast. You never wanted me to leave here from the start, did you?”

After Xiao Yu spoke, her apprehensive heart sank upon hearing the Nether Beast’s reply.

“It’s not too late for you to realize it now.”

“Once you awaken all the Nether Beasts, we will naturally send you out.”

Xiao Yu, however, thought of another possibility.

“You will also leave.”

How could they not harbor resentment after being exploited by the Demon King and the Demon Sovereign? With so many Nether Beasts here, it was hard to imagine how many demon beasts died and how many people were killed in that experiment.

But she couldn’t easily trust this. She had to get out and ask Wen Yu and Yan Qing to verify the truth of the Nether Beast’s claims.

“We naturally have a way to leave. The Demon King surely wouldn’t have imagined that the demon beasts he abandoned would become the existence he truly yearned for.”

Even when saying this, Xiao Yu could not detect any emotional fluctuation in his voice.

“Fine, I will help you awaken the remaining Nether Beasts, and you will send me out.”

Xiao Yu could only take a gamble, betting that they would keep their promise.

The two Nether Beasts spoke simultaneously: “That is assured.”

A moment later, Xiao Yu saw a cluster of glowing spots, almost covering her entire field of vision, densely packed and brighter than the stars.

Xiao Yu activated her ability again. This time it was much more familiar, but it consumed more demonic power  than the Charm Technique. Her internal demonic power was quickly depleted, but she was surprised to find that the recovery speed was more than twice as fast as before.

Furthermore, the effect of the new innate talent was better than the Charm Technique. The Nether Beasts were quickly awakened, and the glowing spots disappeared one by one.

“At this rate, we can awaken all of them soon.”

The moment all the glowing spots vanished, Xiao Yu collapsed onto the back of the Nether Beast, recovering quickly.

This whole ordeal, compared to the injuries she sustained, brought more benefits.

Xiao Yu rested for a while and immediately gathered her spirits.

“Continue!”

The two demon beasts exchanged glances and continued leading Xiao Yu.

She would exhaust her demonic power, recover, and then continue exhausting it. The innate talent was used countless times. Finally, when all of Xiao Yu’s injuries were healed, she received the comment: “That’s enough.”

Until the last wave was awakened, Xiao Yu lay sprawled on the ground. Coal Ball nudged Xiao Yu’s cheek with distress: “They are too much.”

Xiao Yu managed a weak smile: “It’s fine, as long as we can get out.”

The area before her gradually brightened. Having spent an unknown amount of time here, this was the first time Xiao Yu saw light.

“When this place is fully lit, the exit will appear, and you can leave.”

Xiao Yu turned her head, looking towards the source of the voice.

A majestic lion stood beside her. Its eyes were black-grey, and its fur and every part of its body were black-grey.

The lion tilted its head, its huge eye pupils staring at her; not a trace of life could be seen within.

“Do you find me strange?”

Xiao Yu nodded, narrowing her eyes against the intensifying light. “Your eyes are completely black, unlike the red pupils of demon beasts.”

The lion laughed once: “Since we are no longer demon beasts, how could they still be the same?”

The light grew even brighter. Xiao Yu could clearly see the surrounding environment—surrounded by mountains, so tall that she could not see the top, as if framed and inescapable.

“Walk straight along this path. No matter what you see or hear, ignore it. Keep walking forward, and you will get out.”

The Nether Beast did not seem to plan on leaving with Xiao Yu.

She asked, “There are some things I want to ask clearly.”

“About how we became Nether Beasts? Those things the Demon King and the Demon Sovereign conspired to do back then?”

Xiao Yu nodded.

During the conversation, the other Nether Beast’s form appeared. It was also a lion, even larger in size.

Its jet-black pupils rotated, and it began to speak: “I will not tell you the specific method. At first, their small-scale experiments were continuously unsuccessful, and they realized they were missing the human part of the traits. After that, they began capturing humans.”

“The wars between the two clans back then were partly because of the frequent disappearances of humans, and it was discovered that demon beasts were capturing people.”

Xiao Yu’s heart skipped a beat. She thought, The capture of humans in the Sands Demon Territory before, should have nothing to do with this kind of experiment, right?

“The fundamental reason was that the Demon King wanted to join forces with the Demon Sovereign to directly invade the human race and unify the Three Realms so they could capture humans at will. Unfortunately, the very first Nether Beast died, and they failed, tossing us, the failed specimens, into the abyss.”

“Then how did you become Nether Beasts? You died; how are you still alive?”

The two lions both uttered the same term: “Assimilation.”

“It’s very simple to become a Nether Beast. First, one must die, and the corpse must be cast into the Netherworld. Over time, it will be assimilated into a Nether Beast, devoid of self-awareness. It is not as powerful as a Nether Beast born in the Netherworld, but it is almost indistinguishable from them.”

“And the passage to the Netherworld is death. We were thrown down. With too many corpses, the place with heavy Death Qi would draw the Netherworld. It is an illusory place, detached from the Three Realms, very hard to find, but Death Qi can guide it.”

Xiao Yu could not imagine what these Nether Beasts had suffered during their lives. She absolutely had to tell Wen Yu about this and ask him clearly if he truly did not know.

This was something the original book had not mentioned.

“I told you before that Nether Beasts can go anywhere and are immortal and ageless. Did you think this was an invincible existence?”

Xiao Yu nodded. She had indeed thought so.

“But all Nether Beasts lack their own consciousness; they are fundamentally not life. I have not seen the Nether Beast that the Demon Sovereign captured back then, but based on the Nether Beasts born in the Netherworld that I have encountered during my time here, they all seem like pre-arranged chess pieces, wearing a skin.”

After the lion finished speaking, it looked deeply at Xiao Yu.

“You should leave. If you stay any longer, you will also be assimilated.”

Xiao Yu hurriedly asked, “If I leave now, will you still revert to how you were before?”

“Perhaps we will not, if we leave this place,” the lion shook its head, “but if we go out, there is no space for us to survive. We are anomalies.”

To the outside world, they were anomalies.

To them, Xiao Yu was an anomaly.

“Take this bone. If you ever need our help, you can crush it. Once I sense it, I will come.”

Xiao Yu was stunned for a moment before taking it.

At this point, she could clearly see the appearance of the bone—pitch black, as deep as ink.

She placed the bone into her spatial Jiezi Talisman, touched the Bamboo Flute Sword, and clenched her left hand.

Xiao Yu stood up, brushed the dust off her clothes, thanked the two Nether Beasts, and then turned to leave.

She walked towards the path ahead, which had no visible end.

The two lions stood quietly, watching her departure.

The light grew brighter and brighter, blindingly so. Xiao Yu shielded her eyes with her hand, her feet never stopping.

Gradually, she heard a sound getting closer and closer, and even felt something brush past her.

She raised the Bamboo Flute Sword to shield her chest, concentrating only on the path beneath her feet.

This path seemed extraordinarily long.

So long that she began to entertain the thought that she would never get out.

“Wake up, wake up!”

The shouting pulled Xiao Yu out of that thought. She suddenly snapped back to attention, realizing she had stopped at some point.

“Your state just now was very strange,” Coal Ball floated anxiously in front of her. The black mass looked especially conspicuous in the completely white passage.

Xiao Yu suddenly spoke: “Go in front and lead the way for me. I will watch you walk.”

Coal Ball did not overthink it and did as she asked.

Soon, Xiao Yu saw a different color appear.

She had emerged.

The instant the completely white passage vanished, Xiao Yu stepped out.

She looked up, the sun hanging high—a familiar environment.

“I made it out.”

She stood sideways, her right arm hanging without sensation. The Bamboo Flute Sword was grasped in her hand, yet it bore no trace of what had happened.

It was like a dream, and once the dream ended, she was back.

She stood on the edge of a cliff, looking down; it was pitch black, bottomless.

“Never come to this wretched place again; it’s too dangerous!” Coal Ball was still traumatized. If Xiao Yu hadn’t saved him at the critical moment, he would have been lost!

“Yan Qing is not here.”

Xiao Yu hadn’t seen anyone when she emerged.

Yan Qing had brought her here using a teleportation spell, so she didn’t know the way back.

Just then, the Bamboo Flute Sword twitched. Xiao Yu looked down at it, and just as she was about to question it, she suddenly realized a shadow was cast on the ground in her line of sight.

The Bamboo Flute Sword fragmented and adhered to her waist.

Xiao Yu lowered her head, her vision gradually blurring.

She bit her lip, all the suppressed emotions erupting.

The moment she looked up and saw the familiar person, her eyes instantly welled up.

“Why did you take so long to come?”