The Little Fox Spirit Doesn't Want to Carry a Cub - Chapter 4

Li Ruan truly ended up raising that mortal in the mountain cave.

Early in the morning, an agile figure darted through the woods. Li Ruan leaped from a branch, used his tail to forcefully sweep a fruit-laden bough, and then landed steadily on the ground.

Fruits fell scattered all over the place.

A silk cloth was spread on the ground, and Li Ruan lowered his head to pick up the fruits one by one with his mouth, placing them into the fabric.

This cloth had been pulled off the mortal. The indigo material was embroidered with cloud patterns; if an expert were present, they would surely recognize it as a treasure offered as tribute to the imperial family from the Western Regions last year—there were hardly a few bolts of it to be found in the entire capital.

But now, this item could only be torn up and used as a bundle for Li Ruan to carry fruit.

Once the fruit was packed, Li Ruan grasped two ends of the fabric, intending to tie the bundle.

This action would be effortless in human form, but with fox paws, it was not so easy. He struggled for a long time; every time he caught one end, the other would slip away, and he simply couldn’t tie a knot properly.

Li Ruan fumbled clumsily for a while. Not only did he fail to tie it, but he also made himself a bit angry.

He sat down on his haunches and bit into a fruit resentfully.

Although Li Ruan didn’t particularly like mortals, he had to admit that being a human was much more convenient than being a fox.

Being a fox was truly troublesome.

“Li Ruan, what are you doing?”

A shrill birdsong came from above. Li Ruan was familiar with this voice and looked back. A titmouse was perched on a branch, its beady black eyes watching him.

“Why are you still here?” Li Ruan asked it.

Winter in Mount Changming was very cold. Most of the scarce food in the mountains was occupied by powerful animals and demons; weak birds could only fly south for the winter. Although the titmouse before him had gained spiritual awareness, it still followed the flock’s migration.

“I’m not leaving this year.” The titmouse hopped twice on the branch, its tail feathers cocked, speaking in a cheerful tone.

Li Ruan only gave an “oh” in response. After finishing his fruit, he continued to fiddle with his small bundle.

The titmouse landed beside him: “Aren’t you going to ask me why I’m not leaving?”

Li Ruan looked up in confusion: “That’s your business. Why should I ask?”

“You…” The titmouse’s eyes widened, looking quite hurt. It took a deep breath and ruffled its feathers, “Forget it, you’re a silly fox, I won’t hold it against you.”

Li Ruan didn’t quite like people calling him silly, but he only swished his tail and said nothing.

This titmouse had gained spiritual awareness twenty years ago by a stroke of luck, and that was when Li Ruan met it.

Because Li Ruan could summon Heavenly Thunder, the spirits and animals in the mountain either feared him or disliked him. Having lived on Mount Changming for three hundred years, few small animals usually dared to approach him.

Only this titmouse did.

Even though it chattered noisily every time it came, at least there was someone to speak with him.

Speaking of which, this titmouse always called him silly, yet clearly, it was the silliest one.

Twenty years had passed, and its cultivation hadn’t progressed at all; it could still only understand human speech but couldn’t speak in a human tongue.

It was far inferior to him.

Thinking this, Li Ruan felt slightly happier.

He continued to try and tie the knot by grabbing both ends of the bundle. After watching for a bit, the titmouse stepped forward to help him hold down a corner of the fabric that was about to slip. With the bird’s help, Li Ruan finally tied the small bundle.

He shared a few fruits with the titmouse as payment, hung the bundle around his neck, and turned to run back.

The titmouse pecked at the fruit happily before remembering it had come to tell Li Ruan something important. Looking back, Li Ruan had already skipped quite a distance away, so it quickly flapped its wings to catch up.

“Li Ruan, Li Ruan, wait for me!” the titmouse called out. “Why are you running so fast?”

Li Ruan ignored it and did not stop.

After all, he was no ordinary fox. Even at full speed, it was difficult for the titmouse to keep up. It wasn’t until they were almost at the entrance of his cave dwelling that Li Ruan finally halted.

The titmouse likely hadn’t expected Li Ruan to stop so suddenly; it couldn’t brake in time, tumbled several times on the grass, and smacked itself against a withered tree stump.

Li Ruan: “…”

Li Ruan asked: “Why have you been following me?”

The titmouse slid to the ground, its beautiful feathers becoming a mess, with a stray piece of grass stuck to its head.

Its two small claws trembled, and its voice was very aggrieved: “I… I have something to tell you.”

Li Ruan didn’t answer right away. Instead, he turned his head toward his cave dwelling behind him.

Before he was beaten back to his original form, he had been focused solely on cultivation and had neglected the upkeep of his cave, allowing weeds and vines to grow all over the outside. The overgrown vines blocked the entrance tightly; it was quiet, and no sound could be heard.

Li Ruan was in a hurry to return, naturally, to feed the mortal he was keeping in his cave.

Four or five days had passed since that mortal moved into his dwelling.

A mortal’s recovery ability was inferior to a demon’s; several days had gone by, and he still found it difficult even to stand or walk. Li Ruan knew this couldn’t be rushed and could only serve him well with food and drink every day.

He had already waited half a month; he wasn’t in a hurry for these few days.

He hadn’t intended to deal with the titmouse for so long, but the bird had been chattering and calling him while chasing, as if it wanted the whole world to hear.

When Li Ruan left in the morning, the mortal was still asleep. He didn’t know if the man was awake yet; it would be troublesome if he were woken up.

A sick person needs to sleep and rest more; they shouldn’t be disturbed.

Seeing that there was no noise from the cave, Li Ruan felt more at ease and said, “Whatever it is, speak.”

Titmouse: “I saw people on the other side of the mountain—lots of people!”

Jiang Shen had actually woken up very early.

He was a light sleeper to begin with, and being in such a strange place, he was startled awake almost as soon as the little fox got up in the morning.

He didn’t stay idle after waking.

Jiang Shen first changed his own bandages and then performed a simple wash with fresh water.

—The little fox was truly quite capable. Knowing it was inconvenient to hold water in the cave, it had found several thick tree stumps, carved out hollows, and made some simple wooden buckets to fetch water for him every day.

The medicinal herbs the little fox found were also very effective. Those superficial scrapes were healing very quickly; in places where the injuries were light, the scars were already barely visible. This was because Mount Changming was rich in spiritual energy, and the trees and flowers all carried a trace of it, making their efficacy far superior to ordinary medicinal herbs in the mortal world.

Internal injuries were not so easy.

He had broken his leg falling down the cliff; with injuries to the bone and tendons, it would be hard to fully recover within two or three months.

Jiang Shen looked at his right leg, which was simply stabilized with branches and vines, and sighed softly.

At this rate, he didn’t know when he would be able to walk out of Mount Changming.

There were still leftover branches from the bundle the little fox had brought last time. Jiang Shen picked a sturdy one to use as a makeshift crutch. Bracing himself on the branch with both hands and using his uninjured leg for leverage, he slowly stood up.

What was once a simple action was now incredibly taxing. Jiang Shen’s brow furrowed, and his lips turned faintly pale.

One shouldn’t move around recklessly after a severe injury, but if he truly lay there for ten days or a half-month without doing anything, even if he recovered later, he would likely be physically ruined. Jiang Shen had heavy responsibilities and could not allow that to happen. He had been lying down for several days and needed to try getting up to move around.

Of course, while moving was necessary, he couldn’t be reckless either.

He had seen too many soldiers at the border who never returned to their former state because they hadn’t recuperated properly after an injury.

That was also not what he wanted.

Using the crutch for support, Jiang Shen first slightly moved his injured areas before starting to walk slowly.

He walked very slowly, resting after every step. The cave wasn’t large, but it took Jiang Shen a long time to walk from the inner area to the large rock near the entrance.

He sat down on the rock.

On the day he woke up, the little fox had been hiding behind this very rock. Unfortunately, it hadn’t hidden its tail well, and he had seen it at a glance.

Silly little thing.

Thinking of that little fellow, the corners of Jiang Shen’s pale lips curled slightly. Thanks to the little one finding food and herbs for him these past few days, he had reclaimed his life.

It seemed that the rumors among the common folk—that demons were mostly monstrous beings that lived by absorbing human essence—were merely generalizations and not the truth.

In this world, there were also kind-hearted demons like the little fox.

Jiang Shen had rested enough and was about to stand up when he suddenly heard human voices from outside the cave.

The voices were faint, and the content wasn’t clear.

But they felt strangely familiar.

Jiang Shen’s brow gradually furrowed.

“Are you saying there are many corpses on the other side of the mountain?” Li Ruan pricked up his ears in surprise and then lowered his voice. “No survivors?”

“None.” The titmouse shook its head. “Those people must have been there for several days. It’s just that it snowed a few days ago, and the snow covered them all. It was only because the snow melted today that I found them.”

Li Ruan gave an “oh.”

His ears drooped.

Initially, hearing the titmouse say other mortals had appeared in the mountains had made Li Ruan somewhat happy.

Ultimately, he simply needed a mortal to serve as a furnace for cultivation. He didn’t know how long the one in the cave would need to recover before he could be used; if some new ones could arrive at this time, it would be for the best.

What a pity they were all dead.

“But this is a good thing.” The titmouse hopped onto the tree stump and patted Li Ruan’s shoulder with the tip of its wing, comforting him. “There hasn’t been a trace of mortals in Mount Changming for many years. Now it at least proves that people have entered the mountains recently. You’ll definitely find a living one later.”

“A living one…”

Li Ruan turned his head to look toward the cave dwelling again.

The titmouse followed his gaze and then looked at the small bundle around Li Ruan’s neck, finally realizing: “You’ve already caught a mortal?!”

“I didn’t catch him,” Li Ruan said. “He fell outside my dwelling on his own.”

“No wonder you haven’t gone to wait by the mountain path these past few days. So…” The titmouse blinked and looked up at the sky. “So that’s what it means to ‘wait for a gift from heaven.’ People really do fall from the sky.”

Li Ruan held his small bundle and didn’t respond.

“Then why are you still unhappy?” the titmouse asked him. “Is that mortal unwilling to dual cultivate with you?”

“He doesn’t know yet that I kept him for dual cultivation.” Mentioning this made Li Ruan feel rather anxious. “And besides, he’s heavily injured. That… I’m afraid it won’t work.”

Titmouse: “That is indeed quite worrying.”

The two little creatures, one large and one small, crouched together and sighed in unison.

“Oh right, I also found this.”

The titmouse suddenly remembered something. It lowered its head and rummaged through the thickest feathers under its wing for a moment, pulling out a thin little iron plate.

The iron plate was only about the size of an adult’s thumb, very thin and light. It was engraved with a pattern they didn’t understand, and a red string was tied to one end.

The titmouse placed the iron plate in front of Li Ruan: “I was afraid you wouldn’t believe me, so I pulled this off one of their necks. But…”

It seemed extremely happy, its tail feathers cocked high: “You didn’t doubt me at all.”

Li Ruan didn’t quite understand why the titmouse was so happy.

“Because it’s impossible for you to lie to me,” Li Ruan said. “If you wanted to lie to me, you should have said you found many living people on the other side of the mountain, not corpses.”

A pile of corpses couldn’t possibly pique his interest, so there was no possibility of being tricked.

Li Ruan explained very seriously, but the titmouse clearly didn’t care about the answer. It hopped in two circles in front of Li Ruan with its tail feathers cocked happily and even chirped a song.

Li Ruan really didn’t understand birds as a species.

But this titmouse had only had its spiritual awareness for twenty-odd years. According to a demon’s age, twenty-something was still a very, very small child.

There was no need to argue with it.

Li Ruan ignored it and lowered his head to poke at the iron plate in front of him with his paw.

“What is this thing anyway…”

“I know what that is.”

A deep voice suddenly sounded from behind them. Li Ruan was so startled that his tail fur puffed out, and the titmouse was also frightened, zooming up into a tree instantly.

A branch extended from the cave, pulling back the vines that blocked the entrance.

Jiang Shen looked at the fluffy ball that was now a full size larger than usual because its fur had puffed out. He pressed his brow: “May I have a look at it?”