The Fox Immortal Who Made Loofah Soup - Chapter 1

My mother died. It might have been yesterday. It might have been the day before.

She died for lack of merit, unable to survive the Five Signs of Celestial Decay.

Even as a medical cultivator, I could do nothing.

Before she died, she stroked my head with her soft fox paw. “Child, go down the mountain. Find a human and ask them to grant you a form.”

“You’re the last celestial fox. Stay alive, even if you have to hurt someone.”

Dragging my failing body along, I went looking for a suitable person, a lone fox stumbling on her way.

This one had too fragile a fate to bear the karmic burden of granting me a form.

That one had so much ambition, such a bright future ahead.

After all that picking and choosing, I thought I might as well give up.

Celestial foxes weren’t meant to live that long anyway.

But when I returned to my cave dwelling, I found a dying woman outside.

My eyes lit up.

She would do!

While she still had a breath left, I hurried to ask, “Do I look like a person to you?”

The woman stared, then murmured, “My divination was right. You really are here.”

“Who cares whether it was right? Hurry up and tell me, do I or don’t I?”

“You look like…”

An immense tide of merit flooded my body. I had never felt so full of strength.

“…someone clamoring to take over looking after Yungui for me.”

Huh?

Even the merit flowing through me froze.

“I only asked you to grant me a form! I’m not some wish-granting machine!”

“Who’s Yungui?”

Golden light blazed around me. When I landed, I was human.

Looking at me, she pointed to the unconscious little boy nearby and gave a satisfied smile.

“Utterly depraved… he… refined into… a poison vessel… destroy the world…”

Then she departed this life.

I had no words.

That sounded like trouble.

Yungui or whoever he was, I was getting out of here first.

Whoosh. I turned straight back into a fox.

My failing body reminded me I had little time left. I might not open my eyes to see tomorrow.

“All right, all right! You rotten heavens, I’ll do it!”

Golden light blazed. I was human again.

The woman was no ordinary person. Judging by the patterns on her robes, she belonged to a major sect.

Mother had told me to steer clear of them. They came in swarms like cockroaches. You could never finish killing them off, and they had life tablets that let them come back to life.

Her body soon rotted into a puddle.

That was what death by poison looked like.

I looked at the child in the grass she had called Yungui.

Poisonous vapor wreathed his body. He looked eight or nine, and the way he looked at me was rather pitiful.

I’d heard that people in Miaojiang liked raising human poison vessels, soaking them in all kinds of poison from early childhood. Presumably he was one of them.

The woman had probably meant for me to raise him.

Sighing, I crouched down and asked him,

“Child, you’re all alone too. Why don’t you live with me from now on?”

I held out my hand. He gave me an innocent look.

Then he bit it.

Purple vapor instantly crept up my arm toward my heart.

I forgot to mention something.

My name is Hu Qingjiu.

The last celestial fox.

As long as I have merit, I’m the strongest medical cultivator in the world.

A flash of gold, and every trace of poison vanished.

Yungui’s eyes filled with disbelief.

“Why are you fine?!”

My gaze must have been positively tender.

“Who says I’m fine? I feel a little dizzy. Is that your poison? It’s very impressive.”

Yungui looked at me as though I were ill in the head.

“That’s top-grade Myriad Slumbers! It can put someone to sleep for ten days, and you’re only a little dizzy? What kind of monster are you?”

I demurred bashfully. “Oh, I’m not as impressive as all that.”

Then I took the chance to get closer to him. “Want to learn something stronger?”

He backed away warily. “What do you mean?”

“I mean your poison isn’t pure enough. I have something better.”

He didn’t believe me.

But I was determined to show him the Celestial Fox Sect’s ultimate technique.

The sect had just been founded. It had two members.

I was the sect leader, and Yungui was my first disciple.

Our sect consisted of the two of us and one valuable cauldron.

I sat in front of the cauldron, steadily adding ingredients.

Six-eyed frogs, three-legged crows…

Yungui took two wary steps back. “Master, I’ll go get us something to eat.”

Without looking up, I waved a hand. “Bring me a roast chicken.”

Perhaps it was a long way. It was late when Yungui returned.

Holding a still-warm roast chicken, he hesitated in the doorway for a long time before pushing the door open.

The great pot of medicine was bubbling away, thick green bubbles rising to the surface.

I turned to Yungui. “My good disciple, why are you back so late?”

He swallowed with an audible, labored gulp.

“Master, I’ve come back… to drink the medicine.”

We looked at each other. For a moment, I was confused.

Drink the medicine? Him?