The Fox Immortal Who Made Loofah Soup - Chapter 6

Once Yungui had calmed down considerably, I brought out a pair of gloves.

“Here. I made these especially for you. Now you won’t have to worry about poisoning people unconscious whenever you touch them.”

Yungui’s eyes widened. He examined the gloves over and over in wonder before finally putting them on.

“Really?”

I took his hand outright. He tried to draw back on instinct, but couldn’t pull free.

This time, nothing happened.

No purple vapor spread. No golden light flashed.

It was as if two utterly ordinary mortals had taken each other’s hands and shared their warmth.

Yungui’s eyes widened further.

“Well? Time to worship your magnificent master! These gloves took an enormous amount of—”

My voice cut off.

Yungui held my hand gently, then squeezed hard, as if to make sure.

His tears fell too.

“Thank you… Thank you, Master.”

Mistress Song approached with graceful poise, a dangling gold hair ornament in place. At the sight of Yungui’s gloves, she was delighted. She promptly left her husband behind and took one of Yungui’s hands while I held the other.

Like an ordinary family of three, we enjoyed the festival.

Her husband called, “Wife, hold my hand with your other one! Hold mine!”

“There’s still some of that loofah soup in the room. Let’s have more tonight.”

Mistress Song quickened her pace, her face bright red, and hastily changed the subject.

“Look, there’s someone begging even here on the island. And a child at that! He must be starving.”

She hurried over to the beggar.

“Little one, you look terribly hungry. Would you like to come to my house and have something to eat?”

“I can make anything you want.”

The beggar raised his head and revealed a chilling smile.

“Thank you. There’s only one thing I want to eat right now.”

He suddenly clamped onto Mistress Song’s arm.

“People.”

Poisonous vapor burst out in every direction.

The island

had been invaded by Miao poison.

In just half a day,

the once prosperous, peaceful island became a land of poisonous miasma.

I covered the docks with merit. Yungui charged into the miasma, working desperately to bring people back.

Treat them. Isolate them. Send them off the island.

I did it over and over.

When Mistress Song left, great tears rolled down her face.

To protect her, her husband had knocked the beggar’s hand away at the last moment, exposing himself directly to the poison. Large patches of his body had been eaten away. He was in too much pain to speak.

But they were the lucky ones.

Big Yellow outside the inn, the old shadow-puppeteer, the woman who smiled as she gave Yungui the sugar paintings she’d made badly…

When the last living person boarded the boat taking them away from home, we looked back at the island. Poisonous insects, snakes, and rats were everywhere now.

“Master, let’s go.”

Yungui’s eyes were red.

“I’m going to kill him.”

“That Miao man.”

But we couldn’t beat him.

In theory, a celestial fox who cultivated human form should possess supreme merit, able to kill anyone in her path, human or Buddha alike.

But I had gained my form by asking for it. That girl was probably from the Tianji Sect: able to prophesy, with a body full of merit but no cultivation to speak of.

The two of us hurried to the Tianji Sect, where their leader received me.

“A few years ago, my junior sister did predict this. A poison cultivator loses someone important to him and decides to destroy the world. He soaks his own body in vast quantities of poison, ultimately taking the world down with him.”

Yungui’s little face radiated righteousness. “An evil cultivator like that shouldn’t exist! There are so many beautiful things in this world. How could anyone destroy them out of selfishness?”

He delivered his verdict.

“Far too selfish.”

The sect leader was silent for a moment.

Then he asked delicately,

“Isn’t this child’s sense of justice perhaps a little excessive?”

“No, he’s a very good boy. You’re worrying too much. I brought you a local specialty: loofah soup. Have a taste.”

Then the sect leader withdrew into himself.

I knew this state quite well. He should come around in about two hours.

Two hours, four hours… twelve hours.

He was shut away in there for quite a while.

Until someone came in, saw him, and exclaimed in shock,

“The sect leader has attained enlightenment!”

A crowd of Tianji disciples gathered at the door, watching him as if he were a performing monkey.

“Our leader truly is gifted, attaining enlightenment at his age!”

“Exactly! The last time was ten years ago. It was because of that enlightenment that he went down the mountain and brought our newly born junior martial aunt into the sect.”

“But are we sure he didn’t have outside help? He said himself that he was destined never to comprehend the Great Dao in this life.”

Every gaze turned to the loofah soup on the table.

I scratched my head.

“You all look a little overheated. Would anyone like some loofah soup?”

Then the reception room was filled with Tianji disciples meditating in enlightenment.

Some were even mumbling indistinctly about the supreme Dao.

It looked exactly like some gathering of evil cultivators.

I, on the other hand, was delighted.

“See? Your master’s loofah soup does have its uses.”

Yungui was very calm.

“Master, they’ve all gone into meditation. How are we going to eat?”

Oh, right.

I forgot to mention.

The Tianji Sect stood atop a mountain roughly eleven thousand feet high.

Even with merit helping us, the climb had taken three days.

And their storehouse had a protective barrier. Only members of the Tianji Sect could enter.

…

We went into wilderness-survival mode.

Mountain delicacies, wild greens, rare and exotic beasts.

If it was edible, we tried to stuff it into our mouths.

When the sect leader came over, we were laying waste to the mountain’s cranes.

He rushed up excitedly, casually tore off a crane wing, and put it to his mouth.

“I’ve seen it! I’ve seen it! I know how to deal with that poison cultivator.”

“Take Yungui to Hundred Medicines Valley and cleanse the poison in his body into medicinal power. Then you’ll have a fifty-fifty chance of defeating that poison cultivator.”

“What an enormous wing, by the way. Do we have chickens this big on our mountain? Tastes rather good too.”

“And why does the mountain seem so much barer?”

“Where’s the crane I paid two taels of gold for?”

Yungui honestly pointed to the wing in his hand.

“You were just saying how good it tasted.”