The Fox Immortal Who Made Loofah Soup - Chapter 9

If I’d known, I would have asked what they planned to call me in the Tianji Sect first.

While we were away, they had even chosen a peak for me and ordered the plaque for my gate.

It would have been better if it hadn’t said “Loofah Soup Elder.”

The sect leader told me earnestly, “All you have to do is brew a bowl of loofah soup for everyone each month.”

I refused.

What did he take me for? A fox who’d agree to just anything?

I cautiously brewed a pot.

That day, my merit shot up and up.

Heh heh. How about a bowl of loofah soup every day?

Unfortunately, sect disciples still needed to eat. They couldn’t stay in meditation forever.

Such a pity.

Elder Miaoyin came back to life.

The girl who had granted me my form.

She came back very suddenly. Yungui and I had just returned from treating people down the mountain.

The moment I opened the door, she rushed at me.

“Have you killed Yungui? I died too quickly to tell you: he’s going to become the most evil poison cultivator of all. After the death of another poison vessel, A-Tao, he devours the Gu King and ultimately becomes the embodiment of every poison in the world.”

“Is he still alive? Why is the whole sect so quiet? No one answers when I knock. Have they all been poisoned?”

Killed?

Yungui?

How did those words belong in the same sentence?

Just then, Yungui was pushing his herbal-medicine cart, calling out,

“Sour plum drinks for summer, heartwarming brews for winter! Anyone want some? My dear customer, why all this talk of killing the moment you open your mouth? You seem a little overheated. How about a bowl of loofah soup?”

Miaoyin covered her eyes.

“What is this? How can there be such blinding merit?”

I took the opportunity to pour loofah soup into her mouth.

The world went quiet.

Another helping of merit acquired. Yay!

After leaving the sect enough loofah soup for half a year—the magically preserved version—Yungui and I went down the mountain to practice medicine.

I still preferred traveling around treating people and hearing human voices.

Certainly not because the roast chickens below the mountain came in so many flavors, or because I was tired of eating roast crane every day.

The poisonous vapor on the island had all dispersed. Mistress Song’s husband had mostly recovered too.

She was delighted to see me. “It’s not as if we’re short of money. It’s good to have him spend more time at home with me now.”

Her husband pulled Yungui aside. “Young sir, do you have any more of that loofah with the special effects?”

Hearing him, Mistress Song went very red. “You wretch! In the state your body’s in, you’re still thinking about that?!”

“Well, I’m disfigured now. What if you lose interest? I have to keep you with my body, don’t I?”

Quite unexpectedly, we met Daniu on the island.

He had grown a good deal. He said he’d come away to ease his family’s burdens.

“Thank you for treating my ma back then, Immortal. Now I want to read more books and learn more things to take back to the village.”

Then he bowed deeply to Yungui.

“Immortal, I was young and ignorant then. I’m very sorry.”

Yungui spoke with a gravity beyond his years. “You must work hard from now on.”

“Yes, Immortal!”

Just as we were about to leave the island, Yungui seemed to sense something and ran back to Mistress Song’s shop.

She and her husband were bickering when she suddenly retched.

Her husband froze, then hurried to support her. “Wife, what’s wrong? Could you be pregnant?”

Mistress Song blushed. “Immortal Hu took my pulse. It’s a pregnancy pulse.”

Overjoyed, her husband lifted her and spun her around several times.

“Wife, what would you like to name the baby?”

A new tree was growing in the withered courtyard.

It was a peach tree. Though it had only been growing for a month or so, it was covered in blossoms.

Mistress Song answered in earnest.

“A-Tao. Let’s call her A-Tao.”