The Fox Spirit I Raised at Home - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

For the next few months, I didn’t catch so much as a glimpse of a single fox hair. What did keep piling up, though, were all those books about gods, spirits, and strange tales by my bedside.

By the time the first snow fell, there was even less game in the mountains, and heading in during a snowstorm had become dangerous too.

I counted up my savings for the year. It was enough for me to spend freely all winter long.

There was also the jade pendant Chi Jiuling had left behind. Strange patterns I couldn’t understand were carved into it, and it felt smooth and warm in my hand.

I’d always kept it carefully, but since I’d already decided to forget him, there was no point keeping it around to annoy me.

I got up at dawn and went into town to pawn the jade pendant.

My heart felt heavy, and the snow gradually started coming down harder.

…I should go get some mutton soup. There was a mutton soup shop in town that was nice and warm.

The broth bubbled in a huge pot, steam curling thickly through the air. Across the street, some soldiers were posting a notice.

My eyesight had gotten better lately. Even from ten meters away, I could still make out the writing.

Oh. The barbarians were harassing the border again, and the imperial court was recruiting soldiers.

I shrugged and sat there waiting for my mutton soup.

For some reason, I had the distinct feeling someone was watching me.

I looked over and saw a general in armor nod at me before walking my way.

“Miss… did you hunt that bear yourself?”

I had no idea what he wanted, but I nodded anyway.

Just then, my mutton soup was served. He ordered a bowl too and sat down across from me.

I bit into a meat pastry and washed it down with soup. There was also a plate of sliced mutton in front of me, and I tore into everything like a whirlwind. Before long, I was sweating lightly.

I took off my bearskin coat, rolled up my sleeves, picked up a mouthful of mutton noodles with my chopsticks, and went right back to eating without even lifting my head.

Then came a sharp whistle through the air.

I caught the weapon coming at me with one hand and instantly lashed out with a kick at him.

He dodged. I hurled the weapon right back along the path it had come from, and a scream rang out.

A flicker of surprise crossed his face. He steadied himself and cupped his hands. “Miss, please don’t take offense. I was only testing you a little.”

“Testing your father’s balls!”

I had a bellyful of frustration with nowhere to vent it, and now someone had come knocking.

I closed in and threw a punch. Seeing that he knew martial arts, I didn’t hold back in the slightest.

He scrambled to block, but I still sent him flying with one punch.

“General!!”

A squad of soldiers surrounded me with sabers and swords in hand.

Oh? Planning to gang up on me?

By the time Shen Gu came hurrying over, I was already sitting on top of a small mountain made of stacked bodies, bored out of my mind, calmly munching on a pastry.

Every so often, a pained groan would come from under me. Every one of them had a black eye. “Hero… no, Heroine, we failed to recognize Mount Tai. Please, just spare us.”

Shen Gu kept wiping sweat from his brow as he tried again and again to smooth things over, and only then did I hop down from my human pile.

The general at the very bottom had been crushed until his face was red. “Thank you, Miss, for not holding it against us.”

After a fight, I felt much more open-hearted. “So what do you people actually want with me? If you’ve got something to say, say it. I hate beating around the bush.”

With Shen Gu mediating in the middle, I finally understood what they were after: they actually wanted to persuade me to join the army.

But I was a woman. There would be all kinds of inconveniences in the military. Even if I was born with freakish strength, that shouldn’t be enough to earn special treatment.

But the army seemed desperately short on people. He clung to me shamelessly, going on and on about generous pay one moment and serving the country with absolute loyalty the next.

Then he started playing the sympathy card about the common people living on the border. Shen Gu was so moved he repeatedly volunteered himself as a military adviser, only to be pressed back down each time by General Li Kun.

Seeing Shen Gu burning with righteous zeal, I smiled. “Fine. Take him with us too.”

On the road to the border, Shen Gu held a stack of military texts in his arms. Every so often, he would play mock battles with General Li Kun using bits of wood and stone.

Pebbles stood in for soldiers, withered leaves for camps. They wrote and sketched over a crude map, trading moves back and forth.

At first, he always lost. Gradually, though, he started holding his own.

As I watched from the side, I pointed at one spot. “Isn’t this route obviously shorter? Why not go this way?”

Li Kun sighed. “There’s a cliff here. It’s too steep to climb. No one can get up it.”

Later, with a rope tied around my waist, I climbed that supposedly unclimbable cliff by sheer force.

After reaching the top, I lowered the rope. A unit of light cavalry climbed up in silence, then struck like divine soldiers descending from the heavens, driving straight into the enemy’s heartland.

The surprise attack by this extraordinary force was a huge success.

Later still, everyone in the tent was gathered around the sand table, arguing so fiercely they were practically spitting all over it. After listening for a while, I realized it all came down to a single city gate.

This city had originally been a border city of the Chen Kingdom, built to be impregnable. The Xiongnu had disguised themselves as traders to slip inside, then seized the city through cooperation from within and without.

What they did wasn’t exactly honorable, so why should I bother talking about honor?

Late that night, I led a squad in stealth to the base of the wall. I hefted the grappling hook in my hand. Heavy enough. I could throw it high.

Looking up at the thirty-meter-high city wall, I flicked my wrist. The grappling hook and rope spun into a shield-like circle, and with a deft snap, I sent the hook soaring high, straight over the wall.

“It’s caught. Move.”

The soldiers looked at me with blazing fervor in their eyes as they followed me up the wall.

And then… before the patrolling soldiers could make a sound, I snapped their necks.

With bows or blades, we struck from the shadows all the way through, until at last we opened the city gate and the main army surged in behind us.

That night, countless Xiongnu died in their sleep, though some scattered survivors still escaped into the grasslands.

“Don’t chase a cornered enemy. We don’t know the grasslands well enough-we won’t catch them.”

Because of that battle, I was made a general.

Then came twenty years of war: marching north against the royal court, east against rebels, west against vassal states, south to pacify the barbarians.

My military achievements piled up higher and higher, until at last I was named marshal.

At the investiture banquet in the capital, the Imperial Preceptor raised his cup in celebration. “Marshal Meng has fought for the nation for twenty years. Now the people have submitted and all under heaven is united in heart. This foremost merit belongs to you.”

I recited the speech I had memorized long ago, put on a modest act for a while, and made sure to thank all my brothers-in-arms and His Majesty too. I laid the flattery on perfectly.

The emperor was delighted. He kept stroking his white beard, and finally declared the banquet open.

The wine flowed freely, and the soldiers relaxed. I was just trying to fill my stomach when the Imperial Preceptor actually walked over.

I found the old man somewhat unpleasant. I couldn’t say why, exactly, but I simply didn’t want anything to do with him.

“You are already forty-two, Marshal? One truly can’t tell.”

Strange as it was, I had hardly changed at all in these twenty years. Even when I was injured, the wounds healed quickly, without leaving so much as a scar.

“I’ve heard your hearing and sight are astonishing-that you can shoot a copper coin through from a hundred meters away with a single arrow.”

“I’ve heard your strength is boundless-that you once withstood the trampling of a giant elephant head-on without harm.”

The smile slowly faded from my face. “If you have something to say, Imperial Preceptor, then say it plainly.”

Still smiling, he went on, “Your injuries heal with remarkable speed as well. Did you consume some heavenly treasure in your youth? Encounter some immortal fate?”

I shot to my feet. “What exactly are you implying?”

“Nothing much. I merely wish to take a bowl of your blood and use it in a pill for the Sage.”

“Absurd!”

At my sharp shout, Shen Gu lurched to his feet as well, then swayed and braced himself against the table. “No… that’s not right… Sister Meng, run. There’s something in the wine.”

He collapsed limply to the floor. The other officers and soldiers tried to resist too, but barely any of them could even stand straight.

So this banquet had never been a banquet at all.

I was the main course.

“Marshal, run!”

“Don’t worry about us-just go!”

I clenched my fist and threw a punch at that demon-taoist, only for some invisible barrier to block it.

The Imperial Guards closed in. I swept my eyes around, saw the situation turning bad, and fled at once.

No weapons were allowed in an audience with the emperor. Barehanded, I fought off their blades, snatched a few weapons for myself, and carved my way out of the encirclement in one breath.

But the imperial palace was a twisting maze of turns and corridors, so I had no choice but to leap onto the city wall to find a way out.

Arrows shot toward me, and I dodged them with a quick sidestep.

I ran for who knew how long before I finally found the stables. Yet even once I got on horseback, obstacles awaited me at every turn. At every gate, someone tried to stop me.

Covered in blood from head to toe, I burst out of the capital-only to find an ambush waiting in the outskirts.

After that demon-taoist had been established as Imperial Preceptor, he had taken in disciples far and wide. Without my ever noticing, he had gathered this many followers. Their gray daoist robes stretched in a dark mass as far as the eye could see.

“Marshal Meng, surrender without resistance. This flesh and blood of yours was meant to nourish my Great Dao.”

Nourish your father’s balls. If I had to die, then I’d die in battle.

“I am Meng Wan. Anyone who stands in my way dies!”

They were afraid-anyone could see that-but not one of them stepped back.

Words were useless now. Gripping my spear, I plunged straight into the crowd.

Back when bandits entered the village, I had once torn a man’s arm off with a single yank. Flesh and blood had sprayed everywhere.

Dozens had come. Not one left the village alive.

The village chief had condemned me as bloodthirsty.

Looking at it now, perhaps I had simply been born to kill.

The spear tip gradually dulled, so I switched to weapons snatched from my enemies. Blades curled, swords snapped, and after I killed countless people, still none of them would retreat.

“Kill Meng Wan, and gain eternal life!” At the demon-taoist’s call, the crowd answered as one. Mad-eyed and frenzied, they surged forward wave after wave, brandishing swords and knives.

So that was the promise he’d made.

Eternal life.

For a single lie, every last one of them wanted me dead.

Fine.

Then I’d kill to my heart’s content.

In the battle outside the capital, blood flowed like a river. My vision turned red. My arms were so tired I could barely lift them, and yet I still refused to let go of the broken sword in my hand.

At last, they learned fear. They shrank back, not daring to come any closer.

“Loose arrows.”

A rain of arrows filled the sky. My feet could no longer move forward. I stood there quietly and let countless arrows riddle my body.

“Hahahahaha! Blood of immortality!”

The demon-taoist came rushing over in utter haste, crazed beyond reason.

A little closer…

The moment he came within ten meters, I hurled the broken sword in my hand with all my strength. The strange barrier shattered under the force. The hilt slammed straight into his face, and he was still staring with ecstatic eyes when all at once his strength gave out and he dropped to his knees.

Something shattered like jade, and two streaks of white light fell from his sleeve.

Jade pendants… why did they look so familiar…?

With great difficulty, I crawled toward them and gripped the broken jade in my hand. On the verge of death, I recovered an old belonging.

That counted as a kind of completion.

My will could hold no longer, and I finally blacked out.

After this, they’d probably dismember me…

Whatever.