Tracing the Light - Chapter 1

Xuanli, the Demon Lord, went on a slaughtering rampage. He did not spare even my clan of fox immortals.

Every spirit fox in the clan had been captured. I escaped only because I had gone out to gather medicinal herbs.

To rescue them, I swallowed an immortal pill to strengthen my spiritual power.

But its power was richer and more potent than I had expected. Drowsiness overcame me, and I reverted to my fox form, curled up in a cave, and fell into a deep sleep while I absorbed it.

The Demon Lord happened to pass the cave. Mistaking me for an injured wild fox, he tucked me into his robes and carried me away.

I was sleeping too deeply to know any of this.

When I finally woke, I gave a lazy yawn.

A broad hand was stroking my back, again and again. It felt wonderful.

I narrowed my eyes in contentment, burrowed farther into the arms holding me, and went back to sleep.

A piercing scream suddenly rang in my ears. A heavy stench of blood flooded my nose, jolting me awake.

I turned toward the sound. A yao was bound in chains made to subdue its kind, engulfed in pale blue flames.

The man holding me said to it, “You’ve frightened my pet. How should I punish you?”

His tone was light. His hand delivered a merciless killing blow.

The yao turned to ash in an instant, leaving only a pale gold inner core.

What a horrible death. My fur stood on end.

He soothed me with a gentle stroke. “So you do know how to be afraid.”

Wait. He was stroking my fur?

I looked down in horror. I had reverted to my original form!

Before I could recover from the shock, he lifted me up until our eyes met.

His eyes were blood red. He had to be either a demon or a yao.

“Why so frightened? Have you developed intelligence? That would be a pity. If you cultivate an immortal form, you’ll have to die, you know.”

He smiled, but the smile never reached his eyes.

There was a coldness in him that only someone who had waded through heaps of corpses could possess.

My fur bristled.

I hastily adopted the noble strategy of doing absolutely nothing. I yawned, rubbed against him, and closed my eyes to sleep.

One of my strengths is self-hypnosis. Whatever predicament I’m in, I can fall asleep in a second.

He clicked his tongue. “Just a stupid little fox, then.”

The Demon Lord never allowed attendants into his sleeping quarters.

The entire hall was silent and deserted. The only sounds were the ones I made as I moved about.

In his own rooms, he grew languid. His inky hair hung loose, softening the murderous chill he wore by day and lending him a seductive air.

Usually, he barely glanced at people, contempt lingering at the corners of his brows.

Now, sitting alone beneath a lamp and reading scrolls, his beautiful eyes were clear and emotionless. The cold solitude of someone accustomed to being utterly alone clung to him.

Seeing me stretched on his desk and watching him, he reached out a long arm and lifted me into his embrace.

He often liked to hold me while he went about killing yao.

The cultivation sects had placed an Ice Curse on him. Whenever he used his spiritual power, his body became as cold as if he had been sealed inside an ice coffin.

The arts I practiced carried the element of fire. Holding me against his chest dispelled about seven tenths of that cold.

Later, for some reason, he began scooping me into his arms even when the curse had not flared up.

At first, I had been full of suspicion. Then that great hand kept stroking my fur until I quite forgot to be hostile.

People said that when the Demon Lord had still been a weak half-yao, the cultivation sects had tried to kill him, and the yao themselves had bullied him endlessly.

He killed yao partly for revenge and partly to refine them into pills, absorbing their power to resist the Ice Curse.

He hated the cultivation sects. I dared not show him the slightest sign of intelligence.

I could only keep pretending to be an ordinary fox whose mind had not yet awakened.

Every day, I lived in terror that I might have a foolish moment and accidentally take human form in front of him.

I was certain I would die a very gruesome death.