Song Ciwan's hand sprang back from the Fox Demon. She glanced around, a chilling sensation creeping into her heart.
It wasn't just her. At the exact moment she had touched the Fox Demon, the other menial workers in the Grass Washing Room had begun to handle the Demon Corpses assigned to them.
One of the workers had been assigned a pitch-black Leaking Pot. It was only about the size of two palms, its dark body covered in deep purple, vein-like markings. The sight alone was eerie and horrifying.
The worker cupped the Leaking Pot in both hands and submerged it in the cleansing solution. The next moment, his feet suddenly slipped, and for reasons unknown, he lunged forward.
"Ah!" screamed a worker to his right.
With a loud SPLASH, the worker washing the Leaking Pot plunged headfirst into the water vat before him!
Standing to his left, Song Ciwan watched helplessly as the man's exposed feet suddenly kicked upwards.
Just that one kick, and then the man in the vat went completely still.
"Ah! Ah!" More screams erupted in the Grass Washing Room.
A few workers even dropped to the ground, hugging their heads and crying in terror.
Steward Hu rushed in with his guards. One of them reached into the vat, dragged the man out, and dumped him on the floor with a wet THUD.
"He's dead," Steward Hu said, frowning. "We'll have to hire another one. What a pain. You…"
He pointed at Song Ciwan. It wasn't that she was conspicuous; she was simply the closest.
The time Song Ciwan had spent cultivating A Grain of Sand in the Sea was still too short to even be considered at the Beginner level. At most, it could slightly diminish her presence. Making people completely overlook her under all circumstances was still a distant goal.
Steward Hu ordered Song Ciwan to take over the task of washing that intensely demonic Leaking Pot. Then, the guards carried the dead worker away.
Inside the Grass Washing Room, some were still weeping quietly.
Steward Hu snapped impatiently, "What's there to cry about? If you don't want to do the job, you can leave right now! If you're staying, then get to work. If today's tasks aren't finished, I'll whip you all to death!"
As he spoke, he drew a whip from his waist and brought it down on the floor with a loud CRACK.
That single strike split the stone floor, leaving a gash an inch deep.
'What kind of power is that?' The workers fell silent. Song Ciwan was stunned as well.
Steward Hu looked like a pot-bellied oaf, but he clearly had a few tricks up his sleeve.
As Song Ciwan silently washed the Fox Demon's corpse, she couldn't help but inwardly assess her own situation.
'In terms of Cultivation Techniques, the Sutra of Sitting and Forgetting I practice should be a high-level Immortal Dao Heart Method. I now have a wisp of True Qi, which, according to the Immortal Dao Cultivation System, means I've entered the stage of Introducing Qi into the Body.'
Refining Essence and Transforming Qi, Qi Refining and Divinity Transformation, Refining Spirit and Returning Void, and Refining Void and Merging Dao.
'These are the four major stages of Immortal Dao Cultivation. Introducing Qi into the Body is merely part of the first stage. I haven't even truly set foot in the Qi Transformation Realm.'
'With this level of Cultivation, no matter how profound my Cultivation Technique is, I'm still just a total noob.'
'What's more, I lack any Attack Techniques. I don't know any Escape Techniques, Talismanic Magic, or other kinds of Immortal Techniques.'
'Sigh, I'm so far behind. Way, way too far.'
A sense of profound apprehension washed over Song Ciwan. She threw herself into her work with renewed vigor, secretly steeling her resolve. 'This world is so dangerous. If I don't lay low and bide my time, who will?'
She lowered her head, finished scrubbing the four-foot-long fox corpse, and then, mustering all her strength, lifted it from the vat and hung it on a nearby drying rack.
Water dripped from the washed Demon Corpse. As Song Ciwan's hand brushed past the Fox Demon's eyes, which remained open even in death, the Heaven and Earth Scale appeared once more.
'Huh? This is…'
This time, nothing materialized on the Balance Plate. Instead, a series of images, blurry like an old film, flowed into Song Ciwan's mind.
'What is this?'
—The main character in the vision was a wild fox. It knew nothing of the Mortal World, only how to run free through the mountains, sleeping under the open sky and feeding on the essence of the sun and moon.
Until one day, it carelessly fell into a hunter's trap. On the brink of death, it was saved by a passing farm girl named Lady Cui, who had been out gathering herbs.
Lady Cui was a simple, kind-hearted girl from a farming village. Though her life was hard, she was never greedy. Seeing that the Little Fox was pitiful, cute, and seemed to possess spirituality, she couldn't bear to let it be harmed.
She not only freed the Little Fox from the trap but also secretly carried it home, where she fed it and tended to its wounds.
Over time, the bond between girl and fox deepened, and a desire to stay with one another began to grow.
But disaster struck without warning. It was a day the Little Fox would never forget.
A group of aggressive servants burst into Lady Cui's home. A woman dressed like a matchmaker announced, "What great fortune, young lady! Our Landlord Xu from the north side of the city has a fated connection with you. He wishes to take you into his home as his seventh concubine!"
'Seventh concubine? Isn't that just a mistress?'
"Better to be a poor man's wife than a rich man's concubine." Naturally, Lady Cui refused.
But she never expected that her own brother had racked up massive gambling debts and was waiting to use her to pay them off. How could she possibly refuse?
Her parents wept and her brother pushed. Gongs and suonas blared as a pink veil was placed over Lady Cui's head, and she was forced into a bridal sedan.
The Little Fox's Magical Power was weak and its injuries had yet to heal. Unable to fight off the crowd of servants, it could only hide beneath Lady Cui's skirt and enter the sedan with her, sharing in her cruel fate.
From that day on, the splendid, wealthy estate became the Abyss into which Lady Cui descended. At first, she was filled with anger and resentment. Then, she was dazzled by the luxury. Finally, she sank into obsessed madness.
'Yes, this world was so dazzlingly beautiful. Why shouldn't she be allowed to indulge in it?'
'They were the ones who had stolen her away. They suppressed her, humiliated her, looked down on her, tormented her! During those times she was mocked, during the days and nights she was treated like a toy, she was dressed in fine silks yet often went hungry, left to endure the biting wind and snow…'
'What kind of justice was that?'
'If the Mortal World offered only suffering, she would rather feed her very heart to a demon!'
And so, fed with Lady Cui's very life and soul, the Little Fox with its meager Magical Power grew strong at an astonishing rate.
Strange incidents began to plague the Xu Family in the north of the city. One by one, Lady Cui's enemies died in bizarre ways. As her Resentment intensified and the Little Fox Demon's Demonic Qi saturated the Xu Mansion, the Lantern Hanging Department was finally alerted.
That night, the Little Fox devoured Lady Cui's flesh and blood and engaged in a life-or-death struggle with a Demon Slayer Guard wielding the Blood-Breaking Saber.
Demonic Qi seethed and roiled. The Little Fox was as swift as the Wind, its claws lashing out. The Demon-slaying Captain grabbed a black clerk standing behind him and hurled the man directly at the Little Fox.
The claws tore through the black clerk's body. He let out a piercing scream as blood sprayed three feet into the air.
The Demon-slaying Captain's saber, however, swung forward to drink the man's warm blood. In an instant, the blade's glow intensified explosively as he unleashed the Blood-Breaking Saber.
In the Little Fox's world, the light from that strike was the last thing it ever saw.
Then, its world went dark. Faintly, it seemed to hear Lady Cui's laughter and tears, and the Demon-slaying Captain's detached voice saying, "For the sacrifice, the usual rules apply. One hundred taels in compensation…"
'What did that mean?' The Little Fox didn't understand, nor did it care to. It died, along with the Lady Cui inside it.
Beside the drying rack, Song Ciwan, having just witnessed this whirlwind of images, stood frozen. Her heart pounded like a drum.
In that moment, details she had previously overlooked fought their way to the surface of her mind.
'The black clerk's death… did he die to help kill the demon, or to be a sacrifice for the saber?'
'The standard compensation is one hundred taels, but Song Youde's was only fifty taels!'
Song Ciwan stumbled back a step. On the Balance Plate of the Heaven and Earth Scale floating before her, a new mass of energy had appeared—grayish-black qi shot through with a golden light: [Lady Cui's obsession, human desires, the suffering of hatred, the sorrow of separation… Three jin and four liang. Can be exchanged.]