Chapter 15: Trapped Here
This novel is translated and hosted on Bcatranslation.
When the girl introduced herself, Yu Sheng’s first thought was how blunt she seemed. She had simply called herself “Fox.” But after a few more questions, he realized she was actually saying “Foxy.”
Her name was Foxy. It sounded strange but fitting, especially with all those tails she had.
“I’m Yu Sheng,” he said, settling down beside her in the ruins of the old temple. “I come from… well, it’s complicated. I come from the ‘outside,’ but not just outside this valley.”
“You really come from the ‘outside’!” Foxy’s eyes grew wide, and she immediately seemed to understand him as if the idea of the ‘outside’ was already familiar.
Foxy hesitantly nibbled at the chocolate he had given her, her gaze fixed on him. “How did you get in? Do you… know how to get out? Is it… through the sky?”
Her speech was becoming smoother, as though her ability to speak properly was coming back.
Yu Sheng looked confused. “The sky? What do you mean?”
“The immortal told us, just before he died, that we came from the sky,” she said slowly, choosing her words carefully. Her speech was clearer now, but she still struggled with longer sentences. “But then the sky went dark, and we couldn’t go back. The land became dangerous—poisonous. Many who came with us died, and… we couldn’t return.”
Yu Sheng listened, feeling dazed as he tried to piece together her broken story. The valley, which Irene had called an Otherworld, was clearly hiding a much deeper history. And Foxy, with her many tails, had an even more extraordinary background.
She was trapped here too!
He tried asking her more questions—where exactly the ‘sky’ was, who the ‘many people’ were, and how they had arrived here—but her answers became disjointed again.
“The sky… it’s just the sky,” Foxy gestured vaguely upwards. “I’ve tried for years to go back, but I can’t. I try to jump, but I hit something. It hurts. Everyone’s forgotten now. My dad, mom, the immortal, and the others… we came down in a ship, a big one…”
At that, Foxy seemed to remember something. She raised a trembling hand and pointed deeper into the valley, where darkness swallowed everything. “Over there. The ship fell and became part of the mountain. Dad always wanted to go back to the ship to get something, but… everyone died before they could figure out how.”
Her words sent a shiver down Yu Sheng’s spine. There was something deeply unsettling about her story.
He tried to make sense of it, putting aside thoughts of the ‘immortal’ and the ‘sky.’ From what Foxy had told him, he pieced together a rough idea of what had happened. Foxy, her family, and someone she called the ‘immortal’ had arrived in this valley years ago on a large ship—a flying one, most likely. The valley hadn’t been a dead place back then. But something catastrophic had happened; the sky had darkened, and they had become trapped. A terrible enemy had attacked them, almost wiping them out.
Only Foxy had survived.
But these were just Yu Sheng’s guesses. Foxy’s memories were scattered, and she didn’t seem entirely sure of what had happened herself. The truth, whatever it was, was buried in her fragmented recollections.
This girl’s mind was fragile.
“How long have you been trapped here?” Yu Sheng asked gently.
“I don’t know… a long time,” Foxy whispered, shaking her head as she held the remaining piece of chocolate. “Nothing changes here. I don’t know how to count the days. I faint when I’m hungry, and when I wake up, it feels like a lot of time has passed.”
Yu Sheng frowned. Her clothes were ragged, and the disjointed events she had described suggested that she had been stuck here for far longer than he had first thought—maybe even years.
“How have you survived all this time?” he asked, unable to hide his concern. “What do you eat? Do you just scavenge through the temple? But… there’s nothing edible here.”
“No, nothing to eat here,” Foxy shook her head, her eyes dull. “Sometimes there are fruits in the woods, but they’re poisonous. They make me faint. Except for water, everything is dangerous here. Most of the time… I stay hungry.”
Then, as if remembering something, Foxy offered a weak smile. She pointed at herself, seeming almost proud. “A demon is strong. I won’t die from hunger. But… it still hurts.”
Her smile faded as quickly as it had come. She stood up suddenly, running a short distance to rummage through some broken bricks and debris. After a moment, she returned, clutching a bag of kitchen scraps—leftovers, rotting vegetables, and what looked like bread crumbs.
She held the bag close like it was precious. “This is still edible,” she said seriously, looking at Yu Sheng.
Yu Sheng opened his mouth, but no words came out. He wished he could summon a mountain of food or even open a door back to the real world, but he couldn’t even protect himself right now, let alone offer Foxy anything more.
“Benefactor…” Foxy’s soft voice broke the silence.
Yu Sheng blinked, not quite understanding. “What did you call me?”
“Benefactor,” she repeated, her tone sincere. “Mom said someone who helps you a lot is a benefactor. You gave me food.”
Yu Sheng waved it off awkwardly. “That sounds a bit… formal. Just call me Yu Sheng. It’s what I’m used to.”
“Oh, okay, bene—” Foxy mumbled, catching herself mid-word. She lowered her gaze, eyes falling on Yu Sheng’s hand. “I’m sorry.”
“Huh?” Yu Sheng looked down and noticed the wound on his finger—the bite mark from when Foxy had nipped him earlier while snatching the bread. Surprisingly, it had already healed, leaving just a smear of dried blood. He casually wiped it away. “Oh, this? Don’t worry, it’s just a scratch.”
But Foxy didn’t look convinced. Her brow furrowed. “Benefactor, are you sure? Being bitten by a demon… it damages the essence. It shouldn’t heal.”
Yu Sheng glanced at her, puzzled. “But it has healed.” He flexed his hand, showing her the now-unblemished skin. “Look.”
Foxy stared at his hand in disbelief. “It really did heal… Benefactor, are you also an immortal?”
Yu Sheng chuckled lightly, though her question only added to his confusion. “I’m not. I don’t even know what you mean by an ‘immortal’—where I come from, it’s just something people become after cultivating, right? But now I’m wondering… why would an immortal be with demons? From what you’re saying, it sounds like this immortal was traveling with a group of demons? That’s not how it usually goes in the stories I’ve heard.”
Finally, Yu Sheng voiced the thought that had been nagging him since Foxy had started talking about her past. The tales she told were filled with terms he’d only heard in ancient legends. And with her multiple tails, she seemed like something straight out of those same stories—a mystical fox spirit, maybe even a thousand years old. Yet, the idea of an immortal leading demons around was strange to him. Weren’t immortals and demons usually enemies?
But Foxy only tilted her head, clearly not following his train of thought. After a moment of hard thinking, she replied hesitantly, “Because… he was a tour guide immortal.”
Yu Sheng blinked. “…What?”
He stared at her, utterly baffled. Did he hear that right? A tour guide immortal?
He asked again, just to be sure, but Foxy nodded earnestly. There was no mistake. The immortal who had led Foxy and her companions wasn’t just any immortal—he was a tour guide.
Many years ago, Foxy and the other demons had been part of a tour group. And somehow, their ‘immortal ship’ had crashed into this desolate land, trapping them here.
Yu Sheng sat back in the chilly night air, letting the wind blow through the ruins of the old temple. The world he’d stepped into was becoming stranger by the minute.
And now… he was trapped with a demon who had once been on a guided tour?
Before he could wrap his head around that bizarre idea, Foxy’s voice interrupted his thoughts once more.
“Benefactor…”
“Just call me Yu Sheng,” he said with a sigh, running a hand through his hair. “What’s wrong?”
Foxy was clutching her stomach, her face twisted in discomfort. “My stomach… it hurts a little.”
Yu Sheng stared at her for a second, blinking in confusion. “Huh?” Then, realization hit him like a brick. His eyes darted to the half-eaten chocolate in her hand.
Wait… even fox spirits can’t handle chocolate?!
“Oh no, stop eating that!” Yu Sheng yelped, rushing over to snatch the chocolate from her hand. “This stuff is—”
Before he could finish, Foxy let out a low growl, more animal than human, and snapped at his hand like a wild beast. “Grrr!”
The next second, Yu Sheng let out a yell louder than hers.