Chapter 80: Running
What lies beyond the Valley?
To Yu Sheng, it felt like a natural curiosity. The undulating mountain range stood quietly at the edge of his vision. It didn’t appear impossibly tall, nor was the sky still shrouded in some terrifying barrier. Anyone here ought to wonder what the world looked like beyond those peaks.
“Have you ever tried climbing over that mountain?” Yu Sheng asked Miss Foxy curiously.
“I… did, a long time ago. Back when the Immortals were still around,” she nodded right away. “Back then, I tried with a few of the grown-ups. We attempted to climb over it together. But we couldn’t reach the summit. Halfway up, horrifying sounds would echo from the sky. The higher we climbed, the more our strength faded, and eerie, terrifying shadows began to appear in our vision. The Immortals even tried sending stone puppets infused with spirit to climb it, but the connection was severed halfway up. The next day, the broken pieces tumbled down. Blood seeped from the fragments, and the adults who went to investigate said flesh and bone had already begun growing inside the stones.”
“Sounds from the sky… sounds like it might be a residual effect from the ‘Dark Angels’ that once cloaked the heavens,” Irene murmured. “Hard to tell if that was deliberate or just a ‘passive effect’. Those cursed things sometimes exert overwhelming influence just by existing.”
“The Dark Angels are gone now. We can try again,” Yu Sheng said, glancing at Irene and Miss Foxy for their opinions. “What do you two think?”
Miss Foxy nodded immediately. “I listen to Benefactor.”
Irene shrugged. “Doesn’t matter to me. You always have some crazy plan in mind anyway. I’m used to it.”
“Unanimous vote, then. Let’s go.”
“How are we getting there? Opening a Door?” Irene raised an eyebrow at Yu Sheng.
“We’ll walk,” Yu Sheng waved his hand. “We haven’t been there before. Opening a Door would make it hard to pinpoint the destination. And if that place marks the edge of the Otherworld, the environment could be unique. A Door might be dangerous—walking lets us observe any changes and react in time.”
Irene looked genuinely surprised. “You actually know what ‘caution’ is?!”
Yu Sheng shot her a look. “Keep it up and I’ll toss you off my shoulder. You yap too much.”
Miss Foxy watched the two bicker, then gently offered, “Um… the Valley paths are rough, and you two don’t know the trails. Shall I guide you?”
Yu Sheng blinked. “Guide us? How?”
Then he saw the Fox Girl take a few steps away and suddenly drop low. A blast of wind and a shimmer of light followed, and before they could see the process clearly, her form dissolved into brilliance. In her place now stood a towering silver-white Demon Fox.
Yu Sheng had seen her transform before. But for Irene, this was a first. The little doll gasped in shock, her eyes going wide as she exclaimed, “Holy crap! She’s bigger than two vans!”
“Is that how you describe it?” Yu Sheng rolled his eyes at the doll on his shoulder but still nodded. “She’s not wrong… Those tails alone are bigger than a car.”
The massive silver-white Demon Fox stepped forward with graceful, elegant strides. She nudged Yu Sheng gently with her chin, nuzzling him affectionately. “Like this, I can carry several people.”
Yu Sheng didn’t respond immediately.
Because the Demon Fox Maiden’s gentle nuzzle had nearly knocked him senseless, stars dancing before his eyes.
“Talk normally! Can you not crush my skull while being affectionate?!” He barely held himself together, grabbing onto the fur under her chin to steady himself. “Good grief… headbutted by a Fox Immortal.”
The echo of the impact still rang in his skull, a lingering buzz from a blow straight to his spirit root.
Miss Foxy, quick to apologize, bowed her head instantly. “I’m sorry, Benefactor…”
Yu Sheng quickly leapt half a meter away, narrowly avoiding another unintended headbutt from her descending snout.
Only then did he take a good look at her current form.
Graceful, indeed. Beautiful, certainly. For the first time, he saw the phrase “breathtaking beauty” embodied in a creature covered in fur. Yet more than beauty, what struck him was the Demon Fox Maiden’s unique aura.
The massive silver-white Demon Fox stood noble upon the land, golden-red eyes shimmering like flowing starlight. Her long tails swayed behind her, and from time to time, faint wisps of Fox Fire manifested in the air, fluttering around her tails like spiritual sprites, dancing and fading into the ether.
Foxy’s fur was gleaming now, likely thanks to the hearty meals she’d had the past couple of days—and that long bath she finally took. Her tails, once disheveled, now shimmered with a sleek, radiant sheen, looking far healthier than when they’d first met.
She crouched low, one of her massive tails gently laid to the side, the tip resting right in front of Yu Sheng.
“You two can hop on now!” she chirped with delight.
“This… is definitely a first…” Yu Sheng hesitated, then cautiously placed a foot onto her tail—briefly contemplating whether he should remove his shoes, given how immaculate her fur looked. “Are you sure this doesn’t hurt?”
“It barely even tickles,” Foxy replied, turning her head to watch as Yu Sheng clumsily climbed along her tail toward her back. “Grab the fluff on the sides, or you might slip.”
“I’m fine—I’m pretty agile,” he grunted, managing to scramble up with Irene clinging to him. He settled cross-legged into a spot that seemed reasonably stable. “Alright, I’m good.”
Fluffy. And warm.
Yu Sheng, feeling a bit strange, reached out and patted the surrounding fur. It was like sitting on an absurdly luxurious, plush carpet. Before he could marvel at it aloud, several more tails coiled over from behind and tucked around them like protective barriers.
Irene poked Yu Sheng’s head. “You’ve even got armrests and a backrest!”
Then she added, “Should we install a seat on your shoulders too? Even a hard one works…”
Yu Sheng shot her a look. “What do you think?”
“If not, then not,” she huffed.
A subtle sway passed beneath them as the enormous silver-white Demon Fox Maiden rose and turned toward the distant, looming peaks.
“We’re heading out!” Foxy’s voice rang out, oddly jubilant. “Hold on tight, Benefactor! I’m gonna run!”
“I’ve got—whoa—!”
Yu Sheng barely got the words out before he felt a jolt, and the world lurched beneath him—Foxy had bolted like a beast unchained.
A tail swung from behind just in time to catch the teetering pair, keeping them upright, while another extended from the side to shield them from the onrushing wind. Through the roaring force, Yu Sheng saw the landscape blur into speed-smeared streaks, the Valley floor and ruins vanishing behind them as Foxy accelerated without restraint.
The Demon Fox Maiden was in her element, bounding wildly across the vast Valley.
“WAAAHHAHAHA!” Irene screamed, clutching Yu Sheng’s head with one hand while stretching her mouth wide into the wind (even though most of the gale had already been blunted by Foxy’s tails). “We’re gonna–fly–soon!”
“I LOVE running!” came Foxy’s voice from up ahead, utterly ecstatic. “It’s been so long since I got to run like this!”
Yu Sheng clung to one massive, fuzzy tail with one hand and held onto the little doll on his shoulder with the other, trying to keep the now-hyper Irene from flying off. “Hey—watch it! Don’t crash into—wait, mountain! Mountain ahead!”
“Got it!”
Foxy shouted gleefully and surged forward once more—blazing clusters of Fox Fire ignited behind her, erupting from her tails in bursts of fierce flame. The flames coalesced into rocket-like jets, detonating in rapid succession to form piercing contrails that streaked through the air.
Yu Sheng, alarmed by the sound, turned and caught a glimpse through the tails. His eyes widened. “Holy—Booster Rocket Fox?!”
The next moment, an even stronger surge of acceleration hit. Even with his current physique, Yu Sheng nearly lost his breath. Before he could recover, Foxy had already cleared the first slope.
She hadn’t run up.
She had flown—skimming the terrain at low altitude, using the landscape as a launch path.
In a blink, the booster-propelled fox shot toward the mountainside, her voice cutting through the wind: “This is where we first heard the strange sounds. Any further up, and we began to feel weak—see bizarre things. But we’re going beyond it now!”
With no more hesitation, she burst through the boundary that had once stopped Immortals, halted FatherMother, and kept all other survivors at bay—the dreaded “mid-slope line.”
There was nothing left to stop her now.
From this height, she could vaguely make out the summit—jagged monoliths standing sentinel atop the ridge like twisted, silent guardians beneath the twilight sky.
The booster flames dissipated swiftly, and Foxy’s nimble limbs landed among the rocks, stabilizing her pace even as she kept running.
In the final few hundred meters, her speed dropped to a swift jog. She leapt from stone to stone until she reached a relatively open plateau and came to a stop.
The coiled tails on her back unfurled like the opening of a passenger cabin, revealing a dazed Yu Sheng blinking into the distance.
It took several seconds for him to come to his senses. He raised his head slowly.
“Benefactor,” Foxy’s voice gently echoed to him, “it’s still mountains out there… mountain after mountain, repeating endlessly.”