Chapter 080

Chapter 80: Running

[What might be outside the valley?] Yu Sheng felt it was natural to wonder. The long chain of mountains stood calmly in his view. They did not look too tall to climb, and the sky was no longer covered by any scary barrier, so anyone living here should be curious about the scenery beyond those peaks.

Yu Sheng asked Foxy with interest: “Have you ever tried to cross those mountains?”

Foxy nodded at once: “I tried a long time ago, when the Immortal was still here. Back then a few lords and I tried to go over together, but we could not reach the top. Halfway up, a frightening sound came from the sky. If we climbed higher, our strength would fade, and horrible shadow-mist would appear before our eyes. The Immortal even tried turning stone into puppets and sent the stone figures to climb. Halfway up, the link broke. The next day, their pieces rolled down from the mountain. Blood flowed from every chunk of rock. The lords who went to check said flesh and bone had already started growing inside the stones.”

Irene muttered as she thought it through: “Sounds like the influence of the Dark Angels that used to cover the sky. I just don’t know if it was on purpose or a passive effect. For something as wicked as The Door, sometimes just existing brings a huge impact.”

Yu Sheng looked to Irene and Foxy and spoke calmly: “The Dark Angels are gone now. We can try again. What do you think?”

Foxy answered without hesitation: “I will listen to benefactor.”

Irene waved a hand in a whatever pose: “Do as you like. You always have ideas. You even want to try things tied to The Door. I’m used to it.”

Yu Sheng clapped his hands once and smiled: “Great. A full vote. Let’s go.”

Irene glanced at him and raised an eyebrow: “How do we get there, by Door Opening?”

Yu Sheng shook his head: “We should walk. We have never been there, so Door Opening would be hard to aim. And if that place is the edge of the Otherworld, the environment might be special, so jumping straight there is not safe. If we walk, we can notice changes on the road and still have time to react.”

Irene stared at him in surprise: “You actually know what ‘safe’ means?”

Yu Sheng snorted as he reached up and poked the little figure on his shoulder: “I can drop you, you know. You sit on my shoulder and still talk so much.”

Seeing them bicker again, Foxy thought for a moment and spoke softly: “The valley floor is hard to travel, and you don’t know the easy paths up the mountain. How about I take you?”

Yu Sheng blinked, curious: “Take us how?”

He had just spoken when the fox girl dashed a few steps away and flopped forward. With a rush of wind and a wash of shimmering light, her body melted and changed in the glow. Before he could see clearly, a huge silver-white Demon Fox stood before Yu Sheng and Irene.

Yu Sheng had seen Foxy turn into a fox before, but it was Irene’s first time. The little doll opened her eyes wide and shouted after a loud wow: “Oh my! She looks bigger than two minivans.”

Yu Sheng could not help shooting the doll on his shoulder a look as he nodded anyway: “Who even describes it like that? But yes, bigger than a minivan. Just those tails are bigger than a car.”

As they spoke, the great silver-white Demon Fox walked over with light and graceful steps. She lowered her chin to nudge Yu Sheng’s head and rubbed him with affection: “Like this, I can carry several people.”

Yu Sheng went silent for a second.

Her so-called gentle nuzzle made stars burst before his eyes and almost knocked his skull into his chest.

He steadied himself and grumbled as he grabbed the soft fur under her jaw to keep her from rubbing again: “If you want to talk, just talk. Can you control your strength a little? You are pounding my head.”

His head still buzzed, the shock lingering like being hit by a Fox Immortal opening a Heaven Spirit.

Foxy apologized immediately, lowering her head fast: “Sorry, benefactor.”

Yu Sheng hopped half a meter to the side so her lowered nose would not slam into his forehead.

Only then did he have time to study the Fox Maiden properly.

He had to admit she was truly elegant and truly beautiful. For the first time he could see the words “peerless beauty” on a furry canid. But more than her looks, what he felt even more strongly was the Demon Fox’s special aura.

The giant silver-white Demon Fox stood upon the earth. Gold-red eyes seemed to hold flowing light. A few long tails slowly waved behind her, and tiny Fox Fire flickered in the air, circling her tails like living spirit-lights and drifting away.

Maybe it was because she had eaten well these two days and taken a real bath before, but her tails now looked sleek and glossy, much better than when they first met.

Foxy crouched, and one tail draped beside her, the tip settling in front of Yu Sheng.

She spoke with bright delight: “You can climb up.”

“This is a first for me,” Yu Sheng said as he hesitated, then stepped onto the tail to test it. He even wondered for a second if he should take off his shoes because her fur looked so nice: “Does this hurt?”

Foxy turned her head to watch him climb clumsily along her tail and gave a tip: “I barely feel it, just a little itchy. You can grab the fur, or your feet might slip.”

Yu Sheng answered with casual confidence as he pulled Irene along and scrambled onto Foxy’s back: “I’m pretty nimble.” He found a level spot and sat cross-legged: “I’m seated.” The fur was fluffy and warm.

With a mixed feeling, he stroked the soft coat around him. It felt like sitting on a very fancy plush blanket. Before he could sigh, a few tails curled up beside him like side rails and a backrest.

Irene poked his head and announced with glee: “There are armrests and a backrest.”

Then she added with a straight face: “Can we install a seat on your shoulder too? A hard seat is fine.”

Yu Sheng gave her a look and asked flatly: “What do you think?”

Irene shrugged: “If not, then not.”

A gentle sway rose under them as the great silver-white Demon Fox stood and turned toward the distant range.

Foxy’s voice came extra cheerful for some reason as she warned them: “We are heading out. Benefactor, hold on. I’m going to run.”

Yu Sheng started to reply: “I’m holding on…”

He had only said a few words when the body under him dropped and surged. He almost lost his seat as the Demon Fox shot forward like a bolt off the leash.

A tail scooped back in time to steady Yu Sheng and Irene. Another tail stretched to the side and blocked the rushing wind. With a fierce push against their backs, the scenery on both sides turned into streaks, and neither ruts in the ground nor ruined walls could slow Foxy down.

The Demon Fox ran free across the wide valley.

Irene yelled at the top of her lungs as she clamped both hands on Yu Sheng’s head and opened her mouth to the wind leaking through the tail-guard: “Waaahahaha, we’re about to fly.”

Foxy’s voice carried back from the front, full of joy: “I love to run. I haven’t run like this in a long time.”

Yu Sheng gripped a big fluffy tail with one hand and held the little doll on his shoulder with the other so the excited troublemaker would not fall: “Watch it. Don’t crash into the mountain. Mountain. There’s a mountain ahead.”

Foxy shouted back with excitement: “Got it.”

She sped up again toward the slope growing near. Clusters of brilliant Fox Fire flared behind her, flames gathering on her tails. A string of tight pops erupted as if engines were firing, forming sharp conical trails.

Hearing the bursts, Yu Sheng twisted to peek through a gap between tails and blurted out in shock: “A rocket boosted fox.”

A stronger slam of acceleration and vibration hit. Even with his trained body, he almost lost his breath. In the next moment he realized Foxy had already taken the slope.

She was not running up.

She was skimming the ground at ultra low altitude, gliding along the terrain.

In almost a blink, the rocket boosted fox reached mid-mountain. Foxy’s shout cut through the wind into Yu Sheng and Irene’s ears: “Back then, we started to hear weird sounds here. Climb higher and you lost your strength and saw strange things. We are about to cross it.”

She rushed past the mid-slope line that had once stopped the Immortal, stopped her father and mother, and stopped every survivor.

Nothing blocked her now.

She could faintly see the peak’s view. Jagged rocks stood like rows of odd sentries under the sky.

She began to slow. Booster fire faded from her tails. Her agile four feet touched down among the rocks, still running while steadying her body.

In the last few hundred meters near the top, Foxy’s speed dropped to a brisk run. She hopped between stones a few more times and stopped in a relatively open spot.

The tails across her back unfolded slowly like a passenger cabin opening, revealing Yu Sheng, who was a little dazed.

Yu Sheng blinked several times to clear his head, then lifted his eyes to the distance.

Foxy’s voice reached him: “Outside is still mountains, repeating mountains.”