Chapter 80

Chapter 80: Running

What lay beyond the valley?

Yu Sheng couldn’t help feeling curious. The mountains rolled across the distance, silent and still. They didn’t look so tall they couldn’t be climbed, and the sky was no longer hidden beneath any terrifying barrier. Anyone who lived here would wonder what the world looked like on the other side.

“Have you ever tried crossing that mountain?”

He asked Foxy, genuine curiosity in his voice.

“I… I tried a long time ago, when the immortal was still here,” Foxy said at once, nodding. “Back then, I went with a few lords. We tried to get over it together, but we couldn’t reach the summit. Halfway up, the sky would start making this horrible sound. If we climbed any higher, we’d lose our strength, and we’d see all kinds of terrifying miasma shadows.”

She shivered, ears flicking.

“The immortal even tried turning stone into puppets and sending them up. We lost contact with them halfway, and the next day their fragments rolled down the mountain. Every piece of stone was bleeding. The lord who went to check said flesh and bone had already started growing inside the rocks.”

“The sky making noises…” Irene muttered. “That sounds like the influence of those Dark Angels that used to cover the sky. But I can’t tell if it was doing it on purpose or if it was just a passive effect. With something that creepy, sometimes just existing is enough to cause trouble.”

“Now that the Dark Angels are gone, we can try again,” Yu Sheng said, looking between Irene and Foxy. “What do you think?”

Foxy nodded immediately. “I’ll listen to Benefactor.”

Irene flicked a hand. “Whatever. You always have some idea. You want to poke every creepy thing you see, and I’m used to it.”

“Great. Unanimous. Let’s go.”

“How do we get there? Door Opening?” Irene asked, glancing at him.

“We walk,” Yu Sheng said, waving a hand. “We’ve never been there before, so Door Opening won’t be easy to lock onto. And if that’s the edge of the otherworld, the environment might get weird. Jumping straight in isn’t safe. If we go on foot, we can watch for changes and react in time.”

Irene stared at him like he’d grown a second head. “You? Having a concept of safety?”

“I literally threw you down there,” Yu Sheng shot back. “You’re sitting on my shoulder, and you’re still talking this much trash?”

Foxy watched them bicker, hesitated, then spoke softly. “Um… the valley’s hard to travel through, and you don’t know a good path up the mountain. Let me take you there?”

Yu Sheng looked at her. “Take us? How?”

Foxy turned, ran a few steps, then dropped flat onto her belly. Wind pressure surged. Shimmering light wrapped around her like water, and her shape dissolved inside the glow. Before Yu Sheng could even blink, a huge silver-white demon fox stood where the girl had been.

Yu Sheng had seen Foxy transform before. Irene hadn’t.

The doll on his shoulder went wide-eyed. “Wah! Oh my god! That’s bigger than two vans!”

Yu Sheng glanced at the tiny figure gripping his collar, then nodded, helplessly agreeing. “It’s bigger than a van… those tails alone are bigger than the car.”

The great fox padded over with light, graceful steps. She lowered her head and bumped Yu Sheng’s forehead with her chin, then rubbed against him like an oversized cat.

“Like this, I can carry several people!” she said, pleased.

Yu Sheng didn’t speak for a moment.

Her “gentle” affection nearly knocked him senseless. His head rang, and he had to fight the sudden burst of stars in his vision.

“If you’re going to be affectionate, can you please control your strength?” he managed, grabbing the fur under her chin to stop her from rubbing again. “You’re hammering the top of my head…”

His skull still buzzed, as if someone had cracked it open with a club and left the echo behind.

Foxy apologized faster than anyone Yu Sheng had ever met. She lowered her head instantly. “Benefactor, I’m sorry…”

Yu Sheng sprang sideways, just in time. If he’d stayed, the dip of her muzzle might have finished the job.

Only then did he get a chance to really look at her in this form.

She was elegant—truly elegant—and beautiful in a way that made the word feel strangely accurate for a furry canine. But even more than that beauty, what Yu Sheng felt was her presence.

The silver-white fox stood firm on the earth. Golden-red eyes held a sheen of flowing light, as if a calm pool shimmered behind them. Several long tails swayed lazily. Now and then, tiny foxfire sparks appeared in the air, circling and dancing around her tails like playful spirits.

And maybe because she’d eaten well these last two days—and because she’d actually taken a proper bath—her fur looked sleek and glossy, nothing like the scruffy mess he’d first met.

Foxy lowered herself. One tail slid out to the side, and its tip settled neatly in front of Yu Sheng.

“You can climb on!” she said, almost bouncing with excitement.

“This is a first…” Yu Sheng hesitated, then carefully stepped onto the tail. For a second, he even considered taking off his shoes. “Does it hurt when I step on you?”

“I can barely feel it. It’s just a little itchy,” Foxy said, turning her head to watch him. “Grab the fur next to you, or your feet will slip.”

“It’s fine. I’m pretty nimble,” Yu Sheng said.

He and Irene struggled up onto Foxy’s back. Yu Sheng found a spot that seemed steady, sat cross-legged, and let out a breath.

Warm. Soft. Surprisingly comfortable.

He reached out and ran a hand through the fur around him. It felt like sitting on a high-end blanket. Before he could even fully appreciate it, several of Foxy’s tails curled over, forming a protective ring around them like a passenger compartment.

Irene poked him on the head. “Hey, we’ve got armrests and a backrest!”

Then she added, with shameless hope, “Can you put a seat on your shoulder, too? A hard seat is fine…”

Yu Sheng stared forward. “What do you think?”

“Fine, fine,” Irene said. “If you say no, you say no.”

A gentle sway rolled beneath them. The huge demon fox stood and turned toward the distant mountain range.

“We’re leaving,” Foxy said, sounding oddly happy. “Benefactor, hold on tight! I’m going to run!”

“I’m hold—”

The world lurched.

Yu Sheng almost slid off before he even finished the word. Foxy shot forward like she’d been released from a cage. A tail snapped up from behind and caught him and Irene just in time, holding them firmly in place. Another tail stretched out along the side, blocking most of the rushing wind.

The scenery on both sides smeared into afterimages. Cracks in the ground, broken ruins—nothing slowed her. She only got faster.

The demon fox ran freely across the valley.

“Waaaa—hahahaha!” Irene screamed, half howl and half laughter. She gripped Yu Sheng’s head with both hands, leaning into the wind that still slipped through the gaps between the tails. “We are gonna fly!”

“I like running!” Foxy’s voice came from the front, bright with joy. “I haven’t run like this in a long, long time!”

With one hand, Yu Sheng clung to the thick tail beside him. With the other, he pinned the doll on his shoulder so she wouldn’t topple off in her excitement.

“Watch it!” he yelled. “Don’t hit—mountain! Mountain! There’s a mountain in front of us!”

“Okay!” Foxy shouted back, cheerful as ever.

Then she accelerated.

Behind her, clusters of dazzling foxfire ignited. Flames gathered around her tails, and then a dense series of blasts erupted in rapid succession. In the violent burn and eruption, they formed sharp, cone-shaped trails—like boosters.

Yu Sheng heard the roar, twisted around, and caught a glimpse through the tails.

“Holy—rocket-boosted fox!”

The shove grew even more brutal. Even with his current body, he could barely breathe through it. And then he realized something worse.

She wasn’t running up the slope.

She was skimming it—flying at ultra-low altitude, feet barely touching as the ground raced past beneath them.

In a blink, they shot toward the middle of the mountain. Foxy’s voice cut through the wind.

“Back then, we started hearing strange sounds here! If we climbed higher, we’d lose our strength and see strange things—We’re going to cross it now!”

They passed the line that had once stopped the immortal, stopped her father and mother, stopped every survivor.

This time, nothing blocked them.

For the first time, Foxy could see the summit clearly. Jagged boulders lined the ridge like silent sentries beneath the pale light.

She slowed. The flames around her tails faded quickly. Her nimble four feet landed among the rocks as she kept moving, steady and controlled.

For the last few hundred meters, her speed dropped to something like a fast jog. She hopped between stones, then finally stopped in a relatively open stretch near the top.

The tails around Yu Sheng slowly unfolded. He sat there for a moment, a little stunned, blinking like he’d forgotten how to breathe.

It took several seconds before he lifted his head and looked into the distance.

“Benefactor,” Foxy’s voice reached him, quieter now. “Outside… it’s still mountains. Mountains repeating over and over.”