Chapter 1243: The Choice
Tushan Yu’s face turned pale. In the end, she still said quietly, “You’re right. The fiend race territories are a place where the weak are prey for the strong. Our Fox race’s women are well known for our feminine charms and aren’t good at battle, so it’s only natural that others would drool over us. That’s why we can only rely on the strong to protect us.
“Among the beast races, the Tiger race and Lion race are the strongest. Since the Fox race and Tiger race have been rather close historically, we chose to rely on Hu Qianxiao. Over the years, he’s protected us a lot, but of course, we’ve also helped him do many things. That’s why from the outside, it looks as if I’m Hu Qianxiao’s woman.
“Because I need to borrow his name to scare off people with evil motives, nor have I cleared things up, for some reason, Hu Qianxiao has also tacitly approved of that.”
Zu An couldn"t help but chuckle. This really was a perfect recreation of the saying ‘the fox exploits the tiger’s might’. He looked into Tushan Yu’s eyes and asked, “Then are you Hu Qianxiao’s woman?”
Tushan Yu protested, “Didn’t young master already personally experience it last night? Whether I am or not, shouldn’t you know more clearly than anyone else?”
When he remembered the beauty’s foxy charms from the previous night, Zu An couldn"t help but shiver. He asked, “Then was Hu Qianxiao the one who sent you last night?”
This Hu Qianxiao isn’t wrong in the head somehow, is he? Why would he send this woman he has an ambiguous relationship with to me?
The worst part was that he had never even heard of that name before today. So why was this Tiger race guy so intent on dealing with him?
Tushan Yu’s face paled. After a moment of hesitation, she nodded and said, “It was indeed Hu Qianxiao who had me come over last night. But he didn’t make me… do that. I actually don’t know what was going on either. I was muddle-headed and just… just…”
She felt incredible remorse when she said that. The only way to redeem herself was to show that she was the one who had acted proactively last night, that she was willing. That way, she would at least leave behind a good impression in Zu An’s mind and increase his feelings of tenderness.
I’m finished, I’m finished! I’m not a qualified fox-spirit after all; I’ve shamed all of my ancestors…
Zu An was stunned. He had initially thought that she was the one who had taken the initiative then, and that she was already well experienced. Now, it turned out that she had been a young and inexperienced maiden, leaving him a bit baffled.
He suddenly thought of something and asked, “You used your charm technique on me last night, right?”
Tushan Yu panicked a bit. Under Zu An’s fierce gaze, however, she still felt guilty. She replied, “I used a bit, but only a bit…”
Zu An finally understood what had happened. She had probably used her Fox race’s charm technique on him, but because of his and Daji’s soul contract, and the fact that Daji was the Fox race’s highest-leveled Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox, it had instead bounced off.
Sigh, I thought it was because of my own charms.
After thinking about it, he summoned Daji. He wanted to see if she had anything to do with this world’s Bluefield Country.
A woman dressed in white clothes purer than snow appeared out of thin air. No matter how many times she made an entrance, he always admired her exceptional appearance. However, her usual expressionless appearance quickly turned to alarm, because there was nothing underneath her feet. She began to fall straight down.
At the moment, Daji was only at the seventh rank, and was actually quite far from the master rank. She naturally had no way of flying through the air.
Zu An cursed himself for being careless and quickly tried to grab her. However, just when he was about to touch her, her body twisted to the side to avoid him.
Zu An was stunned. Only then did he recall that valkyries never allowed him to touch their bodies. Even in this situation, would she rather die than be touched by me?
He felt as if he had just suffered a huge mental blow.
All of those Ki Fruits I fed you must’ve been for nothing.
However, jokes were jokes; he couldn"t let her really fall to death. Even so, he couldn"t touch her. As he was wondering what to do, he suddenly thought of something. He took out the Primal Skysilk he had gotten from Chi Wen earlier, and with a shake of his wrist, he wrapped it around Daji’s waist. With a gentle pull, he brought her back to his side.
With the Primal Skysilk holding her in place, Daji was also able to float in the sky. At first, she struggled instinctively. When she discovered that it was Zu An who had caught her, however, she calmed down and instead looked at the red silk around her curiously.
Tushan Yu was stupefied by these sudden developments. She really couldn"t figure out the pair’s relationship. However, her attention quickly shifted to Daji. She couldn"t help but feel that the ridiculously beautiful woman before her was somewhat familiar.
“Do you recognize her?” Zu An took the chance to ask.
“I don’t know,” Tushan Yu replied, feeling a bit lost. “Normally, I shouldn’t, but I have a strange kind of feeling that I should be able to recognize her. I feel a sort of intimacy from her, as well as a sort of pressure. It’s so strange… her cultivation seems to be lower than mine, so why am I scared of her?”
Suddenly, her expression changed. She mumbled, “She… She… She…”
Zu An quickly asked, “What’s wrong?”
“I finally remember where I’ve seen her before!” Tushan Yu exclaimed, trembling a bit and sounding agitated.
“You’ve seen her before?” Zu An replied, stunned. But that shouldn’t be. Even if Daji is from the Fox race, just how many generations has it been? How could they have met before?
Tushan Yu said, “Our Fox race’s lords always pa.s.s down an inheritance to the next generation. When the previous country lord or elder activates the power of our bloodline, the image of our Fox race’s ancestor appears in our minds. Our Fox race’s most formidable being has always been the Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox. Why is she so similar to the image in my memories?”
It wasn’t her fault for not being able to immediately remember. It had already been a long time since her bloodline had activated, and that scene had only lasted a brief moment. Furthermore, it was quite difficult to a.s.sociate this delicate woman with the powerful existence in her memory.
Zu An was moved when she heard her explanation. He recalled Daji and explained, “She indeed has some connection with your Fox race, but it’s not what you’re thinking.” He didn’t want to explain Daji’s origins, or else it might cause a huge uproar.
When she saw how Zu An had summoned a person with just a wave of his hand and that person had disappeared with another wave, and that the person even resembled the Fox race’s highest being, the expression with which Tushan Yu looked at Zu An became even more fanatical.
No wonder he could defeat the Golden Crow Crown Prince! This man is really too mysterious.
She completely let go of her misgivings when she thought of that. She warned him, “Young master, you absolutely can’t go to the Fiend King Court.”
Zu An was stunned, asking, “Why?”
“Because the matter of young master’s transcendent apt.i.tude has already been exposed. The reason why Hu Qianxiao gave me the order to approach you was because he wanted to take the chance to obtain your blood essence,” Tushan Yu said, deciding to just tell him everything. “When you fought against the Golden Crow Crown Prince, he feared that if he used force, his men might not be your match. That’s why he tried to use gentler methods, sending me to approach you.”
Zu An was alarmed. How had Hu Qianxiao found out about his transcendent apt.i.tude? In the end, he figured that it was probably a lot of his blood had landed on the war chariot and weapons during the fight against the Golden Crow Crown Prince.
Sigh, I was too careless. Back then, in Brightmoon City, Princ.i.p.al Jiang warned me to never reveal that, but after nothing happened for so long, I ended up becoming negligent.
Zu An sighed and said, “You still managed to complete your mission in the end.”
Tushan Yu’s face turned pale. She quickly exclaimed, “I didn’t!”
When he saw her nervous expression, Zu An said with a smile, “I was just joking around with you.”
Tushan Yu finally understood what he meant. She became extremely embarra.s.sed. “Young master, you’re so bad… How could I possibly hand over that kind of thing?”
“Ahem…” Zu An was also caught off guard. This woman seemed to have misunderstood him. He quickly changed the topic, adding, “Why don’t I just give you a bit of blood essence then? Otherwise, you won’t be able to explain things to Hu Qianxiao.”
Tushan Yu felt warm inside when she heard what he said. However, she still shook her head and said, “If young master had said that before last night, I would definitely have happily received it, but now, I think it’s best if I don’t take it. Blood essence is too important for young master. Forget about the fact that a loss of blood essence would make young master weak for a long time, who knows what Hu Qianxiao would do with it?
“There are too many curse techniques and puppet arts in this world. That’s why young master absolutely can’t randomly hand over your blood essence.”
When Zu An heard the concern in her words, he couldn"t help but ask, “Why are you worrying so much for my sake?”
Tushan Yu said with a sigh, “I’m already young master’s woman; who would I think of if not young master? Besides, after Hu Qianxiao learns of what happened last night, there won’t be any good news waiting for us. Rather than that, I might as well wholeheartedly choose young master.
“Of course, I’m definitely not the type who would become so dead set on someone because of a single night’s happiness. However, when I saw that mysterious girl, I suddenly felt as if you were sent by the heavens to save us. That’s why I made this choice.”
Zu An knew that there was no need for her to say all that to him at all. The reason she had done so was clearly because she was worried that he would misunderstand. He gently held her hand and said, “I won’t superficially promise you any grand future, but as long as it’s within my power, I’ll definitely protect the Fox race.”
Tushan Yu said with a smile, “I would feel more worried if you promised me all kinds of things. Our clan has met too many men like that, every single one of them offering flowery but insincere speech. In the end, all they wanted was just to take advantage of us.”
Zu An chuckled and asked, “Then how do we deal with Hu Qianxiao’s mission this time?”
“I’ll tell him that Chi Wen’s appearance interrupted the plan and caused a last-minute failure. The ocean races are even more powerful than the Tiger race, and there has always been conflict between them. There’s no way Hu Qianxiao would be able to confirm whether that was true or false,” Tushan Yu explained.
Zu An gave her a look of surprise. He hadn’t expected her to have already prepared so thoroughly. This girl really is quite quick-witted, he thought. No wonder she had been able to make the weak Fox race flourish for so long.
The two chatted for a while longer. After exchanging the information they had, Zu An decided to bring her back to the palace. However, Tushan Yu stopped him and asked, “Can you wait for a bit? I’ve never experienced flying like this before, so I want to stay here for a bit longer.”
“Alright,” Zu An replied. How could he refuse when he saw how hopeful, and yet scared that he might reject her, she was? He used the Wind Fire Wheels to bring Tushan Yu high up into the air.
As she looked at the mountains and rivers below, as well as the stars above, Tushan Yu’s cheeks turned red. Never in her life had she felt so carefree. The man at her side kept warmly satisfying her requests.
She pursed her lips, then suddenly pushed them outward. A tender yet slightly flirtatious expression appeared on her fresh and pure cheeks. She said, “Young master, I was fl.u.s.tered last night and didn’t show you my usual skill. Today, I’ll let young master experience what a true fox-spirit is capable of.”
Zu An’s eyes opened wide. This woman was just too good! There was probably no one in this world who could refuse such temptation, right?
?