Chapter 113 — The White Fox

In the next instant the azure shadow drifted near, and a pale hand reached out from the light, darting swift as thought for the white fox's throat.

The white fox gave a low moan, its eyes full of pain and helplessness, yet by its expression it seemed to accept its fate; it closed its eyes and waited for death.

What his fingers touched was fur still soft though cold. Ming Li's hand came to rest at the white fox's throat; the creature's vast body stood right before him, yet somehow at this moment it seemed no more than a fragile bird in his grasp.

Little Grey, clinging to Ming Li's chest, suddenly gave a few low calls.

Ming Li gazed silently at the white fox before him, and slowly withdrew his hand.

The white fox slowly opened its eyes, and what fell into its gaze was the figure of the man standing before it.

One man and one fox, gazing at each other thus!

"Boom!"

With a rumbling roar, the ice blocks swirling through the air behind Ming Li, deprived of the demon power that sustained them, came tumbling down one after another, crashing into one another, scattering ice crystals in all directions, while a white, freezing mist drifted everywhere and swept over from behind, completely engulfing the figures of Ming Li and the white fox.

For a long while, the ice dust slowly settled, and the figures of Ming Li and the white fox emerged once more.

At some point Little Grey had clambered back onto Ming Li's shoulder. Its three eyes blinked and blinked, looking at Ming Li, then at the white fox before them, then peering all around, as though it had suddenly taken an interest in the beautiful ice crystals scattered across the ground. It hopped down from Ming Li's shoulder, sat on the floor, and picking up a few lovely shards that gave off blue ghost-light, began to play with them.

The white fox's gaze shifted from Ming Li to Little Grey, rested there a long, deep moment, then returned to Ming Li. After a pause it spoke: "Why don't you kill me?"

Its voice now sounded plainly calmer. Ming Li did not answer at once; his gaze drifted involuntarily to what lay behind the white fox, and quickly he found what he had guessed.

A dark red iron chain, thick as a man's arm, was locked about the white fox's waist. As one looked now, red light faintly rippled within the chain, and even from a distance that uncanny power could be felt.

The white fox's sudden loss of strength in the midst of battle had clearly been the work of this restraint. Small wonder—without so formidable a binding, how could the Mystic Fire Altar have held the Nine-Tailed Celestial Fox, with the peerless demon power legend ascribed to it?

The white fox looked at Ming Li. He did not answer its question, and it seemed not to mind, for what it cared about was something else entirely.

"What of Little Six? Did you kill it and take the Mystic Fire Mirror?" Its voice sounded low, utterly weary.

Ming Li was silent. After a long moment he said slowly: "This Little Six you speak of—was it a six-tailed spirit fox?"

The white fox's vast body trembled slightly, and it lowered its head.

"It's dead!" Ming Li's voice was not loud, but it was very clear.

The white fox's gaze rested on the ground before it. Faintly it said: "How did it die?"

"Ten years ago, I and... two friends heard that a demon was haunting the Black Stone Cave beneath Xiaochi Town, and went to investigate." Ming Li's face was calm as water as he spoke lightly of the past. For a time the vast space was utterly still, save for his voice drifting softly, and now and then the sounds of Little Grey at play nearby.

"...In the end, seeing that nothing could be done, and that the three-tailed demon fox was dead as well, it resolved to take its own life. Before it died, it bound the Mystic Fire Mirror to my hand." Ming Li reached into his robe and drew out the Mystic Fire Mirror. There, in the ghostly blue light all around, the ancient flame totem seemed to burn ever so faintly.

The white fox stared blankly at the Mystic Fire Mirror, as though entranced. How long passed, one could not tell. Then it said softly: "Little Six was my son!"

The surrounding silence seemed like death itself. Ming Li looked at this sorrowing white fox before him, and suddenly felt as though he could not breathe.

The white fox silhouette engraved deep in his heart, fallen into the searing magma, was clear as though before his eyes.

Ten years of time, and yet it seemed only yesterday.

What was it that had quietly changed—your heart and mine?

"I too had a hand in your son's death," Ming Li said calmly. "If you ever have the chance, come and kill me."

The white fox raised its head and looked at him long and deep. Somehow Ming Li suddenly felt that the white fox was smiling—a smile that looked back across a thousand years of vicissitude, a faint and sorrowful smile.

"If it could give you the Mystic Fire Mirror—I am its mother; do you think I do not know what was in its heart then?" the white fox said faintly, and slowly turned its body. The chain locked at its waist gave out a harsh sound, holding it fast.

Ming Li watched the white fox slowly walk toward the depths of the darkness, when suddenly a nameless impulse seized him and the words escaped him: "Is there anything I can do for you?"

The white fox's body halted, but it did not turn around. Only its voice suddenly carried a faint, barely suppressed agitation: "You would help me?"

Ming Li did not speak, did not answer.

The white fox slowly turned back. At this moment, all at once, its deep black eyes seemed to kindle with a strange light.

"Three hundred years ago, our fox-demon clan seized the Mystic Fire Mirror from the Burning Cloud Valley, but we were all but wiped out. Apart from Little Six, who barely escaped, I alone survived, imprisoned here in the Mystic Fire Altar, tormented by the Mystic Fire Crucible. My cultivation is held utterly in check by this Crucible and by the Eight Fierce Mystic Fire Formation beneath the altar, and I suffer day and night."

It gave a cold laugh. "If the Burning Cloud Valley had not wanted to learn from my lips where the Mystic Fire Mirror was, they would have killed me long ago."

Ming Li nodded silently.

The white fox glanced at him. "The Mystic Fire Crucible is a strange thing of heaven and earth, rigid and fierce, blazing hot. Once it is sealed, only one who knows the secret incantation of the Burning Cloud Valley can open it. But apart from that, the Mystic Fire Mirror alone can open it as well!"

Ming Li's gaze slowly turned to the Mystic Fire Mirror in his hand. A faint, gentle warmth came forth from the ancient flame totem upon it.

The white fox's voice went on ahead of him: "The Mystic Fire Mirror is the essence of all fire, a heaven-opening divine artifact. You need only go to the stone wall at the far end behind me, where there is a cylindrical stone platform. The Mystic Fire Crucible extends from there and reaches down into the volcanic magma beneath the earth, drawing endless heat from it. Set the Mystic Fire Mirror upon the stone platform and you will undo the Mystic Fire Crucible. Without that binding, the Eight Fierce Mystic Fire Formation below, with no Mystic Fire Mirror to command it, can no longer hold me."

By the end, the white fox's voice was faintly trembling; plainly its heart was stirred.

Ming Li said nothing, his face calm as water.

The white fox looked at him. After a moment deep disappointment came into its eyes, and suddenly it gave a bitter laugh and said softly: "Do you regret it? Then forget it. In truth, in this world, who isn't like that?"

So saying, it seemed about to turn away again—but Ming Li suddenly moved.

He walked slowly forward, past the white fox's side. Behind him Little Grey raised its head, seeming to have taken a fresh interest in the situation, and with two or three bounds came over and leapt onto Ming Li's shoulder.