Chapter 50 — The Fox-Spirit Maiden Enters the Desolate Game

"Since the court might well not come for him, he decided to see the matter through to the end—he killed them without hesitation and absorbed the blood and vital energy of his disciples, to keep himself from starving during his long imprisonment. But his method must have differed from the Dark Dragon Mother's pearl and been far more sinister: he drained even their flesh and blood, turning each of them into a skeleton. Do you remember that the moment we entered the dragon palace my staff kept ringing? " Snow Fox remembered. At the time she had been pressed against Shen Mu's trouser leg, trembling all over, and Shen Mu had asked her to move her tail.

"At first I thought the thoughts of the dried corpses were disturbing the Fanji Twelve-Ring Staff, and that was why it rang without stopping. But the dried corpses were dead and had no consciousness. Then I thought it was stray thoughts from the Dark Dragon Mother's soul. Yet the strange thing was that the staff fell silent as soon as I came close to Pei Wujiu—so clearly it was not the Dark Dragon Mother's stray thoughts, but Pei Wujiu's. " Shen Mu said, "The reason the staff stopped ringing then was that Pei Wujiu no longer had any stray thoughts. He had made up his mind: since we were guarded by the Fanji Twelve-Ring Staff and he could not eat us, he might as well use our hands to escape.

" Snow Fox was dumbfounded. After a moment, the little fox stammered, "Young Master Mu, are you really only twelve?

" "I will not be twelve until after autumn," Shen Mu said with an honest, artless smile. "Then you must be a fox spirit too! " Snow Fox grew excited. "You must be a male fox who has become a spirit—a devilishly clever one! " Shen Mu poured out his grievances.

"You have no idea how I spent my childhood! I grew up being cheated and swindled by a pack of crafty old men and old women. Just before I came out hunting, Granny tricked me into going to the henhouse to fetch eggs.

It was a plumed fire-pheasant dragon! It thrashed me all over the yard, and I simply could not defeat it.

Meanwhile Granny slipped over and took the eggs!

" Before long they went round the pool and came out of the Dragon King Temple.

Snow Fox worked her art and summoned a demonic wind, and Shen Mu rode the wind; fox and boy arrived at the thatched hut beside the waterfall.

Shen Mu was eager to return to the village and was about to take his leave, when Snow Fox said with a smile, "You are dirty and smelly right now—why be in such a hurry to go back? The pool is right here by the waterfall. Go in and bathe, and I will wash your clothes; when they are dry, what could be better than putting them on fresh and clean? Besides, there are a few points in my cultivation that leave me foxed, and I would like to ask your advice. " Shen Mu hesitated and was about to speak, when from inside the hut came Granny Zhu's cold laugh: "Bathe?

Cultivate?

Which is it—plundering yin to nourish yang, or plundering yang to nourish yin? " "Granny? " Shen Mu was both startled and overjoyed. "How is it that you are here? "