The Fox Spirit was burning.
Not metaphorically.
Luo Feng watched in horror as Xiao Jiuying's body arched backward, her five remaining tails igniting with silver-blue flames. The corrupted fifth tail screamed as the fire consumed the void-flesh, peeling it away like rotting fruit skin to reveal something older beneath.
"Feng—!" Her voice fractured into echoes. "It's coming—"
Then her throat locked, her jaw unhinging unnaturally as a sound no mortal throat should produce tore free—a fox's cry layered with something deeper, something that made the air itself vibrate.
[System Alert: Nine-Tails Seal Breach Detected]
[Mission: Contain the Unsealing]
[Reward: Nine-Tails Alliance]
[Failure Penalty: Losing Her Entirely]
Li Qing's sword was already drawn, frost spiraling up the blade. "We have to stop this now."
Luo Feng grabbed her wrist. "No. Look."
The flames weren't destroying the Fox Spirit.
They were revealing her.
[The Unsealing: A Truth in Flames]
As the fire burned away the corruption, the Fox Spirit's form shifted:
Her sixth tail regrew, its fur pure white and tipped with gold.
Her seventh manifested mid-air, lashing like a whip of living lightning.
Her eighth and ninth erupted together, their presence warping gravity itself.
And then—
The voice.
Not Xiao Jiuying's. Not the Wife of Ashes'. Something vast and hungry:
"AT LAST."
The Fox Spirit's eyes snapped open—all nine of them, layered vertically in her sockets like a predator's.
"Luo Feng." Her voice was a chorus. "You remember me now, don't you?"
A memory detonated in his skull:
The original Storm Lord standing over a chained fox deity, driving a God-Sealing Nail into each of her tails.
Her scream. His tears.
The Void Emperor's whisper: "It's the only way to contain her."
[The Choice: Trust or Betrayal?]
The fully unsealed Nine-Tails Fox loomed over them, her tails fanning like a monarch's cloak. The ground beneath her paws died, grass withering to ash in an instant.
Li Qing's sword hand shook. "We can't fight this."
The Fox Spirit—no, the Nine-Tails—tilted her head. "You could try."
Luo Feng stepped forward. "Jiuying. Fight it."
For a heartbeat, her central eye—the one that was still hers—flickered with recognition.
Then the Nine-Tails laughed, the sound like shattering glass.
"Oh, little patchwork man. She's not here anymore."
[Check-In Complete (Catastrophic Success)]
[Reward: Nine-Tails Power Unlocked]
[Cost: Xiao Jiuying's Consciousness Submerged]
The Nine-Tails didn't kill them.
She just left, stepping through a tear in reality as casually as one might exit a room.
The last thing she said before vanishing:
"Find the other nails. I'll handle the 'scary lady'."
Then she was gone, leaving behind only scorched earth and a single, glowing claw-mark on Luo Feng's palm.
[New Quest: Follow the Nine-Tails]
[Warning: She is Not Your Ally]
Li Qing exhaled sharply. "We're dead."
Luo Feng stared at the claw-mark. It pulsed, whispering coordinates only he could hear.
"No," he murmured. "We're finally on the right path."
END OF THE CHAPTER35