Long before Lin Huang was born, the Imperial Fox Clan had already walked on forbidden ground.
Deep beneath their ancestral manor, hidden within layers of formations, lay a sealed underground chamber. Ancient texts, shattered Soul Bones, and incomplete formation diagrams were scattered across the stone floor.
At the center of it all sat an old man with silver hair and sharp fox-like eyes.
Lin Yuan.
The former clan patriarch.
And the one who first proposed the concept of Bestialization.
"Why must Spirit Masters fear their own Martial Spirits?" he muttered, scribbling runes onto a half-broken Soul Bone. "They are not parasites. They are reflections of the soul itself."
His research had revealed a terrifying truth:
When a Spirit Master merged too deeply with their Martial Spirit without proper spiritual foundation, the instincts of the beast would devour the human mind.
Madness.Bloodlust.Spiritual collapse.
And yet—
The power gained through partial fusion far surpassed ordinary Spirit Skills.
Lin Yuan believed that the true problem was not Bestialization itself, but the incomplete cultivation of the body and mind.
Thus, the Imperial Fox Clan secretly preserved three heretical traditions:
Body Forging – to create a vessel strong enough to withstand the beast.
Spiritual Refinement – to maintain clarity and suppress inner demons.
Soul Contracts – to resonate with soul beasts rather than merely slaughter them.
To the outside world, the clan claimed Bestialization was a taboo technique inherited from ancient times — unstable, dangerous, and ultimately heretical.
This lie protected them.
If the royal court and great academies knew the truth, the Imperial Fox Clan would be crushed, dissected, and erased.
Lin Yuan laughed softly.
"Serve a king, and you serve a tiger," he muttered. "And tigers devour those who grow too strong."
When news reached him that his grandson had manifested eight phantom tails at birth, the old man's hands trembled.
"Good… good…" he whispered, eyes shining with unrestrained excitement."At last… a talent that might surpass me."
"To complete what I could not."
"To walk a path the gods themselves fear."
Far away, beneath the gentle glow of moonlight, the infant Lin Huang stirred.
And a forbidden future quietly took root.