The pressure in the room skyrocketed. Hu Lie felt a cold sweat break out on his forehead, but his arrogance pushed him forward. He puffed out his chest and forced a charming smile.
"Hmm... Xiao Bai, don't be wary, and don't be so sad," Hu Lie said, his voice smooth and oily. He walked a few steps closer, eyeing her massive, swollen belly. He assumed her bad mood was simply due to the heavy burden of her pregnancy. "See? I am here. I stepped away from my border patrol duties to come and take care of you. You shouldn't be alone in this cold cave."
The giant white fox did not look comforted. Her eyes narrowed into dangerous slits. The air around her grew freezing cold.
When she spoke, her voice echoed directly into his mind. It was a beautiful, feminine voice, but it carried the absolute, crushing authority of a queen.
"Hu Lie," Xiao Bai's voice rang out, cold as the northern ice. "You forget the rules."
Hu Lie's smile faltered.
"Do not call me by that casual name," she warned, her nine tails slowly rising into the air behind her, casting massive shadows across the cavern walls. "I am your Sovereign. If you ever address me so casually again, I will lock you in the deep Ice Prison for a hundred years. Be polite in front of me."
Hu Lie gritted his teeth. His hands curled into fists hidden inside his long sleeves. He hated this. He hated that even though he was the father of her child, she still treated him like a common soldier. He had hoped that her pregnancy would make her weak, dependent, and soft. Instead, she seemed more terrifying than ever.
"Now, go away," Xiao Bai continued heavily, shifting her massive weight with a tired groan. "I don't need any kind of help from you. Return to your post."
The outright rejection shattered Hu Lie's pride. The arrogance he had built up boiled over into foolish anger. He took a step forward, his Shangqing aura flaring up defensively.
"You... woman!" Hu Lie barked, dropping his charming act. "Should I remind you what you should be doing? I am the father! I have rights—"
He never finished his sentence.
Xiao Bai did not stand up. She did not bare her fangs. She simply looked at him with utter disappointment and flicked one of her nine tails.
BOOM!
She rustled up a massive gust of wind using pure, condensed spiritual strength. It was not normal wind; it was a solid wall of Taiqing-level Yin energy.
The gust struck Hu Lie like a falling mountain. His protective aura shattered instantly. He was lifted off his feet and hurled backward through the air with terrifying speed.
"Gah!" Hu Lie wailed as his back violently struck the gem-carved wall of the tunnel. Several small crystals shattered upon impact. He spat out a mouthful of blood, his bones creaking under the immense force.
Before he could even fall to the floor, the spiritual wind wrapped around him again, sweeping him up like a piece of trash. With a violent thrust, the wind carried him all the way down the tunnel and violently ejected him from the cave.
Outside the entrance, the two elite guards jumped in surprise as Hu Lie was thrown out of the darkness. He landed face-first in the cold snow, sliding several feet before coming to a humiliating halt.
The guards blinked. They looked at the powerful, arrogant Lord Hu Lie lying facedown in the dirt.
They quickly turned their heads away, their shoulders shaking as they stiffled their laughter. They dared not make a sound, but their amusement was obvious.
Hu Lie pushed himself up from the snow, his handsome face bruised and completely red with absolute fury. He glared at the guards, then glared back at the dark entrance of the cave. He wanted to scream, to curse her name, but the lingering fear of her power kept his mouth shut.
Huffing angrily and wiping the blood from his chin, he turned his back on the Sacred Cave. Humiliated and spiteful, he stomped away toward his own mansion, completely abandoning his patrol duties for the day.
Back inside the quiet depths of the cavern, the violent spiritual winds faded away.
The atmosphere softened. The terrifying, god-like Matriarch let her massive head drop back onto her paws. The dangerous light in her eyes faded, replaced by a deep, overwhelming exhaustion.
Xiao Bai let out a long, heavy sigh that echoed through the empty room.
Maintaining her beast form took a lot of energy, but it was the only way she could handle the burden she was carrying. Slowly, she shifted her gaze down to look at her swollen belly.
Demon pregnancies were known to be incredibly long. A normal fox might carry a child for a decade before giving birth to a spirit beast. But this... this was different.
She could feel the child inside her. It did not feel like a normal fox cub. Normally, a Fox Clan infant radiated cool, calming Yin energy. But the soul growing inside her womb was completely opposite. It felt like a tiny, burning sun. It was radiating an intense, scorching Yang energy that constantly clashed with her icy body.
It was a miracle the child had survived this long, and an even bigger miracle that it hadn't burned her from the inside out.
"It's been years, my child," Xiao Bai whispered softly into the empty cave, her voice laced with maternal affection and deep worry. "When will you come out?"
She looked toward the entrance of the cave, sensing the biting chill of the northern winds outside.
"The winds are getting colder," she murmured to herself. Her clan relied on her. The human sects in the Central Plains were growing bolder, and ambitious fools like Hu Lie were causing cracks within her own ranks. "I also need to lead my clan..."
But her eyelids were growing incredibly heavy. The burning sun inside her belly was demanding more energy to grow, feeding off her spiritual power to forge its new body.
She gently wrapped one of her massive, fluffy tails over her belly, shielding it from the cold air of the cave. She closed her eyes, forcing herself to sleep. She needed to save her spiritual energy as much as possible, providing everything she had to the mysterious, burning infant waiting to be born.