Master of Ten Thousand Foxes

...

The night was vast and the wind howled.

Inside the dormitory hall.

The foxes were gathered in circles, either bragging and chatting, sparring in martial arts, or sharing their daytime experiences and insights.

In a circle of a dozen foxes, Quanquan Hu was holding a Bronze Mask in one paw and a file in the other, polishing the rust off its face.

"Ying ying ying, aow aow aow aow..."

... I’ll polish you to look even prettier, so that when you meet the Marquis again, the Marquis will be even happier!

The Bronze Mask beamed with joy and smugness.

Occasionally, it tilted its mouth, squinted its eyes, suggesting to Quanquan Hu that there were areas that hadn’t been polished yet.

"Ying ying aow aow aow?"

White Ears and Black Ears also gathered around, pointing with their fox claws, offering suggestions on how to repair it to look even better.

Amidst the squeaking sound of polishing, fragments of rust occasionally scattered.

The mask and the foxes were all very happy, and the atmosphere was very harmonious.

The mask was happy, not because of vanity... mainly because of Quanquan Hu’s words "when you meet the Marquis again," indicating it could see the Marquis again! It didn’t know if it would really meet the Marquis again, but as long as Quanquan Hu said so, as long as it heard this sentence, it was happy!

Not far away, Bai Mo, sitting at the bedside, accompanied by Croissant and Chive Bun, was reading the literature just taken from the fifth treasury.

A stack of Bronze Plates was neatly placed at the bedside, along with a huge white cobblestone, which the disciples had moved into the dormitory as a treasure.

"What is this?"

Bai Mo stretched out his finger, tapping the cobblestone, producing two dull thuds.

"It’s quite hard."

Chive Bun and Croissant also stretched their fox faces closer, sniffing the scent, reaching out their paws to scratch lightly... squeak... this stone was indeed hard, leaving only shallow white marks under their fox claws.

"But... it doesn’t have an Immortal Artifact circuit, so it’s not an Immortal Artifact.

"It’s just stubbornly hard, with poor toughness.

"Was this found in the treasury too?"

Bai Mo didn’t quite understand why such a stubbornly hard stone was stored as a treasure in the warehouse?

He ignored it for now, picked up a Copper Plate, and continued reading.

[... Our research found that even within the Fallen Immortal, it’s not a complete mess; they often have various strangely formed guilds, such as associations, clans, schools...]

[... Once, a formidable Fallen Immortal of Sequence Three organized the Qinghua Rain school for the exchange of knowledge among Fallen Immortals...]

[... Within the schools, members could freely buy and sell cultivation insights, each insight varying in power and price...]

A penny for a penny’s worth?

This is understandable.

[... Their method to assess the power of the Immortal Technique is through this Solid Round Stone]

[The Qinghua Rain emphasizes petals like rain, splitting cultivation into two parts]

[The first part is to enhance the power of a single petal]

[The second part is to increase the number of petals one can wield]

[Freely use Immortal Qi, to induce a petal; if one can cut into this Solid Round Stone, the first part of cultivation is considered successful]

[Cutting into the Solid Round Stone by one-fifth is considered cultivation Small Success]

[Cutting into the Solid Round Stone by one-third is considered cultivation Great Success]

[Cutting into the Solid Round Stone by half is considered perfected techniques]

[For this test, Immortal Qi can be freely used without any restrictions on using any petal...]

Oh?

Bai Mo raised his head, looking at the huge white cobblestone.

This thing is both hard and round and smooth; to say using only half a pint of Immortal Qi, using the smallest scale of Qinghua Rain to dissolve it, it indeed seems difficult.

"Shall I give it a try?"

Bai Mo remained quiet for a moment, recalling the Qinghua Rain knowledge he gathered so far, pondering for a while and organizing his thoughts.

"Where to find a petal?"

He glanced around, fishing out a soft petal soaked in wine from Croissant’s prepared mushroom petal pine scented brew, holding it at his fingertips.

In his pupils, the Flower Vase rotated, a strand of Primordial Immortal Qi was infused into this petal.

Whoosh...

This petal began to tremble, stained with wine with a light touch, floated out from Bai Mo’s fingertips, and gently spun in the air.

Chive Bun and Croissant lifted their heads, their round eyes following the dancing petal.

"Ying?"

"Aow?"

Croissant stretched out his fox claw to touch the dancing petal.

But the petal was nimble and quick, momentarily touching its fox claw, brushing its fur, then evading, lightly fluttering towards that Solid Round Stone.

The eyes of the two foxes followed the petal, seeing it silently swirling, and cutting into the stone as if cutting into a piece of tofu!

"Aow!"

"Ying!"

Two foxes widened their eyes.

They saw the flower petal emerge again from the other end of the stone, floating lightly in mid-air, drawing an arc, then flying back into the master’s hand, being lightly shaped by the master.

What’s going on?

Did they just see it wrong?

They instinctively looked at the stone again, trying to find where the flower petal had cut it.

Then they heard a "boom!"

The stone shattered, debris flying, dust clouding the air.

Instantly, the two foxes covered their faces with their paws, two large tails crossing in front of the master, shielding him from the dust cloud!

Inside the hall, all the brothers heard the commotion and turned to look over.

"Ying?"

"Ow?"

They saw that the stone now had a completely visible round hole, front to back, through which a hand could be extended.

Bai Mo grinned.

Just one flower petal packs such power.

What would it be like when he fully mastered Full Sky Flower Rain?

...

Whew...

The autumn wind of West State blew on the road, past fast-moving cars.

Beside the road, the flower bed was covered by a green curtain, as if some strange planting or electric maintenance was going on inside.

No one saw that Cai Xiaozhen, with over a dozen juniors, was burying array stakes inside.

"Hook eight-eight turn hook six-six five four three point six-six!"

Position reported, Cai Xiaozhen instantly inserted the array stake!

The array stake buzzed crisply, glowing with light.

"Done again!"

"Hahaha, so quick."

"Got to admit, an expert is an expert, truly helped us a lot."

While they marveled, they buried the array stakes, packed up their belongings, ready to leave.

The complicated tasks like covering the green curtain and digging up the flower bed weren’t their concern; others from the Immortal Committee would come to clean it up.

The group soon carried their computers and shovels back to the motorcade.

"This is a great opportunity, if there’s anything you don’t understand, go ask Expert Bai Mo."

"Don’t ask directly, better to send an email!"

"Why? Afraid he might get annoyed?"

"No, Expert Bai Mo is very approachable.

"The key is, if you ask directly, you might not understand right away. Can’t make him explain twice, right?

"Better to send an email, let him reply. That way, you can take your time to learn and look over what he wrote!"

Everyone suddenly realized, grinning with understanding.

As they neared the motorcade, Cai Xiaozhen suddenly frowned, pointing to the convenience store in the distance, indicating a figure drinking coke inside.

"That celebrity is still tailing us?"

Assistants looked over one by one, indeed seeing the bearded celebrity sitting in the far convenience store!

The atmosphere became a bit odd.

The group was pretty annoyed.

This bearded celebrity, uninvolved in the immortal realm, not a criminal, has a clean profile and a clear history.

But it’s precisely this that makes him most annoying!

This bearded guy follows them day in and day out, yet they have no reason to chase him away or lock him up.

"This feels too strange."

"Can’t let him keep following us, can we?"

"What if he does have a problem?"

Cai Xiaozhen frowned, feeling quite vexed.

"I checked with Divine Sense, he’s really not involved in the immortal realm. We have no grounds to act against him."

"But being followed by him is disgusting!

"Brother Cai, think of a way to deal with him?"

Cai Xiaozhen, having worked in the Immortal Committee for years, wasn’t some harmless little bunny, and at this moment, after a brief consideration, gritted his teeth, frowned deeply, and resolved fiercely.

"Let’s go, get a couple brothers, come with me to beat him up!

"Damn it, dare to follow us, shameless, let’s beat him up!

"Make him run away!"