Chapter 1006: The Tenderhearted Are Ever Betrayed by the Heartless

It was Yin Ji's first time living with a man in such a way, and the first time any man had treated her like this. At last, she experienced the beauty of love between men and women that human books had described.

She reveled in it, yet it also frightened her. What frightened her was the feeling of losing her reason.

Before long, Luo Qiu proposed marriage and asked her to become his wife.

Yin Ji told him, "I'm a fox demon. You're a human cultivator. We aren't suited to one another."

But Luo Qiu said it did not matter. Since he had decided to marry her, he would not care about such things.

At first, still inwardly afraid, Yin Ji repeatedly declined him gently. Yet she also found herself unable to break free of Luo Qiu.

In the end, faced with Luo Qiu's relentless courtship, Yin Ji fell. It was simply too difficult to refuse. The resources at Luo Qiu's disposal were vast beyond measure. There seemed to be nothing in the world he could not do. Few women could likely have withstood a courtship fashioned from such power into something like a beautiful dream.

Eventually, Yin Ji yielded to herself and found a reason to accept his love: for the Demon Fox race.

If she could obtain Luo Qiu's help, perhaps the plight of her people could finally be resolved.

She entertained that hope because Luo Qiu treated her too well, so well that it gave her an illusion: once they were husband and wife, surely Luo Qiu would help her.

And so Yin Ji agreed to marry Luo Qiu. She returned with him to Fox Immortal Realm, and the two were wed at Daluo Sacred Land.

In those years of affection, love between man and woman mingled with the pleasures of the flesh. Amid all that beauty, theirs was truly a life that made one envy only the mandarin ducks, not the immortals. It was the happiest period of Yin Ji's life.

Yet beneath that happiness, a hidden worry remained buried in her heart. She did not know how to confess her true identity. She wanted to tell him, yet feared losing everything she had come to treasure.

Her heart remained trapped between hope and fear. After marrying Luo Qiu and learning some of the truths behind the affairs of Sacred Realm, she also came to understand that matters were not as simple as she had imagined. Becoming Luo Qiu's wife did not mean he could simply help her. There were things even Luo Qiu could not decide alone; he too faced pressure from the others.

Things had already reached this point. All Yin Ji could do was wait and hope for a suitable opportunity to speak.

Still, marrying Luo Qiu brought obvious advantages. Yin Ji had never forgotten the mission she carried for the Demon Fox race. Using her position as Luo Qiu's wife, she repeatedly helped her people in secret. Whenever she learned in advance of plans to exterminate them, she covertly warned the Demon Fox race, helping them evade several meticulously prepared purges.

Naturally, the Demon Fox race waited in hope as well. They hoped that after their Clan Chief became Luo Qiu's wife, she might somehow resolve their people's plight.

Yin Ji and Luo Qiu lived happily as husband and wife for many years.

Throughout all those years, Luo Qiu treated her exactly as he had at the beginning. He never changed. A man who stood high above others and rarely gave his heart, once he did give it, loved deeply.

Yin Ji often sighed to herself: how wonderful it would be if only there were no grudges between them.

Then something happened that no one had expected.

Yin Ji became pregnant.

Even Yin Ji herself had never imagined it possible. She had not known that a human and a demon could conceive new life together. Precisely because neither of them had believed such a thing could happen, they had never taken any precautions during their intimacy. They had done nothing to prevent it for all those years, and nothing had ever happened. Then suddenly, it did.

Luo Qiu was surprised as well. Even he seemed unsure whether to regard it as an unexpected joy.

There was a faint implication in his words: he seemed to hope Yin Ji would not keep the child.

Luo Qiu had no idea what the two of them might produce together. Would it be human? Demon? Or perhaps some kind of monster? What if the child were born as something impossible to face?

But Yin Ji could not bring herself to lay such a cruel hand on the flesh and blood inside her. Her own feelings would never allow it, and among the Demon Fox race there was certainly no custom of destroying one's own unborn child.

Seeing that Yin Ji refused, Luo Qiu could only yield.

Later, the child was born.

Nothing was wrong. It was a living human child, showing no sign of demon influence, no monster at all, but an adorable little girl.

With his fears gone, Luo Qiu was beside himself with joy. Yin Ji was delighted as well.

Luo Qiu treated the child wonderfully, and he treated Yin Ji even better than before.

And precisely because of that, Yin Ji thought that with this child between them, the moment to speak had finally come.

One day, while Luo Qiu was holding the child and playing with her, Yin Ji finally told him the truth.

Luo Qiu was stunned on the spot.

And in that moment, Yin Ji's beautiful dream finally shattered.

For the first time, the two of them quarreled. Before then, Luo Qiu had always indulged her in everything. For the first time, Yin Ji cried in front of him.

Luo Qiu demanded to know why she had deceived him. Why had she lied to him for so many years?

Yin Ji asked him, "When you proposed to me, didn't you say you wouldn't care about my past?"

Luo Qiu was furious, his emotions seeming almost to collapse. "Not caring and being deceived are not the same thing! I trusted you. I cherished you. And all this time, you were lying to me, treating me like a fool for all these years!"

He even brought up Wu Chang, who by then had become one of the Nine Saints, and demanded to know whether everything from the beginning had been a scheme jointly arranged by Yin Ji and Wu Chang.

Yin Ji explained that it was not. She said she had only learned later that Wu Chang had used her, and that Wu Chang did not know her true identity. If Wu Chang knew who she really was, then by now he would certainly have used the matter to make trouble.

But once trust had been torn apart, it seemed almost impossible to restore. No matter what Yin Ji said, Luo Qiu would not believe her. Yin Ji was telling the truth, yet Luo Qiu only said she had hidden herself too deeply.

Luo Qiu had already guessed why several carefully arranged purges against the Demon Fox race had failed. So the traitor had been at his own side all along, the person beside him whom he trusted most.

He demanded to know whether that had been the true reason Yin Ji appeared at his side in the first place.

Luo Qiu even used their child against her. Yin Ji had said nothing earlier and nothing later, yet chose to reveal the truth only after the child was born. To him, that was obvious proof she had planned everything in advance.

At the time, Luo Qiu was like an enraged beast. Yin Ji had never seen him so furious.

Luo Qiu struck out.

Not at Yin Ji, but at everyone else.

On the spot, he killed every servant who had heard their argument, including two of his own disciples.

Afterward, Luo Qiu gave Yin Ji a choice. He said he did not believe explanations, only facts. He was willing to give Yin Ji one more chance, but she had to choose.

If she was sincere toward him and their child, then she had to abandon the Demon Fox race. He demanded that Yin Ji help exterminate her own people as proof for everyone to see.

On one side stood Luo Qiu and their child. On the other stood the Demon Fox race.

She could choose only one.

Yin Ji refused to choose. She would abandon neither side. She would not abandon her family, and she would not abandon her people. She even begged Luo Qiu, for the sake of the bond between husband and wife, to help the Demon Fox race and mediate an end to the hatred between the Demon Foxes and human cultivators.

Luo Qiu answered by sweeping his sleeve and walking away.

Later, Luo Qiu must have made all his preparations. Perhaps he did not want anyone else to learn the truth. Using their child as a hostage, he lured Yin Ji to a remote place and once again forced her to choose.

Yin Ji refused.

So Luo Qiu gave her another choice. Holding their child hostage, he asked her, "You live, or the child lives. Choose for yourself."

Yin Ji had lived with Luo Qiu for many years. She had seen how he dealt with those under him and understood something of the kind of man he was.

She knew Luo Qiu was using their child to force her one final time, and also to make one final test.

If she chose to abandon the child, the last trace of mercy Luo Qiu still held for her would vanish completely. Their bond would be severed, and he would strike to kill. He would never let her go.

Yin Ji was no match for Luo Qiu to begin with, and now he also held their child hostage.

Heartbroken beyond measure, she understood why Luo Qiu had brought her here. This time, he was determined to force a final choice from her.

She could not betray her people.

The final words she gave Luo Qiu were: "Take good care of the child."

Then Yin Ji gouged out her own vertical eye.

For a Demon Fox, losing that vertical eye meant losing one's life.

She cast the eye aside and staggered away.

Holding the child, Luo Qiu stood there with his jaw clenched. He said nothing more.

Nor did he pursue her to kill her.

After hearing this incredible history, Niu Youdao sighed and shook his head. "The tenderhearted are ever betrayed by the heartless. Who would have thought a fox woman could be so tenderhearted?"

He could not say who had been right and who had been wrong. But he knew that from the standpoint of the Demon Fox race, or from the standpoint of a woman, the man would certainly seem heartless.

The black Demon Fox man immediately retorted, "What do you mean, tenderhearted? Do you think our Demon Fox race is like you humans? The sons and daughters of our race are faithful to one mate for life. If a husband or wife dies, the one left behind will remain beside the grave forever and never remarry. Some even fear their own resolve may weaken and bite through their own limbs so they can never leave. Once one of our people has chosen a mate, that choice does not change lightly. We're nothing like you humans, who can have three wives and four concubines and still think it isn't enough."

Niu Youdao waved a hand, unwilling to argue the point. Instead, he asked curiously, "If losing the vertical eye means death for a Demon Fox, then how did your former Clan Chief..."

The black Demon Fox man said, "For that, we have your master to thank."

Niu Youdao was startled. "My master?"

He did not understand. Had Shang Song not disappeared? Surely Shang Song had not reappeared to save her.

The black Demon Fox man sighed. "Back then, I still couldn't take human form. As it happened, I was the one who carried messages between our former Clan Chief at Daluo Sacred Land and the Demon Fox race here. After what happened, she found me. Afraid she wouldn't survive long enough to return, and because there were already very few among our race who could take human form, she forcibly infused me with all of her transformation essence-blood.

"The Clan Chief of the Demon Fox race had always been inherited through the bloodline of our former Clan Chief's branch. That lineage bore the responsibility of protecting the whole race. But our former Clan Chief had no suitable successor among us. We could hardly call Luo Fangfei back here and make her Clan Chief. After receiving our former Clan Chief's essence-blood inheritance, I gained the ability to take human form. That was why everyone later chose me as Clan Chief. Truthfully, I've always felt unworthy of the position."

One of the Elders said, "Clan Chief, you have nothing to feel ashamed of. If you hadn't spared no cost to bring the former Clan Chief back before she breathed her last, her life could never have been saved. The whole race is grateful to you. You deserve the position of Clan Chief."

The black Demon Fox man shook his head. "Ultimately, it was only because the former Clan Chief's cultivation was so profound that she managed to hold on that long. Otherwise, she would never have survived until I brought her back.

"Long ago, when Shang Song still had dealings with the Demon Fox race, he gave us a golden elixir he had personally refined from spirit herbs gathered from across the world. He called it a life-saving elixir and said that no matter how grievous the injury, so long as the person had not yet breathed their last, it could save them. Even with Shang Song's power to command all beneath Heaven in those days, he was unable to refine more than a very small number of such elixirs. Naturally, the Demon Fox race treasured the one he gave us like a priceless relic.

"After I brought the former Clan Chief back on the verge of death, the Elders immediately used that golden elixir. It finally preserved her life. That time, she slept for an entire year before waking. Not long after waking, she fell asleep again. The injury had left a permanent affliction. Now she can be awakened only once each year, and after waking she remains conscious for only a short time before she must sleep for another full year. Unless the matter is of enormous importance, we do not disturb her. That is also why you had the opportunity to take our former Clan Chief hostage earlier.

"And because her very foundation was damaged, she has never again been able to take human form."

[End of Chapter 1006]