Wang Yonghao stopped high in the air, near the very top of the world fragment, Qian Shanyi hanging off his waist on a rope harness. Signs of his battle with the kitsune were easy to find: their one table broken in half and the poles of the palisade around the baths scattered all across a wide patch of scorched grass.

The maid dress was lying in the middle of the world fragment, torn into shreds. The kitsune itself was nowhere to be seen, and from thirty meters up in the air, she couldn’t feel its spiritual energy either.

“So, kitsune, has our humble abode been to your tastes?” Qian Shanyi said, pitching her voice to carry all across the hemisphere.

Silence was her only answer. She counted to ten, and then raised her voice further. “The only place you may be hiding is our little hut. Come out, or Yonghao will simply burn it down, with you in it.”

Wang Yonghao immediately kicked her in the back of the head. The kick wasn’t that hard, but she didn’t expect it, and some of it passed through her spiritual shield. She glared up at him.

he signed at her in great agitation. His eyebrows were moving so much they were about to fly off his face.

She scowled up at him, rubbing the back of her head. It stung a bit. Could he not whistle instead, if he just wanted her attention? She signed back. Obviously they weren’t going to set fire to their house - they put so much effort into building it, and it would just lead to a repeat of the dead air crisis.

She wasn’t quite sure what they were supposed to do. The books she read advised calling the local spirit hunters if you were ever unfortunate enough to encounter a kitsune, but that wasn’t really an option. Kill it from the air with a flying sword, perhaps.

“Why don’t you come down instead?” Kitsune’s answer echoed around the world fragment, world edges distorting the sound with every reflection, so much that it was hard to tell where it actually came from. There was a tense, animalistic quality to the voice, not at all like the human one she heard from the so-called Linghui Mei. “We could… speak… face to face.”

Qian Shanyi snorted. “I am fine exactly where I am. Yonghao told me how high you could jump, when you tried to eat his soul.“

“So you are just a coward,” the voice said after a considerable pause. “You cultivators love to tell everyone how brave you are. Anyone can, from so high up.”

Qian Shanyi laughed. “If you are trying to bait me, save yourself the trouble,” she said, “there is nothing you can say that would shake my convictions.”

“Then why are you even here?” the kitsune snarled, finally poking its head from underneath their hut. It looked like some painter spilled all their inks in the air, a blending of shapes and colors shifting between a fox’s snout and a dozen different human faces far too fast to read any individual features, to catch so much as a hint of an expression. “Capturing me was not enough for you? Come to finish the job, hunter?”

“I am no spirit hunter,” Qian Shanyi said, calmly studying kitsune’s ever-shifting eyes. “And that is the question. Yonghao - what should we do with it?”

Above her, Wang Yonghao sighed. “What do you mean? We hide her until the spirit hunter goes away, then let her go.”

“You would let a murderer go freely, to continue on their rampage?” she said, “Kitsune are spiritophages. They must prey on people as surely as they must eat and drink, lest they starve.”

She glanced up, and saw Wang Yonghao chewing on his lip, a conflicted look on his face. “You don’t know she killed anyone,” he said quietly, “or that she would again.”

“If I see a man of twenty years, do I know if he has ever eaten?”

“Surely there must be something we could do,” he said.

“Truly? Like what?” She snorted, and raised her voice higher. “Hey spirit, can you sustain yourself without eating people?”

“Why?” the kitsune snarled down below, stalking out from underneath the house, beginning to circle them on all four limbs. Its gaunt shape shifted with every step, clawed limbs extending and shortening, bright orange fur growing out and shrinking away, to be replaced with human skin and hair, only to come back in the next moment. Twin, long and fluffy tails were raised dangerously over its head, twitching, ready to strike, like those of a raging scorpion. “Would you feed me rainbows and morning dew with a little spoon? Capture butterflies for me to snack on? Nourish me from your breast like your own child?”

Qian Shanyi calmly crossed her hands on her chest. “I would if it worked. It’s virtuous for a cultivator to bring peace with another spirit species, even at great cost to themselves.”

“Come down here and I’ll whisper what I can eat right in your ear,” the kitsune responded.

“You would have to buy me dinner first if you want to bite my ears - ”

“Can you just tell us if you know something, please?” Wang Yonghao interrupted her, “Anything at all. Even if it’s something hard - we have a lot of resources, we could help -”

“Help?” The kitsune screamed, its voice turning more human for a brief moment. “Help you, bloodthirsty butchers? Help with what? Help you hunt my sisters and daughters? I won’t tell you anything.”

“At least tell us your real name!” Wang Yonghao called out from above, to no effect.

Qian Shanyi tapped her cheek. They needed to make a decision soon, but unless she knew this kitsune would not kill ordinary people, she could not possibly agree to letting it go. And Wang Yonghao would not simply agree to kill it. She needed a plan, but without kitsune’s cooperation, she was down to what information she already knew - and that posed something of a problem.

All the books she read about the kitsune were ancient, and so could hardly be trusted - especially since they apparently omitted the crucial fact that kitsune could blend in perfectly with ordinary people.

Most of the information came from a good three hundred and fifty years ago, back when the kitsune lords were overthrown. They spoke of seductive spirits, ones that could twist you in knots with a single word and set you against your closest friends with another, but it was hard to tell how much of that was fact and how much was pure lies and superstition, meant to make the foes of that time seem more devious than they really were.

The fact that kitsune consumed people, at least, seemed solid enough. It was the cause of the entire conflict, and why, ever since then, the existence of kitsune was declared as incompatible with human life - alongside eleven other species. For that to be false, too many other things would have had to happen differently.

The only question was - to what extent? By the time the reformation rolled around, kitsune were all but extinct, and pre-modern cultivators could hardly be relied on to study the topic carefully. She needed information she could trust, but the kitsune, her only source, had shut its jaws tighter than the grip of a golden core powerhouse.

She'd just have to pry them open.

“Hm,” Qian Shanyi said, thinking it over, “How many people have you killed?”

“How many steam buns have you eaten?” The kitsune snarled again.

So uncooperative.

Qian Shanyi paused, looking down calmly from thirty meters up in the air. Well, such obvious bluster called for a response.

“You want to know how many steam buns I ate, spirit?” she said, her tone level and precise, “I know it well. My mother loved making them - every day, ever since I was two, I would have at least one for lunch. When I was fourteen, I joined a sect - there, our outer disciples made a batch of steam buns every third day. Cultivators need many calories to train well - and so I made sure to indulge, taking at least five every time. I am now twenty-three years old. I trust you know how to multiply?”

Qian Shanyi ran a careless hand through her hair to steady herself, keeping her eyes locked with the beast below.

“Ten thousand buns - that is how many I have eaten,” she said, raising her voice, “but you had not killed ten thousand men, for if you had, the spirit hunter after you would have been a golden core powerhouse. So how many?”

The kitsune did not respond, simply continuing its slow spiral around the world fragment. It was inching closer to them - in as far as it was getting closer to the center - perhaps hoping they would dip down into the range of its leap. Qian Shanyi thought of doing much the same, back when she first met Wang Yonghao - but she wasn’t stupid enough to think she could win a fight with two unfamiliar cultivators.

Kitsune were supposed to be liars and tricksters, clever beyond belief - but that was not what she saw. What she saw in front of her was not cunning, the sort that could sneak into your own head without you noticing. What she saw was bluster and rage, of one cornered and clutching to their last shreds of power.

This meant either her assumptions were wrong, or she was missing something.

Start from the base and break it down.

What did this kitsune want? Two possibilities: either all was as it seemed, and it was on the run from the spirit hunter and met them through an accident of luck, or it was here deliberately.

Suppose the latter. The only way that made any sense is if it knew about Wang Yonghao well in advance, and sought something from him. The accident with the spirit hunter might be a way to get the two of them to trust it, to present itself as a vulnerable victim. But if that was the case, then Qian Shanyi, at least, would have tried to get closer to Wang Yonghao well in advance, befriend and seduce him, and only then play the victim card. Doing it up front was far too risky and unpredictable, and only got even more so the more cultivators got involved.

So suppose it really was an accident. Kitsune sought to survive, and to get the spirit hunter off its trail. But if that was the case, why bluster? Trickery would have served it far better. Wang Yonghao even gave it a perfect out - claim that it needed to consume some extremely rare pills, and look for an opportunity to escape in the meantime. That is what Qian Shanyi would have tried.

So turn it on its head. Discount the legends of kitsune trickery entirely - clearly this one could not lie for shit. What did this leave? If it was human, cornered with no way out, then bluster would have been entirely expected. It would certainly explain the poor lies. But could she confidently conclude kitsune psychology was identical to that of humans, simply because they were apparently poor liars?

No, she couldn’t.

Perhaps she didn’t need to. The point of bluster was to make yourself seem too dangerous to attack - or at least to convince yourself that you were not completely helpless. That this kitsune still did not tell her how many people it killed suggested that it was not an impressive number - or else it would have tried to twist the knife further.

Yet even if the sheer count was not impressive, why not describe some in gruesome detail? A demonic cultivator in its place would not have hesitated to do so, if her novels were to be believed. So why the reticence?

Hm.

Perhaps there was a way to find out. She would just need a little… push. With a sledgehammer.

“They found the merchant you killed, you know,” she lied smoothly.

The kitsune froze mid step. “What?” it said, voice shifting towards human once again.

Shock was good. Mentioning the merchant was a bit of a gamble, but they did not have time for more gentle approaches. “Oh yes.” Qian Shanyi nodded. “His throat torn out, left to choke on his own blood. The spirit hunter told me all about it.”

Wang Yonghao shifted around above her, making her swing below him on her ropes. He didn’t hear her speak to the spirit hunter, and so his face would reveal nothing, consciously or subconsciously.

The kitsune merely growled, continuing to circle them. She needed something stronger... "His daughter found him first," she continued, "he was breathing his last when she arrived. That poor child. Her last memory of her father would always be her trying to stem the flow of blood with her little pearly fingers. Far too small for the wound you tore open."

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Kitsune snarled again, its body hugging the grass, ready to spring. Twin tails whipped clumps of dirt around it. “You liar!”

That certainly got a reaction. This was exactly what she was aiming for - if this kitsune felt the need to bluster, it should also feel the need to explain itself, even to an enemy, if only so that Shanyi's lies were not left to hang unchallenged.

But she needed just a bit more. “The only thing I don’t understand is the brutality of it all.” she said curiously. “Surely the smell of blood would give you away? Snapping his neck would have worked just as well. Is it just your thirst for carnage?” She shook her head, and shrugged. “But then again - what else can you expect,” she said, leaning forwards slightly. “from a beast.”

“Kalesherdek kra, I will tear your throat out as soon as you descend!”

Qian Shanyi put one hand on her heart. “I speak the truth. Why are you so agitated? Afraid to confront your own sins?”

“My sins?!” Kitsune shrieked, then quieted down to a mere scream, “I did not kill him! He was alive when I left!”

“Truly? But why keep a witness alive?”

"I am not like you butchers."

"Not like us?” Qian Shanyi said in a mocking tone, “Will you say that you are vegetarian as well? That you haven't killed a single person in your entire life?"

"I do not kill people. I kill cultivators."

"How interesting," Qian Shanyi said, tapping her cheek. "Well, perhaps the spirit hunter lied to me. It wouldn't be the first time."

It really was interesting. If the kitsune spoke truthfully - and it was in no state to lie, agitated as it was - then it would have had to sustain itself exclusively on cultivators - but that was impossible.

Suppose the weight of an average cultivator was around seventy kilograms, out of which perhaps fifty six were meat and edible organs. Qian Shanyi did not know the caloric content of human flesh - another topic to research later, she supposed - but assuming it was anything like other meat, it should hold one to two and a half thousand calories per kilogram, for a total of sixty to a hundred and forty thousand calories per murdered cultivator.

A kitsune was still a creature of flesh, and at the size of a human adult, surely had to consume at least two thousand calories per day. At that rate, a single cultivator could last anywhere from one to two and a half months, assuming it could preserve the flesh perfectly - totaling no less than five per year. Pessimistically, as many as thirty.

But cultivators were not like sailors or pilgrims, and the loss of even a single one, even a loose cultivator, would not pass unnoticed - not to mention the sheer difficulty of killing so many. Kitsune's trick of passing for an ordinary person was good, but not good enough to survive hundreds of ambushes.

And yet it must have been getting the calories from somewhere - which meant only one thing. It could consume another form of food to sustain its body. Perhaps it needed to consume human souls in order to derive some essential forms of spiritual energy, to sustain to nourish its own soul - but humans could not be its main foodstock.

But there was another fact that had to be true, if this account was to be believed.

"You can feed on human souls without killing them, can't you?" Qian Shanyi said, grinning, "like a little lamprey."

The kitsune dropped closer to the ground, its ears flattening against its head. Truth, then. There were two possibilities here, and she simply made a guess.

Wang Yonghao kicked Qian Shanyi in the head again. This time, his kick was weaker, and she was ready for it. "If you knew this already, why didn't you just say so?" he said, clearly annoyed for some bizarre reason.

She turned her head upwards to grin at him. "Who says that I did? Perhaps the Heavens have blessed me with a revelation right this moment."

"Fine," he said with a sigh, "keep your secrets. It solves the problem, so thank you for finally telling me. Even if you could have done it sooner."

"Does it?" Qian Shanyi said, "Know some heroic volunteers, willing to sacrifice their own souls, in order to let the kitsune live? How do you suppose we convince them?" She put her hands together in a begging gesture, pitching her voice higher to sound like the most annoying child. "Sir, would you mind if our pet here eats a bit of your soul? Please? Pretty please? We promise it won't kill you. No, we are not demonic cultivators trying to turn you into a human cauldron, why do you ask?"

"I'll do it."

Her gaze snapped upwards, and she gave Wang Yonghao her most befuddled stare. "You want to become a cauldron?"

Wang Yonghao crossed his arms. "Stop exaggerating. It's not the same at all. At best it's pair cultivation."

She rubbed her forehead. "Should have been forbidden in the same edict, if you ask me. I am just surprised how willing you are to put your own soul at risk."

"Well what else are we supposed to do, toss her out to be killed?" he snapped. "That would be worse. If my soul can actually save someone for once, so be it."

Qian Shanyi ruffled her hair. "I suppose of all people you'd see harming your own cultivation as a benefit. Very well. Bring us down."

As they descended, she kept her attention on the kitsune. It settled down a bit, sitting on the grass like an enormous cat, ink and fog around its body slowly receding. Its head slowly shifted back to that of the maid from the inn, while the rest of the body remained fox-like, one tail wrapped around its legs, the tip of the other chewed nervously in its teeth.

Wary eyes tracked them, previous rage falling away like a wave on a beach. And just like a wave, it left things behind. Exhaustion. Fear. Doubt.

Looking down from above suddenly gave Qian Shanyi a sense of deja vu. How long ago was she stuck here, alone, waiting for Wang Yonghao to come down, her fate uncertain?

Fine, little spirit. Kitsune lords have long been buried. We’ll see if we can bury the vengeance as well.

"Finally got the bravery to come closer?" the kitsune growled, releasing its tail to speak once they were halfway to it. Her eyes flickered between Qian Shanyi and Wang Yonghao, but she didn’t retreat.

"Please,” Qian Shanyi said, holding her stare. “You won't attack us. There is too much hope in your eyes."

Now that they were closer, she reached out with her spiritual energy senses, only to feel the cilia of her soul tear painfully where kitsune’s tails touched them, and jerked them back. Only superficial damage - they should grow back soon enough.

What little she did feel though, was not at all like an ordinary person, energy pulsing like the heartbeat of a runner after a sprint. Could it do something similar to what the cultivators did, when closing their spiritual pores? But that did not change the nature of the flow, only the speed.

"I am surprised how easy it was to convince you, Shanyi,” Wang Yonghao said quietly, ”I thought you would never help... someone who killed cultivators before."

"It is virtuous for a cultivator to bring peace,” Qian Shanyi said calmly. “Besides, if the Heavens sent her here to be killed, we might as well do the exact opposite."

"What?” Kitsune’s hackles rose once again. “I have done nothing against the Heavenly will!"

"Oh it's not about you." Qian Shanyi waved the kitsune off. "It's about me."

"A narcissist cultivator. What else is new?"

“Could you please not antagonize each other?” Wang Yonghao sighed up above. “I know Shanyi can be annoying, but we are just trying to help.” He lowered his voice down to a whisper, so much so that she wasn’t sure if she was supposed to hear it. “And Shanyi gets a hundred times more annoying if you try…”

Qian Shanyi didn’t justify his little comment with a response. Instead, she idly tapped her cheek, as they landed down on the ground. "Hmm. Far be it for me to say I could not be blinding myself, but it's easy enough to prove,” she said, quickly untying her harness from his waist. “When did Bao Sheng begin chasing you, spirit?"

The kitsune rose up on all fours again, her gaze wary as the two of them approached. "Why?" she said.

Qian Shanyi rolled her eyes. "There is no reason to hide this, I will ask him as soon as I see him again. But fine. Was it two days ago? Around midday?"

The wariness in kitsune’s eyes rose again. "You did this to me?" she said uncertainly.

"Don't flatter yourself. I had no idea you even existed until I met you,” Qian Shanyi drawled. “Two and a half days ago I did something that made the Heavens want my head on a platter, and you are just serving as their weapon.”

Wang Yonghao paused in his step. “Are you sure?...” he began.

She glanced back at him for a split moment, and then turned back towards the kitsune. For all that she was confident in her safety, it wouldn’t do to be entirely careless. “What else could this be?” she said, “A spirit that could blend in as an ordinary person, one that eats people - and their cultivation - and most importantly, one that is too obstinate to tell us its problems? One that could either kill me, or strike a schism between us, Yonghao, or at the very least bring the spirit hunter down on our heads? It's almost inspired, I have to admit.” She shook her head, and gestured at the kitsune. “Back in our room, you were ready to strike, weren't you? If Yonghao did not stop me from pushing you further, perhaps I would already be dead."

“It would be deserved,” the kitsune growled, stepping back from them. “Don’t come any closer.”

Qian Shanyi stopped in her tracks and sighed. “I need some of your hair and spit,” she said, “there should be a free pill bottle near our table, if you haven’t shattered them all while fruitlessly trying to kill Yonghao. Collect them yourself if you cannot stomach me approaching.”

Suspicion dripping from black eyes, like sap from a wounded tree. “For what?”

“To lead the spirit hunter away,” Qian Shanyi explained calmly. “I do not want him snooping around, wondering where you went - I want him to have a false trail he can follow. To make one, I need your spit.”

“Am I supposed to just believe you?”

Qian Shanyi rolled her eyes. "Fine,” she said lazily, leaning forwards, and pulling her robes aside on her shoulder to expose her neck. “Then strike me down, if you dare.”

“Shanyi!” Wang Yonghao said sharply, stepping in between them. “Can you spend a single hour without putting yourself in danger?”

“What danger?” Qian Shanyi responded, glancing at him. “If she’s the sort to attack me over nothing, then I was already in danger from the moment you decided we’d help her. So let her. Go on, move aside.”

For a moment, the kitsune actually seemed tempted. “This is a trap,” she said.

“Of course it’s a trap.” Qian Shanyi said, running a seductive finger alongside her throat, over the jugular and the trachea. “There is no exit out of this world fragment without Yonghao, and for all that he is a bleeding heart, I doubt he’d leave you alive if you were to kill me right in front of him. But go on, make your choice. Let your hatred of cultivators blind you, or survive. It’s up to you.”

The kitsune hissed at her, but did not strike. Qian Shanyi sighed, straightened up, and fixed up her robes. “Either we are here to help you, or we are here to kill you. If it’s the latter, then attack us without remorse. If it’s the former, then why doubt my words? And frankly - if we wanted to kill you, we could have done it from the air.”

“You want me to trust you because you didn’t kill me yet?”

“No, I just want you to act with a shred of rationality,” Qian Shanyi snapped. “I don’t need your trust. I don’t trust you, but I don’t trust most people. I certainly don’t trust those with centuries of blood between us. For all I know, you will tear my soul out as soon as I let my guard down. But trust is not the same thing as aimless doubt. If you expect us to betray you, fine. But sweet mercy, do not see betrayal in every single gesture.”

Kitsune’s eyes flickered between Wang Yonghao and Qian Shanyi, her hackles rising further. Smoke and ink drifted up from her body, shape shifting, twin tails twitching. Wang Yonghao dropped his hand on the pommel of his sword, but Qian Shanyi simply watched on calmly. At this point, this was just waiting for the boulder to roll downhill.

“Bring me out of here,” kitsune finally said, shifting back into the human form of the maid. She was completely naked, and Wang Yonghao blushed profusely, doing his best to look over her head. “If you aren’t lying, then bring me back to the inn!”

Qian Shanyi sighed, and shrugged, heading off to pick up a set of robes for the poor spirit. “Finally, she reasons. Just give me a moment to collect my things.”

----------------------------------------

The room in the inn looked exactly the same as they had left it. Wang Yonghao rose out of the portal to his inner world, carrying the kitsune in his arms like a bride. As soon as she was out of the portal, she hopped out of his arms, and turned around, taking a defensive posture, arms wide at her sides and body leaning forwards, nose sniffing the air.

“Do not step too far into the room,” Qian Shanyi warned, raising her hand, “there is a crack in the door, and they may spot you through it. And don’t leave the formations.”

Kitsune glanced all around the room, her gaze stopping on the window. Seconds passed.

“Well?” Qian Shanyi prompted. “If you want to flee, then flee.”

“Please don’t.” Wang Yonghao sighed. ”There are four cultivators in this building besides us. You can’t fight your way out.”

“I would have said we will neither help nor hinder you, but I can’t vouch for Yonghao,” Qian Shanyi said, “he has an occasional attack of stubborn stupidity.”

“Hey!”

“In either case, I would stay out, and claim you held me hostage. Decide quickly.”

Kitsune’s eyes snapped to her. “What trap is this?” she asked with great suspicion, though her eyes were full of outright terror, rage having already faded away. Her entire body shook from tension, but at least she stopped growling like an animal. “Why would you help me?”

“I told you why,” Qian Shanyi said, “I am not in the habit of repeating myself.”

“Because we aren’t evil people,” Wang Yonghao said in a tired voice.

Kitsune clenched her teeth. They clattered slightly. “Do you wish to trap me? Use me like a sheep, shear me for my fur, clip my claws? I know how much they cost.”

Qian Shanyi blinked. “The blindness of the ignorant. Yonghao’s world fragment is worth ten thousand times more than any material we could get from your body. Wealth is the one thing we are not lacking.”

Kitsune clenched her fists. “Fine,” she said, sounding defeated, her eyes squeezed shut. Almost like they really were trying to skin her, and not offering her refuge at a great risk to themselves. “Fine, damn me. I’ll believe you this once.”

“Mhm. What’s your real name?” Qian Shanyi said, “I think I deserve to know that much before I commit crimes that could get me executed.”

“Linghui Mei,” the kitsune said quietly.

“The name you stole from the maid?”

“I don’t have any other,” Linghui Mei glared at her.

“A stolen name for a stolen face,” Qian Shanyi mused, “very well, Mei. Let’s see if we could make you disappear.”