The Fox King - Chapter 6

Chapter 6: That Hurts…
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation

Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

All of a sudden, Fei Zhao fell silent, because Zhe Huo had raised a fist in warning, and her eyes were flashing dangerously. He hesitated for a moment, then carried on regardless, “Don’t tell me this is all just because the kid is kinda cute—no matter how adorable he may be, he’s also a fox demon! Of all the pets you could have taken in… when our master finds out about this, he’ll beat you into a bloody pulp!”

“Call him a demon one more time, and you’ll be the one getting beaten!” Zhe Huo lashed out at him, and Fei Zhao scrambled to back away from her, but she caught a fistful of his shirt, snarling, “Go find some clothes for Qinghan.”

Luo Qinghan watched nonchalantly as Fei Zhao was menaced in this way, then murmured, “I’m hungry.”

“Hear that?” Zhe Huo added, “Rustle up something good for a child to eat, and bring it over!”

Glaring balefully at her, Fei Zhao nodded, while silently cursing her in his heart for her maleficent ways.

At last, Zhe Huo released him, and continued onward with Qinghan.

Behind them, Fei Zhao watched them go. The fox boy was even wagging his great, bushy white tail left and right. Fei Zhao snarled, but before he could hatch any wicked schemes, that tail shot out and smacked into him, and he howled as he was sent sprawling away once again.

“Huh?” Qinghan turned around, bewildered. Zhe Huo followed his gaze, and shook her head. “Can’t even look where he’s going…”

The doors to the Cloud Temple were wide open, and the sound of the grandmaster’s merry laughter could be heard coming from within.

What Fei Zhao had been telling the crowd down there… it couldn’t have been further from the truth. The grandmaster was not possessed of a handsome visage, plain of appearance albeit still youthful-looking. Typically, he wore a white robe over green.

He hadn’t come from any extraordinary background, either—he’d only been some menial servant in Heaven, waiting upon some lord hand-and-foot. Eventually, he’d done something to anger his lord, and as punishment he’d been cast down to the mortal realm.

This didn’t make for the most sparkling resume, so he’d added certain embellishments, which he would foist upon hapless visitors. Fei Zhao’s latest boasts were just him expanding upon the grandmaster’s pre-existing work.

Seeing that the doors were open, and knowing that the grandmaster was an easy-going fellow, Zhe Huo waltzed right in without bothering to knock, the child trailing along after her. The scene within was exactly what she’d expected: her masters were playing chess against one another, and her master had lost almost all his pieces already.

The grandmaster was in a cheerful mood, and greeted her entrance with a pleasant smile. “Our young Zhe Huo has returned,” he murmured.

Zhe Huo led the child to make a bow. “This humble disciple brings herself before her honored masters.”

The grandmaster waved for her to rise.

Her master Chu Tianjue, however, regarded her severely. He glanced at the child by her side, and frowned. “Zhe Huo, why have you brought a demon here?”

“It’s like this, masters… this child has been through so much… and we really click together… I’d like to look after him from now on.” She made this plea with all the sincerity she could muster, just short of wiping tears from her eyes.

Instead, she pinched the child’s leg so that he’d be the one crying—except that he wouldn’t at first, until she’d been pinching him really hard for a while. Confused and bewildered, he turned to her with tearful eyes and whispered, “That hurts…”

Ignoring him, she continued with her dramatic and overblown recounting of Luo Qinghan’s life story.

Intrigued, the grandmaster turned to peer at the child. “He is pretty cute,” he remarked with a smile.