Chapter 6: The Demonic Aura Originates from the Fox Spirit

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“What?”

The master of the Su Family, a middle-aged man in black robes, had been plagued with a headache since early morning.

What had started as a trivial matter involving a maid servant had nearly escalated into a full-blown fight between the Third Concubine and the Ninth Concubine.

Then came the Third Concubine’s shrill complaints and the Ninth Concubine’s tearful wailing, enough to make his heart ache.

It was Su Wan who suggested summoning a Taoist priest or a monk, which led to the current situation.

The Master continued asking, “Do you mean to suggest that the demon is hiding within one of my concubines?”

As he spoke, Master Su waved toward his Ninth Concubine, Qian Yue, signaling her to wait in the adjacent chamber.

“Xiao Liu, stay. Su Wan, you may remain as a witness. Yue Yue, go to the back and rest. Wait for the results,” Master Su said.

Qian Yue, who had just turned to leave with Xiao Liu and Su Wan, halted her steps. She dabbed at her reddened eyes and shot Master Su a glare.

Then…

She turned to Su Wan and instructed, “Keep watch over your Sister Liu. If she gets lost, this mother doesn’t care. That old codger can just find himself a new one, hmph~.”

Qian Yue swayed her hips and walked off alone.

Her slender, undulating figure and alluring silhouette drew the gaze of every man in the room.

“Ahem!”

Master Su coughed and asked the monk, “Still staring at my concubine? Master, is that not improper?”

“Amitabha. Good, good. Benefactor misunderstands,” the old monk said.

“Your honored concubine carries a trace of… demonic energy.”

The monk continued his explanation, watching as the faces of everyone in the household turned pale.

Master Su furrowed his brow.

The Third Concubine, panicked and alarmed, cried out, “My lord! You see? I told you she was a fox demon!”

The Third Concubine then asked, “Master!”

She stepped three paces closer to the monk, then stopped abruptly, keeping her distance as she asked,

“That woman—she must be a monster, a seductive fox demon, isn’t she?!”

Expectation gleamed in the Third Concubine’s eyes.

The old monk glanced at the Third Concubine, pressed his palms together, bowed, and frowned as he said,

“Benefactress speaks too gravely. To know is to know, to not know is to not know. It is too early to conclude. All I can say is… uncertain, but she has certainly come into contact with demonic energy.”

“My lord! You see!” The Third Concubine immediately cried out, looking at Master Su with a face full of grievance, saying,

“I told you she was a demon, and you wouldn’t believe me!”

The Third Concubine was only thirty-three years old. She leaned sideways, trying to press herself into Master Su’s embrace, but was stopped by a glare from the beautiful madam holding Master Su’s right arm.

The Su Family’s madam was also only in her thirties, four or five years younger than Master Su. She was still in her prime, possessing considerable beauty.

“A demon, yes, but not that kind of demon,” Master Su murmured under his breath.

Then he straightened his expression, ignoring his concubine, and looked at the old monk to ask,

“Demonic energy? Where did it come from? Last night, a maid servant claimed to have seen a demon. Was it from that encounter?”

The old monk frowned. He looked in the direction Qian Yue had left, then at Cang Ye on his right.

Cang Ye stood holding a white banner upright and gripping his sword, smiling at him.

The old monk explained, “Perhaps? But this benefactor’s body… also carries demonic energy!”

“Haha~”

Cang Ye chuckled softly, stepping forward, and explained, “I am Cang Ye, a demon hunter by trade. May I ask, Master, if one has just captured a demon, would demonic energy linger on one’s person?”

“Oh? That… naturally would be the case.” The old monk nodded.

Cang Ye smiled. He then displayed his skill to everyone, producing a tuft of bloodstained white fur, saying,

“This is the white fur of a Moon Fragrance Fox. They adore the moon, especially the moonlight bathing upon them. If moonlight bathes their entire body, it would be comparable to…”

Cang Ye smiled, sweeping his gaze across the women in the room, and trailed off.

But after a pause, Cang Ye’s gaze subtly drifted toward Su Wan once more, and he added in explanation,

“If moonlight bathes their body and they become excited, they find it difficult to suppress their beast form. Even a thousand-year-old great demon would be unable to resist revealing some beast fur or animal traits as evidence.”

“By the way,” Cang Ye added, “the Moon Fragrance Fox clan is said to have only females, all bearing offspring with outside clans. So…”

Cang Ye smiled again, his eyes flicking toward Su Wan from the corner.

Su Wan: “He seems to be looking at me?”

Su Wan murmured quietly, “Why is he looking at me? What does he mean?”

Su Wan touched his own chest, then unconsciously let his hand drift toward his lower abdomen.

“Young Master?”

Su Wan’s small hand was gently, shyly tugged by Xiao Liu on his right, and she immediately stopped.

Su Wan coughed and said, “It itches. I wanted to scratch it.”

Xiao Liu: “Hmm?” Xiao Liu blushed and said, “How about tonight? This maid will clean it for the Young Master?”

“No, no, no!”

At the thought of that stimulating image—at the thought of Xiao Liu being his father’s woman—Su Wan shuddered and hastily whispered, “No, never mind, Sister Xiao Liu. I don’t itch anymore.”

“Oh~”

Xiao Liu responded.

Su Wan wiped the sweat from his brow.

Though the common folk indulged in visiting courtesans, and great households even kept household entertainers, exchanging them for amusement and to entertain guests and family members—

All in the name of raising the happiness of the men in the family.

There was even a folk industry of raising young girls as “thin horses.”

The Su Family itself kept several thirteen- or fourteen-year-old girls—not young misses, not servants, but the family’s “thin horses.”

But sharing with one’s own father…

Su Wan still found it strange, a bit uncomfortable and hard to swallow.

Xiao Liu’s words interrupted Su Wan’s train of thought, and he stopped wondering why Cang Ye had looked at him.

Over where Cang Ye stood, he was still going on. He simply smiled and asked,

“So, is further proof still needed?”

Cang Ye asked the old monk,

“The demonic energy is in the fur. It was encountered within the household, wounded but not dead. Master may verify it. Perhaps you can find her trail.”

“Oh?”

The old monk frowned. He examined the bloodstained white fox fur in Cang Ye’s hand, and with a subtle movement of his Dharma power, he indeed sensed demonic energy.

The old monk exclaimed in surprise, “Indeed, the demonic energy lies within the white fur. It seems I misjudged you earlier, benefactor.”

“However…” the old monk frowned and asked, “May I examine it closely in my hands?”

“Be my guest,” Cang Ye said.

A thin layer of Dharma power lifted the white fur.

Though it carried not a hint of demonic energy, it still astonished the women gathered around.

The Third Concubine exclaimed, “He truly… truly is a man of skill! Not a charlatan! Ahem!”

“Mm.”

The old monk glanced at the Third Concubine, quickly took the white fur, and carefully felt its details and texture.

The old monk said, “This is fox fur? A white fox breed I have never seen. It carries a fragrance that is difficult to remove.”

Cang Ye added, “This is the Moon Fragrance Fox. When moonlight shines upon them, the fragrance grows stronger. When she is pleased, it also grows stronger.”

The old monk nodded and said, “But what I encountered in the household last night was a demon that was hunting a cat… a cat demon.”

“A cat demon?!”

Everyone in the Su Family was shocked.

Su Wan’s pupils slightly dilated as well. He murmured softly, asking,

“Could there really be demons in the household? And two of them? A fox demon and a cat demon? It feels dangerous at home.”

As he thought of fox demons and cat demons, Su Wan was also reminded of the way his mother had always quietly breathed in time with the moon.

Recalling how his mother would lie prone on the bed, seeming beast-like, Su Wan thought, “Could it be…”

Su Wan quickly shook his head again, saying, “No.”

‘Cang Ye said earlier that Moon Fragrance Foxes are only female. Unless Mother did not give birth to me, otherwise… Mother cannot possibly be a demon. Mother treats me quite well. Though her temperament is seductive and alluring, she still restrains herself when I am around. So Mother is still good to me—she must have given birth to me. She shouldn’t be a so-called Moon Fragrance Fox. Otherwise, I should have been born a girl.’

In the back chamber.

Though Qian Yue had retreated to the rear, only a single wall separated her, so she could easily hear everything said in front.

She muttered to herself, “That tree demon, selling me out like that. Is he trying to expose my identity?”

“That tuft of fox fur… it was when I seduced him last night and he wounded me to take it. My little neck was already bleeding back then.”

The Moon Fragrance Fox, Qian Yue, pursed her lips, then lay sideways across the small square table, stretching her waist seductively and alluringly as she said,

“Mmm~ I’ll have to trip him up, make him bully this little fox. Mmm~ That feels nice~”

The Moon Fragrance Fox, Qian Yue, closed her eyes and fell asleep on the table, “Hoo, hoo, hoo~”

Saliva trickled from the corner of her mouth.

A smile hung at her lips as she slept soundly, her right hand unconsciously drifting toward her left chest.