Chapter 34: A Group of Monsters

Li Ang chuckled and asked, "Why did you play a trick on my companion last night?"

"...I found him quite handsome, so I just wanted to tease him a bit," the Black Fox said.

At that moment, other members of the mission team also hurried over and were quite surprised to see a fox that could speak the Fujian dialect.

"Since we are all here to attend the banquet, we should get along harmoniously," Li Ang said with a smile, taking out a glass marble and shaking it in front of the fox. "I'll give you this gem if you show us some of the fox spirit's skills, how about it?"

Last night, he had learned from Chai Cuiqiao that most monsters that transform into humans do so because they covet the wealth of the human world, wishing to indulge in eating, drinking, and merrymaking,

which means luxury items like gold and jewels are also valuable to them...

When the Black Fox saw the flawless marble with a golden leaf hidden inside, its eyes lit up, and it nodded, "Okay."

It jumped down from the roof beam with ease, and a puff of white smoke wafted around its body,

With a "bang," an imperial-dressed beauty appeared, except her dark face was covered with horizontal flesh and her bristly beard was extremely coarse, making her look completely graceless.

Everyone inwardly cursed, and Wanli Fengdao's face turned pale while Xing Hechou scratched his head and said, "....Aren't foxes that transform supposed to all be beauties?"

The male fox, being overwhelmingly scrutinized, also showed an embarrassed face and protested, "I haven't reached the realm of transformation yet, this is just a clumsy Illusion Technique, that's all...."

After speaking, it changed back into its fox form and howled twice, bringing a large group of foxes jumping in from the outside.

This group of foxes was diverse in color and size, both male and female, with the largest one, a white fox, coughing twice and speaking in an aged voice, "Sorry everyone, this lad is naturally mischievous, he's unrefined in his Illusion Technique but still always showing off, making you all laugh."

"Not at all, this...," Xing Hechou hesitated as he glanced at the Black Fox and continued, "This young master's Illusion Technique is quite unique, it has really opened our eyes, opened our eyes."

A group of foxes laughed out loud, and the Black Fox, feeling mocked by the crowd, hurriedly took out the glass marble and showed it to the old fox, "Grandpa, look, they gave me a bead."

"Oh?"

Seeing the golden leaf inside the marble, the old fox grinned, its anthropomorphized expression quite horrific, "Since it's a gift from honored guests, you keep it. By the way, are you here for the banquet? How come I haven't seen any of you before?"

Li Ang, who was well-prepared, lied casually without changing his expression. "We are disciples of Taoist Head Tan Teng from the Ayitobie Archipelago overseas. Our master sent us back to the Central Plains to gain experience. Hearing of this unrestricted banquet, we came uninvited."

"I see," the old fox nodded, not delving further.

A bunch of little foxes chattered away, all discussing trivial family matters, such as a vixen who recently seduced a down-and-out scholar only to be chased by a shrew for being the other woman, and a male fox who secretly visited a brothel in the human world for some fun but ended up locked in a cellar because he didn't bring money.

In the strange tales of the Ming and Qing dynasties, not all fox spirits are constantly seeking to absorb vital energy from men; on the contrary, there are both male and female fox spirits that live in clans and can coexist peacefully with humans.

Featured in "Observations from the Thatched Cottage," there's a story where the second floor of a pawnshop had been occupied by a group of foxes, where every night the talking of the foxes could be heard. Since they never harmed anyone, they lived peacefully for many years.

Until one night, loud whipping and scolding sounds came from the upstairs. Everyone hurried to listen and suddenly heard a pained male voice from above cry out, "Those downstairs are all sensible people; where in the world does a wife beat up her husband?"

Coincidentally in the crowd was a man with scratch marks from his wife on his face. The crowd burst into laughter and replied, "It happens, it happens, nothing unusual."

The foxes upstairs also burst into raucous laughter, and the sounds of whipping and scolding ceased.

It may be that female fox spirits generally have greater mana than male foxes,

there are still many stories in supernatural novels about female fox spirits committing domestic violence against male foxes—A farmer named Zhou Jia from Song Village couldn't bear his wife's beatings any longer. One night, while his wife slept, he sneaked off to the dilapidated temple at the village entrance to hide, hoping to wait for dawn and ask the neighbors for help.

In the middle of the night, his wife woke up, found her husband missing, tracked him to the temple, stood in front of the deity statues to list Zhou Jia's crimes, and loudly demanded he lie down and take his beating.

A group of fox spirits resided in the temple. Hearing the sounds of whipping and pleading, they scurried out from behind the statues and clamored, "How can such injustice exist in the world? This is intolerable!"

The many male fox spirits rushed forward, seized the whip from Zhou Jia's wife, stripped off her clothes, and whipped her until she bled without mercy.

Suddenly, a group of female fox spirits appeared, arguing, "You male foxes only ever help smelly men! This man has been cheating on his wife with another woman, shouldn't he be beaten to death?"

So the female fox spirits rescued Zhou Jia's wife, placed her in a corner, captured Zhou Jia, and began whipping him. The male and female fox spirits bickered and argued for a long time, tugging the two humans back and forth, until the commotion attracted the people guarding the village. Only then did everyone disperse, leaving Zhou Jia to exert every ounce of his strength to carry his wife back to the village—on the way, his wife continued to quietly curse at him.

Just as hundreds of people can be fed with the same grain, and just like humans, monsters have passions and desires, greed, anger, foolishness, resentment, hatred, love, and the pain of parting. There are those who are vile and wicked, as well as those who are upright and righteous. There exist the ones who cling to life in fear of death, as well as those who willingly sacrifice themselves for justice, distinguishing right from wrong.

The foxes who attended the banquet all brought their families along, with males and females, old and young. Their idle chatter filled with mundane family matters, highly reminiscent of tour groups of elderly men and women, traveling abroad from modern society.

After settling the fox spirits, the monastery was soon filled with more noise as numerous monsters arrived.

There was a white-foreheaded tiger walking erect in a Taoist robe, wielding a horsetail whisk;

a giant over four meters tall with one eye and huge feet, holding a massive wooden club;

a thieving-looking old man with a crooked stick, guarded by a pack of brown rats;

a plague ghost oozing sores all over, with a purplish-black tongue drooping onto its chest, dressed in white with a black hat;

All sorts of demons and monsters gathered in the temple courtyard, forming several small groups, talking loudly, greeting each other warmly as if they hadn't seen each other in ages.

Ignoring their strange appearances, the harmonious and friendly manner with which these monsters interacted closely resembled rural entrepreneurs at a reception...

No matter how you looked at it, it was all so unsophisticated.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk..." Wanli Fengdao looked at the courtyard full of monsters, his heart thumping, body stiff, hands sweating, while also secretly thinking that all of these were walking bundles of rich rewards.....

Xing Hechou, on the other hand, had secretly let out a sigh of relief. It was just as Li Ang had said—if the task force hadn't discovered the truth about Solitary Cold Temple and instead had confronted Chai Cuiqiao head-on and eliminated her,

the task force, completely unaware of the banquet, might have panicked at the arrival of these demons and engaged in direct conflict with them, at which point, everyone would have died.

Thankfully, thankfully.

Wiping the cold sweat from his hands, Xing Hechou assessed the fighting power of the monsters with an expressionless face.