The jujube tree had learned to hide its true colors. Many of the jujubes on the tree were hidden under the lush leaves. Even if one looked carefully, one could only catch a small glimpse of a portion of them. However, there were indeed not that many. Yin Qing would always climb up the tree to count them.

Five jujubes fell at a one time, which was no small number compared to the total amount of jujubes. Moreover, two of them had a faint fire-like color on their surfaces, meaning that they were the original jujubes from the previous season.

However, after his angry outburst, Yin Qing’s grumpy mood was immediately replaced by joy. He looked back at the red fox who was rubbing his nose and head with his paws.

“Little fox, why haven’t you come to see me all these years? I missed you so much!”

Yin Qing hurriedly helped the red fox pick up the jujubes that were still rolling on the ground as he spoke. It would be a great pity if they were taken away by some passing mouse or wild cat.

The red fox looked at the large tree above his head in confusion and bewilderment, then shrank to the side and carefully inspected Yin Qing . He vaguely recognized the boy’s appearance from that year, and subsequently relaxed.

“Come here, come here. You used to love lying on the stone table!”

Yin Qing waved at the red fox and placed the five jujubes on the table. The red fox hesitated for a moment, then walked closer and jumped lightly onto the stone table.

The five jujubes on the table were all about the same size. Each one was as large as a small apple, bright red and very tempting. Yin Qing stared at the jujubes and swallowed his drool several times.

The little fox also approached and sniffed the jujubes carefully, especially the two more peculiar ones. Although there was no smell on their surface, it still felt the urge to take a bite.

“Swish…Swish…Swish…”

The branches and leaves of the jujube tree swayed gently. It wasn’t just the wind moving the leaves, but the leaves that created the wind.

“Whoosh… whoosh…”

The red fox stretched out a paw and pressed down on one of the unusually-colored jujubes, rolling it to where Yin Qing was sitting.

As a result, Yin Qing grabbed the jujube and put it back in its original place.

“No, no, I can’t eat this! Gulp… You have to eat it. You haven’t been back for many years. One jujube per year is almost meaningless!”¹

Although he was still swallowing his drool, Yin Qing had been brought up in a very strict family, and had been deeply influenced by Yin Zhaoxian and Ji Yuan. Although he was young, he was very principled about certain things.

“Eat it quickly. This fruit won’t taste as good after a long time. Eat it quickly, you won’t refuse, right?”

Yin Qing tried his best not to look at the jujube, and tried to persuade the red fox.

“Rustle…Rustle…Rustle…”

The jujube tree above his head trembled again, as if laughing.

Something hit Yin Qing on the head with a “thunk.” He quickly reached out and caught a large jujube falling from the top of his head.

Yin Qing suddenly became more excited. He didn’t even bother to rub the sore spot on his head. He just rubbed the jujube against his cheek vigorously.

“Hehehehe…I can eat this one! I’ll eat it for you to see! Crunch, hiss… It’s delicious!”

As he spoke, he grabbed the jujube and took a bite.

A crisp sound of chewing fruit flesh came from Yin Qing’s mouth, accompanied by a strange fragrance. The red fox’s nose twitched a few times, and he couldn’t hold back any longer. He held one of the jujubes and began to nibble on it with a crunching noise.

For a time, the courtyard of Ju’an Pavilion was filled with the fragrance of fruit. However, this fragrance did not leave the courtyard walls, and most of it was absorbed back into the jujube tree branches.

The fox ate the jujubes in a very messy manner, and many crumbs would fall onto the stone table from time to time. Fortunately, the red fox also knew that what he had in his paws were very precious, so he made sure to lick up the crumbs.

The five jujubes didn’t last very long, and were all eaten in moments.

After taking the last bite of the fruits, the little fox let out a burp from deep in his throat, full of a fruity aroma. Then he lay on the stone table and fell asleep.

The inside of the fox’s body was now warm, and the spiritual energy circulated at a much faster pace, compared to its previous efficiency in absorbing the changes in the rising and setting of the sun and moon that he had accumulated in the mountains over the past few years.

Yin Qing only ate one and was in good spirits. However, seeing the red fox like this, he just sat quietly in front of the stone table, occasionally stroking the red fox’s fur.

“Little fox, your hair is so clean, thick and smooth. Don’t let those hunters see you.”

These words made the red fox tremble subconsciously, and it grew more awake. It supported itself on the stone table with its hind legs and tail and sat upright.

“Wuwuwu…”

The fox paws pointed to the house in Ju’an Pavilion with its paw. Yin Qing looked in that direction and roughly understood what it was thinking.

“Mr. Ji is not at home. He has been away for many years, and has never come back…”

“Wuuu…”

The red fox’s voice obviously carried a sense of loss. Over the years, it had gradually grown from a newly awakened fox spirit to a being developing a righteous path in cultivation. He wanted to find Mr. Ji again before refining his horizontal bone.² He had begun to hesitate last year, and this year he had finally mustered up the courage to “sneak into” Ning’an County, but came up empty-handed.

“Little fox, aren’t you very powerful now? Just like the jujube tree.

Yin Qing chatted with the red fox with great interest. He knew very well that this was no ordinary wild fox.

The red fox naturally understood Yin Qing’s words, but this time it looked at the jujube tree in the courtyard. Spiritual energy was slowly gathering in the enormous shade of the tree. No matter how he looked at it, he felt that he was not in the same league as this jujube tree. After all, the jujube tree had remained by the side of that gentleman all this time.

“Wuuuu…” This sound seemed even more lost.

The red fox lay on the stone table, its body pressed against the surface. Its big fluffy red tail swung back and forth behind him. His eyes were fixed on the empty space at the head of the stone table, but the gentleman who had danced with his sword was not there.

The tail swung back and forth, and the red fox gradually fell asleep.

In his sleep, the fox had a feeling that his thoughts were infinitely stretched, and his mind went back to the past. He still felt the touch of the stone table on his body, but he seemed to vaguely see the small pavilion where he had lived at the time.

Thousands of miles away, at the top of Hong³ Peak on Yun Mountain in Bing Province, Ji Yuan, who was lying on his side with his eyes closed, suddenly felt something. He opened his eyes a little, and an illusory chess piece appeared above the fingers on his right hand in front of him, shaped into the sword finger position. A red fox with fluffy, soft fur lay on a stone table, sleeping soundly.

“Hahaha…”

After laughing a few times, Ji Yuan closed his eyes again, and the chess piece disappeared from his hand.

Within his inner world, Ji Yuan, whose body was as majestic as the earth facing the sky, held the chess piece belonging to the red fox in his hand. It seemed that, when the chess piece was at some extremely special juncture, he could feel some of its connections and changes.

The final sound of an “edict” continued to reverberate in his inner world. whistlign with the sound of the wind, fluctuating in strength.

Ji Yuan seemed to be gathering the energy to declare an edict without making a sound, as if he were waiting for the right moment in his heart.

The instant a familiar feeling arose, Ji Yuan thought to himself, “Your destiny has arrived,” and whispered softly to the chess piece:

“Hu Yun!”

In Ju’an Pavilion, Yin Qing, who was reading a book in front of the stone table, had no idea that the red fox in front of him was reliving everything that had happened in the past in his dream.

Ji Yuan saw vague glimpses of this dream, but it was not one imposed on him by Ji Yuan. He did not have that ability. It could be attributed to the red fox having returned to an old place which brought up some thoughts and dreams.

In the dream, Yin Qing was still a small child. After recovering in the small pavilion for a while, the red fox longed to return to the free mountains, so Mr. Ji led Yin Qing and the fox to the foot of Niu Kui Mountain.

In the dream, the red fox bounded ahead of them from time to time, sometimes hanging back to walk with the two of them. He tried to see Ji Yuan’s face clearly several times, but it was always blurry.

After entering the mountain, the red fox squatted on a rock and watched the two people leave. Even as he dreamt, the red fox tried desperately to follow, but in the dream it felt like his limbs had been cast in molten iron, and he couldn’t move at all.

In the small pavilion outside the dream, Yin Qing looked at the red fox and found that his body was constantly shaking, as if struggling with something or having a nightmare.

The spiritual energy in the fox’s body was circulating rapidly, and its body temperature was constantly rising. A faint demonic energy began to spread across the surface of his body.

“Boom…”

The sound of thunder came from overhead.

Yin Qing, who had been sitting under the shade of the tree, walked a few steps away in order to look at the sky. He didn’t know when these dark clouds had started appearing.

“It’s not going to rain, is it?”

The red fox kept struggling in the dream and wanted to roar, but he couldn’t do anything. The body lay on the stone table, and its claws on all four limbs dug into the stone surface.

But at this moment, the figure in the dream suddenly stopped.

The face of the gentleman in his memory suddenly became clearer. He turned around and smiled at the red fox on the rock.

“Since we’ve known each other for a while, I, Ji, will give you another gift…”

Ji Yuan glanced at the clouds in the sky, before continuing to speak to the red fox.

“Since you have embarked on the path of cultivation, you are no longer an ignorant beast. You can lack everything else, but you cannot lack a name. If you don’t mind, you will be called Hu Yun in the future!”

The words “Hu Yun” kept echoing in the dream, and the sky suddenly changed.

Outside of the dream, Yin Qing was gazing at the dark clouds in the sky. But after a while, these clouds seemed to dissipate again, and the sun peeked out. He breathed a sigh of relief at the fact that the no longer needed to collect the clothes that were hanging outside.

“Hiii…cough…cough, cough…”

A strange coughing sound came from the stone table, drawing Yin Qing’s attention back again.

1. T/n: aww he’s a good kid
2. Literally “horizontal bone,” likely refers to the collarbone.
3. 红 (hóng): red. All of the Yun Mountain range’s peaks have names relating to the view/sun

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read