Foxes have spirits. If a fox dies tragically, its resentment will be very strong. Zhu Ying said that the entrance of the hall was filled with the scent of fox resentment, so she didn't continue walking.
She knelt down on one knee and said loudly, "Zhu family descendant from Harbin, Northeast China, paying respects to the fox spirits."
"Qiuqiu!"
"Qiuqiu!"
"Wuwuwu!"
At the moment Zhu Ying knelt down, there were strange sounds of fox cries coming from all around.
Zhu Ying lowered her head and took out her gourd, which contained fox blood.
She placed the gourd on the ground, then opened its lid and said, "Fox spirits, I am a fox caretaker, not your enemy. Every debt has a debtor, and I hope you fox spirits will not blame me."
"Ya!"
"Ya!"
"Ya!"
Suddenly, the entire hot spring hall echoed with extremely mournful fox cries, followed by a man's voice.
The man's voice was extremely eerie, alternating between a rough, masculine tone and a very seductive woman's voice.
"Fox caretaker? Our souls cannot be reincarnated. To whom can we report this resentment?"
"What's wrong with the fox caretaker? Do you ignore our grievances?"
"Hehehe, fox caretaker, you all exude a strong yin energy, should be all yin spirits, right? Hehehe, by consuming your flesh, we, these fox spirits, can gain some merits."
"Hehehe, hahaha!"
The voices were ethereal.
Ma Lisan and Dajinya next to me had already prepared their weapons, as these fox spirits would not spare us.
Zhu Ying turned her head and looked at me, saying, "Do not act recklessly."
Only then did I stop Ma Lisan and Dajinya from acting rashly.
First come courtesy, and then fight. We have to follow the rules.
I walked to Zhu Ying's side, cupped my fists, and said loudly, "Ladies and gentlemen, I, Zhaoyin, follow the rules in summoning spirits and do not indiscriminately slaughter the seventy-seven wild immortals of Northeast China. I guarantee that there is no one here who is your enemy! Every debt has a debtor. You fox spirits are discerning individuals, so I hope you see the truth."
Hehehe!
There was another secretive laugh of a woman. At the same time, ten dim fires were lit around us.
The fireballs flickered, and the voices of the fox spirits floated between these ten dim fires.
"Hehehe, follow the rules? We have become wandering ghosts with no one to collect us. What rules are there to follow?"
"Yeah! Brothers and sisters, by eating these people, we can eliminate future troubles."
"Hahaha, summon yin spirits? What yin spirits are there to summon? The imperial court no longer exists. You are just someone playing tricks in the folk, what rules do you follow?"
These ten dim fires became increasingly violent, starting from the size of an eyeball and then suddenly growing larger and larger until they were the size of a head, changing color from green to red, like ten glowing lamps.
I secretly signaled to Dajinya and Ma Lisan to get ready with their weapons to confront these fox spirits.
However, Zhu Ying told me not to act, and then took out a small gourd from her pocket.
The small gourd was exquisite, only the size of a thumb.
Zhu Ying opened the lid of the small gourd, and a unique fragrance wafted out, faint but not heavy, fragrant but not cloying. I couldn't identify the scent.
Zhu Ying tightened her grip on the small gourd and said, "Fox spirits, not long ago, the Nine-Tailed Fox achieved perfection and grew its ninth tail. This bottle of fox blood was given to me by the Nine-Tailed Fox at the time of her ascension. If you fox spirits won't give face to our fox-keeping family, you must give face to the Nine-Tailed Fox, right?"
The ten dim fires suddenly shrank, then completely disappeared, and only sent over a message: "So, the lady is a friend of the leader of the Hu family. Our apologies. We small fox spirits naturally wouldn't dare to provoke the great god of the Hu family. Brothers and sisters, let's go!"
A bottle of Nine-Tailed Fox blood directly subdued all the fox spirits.
Perhaps the Nine-Tailed Fox hadn't been the leader of the Hu family before, but now, its merits were accomplished, and it had ascended to immortality, making it the leader of the Hu family in terms of strength.
I gave Zhu Ying a thumbs-up and said, "You have this treasure, why didn't you use it from the beginning?"
Zhu Ying carefully covered the gourd and said that she had played with the Nine-Tailed Fox since she was young and bringing it out without a second thought would have been a bit presumptuous.
She wasn't the kind of person to exert power over others.
"Alright, let's investigate." I arched my hand at Zhu Ying and said, "This strong fox resentment, could it be that the family of the fox spirit Cuixiao in Chengyan was killed here?"
I felt there was something strange in this hot spring hall.
I waved my hand and pulled Zhu Ying into the hall.
Because the hall was too dark, when Zhuying just walked in, she almost stumbled, but fortunately her reflexes were agile and she managed to steady herself.
I quickly grabbed Zhuying and signaled her to be more careful.
She thanked me and continued walking, but after just a few steps, she stumbled again.
What on earth is going on?
I shone my flashlight on the ground and was surprised to see fox carcasses everywhere.
White foxes, black foxes, red foxes, countless foxes filled my field of vision.
This is unbelievable!
I cursed, wondering why there were so many fox carcasses here. No wonder the foxes here had such heavy resentment. It turns out this place is full of fox carcasses.
"I mean, why is it so strange here?" I asked Zhuying.
Zhuying had been dealing with foxes since she was a child. Seeing so many fox carcasses made her uncomfortable. When she encountered one, she would go and caress the dead fox's eyes.
"I don't know, how many foxes must have been killed here?" Zhuying said.
We all murmured to ourselves, lamenting the large number of dead foxes here. Suddenly, the lights came on with a click.
All the lights in the whole hall were on.
Looking around, I saw one dead fox after another, spread across the entire hall as if it had snowed fox carcasses.
Zhuying couldn't help but tear up.
"Hahaha! Hahaha! I paid such a huge price, but finally managed to lure you 'yin' people up the mountain," a voice said.
I looked in the direction of the voice and saw that Muxuyou had sat down on a chair in the middle of the hall, smiling mockingly at us.
"Muxuyou, did you deceive us?" I swung my flashlight in an attempt to hit Muxuyou.
But the flying flashlight was grabbed by a 'woman' next to Muxuyou, who at times spoke like a man and at times like a woman, giggling all the while.
"Earlier at the entrance, the vengeful spirit of the fox fairy, that was you pretending?" I pointed at the 'woman' and asked.
The 'woman' chuckled and said, "How could it be pretending? I am the fox wild fairy."
I thought to myself, there's a fox wild fairy here. I have no idea what Muxuyou is up to. Did they deceive us, 'yin' people, and trick us into coming to this mountain resort?
Why did they do it?
Bang! Bang!
Just as I was pondering this question, suddenly, with two loud bangs, I heard the 'door' behind me close.
It seemed we were being trapped like fish in a barrel.
"They are trapping us."
"The fox wild fairy? Did you kill all the foxes here? Did you lure me in using the scent of the dead foxes?" Zhuying pointed and scolded the fox wild fairy.
The fox wild fairy, neither man nor woman, bowed to Zhuying: "I see you, fox-keeper. You can call me Xiaoyu. Indeed, all the foxes here are my doing. I kill them so they won't hold any grudges. Haha, I just pretended earlier at the entrance to lure you into this room!"
"Why?" I asked Xiaoyu.
"Why? Because you are all 'yin' people and attract 'yin' people, and your 'flesh' is more fragrant," Muxuyou said, with his true intentions now revealed. He extended a hand, and suddenly there appeared a number of spikes.
"Go to hell, you keep saying you're a devout Buddhist, but in reality, what Buddha do you believe in? You're clearly a wild fairy of the Northeast, aren't you a hedgehog?" I exclaimed in surprise.
"Muxuyou turned out to be a hedgehog wild fairy. They lured us, the 'yin' people, up the mountain and planned to eat our 'flesh'?"
Muxuyou extended a hand and said, "Come, let me give you a big gift!"
As he said that, his hand extended and the room was suddenly filled with "pouring blood".
As though recklessly, blood rained down from the ceiling, drenching us.
Due to his injuries, Dajintooth's buttocks collapsed to the ground.
"Xiaoli, Xiaoli, that's dog blood, probably black dog blood. Getting splashed with it renders our magical tools useless." Dajintooth suddenly yelled.
I also remembered that we encountered eels and black dogs on the way.
It turns out it was Muxuyou and Xiaoyu's scheme.
When we killed the dogs and eels, we unavoidably got their blood on us.
In the 'yin' people's world, dog and eel blood are the most impure. If it gets on the magical tools, it nullifies their power.
Without our magical tools, we 'yin' people were as defenseless as unarmed soldiers, ready to be chopped up by these monsters and vengeful spirits.
Afraid that Xiaoyu and Muxuyou might be in trouble, they unleashed a rain of blood in the room.
This time, our magical tools were completely ineffective.
Dajintooth shook his rattle drum a few times, but it broke with a bang!
The magical tools were nullified.
Big golden tooth snorted, throwing away the Luo drum.
At this moment, the triumphant wood-bearded man stood up and clapped his hands, saying, "Third brother, it's time to come out."
As soon as he finished speaking, the bag on my shoulder kept jumping, and then the yellow skins locked in the soul-locking bag also happily ran out, and in no time, they arrived at the side of the wood-bearded man.
These yellow skins grabbed the wood-bearded man's trouser legs, climbed up and burrowed into his body from the hem of his clothes.
Then, the wood-bearded man changed his tone and spoke with the voice of the yellow skins: "Summoner, we went to great lengths to summon you to the mountain, now our wishes have come true. You were boasting about taking my lamp earlier, weren't you? Well, this time I want to see whether you will light our lamp, or we will eat your flesh!"
My mind couldn't keep up for a moment. So, the yellow skins were in cahoots with the wood-bearded man and Xiaoyu?
Unbeknownst to us, did we unwittingly fall into the trap of these three monsters?
What on earth is going on here?