Chapter 83: Visiting Fox City (3) “That means it’s enough to destroy the world…

"I don't know if it's difficult." Si Ling smiled. "I just want to find out something that happened a long time ago."

Fox Ancestor asked, "How long?"

"At least 27,000 to 28,000 years ago, maybe 30,000 to 40,000 years ago." Si Ling nodded apologetically. "I know this timeframe is a bit too general, but this is the result of our several back-calculations. If I had come to you from the beginning, the time span would have been between 10,000 and 30,000 to 40,000 years."

"Either way, it's been a long time." The Fox Ancestor scoffed sweetly. Si Ling felt a gaze from behind her and unconsciously turned to look over. She saw the female fox demon waiting by the door, observing her with curiosity. Suddenly, their eyes met, and the female fox demon, realizing her impoliteness, awkwardly looked away.

The Fox Ancestor asked again, "What do you want to know?"

Si Ling turned back and pondered for a moment. "I know this place has never been the territory of the Eastern God Realm, but the Eastern Emperor of Heaven once sent people here. I think... you might know what happened then."

After she finished speaking, she waited for Fox Ancestor's reply, but she saw Fox Ancestor narrow her eyes, which made her human form reveal a distinctly foxy vibe. She said, "That's a very vague question. I don't understand what you're asking."

Si Ling looked her straight in the eyes. "The Emperor of Heaven once sent his trusted ancient beast here. Why? And what happened later that caused the entire race of this beast to disappear?"

Out of some kind of caution, Si Ling concealed the specific information about Xuan Chi and the Suhuang Clan, but from the flashing eyes of the Fox Ancestor, she was sure that the Fox Ancestor understood.

Fox Ancestor didn't intend to hide this fact. The smile on her face quickly faded, and she looked at Si Ling with a look of clear scrutiny in her eyes: "I guess you are talking about the Suhuang Clan."

Si Ling's breathing hitched, and Fox Ancestor stared at her closely: "Where did you hear about them? Why are you asking about this?"

The air was quiet for a second, and Si Ling said calmly, "We are a business relationship. I think I can keep these reasons to myself."

The air was quiet again, and Si Ling once again felt the gazes coming from behind him, this time with more shock and uneasiness.

A hint of anger crept into Fox Ancestor's charming and enchanting face. Si Ling simply stared at her calmly. After an unknown amount of time, Fox Ancestor smiled again, "Interesting."

Then, the surroundings began to move - the furry white fox tails covering the four walls quickly shrank, revealing the bare walls. Si Ling quickly saw that there were also murals painted on these walls, which were also ancient works with a sense of time, but they were much more exquisitely crafted than those outside.

When the Fox Ancestor completely retracted his tail and vanished with magic, the wall behind the white jade couch was fully revealed. On the wall, three fox demons, all female, were painted. Judging by her appearance, the Fox Ancestor was the one on the left, though she appeared younger, perhaps in her teens, and had white fox ears. The one on the right was also a young girl, but likely older, given her more reserved clothing and human ears.

Between the two of them, the fox demon in the center of the painting is a human female in her early thirties. She actually looks very similar to the Fox Ancestor, but she has none of the Fox Ancestor's enchanting charm. Instead, she has a kind of solemnity that is difficult to imagine in a fox demon. In the painting, her eyes are lowered and she looks at the fox with compassion, just like a compassionate Bodhisattva.

The Fox Ancestor stood up from the white jade couch and walked towards the mural behind her. Her three fox tails, which had shrunk, were still very long, dragging behind her like a stream of hair. "I've said before that there's nothing we can't do in the Three Realms of the West—but the Suhuang Clan has never been to the West, so I don't know what happened to them. But—" She stopped, glanced at Si Ling, and smiled softly, "I thought you'd be interested in hearing about the Three-Tailed Fox Clan."

Si Ling nodded: "I'd like to hear the details."

The Fox Ancestor looked up at the mural, his eyes lost in memories, but his usual smile still played on his lips. "We were born when the world was first formed. Back then, there was no distinction between gods, demons, or humans. We were just different... well, species. The Three Realms didn't have any system either. Everything was chaotic, and each race lived its own life. Until a god decided to put an end to this chaos and took action to conquer the world."

Si Ling easily guessed the clue: "Is it the Emperor of Heaven?"

"Yes, that was the future Heavenly Emperor." The Fox Ancestor chuckled. "This had nothing to do with us. After all... back then, few people thought about the future. We were just a bunch of free little foxes, and being able to roll around in the snow was the happiest thing. But my mother, the then-leader of the Three-Tailed Fox Clan..." Her gaze fell on the dignified woman in the center. "She was... well, a foresighted person. The term humans later used to call her 'old vixen' was a perfect description of her. She saw that this Heavenly God would achieve great things in the future, and she wanted to follow him on his conquests. She firmly believed that this would benefit the Three-Tailed Fox Clan."

"But the heir apparent of the clan, my sister, didn't want to." She walked over to the woman on the right side of the mural, gently stroking her cheek. Her smile turned bitter. "...I was too young then to understand the truth. I only remember an argument that broke out between them and caused them to fall apart. After that..." She shook her head. "I don't remember what happened either, but anyway, my mother took some of the clan to follow the Heavenly Emperor, and my sister brought me and the rest of the people to the far west, where we settled down."

"Back then, the West was still a barren land, and we spent thousands of years here in peace. My mother came a few times, and her relationship with my sister was never very good. The atmosphere was always a little awkward, but for the sake of appearances, it was always manageable."

Distant memories struck a soft spot deep within Fox Ancestor's heart, causing her to speak in a somewhat trivial manner, seemingly unrelated to what Si Ling wanted to know. But Si Ling simply listened patiently. As Fox Ancestor reminisced about the delicate relationship between her mother and sister, she vaguely felt that what she wanted to hear would soon become known.

As expected, the Fox Ancestor turned around and took a deep breath. "Later... probably over 30,000 years ago, one day my sister suddenly told me that something had happened to our mother. I asked her what happened, but she couldn't explain it clearly. She just said she was going back to find her mother. She told me and the other tribesmen not to run around and to stay here and wait for her return..."

Fox Ancestor paused and said, "But she never came back."

Si Ling paused, then blurted out, "What happened next?" She stared at the gloomy Fox Ancestor, "Did you look for them?"

"Of course." The Fox Ancestor lowered his eyes, "But they just... disappeared, along with the entire three-tailed fox clan that remained in the east. They disappeared."

Si Ling pursed his lips and said nothing. Fox Ancestor left those ancient calligraphy strokes and returned to sit in front of the white jade couch, a playful smile on his face: "Do you know what the strangest thing is?"

Si Ling looked at her: "What?"

The Fox Ancestor said quietly, "When the people I sent went to great lengths to enter the heavens and directly inquire about their whereabouts from the people in the heavens... everyone looked confused, as if they had never heard of the three-tailed fox before."

The Fox Ancestor laughed mockingly, raised his hand and snapped his fingers, and a jade jar appeared out of thin air, followed by a jade pot. The jade pot tilted steadily and filled the jade jar with fine wine.

The Fox Ancestor took the jade cup and took a sip of wine before continuing, "This is truly bizarre, so my men are on guard—" At this point, she raised her eyes and looked towards the female fox demon who had been guarding the door. "A Ling, I'm tired. You go on."

The female fox demon stepped forward and stood beside the coffee table. She lowered her head quietly and continued expressionlessly, "It was my mother who went to investigate this matter. She found it too strange, so she inquired about the other races. Most of them are safe and sound, but the Feathered People, Mermaids, and Phoenixes have all vanished, just like the Three-Tailed Fox."

The female fox demon raised her eyes gloomily. "It's not a simple 'disappearance', it's a complete 'vanishing'. Within the Three Realms, no one remembers their glory anymore. Some have completely vanished from historical records, while others are left with only fragments of legend. It's as if we're hallucinating, and everything about them is just a figment of our imagination."

"Is there such a thing?" Si Ling was surprised. After a moment's hesitation, he asked, "Is there any connection between these vanished races?"

"That's a good question." Fox Ancestor smiled and took back the conversation. "Although I was still young when I migrated to the West, and I haven't inquired much about the Eastern Divine Realm since then, believe me, I'm absolutely correct about these races—they are all races loyal to the Heavenly Emperor. Especially the Phoenix and the Mermaid. They must have followed the Heavenly Emperor far earlier than my mother did, and they were there when the Heavenly Emperor first expanded his territory."

Si Ling asked seriously, "There is no Suhuang Clan?"

"Ah, the Suhuang Clan... that's much later than my mother." The Fox Ancestor twitched his lips. "My mother mentioned them a few times when she came to the West, but I didn't pay much attention. I only know that their status in the Heavenly Court rose rapidly for a while, and it seems that they had a general who was highly regarded by the Heavenly Emperor."

general……

Si Ling's intuition told him that the Fox Ancestor was talking about Xuan Chi.

"What happened after that? What else do you know?" Si Ling stared at her intently. "There must be a reason for their disappearance, and this disappearance..." She pursed her lips. "If everyone really forgot about them, it might be because of a spell, then the caster must have a cultivation level that is enough to destroy the world; and if everyone is forced to pretend to forget..."

Si Ling paused. The speculations surging in her heart made her uneasy, and she didn't want to continue talking as if to escape.

But the Fox Ancestor mercilessly revealed the part she didn't want to say: "That means a power that is powerful enough to destroy the world."

This statement left Si Ling with no room for escape, and a sense of conspiracy and power struggle surged up. Fox Ancestor appreciated her uneasiness, and suddenly smiled again: "But this matter is not over yet."

Just as Si Ling was about to speak, a green light flashed in Fox Ancestor's eyes, and demonic energy suddenly burst out, shaking the cave. Si Ling was startled, and in the blink of an eye, Fox Ancestor's beautiful face was right in front of him. The corners of her lips were still curled in a charming smile, but her eyes were filled with a fierce and cruel look.

"Little girl." The Fox Ancestor's long armor lifted her chin. "I don't know why you come to ask this, but if you give me one more thing, I will tell you an important prophecy about this matter. How about it?"