"Wait a minute." Chu Nian quickly stopped her. "Lin Jingting just said that this female fox still has three thousand years of lifespan. If you kill her, I'll have to find another body for her to revive."

Master Nanhua roared, "She killed the direct descendant of the fox clan and caused the fox emperor and fox empress to perish as well. Doesn't she deserve to die?"

“Damn it!” Chu Nian replied, “But since she still has three thousand years of life left, it means that she still has merits to atone for, which greatly reduces her sins.”

Master Nan Hua: "Merit? Does that mean that people with merit can freely rape and harm others?"

Chu Nian: "No. But her sins will definitely be settled later. If you want to kill her, you'll have to wait three thousand years."

Lan Dian said, "Master, this female fox is very wicked. Why not throw her into the wasteland behind Phoenix Feather Mountain in your space and let her cultivate the land?"

Chu Nian stroked his chin and pondered, "That makes sense. Clearing land is much harder than normal farming. This woman has done a lot of harm, even harming children. She really needs to be reformed through labor." With that, he scooped up Hu Tiantian and put her into his small space.

Chu Nian then began to examine Bai Jiuxiao.

Is Bai Jiuxiao hateful or not? From the original owner's perspective, and from the perspective of that deceased legitimate princess of the fox clan, she was indeed hateful. However, during her reign as empress, she led the entire fox clan to grow stronger and more prosperous, making her a truly wise and benevolent empress.

This is probably why some of the sins of his biological mother, Hu Tiantian, were offset.

"Master, what do you think of Bai Jiuxiao? What should we do with him?" Tuoba Hongyuan asked with a fawning smile as he saw her pondering.

Chu Nian said, "It's not impossible for you to make her your third wife, but only if she's willing. She is, after all, the Queen of Qingqiu. I can humiliate and torment her however I want, but you can't."

Lan Dian quickly stepped forward and said, "Master, why don't you just throw her and her wretched mother together to clear the land? If the two of them work together, they can work faster. If they clear more fertile land for you, you'll harvest more in the future."

Tuoba Hongyuan gave her several meaningful glances, signaling her to speak less, but she pretended not to notice.

Chu Nian sighed and said to Bai Jiuxiao, "Now I'll give you three choices. First, go and be like your mother, clearing land and farming for me; second, become the third wife of my subordinate Tuoba Hongyuan, and preferably bear him a son or daughter..."

Hearing this, Tuoba Hongyuan nodded repeatedly with joy. This joy was extremely glaring and heartbreaking to Lan Dian!

Blue Lightning pouted and complained, "Master, why did you give her this choice?"

Chu Nian also complained to her, "You knew what kind of person your husband was before, so why did you still stay with him? You must have been mentally prepared since you made the choice!"

Lan Diansheng stomped his foot and glared fiercely at Tuoba Hongyuan.

Chu Nian continued to Bai Jiuxiao, "You have a third option: to obediently submit to me and manage the Qingqiu Fox Clan well for me, the rightful Empress, so that the Fox Clan can only be more prosperous than before. If it is even slightly weaker than when you were Empress..." As she spoke, she pointed to Tuoba Hongyuan, "I will throw you to me, your subordinate, to play with as I please."

Bai Jiuxiao quickly said, "I choose the third one."

Tuoba Hongyuan said dejectedly, "Master, by giving her these three choices, you're clearly pushing her towards the position of Empress!"

Chu Nian: "What Empress? I am the Empress. This Bai Jiuxiao is just my slave now..." After saying that, she waved her hand and threw a slave contract to Bai Jiuxiao, "Sign it!"

Bai Jiuxiao stared at the slave contract in shock and anger. Just as he was about to scold Chu Nian, he looked up and met Chu Nian's cold eyes and the imperial seal in her hand that was emitting a dark light.

Yin Shanjun murmured, "How could you have thought of making a beast enslavement contract with Bai Jiuxiao? This is a contract between a cultivator and a demon beast."

Liu Ying shook Bai Jiuxiao's arm and cried, "Mother, you must not sign this contract. Once you sign it, will you ever have a chance to turn things around?" Then she raised her head and scolded Chu Nian, "Niannian, even if you are just my tail, you are still my mother's child. How could you exist without my mother? How could you... how could you let her be your slave beast?"

Chu Nian slightly manipulated the imperial seal in his hand, and Liu Ying suddenly felt a surge of reverence in her heart. She immediately knelt down and kowtowed to Chu Nian.

Seeing Bai Jiuxiao looking at her unwillingly, Chu Nian said earnestly, "You should have foreseen this day when you took over the Imperial Seal from the Fox Emperor. That's why you've worked so diligently and conscientiously to manage Qingqiu all these years, creating its prosperity and strength."

You know, even if the truth comes out one day and everyone knows you're just a substitute for the legitimate princess, they'll still continue to support you because of your hard work.

The only mistake you made was towards me… As Liu Ying said, I was also born of you, but neither you nor Liu Tuan ever treated me as an independent individual, only as an appendage of Liu Ying, trying every possible way to kill me so that Liu Ying could gather the nine tails.

What goes around comes around. Just imagine, if Hu Tiantian hadn't used you to replace the legitimate princess, would you be in this situation today? No. And imagine again, if you and Liu Tuan hadn't helped Liu Ying relentlessly pressure me, would you be in this situation today? No.

All your suffering is self-inflicted; you have no one to blame but yourself.

The oriole was still kowtowing, until she fainted from the effort.

Upon seeing this, Bai Jiuxiao burst into tears, saying, "It's all my fault for not watching over Yingying back then. Even though I am the Queen of Qingqiu, I couldn't even protect my own child..."

Chu Nian interrupted her in a deep voice: "The past is the past, so let's not bring it up again. Although she has lost a tail, if she devotes herself to cultivation, she may still achieve something in the future."

It's laughable that you're placing all your hopes for her becoming stronger on me, the Nine-Tails. She's weak now, and when things go wrong, she only thinks of relying on others; it's not entirely her fault.”

Bai Jiuxiao said, "I can sign this contract, but I hope you can send Yingying back to her father."

Chu Nian asked in surprise, "You don't plan to let her cultivate in Qingqiu?"

Bai Jiuxiao: "She was originally a princess of Qingqiu, but now she has to be a slave in Qingqiu." She burst into tears again as she said this. "I'm afraid she can't bear it."

Chu Nian: "I can grant your request. But have you considered that she might not be happy living in the Liu family?"

Bai Jiuxiao: "I know Liu Tuan. He will definitely treat Yingying well. As long as she gets older and her innate immortal abilities as a fox clan awaken, she will become stronger. It won't be too late to let her return to Qingqiu then."