The black-feathered fox demon at the top of the altar raised its chin, its nine tails spreading out like umbrellas in the bloody light.

The human eyeballs embedded in the bell at the tip of the tail suddenly rotated simultaneously.

As my cloudy pupils swept across the crack in the rock, the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.

Her shrill scream was like a rusty knife scraping against a bronze mirror: "The time has come—"

The stalactites on the cave ceiling collapsed and splashed into the blood pool, sending up a spray of dark red liquid.

Three rows of fox demons responded and began to dance.

The transformed foxes flicked the bewitching fragrance from their sleeves, and pale golden smoke condensed in mid-air into countless bloody, mangled human faces.

Some had their eye sockets gouged out, and some had their throats cut.

Those were the wronged souls whose bones and tendons had been taken from them.

The soul-stealing foxes, their skeletal bodies hunched over, tapped each other with their humerus hairpins.

The "click-clack" sound was just like the beads on an old abacus; with each click, a nauseating black wave surged from the pool of blood.

Half-melted human faces floated on the crest of the wave.

Xiao Lian's figure stood out as an outsider among the mechanically dancing procession of soul guides.

Her eyes, hidden beneath the bronze fox mask, would occasionally dart towards the crevice where I was hiding, like those of a startled fawn.

The dance steps, which should have been synchronized, kept faltering under her feet.

The black-feathered fox demon also noticed Xiao Lian's unusual behavior. Suddenly, it swung its tail violently, and the bell at the tip of its tail emitted a sharp and piercing sound.

Xiao Lian froze, blood instantly seeping from her shoulder, clearly injured by the fox demon's demonic power.

Even so, she stubbornly adjusted her dance steps, and in the instant she turned around, she subtly gestured to me with the jade fragments on her silver hairpin.

Nine-tailed fox?

I stared at the jagged tips of the black-feathered fox demon's tail and suddenly remembered the true nine-tailed fox recorded in the Classic of Mountains and Seas.

"A voice like that of an infant will not poison those who eat it."

The creature before them, with a human eye embedded in the tip of its tail bell and sustained by the blood of a living soul, was clearly a pseudo-nine-tailed creature grafted using evil magic.

And if it really is a nine-tailed fox, how could it not have noticed me?

Once you reach the Nine-Tails, you're practically a god-level being.

What surprised me, however, was that the other fox demons ignored this flaw.

The Thousand Soul Cauldron in the center of the altar suddenly roared.

The birth dates and times of Dazhu, Xiaofei, and Li Jinrong appeared on the body of the cauldron.

The black-feathered fox demon reached into the blood pool and retrieved three sacrificial knives made from finger bones.

"First, take this fat man's lifeblood to sacrifice to my cauldron!"

As soon as he finished speaking, three bloody cracks suddenly appeared in the ground.

Dazhu, Xiaofei, and Li Jinrong were dragged up the altar by chains.

The three were completely naked, their skin flushed an eerie red, and they wore foolish smiles.

Li Jinrong's fat belly was covered with teeth marks, and only half of his gold chain remained hanging around his neck, the other end of which was embedded in the mouth of a fox in human form.

Xiao Fei's suit was torn into strips, and he wore a new bronze bell on his wrist. With every step he took, white hairs would emerge from his pores.

The fox-shaped markings on the back of Dazhu's neck have spread to his entire back.

He gazed at the Thousand Soul Cauldron in the center of the altar and murmured to himself, "Girl... this bath is so comfortable..."

“These three outsiders are tonics that I specially sought out for the clan chief!”

A fox in human form swayed forward, its fingertips brushing against Li Jinrong's Adam's apple.

The fox demon leader chuckled strangely, and the bell at the tip of its tail suddenly burst out with a blue light.

Thousands of blue and white porcelain bottles shattered simultaneously, and ghostly blue spirit fire surged into the Thousand Soul Cauldron like a tidal wave.

The birth dates and times engraved on the cauldron lit up one by one, finally settling on the names of Dazhu, Xiaofei, and Li Jinrong.

"Let's use this skinny guy to whet our appetites!"

The fox demon leader pointed at Xiao Fei.

Two soul-devouring foxes immediately pounced forward, their sharp claws tearing open his chest.

Strangely, there was no bleeding from the wound, only wisps of white smoke drifting out.

That's because the transformed fox had extracted its essence and blood beforehand.

Even more horrifying, Xiao Fei continued to grin foolishly, even raising his hand to straighten his tie, until a soul-devouring fox plunged its entire arm into his chest cavity.

Amidst the cracking sound of bones dislocating, the still-beating soul was forcibly pulled out.

The spirit's face still held a silly grin, but it let out a silent scream the moment it touched the cauldron.

His body did not fall down, but instead spun around in place like a marionette.

White phosphorescent light continuously seeped from the hollow in his chest cavity, leaving translucent footprints on the ground with every step he took.

When it was Li Jinrong's turn, his large body was suspended above the mouth of the cauldron by chains.

The half of the gold chain around his neck was still hanging there, with the other end held in the mouth of the transformed fox.

The fox demon's scarlet tongue licked the chain, leaving fine teeth marks on the gold.

The black-feathered fox demon threw the finger bone sacrificial knife into the air. The blade spun and pierced his navel, but instead of cutting through the flesh, it turned like a key.

"Hehehe—this fat man's soul blood is the fattest!"

The fox demon leader sneered and flicked its tail, causing the person inside the bell to squint at the same time.

Li Jinrong's silly grin suddenly froze as he looked down and saw his belly bulging like a balloon.

Countless distorted human face outlines emerged beneath the skin.

Those were all businessmen he had cheated after getting them drunk at the dinner table, and now they were being revived in his body through sorcery.

As the sacrificial knife spun, his body suddenly exploded into a cloud of blood mist, but not a single drop fell to the ground; it was all sucked into the vortex at the mouth of the cauldron.

In the blood mist, his soul remained in a silly grinning posture, torn to pieces by thousands of venomous faces.

The large pillar was the last one to be dragged onto the altar.

The fox-shaped markings on the back of his neck had spread to his ankles, and the dark lines under his skin writhed like living creatures.

As the chains secured him to the cauldron, he suddenly grinned foolishly at the empty corner.

"Girl, look how big this pool is..."

The black-feathered fox demon chuckled strangely, pressing its nine tails simultaneously onto the top of his head.

"This kid has been most deeply influenced by the fox vein, so he's perfect for being used as the spirit of the cauldron!"

The bell at the tip of her tail burst forth with a blinding blue light, and Dazhu's body began to convulse. His skin gradually became transparent, revealing the black fox veins wrapped beneath his skin.

The fox veins suddenly taut, emitting eerie sounds like harp strings.

His soul was forcibly pulled from the soles of his feet and floated upwards against the suction force of the cauldron.

The spirit's face still wore a silly grin, but black tears of blood flowed from its eyes, each drop condensing into the shape of a fox in mid-air.

After absorbing the souls of the three people, the Thousand Soul Cauldron suddenly emitted a muffled roar.

The body of the cauldron was covered with densely packed blood-red characters, all of which were the names of people who had disappeared in the past century.

The black-feathered fox demon placed its hand on the lid of the cauldron, and its nine tails simultaneously pierced the mouth of the cauldron.

Black blood seeped from the eyes of the people inside the bell at the tail tip, merging with the blood of the living souls inside the cauldron to form a viscous liquid.

I hid behind a crevice in the rocks, staring intently at what was in front of me, my mind buzzing.

Is this what opening the kiln is like?

Xiao Lian suddenly looked up from the line of soul guides, glanced in my direction, and gently shook her head at me.

I know she was afraid I would be exposed.

After all, in her eyes, I was a Taoist priest who came to exorcise demons.

But she was overthinking it.

Going out now would be suicide.