It survived being skinned and buried in the ground; it must be a fox demon!
Just then, Gu Xicheng suddenly received a call from his older brother.
"Old Gu, Chang Yajing has been found in Qingqiu. You and Qingqing should come over right away!"
"How come she's in Qingqiu?" Gu Xicheng asked in surprise.
"A fox demon brought her here. Anyway, the situation is complicated. You should come over first!"
"Okay, let's go there now."
Gu Xicheng hung up the phone and said to Lu Qing:
"Chang Yajing was captured by a fox demon and taken to Qingqiu."
Lu Qing was also shocked upon hearing this:
"Is it that fox demon that lost its skin?"
"Probably! Let's go to Qingqiu first and then we'll talk about it."
"good!"
Gu Xicheng and Lu Qing returned immediately.
More than three hours later, they arrived at the entrance to the Qingqiu barrier.
Bai Xi used her magic to teleport them directly into the fox den.
Upon arriving there, they saw Huo Tianyu and Chang Yajing still unconscious, as well as a fox that had lost its fur and was now just flesh and bones.
Lu Qing walked over and asked it:
"Are you Yuanyuan?"
Upon hearing this, the fox, which had been half-dead, suddenly raised its head:
"How...how do you know my name?"
“We went to see Song Wu. He misses you a lot. That aunt told him that you have gone home.”
Two tears suddenly streamed down the fox demon's face, and she gave a bitter smile:
"That's fine too. Anyway, I'm going to die soon, so he won't be sad if he doesn't know."
“Tell me, why did you arrest Chang Yajing?” Lu Qing asked.
The fox demon sneered:
"I'm about to die, what's the point of saying this?"
Lu Qing: "Tell me your story. If there are extenuating circumstances, maybe I can help you!"
"Can you really help me?" The fox demon stared blankly at Lu Qing.
Lu Qing smiled and nodded: "At least it will keep you from dying."
After hesitating for a moment, the fox demon revealed its purpose.
"I did this to give Xiaowei's heart back to her."
Lu Qing's eyes flickered slightly: "You also know that Xiao Wei's heart is inside the bodies of Wang Sheng and Pei Rong's reincarnations?"
The fox demon gave a bitter smile and said:
"I was right there when Xiaowei gave them her heart, how could I not know!"
"Huh?" Everyone was somewhat surprised.
"There are stories about the fox spirit Xiao Wei in the human world, but they were all made up by Wang Sheng back then. The truth is not what the stories say at all."
"Although we Qingqiu foxes are demons, we don't feed on human hearts. The one who truly dug out human hearts and livers to cultivate was Wang Sheng!"
At this point, a hint of hatred flashed in the fox demon's eyes.
Her real name wasn't Yuanyuan, but Hongwei, and she was a six-tailed red fox.
A thousand years ago, Hongwei and Xiaowei were friends.
Because of its allure to the human world, it secretly slipped away from Qingqiu, transformed into human form, and played among humans.
Later, Red Tail met a human man and fell in love with him, thus separating from Yui.
She and that man had a wonderful time together.
However, Red Tail was, after all, a fox demon. Human demon hunters tracked down her aura and beat her so badly that she almost lost all her cultivation.
Just as she was about to die at the hands of the demon hunter, her husband appeared in time and stopped him.
Seeing that Redtail was dying and not wanting to harm humans, the demon hunter left.
Red Tail's husband didn't mind that she was a fox spirit and tried everything he could to save her, even going so far as to ask a tree spirit for help.
The tree spirit asked him to exchange his four senses—sight, hearing, smell, and taste—and he agreed without hesitation.
So, when Redtail woke up, she saw a husband who could not see, hear, smell, or taste anything.
She took her husband to the deep mountains and stayed with him for the rest of her life.
The man lost all four senses and did not live long, passing away at the age of fifty.
After her husband died, Hongwei went to find Xiaowei, intending to return to Qingqiu.
But Xiao Wei's experience in the human world wasn't much better than hers.
Wang Sheng rescued Xiao Wei from the demon hunter and took her back with him. Xiao Wei fell in love with this man.
But after going back with him, she discovered that Wang Sheng already had a wife, Pei Rong.
Xiaowei knew it was wrong to do this, but once a fox demon falls in love, it's for life.
She was willing to become Wang Sheng's concubine, but Pei Rong refused.
Wang Sheng was able to become a military officer entirely because of the connections of Pei Rong's parents. Neither Pei Rong nor her parents would agree to him taking a concubine.
Wang Sheng said to Xiao Wei, "If Pei Rong were not in this life, I would stay with you forever!"
Xiao Wei believed it; she thought that as long as Wang Sheng and Pei Rong divorced, he could marry her.
So she found Pei Rong and said:
"As long as you leave Wang Sheng, I will meet any conditions you set."
Pei Rong frowned upon hearing this and advised her:
“Wang Sheng is not as good a person as you think. I was also deceived by him before. I advise you to leave him as soon as possible.”
At the time, Xiaowei thought Peirong was deliberately slandering Wang Sheng to prevent her from getting entangled with him, but she didn't expect that her words were actually a piece of advice.
Later, a monster appeared in the city that could rip out people's hearts and livers.
Wang Sheng was ordered to investigate, but his investigation led him to Pei Rong.
Finally, one day, Pei Rong transformed into a demon in front of everyone and was captured by Wang Sheng and the demon hunters.
As a fox demon, Xiao Wei knew that Pei Rong was not a demon; she had simply drunk demon blood and was unable to control the demonic power within her.
But Xiaowei didn't say it aloud; she didn't care whether Peirong lived or died.
Some even thought it would be better if Pei Rong died, so that she could be with Wang Sheng.
After Pei Rong was arrested, Xiao Wei married Wang Sheng as she wished.
But on their wedding night, Wang Sheng, together with a demon hunter, used a formation to trap Xiao Wei, intending to take her heart.
Xiao Wei then realized that Wang Sheng's rescue of her from the very beginning was a conspiracy.
He didn't love himself; he only wanted her heart, that of a thousand-year-old fox demon, to control the surging demonic power within him.
The real monster in the city who rips out people's hearts and livers is Wang Sheng.
Wang Sheng was unwilling to remain dependent on Pei Rong's family and be looked down upon, so he consumed demon blood in order to gain greater power and achieve great things.
But demon blood is not so easy to control.
After making many inquiries, Wang Sheng learned that only the heart of a thousand-year-old fox demon could help him.
But a thousand-year-old fox demon is not so easy to deal with, let alone take its heart.
That's why Wang Sheng came up with this idea.
In her grief and anger, Xiao Wei exhausted all her cultivation to break through the formation and escape, but half of her heart was also ripped out.
She was rescued by Pei Rong's parents after sustaining serious injuries.
To repay them, Xiaowei used the remaining half of her heart to help Peirong regain her human form and even revealed herself in front of everyone to prove that Peirong was not a monster.
Red Tail rescued Xiao Wei and brought her back to Qingqiu.
They disrupted the human world and suffered a thousand years of being frozen in ice.
A thousand years later, Red Tail left the Frozen Purgatory, but Xiao Wei, having lost her heart, was unable to withstand the power to break the ice.
With this, the truth behind the "Painted Skin" chapter of Liaozhai becomes clear.
"You saved Xiaowei just because of your friendship?" Lu Qing asked, frowning.
Redtail chuckled and said:
"Of course not. I want my other skin back. Only by wearing the skin can Song Wu recognize me."
"How did your skin end up with Xiao Wei?" Lu Qing asked, puzzled.
"Xiaowei said my red fox fur was pretty, so I fought with her and lost. I then lent her my red fox fur to exchange."
She wanted to give me her white fox pelt, but I thought white wasn't pretty enough, so I found a red fox that had recently died, skinned it, and wore its pelt.
Lu Qing was speechless.
This fox must be stupid; it can change its skin so easily without feeling any pain.
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