"Ahem, calm down." Shen Zhiyi took Sangsang's raised hand and soothed the agitated Sangsang.
"Oh dear~ How can you call me a fox spirit? I'm a fox fairy." Fox Moon had somehow acquired a round fan and was gently fanning herself.
Shen Zhiyi turned to look at Hu Yue and asked, "What exactly do you want? Don't tell me you don't want anything. If you don't want anything, why are you stopping us?"
Fox Moon paused for a moment while waving her fan, and the smile on her face froze.
"I really didn't mean anything by it, I just wanted to ask you for a favor." When Fox Moon spoke again, her voice was no longer as charming as before.
"I won't help." Shen Zhiyi turned her head directly and helped Sangsang up from the ground.
"?" Fox Moon was stunned for a moment, not expecting Shen Zhiyi to reject her so directly.
"You haven't even heard what it is yet!" Fox Moon put down the fan she was waving and shouted angrily at Shen Zhiyi.
"I'm a respectable fox, I won't let you do anything that's morally reprehensible."
Shen Zhiyi ignored her; she didn't believe the nonsense Hu Yue was spouting.
"We'll be going now if there's nothing else, we have other things to do."
"No!" Fox Moon cried out anxiously, stepping forward to stop the three who were about to leave. "Really, I won't hurt you. I just want you to take me away from this secret realm."
Shen Zhiyi and the other two stopped in their tracks, surprised that Hu Yue had such thoughts.
"Sit down for a while, and I'll tell you something," Fox Moon said tentatively when she saw them stop.
Shen Zhiyi exchanged a glance with the two of them. "Alright, tell me what you think."
"Actually, this secret realm used to be freely accessible, but later, for some unknown reason, the Heavenly Dao closed the exit."
“In the past, all the powerful predecessors left when the Heavenly Dao was about to close the exit.”
"After the exit was closed, the spiritual energy of the secret realm gradually declined. I was a little fox born after the exit was closed. At that time, there was still a trace of spiritual energy in the secret realm. I cultivated into a human by relying on that trace of spiritual energy."
“The spiritual energy disappeared hundreds of years ago. Those intelligent companions gradually turned back into ordinary animals and slowly died because of the disappearance of the spiritual energy.”
At this point, Fox Moon paused for a moment. Shen Zhiyi guessed that she was probably thinking of her old friends.
After a moment, Fox Moon regained her smile and continued speaking.
"I have lived here for thousands of years, and my strength has begun to decline. If I can't find a way out or open the secret realm, I will die in this secret realm and become nourishment for some other place."
"So I want to leave here. Maybe if I get outside, I can find a way to move up and maybe I can survive."
"I haven't even left the secret realm to see the outside world properly yet. I'm not willing to die in such a miserable state."
After speaking, the group remained silent for a while. Sangsang looked left and right, and finally couldn't hold back any longer: "If it's closed, then how did we get in?"
Fox Moon opened her mouth, then sighed, "People outside can come in, but people inside can't get out."
"You obtained the treasure map to the secret realm, right?"
Shen Zhiyi nodded.
"That treasure map is the key to entering the secret realm, but it has a time limit."
Shen Zhiyi asked, "Since you know about the treasure map, then over the years, we must be the only ones who have entered the secret realm."
At this point, Fox Moon laughed out loud, her initial chuckle turning into a loud laugh.
"Yes, of course I've contacted more than just you."
Fox Moon gazed into the distance, seemingly reminiscing about something.
"You are the third group of people I have encountered," Fox Moon said casually, glancing up at the tree.
"The first person I met was too timid. As soon as I appeared in front of her, she screamed that there was a monster and told me not to come near her or eat her. Before I could even say anything, that was the end of it."
Shen Zhiyi interrupted, "Was the person you met that time wearing a wooden hairpin, dressed in linen clothes, and looking a bit malnourished?"
Shen Zhiyi gave a brief description.
Fox Moon glanced at Shen Zhiyi suspiciously, as if asking, "How do you know?"
"That person must be from ancient times. Some people in ancient times are very superstitious about ghosts, gods, and monsters. They were already a bit flustered when they suddenly arrived here, and then you suddenly appeared, which is why you scared them."
Fox Moon fell silent.
She hadn't really thought about this issue. She was so eager to leave the secret realm that she overlooked something and never expected things to turn out this way.
No wonder when she approached the woman to help her up, the woman kept backing away and eventually kept kowtowing and crying.
Fox Moon sighed again.
"And what about the second time?" Chen Peng asked, quite curious, to be honest.
"The second time..."
Fox Moon's expression turned somewhat strange, and she finally chuckled softly.
"The second time, it was a man." Fox Moon glanced at Chen Peng, "He was even less attractive than you."
"That man is a bastard. He said that if I submit to him, he will take me away from the secret realm."
“I agree, because I want to leave the secret realm.” Fox Moon’s face was expressionless, as if this matter had nothing to do with her.
"But he lied to me. He said he couldn't take me out right now. He had to find something outside, and only when he found that thing could he take me away from here."
"He was afraid I wouldn't believe him, so he told me that he had a treasure map and that he would come back to take me away once he found it."
“I believed him. I believed he would come back for me. I agreed to all the requests he made during that time.”
"He also took many treasures from the secret realm with him, and before he left, he told me to wait here for him to return."
"I have been waiting for a hundred years."
"At first I believed him, but as time went by, I realized that he would never come back."
“He has been lying to me all along. He only wanted my body and the treasures of the secret realm. After leaving here, he took what I gave him and ran away. In his eyes, I was probably just a prostitute.”
After saying this, the atmosphere fell silent. Shen Zhiyi and Sangsang opened their mouths, unsure how to comfort Hu Yue.
Fox Moon... she's just a pitiful person who wants to escape from here.
Fox Moon naturally noticed the glances from Shen Zhiyi and Sang Sang.
Then that familiar smile returned to his face: "No need to comfort me, I don't care anymore."
Just as Shen Zhiyi was about to say something, Hu Yue interrupted her.
"So, can you take me out?" She still had that sweet, cloying tone from before, her fox-like eyes slightly upturned, giving Shen Zhiyi a seductive wink.
Shen Zhiyi's face darkened. "No."
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