human-faced fox
Swish - as if an invisible hand had cleared away the fog, Jiang Jingyuan's heart suddenly trembled, and his eyes suddenly became clear.
The orange-red firelight filled his vision, and the darkness in his peripheral vision suddenly dissipated. Jiang Jingyuan stepped over the broken wood on the ground, pushed aside the grass and walked over.
Jiang Jingyuan stood in the orange-red firelight. Not far in front of him, the familiar bonfire was crackling and flaring.
Really... back to the campfire?
Jiang Jingyuan stared at the scene in front of him in a daze.
Then, "Where are the people? Has anyone come back?" she thought to herself, turning her feet and looking around.
It was quiet within the firelight, and outside the range of the firelight, the woods were pitch black and there was no sign of anyone.
Jiang Jingyuan paused, walked up to a slender and strangely shaped tree illuminated by the firelight, put his face close to it, and carefully searched for the marks left by the people from Longyin Pavilion on the gray-white and orange-red trunk.
She moved her head around the tree, up and down, left and right, shifting her feet from time to time.
She just uttered a surprised "No?" in her mind, then stared calmly at a plum blossom mark on the tree trunk, "Oh, yes."
After finding the original mark, Jiang Jingyuan continued looking to see if there were any new marks.
She stood in front of the tree, the firelight was blocked by her figure, casting a dark shadow on the tree trunk. She tilted her body slightly, and the hazy firelight blew away the dark shadow on the tree.
After searching carefully and confirming that there were no new marks, Jiang Jingyuan was not disappointed. He just raised his head slowly and thoughtfully.
"No one has returned, and no one who separated earlier has returned... Are those people really gone? Where did they go?"
She thought about it and subconsciously lowered her eyes.
His eyes suddenly met a resentful gaze.
On the ground, under the dim firelight, among the swaying slender shadows of the grass and trees, a human face with wide-open eyes was vaguely visible...behind the human face was actually the body of a fox!
It lay quietly among the grass leaves for who knows how long. Its white fox fur was stuck together in clumps by yellow-brown stains. It raised its hideous and distorted human face and looked over with eyes full of resentment.
Oh my god! Jiang Jingyuan's heart skipped a beat, but his face remained calm as he slowly leaned back.
However, she raised her eyes quickly and saw the white shadow flash by in her peripheral vision.
Jiang Jingyuan's pupils trembled slightly.
Directly in front of us, at the junction of light and darkness, a tall white shadow stood quietly.
The man in white clothes had a fox mask, with almost half of his face hidden in the darkness. In his narrow fox eyes, two white eyeballs stared at her motionlessly.
Jiang Jingyuan didn't move, and it didn't move either. Even when their eyes met, it just stood there quietly.
The evening wind was cold and bleak, and Jiang Jingyuan almost felt dizzy. But before she could see, she quickly shouted:
"Xu Qinglin! Catch it here intact!"
Before she could say anything, gray-white mist had already appeared out of thin air around her, piercing towards the white shadow with terrifying momentum. As soon as she finished speaking, the mist suddenly became soft and spread out to surround the white shadow.
Jiang Jingyuan's vision went dark, but then it cleared up again, and he stared at the scene in front of him.
This is a great opportunity.
The fox-masked figure disappeared as soon as it was hit. This won't do. We have to catch it and see what it is.
Secondly... it's a good opportunity to see if Xu Qinglin is okay.
In a flash, the mist gently and swiftly enveloped the motionless white shadow, tightening little by little.
"employer!!"
"Miss!!"
"Hey you guys!"
A huge shout suddenly erupted behind him, and Jiang Jingyuan was caught off guard. He was so frightened that his whole body shook violently and he turned his head sharply and alertly.
In the firelight, a few scattered figures were running towards them.
Jiang Jingyuan was startled again, and suddenly turned back to look straight ahead. "It ran away and dissolved on its own," Xu Qinglin's calm voice echoed in his mind.
Directly ahead, there were shadows of trees in the darkness, and the tall white figure was no longer there.
Jiang Jingyuan fell into deep thought.
"Miss!" The maids rushed up first, looking panicked and screaming, "Miss, are you okay?!"
The maids had disheveled hair and branches stuck to their clothes, but they didn't bother to remove them. They looked at the girl in front of them with tears in their eyes, feeling extremely distressed. "You disappeared in the blink of an eye, and you scared us so much. Miss, you have suffered so much..."
"It's okay." Jiang Jingyuan turned around and said to the maids who surrounded her. Suddenly, she raised her eyes, paused, and then closed her slightly opened mouth.
"stop!"
The two teams from the Dragon Roar Pavilion ran out of the forest, suddenly turned around and shouted at each other, then stopped and stared at each other with eyes full of vigilance and suspicion.
"Why are you here?!"
Both sides asked at the same time.
Yu Linhuan walked out slowly from the side in a daze, turned his head to look at them, and walked towards the campfire without stopping.
Jiang Jingyuan also looked at them.
"Old Five! When did you guys get up from the bottom of the cliff?" A man from the right team asked with a frown. "We waited at the edge of the cliff for so long, but there was no response no matter how we called out. How did you get up?"
The fifth man in the left team laughed out of anger. "Well, I didn't hear it once or twice. What's the matter? Why is I, the fifth man, so unpopular?"
The man on the right frowned even deeper and said:
"This place is so weird. What's not normal on either side of us is normal. I'm just asking, why are you so angry?"
He waved his hand and said, "Let's not talk about these useless things for now. First, tell me how you got up here."
He paused, his expression serious. "It's impossible for us as a family to suspect you of anything, but..." His eyes darkened, and he said, "We've seen some strange things in this forest, so we have to be cautious."
Lao Wu sneered, "Are you talking about those foxes?" He suddenly shouted in a deep voice, "You should be more careful! Jiang Yi has been replaced by a fox!"
The people on the right suddenly widened their eyes and subconsciously shouted, "Impossible!"
They calmed down immediately, but their eyes still showed anxiety. They asked, "What happened? How could something happen to Jiang Yi?"
Lao Wu laughed, glanced to the side and then looked at him, "The employers are right here, how could I be lying? It was just that while they were walking, Ruan Chuan ran up and grabbed Jiang Yi, and then he turned around and showed a fox face!"
Yu Linhuan listened and nodded unconsciously, without exaggerating, and said, "I saw that too."
Everyone in Longyin Pavilion looked at their employer and the people around him not far away. They didn't say anything, which meant they didn't deny it.
The group on the right fell silent in an instant.
On the other hand, Lao Wu on the left looked at them coldly, "You guys reminded me. You ran up first, and when we came up, we couldn't find you no matter how hard we tried. How would we know... whether you were human or ghosts?"
Suddenly, the people behind Lao Wu on the left all smiled helplessly and spoke kindly for Lao Wu:
"Yeah, what Lao Wu said makes sense. Just like you said, our family definitely won't suspect each other of anything. Isn't it just that we're afraid that there's something unclean among us?"
The people on the right were silent for a moment, and then one of them spoke:
"But you can't guarantee that none of them are some kind of fake..."
"That's all we can do." Lao Wu shrugged nonchalantly. "Why don't we just go our separate ways and stay a little further apart."
The people on the right frowned fiercely.
What does this mean!
What's wrong with discussing it with each other? His attitude clearly shows that Jiang Yi is gone and he has started to think about it on his own!
They looked at the people behind Lao Wu again, and their eyes instantly revealed displeasure and disgust. These people really dared to follow Lao Wu around!
Several people on the right turned their heads away in displeasure, while the rest of the hesitant people pushed one person aside and frowned, saying:
"We are all from Longyin Pavilion. Longyin Pavilion accepted the order from the employer, and we are now fighting among ourselves before the work is even completed. How will you explain this to the employer and Longyin Pavilion?!"
In an instant, the people behind Lao Wu began to stir, and several of them couldn't hide the hesitation and worry on their faces.
"It's really a shame that you still use me as a cover..." Jiang Jingyuan said in his heart with a blank expression.
The maids around him all looked dissatisfied. Longyin Pavilion was a big sect after all, so why did they allow such a group of people to come?
They don't care whether they are fighting among themselves or not, but they want them to complete the tasks ordered by their prince first!
"Jiang Yi is the only one here who seems capable of doing things," they thought disdainfully. "Once Jiang Yi falls, these people will scatter like monkeys when the tree falls."
Yu Linhuan also looked around and resisted the urge to get close to Jiang Jingyuan and suggest that next time something like this happen, they should go directly to their Baizetang.
Everyone looked at each other in a dead silence.
The bonfire crackled softly, and suddenly there was the sound of gentle footsteps, and everyone turned their heads to look.
The girl in white walked to the campfire, sat down on a chair, and looked at them quietly and coldly.
Around her, the maids smiled gently again and started to boil water.
Yu Linhuan quietly sneaked over and sat down on the ground beside the campfire.
The two groups of people from Longyin Pavilion looked at each other again, were silent for a while, and said one after another, "We have been friends for many years, it's just that Jiang Yi suddenly became like this, so, alas..." "Laowu has always spoken like that, you know." He smiled again and sat down by the campfire.
Everyone had smiles on their faces, but they all lowered their heads slightly, and no one said anything.
The scene was quiet again, with the bonfire crackling softly and the boiling water bubbling.
After a long while, one of them raised his head, looked around pretentiously, and said:
"This place is so weird. We almost got trapped in the woods after walking for so long. We finally got back to the campfire. We really need to plan carefully before we get to the campfire..."
His eyes suddenly widened, and the unfinished words turned into a surprised sigh.
"Huh?"
Everyone around the campfire immediately raised their heads.
There was a rustling sound as figures emerged from the dark woods, unlit by the firelight. They hurried into the firelight, then bent over, panting, "Finally, finally... back..."
Everyone around the campfire was stunned, then they smiled and opened their mouths. Just as they were about to say something, their expressions suddenly changed.
“Wow—”
Everyone from Longyin Pavilion sitting by the campfire suddenly stood up, and the campfire swayed violently.
They stared in one direction, their pupils trembling wildly.
Yes, yes...
“It’s Jiang Yi!!! It’s Jiang Yi, Jiang Yi is back!!!”
Someone screamed in terror.
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