Chapter 40: I Am A Monster

“Ah, Ah Hong, you, you lied to me~” Du Yi cried out.

Du Yi’s worldview was shattered. He lost control, pointed at Ah Hong and could only manage to say that one line. Ah Hong shook her head, tears filling her eyes, and cried, “It’s not like that, it’s not like that~”

“Your mother killed my father, and I killed your mother, so you came for revenge, didn’t you?” Du Yi asked again.

Then he harshly said, “This Wolf Demon was brought here by you too, wasn’t it!”

“No, no, my husband, please listen to me, it’s not what you think, everything is a misunderstanding, everything is a misunderstanding, boohoo~” Ah Hong pleaded.

“Shut up, do not call me husband, I do not have a fox wife!” Du Yi shouted angrily.

Ah Hong then sobbed like rain, unable to speak clearly, and said, “My husband, it really is not like that. The one who killed your father was not my mother. My mother and your father were good friends!”

“Shut up, do not insult my father!” Du Yi roared.

Ah Hong, ignoring him, said, “You, you really have completely misunderstood. The year you fell from the cliff, it was not my mother, the White Fox, who did it. It was him, the Wolf Demon. He hated your father, so he wanted to kill you. That day my mother was trying to save you so she…”

Ah Hong, crying and unable to speak properly, recounted the whole sequence of events. It turned out that Du Yi’s mute old father and the White Fox were truly friends. To explain the matter in detail one had to go back to the fox and wolf clans on this mountain.

On Wolf-Head Mountain there were two large clans: the Wolf Clan and the Fox Clan. The two clans had fought since ancient times. It became even more intense during the previous generation, in the time of the White Fox, Bai Sanniang.

At that time Bai Sanniang was the leader of the Fox Clan and the Wolf Demon was the leader of the Wolf Clan. They fought over a thousand-year lingzhi. In that battle Bai Sanniang bit the Wolf Demon’s wife to death and then fought the Wolf Demon. Both were wounded, though the Wolf Demon had the slight advantage. Just then Du Yi’s mute father appeared and helped the White Fox drive off the Wolf Demon and save the White Fox.

After the White Fox healed, she grew close to the mute father. But the Wolf Demon began to hate the mute father. The White Fox consumed the lingzhi and cultivated an inner core, becoming stronger than the Wolf Demon. The Wolf Demon dared not act openly and instead lurked in secret. The White Fox also did not wipe him out completely.

Then Du Yi appeared. Du Yi was an abandoned baby. The first to discover him were the White Fox and Ah Hong. At that time Ah Hong formed deep affection for Du Yi.

But the White Fox could not raise Du Yi, so she carried the baby to the mute father. The mute father had no milk then, so the White Fox expressed her milk and raised Du Yi until he was a year and a half old. Without the White Fox, Du Yi would have died.

Du Yi drank the White Fox’s milk. The White Fox even treated him like her own son. Later when Du Yi grew up it led to the beginning of the story Du Yi now told.

One day Du Yi discovered the lingzhi on the cliff and prepared to pick it. He was seen by the Wolf Demon. The Wolf Demon hated the mute father and the White Fox so much that he pounced from the air intending to take Du Yi’s life. But the White Fox happened to pass by and urgently leaped down to save Du Yi.

Du Yi was hanging on the cliff and could not move. He only saw the White Fox lunging toward him, but did not know the White Fox was trying to save him. He fell from the cliff. The White Fox and the Wolf Demon also fell. Then the fox and the wolf engaged in a fierce battle. The Wolf Demon was severely injured, the White Fox only lightly wounded. The Wolf Demon fled. The White Fox came to Du Yi’s side to see how he was.

When Du Yi opened his eyes he happened to see the White Fox who had just fought. The battle aura on the White Fox had not yet dissipated, so she looked fierce and terrifying. At that moment the mute father arrived. The White Fox feared that the demonic qi on her body would assault Du Yi, so she left.

The mute father took Du Yi home and found Du Yi’s bones all broken and his internal organs injured. He seemed not likely to live. Just then the White Fox rushed back. Seeing Du Yi in that state, the White Fox could not bear it. She decided to spit out her inner core. The inner core could save Du Yi’s life. After Du Yi recovered, she could find an opportunity to retrieve the inner core later.

Thus the White Fox passed her inner core to Du Yi. Du Yi thereby regained his life and grew increasingly robust. However, because of the cliff incident Du Yi harbored suspicions and felt rancor toward the White Fox. Therefore the White Fox also kept a distance from Du Yi.

But the White Fox was often worried about Du Yi. She would hunt wild rabbits and pheasants in the mountains and bring them to near the mute father’s home, dropping them outside the gate for the mute father to take. Du Yi saw this big white fox always appearing near his home and thought she had ill intent. As time passed his resentment grew deeper.

Isn’t it true that a person’s prejudice is like a great mountain? Once someone feels another is not a good person, even if you are the reincarnation of the Goddess of Mercy and do good deeds every day it will not help. The more good you do for him, the more he thinks you are hiding some evil to harm him.

Thus it reached the crucial turning point: the death of the old mute father. One day Du Yi went down the mountain to buy something. The Wolf Demon, who had been injured for years, recovered and took the opportunity to come seek revenge. He bit the old mute father to death. The White Fox came to save him and the Wolf Demon fled. Du Yi happened to return and ran into the White Fox and the mute father collapsed on the ground.

Du Yi already harbored prejudice against the White Fox. Seeing this scene he went mad, grabbed a chopping knife and was about to hack the White Fox. The White Fox saw it was hopeless. Any explanation would not clear things up, so she ran away.

After Du Yi buried his mute father, the White Fox, unwilling to see the benefactor who saved her life die like that, often went to mourn at the mute father’s grave. Du Yi discovered this and set a trap to capture the White Fox. The White Fox originally had a chance to withdraw her inner core, but forcibly withdrawing the inner core would have killed Du Yi. In the end the White Fox did not withdraw her inner core and was killed by Du Yi!

He skinned her, pulled out her tendons, ate her flesh and drank her blood, thinking he had avenged the great grievance, and made hunting the Fox Clan his mission.

The White Fox was dead. The Wolf Demon received the news and investigated further. Good heavens, the inner core was actually inside Du Yi. It was practically given to him. But if the Wolf Demon directly consumed Du Yi, he could not absorb all the White Fox’s inner core energy. To obtain all the inner core’s energy, it had to be extracted by the Fox Clan themselves using a secret technique.

When the Wolf Demon realized this he captured Ah Hong. He did not kill her. Instead he adopted her as a sworn daughter and sent her to extract the inner core from Du Yi’s body. In the Wolf Demon’s view, Ah Hong would harbor a hatred toward Du Yi for killing her mother and would be ruthless. But to the Wolf Demon’s great surprise, Ah Hong inexplicably fell in love with Du Yi.

That was how the present scene came to be.

After hearing Ah Hong’s account, Du Yi was completely stunned, he went mad, and his worldview collapsed.

In Du Yi’s mind, he thought: I, a man of stature, avenged my father, killed the White Fox, exterminated the Fox Clan, and thought myself upright and honorable. But you tell me I killed someone who did everything to save me and even treated me like her own son! Skinned her, pulled out her tendons, ate her flesh, drank her blood*. That is behavior that’s worse than a beast’s. E**ven a monster could not be this vile!*

“No, no, hahahaha… impossible, impossible! You lied to me, you stupid fox, you lied to me, this is not true, this is not true, ah… not true!!!” Du Yi went mad and screamed hysterically.

His voice broke from shouting, tears streaming down. He could not accept such a reality. It was too cruel, cruel to the point of suffocation.

“Hahaha… Du Yi, all of this is true. You are a monster, a monster even worse than us demons, hahaha…” the Wolf Demon laughed, looking at the raving Du Yi.

The Wolf Demon watched the crazed Du Yi and could not help but laugh loudly. This was exactly what he wanted to see. This was the feeling he craved!

Everyone says demons are wicked, but you humans are worse than demons!!