The three of them were arguing endlessly, when suddenly they heard a voice from the right fork in the road. It was a woman’s voice, and they couldn’t help but feel a chill in their heart.
Is it the Purple Fox? She’s catching up?
“…what exactly is the demon in custody? Why is everyone trying to save him?”
The woman’s voice suddenly rang out, getting closer and closer, and it sounded as if she was about to turn the corner.
“Like human beings, there are many rights and wrongs inevitably associated with fame. At first, it was simply to save him, but gradually it became to save him for the sake of fame. For thousands of years, no one has ever succeeded in rescuing him, so whoever saves him will make a great name for themselves.”
The man’s voice was hoarse and dry, with an odd tone.
“Oh, I know this, many people want to be famous. But, Ting Nu, you still haven’t told me what kind of demon is being imprisoned…”
The sound stopped abruptly, and the girl in white who came out from the corner is now staring at the three teenagers opposite her.
“Sifeng! Sixth Brother! Ruo’Yu!” At last, Xuanji saw them and couldn’t help but feel excited and rushed up to them, loudly asking, “The fox didn’t hurt you, did she?”
The three of them were still a bit unresponsive. They looked at her nervously, then at the man in red who was sitting behind them on the wheelchair, and finally at the purple fox who had passed out in the man’s arms.
Yu Sifeng mumbled, “Xuanji… what strange things have happened to you again… who is this person? That fox…”
Xuanji was too agitated, and told them incoherently how she had met the merman, how she had gone up to the Tianji Pavilion to look for the fox’s true body, how she had wounded the fox, and finally how she had come out with the merman to look for them.
Ruo’Yu pointed at the fox and said in shock, “You… you could have injured her?!” Hearing that is no less surprising than seeing a pig fly.
In fact, Xuanji was also confused, but people always have a sense of victory and like to take advantage of a good situation, so she smiled and said, “Yes! I burned her with fire, and she fainted from shock.”
Ruo’Yu secretly shook his head, he was still a bit skeptical. Zhong Minyan seemed to have remembered something from the past, he pursed his lips and didn’t say anything. Yu Sifeng came forward and patted the dust off her shoulder, “Don’t be so reckless next time, understand?”
Xuanji nodded obediently, but then he saw that his chest belt was disheveled, revealing the white undershirt inside and faintly showing the red mark on his chest. Xuanji was so shocked that she pointed to it and said urgently, “Are you hurt? That dead fox said he wouldn’t hurt anyone! I…I’ll kill her right now!”
Yu Sifeng tugged on her sleeves. His ears were so red that they seemed to be carved out of agate[1]. It took him a moment to whisper, “I’m not hurt! I’m fine…and she didn’t hurt us. Don’t kill anyone.”
Xuanji still wanted to say something, but he had already approached Ting Nu, looked down for a moment and whispered, “Do you… remember us?”
Ting Niu looked at him silently for a long time before nodding, “I remember… but you weren’t wearing that mask at the time. Why?”
Yu Sifeng was silent.
Ting Nu gazed at him steadily for a moment, a look of pity gradually appearing in her eyes.
“Ah, you’re the merman from that time! You can talk now?” Zhong Minyan finally realised the man in red, sitting on the wheelchair is the one who was saved in the Pearl Incident four years ago. He couldn’t hold back his excitement, and ran over to him.
Ting Nu smiled, the look of pity disappeared in a flash and became as soft as the spring breeze, he whispered, “I haven’t thanked you all for saving my life. I will never forget your kindness.”
“Don’t worry about it!”Zhong Minyan waved his hand, then suddenly thought of something. “By the way, did someone from Lize Palace come to pick you up back then? What are you doing here?”
Ting Nu hesitated for a moment, Yu Sifeng whispered, “When the men from Lize Palace arrived, you were no longer in the lake. Did someone else come to pick you up?”
He shook his head, “I was brought here by this purple fox. She wanted to know something and forced me to tell her, but I didn’t know, but she didn’t believe me and imprisoned me at the underground spring.”
“This vixen is really hateful!” Zhong Minyan thought of being frightened by this fox, he hated the fox so much that he wanted to snatch her out of his arms and slap her a few times.
Xuanji found a chance to interrupt, and said, “Although Ting Nu said that Purple Fox caught people, she never hurt them because she was too timid. The people she captured earlier are kept in the Yixin Garden to teach them how to change their ways. I’m planning to go to the back of the mountain to have a look. So, let’s go together.”
The hell she doesn’t harm people! Zhong Minyan was unwilling to believe it, but both Yu Sifeng and Ruo’Yu nodded in agreement, so he had no choice but to accompany them to the back of the mountain to see what was going on.
When they left the Nine Palaces Array, there was a forest outside that so vast, with rolling that it was hard to tell where they were Gao’s Mountain.
Ting Nu pointed to the east and said, “The Yixin Garden should be through here.”
Zhong Minyan said, “What if we get there and find that it is not as you say?”
“The fox has never harmed anyone, I know that.” said Ting Nu.
How can you be so sure? Zhong Minyan frowned, “I don’t care. If I find out that she has harmed those men by using the method of harvesting yang and repelnishing yin, I will not let her go!”
Ting Nu stroked the fox’s fur and whispered, “Yes, but if no one is harmed, please let her go. It’s not easy for a demon to become human, so don’t kill them.”
Strange. Didn’t the Purple Fox bring him here? Why does this Merman defend her instead of telling right from wrong? Zhong Minyan was puzzled.
Yu Sifeng pushed Ting Nu forward, they walked at the end of the line. After a while, he opened his mouth and said softly, “…what did you mean when you said she wanted to ask you something?”
Ting Nu smiled and said, “It is said that there is a powerful demon who is locked up by the Eight Iron Chains, but no one knows where he is being held. Ziu has a history with that demon, so she has been training hard all these years, hoping to save him. She caught me, but because I’m an aquatic being[2], she thought the demon was under the sea, so she forced me to reveal the location of the body.”
Yu Sifeng was deep in thought for a while when he suddenly said, “You really don’t know?”
Ting Nu heart fluttered, but he smiled softly and said, “I really don’t know.”
After looking at him for a moment, Yu Sifeng said slowly, “Actually, we also encountered a demon in the Haiwan Mountain, I wonder if it has anything to do with this.”
Xuanji’s ears were sharp, and when she heard the two of them murmuring about the demon in the back, she came over and said, “Ting Nu said that those people in the Haiwan Mountain were also trying to save that demon. The Iron Chains are arranged according to the eight trigrams of heaven, with Haiwan Mountain in the southeast and Gao’s Mountain in the due east. I just saw the Iron Chain in the Tianji Pavilion, it’s very long… Maybe there’s one buried in the Haiwan Mountain.”
Seeing that she was so innocent and had come to learn more, he smiled and patted her on the top of her head.
Ting Nu added, “This is not the time to pursue Zihu for her mistakes. There is another group of demons that have gathered to try to save this demon, and those in the Haiwan Mountain must be their allies. Maybe they’re already at Gao’s Mountain, but it will take at least three days for you to recover from the Zihu’s Crippling Sun Palm. In my opinion, there is a short cut to the back of the mountain after you get to the Yixin Garden, so you can escape. If you are unhappy, wait until you have recovered your power and come back again.”
Yu Sifeng thought that he had a point, and he gave a slight bow of his head. Zhong Minyan also joined in the fun and laughed, “Anyway, Zihu is no more, let’s take those people from Yixin Garden with us! And send them home to their families, and reunite them.”
Ruo’Yu also joined in, “That’s good. It’s a good idea. Let’s do it.”
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[1]: Agate is is a common rock formation, consisting of chalcedony and quartz as its primary components, consisting of a wide variety of colors.
[2]: 水族 (shuǐzú) was the term used in the original text. It is a term used to collectively refer to all aquatic animals. 水 (shuǐ) meaning water or liquid, and 族 (zú) meaning family or tribe (or an ethnic group).
Lazy Cat Translations 
I always worry about Sifeng’s mask.
Thanks for translating.
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