Young Master Bai — Chapter 1

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Chapter 1: He Woke Up, and Was Assigned a Dao Companion...

The year Bai Chen was born, the yao of the Great Snow Mountain said they’d never seen a more blessed child. The year he died, his Fox Immortal Grandfather muttered that maybe they’d never seen anyone more unlucky.

[The Fox Immortal is not his actual grandfather; it is a title of respect for an elder who raised him.]

The fox yao of the Great Snow Mountain were well-known as direct descendants of the Yao King, and Bai Chen was the first Nine-tailed White Fox to appear in the world since the Yao King had passed away a thousand years ago.

According to legend, Nine-tailed Foxes were born from the heavenly maiden Lady Tushan and a great primordial yao. By Lady Tushan’s blessing, each of their tails could deflect one deadly calamity. Even the dreaded tribulation of ascension — which had crushed so many gifted cultivators — could be escaped by burning a tail and walking away alive.

[Lady Tushan — or the Lady of Mount Tu — a mythological figure often associated with fox spirits.]

The Bai [white] family of the Great Snow Mountain was the last bloodline of Nine-tailed Foxes still around.

Those who passed the tribulation became True Immortals residing in Heaven. Those who failed, but managed to keep their Dao heart intact, might become Wandering Immortals among the mortals on earth. But both outcomes were rare. Most didn’t survive at all — either shattered in spirit or turned to dust, losing everything they’d built.

But in the Bai family, once someone had grown a second tail, they’d typically reach the Wandering Immortal realm within five hundred years. More tails meant better odds of ascending for real. It was a kind of talent that human cultivators could only dream of.

The White Fox was seen as a sign of kingly fortune. Nine tails meant nine shots at transcendence. Had Bai Chen lived to adulthood, everything others struggled for would have fallen into his lap. He was born under the most fortunate star imaginable.

Still, even a race blessed by Heaven had its flaws. The Bai family rarely conceived, and even when they did, the cubs were fragile. It was hard enough to carry one to term, let alone give birth to a healthy child. Whole centuries might pass without a single new fox. A multi-tailed cub was rare. A Nine-tailed White Fox? That was once in a millennium. Anyone born like that was sure to shake the world.

Among the yao, bloodline meant everything. From the moment he was born, Bai Chen was treated like royalty. The Fox Immortal’s spiritual treasures were his toys. Fighters from all the clans offered their lives to serve him. Even the youngest yao flattered him, being careful not to offend — no one wanted to be responsible if he lost a single hair.

Nine-tailed White Foxes were already considered beautiful among all races. Bai Chen, raised as the future ruler of the yao, would have been destined to shine — if only he reached five hundred. But instead, he lost his inner core.

The inner core held all a yao’s power. It was their foundation. Without it, no amount of bloodline talent mattered. Bai Chen’s cultivation was wiped out. His lifespan dropped to ten short years, like any ordinary snow fox.

From soaring in the clouds to crawling on the ground, just like that. Everything he should have had disappeared overnight.

No one knew who slipped past the guards and stole the young lord’s core. No one knew what the little fox had thought about during those nine years he had spent alone in the snow.

All anyone knew was that in his final year, a swordsman appeared in the blizzard and picked him up. He carried the little fox — who might have been waiting for someone, or might have been simply waiting to die — into the human world and had wandered with him until the end. When Bai Chen breathed his last, the man was still there.

Five hundred years have passed. The Nine-tailed White Fox’s body was long cold, but the man still hadn’t left. He was Li Wuming [lit. Nameless Li], the heir of the Sword Immortal of the Great Snow Mountain.

The cause for Bai Chen’s death has always been an unsolved mystery for the yao. The whereabouts of that precious yao core were also unknown. Those secrets should’ve been buried with him. Even Bai Chen hadn't expected that, five hundred years later — when he should’ve become dust in the wind — he would wake up again.

He had always been proud. Even in ruin, he never let anyone pity or mock him. Before he died, Bai Chen went to the Silent Pavilion — the old residence of the Yao King — to wait for the end to come.

Now, as he opened his eyes, everything seemed just as he remembered. Even the letters he’d thrown aside were lying right where he’d left them. It really felt like he’d just taken a nap and woken up the next day.

But this wasn’t a dream. His dantian was still empty. There was no spiritual power remaining. Bai Chen woke up with a body no different from a mortal’s, alive once more in this world.

He had been asleep for a long time. And as he stepped out of that warm room frozen in time, the place that met his eyes didn’t feel like home anymore.

The Silent Pavilion stood at the highest peak of the Great Snow Mountain. The lingering power of the Yao King kept corpses there from decaying. After Bai Chen died, the next Fox King made it a forbidden place.

For five hundred years, no one had set foot on that peak. The old paths were buried in snow. White stretched endlessly in every direction. Only the dark pines stood firm, giving the landscape a kind of quiet loneliness.

Without his inner core, Bai Chen couldn’t fly anymore. Before, Li Wuming had always carried him down. Maybe because of years spent wielding a sword, Li Wuming’s arms were always warmer than Bai Chen’s own fur. Even though their companionship began as a deal, Bai Chen had still asked to be held until the very end. Now that he’d woken up, he remembered that moment first.

His transformation art was already flawless. He could appear as the most attractive form to any race he met. As a human, Bai Chen looked delicate and pale, his snow-white skin and fox eyes always drawing stares. No matter how distant or proud he looked, people couldn’t help wanting to reach out and touch him. Even a single glance could silence the busiest street.

But Li Wuming seemed immune to it. Romance wasn’t on the table. Instead, he seemed more interested in matchmaking.

In just one year of traveling together, he introduced Bai Chen to all ten of Jiangnan’s most eligible young men, plus the four most handsome guys from the borderlands. His matchmaking efforts were almost legendary. If Bai Chen hadn’t died early, someone might have put up a plaque for Li Wuming, saying: “Matchmaker Supreme, Champion of Cut-Sleeves [gay men].”

[The borderlands traditionally refer to regions beyond the Great Wall or imperial borders, especially in northern China — often associated with vast grasslands, deserts, or non-Han territories.]

Looking at the empty snow-covered mountain now, Bai Chen figured it must’ve been a long time since Li Wuming left. He never took Bai Chen’s heart as the two had agreed, so he must have returned to his sect to continue cultivating. Surely, he wasn’t still wandering around after all this time.

The Sword Immortal and Fox Immortal lineages had always been enemies, even though both resided on the same mountain. Bai Chen had assumed Li Wuming would go. But even now, walking alone through the snow, he couldn’t stop thinking of the man. That warmth had lingered in his memory. 

Bai Chen tightened his cloak and started down the mountain. Seeing the white fur lining the collar, a trace of melancholy flickered in his eyes. This cloak was made from the pelt of his dead father; it could resist all spells and curses. A thousand years ago, the Yao King of the Bai family could pass unscathed through countless arrays. Yet now, Bai Chen had to rely on his dead father's fur to keep out a bit of wind and snow. He really might have been the most pitiful Nine-tailed Fox ever born.

With that kind of bloodline, with that kind of talent — how did he end up like this? He’d lost everything. But now that he was alive again, he’d have to clean up his own mess.

Even after waking, Bai Chen still felt dazed. Maybe he’d already exhausted all his strength before death. At this point he had no energy left to feel anything at all. He let the wind and snow calm his mind, slowly piecing things together.

His thoughts were interrupted when a group of guards approached. Even without cultivation, his fox eyes remained sharp. From a distance, he spotted four white bears in bark armor — warriors of the Great Bear clan, the personal guards of the Bai family.

His white robes helped him blend into the snow, but life scent couldn’t be hidden from yao. The bears charged in, claws raised, surrounding him.

What a welcome. Bai Chen gave them a glance, unsure what current events had made the bear guards so wary. He chose to remain silent and observe.

His lack of resistance made the bears hesitate. The largest sniffed him carefully. Smelling fox, he relaxed a little. It was probably just another cub sneaking up the mountain out of curiosity.

Seeing that the youth didn’t flinch, the big bear muttered, “Why are you little foxes always sneaking up here? How many times did we have to say it — stop drooling over the son-in-law! He’s been guarding Ancestor Bai Chen’s corpse for five hundred years! He’s not interested in you half-grown things!”

Fox yao were naturally seductive, and most yao couldn’t resist them. Only bear yao were dense enough to make reliable guards. Bai Chen knew them well.

At first, he wondered why none of them recognized him. But when he heard “five hundred years,” he understood. Most yao who failed their tribulations didn’t live beyond three hundred years. In the time gone past, it was likely two entire generations had changed. No one simply remembered this Nine-tailed White Fox anymore.

Still, something else was more surprising than this.

Bai Chen frowned and asked, “This son-in-law guarding Bai Chen — who is he?”

The bear looked at him, puzzled, but didn’t seem suspicious. “Sword Immortal Li, obviously. Ancestor Bai Chen’s Dao companion. That makes him our mountain’s son-in-law.”

Human lives were short. If Li Wuming was still around, he must have become a Wandering Immortal and inherited his master’s legacy. Bai Chen was not surprised by his cultivation ability. But the term "Dao companion" stunned him more than waking from the dead.

A Dao companion? He had no memory of ever marrying anyone! Was this some kind of cosmic joke? He knew Nine-tailed Foxes usually became Wandering Immortals by five hundred, but he had never heard of Heaven granting them a life partner, too. Wasn’t that a little too generous?

~ Chapter End ~

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Translator's notes:

This chapter sets the first big mystery: who are Bai Chen's parents? He carries his white-fox father's pelt, but all male white foxes are cursed to be gay and childless. 

Also, don't miss out on the chapter titles; those are hilarious at times.