Young Master Bai — Chapter 49
Chapter 49: The Little Fox Full of Survival Instinct…
Lu Wen was an orphan adopted by Yao Jianke. His parents and birthplace were unknown. When found, he was only three, huddled in a ruined temple with other beggars. Yao Jianke saw he had talent and brought him to the Hidden Wisdom Sect. From then on, he learned within the sect. Every trip down the mountain was an official task, always accompanied, and according to the records, nothing amiss ever occurred.
No family, no lover, only a master of noble birth and immense cultivation. Such a man would be hard to threaten. By Bai Chen’s calculations, Lu Wen had appeared at the Great Snow Mountain at sixteen — the age of his first training mission.
Yet according to records, his training site was Suzhou, carrying only simple courier tasks. Not only were senior brothers always with him, but even if left alone, a youth barely in Foundation Establishment could not have traveled to and from the Great Snow Mountain and the sect within seven days.
The five-hundred-year-old records were buried deep. Bu Tiange and Chenzui had searched through shelves for half an hour and found only this one volume.
Even so, the simple record of disciples’ backgrounds and journeys revealed a problem. Li Wuming remarked, “He broke through to Golden Core less than three months after returning?”
This caught Bai Chen’s attention. “Five hundred years ago was not like today. To reach Nascent Soul usually took more than a century, and forming a Golden Core tested true talent. At sixteen, he had only just formed his foundation — not much of a prodigy. To leap so suddenly is indeed strange.”
His tasks were ordinary. Such a sudden gain in cultivation must have come from Bai Chen’s yao core. Li Wuming narrowed his eyes. “Bu Lingyun’s words may have merit. Tell me — did he save you with ulterior motives?”
Bai Chen was silent a long while before shaking his head. “Our Tail Fox clan hides its tails in youth. Outwardly, we are no different from ordinary fox yao — perhaps even weaker. And at the time, my father had already disguised me as human. A human youth could not have seen through it.”
He knew little of his own origins. He only remembered being attacked at birth, carried by someone until Fox Immortal Grandfather rescued him. He never knew his parents’ faces. Later, the elder gave him a white fur cloak, said to be his father’s, which he wore constantly, pretending he too had a father.
This tail-hiding instinct was an ancient protection. Ordinary eyes could not pierce it. Though robbed of a chance to smear a rival, Li Wuming only sighed. “In wartime, people abandoned even kin to survive. That he saved a strange infant speaks of kindness.”
Bai Chen knew such kindness was rare. All the harder, then, to accept what came later. He shifted the topic. “And you? Did you save anyone?”
When Bai Chen was born, Li Wuming had been a youth too, fleeing Chang’an with his brother, seeing many widows and orphans.
Then, not yet a disciple of Sword Immortal Bai, he had not followed the emotionless path. Often, he meddled. Though he and his brother lived precariously, he helped the weak when he could. Now he couldn’t recall the names of many he had saved. “Too many. Beyond my earliest comrades, I don’t even remember. And I knew my efforts only let them cling to life a little longer. Only by pacifying the world could I truly save them.”
“My imagined savior was someone like you. Thinking now — if Father hadn’t disguised me, he might have killed me for meat or abandoned me. Perhaps he never changed. His righteousness was never meant for the yao.”
Li Wuming was a true hero, never harming those he protected. Bai Chen had dreamed of such a savior — but reality was cruel. He smiled bitterly. “A fox is just prey. However caught, it dies. How could it matter more than one’s true beloved?”
Not every cultivator saw humans and yao as equals. Perhaps this too was possible. Li Wuming stroked his Dao companion’s hair, soothing, but pressed gently, “Don’t dwell on sorrow. Tell me — since you were in human form, how did he know your true identity, and how did he find the Great Snow Mountain?”
An ordinary youth could not know. Nor could he travel so far. Bai Chen shook his head. “It wasn’t him who found me. I caught his scent and found him unconscious in the snow.”
Still too much coincidence. Li Wuming raised a brow. “And you told him the tale of the rescue? Did you cry, ‘Benefactor, I’ve found you’?”
The teasing scattered Bai Chen’s gloom. His fox eyes flared in protest. “Yao at a hundred are like human youths. I wasn’t a stolen child. I asked obliquely, confirmed details, then revealed myself.”
He insisted on not seeming a foolish fox. He added, “He said he came seeking the Nine-tailed White Fox. Claimed his master was poisoned by the Bashe serpent, and only the fox’s yao core could cure it. He knelt and swore to return it. I softened and agreed.”
Bashe’s poison was incurable — plausible enough. But Li Wuming shook his head. “Yao Jianke was always healthy. At his worst, he could still fight the Sword Lord. This wasn’t him.”
“If he wore sect robes, I’d have known. But he dressed as before — in rough cloth with a common Daoist robe, no insignia.”
“The jade token every disciple carried?”
“If he had it, I would have seen.”
Bai Chen had learned only later that it was all lies. His anger stirred again. “He spoke falsehoods with tears — he should have been an actor.”
A disciple’s jade token was never parted with except in death. Clearly, Lu Wen had hidden his identity. Seeming coincidence — yet like a hand guided all.
Li Wuming could not believe such chance after a century. His eyes darkened, but to lighten the mood he teased, “Foxes repay kindness with their bodies. I may be older now, not so fair as young cultivators, but I was once known as a handsome youth. Why didn’t I meet you then? I could have gotten a grateful fox for free.”
Perhaps because Sword Immortal Bai’s history of betrayal was so fresh, Li Wuming was sensitive to Bai Chen’s ties. Though joking, the little fox sensed danger. Quickly, he denied. “Don’t think nonsense. Even if Bai family males love men, as a Nine-tailed White Fox I could never take a human as a mate. From childhood, Fox Immortal Grandfather assigned me guards — handsome yao youths — to choose a mate from. Even without heirs, I would at least secure allies.”
He had meant to prove he’d never wed a human, but instead exposed another detail. Blinking helplessly, he muttered, “Forget I said that?”
Impossible. The Sword Immortal was stern. “Too late. I’ll dismiss your guards. From now on, I am your captain.”
Given the Yao King ancestor’s reputation, the Nine-tailed White Fox could not joke here. Bai Chen tugged his sleeve anxiously. “Don’t misunderstand. I never thought of them!”
Normally composed, Bai Chen valued his image. Even when wagging his tail or rolling belly indoors, outside he held dignity. Such fluster was rare. Li Wuming laughed. “I’m teasing. You had benefactors and fine youths around, yet you fell for me. It proves we’re fated.”
“Really not jealous?”
Li Wuming seemed calm. But honestly, if Bai Chen had had a past bond, Bai Chen himself knew he would lose sleep for days.
“A little.”
Of course he minded. His right hand had even surged. But seeing his fox cling desperately to him, the jealousy eased. Instead, he pinched his lover’s enticing cheek. “So you must warm my bed, and prove I’m your only man.”
It looked as if he truly minded little. Bai Chen relaxed, brushing his hand away. “Is this the time for jokes? Beware your master smacks you again.”
Indeed, the divine sense in his right hand longed to strike. But Li Wuming had prepared, binding it tightly, regaining composure. “Seriously — between the rescue and the demand for the yao core lay a century. How did you recognize him?”
Li Wuming had long held the question. Before, he avoided old wounds. But now, it was time. Bai Chen admitted, “At birth, I had not opened my eyes. I did not know where I was, nor my savior’s face. But his scent and voice were the same even after a hundred years.”
Lu Wen had the identical scent and voice. His story matched Bai Chen’s memory. He had no reason to doubt.
But Li Wuming’s expression shifted. “You may not know this. Humans’ voices change as they grow. Men’s voices deepen when they mature. Mine, too, is unlike my youth. If his voice was unchanged, either he was already Nascent Soul then, eternally youthful — or he was imitating.”
But a Nascent Soul would not be reduced to fleeing. So only the latter remained. Why imitate one’s own voice, unless one was not that person at all?
Seeing Bai Chen pale, Li Wuming spoke the thought: “Have you considered — perhaps Lu Wen was never the one who saved you six hundred years ago?”
~ Chapter End ~
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