168 Interlude - Of Mice and Men

Huxian was in his element. He slithered skillfully through the shadows of the Shen family compound, carefully avoiding the many guards that now patrolled its tall and sturdy walls. He knew they couldn't find him even if he told them where he was, but he still liked making a game of it. Sometimes, he would scurry past their legs. At other times, he would slightly nip their arms, making them scream out in pain out of nowhere, sparking a search for ghosts or other such creatures. He snickered as he watched the pitiful fools guarding their pitiful dwelling, or what was left of it.

After traveling through a crack in the wall, he ate his way to one of the few remaining geomantic cores. He carefully peeled away the rocky outer shell and slurped out the purest formation power. It might not be the most delicious one he'd tasted, but it was a cut above most. The key was to eat it in the appropriate fashion; consuming it with the coarse outer shell would leave a bitter aftertaste.

He shook as the last vestiges of stability left the wall he occupied. As the wall fell, he ate his way down a few floors to a network of tunnels where Lei Jiang was hard at work, gnawing away at the building's crumbling foundation.

"How many more tons of demon-bone concrete do you need to eat before your breakthrough?" Huxian asked.

"It's hard to say," Lei Jiang said between mouthfuls. "At least a thousand, but it could be as much as ten thousand. Most of what I eat ends up going to waste. All I'm doing is sifting through the debris to find the delicious pieces of demon bone."

"So that's why you're eating it," Huxian said. "And here I thought you were just being a glutton. That's good thinking on your part. You'll be able to break through to core formation very soon this way."

"How about you, boss?" Lei Jiang asked. "When will you be breaking through to core formation?"

"I'm in no rush," Huxian said as he took a casual bite out of the concrete. He spat it out immediately. "I want to wait until Cha Ming does. Although he should survive with his strong body, I don't want to take any risks this time."

"Smart," Lei Jiang said. "That's why you're the boss." The ground suddenly quaked when he took a bite that shattered a structural pillar. "Looks likes it's time to run."

"Let's do it," Huxian yelled. His fur suddenly glowed with black-and-white runes that condensed into a suit of armor. He and Lei Jiang tore through space before arriving in the sewers right below their next target. "This battle armor I had Cha Ming paint for us is awesome! We can sneak anywhere we want, and it'll reduce the damage we take in battle by quite a bit."

Lei Jiang zipped past him. He was a blur of black, white, and purple. "It also doubles our speed. How did you come up with this great idea?"

"It was my ancestor's brother who invented it," Huxian sighed. "He was an unparalleled formation master and talisman artist."

"Do you think he's still alive?" Lei Jiang asked as he began his assault on the structural pillars of the Sima family.

"I don't know," Huxian said. "My ancestor spun off these memories aeons ago when he had his first child. The trail ends there. The only way to find out is to attain immortality. He could be anywhere in the higher realms."

"What was his brother's name?" Lei Jiang asked.

"I'm not sure," Huxian said. "All I know is that he created the bagua. Before my ancestor met him, he was a normal many-tailed fox. He feared the heavens, which resented his existence. Then the man who became his brother asked him a question that changed his life: If the heavens resent you, why not fight them? Why live under the painter's rules when we can make our own?

"The bagua lineage began that day. We would no longer seek to sprout the ninth tail that would spell our demise. Instead we would search for something greater. A bagua fox will only sprout eight tails before he begins his search for perfection. He will remain this way until he finds it.

"What a deep story," Lei Jiang said. "My father once shared a story with me, and I've never told it to anyone. I think it's time I shared it."

"What's that?" Huxian said. "Is it some inherited wisdom for ages past? A forbidden legacy?"

"It's something he perfected on his own," Lei Jiang said solemnly. "Listen carefully as I share with you the perfect way to eat a geomantic boa's egg."