Chapter Eighty-Seven: Lan Dao Turns on His Allies

The old man Gor slapped his filthy finger in Jiang Pingchuan’s direction and clicked his tongue over and over, while Jiang Pingchuan met his crazed gaze with the same crooked smile.

The two of them looked at each other, and then the old man burst into laughter. Jiang Pingchuan merely snorted and turned away, walking to Fox Charm’s side and looking down at the woman barely clinging to life.

“It’s enough that you’re all right.”

Fox Charm rested in Jiang Pingchuan’s arms and spoke softly. Her voice was no longer as sweet as before, but hoarse, like two rough stones grinding together in her throat.

“Don’t talk. I’ll cure you.”

Jiang Pingchuan took hold of her wrist and began channeling his restorative true energy into her. Yet at first, some force inside her kept resisting the flow of his healing power. Confused, he looked down at the woman in his arms.

“No need.”

Fox Charm smiled at him and shook her head. She did not need his treatment, and she had never imagined that Jiang Pingchuan, as a cultivator, would lend a hand to a fox spirit like her. Such a thing had never happened from ancient times until now.

“Big Brother Chuan, I’m sorry. I wasn’t able to protect Sister Charm.”

Lan Dao struggled upright with the support of the woman beside him and looked at Jiang Pingchuan’s back. Jiang Pingchuan shook his head; he knew Lan Dao’s nature.

He knew Lan Dao must have tried to save Fox Charm, but Lan Dao was not capable of cultivation at all, and when faced with Guang Fu, he had been utterly powerless.

“Big Brother Chuan, I...”

“Lan Dao, this isn’t your fault. You don’t need to blame yourself.”

Without turning around, Jiang Pingchuan looked at Fox Charm in his arms, whose gaze was growing increasingly unfocused, and spoke in a low voice.

“Big Brother Chuan, I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

Lan Dao kept apologizing behind him, but Jiang Pingchuan only looked at Fox Charm in his arms and ignored him.

“Careful...”

“Careful...”

Just as Lan Dao finished speaking, Fox Charm in Jiang Pingchuan’s arms and Old Master Gor, standing at a distance, suddenly cried out the same warning at once. Fox Charm forcefully shoved Jiang Pingchuan away and placed her own body before him.

Old Master Gor struck at Lan Dao with a palm, but the woman standing behind Lan Dao suddenly moved to meet him, and the two of them began fighting. The woman showed no sign of being at a disadvantage. With a feral grin, Lan Dao drove the dagger in his hand completely into Fox Charm’s body.

Jiang Pingchuan stared at Lan Dao with bloodshot eyes. He had never doubted him. Jiang Pingchuan sent Lan Dao flying with a single palm strike, then turned and caught Fox Charm in his arms.

The fox spirit in his embrace was growing icy-cold at a terrifying speed, and the life force within her was rapidly fading as well. Jiang Pingchuan desperately poured his true energy into her.

But it was still useless. Fox Charm, lying in his arms, kept shaking her head, telling him not to waste any more true energy on her.

“Hold on. Hold on. Don’t sleep.”

Jiang Pingchuan’s arms trembled as he cried out her name, but Fox Charm only looked at him with a faint smile, then slowly closed her eyes.

Only when the last trace of breath had finally vanished from Fox Charm did Jiang Pingchuan helplessly withdraw his hand and stop feeding true energy into her body. Gradually, the body nestled in his arms began to change.

A streak of deep blue light flashed, and the one left in Jiang Pingchuan’s arms was no longer Fox Charm, but a tiny white fox with a snow-bright coat. Its eyes were closed, and the deep blue eyebrows above them stood out vividly.

Jiang Pingchuan stroked the little fox in his arms. This was Fox Charm’s true form. After thousands of years of cultivation, in the end she had lost everything for his sake.

The sound of fighting outside between Old Master Gor and the woman had already ceased. Sitting on the ground, Jiang Pingchuan gazed gently at the white little fox in his arms and softly stroked its body.

“She is not dead. She has only fallen into a deep sleep.”

Old Master Gor stood before Jiang Pingchuan and looked at his sorrow-stricken face as he spoke softly. Jiang Pingchuan nodded at the words. He could sense it too: Fox Charm had merely lost all her cultivation and reverted to her original form, sinking into slumber.

“She should not have ended up like this.”

Holding the little fox, Jiang Pingchuan rose and looked at Old Master Gor. The old man curled his lips. Indeed, he admitted that this fox should never have met such an end. Unfortunately, she had fallen in love with the one she should never have loved, and paid with everything she should never have paid.

“She chose it herself. No one could stop her.”

Old Master Gor reached out his filthy hand and patted Jiang Pingchuan’s silver robe, smiling as he spoke. Though the scene before them was deeply tragic, it was also something he could never hope to have in his whole life. After saying it, even he felt his tone might be a little too sour.

“She chose it herself? Did she ask whether I was willing?”

Jiang Pingchuan looked speechlessly at the old scoundrel before him. His mood was terrible, yet this old man was actually envious of his situation.

“The first two times she saved you, you were either half out of your mind or unconscious. If she had asked, would you even have known?”

Old Master Gor waved his sleeve, walked to the tea table, poured himself a cup, took a sip, and sat down in the chair as he said this with a distant air. Jiang Pingchuan’s face showed a hint of awkwardness at the words.

He coughed twice, glanced at the sleeping little fox in his arms, and walked over to Old Master Gor, taking a seat beside him.

“This time I was very clear-headed. She never asked me.”

Jiang Pingchuan looked at Old Master Gor very seriously. The old man rolled his eyes, poured another cup of tea, and slapped it down in front of him.

“Jiang Pingchuan, are you an idiot or just a block of wood? If this little fox had had the time to ask whether you wanted her to block the knife for you, by the time she finished asking, she wouldn’t have needed to do anything at all. You’d already be lying on the ground, completely brain-damaged.”

Old Master Gor sneered at him with open contempt. When he finished, he glanced at Jiang Pingchuan again, poured another cup of water, set it before him, and then picked up the first cup and drank it down.

“I don’t want to talk to you.”

Jiang Pingchuan glared at Old Master Gor. He had never imagined that the real Old Master Gor would have such a filthy mouth. In just a few words, he had managed to make Jiang Pingchuan so fed up that he no longer wanted to deal with him.

Old Master Gor looked at him without saying a word.

Then he simply filled every empty teacup on the table with tea and pushed them toward Jiang Pingchuan. Jiang Pingchuan licked his lips and was just about to pick one up to moisten his throat.

But Old Master Gor moved swiftly, slapping his pale hand hard, leaving a dark handprint behind. Then he looked at Jiang Pingchuan with grievance written all over his face. Jiang Pingchuan stared back at him, baffled by this strange behavior.

“I say, why are you so stingy when you’re the real one? It’s only a cup of water, and you’re making a face as though your father just died.”

Jiang Pingchuan looked at the resentful old man and said coldly. He had truly never seen the real Old Master Gor before. If the old man in front of him were a fake, Jiang Pingchuan would have believed it first. He had no proper bearing at all, and did not look the least bit like a businessman; he looked more like a hoodlum, a sly old rogue.

“My father died early. Don’t talk nonsense. If the old man comes looking for you, you’ll have enough to suffer.”

Old Master Gor grinned at Jiang Pingchuan, though Jiang Pingchuan noticed there was still a trace of fear in the old man’s eyes when he mentioned his father. It seemed the old Gor had been disciplined by his father many times in the past.

If the old man below the earth knew that his son was still behaving like an incorrigible rogue to this day, he would probably climb out of his coffin, come looking for Old Master Gor, and give him another fierce beating.

“Your father died with his eyes open.”

Jiang Pingchuan calmly combed the fur of the little fox in his arms as he said this. The moment the words left his mouth, Old Master Gor choked and could not speak for quite a while. He downed five cups of water in a row before finally letting out a long breath. Then he pointed at Jiang Pingchuan with a trembling hand, his lips quivering. In exasperation, he drank another cup before he finally settled down.

“Aren’t you curious why this little fox ended up like this? Don’t you want to know why I said that if that dagger stabbed you, you’d turn into an idiot?”

Old Master Gor looked at Jiang Pingchuan mysteriously and spoke in a low voice. His voice was much quieter than before, as though afraid others might overhear. Jiang Pingchuan glanced around the hall.

After he had ruined Guang Fu, A Hu and Zhen Dong on the floor had already turned into dry corpses. Lan Dao had been blasted away by him and then taken off by that woman.

At this point, the only ones still breathing in the whole Gor residence were probably Jiang Pingchuan, Old Master Gor, and the little fox sleeping in Jiang Pingchuan’s arms. He truly could not understand what this old fellow was up to.

“Speak.”

Jiang Pingchuan lifted a cup and drank, looking at Old Master Gor with clear disdain. Seeing through his little trick, Old Master Gor coughed twice. He had merely wanted to use the little fox’s yin energy to cool the tea a little. It was not as though he had done anything excessive.

“That dagger is called the Thousand-Seal Blade. One strike seals a person and their vital energy for as long as a thousand years. This little fox was pierced by the Thousand-Seal Blade, and within a thousand years there is no hope that she will ever transform into human form again. As for anything else, don’t even think about it. Better find another one.”

Old Master Gor laughed lewdly as he looked at the little fox in Jiang Pingchuan’s arms. Jiang Pingchuan frowned at him and sighed.

“Can you tell me where your father’s grave is?”

Leaning back in his chair, Jiang Pingchuan spoke wearily. Old Master Gor finished a cup of water, crossed one leg over the other, and looked at Jiang Pingchuan with ill intent.

“If I said I already had it dug up long ago, would you believe me?”

Old Master Gor said this very seriously, his face stern. Jiang Pingchuan straightened up as well and looked at him just as seriously, then nodded.

“I believe you...”