Chapter 47: The Fox is No Fox

"Be careful with that Fox girl, Mei."
"I just feel like something is off about her..."
Listening to Lily's telepathic transmission, Dai Longmei, currently riding on horseback, nodded slightly.
"Hehe~ Thank you for saving me."
"Once I return to Fulin, I will definitely find a way to repay you."
"Back in Fulin, I happen to have countless gold, silver, and treasures~"
"The officials of Tianyu are sure to love them dearly."
Yet, Fox, who just moments ago looked as though she was at death's door, not only appeared healthy and unharmed now, but also cast a repulsive, coquettish gaze toward Dai Longmei.
In Lily's eyes, although Fox wore the appearance of a young maiden, her demeanor and actions were exceptionally seductive.
Of course, this might have had something to do with the fact that Fox was sitting behind Dai Longmei on his horse, pressing her voluptuous breasts firmly against his back.
Perched around Dai Longmei's neck, Lily felt profoundly disgusted by this sight.
"Vixen!"
Lily cursed through telepathic transmission.
"What?"
Dai Longmei naturally heard Lily's teeth-gritting curse, though he felt her choice of words was quite accurate.
"Ahem, I'm just saying..."
"This Fulin woman appeared at much too convenient a time."
"She just happened to show up right by the roadside on our path, just as we were about to head down into the dungeon."
Dai Longmei glanced back at Fox, only to find that the brown-skinned beauty had naturally wrapped her arms around his waist.
The twin mounds pressed against his back rubbed and ground against him even more brazenly, feeling, just as Lily had said, unnatural to the point of affectation.
"I've scanned this woman's ethereal aura dozens of times, but I haven't found a single thing," Dai Longmei told Lily.
"But you're right, Lily, there really is a strange feeling about this Fulin native."
"See, you can sense it too, right~"
"There's definitely something wrong."
Lily wanted to use her ethereal aura to scan Fox once more, but caught Fox's tortoiseshell-patterned eyes studying her.
That seductive gaze swept over her fox-like body as if she were admiring a beautiful work of art.
"So beautiful... Every time I look at this body... I just think it's so lovely, hehe~" Fox murmured softly.
This whisper made Lily's vigilance toward this strange woman spike even higher.
"What? Surprised that a fox can talk?"
Lily lifted her fox head and shook her fur.
"No~ Aren't you someone who refuses to consider herself a mere fox..."
"Don't you speak!" Lily interrupted.
"Hmph哼~ In Fulin, of course there are no talking foxes~"
"But," Fox suddenly reached out, lifting Lily's fox chin with her fingertip, "seeing someone look so dainty and adorable inside this body~"
"Truly~"
Taking advantage of the moment, Fox scooped Lily right off Dai Longmei's shoulder.
"It makes a person want to keep and raise you forever~"
"Ha!"
Lily opened her mouth, instantly preparing to spit an ethereal blast right at this insolent creature.
"Oh~ I'm sorry~ I just wanted to hold you~"
"I didn't expect the little one to get angry~"
Fox stroked Lily's head as if teasing a pet, quickly placing her back onto Dai Longmei's shoulder.
"Hehe~ So cute~"
"Lady Fox," Dai Longmei said in a clear, resonant voice, "Lily is trapped in this form due to extenuating circumstances."
"And our journey together toward the stronghold of the Western Desolation is likewise due to unavoidable reasons."
"Though she currently resides within a fox's body, she is nonetheless a young lady. Please refrain from such liberties."
"She is not a small animal."
"I think *you* look like a foolish animal, calling me a young lady!"
"The least you could do is call me a fair maiden..."
Hearing Lily's spoiled, whining telepathy, Dai Longmei smiled faintly in his heart, his expression remaining entirely composed as he looked at Fox.
"Oh~ Such compelling, unavoidable reasons~"
Fox's tortoiseshell eyes rolled, eventually landing back on Lily.
"Hmph~ Very well, very well~"
"For a band of Jade folk like you to make such a grand mobilization toward such a perilous place, you certainly aren't going on holiday~"
"Well~ I too happen to be on a mission here in the Western Desolation, and I must also head to that stronghold~"
"Oh? Your Fulin Kingdom has been isolated from Longyou for many years, yet now you've suddenly taken an interest in this stronghold?" Lily asked coldly.
"What a coincidence~"
"In these turbulent times, a princess of the Fulin Kingdom actually runs off to the Western Desolation to hunt for treasures?"
The only reason Lily called Fox a "princess" was because, after regaining full consciousness, Fox had told Dai Longmei and the others that she was a princess from the western city of Fulin who had come to the Western Desolation on a mission.
However, her accompanying Fulin royal cavalry guards had all been killed by a giant sand worm just before reaching the western gate.
She had narrowly escaped with her life and been rescued by the 35th Team of the Treasure Hunters' Guild.
Yet along that very road, the 35th Team had been ambushed by the sharp-eared Star-folk, and she had been knocked unconscious.
After discussing the matter, Dai Longmei and his companions decided to bring her to the western gate of the Western Desolation to meet up with Dai Yousheng and others who were scheduled to greet Dai Longmei there. This way, they would save her life without letting her enter the stronghold and cause trouble.
Naturally, Lily was deeply skeptical of Fox's fabricated tale.
For one thing, she knew all too well the methods of the White Lion Cavalry.
Anyone killed by them—regardless of whether they were dead or alive—would be incinerated by ethereal flames. How could Fox possibly have survived?
"And even if you possess the tortoiseshell talisman symbolizing the Fulin royalty," Dai Longmei glanced momentarily at the exquisite talisman worn on Fox's right wrist, which indeed looked like a supreme treasure native to Fulin, a land abundant in desert tortoiseshells, "how are we supposed to know you didn't steal it, or forge it?"
When uttering the word "forge," Lily felt a slight twinge of guilt.
Years of treasure-hunting experience had taught her that, strictly judging by its craftsmanship, this tortoiseshell talisman did not look like a counterfeit.
"Hmph哼~ If the young lady refuses to believe me, there is nothing I can do."
"However, my city of Fulin has no interest whatsoever in the events unfolding in Tianyu."
"For instance, the south is being overrun by drunken foxes conquering territory as if no one were there."
"For instance, the eastern Star-folk crossed the sea to sweep across the Kingdom of Dongsong."
Despite claiming lack of interest, Fox was remarkably well-informed about the major events currently shaking the Jade Realm.
This only deepened Dai Longmei and Lily's suspicions toward this sharp-eared Fulin woman.
"The only thing we are interested in," Fox's tortoiseshell pupils locked directly onto Lily's eyes, "is the ghost chariot inside the stronghold!"
"Such a dangerous contraption, what could you possibly want with it?"
Lily knew all too well the terrifying might of a ghost chariot.
Even she, who had once relied on a storage ring to scavenge the remains of hundreds of immortal chariots, had never managed to tame a single ghost chariot.
The only one daring enough to tame such a thing was Liu Huaxi, the president of the Treasure Hunters' Guild.
"Hmph哼~ As for what I want with it~"
Fox's arms tightened around Dai Longmei's waist, and he could hear her heartbeat gradually accelerating.
"Lady Lily, that too is due to unavoidable reasons, you see~"
Fox pressed her cheek tightly against Dai Longmei's rhinoceros-hide armor.
"Ooh~ Commander Dai, your body is truly so sturdy~"
"You! Take your hands off him!"
As a fox, Lily began hissing furiously once more at this seductive Fulin woman.
"Lady Fox, while my physique is indeed quite sturdy," faced with the bold and alluring charms of the beautiful woman, Dai Longmei remained completely unperturbed, saying coldly, "if the lady continues to behave so recklessly, it might not end well for you~"
Dai Longmei reached back and forcefully unclasped Fox's arms from around his waist.
"Lady Fox, I can tell you come from a distinguished and wealthy background," Long Zhu, who had been watching the spectacle from the sidelines, could no longer hold his tongue. "I never expected you to be so unrestrained when dealing with men outside?"
Long Zhu winked at Lily, who was still fuming.
"What? Do your parents know that the moment you see a man, you latch right onto him?"
"Hmph哼~ Look at you, Ranger Long talking like that~"
Realizing that Dai Longmei was impervious to her charms and that Lily, the object of her curiosity, remained entirely guarded, Fox could only roll her eyes at Long Zhu and retort:
"We Fulin people know very well that we cannot marry men with hair all over their bodies~"
"Otherwise, the children we bear will all have wolf heads and hairy..."
"You!"
Long Zhu was so furious he instantly moved to draw his jade sword, only being stopped just in time by Dai Yousheng pulling at his arm!
"Such a woman—and her mouth is so filthy!"
Fox turned her face away. Though she stopped intimately embracing Dai Longmei, she kept her hands resting on his waist. Even so, it was enough to make Lily seethe with irritation.
The horse troop pressed onward, and with every passing moment, they grew closer to the western gate.
"Mei! We're almost there!"
Following the direction of Dai Yousheng's finger, Dai Longmei saw a massive gate, tens of meters tall, embedded seamlessly into the dark purple cliffside.
Though weathered by endless wind and frost, the heavy alloy material still gleamed brilliantly under the sunlight, appearing intensely dazzling even from a dozen miles away.
"The western gate... I've only ever been here once..." Lily muttered.
"Didn't you always claim you only ever entered through the eastern gate..."
"I was a rookie back then."
"Figuring the western gate was closer, I took a shortcut from the main road straight to the western gate, and as a result..."
"I was almost blasted into the sky by that giant sand worm."
"Pfft, hahaha!"
Dai Longmei, who was still communicating via telepathic transmission, couldn't help but burst into laughter.
"Don't laugh! Stop laughing!"
"Hahahahaha."
While the two of them continued flirting privately through telepathy, it only served to grind the teeth of Fox riding just behind them.
"Damn little wretch..."
Fox thought of taking advantage of the moment when everyone else was gazing at the western gate to secretly channel her hidden ethereal aura and launch a surprise attack to snatch Lily away.
However—
"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!"
Signal arrows whistled simultaneously from both sides of the sand dunes.
Those were the warning alarms sounded by the outer perimeter treasure-hunting sentinels.
"Sharp-eared thieves?"
Dai Yousheng wheeled his horse around, an horn bow already in his hand.
"Doesn't look like it!"
"Right, there's no ethereal aura signature whatsoever."
Dai Longmei and Lily simultaneously glanced back at Fox.
Fox, who had just begun to channel her ethereal energy, hurriedly reined it in and suppressed it.
Up on the sandy ridge, the corpses of several treasure hunters came tumbling down.
"Kill the Jade dogs! Seize the fox! Kill!"
Hundreds of elite drunken fox soldiers came charging down the slope.