Chapter 36: Behind the Veil of the Nine-Tailed Fox (
Rhys could hardly believe his own eyes. Unlike the crowd filling the plaza, he did not see a Mystic Mage surrounded by nine Grand Mages. In fact, he was not looking at humans at all. Because he had assumed his Celestial Origin form, every illusion in this world shattered before his gaze.
Through this upgraded vision, the truth lay bare. He was looking at a fox, specifically a nine-tailed fox.
The beautiful young woman walking toward the central stage was a complete fabrication. Beneath the false facade, her real face was sharp and flawless, with pale skin and lips curved into a mocking smile.
Her eyes were translucent, filled with swirling miniature stars like two private galaxies trapped inside her skull.
However, the most shocking sight loomed behind her. Where the nine Grand Elders supposedly stood proud in their blue robes, there were actually nine massive white fox tails stretching into the air.
’So the sect master fell that day and a monster replaced her,’ Rhys thought, his mind racing.
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* *
"Master, will he really come?" asked Yuki, the youngest tail, her voice tentative. She no longer dared to refer to herself by her master’s actual name.
Behind her veil, the lips of the Nine-Tailed Fox, or rather Yuki, curled into a knowing, sharp smirk. "Someone has mastered the Crown of Force."
"How can you be so certain it is that specific man?" Seduction, another tail, muttered in a low whisper.
"Because....I am sure." Yuki said as a matter of faculty. Seduction wanted to roll her eyes, but she was a tail. So she asked the youngest tail instead....
"Younger sister, what kind of person is he to make our master so infatuated with a mere mortal?"
"I do not know," the youngest tail replied, her voice filled with confusion.
The fox master ignored the bewilderment of her tails, instead whispering under her breath, "In this world, aside from the descendant of that ugly lizard, only he can master that spell. You two simply do not understand. That is precisely why you are merely my tails."
"Ahem."
"Master, that is cruel."
Yuki scoffed at the quiet complaints. In a way, she felt glad that only two of her tails had their consciousness unsealed. She shuddered at the thought of nine annoying bitches bickering around her at once.
If she did not need their awareness to regain her full power, she would have preferred to keep them sealed forever.
"But how could he hide from your perception?" Seduction asked, driven by curiosity. "Is he outside the Light Shield?"
Yuki shook her head silently as she walked toward the main stage. Sensing her approach, the leaders of the three human settlements hurriedly parted, clearing a path for her.
Her transparent eyes swept across the massive, trembling crowd, her gaze lingering momentarily over the participant rows.
Even after continuous scanning, his presence remained hidden. Yuki was truly surprised. For a disguise to escape her perception, it had to be from a Celestial Origin.
Who was helping him? And for what? Did they also find out about his control over Life energy? Were they also from the Systemverse?
Yuki dismissed that thought. The appearance of a mage who could control lifespan should have caused a massive war if any factions in the Systemverse were to learn of it.
That meant he had somehow managed to disguise himself beyond her perception.
She did not know which disguise technique had completely removed Rhys from her tracking parameters, which was exactly why she was altering the entire event and the prizes right now.
She wanted to flush him out. If he was hiding, she would simply dangle a bait so grand that no hidden expert could possibly resist.
"The true goal of this year’s hunt is not a simple game of points," the fake Sect Master announced, her voice echoing with absolute authority.
"The objective is the conquest of the Eighth Peak of the Dragon Bone Range."
"What!" the three settlement masters shouted in unison, their eyes almost popping clean out of their sockets as they stared at her in disbelief.
The sudden declaration from Yuki sent a wave of absolute panic through the entire stadium.
Garrick Ironvein slammed his heavy hand onto the stone armrest of his chair and stood up, his face contorting with rage as he shouted toward the veiled woman.
"You are completely crazy!" Garrick roared, his deep voice carrying a sharp undercurrent of raw panic. "You want our youngsters to die out there! You are intentionally sending them into a meat grinder!"
The old man had every reason to be completely horrified. The strict rules of the Annual Hunt had always mandated that only Adept-rank mages and lower could qualify to participate in the matches.
The younger generation standing in the plaza consisted entirely of raw apprentices and fresh adepts who had barely seen real combat outside the light shields.
In stark contrast, the terrifying Eighth Peak of the Dragon Bone Range was a lawless, unshielded territory that was legally classified as an absolute death zone, an untamed mountain that was considered entirely unbeatable even for a unified squad of seasoned High Mages.
By changing the core objective of the event to a taming expedition on that living mountain, Yuki was not testing the youth. She was ruthlessly sending every single participant straight to their deaths.
"Our Iron Ridge is absolutely not participating in this madness!" Garrick spat, turning his back toward the central throne as he prepared to signal his heavily armored vanguard to leave the plaza.
"The Jade Serpent Basin shares the exact same stance," Xu Yuan chimed in immediately, her narrow eyes flashing with a sharp, toxic light as she tucked her pale hands into her green silk sleeves. "We will not allow our talented descendants to become targets for wild beasts just to satisfy your sudden, reckless whims."
Lord Harald of Frostwood Hold and High Elder Blaze of Ember Spire quickly joined the protest as well, their voices rising over the general roar of the crowd as every single settlement loudly announced they were completely boycotting the tournament.
The soft disciples in the participant rows let out loud sighs of relief, thinking their lives had just been saved by the unified front of their supreme leaders.
Behind her heavy black veil, the Nine-Tailed Fox simply let out a low, melodious chuckle that carried an immense wave of silent mockery.
She did not care about their angry threats of a boycott, because she knew the dark, greedy depths of the human heart far better than they did.
She raised her pale hand slightly, her bell-like voice cutting through the chaotic shouting of the elderly masters with absolute ease as she announced the prize.
"To match the absolute danger of a permanent death zone, the final first-place reward has been elevated to the highest echelon," the false Sect Master spoke smoothly, her pink lips curling into a sharp, knowing smirk. "The winner of this vanguard expedition will officially receive an unhatched Egg of a Royal bloodline monster."
The entire stone plaza instantly froze in dead, petrified silence once again.
Every single mage in the northern territory knew the strict hierarchical classification that governed the magical beasts of this world.
Monster bloodlines were divided into seven distinct, unyielding tiers of power.
At the absolute bottom sat the common Mortal Bloodline, followed closely by the mutated Uncommon Bloodline and the volatile Rare Bloodline.
Above them were the highly prized Superior Bloodline creatures, which usually served as the ultimate protectors for wealthy merchant guilds and elite sect elders.
But a Royal Bloodline monster was an entirely different class of existence. It was an entity legally classified as a literal King of beasts, a majestic creature possessing a pure, unblemished lineage that allowed it to naturally grow to rival a Grand Mage or even a Mystic Mage upon reaching full physical maturity, completely bypassing every single progression bottleneck without ever requiring outside materials.
Above it sat only the near-mythical Ancient Bloodline, which had not been seen on the continent for centuries.
The reward she was offering was simply too high. For any frontier settlement, obtaining an unhatched Royal egg meant they were essentially holding the ultimate foundation token to expand their borders and become a permanent, untouchable regional superpower within the next century.
Garrick Ironvein completely froze in his tracks, his foot hovering an inch above the wooden floorboards as his previous rage was instantly replaced by an ugly, burning wave of absolute desire.
He swallowed his saliva heavily, his knuckles turning white as his grip tightened around his iron staff. The previous thoughts of boycotting the tournament vanished from his mind like smoke.
But he was not a fool. How could she have such a treasure?
Yuki seemed to read his mind as she raised her hand, and a golden egg appeared on her palm, emitting the pure aura of a Royal monster.
"This..." Garrick completely turned around, forgetting the chaos he had caused just moments before.
Still, a glaring problem remained. Even if the golden promise of a Royal companion was enough to make them gamble their mortality, how could a group of lower-ranked mages possibly tame an untamable mountain peak on their own?
The environmental pressure alone would crush their mana cores before they could even reach the middle ridges.
That was precisely when Yuki slowly raised both of her hands into the cold air.
Resting between her pale, slender fingers was a beautiful, completely transparent crystal ball.
Inside the smooth sphere, a thick cloud of pink-colored steam was swirling around frantically, slamming against the glass walls as if it were a trapped, living entity trying to claw its way out into the open world.
"The core of the eighth peak..." She dropped another bombshell.
