Chapter 28: The Cave of Corpses

Merchants who traveled in Liaodong during those years had all smelled blood before.

But never as thick as this. The stench made the Caravan Leader’s stomach churn violently.

He leaned against the cave wall and took another ten or so steps before he couldn’t take it anymore. He doubled over and vomited.

The Young Girl wasn’t feeling much better. She held it in.

Her stomach wasn’t ordinary. There was probably nothing inside. Even if she wanted to throw up, she couldn’t.

When the Caravan Leader finished heaving, the two pressed on toward the distant light.

If there were monsters here, they should have been spotted by now. Their movements were far from stealthy, almost like charging in blindly.

Oddly, no enemy attacked. It was as if the place was empty.

They went deeper and reached their destination.

This space was wider, manually excavated, not naturally formed.

The two had no time to wonder how the cave was made. What they saw was a scene of brutal carnage: countless corpses and severed limbs piled up, a bloody horror.

Some were human, some animal. You could barely tell what creature they came from by the remains.

The Caravan Leader, who had just finished vomiting, threw up again. This time even the Young Girl couldn’t hold it. She leaned against the wall and dry-heaved, bringing up nothing.

The visual and olfactory shock was too much. It felt like the scene attacked your mind, causing deep physical and mental discomfort.

The scene when they killed the Dream-Eating Beast had been intense, but it couldn’t compare to this.

Suddenly, a scream came from the pile of corpses.

A male voice. Somewhat familiar.

The Caravan Leader froze in fear. He didn’t dare move.

The Young Girl quickly stepped forward into the corpse plaza inside the cave.

It was brightly lit with many torches burning something. The flames didn’t seem likely to go out anytime soon.

She circled around a mountain of bodies and finally saw what was happening.

A half-human, half-beast female fox stood there, taller than the Young Girl. Its posture was humanoid, standing on two legs. But its body was covered in fur. Its face had some human features, but mostly it looked like an animal.

To the Young Girl, this creature was seven parts beast, three parts human. It mostly kept the appearance of a brown fox.

The Young Girl had arrived a bit late. She saw the last moment. The female fox had just cut off a man’s head with a longsword and was now sucking something out.

Something spilled from the human’s flesh, like mist, flowing into the female fox’s mouth. It absorbed into the fox’s body.

The female fox was focused. It hadn’t heard the earlier vomiting or the footsteps.

Maybe it was because of the constant “woo woo” wind sound in the cave. The wind whistled loudly, like the wails of ghosts, covering up the noise.

While the female fox was absorbing something from the human, it caught sight of the Young Girl from the corner of its eye.

It was startled. It scrambled back several zhang on three legs, moving fast.

“You… who?” It spoke with a strange accent, its words unclear.

It seemed afraid of this Young Girl. Whether it was her unusual clothes, her extraordinary appearance, or the pressure her aura gave off.

The Young Girl didn’t answer. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them again, her gaze was as firm as a mountain.

She gripped the axe in her hand.

“Is that so… you… also want… to kill me.” The female fox’s tone turned cold. “Why?”

The Caravan Leader finally caught up. He noticed the dead man in the distance.

Just as he had guessed, it was the man they had met during the day. The one who blocked their way in the market and called the Young Girl a “fox demon.”

Somehow, that man had ended up here.

The torch and shoe outside the cave must have been his. A shoe was missing from the corpse.

How did he dare come alone to this demon mountain seeking death?

The Caravan Leader couldn’t blame him now. Only regret showed in his eyes.

He stepped back, giving the Young Girl space, and said, “At least twenty lives.”

The Young Girl nodded.

Hearing this, the female fox seemed agitated. It roared, “Animal… lives? Are they not… lives?”

The Caravan Leader didn’t know how to answer. He looked at the pile of corpses and hesitated before replying, “If you care about animal lives, didn’t you kill many too?”

This didn’t calm the female fox. It grew even more frantic. Veins bulged on its face. It looked savage.

The female fox answered, “They… deserved it.”

Caravan Leader: “Did you kill all these people?”

Female Fox: “Yes.”

The longsword in its hand was rusted red, covered in blood. Drops fell to the ground one by one.

The Young Girl stepped forward, approaching it.

The female fox retreated warily. It reached the cave wall, with little room left.

Suddenly, it attacked. A fast, long-range thrust. It swung the sword in an arc, aiming for the Young Girl’s head.

Its move was quick, but the attack came from too far. The Young Girl had plenty of time to react.

She calmly sidestepped.

The female fox struck and retreated, putting two zhang between them again.

The Young Girl couldn’t attack from that distance. She continued to approach slowly.

The female fox made another probing attack, the same move. A long-range charge followed by a slash. It took time to prepare. The Young Girl easily dodged again, stepping back to avoid the horizontal sweep.

She kept closing in, gradually forcing the female fox back to the cave wall.

Then the fox did something different. Its eyes turned orange. Its fur stood on end. A flaming ball, a bit larger than a palm, condensed in front of it.

With a gesture, the fireball shot toward the Young Girl.

She couldn’t dodge it completely. It was too fast.

The fireball slammed into her arm. Flames erupted but failed to ignite her feathered coat. Not even her hair caught fire. Something blocked it.

In short, it didn’t break through. Her magic defense was too high.

Both the female fox and the Young Girl were stunned. It took a moment to react.

The fox hadn’t expected her magic defense to be so strong. She hadn’t expected it either.

The female fox panicked. It kept its distance and launched more fireballs.

The Young Girl didn’t dodge. She charged at the fox, taking the fireballs head-on.

The cave flashed with light as the fireballs exploded. No matter how many it fired, they couldn’t break her defense. Not a scratch.

But the Young Girl couldn’t touch the fox either. It was too fast, always backing away.

Realizing they had the upper hand, the Caravan Leader blocked the cave entrance to prevent escape.

The female fox grew more desperate. It changed tactics. It used magic to ignite the blood on the ground, creating a sea of fire.

The Young Girl seemed afraid of the flames. She stopped at the edge, watching warily.

The fox kept casting spells. Sometimes fireballs, sometimes a jet of dragon-like flame. None of it hurt her.

The smoke inside the cave grew thick. It became hard to breathe. The Young Girl and the fox seemed unaffected, but the Caravan Leader couldn’t take it. He had to retreat outside.

Seeing this, the female fox also fled toward the entrance. It was too fast. The Young Girl couldn’t catch up. She had to sprint after it.

The Caravan Leader outside heard the commotion. He saw the fox at the entrance. Gritting his teeth, he blocked the way.

“With me here, you’re not getting out!” he shouted. He tried to sound brave and intimidate the fox.

The female fox didn’t seem scared. It conjured another fireball and shot it at him.

The Caravan Leader reacted quickly. He predicted the attack and dodged. But he couldn’t avoid it entirely. The fireball hit his forearm. His clothes caught fire.

He still didn’t move. He stayed at the entrance, tearing off his burning clothes and tossing them aside.

Now the skin on his forearm was charred. The raw flesh showed.

He endured the pain and stayed.

Seeing she couldn’t break through, the fox launched more fireballs.

The Caravan Leader dodged several times but got hit again. A large patch of his abdomen was burnt black.

The time he bought was crucial. The Young Girl finally reached the fox. She was close.

The fox panicked. It moved toward the Caravan Leader, trying to kill him with its sword.

Where did the Caravan Leader find the courage? Maybe from the human corpses. He didn’t retreat. He advanced. He blocked the sword with his torch stick. The stick snapped. The remaining momentum slashed his arm. It stopped at the bone.

He kept pushing. He rammed into the fox with all his weight, staggering it.

At first, it was shocked. It thought a human was going to kill it. After being hit, it was surprised at how weak humans were. The impact barely hurt.

At that moment, it noticed the Caravan Leader’s eyes. They were full of joy and hope.

A mere dying human? What joy? What hope?

The female fox looked back. It saw the Young Girl right there. And the seemingly ordinary axe in her hand.

“Damn…” it muttered.

The next instant, the axe slammed into the female fox’s shoulder. Destructive mana splattered everywhere. Tiny explosions kept happening, tearing the fox’s body apart. The axe easily cut through, from shoulder to hip.

The cave lit up with a blinding flash. Then it faded.

The axe in the Young Girl’s hand shattered into countless pieces again. Useless.

The female fox’s body was ripped apart. It wasn’t dead yet, but it might as well be.

Only the head and a small part of its torso remained.

The Caravan Leader sat to the side, pressing on his wounds to stop the bleeding. One arm was ruined.

With her last breath, the female fox asked, “Why… me… why kill me… reason.”

The Young Girl didn’t answer. She touched the Caravan Leader’s shoulder and infused a weak stream of mana into him.

He felt a bit better. The pain eased.

Regaining some strength, he picked up the fox’s rusted sword. He drove it down through the creature’s head, ending what was left of its life.

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