All demonic beings under heaven originated from the Demon Progenitor.
Among the common people, the Demon Progenitor was a traitor to humanity spurned by all, referred to universally as a "filthy dog."
This was primarily because she was cold and cruel toward her own kin, yet treated animals—dogs in particular—as affectionately as her own children. After having the fortune of consuming a Forbidden Fruit, she became the world's very first human-demon.
She could transmit demonic qi to other creatures, awakening their sapience and setting them upon the path of demonic cultivation.
Consequently, she nurtured hundreds of great demons. To help them survive their heavenly tribulations and take human form, she went so far as to launch unprovoked attacks on human towns and abduct hordes of ordinary folk, turning them into expendable sacrifices for the demons' rites of seeking investiture.
Her eventual fate was easily imagined: humanity stripped her of her very human status, and she was later slain by an alliance of powerhouses, her bones ground to dust and her ashes scattered to the winds.
Regrettably, demonic qi had already come into being alongside her birth. Ever since, any creature fortunate enough to obtain demonic qi had a chance to awaken sapience, embark on the path of cultivation, and grow into a terrifying great demon.
"It's over, it's over, it's over..."
Qingniao knew all too well that demonic investiture was, in truth, an extraction of everything from the target to nourish the demon itself, sublimating its wisdom and bolstering its foundation so it could achieve human form.
Once she answered the question, her body would instantly be drained hollow, bringing sudden death on the spot.
Yet just as her body began to speak involuntarily, the bubble nestled in her ear as an earpiece abruptly expanded, enveloping her entirely. The very next second, the scenery shifted around her; she had already been teleported by Yu Xian back to the original mountaintop.
The stifling pressure vanished. Gasping for air in ragged gulps, she felt as though she had just escaped death by a hair's breadth.
"Qingniao, are you alright?"
Yu Xian teleported back and looked at her, asking with concern.
At first, he hadn't realized she was in danger. Only when the monster suspected to be Hu Weijie sought investiture, asking Qingniao whether it looked like an immortal or a god, did he realize she was likely captive or under its control.
Without hesitation, he had used the bubble in her ear to teleport her back.
Catching her breath, Qingniao replied, "I'm fine. But there's a monster inside the airport—I suspect it's Hu Weijie."
The moment the words left her mouth, a deafening roar erupted from Xingniao Airport.
An instant later, a fox bristling with bizarre muscles and sporting nine tails lunged out of the terminal. It glanced left and right, then snapped its head upward, locking onto Yu Xian and the others' position.
Its grotesque musculature bulged as it broke into an awkward, wildly uncoordinated sprint, barreling headlong toward the mountain.
"The muscles on its body are too bizarre, and plenty of those bulging masses look entirely redundant," Gong Qian said, her brows furrowing as she watched the giant nine-tailed fox close the distance rapidly.
Yu Xian frowned as well. "If that really is Hu Weijie, I doubt we'll be getting anything useful out of his mouth."
"It's fast! Salty Fish, let's just beat it down first. We can worry about other questions later," Zhang Shou said, pulling a gun from his storage ring. His palms were breaking out in sweat as the beast drew near.
Though he didn't fear death, having such a massive fox charging right at them was undeniably suffocating.
"Then let's move!"
Gong Qian clenched her fists, kicked off the ground, and sped down the mountain slope.
At the same time, Yu Xian stepped backward, passing through a bubble to instantly materialize high in the sky.
Looking down at the giant nine-tailed fox below, he released a barrage of tiny bubbles from his fingers. They drifted toward the ground, forming a circular cordon around the charging beast.
Boom!
Gong Qian collided with the giant nine-tailed fox. Her fist smashed into its head, causing its colossal frame to blow apart on the spot.
A one-punch kill?
Everyone froze, only to watch blood, gory remnants, and fur rapidly recombine in midair. In the blink of an eye, the giant nine-tailed fox was restored.
"Assuming it really is Hu Weijie, nine tails should mean Dragon-rank strength, but this is far too weak," Zhang Shou said to the others.
Qingniao chimed in, "And it was just asking me for investiture. That makes no sense."
"Is it possible that it also injected the serum Sun Youhu and the others used, except at a dosage far exceeding theirs?" Yu Xian mused thoughtfully, eyeing the reconstituted giant fox.
When the fox reformed its body, its flesh and blood had knit together layer by layer, allowing Yu Xian to clearly observe its muscle striations. The glowing lines coursing through its muscles were strikingly similar to the light emitted by Sun Youhu's musculature after injecting the serum.
Gong Qian obliterated the giant nine-tailed fox's body once more with another punch, but as expected, it promptly reformed. Watching even more closely this time, Yu Xian confirmed that the muscle striations on the fox shared over a ninety percent resemblance with those of Sun Youhu and his men after their injections.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Gong Qian pummeled the giant nine-tailed fox relentlessly from every angle, easily blowing it to pieces with each strike.
Yet her attacks seemed to have little lasting effect. The giant nine-tailed fox regenerated tirelessly, launching fresh attacks at Gong Qian the instant it reformed.
It had no fear whatsoever—in fact, it might not have possessed self-awareness at all.
Still, with every charge, it muttered under its breath, asking Gong Qian whether it looked like an immortal or a god.
A sudden thought struck Yu Xian. Teleporting through a bubble to a spot near Gong Qian, he shouted at the giant fox, "You don't look like an immortal, nor do you look like a god! You look like yourself—you are Hu Weijie!"
The rampaging giant nine-tailed fox froze as if pinned in place. Its pupils split and vibrated frantically; then, as though drained by an unseen force, the flesh and blood beneath its pelt rapidly withered away.
Gong Qian moved to finish it off while the chance presented itself, but Yu Xian lightly held her back with a hand.
"Don't rush. Let's see if he can find himself," Yu Xian told Gong Qian. If Hu Weijie could regain his sanity, they could uncover more secrets about the serum from him—which was their primary objective on this mission.
Killing Hu Weijie would only sever the lead, doing them no good at all.
By now, the giant fox's body had shriveled completely, yet a humanoid form slowly sprouted from the top of its head. Its lower body was covered in thick fur, while its upper torso was human—marred by a massive eye staring out from the center of its chest.
"I look like myself... Then who am I?"
"Am I an immortal? Am I a god?"
"What am I?"
"Hu Weijie?"
The humanoid muttered to itself before leaping down from the fox's head onto the ground. Instantly, nine energy tails of varying colors flared behind it, blazing like raging flames and radiating astonishing heat.
"It seems to have truly become Dragon-rank," Gong Qian said, her expression turning solemn.
Before, despite having nine tails, the giant fox had not actually been Dragon-rank—at best, its combat power was merely Wolf-rank. But this humanoid monstrosity unquestionably possessed genuine Dragon-rank strength now.
"You are Hu Weijie—father to Hu Tu'er, husband to Hu Xian'er," Yu Xian said, fixing his gaze upon the humanoid.
The humanoid cocked its head, its lifeless eyes slanting down toward Yu Xian. Suddenly, one of its tails morphed into a colossal hand and swept toward him. But in an instant, Yu Xian grabbed Gong Qian and teleported away, leaving the giant hand clutching at empty air.
Chapter 60