Chapter 624: Inner Demon
"Zhou Qing..." The emperor spoke slowly, with a hint of unnoticeable excitement in his voice:
"Do you know that this nine-tailed fox is an extremely rare thing in the world, and its cultivation strength is unpredictable, almost reaching the sky."
"And this nine-tailed fox was caught just two days before the tail-burning feast with all our efforts. It is very fresh and can be said to be a rare delicacy!"
The emperor was talking to himself, with a satisfied smile on his face.
He completely failed to notice the gradually turning pale face of the red fox across the barrier.
The emperor's tone gradually became a bit joking, as if he was deliberately teasing the red fox's nerves:
"What a coincidence, this nine-tailed fox happens to come from your hometown, Zhou Qing."
"It is a newly born nine-tailed white fox. Its fur is as pure white as snow, which is very rare."
Hearing this, the chopsticks in Red Fox's hand slipped involuntarily,
It fell gently onto the surface of the bowl, making a crisp ping-pong sound.
An indescribable panic and regret surged in his heart.
He recalled the day when he first entered the capital. At that time, he had already opened the Great Wilderness Sutra, but unfortunately his husband took it away.
At that moment, he clearly had the opportunity to read everything about the nine-tailed fox, and he had the opportunity to know that the nine-tailed fox was actually a kind of food...
However, fate seemed to play a cruel joke on him.
Facing this sudden truth, Red Fox's heart was filled with endless regret and pain.
"Zhuangyuanlang, how do you feel?"
The emperor's voice sounded again, with a bit of amusement and expectation,
When the emperor's voice rang in his ears again, an ominous premonition filled Red Fox's heart.
He gradually realized that his true identity might have been discovered by the other party a long time ago.
He once thought that he could see into the emperor's mind and that he could navigate the deep palace with ease.
But now it seems that all this is just his own wishful thinking, or the emperor did it deliberately, causing him to fall into a wrong self-perception.
At this moment, Red Fox couldn't help but think of "Jiahu" who claimed to be a member of the Qingqiu Fox Clan.
He recalled Jia Hu's various persuasion to him, as well as those words that seemed sincere but had hidden secrets.
"Jiahu...Jiahu...fake fox?" Red Fox murmured to himself,
He finally fully realized that he was afraid that he had fallen into a carefully laid trap.
Jia Hu's so-called persuasion was just to ensure that he would not give up midway and miss the tail-burning feast.
Red Fox's heart was filled with regret, and he had no intention of paying attention to the emperor anymore.
However, just when he was about to explode, a powerful force tightly restrained his body to the chair, making him unable to move.
At some point, the emperor appeared quietly behind Red Fox.
He gently raised his hand and slowly landed on Red Fox's shoulder.
The emperor's lips curved into a meaningful smile, and he said slowly:
"Did you know? The most precious thing about this nine-tailed fox is not its flesh and blood body, but the inner elixir hidden in its body."
"According to the "Great Wilderness Sutra", the inner elixir of the nine-tailed fox is round and flawless. It contains thoughts from all directions. After swallowing it, it can satisfy people's selfish desires."
"If I am lucky enough to get the inner elixir of a nine-tailed fox, then I can also embark on the path of cultivating the Tao in the future."
However, his tone suddenly turned regretful:
"It's just a pity that creatures like the nine-tailed fox are so rare. Only one or two will appear within a thousand years, making it difficult to find."
"So, generally speaking, mortals like me have no chance to enjoy the inner elixir of this nine-tailed fox."
The emperor suddenly laughed loudly, and the laughter echoed in the empty hall, making it particularly loud:
"But judging from the articles you wrote, Zhuangyuan Lang, you are indeed very popular with me and very much to my liking."
"After all, besides you Qingqiu Fox Clan, who else can write such an accurate article, and write every word deeply into my heart?"
After saying these words, the emperor slowly walked up to Red Fox and looked at him deeply:
"Zhou Qing, since you failed to burn your tail and become a human being, then you can continue to be a nine-tailed fox... What do you think?"
The emperor's eyes were full of greed: "Zhou Qing... you now only have eight tails."
"But I will order you to be built with a golden body in various places, and respect you as the Wenquxingjun in the sky and come down to earth."
"In this case, it is only a matter of time before you become a real nine-tailed fox..."
After the emperor finished speaking, he turned around and left, his laughter echoing wantonly in the empty palace.
Red Fox felt an indescribable regret in his heart, but at this time he could only watch the emperor gradually walk out of the hall,
Tears slipped quietly down Red Fox's cheeks, and his heart was filled with endless regret and pain.
The next moment, a huge force without warning suddenly penetrated into the depths of Red Fox's soul, like thunder exploding,
He instantly lost consciousness and became dizzy.
When he woke up again, everything was dark.
But even in this darkness, he could clearly distinguish,
He was still in the big hall full of golden Buddha statues, which made him feel extremely depressed.
But now, Red Fox feels as if he has become one of those golden Buddha statues.
His body became stiff and heavy, as if petrified, unable to move at all.
The emotion of regret flowed freely in his soul, surging like a tide.
He wanted to cry, wanted to shout, wanted to pour out the anger and unwillingness in his heart, but found that he couldn't do it at all.
His tears were imprisoned in his eye sockets and couldn't fall;
His anger was also bound in his heart and couldn't burst out.
He didn't know how long he had spent in this darkness and despair, but he felt that time seemed to become long and endless.
Finally, at a certain moment, the resentment in his heart began to gradually subside, replaced by a deep sense of powerlessness and despair.
He understood that he had no ability to escape from such a state.
His body was imprisoned, his soul was bound, he seemed to be imprisoned in an invisible cage, unable to save himself.
And revenge was even more out of reach.
After all, the sister who had given birth to the Nine-Tailed Fox had already become food, let alone himself now?
Even if he could escape, he could only kill the emperor as a mortal at most, but what was the point?
Suddenly, the red fox clearly felt that a warm power began to flow slowly in the depths of his soul.
This power was both familiar and strange, and seemed to have some similarities with the power of his mind, but there were significant differences in essence.
He sighed deeply, and he knew in his heart that the emperor had begun to shape a golden body for him.
The reason why he felt strange might be the source of this power, not that he satisfied others' wishes.
He felt helpless and sad, because he knew that
as this power continued to strengthen, he would soon give birth to nine tails and become blood food for others.
Thinking of this, he couldn't help but feel a chill in his heart.
He once thought that by passing the imperial examination and becoming Zhou Qiangguang, he could find a path of his own.
However, it now seems that this road is still a dead end after all.
But he couldn't help asking himself, even if he didn't choose to become Zhou Qiangguang,
and didn't take the path of the imperial examination, would the final result really be different?
He thought of the white fox. Didn't it also become the emperor's food in the end?
He felt a deep despair and helplessness.
Could it be that the Qingqiu fox clan was born to be destined to become the food of others, such a tragic result?
As time passed, the red fox could clearly feel that his soul was growing stronger and stronger.
However, despite the increasing power of his soul, there was still no sign of the ninth tail.
However, the power that was different from the mind was still increasing, which made him feel extremely confused.
During this period, the emperor also came to visit several times.
When he came for the first time, the emperor's face seemed a little older than before, and a lot of white hair grew on his head.
He seemed very anxious, but the red fox still stayed at the state of eight tails and could not meet the emperor's expectations.
When the emperor came for the second time, his physical condition was obviously not as good as the previous time.
He was crooked and supported by someone, and he could no longer speak for himself.
Chihu saw despair and helplessness in his eyes, which made him feel a sense of pleasure of revenge.
When the emperor came for the third time, his energy was extremely weak, as if it could go out at any time.
In order to stay alive, he needed to stew ginseng to maintain his life.
The prince standing beside him had a gleam in his eyes.
Chihu knew at this moment that after building a golden body for himself,
the power he gained was not the mind, but another deeper power.
In the dark, he seemed to touch the essence of the mind.
He recalled everything he had experienced in the past hundred years. In order to satisfy the wishes of many people,
everything he did seemed to be for himself, to accumulate more thoughts.
But unknowingly, he has become a collection of people's expectations, wishes and desires.
His existence seems to be to carry these complicated emotions and desires.
Although Zhou Qiangguang, who he transformed into, had a specific identity, being someone's husband, someone's son, and someone's disciple,
but behind these identities, he was more like a perfect puppet.
This puppet was the embodiment of people's concept and expectation of perfection, and was the product of the desires of all living beings gathered together.
The power brought by the golden body was much purer than the mind.
This was created by someone's purest thoughts, not a collection of desires like the mind.
The mind is by no means a simple collection of everyone's will, it is more like a fusion of desires and negative emotions.
I fulfilled the wishes of others, but in the end I only got endless and magnified desires.
At that moment, the red fox suddenly realized that the so-called Nine Lives Heart Evidence must have been secretly manipulated by someone behind it.
The real Nine Lives Heart Evidence should be fed with those pure and flawless thoughts, not the so-called thoughts, not the endless desires of people.
Thinking of this, the red fox's eyes involuntarily fell on the prince who was already wearing the dragon robe and was in high spirits.
He couldn't help but sigh in his heart: "The human heart is really unfathomable..."
The red fox, who claimed to understand humans quite well, only realized at this moment the complexity and changeability of the human heart.
He recalled his original thoughts and couldn't help but feel that they were a bit too simple and naive.
His thoughts once again drifted back to the old emperor who waited so hard but finally died on the throne.
Once, he felt a little happy about the death of the old emperor, but at this moment, that happiness was gone.
Because he understood that it was only the old emperor who died, and what really killed his sister and imprisoned him here was actually mankind's never-ending greed.
As long as greed persists, there will never be true peace in this world.
The spirit of the red fox is slowly swirling around, and it can feel that statues of him have been erected in temples across the country.
At this time, he could actually feel the existence of those statues.
With just one thought, he could change the perspective of any statue.
And everyone who comes here to worship him is just for fame.
Red Fox sighed: "The world is bustling with people, and everyone who comes here is seeking fame and wealth..."
"Minds are not pure things, and it seems that the will of all sentient beings is not what I thought."
At this moment, Red Fox couldn't help but think of a sentence in the sage's book:
"Likes and dislikes, joy and anger, sorrow and joy, these are called natural emotions."
"Sexual likes and dislikes, joy and anger, sorrow and joy are called emotions."
…
The world is changing rapidly, and everything in the world is changing rapidly.
The prince, who was no longer young, could not survive the long years until the day when the number one scholar gave birth to Kyuubi.
The new emperor's desire for immortality even exceeded that of the previous emperor.
He visits this place every year to see it in person. At the same time, he carries out large-scale construction projects all over the country to build Wenquxing Temple.
Even so, he died in a coup after waiting for more than 20 years.
Emperors from generation to generation are constantly changing like a revolving lantern, but the Wenqu Xinjun Temple that stands across the country has never changed.
They witnessed the rise and fall of dynasties and carried the hopes of countless officials.
Until one day, the dynasty that had been prosperous for thousands of years finally collapsed.
On that day, Red Fox was in the main hall, but he clearly heard the sounds of burning, killing, looting and smashing outside the main hall.
The fire burned fiercely, causing the glazed roof of the palace to fall off, and hit the ground heavily, making a deafening sound.
The entire palace seemed to be in a sea of fire, and Red Fox could only silently pray that he could escape this disaster.
Only this side hall, which was as narrow as a temple, could escape the disaster.
At the same time, a young man dressed as a Confucian scholar walked into the main hall. He looked at the golden fox statue with eight tails:
“Evil arises in the heart, and anger rises from the head.”
"Do you know that you have become the devil in the hearts of thousands of people?" (End of this chapter)