Chapter 51: 51. Grandma Fox Even though Fu Hongmian assisted, the Empress still refused to reveal any information. ... That night... "Scoundrel!" "Stop, scoundrel!" "Mmm...mmm..." After a long while, the sudden downpour ceased. "Everyone thinks the Empress who is still in the Imperial Capital" lay paralyzed here, her pretty face filled with hatred, her almond-shaped eyes burning with fire, yet her long legs were tightly entwined with a man she had known for only a few days. "Scoundrel!" The Empress closed her eyes, cursing hatefully. Song Yan quite admired her; she was the only one who could, after taking the fanatic fans potion, still let her strong will overpower the power of a cultivator. It was a victory of personal will. If it were him, he couldn’t do it. She was a wild and unruly flaming rouge horse. No wonder, after the Grand General became the King of Wei, she not only didn’t enjoy wealth and stability but also took a life-risking decision to leave the Imperial Capital indignantly, aiming to awaken the people of the Northern Land, while provoking her family’s hostility against the King of Wei and that Fox Ancestor. These events were long told to him by the Empress’s guard, Fu Hongmian, but the more secretive matters... Fu Hongmian did not know. Song Yan said, "You..." In the darkness, the Empress angrily said, "Scoundrel!" Song Yan wasn’t angry, he just continued, "Tell me, why did you get caught? If you hadn’t been caught, you wouldn’t be in this situation now." The Empress said coldly, "It was fate, falling into your hands, I have no words to say." Song Yan said, "In the tannery servant room, if I don’t take you away, do you think you could survive?" The Empress was silent for a moment. If this young demon disciple was telling the truth, then her and Hongmian’s plan was truly a dead end. The Earth Demon, the hidden sentries, and the cavalry, each was enough to take her life. Song Yan said, "If I took you away, doesn’t it mean I saved your life?" The Empress’s phoenix eyes opened wide, angrily saying, "Scoundrel!" Song Yan said calmly, "I am just reasoning with you, we need to talk about reason, don’t we?" After finishing speaking, he continued, "You and Hongmian have been evasive, unlike others who, after being taken by an Official Disciple, are extremely happy, it is because you hold high status in the Mortal World, so you know many things, and also know... the only outcome of being brought here is to be harvested. However, have you ever considered things from another angle? If I bring you here, and if I don’t harvest you, then... how do I perform cultivation? And if you don’t appear weakened by the harvesting, how do I explain it to my fellow disciples? In this matter, you have no choice. The same goes for me. I saved your lives, but I also need to do what I must do, isn’t that the truth?" The Empress was silent for a moment, then suddenly said, "Then why don’t you let go?" Song Yan reminded, "Pay close attention, is it you entangling me, or me entangling you?" The Empress was momentarily stunned, in the darkness, it was uncertain if her cheeks turned rosy, but she answered with actions. She suddenly withdrew her legs, raised them, lightly kicked Song Yan’s chest with her small foot, and with the momentum of this kick, she wrapped herself in the quilt and spun down to the ground, then quickly put on her shoes and swiftly speeded towards another stone cave. ... ... The next day, early. Because Song Yan had casually mentioned once that he "quite missed the taste of rice from avoiding disasters in the Mortal World," Wang Susu directly led her tall and handsome "little puppy" to deliver grains. When the stone door opened, Song Yan saw Wang Susu standing in the doorway, and the "little puppy" carrying a bag of rice, and couldn’t help saying, "Junior Sister Wang, you..." Wang Susu sweetly said, "Junior Sister suddenly missed the aroma of rice in the mortal world, so I went down to the market at the foot of the mountain yesterday and bought two bags of pearl rice. I had some last night and it left a lingering aroma, so I thought of Senior Brother and came first thing this morning." After speaking, she gently coughed. The little puppy quickly brought in the rice, his steps unsteady as he walked, with a dazed look. Wang Susu laughed, "Senior Brother, you should try some too." Song Yan lowered his voice and said, "Senior Sister, we don’t need to do this." Wang Susu was taken aback, gave Song Yan a profound look, and sighed lightly, "You..." During this conversation, the little puppy had already placed the rice on the stone table in the hall, then hurriedly retreated outside, standing behind Wang Susu. Song Yan said, "Thank you, Junior Sister, for the rice delivery." Wang Susu giggled, "As long as Senior Brother likes it." ... ... Fu Hongmian took the rice and cooked some porridge. The rice was new, exuding a fresh fragrance. The Empress gazed at the rice, but did not eat. Even though Fu Hongmian called her several times, she remained sullenly leaning against the stone wall in the cave, looking up at the skylight, lost in thought. After a long time, she suddenly said, "What I know, your Puppet Sect’s Sect Leader and Peak Master must also know. If you want to use this information to earn credit, it’s a futile effort." Song Yanqi said, "Who said I was trying to earn credit?" The Empress frowned and said, "Then what do you intend to do? Although you are a disciple of the sect, to put it bluntly, you are just at the very bottom of this sect. Whereas I, though a mortal, have the world at heart and play with the winds and clouds. You are stronger than me, and you enslaved me, but my vision and temperament are not something you can compare to." She raised her fair neck, like a proud plum blossom in snowy cold. Fu Hongmian didn’t speak, just lowered her head to eat the porridge, but in her heart, she felt the same. The Demon Sect disciple named Song Yan may have control over their lives, but within the Sect, he’s just at the bottom tier, so it’s impossible for his perspective to match that of the Empress. Song Yan couldn’t help but laugh. The Empress asked, "What are you laughing at? Are you mocking me for being like a phoenix stranded on a shallow shore, being toyed with by shrimp, and yet refusing to adapt, unable to see the situation clearly?" Song Yan laughed and said, "Alright, alright, Your Majesty is correct. What’s with the Multi-tailed Dragon Bo Cannibal Fox? What happened in the Northern Land? What’s the current situation?" The topic shift was abrupt, but it clearly showed Song Yan’s indifference to her sarcasm. The Empress praised, "I take back what I said before; your temperament isn’t that bad. But even if you understand the bigger picture, what can you do?" The tone of praise turned into ridicule by the end. She evidently looked down on this little Demon Sect brat. Song Yan laughed and said, "I could escape early." The Empress heard such an honest answer and couldn’t help but scoff, then said, "Then you’d better escape now, head south, far away, change your name, and hide in the wilderness further south than Southern Wu to live as a savage." Song Yan asked, "Why?" The Empress said, "Because the old Fox Grandma needs to eat a lot of people, and for you cultivators, your bodies mixed with Profound Qi are a great supplement for it." Song Yan nodded, calmly asking, "Why does the old Fox Grandma need to eat so many people? Wouldn’t something else suffice?" The Empress responded, "Because the Fox Grandma is having offspring, many, many offspring. Human women need to rest and nourish themselves after childbirth, let alone the old Fox Grandma, who is constantly giving birth." "Constantly giving birth?" Song Yan was taken aback. "Isn’t that absurd?" He recalled that, in his impression, the gestation period for foxes was about two months, so where did this "constantly" come from? The Empress said, "That’s how it is! Every few days, the old Fox Grandma has to give birth again." Song Yan: ... He wondered, "Then why does the old Fox Grandma need to have so many offspring?" The Empress said, "I don’t know, but I know that those offspring will soon need to eat. At first, just chicken, duck, and goose, then pigs, cows, and sheep, but eventually, it’ll be humans. To them, humans are the finest delicacy. When a fox cub can eat human flesh, it means they’ve awakened the talent in their bloodline." "What talent?" "Illusion technique." The Empress took a deep breath and said, "You haven’t seen it, so you can’t believe the horror of that bloodline’s illusion technique. Even a tiny fox cub can use an illusion technique to deceive you cultivators. It can disguise itself as a charming beauty, walk down the street, brush past a cultivator, and the cultivator won’t detect its demon qi at all." Song Yan pondered, "Maybe, that’s just a weak cultivator." The Empress said, "That was a Great Cultivator from the Fu family, already at the eighth level of Refining Profound. He had just left when someone got eaten. We asked if he noticed anything, and he said that if he looked carefully, he should have detected it. That... that was just a newly-born fox cub! What a terrifying demon!" Song Yan said, "That Cao Zhengjing is really quite perceptive." This Cao Zhengjing is now the King of Wei. The Empress said angrily, "He’s a despicable man; I misjudged him! He secretly sent his confidant to kill the second prince in broad daylight! The second prince was full of bravery and justice, willingly sacrificing himself to awaken the people of the Northern Land, making them realize the royal authority was gone, and demons were in charge! But this shameless Cao Zhengjing spun it as a farce of discontent between ruler and minister! He personally killed his confidant to avenge the second prince and then ascended the throne himself. Feigning good deeds, he ordered porridge shops and rice halls all over to keep the people in the cities and declared the outside dangerous, thus sealing off the cities. Feeding the Northern Land’s lives like pigs and dogs, just to satisfy that old Fox Grandma’s taste. Unfilial! A shameless traitor!" Song Yan thought for a moment and asked, "What does ’Multi-tailed’ mean?" Having come this far, the Empress straightforwardly replied, "The more tails, the more powerful. The old Fox Grandma has three tails." Song Yan curiously asked, "The maximum is nine tails?" The Empress said, "I don’t know because only one Fox Grandma came, so there’s no comparison." Song Yan asked again, "What does Dragon Bo mean?" The Empress said, "I’ve vaguely heard, it’s a mysterious special bloodline." Song Yan asked, "How big is the old Fox Grandma?" The Empress accurately understood his meaning and directly said, "Not bigger than you." Song Yan became even more puzzled. Because before he transmigrated, he had the impression that the term "Dragon Bo" referred to a group of giants in mythology, standing thirty feet tall, with feet spanning the Five Mountains, fishing six coelacanths, causing mountains to sink into the sea. So initially, when he heard "Multi-tailed Dragon Bo Cannibal Fox", he thought this demonic fox was extraordinarily big. The Empress continued, "But I’ve heard a loose cultivator in my family guess, he said... the little fox cubs might not have Dragon Bo blood, only the old Fox Grandma does. Thus, it’s evident that Dragon Bo blood isn’t an innate inheritance, but a special acquired bloodline." Song Yan fell into silence. The Empress and her servants, they truly are not to be underestimated. These secret bits of information have made him understand the terror of the Mountain and Sea Demon Country. But it’s apparent, in the eyes of the other side, the Three Kingdoms might just be a speck of land, usually ignored. It’s only because the King of Wei courted disaster for national vendetta, seeking out the old Fox Grandma, reminding the other side, "there’s a big dining hall here, come and eat." "Inviting wolves into the house" doesn’t even describe the King of Wei’s action of seeking out the old Fox Grandma. But how could the King of Wei have known in advance? With just a little gap in information, the judgment made can be vastly different, resulting in completely different outcomes. Song Yan lowered his gaze in deep thought. After a long while, he suddenly asked, "Since there are so many fox cubs, and they’re extremely good at illusion techniques, do you think... it might be possible they..." Before he finished, the Empress gave him a cold smile, glanced at him with disdain, and said, "So, you can start fleeing now."