Dressed as the last nine-tailed fox

Chapter 338: The Ghost of Hard Labor
"We're here." Bok Joo pointed with his chin at an inconspicuous yellow mound in front of him.

"Is it here?" Hongmeng Ziqi's tone was unexpectedly a little disdainful, as if he had seen this mound of earth for the first time.

Hearing this, Fuzhu glanced at Hongmeng Ziqi indifferently, as if he had anticipated Hongmeng Ziqi's reaction, and as if he was mocking Hongmeng Ziqi for not having seen the world.

Fuzhu looked a little more proud, but to Yi Changle and Hongmeng Ziqi, it looked more like bragging...

"Rustle...rustle...rustle..." Fuzhu kept extending his tongue towards the pile of earth.

Yi Changle and Hongmeng Ziqi then discovered that there was an inconspicuous small hole in the lower right side of the mound, and that small hole was just the right size for Fuzhu's letter to pass through.

"Click." Fuzhu's nose touched the switch.

The yellow mounds of earth quickly dissipated from both sides, and an entrance appeared at the original location of the mounds, emitting a dazzling yet not glaring light.

Yi Changle stuck his head out to look, but could see nothing except a long staircase. And these stairs did not lead to a gold mine but more like a tomb.

Seeing Yi Changle's actions, Fuzhu laughed and said, "Young Master, can't you wait any longer?"

This road that seemed to lead to a tomb made Yi Changle's face darken. He asked in a cold voice, "Where does this road lead to?"

Yi Changle looked alert, and Fuzhu felt relieved after he was put down. "This road leads to... the gold mine you've always dreamed of."

Fuzhu folded his hands, looking impatient, and directed Yi Changle and Hongmeng Ziqi: "When we get down there later, both of you should be smart and hide behind me obediently, okay?"

Yi Changle and Hongmeng Ziqi looked at each other and nodded, which was considered as agreement.

Fuzhu was still worried and warned: "Otherwise, if my mother finds out that I brought two outsiders to the gold mine, none of us three will have a good ending."

"Now, we are grasshoppers tied to the same rope."

……

On both sides of the steps, there are many luminous pearls inlaid irregularly. The secret passage was originally built underground, but these luminous pearls make the secret passage brighter than the ground.

Yi Changle pretended to be curious and glanced at them casually. Unexpectedly, he felt a sense of familiarity from some of the night pearls. Yi Changle walked towards those night pearls, wanting to see them more clearly.

"Right now is the time when the guards are at their weakest and the patrols are also changing shifts. But you must remember, no matter what you see later, don't make any sound..." Bok Joo whispered all the way, but when she turned around, she found that there was one person missing behind her.

"You!" Bok Joo quickly lowered her voice and began to question him, "Didn't I tell you to follow me? What are you doing? Don't you know where this is? If we're not careful, all three of us will be finished. Do you know that?"

Yi Changle, who was held accountable, smiled sheepishly and explained, "So many night-shining pearls inlaid together are so spectacular and dazzling that I couldn't help but stop and take a look."

Fuzhu agreed with Yi Changle's words and nodded involuntarily. She looked at Yi Changle with a look of pity in her eyes. "You've lived such a hard life before. You've never even seen a night-shining pearl." Fuzhu patted Yi Changle on the shoulder and comforted him, "How about this? I see you are really pitiful. After this is done, I will give you a box of night-shining pearls. You can play with them when you are free."

"Throw? Throw for fun..." Even though the pool in Qingqiu was full of night-shining pearls, Yi Changle couldn't help but sigh at Fuzhu's generosity, "You are... a pretty good person."

……

After walking for a long time, the light of the night pearl suddenly stopped, but Fuzhu kept moving forward.

"Miss Fuzhu, are we almost there?" Although the light had gone, neither Hongmeng Ziqi nor Yi Changle thought that it was because there were not enough night-shining pearls. According to how generous Fuzhu had been in giving the night-shining pearls just now, the number of night-shining pearls in Fuxing City would be enough for them to go around Fuxing City again.

"Please allow me to introduce you." Bok Joo suddenly became formal and proud, "The one who will light the way for us next is gold."

As soon as Fuzhu finished speaking, the front became bright again. Unlike the soft white light emitted by the night pearl, this time the light was dazzling golden. It was clearly a passage dug underground, but the entire passage was covered with gold. Everything was gold, and even the golden road underfoot was specially made uneven to prevent slipping.

"What do you think of this golden road?" Fuzhu asked, pretending to be nonchalant, but the pride in her yellow eyes was about to show.

Hongmeng Ziqi stretched his neck to look, and saw that the golden road seemed to have no end, and gradually there was more impatience in his eyes.

"It's OK." Hongmeng Ziqi replied perfunctorily, "This golden road is so long... How long do we have to walk before we can see the gold mine?"

"It's almost there, it's almost there, we'll be there after we finish walking this golden road."

Although Fuzhu said this, Yi Changle always felt that she was a little strange, so he asked tentatively: "This golden road is very luxurious. If it is decorated with some night pearls or gems, wouldn't it be more dazzling?"

Fuzhu was quite surprised by Yi Changle's words, "I didn't expect that although you haven't seen much of the world, your ideas are pretty good."

"Hehe." Yi Changle forced a smile, but this smile looked fake and exaggerated.

"Use night-shining pearls to decorate it..." Fuzhu said as he walked, "Even someone as unsophisticated as you can think of this, so we must have tried it a long time ago."

"It's just that..." Fuzhu shook his head regretfully and explained, "The golden light on the wall is already dazzling enough. Add in the night-shining pearls or shining gems, and the light will inevitably become dazzling."

Seeing Fuzhu's pitiful look, Yi Changle finally understood where the strange feeling came from. He was afraid that there was more than one way to enter the gold mine. After all, this road was either night-shining pearls or gold. If the gold mine was to be transported out through this road, it would be really troublesome and would be a waste of effort. Yi Changle guessed that the reason why Fuzhu chose this road was probably to show off the strength of Fuxing City to himself and Hongmeng Ziqi.

At the end of the Golden Road is a door. Of course, in order to demonstrate the strength of Fuxing City, this door is also made of gold.

Bok Joo's hand was already on the door handle, but before opening the door, she cautiously reminded again: "You two, remember not to make any noise after you go in, and follow behind me, okay?"

"Yeah." Bok Joo finally opened the door.

……

The gold mine underground in Fuxing City was much larger than Yi Changle had imagined. The long journey was not in vain as he walked directly to the center of the gold mine.

"Fourth Miss." After the door was pushed open, one could see a yellow-eyed monster standing guard on each side. When they saw Fuzhu push the door open, they bowed to her politely.

"You two go down." Fuzhu blocked the door, blocking Yi Changle and Hongmeng Ziqi tightly, "I'll take a look from above myself."

"Yes." The guards in Fuxing City were all well trained. Even though Fuzhu came late at night, after hearing Fuzhu's instructions, they lowered their heads and quickly retreated without any extra glances.

"Go a little further." Fuzhu introduced with a masterly look, "You can see the whole view of the gold mine from here."

There is no telling how many layers this gold mine has. It is no exaggeration to say that it is bottomless. The top layer only occupies a quarter of the space, but it contains everything you need.

The center is hollow and connected by stairs on all four sides, layer upon layer. The bottom layer is crowded with people digging ore in unified movements, while other layers are transporting gold. Everyone is carrying out their work in an orderly manner, even late at night.

……

"If I'm not mistaken, the people who are mining, transporting ore, and anyone who is working are all ghosts without exception."

The eastern sky gradually turned a faint pale light, and Yi Changle and Hongmeng Ziqi had already returned to their rooms.

Yi Changle was talking excitedly to Kaitian, "I don't know how many layers there are in that gold mine. To exaggerate, it's too numerous to count. The bottom layer is filled with densely packed ghosts. There is no space at all. They are all bent over and chiseling the gold mine. A steady stream of gold is chiseled out, and ghosts immediately take it and transport it to the next level. Just like this, layer after layer, all the ghosts are working in an orderly manner without stopping for a moment."

"When I first saw this scene in the gold mine, a phrase 'Money makes the world go round' flashed through my mind, but at least they paid the money! These people in Fuxing City are completely getting something for nothing! In the end, they skinned the wolves, ate their meat, drank their blood, and even chewed their bones before spitting them out. Even after they died, they left their souls behind to do hard labor." Yi Changle shook his head and sighed, "When cows and horses work, they have to eat, rest, and drink when they are tired, but ghosts don't need to eat or drink when they work, and most importantly, they don't need to rest. They can keep working."

"These monsters in Fuxing City are even more tyrannical than the landlords. This is the first time I've seen such exploitative people."

Kaitian opened his mouth slightly, with an expression of disbelief, "You mean, the yellow-eyed monster not only peeled off the skins of the mortals who entered Fuxing City, but also imprisoned their ghosts, forcing them to mine underground day and night without stopping for a moment?"

“Then they wear the skins of these mortals, go to the human world and eat delicious food. When these mortals’ lives are over, they release their ghosts to reincarnate…” Kaitian couldn’t help but swear, “This is too… too… mean. Yes, too mean!”

"The hearts of these yellow-eyed monsters are stinkier and more disgusting than their mouths!" Kaitian's pity for those skinned mortals reached its peak at this moment.

"They are indeed too evil-minded." Hongmeng Ziqi compared: "When I wanted to destroy the Three Realms, I at least intended to give the creatures of the Three Realms a quick death."

"Are you very proud?" Yi Changle tilted his head and looked at the Hongmeng Purple Qi, "Is it something worth being proud of to want to destroy the Three Realms?"

The one who responded to Yi Changle was the hand of Hongmeng Ziqi that "zipped up" his mouth.

Seeing this, Yi Changle looked at the Hongmeng Purple Qi with some amusement, and then returned to seriousness, "By the way, I have seen the Night Pearl on the way to the gold mine."

"You have seen it!" Kaitian asked excitedly, "When did you see it? Where did you see it?"

"Why are you so excited?"

"Of course I'm excited!" Kaitian said with eyes wide open, very seriously: "If you can remember where you saw the Night Pearl, maybe we have evidence, and we can catch the people behind Fuxing City in one fell swoop."

"I remember where I've seen you before." Yi Changle raised his eyebrows at Kaitian, "Qingqiu."

"Qing...what!" After hearing the place name, Kaitian's eyes widened a little, "What did you say?"

"You heard it right, she was talking about Qingqiu." The zipper on Hongmeng Ziqi's mouth opened again.

“But Qing...Qingqiu, isn’t that your home?” Kaitian couldn’t hide his panic.

"Yes." Yi Changle did not deny it. "When I was young, when I was still a fox cub, I liked to fish in the pond in the back mountain of Qingqiu. However, almost every time I caught a night-shining pearl, because the fishhook was sharp, the night-shining pearls I caught would more or less leave some marks. I also relied on these marks to identify that the night-shining pearls in the gold mine came from Qingqiu."

“The man behind the scenes of Fuxing City, colluding with these stinky yellow-eyed monsters, isn’t it your Nine-tailed Fox Clan!” Kaitian said, carefully glancing at Yi Changle’s face, patting his chest and assuring: “Of course, you are definitely not among them, I believe you!”

"I believe in your parents, too. They look kind and would never think of such a despicable and vicious method." Kaitian thought about it again, and said with certainty, "Yi Changle, there must be a traitor in your Nine-tailed Fox Clan."

"I don't know if there are traitors in our Nine-tailed Fox Clan, but... there must be a traitor in the Celestial Clan. Or maybe..." As he spoke, Yi Changle's eyes became sharper, "The lives of the three realms are closely related. I just hope it hasn't come to that yet."

"I hope we haven't reached that stage yet... to which stage?" Kaitian asked in confusion: "What are you talking about? I don't understand."

"How stupid." Hongmeng Ziqi couldn't help but complain.

Seeing Kaitian’s confused look, he kindly guided him, “Don’t forget, in addition to Qingqiu’s Night Pearl, there is another most important question - how can these yellow-eyed monsters know when the lives of those skinned mortals will end, and how can they send the ghosts to reincarnate on time every time, unless they have a bad fate, but bad fate exists…”

"It exists in the underworld!" Kaitian answered quickly, "So the person behind Fuxing City is..." Hongmeng Ziqi's eyes lit up and encouraged, "Just speak boldly."

"It's the King of Hell!"

The light in Hongmeng Ziqi's eyes went out. "But that's not right." Kaitian asked in confusion, "Where did the King of Hell get the Night Pearl from Qingqiu?"

"Night-shining pearl...Night-shining pearl..." Kaitian blocked out all the sounds from the outside world, immersed in thinking, and finally came to a conclusion, "I know, I bought it! I bought it with gold!"