The Little Fox's Immortal Cultivation Encyclopedia

A round dog's head blocked Duan Mianli's palm, and the yellow dog licked his hand affectionately, its eyes full of innocence and affection.

Duan Mianli remained expressionless, turned his palm over, rubbed it against the dog's head a few times, wiped the saliva off his palm with the dog's fur, and then called over a constable: "Take this dog and its food bowl away as well."

The yellow dog's expression visibly froze. It glanced sharply at the top of the wall, but it was empty; the fox had vanished without a trace.

Its dark eyes darted around uneasily. It suddenly darted back to the edge of its den, followed the rope that tethered it to the stake, picked up the end of the rope, and deftly swung its head a few times, causing the rope to slip silently down.

The yellow dog moved with lightning speed, brushing past the yamen runner's outstretched hand, and dashed out of the courtyard without looking back.

The constable maintained his outstretched hand gesture and exchanged a glance with Duan Mianli.

"Hurry up and chase after them!"

……

The fox and the tits slipped back to the Pu family's house, where the woodcutter was still lying on his back in the courtyard, fast asleep.

"Wake up, get up!" The tits chirped noisily again. "The sun is about to set, and he's still dreaming! Wake him up, wake him up!"

"dream?"

"Dreams are illusions experienced while asleep. They are formed by the mind and spirit, or are caused by emotions, or by thoughts, or are signs of celestial omens, or are signs of fortune or misfortune."

"An illusion?" A thought struck the fox. According to the voice, the fox had also dreamed, mostly about chasing rabbits, and occasionally glimpsing its own cubs. Since dreams are illusions, could the fox directly enter people's dreams and witness their experiences firsthand?

A novel idea popped into the fox's head, and he decided to give it a try.

"Stop making noise!" It pushed aside the flock of sparrows, its fiery red tail stretching and bending, tucking all the troublesome sparrows into its downy feathers. "The fox has thought of a solution. Let the fox handle this."

The cool fragrance slowly spread, and the sparrows quieted down. Their consciousness was drawn in by the fox, and they entered Pu Shunnian's dreamland together.

In my dream, the sky was bright.

"Wow, what a big peach!" Pu Caiyu's eyes sparkled, revealing two small tiger teeth as she excitedly looked at the peach in Granny Li's hand.

The peach, as big as his head, was placed on the table in the courtyard, looking more like white jade than a peach.

The old woman opposite him had graying temples, her hair loosely tied in a bun and secured with an old wooden hairpin. Her eyes were bright and gentle, and her lips held a smile.

Pu Shun, having just bought the jade pendant, calmed him down and turned to Granny Li, saying, "Brother Li, you truly have a heart full of filial piety. I've heard that the county magistrate sends people every year to collect the peaches from that ancient peach tree, exclusively for the nobles in the city. We farmers might never be able to eat even one in our entire lives."

"Thanks to Grandma," Caiyu said, bowing respectfully to Granny Li, which made her laugh.

"Why are you children being so formal? We're all family, why speak like strangers?" Granny Li cut the jade peach in half and distributed it to everyone.

Caiyu smiled broadly, sipping a peach. When her mother-in-law and father weren't looking, she deliberately let a small piece of fruit slip out of her mouth and landed directly in the mouth of the yellow dog that had been waiting under the table.

"Squeak, squeak." A bird's chirping suddenly came from nowhere. Pu Shunnian subconsciously looked up and saw that a row of sparrows had been standing on the eaves of his house, all staring at him.

……

"Brother Pu, Brother Pu?" Pu Shunnian came to his senses and met a concerned gaze.

The man in front of him was dressed in a blue robe, with clear and gentle features, and looked at him with concern.

"I just rarely come to the county town, so I got overwhelmed by the sights. It's nothing serious. By the way, where's Aunt Li?"

The man in the blue robe took out a sachet and smiled, "I've cultivated some new flowers and plants in my shop and made some sachets and pouches. Lately, there have been many customers, and my mother, who can't stay idle, insists on working with the other shop assistants."

"Li Lang's business is getting bigger and bigger, and he's getting younger and younger," Pu Shunnian said with a smile. "Compared to me, a country bumpkin, he's practically a generation younger."

Li Lang handed the sachet to Pu Shunnian: "Being around flowers and plants naturally makes you look younger. This is for you, Brother Pu. Wear it close to your body, and it will be effective."

Pu Shunnian looked at the sachet, a sudden impulse rising within him. He stared at Li Lang and asked, word by word, "When was the last time we met?"

"Four years ago, on my mother's fiftieth birthday, did you forget, Brother Pu?"

Click.

The conversation abruptly stopped, and the scene and figures shrank together, eventually turning into a point of light that pierced into a pair of amber eyes.

"The first dream was found by the fox in his mind, but what about the second dream?" The fox pondered to himself, but couldn't figure it out, so he decided to put it aside for now.

It released the sparrows, its fiery red tail swaying from one end to the other, looking quite pleased with itself.

"The fox is amazing..." Before he could finish speaking, the tits chimed in one after another:

"See, I told you the little man doesn't have a beard."

"Yes, yes, and its appearance doesn't match the fox's description at all."

"Fox, those peaches look delicious. We've found the person, could you get us some?"

"Hey fox, what are you trying to say?"

"Stop talking, everyone. The fox looks unhappy. Go find someone quickly."

The sun sank below the ridge of Qingtao Mountain, and wisps of smoke rose from the village. Birds chattered noisily, flapping their wings and darting through the smoke. The fox fell silent, its tail drooping limply.

The chirping of the tits was scattered by the wind, and the last trace of their feathers melted into the twilight. Unlike in the mountains, the evening breeze here carried a fiery chill. The fox twitched its nose and looked at the house next door.

Inside the kitchen, the man brought some firewood and ignition materials from the woodshed and stuffed them into the ignition port under the stove. He held the stove side with his left hand and gripped the bellows lever with his right, pulling it up at a steady pace.

"Whoosh, whoosh."

The fire gradually grew, and the man set up an iron pot, laying a bamboo tray on top, with washed leaves on the tray. His wife brought over a bowl of dough, rolled it into thin, round pancakes, and placed them one by one.

A child with pigtails sticking up into the room crawled in and circled the stove, occasionally tiptoeing closer to the pot lid to see if the pancakes were cooked.

After the woman patted the child away for the third time, the aroma of wheat gradually intensified. She lifted the lid of the pot, and steam billowed out. The fox could feel the heat on its face. The steamed cakes in the steamer had puffed up and turned a light yellow color.

The woman picked out the steamed buns, placed them on a rough porcelain plate, and handed them to the child: "Go, take these to your Uncle Pu first. There's still no sign of him at this hour; he's probably forgotten to eat again."

The child took the plate, focused intently on his feet, and walked steadily until he was almost at the Pu family's gate before looking up and calling out, "Uncle Pu—"

The fox watched quietly, a strange emotion welling up inside it. It seemed to understand something, yet it also seemed to understand nothing at all. But at least, it suddenly understood why Pu Shunnian was the way he was.

Humans, in reality, are not much different from foxes.

The little one pushed open the courtyard gate, stared at the man lying on the ground, stammered a few words, then burst into tears, crying out, "Mother, Father, Uncle Pu is dead!"

He looked up through his teary eyes and caught sight of the fox curled up on the wall. He cried even louder, "And...and there's also a big-tailed dog demon!"

"The fox is wrong, humans and foxes are worlds apart!" the fox said angrily.