Chapter 63: Yuhwa, the Celestial Fox
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 63: Yuhwa, the Celestial Fox
Those who reach great heights are bound to acquire various epithets, and Yuhwa was no exception.
The Celestial Fox.
The Witch of Fate.
The Master of the Celestial Pavilion.
Each title held its own meaning, but all of them stemmed from Yuhwa’s ability.
The Heavenly Eye (天理眼).
It was said that with the Heavenly Eye, one could gaze upon the heavens and know their principles, look upon the earth and know its ways, and see a person and know their nature.
Yuhwa could perceive many things with her Heavenly Eye, and it was thanks to this power that she had been able to grow her merchant group.
She was, in every sense of the word, a fox who held the will of the heavens.
Recently, however, there was one thing that this very same Yuhwa could not decipher, no matter how hard she stared into her fox orb.
A Gumiho.
A fox yokai that had escaped from the Heavenly Cloud Valley.
While part of her wanted to believe that the Gumiho’s energy appearing in her fox orb was a mere illusion, she found it difficult to ignore.
She had tried to observe the Gumiho, but it was nowhere to be seen. The leaves of the World Tree were obscuring the vision of her Heavenly Eye.
Was her mystical power truly weakening, causing her to see things? Or was she seeing correctly but deluding herself into thinking it was a mistake? With no way to know, she was growing frustrated.
If a Gumiho has truly appeared…
She had to find it as soon as possible.
She had to return it to the Heavenly Cloud Valley while it still had few tails. Otherwise, the world itself would be twisted out of shape.
The problem was, she had no way of finding it. Yuhwa let out a long, worried sigh. Just then, her fox orb lit up. It was a connection signal.
“My lady, this is Hoyeon.”
The voice from the orb belonged to Hoyeon, the administrator of the Celestial Pavilion. Yuhwa cleared her throat with a soft cough and composed her voice.
It sounded exactly like that of a young woman.
“What is it?”
“We have a visitor.”
Yuhwa’s eyes narrowed.
“I believe I told you to make a suitable excuse, as I will not be meeting anyone for the time being.”
“I did send him away, but he insisted I deliver a message… Ah, never mind. I don’t know what’s gotten into me.”
On the other end of the orb, Hoyeon shook his head. It was strange.
Normally, Hoyeon would have dismissed a request from some unknown human without a second thought. To think he was about to relay such nonsense to his master, who was like the heavens to him.
But the moment he heard the man’s request, the option to refuse simply hadn’t occurred to him. As if hypnotized, he had found himself reporting to Yuhwa.
Hoyeon would never know that Karami’s plausible bullshit, derived from his [Master of Negotiation] skill, had wormed its way into his mind.
“My apologies, my lady. I will take my leave.”
“Wait.”
Yuhwa stopped Hoyeon just as he was about to sever the connection.
There was a saying.
There were two things in the world she hated most. One was someone stopping an explanation midway, and the second was…
“If you start saying something, finish it. What was the message he wanted you to deliver?”
“It’s truly nothing but nonsense… He said… that a Gumiho had come to see you…”
“A Gumiho?”
Yuhwa’s eyes flashed.
Her mind was already consumed with thoughts of the Gumiho, and now, with such impeccable timing, one had come to visit?
“But it wasn’t a Gumiho. It only had three tails.”
Yuhwa’s pupils trembled.
Three tails already?
“Where is he…”
“Pardon?”
“Those two, where are they now?!”
Yuhwa’s roar erupted from the other side of the orb.
Hoyeon, who had served her for a long time, had never seen her so agitated. In a voice snapped to attention, he replied.
“Ah, I sent them away just a moment ago!”
“Bring them back this instant!”
*
“Huff, huff… My apologies. The master… wishes to see you.”
Hoyeon guided Karami’s party, his voice ragged.
In truth, Karami had anticipated being called back and had been waiting just outside the building. Thanks to that, Hoyeon found them quickly and without much effort.
However, the shadow on Hoyeon’s face was there for a reason. It wasn’t physical exhaustion, but psychological.
His superior—the ever-composed Yuhwa—had shown a sense of urgency. It made Hoyeon’s own heart pound in his chest.
“Just follow this corridor straight to the end.”
The place where Hoyeon stopped his guidance was not a room, but a corridor.
Yuhwa, the master of the Celestial Pavilion, was a person shrouded in veils. Some eyewitnesses claimed she was a wrinkled old woman, while others insisted she was a beautiful lady.
Even Hoyeon, her administrator, had never seen her face clearly.
When they needed to speak, they used the orb Yuhwa had given him, and whenever she went out, she always wore a veil.
The veil never budged, even in the wind, and on the rare occasion one might catch a glimpse of her face, a hazy cloud would obscure her features.
Thus, even if one wanted to see her, it was impossible.
“Thank you for your guidance.”
“Hah… It’s nothing. Please, enjoy your time.”
Hoyeon, his face etched with fatigue, muttered that it was a strange day and departed.
Karami took Rin’s hand and started walking down the corridor.
The sensation of walking through the hallway was bizarre.
The building was large, but it felt like they were walking on an endless staircase. They walked and walked, but the end never came. Even after turning a corner, looking back revealed only a straight corridor stretching out behind them.
It was a space that defied the laws of the world.
An enchantment cast by Yuhwa.
Honestly, what a pointless trick.
Just as Rin was starting to get annoyed, she let out a piercing scream.
“Rin doesn’t like it heeeere!”
Rin’s shout echoed thunderously.
Crack!
With a sound like shattering glass, the magical veil surrounding the corridor fractured. The endlessly repeating hallway warped, and a large sliding door appeared before them.
“Well done.”
“Hmph!”
Karami gave Rin’s head a few pats as she puffed out her chest, then he opened the door.
Whoosh.
A cool breeze swept over them.
Before their eyes unfolded a world of white and blue.
Beneath their feet, an endless expanse of pure white clouds stretched out, while the sky above was a clear, brilliant azure. There were clouds in that sky as well, and another sky above them.
It was a world above the clouds, floating in the firmament.
It was the heavens.
“Mastah! I opened the door and it’s the sky!”
“So it is. It’s just like a celestial realm.”
Looking back, only the door they had come through stood there, isolated, with no sign of the building’s walls.
This, too, was a separate space created by Yuhwa’s magic.
“I have been waiting for you.”
A graceful, beautiful voice descended from the sky.
The faintly shimmering clouds in the blue expanse slowly parted, and a ray of white light shone down from the gap.
Mist spread out like a fog machine on a stage. Descending through the gentle light was a pure white fox.
Her white tails, like the wings of a celestial maiden, swayed gently, and her elegant silk robes rippled in the air like waves.
Yuhwa descended gracefully, hovering in the air for a moment as if her toes might or might not touch the ground.
Tap.
She landed as lightly as a feather.
What a fucking entrance.
That was Karami’s crass impression upon witnessing the awe-inspiring sight.
“Are you the guests Hoyeon spoke of?”
“We are.”
“A pleasure to meet you. I am Yuhwa, the master of the Celestial Pavilion.”
She had a sacred aura that made one hesitant to speak carelessly. Her beauty seemed to be not of this mortal world.
One wrong move and it felt like the fox would bewitch you, slice open your belly, and pull out your liver. But Karami’s expression remained indifferent.
This old granny is using her shapeshifting again.
A grandmother who had lived for a thousand years but still cosplayed as a beautiful young girl, unable to act her age.
She was like a Vtuber who was a pretty girl on the outside but a middle-aged man on the inside. To Karami, who had swallowed the red pill by the drumful, she was nothing more than a silly old woman.
“Fox Gwanny!”
“Gwanny…?”
Yuhwa gazed down at Rin, who was trotting toward her.
Pink fur.
Three tails.
Outwardly, she was a three-tailed fox, but Yuhwa’s Heavenly Eye could not be deceived. Within the child, six powerful energies lay dormant, writhing.
She was unmistakably a Gumiho.
And then there was Karami, who had come with her. The blessing of the World Tree flowed around him. The one she had mistaken for an elf was him.
She didn’t know why the World Tree had bestowed its blessing upon him, but thanks to this revelation, the suffocating feeling in her chest vanished.
Her mystical powers hadn't been weakening after all.
“For what reason have you come to see me?”
“Sorry, but I really can’t stand it. Can you please drop the shapeshifting?”
“How did you…”
There were not many in the world who could see through Yuhwa’s shapeshifting.
Yuhwa narrowed her Heavenly Eye, glaring at Karami. He simply shrugged.
Once its true nature is exposed, a shapeshifting spell loses much of its power. Yuhwa sighed and released her magic.
Wrinkles formed on her flawless skin, and her back stooped. The beautiful woman was gone, leaving only the figure of an old grandmother.
“Is this better?”
“Phew, now I can breathe.”
“Hmm, and I thought it was quite cute.”
“Ugh…”
Seeing the genuinely disgusted look on Karami’s face as he feigned a gag, she decided to drop the joke.
“How did you know?”
“I’m a slave trader. I’m confident in my ability to read people.”
He could see through her shapeshifting for such a simple reason?
This is no ordinary human.
Her wariness toward Karami rose by two levels.
“It seems you know more than I thought. That must be why you sought me out.”
Bringing a Gumiho with him was proof enough.
“I will take responsibility for this child and return her to the White Cloud Valley. I will also remind the Fox Clan of the valley of their duties. You have done well.”
Yuhwa reached a hand out toward Rin.
Ducking away from her touch, Rin scurried over to Karami and clung to him.
“Hm?”
Yuhwa’s hand grasped at empty air.
Hugging Karami’s leg, Rin glared at Yuhwa.
“I’m sorry, but this child is my slave.”
“What did you say?”
“Rin is Mastah’s slave!”
“Rin…?”
Indeed, she could see a firm bond between the two.
Don’t tell me he gave a name to a Gumiho and even formed a master-servant contract? Does such a madman truly exist?
“I went through so much trouble to bring this child here, and you want to send her back? I can’t allow that.”
“What on earth are you talking about?! She already has three tails. If she grows any more, many people will be endangered.”
“I don’t know about that, but I plan to raise Rin until she becomes a Gumiho. That’s why I came to seek the Celestial Fox’s help.”
His words were clearly sincere.
He fully intended to raise Rin into a Gumiho.
In that instant, Yuhwa’s Heavenly Eye began to see.
A pitch-black light enveloping Karami.
The Mandate of Heaven bestowed upon him.
Yuhwa knew what that light signified.
“You are fated to die soon.”
A fate to die, shouldering all the misfortune of the Gumiho.