Chapter 16 I want to eat mochi cake

  Upon hearing me say that, the woman tilted her head slightly and narrowed her bright eyes, asking:

  "Those three people aren't dead, right?"

  The girl's words made my heart skip a beat. An idea suddenly appeared in my mind.

  "What does it mean?" I asked.

  The woman said slowly in a hazy and ethereal tone, like smoke being blown out:

  "You're still too young. Wang Yisheng."

  After finishing speaking, the woman gently lifted her head, gazing at the pitch-black top of the cave, and sighed softly, saying:

  "Wang Yisheng, you tell me, why do big rivers have many tributaries and big trees have many branches?" She said with a hint of playfulness as she looked at me.

  The woman suddenly asked me this question, which left me somewhat bewildered. However, since she had asked, I furrowed my brow and pondered, trying to come up with a suitable answer. But before I could think of one, the woman answered her own question:

  "It's because it's big."

  The girl's words suddenly enlightened me, and I immediately understood what she meant.

  "You're saying... it's because I'm still not strong enough myself, and my Tao is not sufficient?"

  The girl closed her eyes and no longer looked at me, but instead said faintly:

  "That's what I mean. You're using 'Hook Soul Technique' or you can say 'Spiritual Speech Technique', same meaning. You're just an ordinary person, no cultivation, at most relying on the Spiritual Yuan Golden Elixir to control three people. When you've built your foundation and reached the first level of boundary, you'll be able to control nine people. And when you reach enlightenment, you can control ninety-nine people. As for reaching fusion and heart movement, you'll be able to control nine hundred and ninety-nine people, nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine people..."

  The woman spoke in a soft and mysterious voice, and as she spoke, I finally understood. It turned out that this thing was like practicing martial arts or cultivating immortality, and it actually had a hierarchical ranking system.

  That is to say, I am still a beginner now and have not even reached the first level, so I can only control three people. When I reach the first level, I will be able to control nine people, when I reach the second level, I will be able to control ninety-nine people...and so on, basically ten people, hundred people, thousand people, ten thousand people...and keep going like this.

  As I came back to myself from the shock, my heart was racing. Looking at the woman in front of me, I said in a low voice:

  "How to cultivate? Don't say it's like Wang Chongyang and other Taoists who hide in the deep mountains and forests for decades?"

  "That's the Taoist way." The woman opened her bright eyes and looked at me, "We are not."

  "Us? And what are you?"

  "Wang Yisheng, don't you understand yet? From the moment you obtained the Lingyuan Golden Elixir, you've been just like me. Neither of us is human anymore." The woman's words were spoken lightly, but each one was like a boulder crashing into my heart, stirring up massive waves within me.

  "What does it mean?" I stared at the woman in front of me with some astonishment, as if seeing her for the first time.

  "What kind of person would be locked up in such a dark underground place, chained and sealed with a demon-suppressing talisman?" the woman asked me back in a cold voice.

  Demon-quelling charm? Looking at the six tails behind the woman's back, I finally understood.

  Although, I actually understood it long ago.

  "So you...are a demon now?"

  "Don't use that word." The woman seemed to abhor this word. As soon as I uttered it, she stopped me, "That's what fools say."

  I narrowed my eyes. Although this woman told me to shut up, I really understood that this woman was not in the category of normal people. She was not an ordinary person.

  Those six fox tails of hers already prove that she is different from us.

  "What are you then? Why are you locked up here? You didn't harm anyone, did you?" I asked.

  The girl stared at me, without saying a word, but in her eyes, there was a flash of sadness and helplessness.

  She is a woman with stories. You can tell from her eyes.

  But she obviously didn't want to tell me her story.

  "Never mind, what kind of evil thing it is, I won't ask so much." Seeing the woman unwilling to answer, I waved my hand and gave up. "What's your name? Name, alias, or Taoist name, you must have a title?"

  "I forgot." The woman replied to me in a cold voice when I asked her name, but from the look in her eyes, I knew she didn't want to tell me. "Hu Xian. You can call me that."

  “Hú xiān?” I muttered the word to myself twice, Hú xiān, which means fox spirit, right? At least I didn't know what the difference was between hú xiān and hú lí jīng. How could it be that this kind of thing only existed in novels like "Liaozhai's Records of the Strange"? This woman suddenly said her name was Hú Xiān. And from her identity as a non-human, she might really be the legendary female demon who could transform into a beauty and seduce scholars on their way to the capital for the imperial examination.

  So... in this world, there really are such things as monsters?

  In an instant, my worldview had a kind of collapse impulse.

  I have always been a materialist. But now, such a strange woman has appeared before my eyes, how can I not accept it?

  From a scientific perspective, I think the so-called fox spirit should be an existence with genes different from normal humans, but how to explain things like magic and spells scientifically?

  I wove a concept that I could accept in my mind: the so-called hypnosis should be something similar to computer viruses, each person's brain is a computer, and hypnosis is turning one's own thoughts into something like an embedded virus implanted in other people's brains, thereby seizing control of their bodies. And the medium for spreading this virus should be human eyes.

  Thinking of this, I felt slightly more at ease in my heart.

  "Alright." I thought for a moment and then said in a calm tone, "Then I'll just assume your surname is Hu and your first name is Xian. Are there many people like you in the world? What I mean is, people who possess some special skills, such as your 'Soul Hook Technique'?"

  "Probably." Hu Xian said lightly. Obviously, she didn't want to answer my question again. This woman was full of mysteries, and I couldn't see through her at all.

  "If I want to build a foundation, how should I cultivate?"

  "Cross tribulation." The Fox Immortal replied in a voice devoid of emotion, "This is our cultivation method."

  "Crossing what tribulation?"

  At this point, the Fox Fairy slowly shook her head and said: "You will know. Wang Yisheng, actually, from the moment you obtained my Lingyuan Golden Elixir, you have already been crossing your tribulation. Your life path is destined to be bumpy."

  As for how to cultivate, Hu Xian gave me another obscure concept, leaving me bewildered.

  "I'm still not quite sure. Anyway... now I've already controlled three people, so it's no use using your 'soul hook technique' anymore, right?" I asked. I counted them up: Old Liu, Zhou Qin and that female director, adding up to a total of three people.

  "Not really. There is a way." The fox fairy said faintly.

  My heart lit up and I asked:

  "What's the solution?"

  The fox spirit slightly lowered her head and said: "You can withdraw the spell from the person's body. Then... you can use 'soul hooking technique' on others. However, for now, you can only cast it on three people at most. Three living people."

  It was as if I had been possessed by an evil spirit, and I asked eagerly:

  "How can I do it?" My tone was extremely excited, and this was the answer I had been waiting for. As long as I have a way to get in touch with others' hypnotic techniques, I can use them countless times!

  Facing my answer, the fox fairy's eyes fixed, and her black eyes, like dots of ink, showed no emotional leakage. Her bright pupils seemed like two deep wells.

  I quietly waited for Hu Xian's reply, perked up my ears, and my mood fluctuated.

  But what I didn't expect was that Hu Xian actually opened her lips and said something even more shocking:

  I want to eat mochi.