Chapter 25: Today, I, Dongfang Jibai, Would Rather Die Than Surrender

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The Thread-the-Sky Gorge was just ahead.

Dongfang Jibai slowed his horse and pretended to be gravely wounded. He swayed precariously in the saddle, using his spear to prop himself up.

“After him! Dongfang Jibai is wounded! Capture him alive and trade him to the Great Zhou emperor for cities, official rank, and wealth!”

The Northern Di soldiers shouted at the tops of their voices, their cries echoing through the valley.

A smile touched Dongfang Jibai’s lips. He had not even released the fireworks signal, yet the Northern Di had sent up one of their own.

They had reached a dead end. There was nowhere left to go ahead, while ten thousand Northern Di soldiers blocked the way behind.

He had entered the trap himself, luring the Northern Di army here.

If… if he died, the little fox would not survive either.

He could not die.

Dongfang Jibai tightened his hold around the little fox in his arms. “Are you afraid?”

The cold wind atop the mountain swept across his bloodstained face, yet his eyes burned with a searing light.

Ji Ci suddenly understood the words he had left unspoken—

He intended to win this game of chess.

Ji Ci shook her head vigorously, her fluffy tail smacking loudly from side to side. What did she have to fear? Even if the sky collapsed, she could use it as a quilt!

Dongfang Jibai leveled his spear. His black armor was stained with blood as he stood at the edge of the cliff, his voice cold and sharp as a blade.

“Today, I, Dongfang Jibai, would rather die than surrender! Do not dream of using my life to threaten Great Zhou!”

The instant his words fell, he leaped from the cliff.

“General!”

Deputy General Sun’s roar resounded through the valley.

At nearly the same moment, a thunderous explosion erupted from the mountaintop.

Boulders came crashing down, burning oil poured from above, and the Thread-the-Sky Gorge became a blazing hell in an instant.

The Northern Di soldiers’ screams echoed through the narrow ravine like the wails of demons.

Meanwhile, Dongfang Jibai was plummeting rapidly.

Ji Ci clawed frantically at the air, wishing she could speak like a human right then and there. Falling from this height would leave her black and blue all over!

No, no—not black and blue. She would be smashed into pieces!

She would become a fox meat pancake!

“Don’t be afraid.”

Dongfang Jibai shielded her with one hand. With the other, he suddenly drew a dagger and drove it fiercely into the cliff face.

Scrape!

The blade gouged a shower of dazzling sparks from the stone, sharply slowing their descent.

The muscles in Dongfang Jibai’s arm tensed to their limit, veins bulging across his skin.

Seizing the opportunity, Ji Ci sprang away and nimbly leaped into a nearby cave, where she bit down on a thick vine and dragged it back.

Dongfang Jibai seized the vine and used it to pull himself upward. His body soared into the air before crashing heavily into the cave. He immediately let out a muffled groan, a thread of blood trickling from the corner of his lips.

Only then did Ji Ci realize that five feathered arrows were lodged in his back.

They had pierced deep into his body, nearly breaking through his chest.

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Why was he wounded?

There was no way to pull the arrows out now. What should she do? What should she do?

She spun in frantic circles, her claws unconsciously scratching several marks into the ground.

“I’m fine.”

Dongfang Jibai gave a low laugh instead. With his bloodstained hand, he took a packet of hemostatic powder from his robes and held it out to Ji Ci.

“Use this.”

Ji Ci froze. Then she smacked herself hard on the forehead with a paw.

I’m such an idiot! Don’t I have a healing ability? I was so worried that I forgot!

She rushed to Dongfang Jibai and pressed her little paws against his wounds.

Just as she was about to activate her power, the system suddenly issued a warning.

[Master, pull out the arrows first. Otherwise, once the wounds heal, the arrows will grow into the flesh.]

Then let me take human form!

Ji Ci was so anxious that her fur stood on end.

[Electrical punishment: three minutes.]

Ji Ci gritted her teeth and rose upright on her hind legs, looking remarkably like the yellow weasel from folk legends who begged humans to grant it a title.

Go ahead and strike!

Crackle!

Electricity surged through her body. Every strand of fur stood straight up as Ji Ci writhed and convulsed wildly on the ground in agony.

System, I hope you rot! Aaah! You bastard!

Dongfang Jibai clenched his fists so tightly that his fingernails sank into his palms. He had miscalculated this time—but if he had not entered the trap himself, how could he have exposed the traitor within the army? How could he have lulled the imperial family into lowering their guard?

…It was only she who had suffered for it.

The moment the flashes of electricity faded, a naked young woman appeared out of thin air inside the cave.

Ji Ci collapsed limply onto the ground.

Neither of them was in any condition to boast about.

Dongfang Jibai reached out to help Ji Ci, but before he could even crawl over to her, he fainted first.

The last thing he saw before losing consciousness was her staggering figure crawling toward him…

When Dongfang Jibai awoke again, his wounds had already healed. Not even a scar remained.

He was lying on the large bed he had bought.

That absurd three-meter-by-two-meter bed!

Ji Ci lay curled up beside him, sound asleep.

Looking down at the clothes on his body, Dongfang Jibai smiled. The little fox had even brought him clothes.

She had him in her heart.

At that moment, Ji Ci suddenly opened her eyes and sat bolt upright, fixing him with a burning stare.

“How much do you know, exactly?”

Dongfang Jibai’s heart gave a sudden jolt, but his face lit up with delight.

“Miss Ji, you have saved me yet again. I can never repay such a great kindness. I suppose I have no choice but to offer myself to you.”

Ji Ci placed a hand against his chest.

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“Stop pretending to be foolish. Tell me—how much do you know about me?”

When Ji Ci had been changing Dongfang Jibai’s clothes, she had seen her hair ribbon and the fox fur she had shed inside the purse at his waist.

If Dongfang Jibai truly knew nothing about her, he would never have kept those two things together so close to his body.

She had been too focused on completing her missions before, but the more she thought about it now, the stranger it seemed. Why had Dongfang Jibai always managed to appear precisely whenever she took human form?

“Ah Ci.”

Dongfang Jibai began his act of coy pleading once again, edging toward her with an aggrieved expression.

“Don’t come any closer. Tell me—when did you discover my identity?”

Ji Ci frowned.

She had expected her disguise to be exposed eventually, but she had never imagined it would happen so quickly!

What had she hidden herself for all this time?

To put on an animal performance for Dongfang Jibai?

Seriously?

Had he been treating her like a fool and playing her for a horse?

“I knew the day you staged that fall in front of me.”

Dongfang Jibai’s voice grew quieter and quieter. He still had not told her the truth. In fact, he had known from the very first time she took human form.

Ji Ci’s eyes widened.

He had seen through her the first time they met?!

Then what had she endured all that disguising for?

Was she a clown?

“How did you know?”

“Intuition.”

The tips of Dongfang Jibai’s ears reddened.

“Besides…”

He suddenly lifted his eyes, his gaze scorching.

“I have never been interested in women. Yet from the very first moment I saw you, I wanted to draw near.”

“I guessed that you were a fox spirit. Since you wished to keep it hidden from me, I naturally pretended not to know.”

Ji Ci wilted completely and fell back onto the bed.

So all those times she had transformed into a human and run outside, Bai Yi had provided her with clothes—not because she had hidden herself well, but because Dongfang Jibai had arranged everything perfectly.

She flopped heavily onto the bed and sighed.

“Fine. I’ll tell you the truth. Actually, I am…”

Dongfang Jibai had no intention of hearing anything about the system. He lowered his head and sealed Ji Ci’s chattering lips with a kiss.

The kiss was gentle yet domineering, carrying the scent of blood and his own distinctive cool fragrance.

Ji Ci froze for a moment, allowing his fingertips to slide into her hair.

“As long as it is you, I am willing to believe in you, whatever you may be.”

Dongfang Jibai’s voice was filled with restraint and suppressed longing.

This was the first time he had kissed Ji Ci while fully conscious.

Ji Ci did not resist. Dongfang Jibai’s movements grew bolder as he stripped away her clothes and buried his face against her neck.

“I will not ask where you came from. I ask only that you trust me. In this life, I, Dongfang Jibai, would rather betray the world than betray you.”

With that, he raised three fingers and swore an oath.

“If I break this vow, may the entire Dongfang clan become extinct. May I willingly become the princess’s kept captive, be tormented day after day, suffer every humiliation, and die without peace.”

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