[LBD&A] Chapter 45: The Vixen

This chapter is sponsored by Alex Tan.

[Rumble]: Some people had complained about the length of each chapter. Fruits and Veggies agreed to keep it shorter for a quick read.

Some people asked the MC to be older. Fruits and Veggies also wants to have a time slip [fast forward a few years], but with Concubine Xu and the Dark Guild breathing down the Chen Long’s neck, Chen Long did not have the luxury of time without conflicts.

After the Dark Guild arc, there will be a time slip as peace resumes. For now, there are enemies and chaos everywhere and our poor M.C. could not find time to enjoy growing up without being entangled in these conflicts directed at him.

 

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Within 30 minutes, Chen Long and his men had legally cleaned up the casino and move all the chests of gold taels into the cart and made their way back to the East Ward.

 

By the time Concubine Xu arrived at the site of the casino with more men, the place is totally bare. There was no trace of the 300+ men who were supposed to be guarding the casino. Not a single tael of gold remains in the casino’s safe-room. Only a notice posted on the door, stating that the City Lord had confiscated this casino for breaching the edict on Powerball game was all that remained of the former casino.

 

Concubine Xu was enraged! Never had she expected that after General Yang had left the area, he would return again in a short period.
She had tried to strip General Wang of his powers after his ‘failure’ to obey her orders to attack. Naturally, the general would not take this lying down. After all, General Wang loyalty lies with the South Duke and the City, and not her. General Wang pointed out that only the South Duke had the power to remove him from the post of a general and sent her out.

 

The South Duke is a man who is very careful about his power. He only choose to promote men who are absolutely loyal to him to the post of a General. To date, even Concubine Xu could not lure a single general from the South Ward to her side.

 

All she could do is to recruit the captains and sergeants. But a captain has at most 500 troops. This is insufficient to fight against the 5000+ men that General Yang has. Even a captain will not obey her orders if it results in a one-sided massacre on their end. After all, money and women were no good to them if they were dead.

 

When some spies of hers reported that General Yang had returned, and this time, he is attacking her casino, she panicked. Most of her wealth was invested there. She had tried to summon General Wang again to borrow troops to repel General Yang, but General Wang refused to move his men, especially after the way she berated him just now.

 

None of the other generals allowed their men to interfere, especially after they learnt that General Yang has the token of authority of both the South Duke and the City Lord. Even the captains who were bribed by her could not leave the military camp with their men, as their commanding generals controlled the military camp with iron fists.

 

She had no choice but to rely on the borrowing 100 constables from the corrupt court officials. But these corrupted court officials were all about money. Without more money, she could not move the officials.

 

After seeing the empty treasury of the casino, the officials and their constables turned nasty, as they tried to get the money that was promised to them for their help. Concubine Xu’s money was mostly invested heavily in the new casino. Now that it was raided to the last copper, where would she find the money to bribe them for their help?

 

She had no choice but to hand over some of the whorehouses and opium dens that she owns to the corrupted officials.

While she could transform back into demon form and slaughter all these men with ease, there is no guarantee that she would be able to kill all of them. If even one of these constables escaped, the corrupted officials will learn of this treachery and unite together against her. Even the military would be deployed against her. Powerful as she is, she could not take on 10,000+ men by herself.

 

In the South Duke’s palace, Concubine Xu was alone in a massive hall. She glanced around her in fury.

 

In the span of a few hours, a large number of men loyal to her cause and a large portion of her wealth is gone. All she had built up over the years is gone. Even the South Duke had gone to God-knows-where and was not there when she needed him the most. That womanizer is probably with several other women right now.

 

To the South Duke, women are replaceable like toys. Although he had treated her very well, she knew that it was because she currently had his favour. Once he finds a more interesting new toy and she loses his favour, she would be discarded and forgotten, just like his other wives before her.

 

Feelings of hate creeped into her heart. She wants to revert to her demon form and kill and destroy everything. General Yang, Chen Long, and even her husband. She even wanted to destroy the Dark Guild. The Dark Lord had forcefully enslaved her against her will and used her to get the South Ward under his control.

 

She was originally a one-tailed vixen spiritual beast. As a fox type of spiritual beast, she is not evil by nature. One day, while she was out hunting for food, she was captured by a hunter, and sold to the Dark Lord. The Dark Lord began to infuse her with demonic power, and she was able to assume human form. But the demonic power comes at a cost – the power will slowly corrupt and consumes her.

 

The power of fox-type of spiritual beasts depends on the number of tails they have. The more tails they have, the more powerful the spiritual beast. Vixen type spiritual beasts have an additional natural power – they can charm most male humans of a lower level than themselves to do their bidding. They do have some magical powers as well but are weak in physical combat.

 

However, it would be foolish for anyone to underestimate fox spirits just because these creatures are physically weak. Legends spoke of a nine-tailed fox spirt named Daji that charmed King Zhou of Shang and led to the downfall of the Shang dynasty.

 

With the aid of the demonic power, Concubine Xu grew rapidly and became a three tailed demon fox spirit. To suppress the demonic power from consuming her, she needs to feed on the hearts of living humans at least once a week.

 

Although she had human form, she is still a spirit and could not easily move around. All spiritual beasts in human forms still retain their unique aura, and demon hunters or priests could easily detect these auras. All demon hunters, Buddhist Monks and Taoist Priests will seek to destroy her if she carelessly walks around in human form.

 

That was why she found a pretty, charming woman and possessed the woman. With a real woman’s body suppressing her fox aura, it is harder for most priests to detect that she is a demon in a human body. Each week, she would seduce another man other than her husband and feed on his heart.

 

She needs her husband alive so as to control him, at least until all power falls into her hands. She had been rapidly consolidating her powers and building a faction that was loyal only to her.

 

Of course, this would need massive amount of money. Money to bribe powerful officials and men to work for her. Money to recruit troops that were loyal to her and could be used to stage a coup. She had painstaking saved up the money from operating of several business such as gambling dens, whorehouses, and opium dens.

 

But in the span of a few hours, all of these were gone. Her years of hard work to raise money for her clause went down the drain. The effort she spent recruiting men loyal to her was fruitless – most of her men were dead. She had only a few hundred men loyal to her left.

 

When she thought of how she needs to continue to flatter and please the South Duke again while she re-build her power base from the beginning, she was almost in tears. She had no love for the South Duke.

 

Although they were husband and wife, their relationship was more of a mutual interest. He was interested in her beauty. She was interested in using him to get more power. To her, the South Duke is a lecherous and disgusting man. She put up with him only to get what she wants – power. With this power, she can redeem her freedom from the Dark Lord.

 

The Dark Lord is the scariest man she had ever known. She suspected him of being a powerful demon in human skin. His mastery of the dark arts is very fearsome, and using dark magic, he had bounded her to his will. If she tries to resist, dark chains will root her down while the Dark Lord tortures her at his leisure. While she appreciated the increase in power, she resent being controlled by the Dark Lord. But she was powerless to resist his orders. All she ever wanted is to go back to her siblings.

 

Foxes are very social creatures. They prefer to live in packs together. Being alone in the city of men made her feel depressed and longed for the comfort that a pack brings. All she sees around her are the greed and the lust of men. To her, these humans are so foolish. They each only look out for themselves and not for their fellow men. This allowed her to manipulate many court officials freely and build up her own power.

 

Foxes usually prefer to flee than fight. But if cornered, all animals will fight hard for their lives.

 

Today, Chen Long had made a terrible mistake – he had forced her into a corner. If it were just the destruction of the bandit hideout, she would grit her teeth, plan some simple revenge on Chen Long, and patiently rebuild everything. After all, she has the funds to do so. Her new casino is rolling in money, and with money, she can gather more men to fight for her cause.

 

But the act of destroying her source of income and crippling her ability to rebuild her forces had pushed her over the edge. Dark energy begins to swell around her as she raged with hate. Three bushy fox tails appeared behind her, as she absorbed the dark power. A pair of fox ears seemed to reveal itself from on top of her head.

 

With great difficulty, she forced herself to claim down and revert to human form. She collected her mind, and spoke aloud to the empty room. “Dark Assassins, are you there?”

 

There was a shimmer in the air as a large group of men seemed to appear from the shadows. These men are her trump card. Each of these men are very high level assassins gifted to her by the Dark Lord.

 

She also knew that these men also have another purpose. While they seemed to obey her orders, they would also report her actions to the Dark Lord. The Dark Lord do not trust anyone. Not even demons bounded to his will.

 

“Summon the rest of my men! Have all of them gathered here within an hour! Also, inform all the men on the take that we will launch operation madness tonight.”

 

“Understood!” The group of men stepped into the shadows, and seemed to fade from sight as they disappeared.

 

“Since you have forced my hand, do not blame me for being ruthless!” fumed Concubine Xu.

 

[To be continued…]

Next Chapter: The Madness I

Concubine Xu was finally pushed over the edge and summoned all her men. What did she planned to do? Will her plans succeed? Find out in the next chapter – The Madness.

Manners Please

Please remember to thank our sponsors Alex Tan for sponsoring this chapter.

Fruits and Veggies want to say a very big thank you!

 

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