5 The Young Man (1)

A squeak came out of Xue Yao's mouth again when she attempted to move forward but ended up falling to the ground from the pain that came to her left leg. She twisted her head and looked back at the disgusting looking twig impaled through her flesh.

The stick must've cut her when she jumped from the cliff to the mortal realm. Perhaps because of her low spiritual energy and the fact that she lost consciousness, she wasn't able to prevent it from happening, so the twig automatically pierced through her flesh.

Looking back at it, Xue Yao bent her body more to lick a little at the blood that was spilling out of the wound. As degrading as it made her, she remembered her beginning days as a fox, where grooming and cleaning wounds were all done through licking. If she was stuck in this state now, she would rather lick the wound clean than to get an infection, so it was wiser to go through this degrading act for the benefit of the future.

The more that Xue Yao thought about it, the more frustrated she became. How was she supposed to get rid of the wooden stick? If she just pulled it out of her leg, it would definitely be painful, and she couldn't risk getting any splinters stuck in her flesh. She didn't know how to stop the blood from flowing either, especially if the bleeding would become worse if she pulled the twig out.

A discouraged whine escaped from Xue Yao and she set her head on the floor, burying her face inside the thin piles of yellow leaves.

She hated all of this. Perhaps, though, if she sunk her head in the leaves long enough, Yue Lao would sense her distress from the heavens and come down to help her. At the same time, however, while she thought of this, she hated herself for already needing her teacher's help despite only being down in the mortal realm for less than an hour.

All of a sudden, in the midst of her thoughts, Xue Yao's body tensed up as she felt something wrap around herself, pulling her out of the leaves in swift motions.

Yue Lao?

The name instantly stood out in Xue Yao's thoughts.

Was it Yue Lao? Did he actually sense her hardship and come down to help her?

Excitedly, Xue Yao turned her head backwards to find, instead of the familiar, red-tinged and wrinkled face of Yue Lao, the face of a young man with sculpted but warm features, his eyes looking back into Xue Yao's with worry.

Instantly, upon seeing that it was a stranger, Xue Yao tensed up again, and she began to flail all three of her functioning small paws, scratching at the man's arms to let her down.

Who was this?

Why did he pick her up?

What did he want?

Xue Yao demanded answers, but considering that she was a fox and could not speak until she achieved all nine tails, she could only resort to scratching at the man to force him to let her down.

Yet, instead of letting her down like she had hoped, the young man continued gripping tightly at Xue Yao, raising his eyebrows at her actions. "What are you doing in the woods all alone? And what happened to you leg?"

Mentally, Xue Yao yelled back at him, 'Mortal! What business of yours is it? How dare a lowly, incompetent, pathetic human like you touch this holy fox's body? Do you not fear my wrath?'

Except, as she expected, the mortal could not hear her thoughts at all, continuing with a cheery smile as he gently examined her leg.

"This looks terrible…" he muttered while he bit his bottom lip with concern.

Xue Yao bared her gleaming white teeth back at him, but apparently, that wasn't enough of a threat either.

"Little puppy, stop struggling," the young man whispered, "Your leg is injured… let me do something about it."

'Puppy? Puppy, my a**! I am a celestial immortal! Put me down this instant!'

The man seemed amused by the constant barking that came out from Xue Yao, taking no concern with her warnings. He tore a spare piece of cloth from his sleeve and pressed down hard on Xue Yao's wound, causing her to give a yelp of pain.

"Puppy, don't worry, I'm just trying to stop the blood…"

Xue Yao continued to struggle, flinching at his every touch. She didn't like this mortal at all, touching her body without her permission and not at all listening to her authority. What gave him the guts to do so?

Her eyes traveled down from his face to his sleeves and the exposed skin of his wrist and his hand.

It was against the laws of the Celestial Heavens to harm mortals with spiritual energy… but they never said that she couldn't bite.