Master of Ten Thousand Foxes-Chapter 206 - 136: The Mask That Refuses to Be Seen, the Tainted Flame That Cannot Be Purged

On the small hill, a dense group of foxes looked down towards the distant swamp riverbank.

Each one had a solemn expression, with eyes wide open.

Vaguely, one could see a few bronze houses over there, indeed emitting a faint black smoke.

"Ying ying ying."

"Ow ow ow."

"Ying ying ying."

Normally, they would have already run away in fear.

But at this moment, they were completely unafraid, even patting their full round bellies, licking cumin and sesame seeds off the corners of their mouths.

Because... Master has arrived.

...

Bai Mo walked alone towards the swamp riverbank.

On one hand, fearing that other disciples might make noise and scare that thing away.

On the other hand...

"Could this thing be the Immortal Artifact left by Marquis Qing Yue?

"If it needs capturing, might make noise, better not affect the disciples."

Thinking this, he stepped on the soft muddy ground, his whole body wrapped in a thin layer of emerald green Pill Fire, shading all breath, taking one step at a time forward.

His Pill Fire merged with Divine Sense as one, now exhibiting terrifying application techniques. Clearly, it was Pill Fire, but it was as soft as water, covering completely on the surface of his body, occasionally gently rippling, blocking his breathing emissions, dispelling the subtle sounds of his actions.

At this moment, his emerald green figure on the swamp riverbank, on the muddy ground, was extremely peculiar... could only be seen, but not heard, not smelled. Even when eyes saw his figure, they felt he shouldn't be here, the brain subconsciously ignored him, thinking he didn't exist.

"Like this, can I fool the Immortal Artifact?"

Bai Mo wasn't sure, but still stepped forward.

He didn't dare use Divine Sense, only using eyes to see and ears to listen.

Saw that in a row of bronze small houses, the fifth one was gently vibrating.

Suddenly!

The seventh one also started vibrating, and even smoked faint black smoke from the crevices.

Bai Mo silently moved towards the seventh small house, watched its vibration, the emerging black smoke, then extended his right hand, slowly reaching towards the small house.

...

On the distant small hill, fox disciples shaded their eyes with front paws, looking towards the riverbank.

"Ow ow ow."

"Ying ying ying."

They all subconsciously held their breath, not making a sound.

Master is about to make a move!

...

Bai Mo's right hand, quietly, with the color of Pill Fire deepening, becoming dark green!

It looked like a layer of Glaze Gloves!

But when his hand touched the bronze small house, it directly cut into it like slicing tofu!

Chichi...

The moment's sound, already alerted the Immortal Artifact!

But, in this instant, Bai Mo's hand already seized the Immortal Artifact, already extracted it from within the bronze small house!

"Ah?"

The Pill Fire on Bai Mo rolled back instantly, surged to his right hand holding the Immortal Artifact, condensed into dark green Glaze Gloves, forming a defense.

In another look at the seized Immortal Artifact, it was shockingly a mask, a bronze mask!

The mask's contours were simple, ancient and dignified, looking at the eyebrows, eyes, and features, seemed to be crying.

The right side of the mask was burning with black flames.

The black fire wasn't fierce, the flame lightly flickered, with blurred outlines, making one feel filthy and dirty, indistinguishable whether it was smoke or fire.

Bai Mo glanced at the flame, momentarily dazed, feeling deep revulsion!

This was strange black oil, somehow ignited, forming flames!

"Has the mask been polluted by black oil... or say... black flames?"

Whoosh...

In an instant, this filthy black flame rapidly crawled along the mask, trying to stick to Bai Mo's hand!

Whoosh!

Bai Mo's Glaze Gloves rolled back again, forming large masses of emerald flames, wrapping the mask and the black flames contaminated on the mask inside, letting them float, isolated from the outside.

"Does this make it safe now?"

Bai Mo breathed a sigh of relief.

Looking again at the bronze mask, its expression actually changed, from crying to laughing.

Seems being sealed up, floating in Pill Fire isolated from the world, instead made it happy.

"Oh?"

Bai Mo suddenly understood, perhaps the reason the mask hid from and avoided people was fearing others might be contaminated by this black flame?

The mask, wanting to endure the scorching and pollution of the black flame alone?

Now sealed, isolated from the outside, the black flame unable to pollute further, it laughed?

"Really the Immortal Artifact left by Marquis Qing Yue?

"Among Ancient Immortals, is there such an existence with integrity?

"How incongruous."

Bai Mo was just in a daze when he heard the cheers of the fox disciples quickly arriving from distant to near.

"Ow ow ow!"

"Ying ying ying!"

"Ying ying ying!"

A group of disciples ran forward, circled around Master dancing, swinging heads, waving front paws, and wagging tails.

This time Master subdued the Immortal Artifact, such commotion, what does that imply?

Implying the Immortal Artifact must be a fierce character!

Fox Mountain has become stronger again!

...

Night deepened, and the wild wind howled.

After finishing a day's work and enjoying a delicious dinner, the foxes gathered in the dormitory, piling into a small hill beside their master, each holding freshly popped popcorn, gazing at the scene in mid-air.

They were all focused, munching popcorn with crunching sounds while discussing with whimsical fox cries.

The scene in mid-air was the West Ridge Small Volcano, where a group of engineers and construction workers were building the military factory on Fox Mountain... The foxes had simple thoughts; since Fox Mountain retained the lava, it obviously had a stake in the military factory. At the very least, Fox Mountain counted as the major shareholder, which was not excessive.

At the moment, ten thousand and one shareholders munched popcorn, remotely inspecting the factory district's construction.

Within the scene, the factory construction was largely complete, with a group of busy engineers rushing inside and outside, holding notebooks, conducting machine tests.

Tie Shiba stood at the main control room's door, his face full of spring breeze, occasionally shouting a remark.

"Everyone, move quickly!

"Test well!

"The bronze alloy billets are in place.

"Personnel allocation is complete.

"Once we finish testing, production can start."

...

At Fox Mountain, in the dormitory's grand hall, the foxes grinned, baring sharp teeth, smiling very happily.

The military factory was about to start production!

Even though the bullets produced would be useless to them, they didn't know why they were so happy...

"Aoo aoo aoo."

Pang Youyou bit Quanquan Hu's ear, pointing out the generator room in the scene, speaking in fox language, claiming they saw it in person that day.

"Ying ying ying."

White Claw tilted its head, talking to Big Head, pointing out the prototype gun in the scene, making a fox language expression of yearning... If Fox Mountain's Sword Saint adopted a gun in one paw and a sword in the other, it would certainly look cool!

Black Shoes snuggled beside the master, shoulder resting on the master's arm, occasionally stuffing popcorn into its mouth, crunching on the crispy sound.

It watched Tie Shiba holding the prototype gun, frowned, and rubbed its fat head, discovering an out-of-place element!

"Ao?"

That gun was designed for humans.

If a fox paw grasped it, it wouldn't reach the trigger!

This was quite frustrating for the foxes.

As a shareholder, could they perhaps suggest adjustments?

White Toe nestled in the master's embrace, watching happily, with a carefree look, just munching popcorn with crunching sounds. Occasionally grabbing a few pieces of popcorn, lifting its paw, and offering them to the master's mouth.

Bai Mo instinctively opened his mouth, eating these pieces of popcorn.

In truth, he was still pondering Marquis Qing Yue's mask...

"Without removing the pollution, the mask definitely cannot be used.

"But aiming to remove the pollution is truly difficult!"

At this time, the mask was sealed with Pill Fire, suspended in the forbidden warehouse.

Bai Mo recalled the eerie black oil he'd observed, recalled the strange black fire he'd recently encountered, slowly savoring their dread and filth, thinking about their characteristics, contemplating removal methods…

He hadn't conducted too much exploration due to an inexplicable vague concern in his heart... those things might pollute Divine Sense if investigated excessively?

Thus, he tried recalling, reflecting, based on previous contacts and sensations.

He reached for Black Shoes' fat head, stroked White Toe's thick neck.

"Ah? White Toe, why do you seem fatter again?"

His hand moved down to touch White Toe's belly… indeed, it had grown fatter, and he could no longer feel the ribs.

Feeling White Toe rubbing against his arm, Bai Mo grinned, continuing to think.

Images from previous sensations flashed in his mind, he recalled numerous literature he'd reviewed, then reflected on that black fire during the day, gradually forming an idea, coming to a judgment…

"Could it be that the black fire can't be extinguished, only diverted?"

Bai Mo speculated that once the black flame was born, it was destined not to be extinguished, needing to burn a living being.

To purify the mask, a sufficiently powerful being must be found to lead the black fire away!

"If it's me... as Sequence Seven, I might barely lead away all the black fire?

"But that certainly won't work."

Bai Mo kept pondering, but suddenly discovered that this issue might not be too difficult to solve; coincidentally, a suitable option was available!

"Ah?

"This... requires some maneuvers."

While thinking, Bai Mo passed his Divine Sense through the boundary between dream and reality, reaching underneath the Fire Toad Balloon's belly, feeling the volcanic smoke sponge...

He sensed the sponge had completely turned skin-colored, finely soft, with no more pores.

The sponge's surface even had lines resembling human palm patterns.

"Volcanic Smoke Sponge, is about to be refined.

"Very good.

"Tomorrow, when the day breaks, first let's complete the other part of the Fumigating Face Soup on the mountain."

... 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

At the West Ridge Mountain Range's Little Volcano peak, on the surface of the lava lake, an ancient, slender hand secretly reached out, opening its palm's eye, glancing around.

It looked at distant factory buildings on the flat ground, observed the engineers walking back and forth there, then viewed the stone tablet beside the lava lake, reading the words carved on the tablet…

It didn't recognize the Chinese characters on the tablet.

Though these Chinese characters, like the Sequence text, both belonged to pictographic writing… but Chinese characters were more concise, with less information, completely different from Sequence text.

It vaguely realized because of the words written on this tablet, humans wouldn't approach, making it devoid of prey.

Suddenly…

Thud!

A thick pipe extended from the side, poking into the lava lake.

This pipe was made of special alloy and emitted "hoo hoo hoo" suction sounds, adjusting pressure. Shortly after, it abruptly started extracting lava.

Could it drill into this pipe?

It observed for a moment, discovering the pipe led to a machine room.

The machine room had no door, indicating there was nobody inside.

Drilling inside was pointless; it might run into a mixer, cutter, grinder, or something…

It started looking again, at the air above the lava lake, watching the smoke rising from the lake, a wisp here, a wisp there, watching bit by bit, with its eyeballs sometimes stiff, sometimes swiftly rotating, seemingly contemplating something.

After quite some time, it made a "whoosh" sound, diving beneath the lava lake surface, drilling toward the depths all the way!