Master of Ten Thousand Foxes-Chapter 97 - 80: The Frightened White Claw (Double - !)
"What’s the rush?
"Ready to risk your life for flower petals?"
White Claw let out a sigh of relief, only then realizing tears had been scared out of them, and rubbed its head against its master’s chest.
Suddenly, it remembered the petals blown away by the wind!
In a panic, it stretched out a paw pointing into the distance!
"Awooo!"
Bai Mo stood on the high platform, holding his apprentice in one arm, "Don’t panic."
With his right hand, he gestured above the tripod furnace with his index finger.
As he pointed, the bubbling potion burst into a small whirlpool, spinning rapidly!
And this small whirlpool erupted with a terrifying suction, like a dragon absorbing water, pulling in winds from all directions!
White Claw’s reddish-brown eyes saw the flower petals that had just flown away being sucked back into the tripod furnace by the gusts of wind and into the potion within the whirlpool.
"Yingyingying."
White Claw finally exhaled, snuggling into its master’s embrace, rubbing its head against his chest again. It had really been scared!
Inside the tripod furnace, with the last petal added, the potion boiled intensely, bubbling madly, evaporating wildly, the potion level dropping lower, growing more concentrated!
Underneath the tripod furnace, the firewood had ceased to be added, leaving only some embers and ashes.
And now, under the roasting of these embers, the potion inside the tripod furnace finally shrank to a drop the size of a fist, bright red and trembling, gently shaking at the center of the furnace bottom.
Bai Mo patted White Claw’s head, looked inside the tripod, then announced to all his apprentices in the square.
"It’s finished!"
The square instantly erupted with the cheers of foxes, their smiles showing all teeth as they jumped joyfully, paws raised.
"Awoooo!"
"Yingyingying!"
"Awoooo!"
...
"After eating this Brain Reviving Soup, it seems my thoughts are indeed a bit more active, and my energy somewhat more abundant?"
In West State City, at home, the evening news broadcast was airing on television.
Bai Mo sat amidst a pile of skewers on the dining table, eating and feeling the effects of the Brain Reviving Soup.
As he ate the grilled pork belly skewers, he slowly reminisced about his childhood, the years he spent alone, the incidents on Fox Mountain, his apprentice...
"My emotions weren’t affected.
"Not bad, Roadside Flower’s modifications were indeed successful."
He grinned, completely at ease now.
At the table beside him, White Claw was grabbing a skewer of grilled chicken wings, deftly tearing it apart, chewing lightly a few times before spitting out the bones, then squinting its eyes and swallowing the chicken and crispy bones, a smile spreading across its fox face.
Its technique of eating chicken wings was more proficient than a human’s!
Bai Mo originally thought that since it was startled, taking it to the present world to taste something fresh would calm it down.
But seeing its current state, devouring skewer after skewer, with the corners of its smiling mouth stained with cumin, sesame, and chili powder, it showed no signs of being frightened at all.
"Oh well.
"Eat more!
"Just don’t tell the other brothers, right?"
Bai Mo patted its head.
Yet, he saw this little one extend its paw to grab at the remaining skewers on the table, picking up the last chicken wing and gesturing with it.
"Awoooo!"
"You want five more chicken wings?"
White Claw nodded seriously.
Bai Mo pondered a bit, considering its appetite, wiped his hands clean with a tissue, took out his phone, opened the delivery app, found the barbecue restaurant, zeroed in on the chicken wings, and decisively ordered fifty more. The barbecued chicken thighs also looked good, so ten of those went into the order too!
"For now, have some saury fish tofu as a snack, the extra grilled chicken wings will be here soon."
White Claw extended its paw, just about to grab a skewer of fish tofu, then turned its eyes and reconsidered.
Its eyes shimmered with a cunning gleam.
What if the master ordered lots of chicken wings?
What if he also ordered chicken thighs?
No need to rush!
Foxes are cunning, after all. Let the bullets fly for a while, let the tummy rest a bit, and await the new delivery!
While the master and apprentice waited for the delivery, Bai Mo’s phone unexpectedly pushed through a notification, revealing a local trending news. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮
[Subway Line 8 construction has once again unearthed a cluster of ancient tombs, project delay continues]
Bai Mo smirked slightly.
The area of West State City was teeming with various tomb clusters underground. The subway corporation’s tunnel excavations frequently led to the discovery of these ancient burial grounds every few days.
These burial sites were now queuing up for excavation by the Cultural Relics Bureau.
Reportedly, the Cultural Relics Bureau was overwhelmed, able only to process the oldest and most important sites first. The less historical and lower-standing burial clusters couldn’t get in line and had to wait patiently.
Casually opening the news push to take a look,
its content was similar to before, detailing another excavation uncovering an ancient burial cluster.
There was a photo included. In it, a chubby leader wearing a safety helmet, at an underground construction site, full of distress while being interviewed by a reporter.
Bai Mo was about to exit the news page when he unexpectedly noticed something odd in the corner of the picture!
"Sequence writing?"
In the corner of the picture, a broken stone pillar was visible, with half an ancient inscription.
It wasn’t a script from the Alchemist path, but Bai Mo recognized it wasn’t oracle bone script, bronze inscriptions, or seal characters; it was sequence writing from the Ancient Immortal Dynasty!
"Damn it..."
Upon consideration, it made perfect sense.
After all, the Ancient Immortal Dynasty had truly existed in history. Despite being distant, its existence ought to leave some traces in the current world, not just in dreams.
"So, could there be valuable things in that newly unearthed tomb?"
Bai Mo was about to zoom in on the image for a closer look when suddenly the page froze and automatically refreshed. Looking again at the picture, the sequence writing in the corner had disappeared!
"Oh?
"Did the Immortal Technique Committee detect it and handle it urgently?"
...
The Immortal Technique Committee of West State City.
The vast majority of departments hadn’t left work yet.
On the seventh floor of Building B, in the Network Technology Department, the lights were still on. Rows of programmers stayed busy. The clacking of keyboards echoed continuously.
Promoted to a manager, Zhang Yuan was on the phone reporting to his leader.
"Yes, sir. Our monitoring detected a news picture that had a suspected sequence text pattern in it...
"Uh-huh, we’ve already used technical means to urgently update that news page. The sequence text in that picture was photoshopped out, it won’t cause a larger impact..."
At Zhang Yuan’s desk was a half-eaten takeaway meal.
Listening to the call, touching his increasingly smooth forehead, he suddenly felt dejected... Why is it that even after becoming a manager, he still can’t escape working overtime? Still can’t avoid going bald?
Instructions came from the other end of the call.
"...Well done.
"But don’t relax yet, continue monitoring relevant keywords online, and keep an eye on related public sentiment. Report any situations immediately!"
Zhang Yuan nodded.
"Alright, sir!"
Hanging up the phone, he sighed and shouted to his programmers.
"Guys, we’ve got new demands again!"
...
Actually, there was little online buzz about the matter.
Just a few moments shared by subway corporation employees silently got deleted.
Several posts by journalists quietly disappeared from microblogs.
But it wasn’t just the Network Technology Department!
This discovery set the entire Immortal Technique Committee into motion!
One call after another went out, inquiring with the subway corporation, with the Cultural Relics Bureau, liaising with archaeological teams...
Reports were quickly drafted, one memo after another swiftly completed, addressed to various leaders, forwarded to the Shangjing City’s General Committee...
Orders issued in quick succession, mobilizing forces, deploying immortal artifacts, heading to the site...
...
"After all, it’s the first time such a thing emerged in the modern world.
"It’s of great significance!"
A deep tunnel extended beneath West State City, stretching forward, until it encountered what seemed to be the ruins of the Ancient Immortal Kingdom, abruptly ending.
Zhang Shan, Lu Yang, and Yu Tingting were among the first team dispatched to the site.
A dozen or so members of the Immortal Technique Committee were ahead of them.
Behind them were dozens more members of the Immortal Technique Committee.
A large group of people, boisterous and energetic, were on-site, guided by subway corporation staff, with searchlights observing the underground soil, occasionally exposing several pillars, and the sequence writing on the pillars.
The team leader, Wu Qingyun, shone a searchlight on an exposed section of the pillar, pointing at the text under the light.
"Which path is it from?
"Does anyone recognize it?"
