Somewhere in the Ancient Beast Mountain Range
A small orange fox dashed through the mountainous terrain, skillfully avoiding all the beasts in its path. The little fox didn't release any aura, but the speed at which it ran was faster than what any mortal could accomplish.
After traveling for nearly an entire day, the fox stood in front of a large boulder. On the outside, this was a normal boulder. Even a Divine Sea Realm expert would think it was just an ordinary boulder.
But, when the fox touched it with its paw and began inscribing hundreds of symbols, all in a specific sequence and timing, the small orange walked straight through the boulder and seemingly entered an entirely new world.
Gone were the rough, jagged edges of the mountain range—instead, a vast open space with rolling hills, forests, and a clear blue sky appeared.
The small orange fox didn't stop to look around and kept running. Along the way, it spotted numerous other foxes, both in their beast and human forms. Seeing the orange fox run, they all smiled, nodded, and returned to what they were doing, though the former didn't acknowledge them and kept running.
Soon, it entered a large human-like city. There were tall, multi-storied buildings everywhere. The roads were made of a smooth, greyish stone with tons of humanoid foxes walking around.
Every fox had a smile as they wandered around the city. They all gave respective nods whenever they noticed the small orange fox.
Eventually, the small orange fox emerged before a massive palace and ran up the steps without hesitation. The humanoid fox guards at the entrance saw the orange fox running up the stairs, nodded at her with a smile, and let her in. The maids did the same thing as the guards and let the orange fox go wherever she wanted without question.
Finally, the orange fox stood in front of a large pair of doors.
"Come in, Camilla." A seductive, mature, sultry voice came from behind the doors.
The orange fox, Camilla, shapeshifted into her human form, opened the doors and walked into the room.
At a desk in front of a window sat a beautiful, busty, and curvy woman with pink hair, a delectable set of fox ears, and 7 tails. Her skin was smooth and without any blemishes; even from a distance, Camilla could tell it looked soft to the touch.
In fact, in terms of appeal to the opposite sex, the pink-haired fox beauty would surpass Mira! While Mira's body proportions were perfect, in the end, her body was meant for battle, not sex. Therefore her… assets… weren't as appealing to men as this pink-haired seductress.
Camilla came forward and kneeled in front of the woman.
"Camilla greets the Empress!"
The woman waved her hands dismissively, "Maa~ Maa~ No need for the formalities, Camilla. Just call me Mistress Lisica like you usually do," Lisica smiled, "Anyways, seeing as you have returned, you must've brought back some important news."
Camilla stood up, "Yes, Mistress Lisica. I have brought back some interesting news," she said emotionlessly.
"Oya? Interesting news? Not important? Now you've got me curious."
"That is correct, Mistress Lisica. As you know, my job is to roam this continent, gathering every bit of information I can find that might prove to be useful. That's when I overheard something unusual in Snow Maiden City," She paused for a second as if contemplating her following words, "It seems there have been sightings of a 9-tailed fox."
"..."
The playful smile on Lisica's face disappeared and the surrounding air stilled. She stared at Camilla in silence for a few moments, who stood there like a statue, before asking in a solemn voice, "Is the information you received reliable?"
Camilla didn't hesitate to answer, "I don't know, Mistress Lisica. I haven't personally seen a 9-tailed fox, but there do seem to be numerous eye-witness accounts. From the testimonies I've gathered, this rogue fox joined the Battle Maiden Sect a little under a year ago. Other than that, there's very little information about this being."
Lisica tapped her finger on the desk; her head lowered as she went deep into thought.
'A 9-tailed fox appeared? Impossible! Those beings from legends don't just pop up out of nowhere! But Camilla isn't one to lie, so either someone is parading around looking like a 9-tailed fox, the eye-witness accounts were mistaken, or there is one out there wandering the world. It's also possible that it was just a mirage or an illusion. But still, the Battle Maiden Sect, huh? How annoying.'
All kinds of thoughts formed in Lisica's mind, but there was too little information to go off of for her to come to a concrete conclusion.
This might very well be a trap to lure her out of her little hole. She has no shortage of enemies and admirers that would go to great lengths to drag her out in the open. Though, if it was a trap, it was incredibly poorly done. Still, Lisica wasn't going to make any rash decision just because she didn't think it was a trap.
For a 9-tailed fox to just casually appear out in the open like that is too suspicious. They were the prestigious fox race! If they want to hide, who in the world can find them?! How could a being from legends be seen so easily?!
Thus, there were only a few scenarios that Lisica thought might be possible but still not very likely.
'There shouldn't be any 9-tailed foxes left in the Mortal Realm. Therefore, this is most likely either a trap or fake news that spread through one of the human cities.'
The latter wasn't that uncommon, as myths, rumors, and stories spread incredibly fast through human societies. The information might not even be true, but it will still spread like wildfire, and many will believe it to be true without even verifying it. So, Lisica couldn't help but be skeptical.
"Is that all the information you were able to gather?" Lisica asked.
"No, Mistress Lisica. Some people stated that the woman had 9 different colored tails and had the aura of a human, not a beast," Camilla stated.
Lisica gripped her chin, "Hmmmm~ How peculiar. All of our tails are usually the same color. Could she be a beastmen?" She thought but immediately shook her head, "Impossible! If that were the case, that would mean a genuine 9-tailed fox was still in the Mortal Realm and mated with a human."
There were too many holes and inconsistencies that Lisica couldn't make sense of.
"Did you try to enter the Battle Maiden Sect to see if this was true?" Lisica asked, but she already knew the answer.
Camilla shook her head, "No, Mistress Lisica. When I learned of this information, the Sect was already on high alert, and I didn't want to encounter Sect Master Aelina. I apologize for not being better, Mistress Lisica."
Lisica waved her hands, "No need to be so stiff, Camilla. I didn't expect you to go running in there anyways. Aelina is an incredibly annoying opponent that even I would like to avoid fighting. Though, I certainly wouldn't lose against her…"
"Ahem! Anyway, I'll have to pay a little visit to Aelina and confirm for myself if what you're saying is true."
Camilla's head, tails, and ears lowered despondently, making Lisica realize Camilla had misunderstood her words.
So, she hurriedly explained herself, "Ah! It's not that I don't trust you, Camilla. It's just that the information available is too limited, and the significance, if it's true, is too high… kind of," She then fell into deep thought, "It's not like our Clan really needs a 9-tailed fox. We're doing fine by ourselves. But it wouldn't heart to make some connections, now would it?" She smiled.
Camilla returned back to her normal, emotionless face, but Lisica could see the slight twitch in her tails and ears, indicating she was happy.
"For now, go gather as much information as you can. I don't want to leave because a few humans got fooled by an illusion or something," Lisica ordered.
Camilla kneeled, placing an arm over her chest, "By your will, Your Majesty!"
Lisica pinched her brows, "Sigh… How many times do I have to tell you? There's no need for you to call me that."
However, she noticed Camilla had already disappeared and left to complete her mission.
"What a troublesome little girl. Though, she was right about one thing. She certainly did bring back some interesting information. Fufufu~ I'm curious to see if there really is a 9-tailed fox out there or if it's just a fake. However, I have some serious doubts that it's actually a genuine 9-tailed fox, as they would never get spotted by a bunch of weaklings. Maybe my time spent on the Western Continent won't be so boring after all."
This whole situation was rather interesting to Lisica, and she couldn't wait to find out what was true and what was not.
