Blood of the Fox

Chapter 18

There had never been before a female servant in the Three Dragons Manor. In fact there wasn't many servants at all.

The housekeeper, an ox spirit called Dao's eyes lit up like lanterns when Ruyi was brought to see him by the Third Prince who promptly disappeared immediately after.

"Thank all the Gods in the Eternal Heavens, I have been begging for another servant for months! And a girl, would you look at that. Miracles really do happen. What is your name?"

"It's Ruyi, Master Dao."

"Good, good. Well you can start by making an inventory of weapons in the back hall. And then if you could clean the gardens... maybe plant a few flowers or two. It's so bare here that I get embarrassed when the other Princes come to visit. But I haven't got at all what you'd call a green thumb..."

***

She had only been there for less than three weeks when a maelstrom descended upon the manor.

Ruyi was in the back hall, kneeling between a stack of javelins when Dao came running in.

"Are you in here?" He yelled so loudly that Ruyi nearly knocked herself out when she stood up so quickly that a bunch of shields came crashing down.

"Where else would I be?" She asked. "This is going to take months. Speaking of, if there's only one of him, why are there so many weapons?"

"Don't you know? In the last war with the Demon King, our Third Prince was one of the primary generals. He lead a force of sixty thousand immortals! These weapons are the ones that.. ah, well the owners passed away. He keeps them to remember and honor them."

Unexpectedly, his emotions run deep. She thought of his black tear that had fallen down his cheek after he had stabbed the Lingxi creature. Not that you can tell ordinarily. In the time that she'd been at the Manor, she'd not seen much of him at all.

"Anyway there's no time to talk about that now, tell me right now, are you acquainted with Princess Yuting?"

Ruyi felt her body go cold. "Why? Is she here?"

"Yes, how did you know?! So you are acquainted with her!"

Ruyi supposed she should have anticipated this. In fact she should have only being surprised that this hadn't come sooner. "What does she want?"

"Well to be honest with you, she's usually here every couple of months raising a fuss. The Third Prince usually humors her, she is the Phoenix King's daughter and all..." Dao lowered his voice. "The rumors say she's to be his wife, you know. But when I told her that he's gone out, she demanded to see you. Honestly she doesn't look like she's in a good mood and you being such a pretty girl and all, even an old man like myself can guess why! What do you want to do?"

Ruyi stared at him for several beats. "I feel sick." She attempted with a droll expression, accompanied by two short coughs. Dao immediately looked put upon. "Well, well you know she's an important guest and all. If the Third Prince refuses to see her that's one thing, but you being a servant and all..."

Ruyi sighed. "If I'm going to end up seeing her anyway, why did you even ask me?"

It was Dao's turn to cough. The old ox immortal looked sheepish. "Well I thought I'd just... give you a warning."

A voice Ruyi would have given an arm not to hear again in her lifetime, came in from the window.

"Is she here?! Don't you dare touch me you filthy servant. If you don't bring her out right now, I'll burn your whole Manor down, I swear it by the Elder God!"

Dao looked as though his body had turned to stone. Instinctively Ruyi touched her neck but of course her amulet wasn't there any longer. Instead she looked longingly that the long blade sitting on the table in front her but she could hear Ting'er speak, almost as though the pearl immortal was standing right beside her: I wouldn't do that if I was you.

Lest it be said that her time on the Dream Peach Isle hadn't taught her anything, Ruyi wiped the grease off her fingertips and went outside. Princess Yuting was standing not far away, with Lulu in tow. Lulu was wrestling with a servant that was trying to stop them. They all stopped when Ruyi came out.

Ruyi knelt down and prostrated herself. "Princess Yuting."

She barely had time to finish her words before she felt herself being dragged up bodily by her braided hair. It was Lulu and the Princess' maid followed by delivering a swift smack to her face which left a red mark.

The pain was nothing compared to what she had experienced before in the Tower of Punishment but the humiliation was so much more. Raised by the furor, most of the servants of the Three Dragons Manor had crawled out of the woodwork to watch the fireworks.

"You whore!" Yuting said loudly. "What kind of underhand tactics did you use to seduce him?!"

Another smack. Ruyi thought about hitting Lulu back but then abruptly decided to change tack. She said lowly, so only the two girls could hear, "Oh nothing really.... Just made him... drink my blood."

"You... you!!" Yuting almost went green. She opened her hand and a sword appeared which she raised high above her head. Ruyi's eyes flashed. A powerful force came from her, knocking Lulu back with a shriek of surprise. Ruyi then rolled out of the way of the sword and then when Yuting changed direction, she blocked it with the her own short sword that she summoned into her hands.

"Everyone is here so let's not have any misunderstandings." Ruyi said loudly for the benefit of the crowd. "I'm only defending myself. You're the one that's trying to kill someone, Princess."

"I'm just trying to rid the world of... a fox demon!" Their swords clashed against each other.

Dao, dancing by the sidelines, half in distress and half in anticipation (not that he would have admitted it, but there hadn't been so much excitement in the Three Dragons Manor for over a century), was surprised.

By all accounts the Princess Yuting was of a powerful and noble lineage. If he wasn't wrong than she was nearly a thousand years old, and must have been trained by the best martial arts and magic teachers the Phoenix King could pay for.

By contrast the servant girl the Third Prince had brought home was had not even reached her third century. By all accounts, she was just a child. He recalled the strong force that had knocked Princess Yuting's servant out of the way. Her cultivation had been significant to summon a power that strong. He wasn't sure when he was capable of such a thing but surely it wasn't at three hundred years old.

Still she has no form, no training... the fox girl was only capable of blocking and dodging. She had good speed of movement and her neili had significant strength. But she didn't know any techniques of attack, beyond using her speed to try and catch Princess Yuting off guard.

And as for battle magic... that wasn't something one could manage without teaching and guidance, even if one was naturally talented. As though she'd read his mind, the Princess Yuting sheathed her sword. Instead from her hand she summoned an enormous ball of fire.

"Wait, please stop-!" But before Dao could even get his words out the servants were screeching and a tree in the courtyard was on fire. Dao summoned water but the next moment it was a shrub and the hem of the fox girl's robe dress was singed as she rolled out of the way not quite quickly enough.

Not just her robe, her leg too...

Ruyi cursed loudly as the phoenix fire turned her left leg to blackened char. Sweat was pouring down her forehead and her pain receptors were on overdrive. Princess Yuting summoned another ball of fire.

Move... move! But her leg wouldn't move. She could only watch as the heat came closer to her, closing her eyes uselessly....

But suddenly the heat was gone. Surprised, Ruyi opened her eyes. At first she just saw someone's broad, broad shoulders and a long body that faintly familiar. And then she saw the fireball he was holding in his left hand which rapidly reduced in size until he closed his fist and it disappeared.

"Princess Yuting," Yuezhen enquired lazily. "Why are you trying to burn down my house?"