"Ten tails?" Bai Shuo whispered, dazed. "How was that possible?"
"That little fox girl never mentioned anything about nine tails…" Her thoughts churned. "No. I assumed…"
A shaky breath escaped her lips.
The legendary nine-tailed fox was already the purest bloodline known in the Human Realm.
But ten tails? It was unheard of.
A chill crawled up her spine.
Where am I?
Her gaze swept the world before her and froze.
Endless snowfields stretched across towering ridges and frozen peaks, wrapped in eternal frost.
"…Snowveil Mountain?" Bai Shuo inhaled sharply. "Impossible."
Was this an illusion?
It felt too real.
In her previous life, she hailed from the Bai Clan of Snowveil Mountain, the place she had called home before entering Lingli Sect.
But now—
She stood at its foot again.
Only this time, she had no body.
Only her soul — her former human soul. Strong, whole, unburdened by that humiliating fox form.
Yet even so, she couldn't resist the invisible force dragging her forward. It pulled her through the familiar paths, across courtyards she had once walked daily.
The Bai Clan's spiritual power suffused every corner of Snowveil Mountain — pure, cold, pristine. A paradise for Ice Cultivators.
And yet, she had always felt out of place.
The Bai Clan's direct descendants were born with Pure Ice Spiritual Roots.
But she?
She possessed the Legendary Nine-Inch Spirit Root — a Fire Spiritual Root so rare it bordered on myth.
A faint melancholy settled in her chest.
She saw the main peak ahead — the Bai Ancestral Hall, Icy Training Grounds, Crystal Pavilions, Spirit Beast Sanctuaries, places she thought she had long forgotten.
Yet her feet, no, her soul, carried her onward.
Floating past an elder's courtyard, Bai Shuo slowed.
Two boys stood inside.
Their voices reached her clearly, despite her incorporeal form.
"Father, is the Fire Spiritual Root really stronger than our Ice Spiritual Root?" asked the younger boy, fourteen, bruised, and sulking.
An older boy, around sixteen, snorted. "Were you beaten up by Bai Shuo again?"
"We fought," the younger boy protested. "I didn't get beaten up."
The older boy glanced at his brother's limp and purpled cheek. "Sure you didn't."
He laughed.
Bai Shuo felt her patience thinning.
"Her Spiritual Root isn't ordinary," the elder said calmly.
"Is the Heavenly Spiritual Root really that monstrous?" the younger boy muttered. "Even Big Brother Su was defeated by her."
Bai Shuo's lips curled faintly.
Back then, she had wondered the same.
Why was her fire so different from her clan's ice?
Her parents were both Pure Ice Cultivators. Her lineage was unquestionable, yet her element stood in direct contradiction to everything the Bai Clan represented.
The elders had doubted her.
Only her aunt, the ruling matriarch, had forced the clan to accept her.
Her fiery temper had done the rest.
She had never fit among those cold, composed, emotionless Ice Cultivators.
They despised her warmth. Her volatility. Her refusal to bow to their rigid ideals.
She despised them in return.
The younger generation, who unconsciously mimicked their parents' distant expressions — were the worst.
Her fists had itched whenever she saw them.
Which was why Prince Shao irritated her so much now.
His pretentious aura was even worse than theirs.
Her thoughts halted.
A small figure rushed across the courtyard.
A girl, six or seven years old — wooden sword strapped clumsily to her back.
Her younger self.
Bai Shuo's chest tightened.
She tried to call out but nothing.
"Sister! Wait for me!" A soft voice rang out behind the girl.
Bai Yu!
She whispered the name through gritted teeth.
Bundled in pale lilac robes, cheeks flushed red from running, clutching a small silk pouch.
"You forgot your lunch again," Bai Yu said softly. "I brought it."
"Pretentious," Fox Bai Shuo muttered through clenched teeth.
Her younger self blinked. "You ran all the way from the west yard for that?"
Bai Yu nodded shyly. "I… I thought you might get hungry after sword practice."
"There it is again," Fox Bai Shuo thought coldly. "That wide-eyed kindness. That innocent voice."
Her younger self, however, thought differently.
She's so cute.
She accepted the pouch slowly. It was warm — inside were her favorite lotus-seed buns drenched in chili oil.
Fox Bai Shuo nearly choked on disbelief.
She could hear her younger self's thoughts?
Cute?
Hah.
"No," she told herself sharply. "I can't lose control. Why am I seeing this? Is this some kind of test?"
Yet her composure cracked the longer she stared at Bai Yu.
Her younger self frowned, noticing frostbitten marks on Bai Yu's hands.
"Thanks… but don't bother next time."
Bai Yu smiled like sunlight on snow. "It's no trouble at all."
Bai Shuo clenched her fists.
Cute?
Back then, she really had been that naive.
For a cultivation clan as massive as the Bai Clan, concubines were common — drawn from side branches or external families. Bai Yu was the daughter of one of her father's concubines.
Yet Bai Shuo had taken notice of her early. She was timid, shy and gentle. A rare traits among her proud, arrogant half-sisters.
Her father's status ensured even concubine daughters had prestige — but Bai Yu had still been bullied.
Especially after awakening only a one-inch Ice Spiritual Root — the lowest grade possible.
Bai Shuo had protected her, shielded her and even used her authority as the matriarch's beloved niece to secure resources for her.
She had liked the feeling of being an elder sister. She had liked Bai Yu.
But now? Now she knew better.
Bai Yu's shyness, her sweetness, her trembling smiles.They had all been masks.
Behind them lay a talent for slander, manipulation, and betrayal.
Yet once —
She had truly been her little sister.
Watching her younger self smile at Bai Yu now filled Bai Shuo with disgust.
"How could I have been so blind?" she whispered.
Her younger self took the lunch.
Was this really the same sister she had loved?
Bai Suo was unwilling to look at her disappointing self but the world didn't let her leave.
Instead, the illusion deepened. Years blurred and scenes shifted.
She was forced to watch herself grow — not just her own story, but Bai Yu's.
The way she cried behind her back.
The way she twisted truths.
The way she played victim while sharpening knives.
It was slow and excruciating.
Watching her younger self trust her again and again, only to be betrayed in shadows she couldn't see.
Bai Shuo felt pity for her past self.
Was this my memory?
No.
Even she hadn't known the truth until years later and even then she didn't know of these silent betrayals.
This illusion wasn't replaying her memories. It was reconstructing reality.
Her jaw tightened.
She didn't know what this realm was trying to accomplish — but she didn't want to stay.
Even with her powerful soul, she remembered Elder Su's warning.
At last, the illusion wavered and the world lurched.
She thought she had escaped.
But instead —
She skipped directly from age eight…
To age ten.
And this time—
To a memorable day for her.
This was the day her trust shattered.