Not wronged to lose.

……

Even more domineering acts followed.

Su Ji locked one of Su Jiu’s legs between his arms, forcing her to stand on one leg to test the heart demon’s sense of balance.

……

Then, for instance, he made the heart demon retrieve the [Hundred Refined Heavenly Silkworm Thread] artifact from her storage ring.

He used it to blindfold himself, demonstrating to the heart demon that even without his sight, he remained undefeatable.

……

In the end, Su Ji thoroughly defeated the heart demon a full nine times.

The world before him finally cracked like glass before shattering completely—clearly, the heart demon had conceded.

……

Su Ji’s vision darkened.

When he slowly opened his eyes again, he found himself sitting cross-legged on the ground.

The only difference was that his cultivation had now firmly stabilized at the first level of Foundation Establishment.

His mind was clear, his thoughts unimpeded.

But his mental energy had been pushed to its limit.

Across from him, Su Jiu had also shed her "heart demon" persona.

She returned to her usual icy demeanor, her features as cold and composed as ever.

Yet her clear fox-like eyes flickered uneasily, deliberately avoiding Su Ji’s gaze.

"The heart demon has been vanquished. How does Senior Brother feel?"

Her voice was as emotionless as ever, betraying nothing.

Su Ji studied her expression and suppressed a smirk, keeping his tone serious.

"Refreshing... Ah, no—thank you for your assistance, Junior Sister."

But inwardly, his thoughts stirred.

Hadn’t he yet used the free enhancement opportunity granted by fate?

Now that the two of them were inextricably linked, the better Su Jiu’s condition, the greater the benefits he would reap.

Moreover, after that earlier display of "genuine emotion," if the little fox actually took it to heart, it would be much harder to take advantage of her in the future.

He needed to use the enhancement to gloss over the incident.

With a thought, Su Ji activated the effect of his colored fate, [Beauty Like Jade, Divine Spear Shatters the Dao].

A profound and imperceptible force silently flowed into Su Jiu’s body.

Su Jiu had been about to say something to dispel the awkward atmosphere when her body trembled slightly against her will.

A warm current surged through her limbs and meridians, instantly restoring the mental energy she had expended—even pushing her cultivation a step further.

Wait…

Why was her cultivation now surging uncontrollably toward the Golden Core stage?!

Instinctively, she brushed aside a strand of her silver-white hair.

A faint, almost imperceptible flush crept across her face.

"I… I’ll go check if the fire drake was disturbed."

With those words, Su Jiu turned and hurried barefoot toward the cave’s exit, as if fleeing something.

Su Ji watched her slightly flustered retreating figure and was about to tease her when he suddenly froze.

He noticed that with every step Su Jiu took on the scorching stone floor, an almost imperceptible wisp of white steam rose from her pale feet.

The vapor appeared and vanished in an instant—so fleeting that without his newly heightened senses from breaking through to Foundation Establishment, he would never have noticed.

What was this about?

Could it be…

Before he could finish the thought, Su Jiu’s figure abruptly vanished from his sight.

Not from speed, not from concealment—just gone, as if she had never been there.

Su Ji’s smile stiffened.

"Junior Sister?"

His voice carried a trace of alarm he hadn’t intended.

Only the bubbling of molten lava answered him in the cavern.

……

Su Jiu herself was equally bewildered.

She had only wanted an excuse to escape, to put distance between herself and that troublesome senior brother, to cool her burning cheeks and suppress the surging spiritual energy in her dantian.

But with a single step, the scenery around her shifted dramatically.

No longer was she in the sulfur-scented heat of the lava cave.

Instead, she stood in a vast, ancient world.

The sky here was a deep crimson, crisscrossed by massive chains hanging from the dome, their other ends buried deep into the surrounding cliffs—leading to who knew where.

Directly ahead, atop a towering slab of red-black stone, stood a small figure.

A girl who appeared no older than ten or eleven.

Her fiery red hair cascaded freely down her back like living flames.

She wore only a simple robe, her exposed skin almost blindingly pale.

Most striking were her molten-gold eyes.

Despite her childlike appearance, her gaze held the weight of ages, indifferent and all-knowing.

And then there was her right ankle—shackled by a thick black chain that vanished into the ground, its depth unknown.

The red-haired girl looked down at Su Jiu, studying her like an amusing plaything.

After a moment, her lips curled into a smirk far too sly for her youthful face.

"I wondered why you bore the aura of an old acquaintance. So you’re their descendant?"

Her voice was clear as a silver bell, though she clearly tried to sound imposing.

Su Jiu’s mind reeled. Instinctively, she channeled her demonic energy, bracing for defense.

The pressure radiating from this child far surpassed even that of the Golden Core fire drake!

What kind of terrifying existence was this?

"Descendant of an old acquaintance"?

Did she mean an ancestor of the Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox lineage?

The red-haired girl seemed to read her thoughts.

With a careless wave, she sat down, swinging her shackled foot and making the chain clink.

"Relax."

"I just wanted to chat with a fox."

"But…"

"Your Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox clan really hasn’t changed, has it?"

Su Jiu felt her cheeks burn so fiercely she feared the air around her might ignite.

Her fox eyes brimmed with wariness and a flicker of panic.

What did she mean by "hasn’t changed"?

It sounded like an elder catching a junior in the middle of some… improper act.

And "descendant of an old acquaintance"—did this imprisoned entity truly know her ancestors?

Forcing herself to stay calm, Su Jiu bowed slightly in deference.

"This junior, Su Jiu, pays respects to Senior."

"However… I’m afraid I don’t fully understand Senior’s meaning."

She opted to play dumb.

The red-haired girl merely yawned and flicked a hand.

The air before Su Jiu rippled like water, revealing a crystal-clear image.

It showed the underground lava cave.

A "heart demon" version of herself hung midair, bound by Su Ji’s spiritual chains, above the churning magma.

In the scene, Su Ji was declaring with righteous fervor, "Watch as I shatter this heart demon!"—and then…

Bang!

The last thread of Su Jiu’s composure snapped.

She watched helplessly as the image displayed every humiliating detail—how the heart demon version of herself had gone from controlling the situation to being toyed with by her senior brother.

The compromising poses, the flustered expressions, the involuntary physical reactions…

All laid bare!

"Understanding isn’t necessary."

The red-haired girl grinned, dispersing the image, her molten-gold eyes dancing with amusement as they roamed over Su Jiu.

"What matters is that I saw everything."

"Youth these days are so… energetic."

Su Jiu: "…"

At this moment, only one thought filled her mind.

That was it—she had to vanish from this godforsaken place immediately!

This was beyond humiliating for a fox!

"Senior… you must be joking."

The words practically clawed their way out from between Su Jiu’s gritted teeth.

She had to change the subject, or her Dao heart might shatter right then and there.

"Might I ask… which elder of my clan does Senior know?"

This was the only escape route she could think of to free herself from this suffocating awkwardness.

If she could just figure out the other’s identity, maybe she could even leverage some connection.

"Oh? Your clan’s elders…"

The red-haired little girl propped her chin on her hand, feigning deep thought.

A flicker of indescribable emotion passed through her molten-gold eyes—nostalgia, melancholy, but above all, a bone-deep resentment.

"Technically, we were love rivals."

"Back then, she stole my man by being even more of a tease than you."

Love… rivals?

Su Jiu’s mind blanked.

She’d braced for countless possibilities—old acquaintances, perhaps—but never something this absurd.

An ancestor of the Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox lineage had stolen this one’s… man?

What kind of nonsense was this?!

Her brain short-circuited. The shocks she’d endured today outweighed everything from her past eighteen years combined.

Instinct took over—she spun on her heel to flee.

Are you kidding?!

An entity sealed here for who-knows-how-many millennia, with unfathomable power and a generational grudge over stolen love?

Stay and get pulverized? No thanks!

Yet the moment she turned, an invisible force clamped down, freezing her in place.

"Ah, why run?"

The red-haired girl sighed, her voice tinged with loneliness.

"That old feud is ten thousand years stale."

"Dust to dust, ashes to ashes."

"You wouldn’t understand."

Her gaze drifted to the colossal chains piercing the vaulted ceiling, eyes hollow.

"Seeing you… makes me happy."

"Truly."

"For a moment, I almost thought… an old friend had returned."

Su Jiu stood petrified.

Strangely, she sensed no malice.

But the sheer disparity in their power, the helplessness of being utterly controlled—it terrified her.

"You’re about to break through to Golden Core."

The girl’s scrutiny returned, her tone edged with assessment.

"Your foundation’s solid, but… the timing’s off."

"That boy’s reckless."

"Who assists a breakthrough without checking the surroundings first?"

Su Jiu stiffened.

Only then did she notice the critical mass of spiritual energy in her dantian.

So Su Ji had intervened?

A realization struck.

With a thought, she retrieved a faintly glowing azure talisman from her storage ring and slapped it onto herself.

Cool energy flooded her veins, sealing the medicinal elixir’s effects.

"Then… might Senior assist my breakthrough?"

The red-haired girl: "…"

No, you—

Your breakthrough has nothing to do with that elixir.

Whatever.

Perhaps the Nine-Tailed Foxes and the Great Xia Imperial Clan…

still play these games.

No wonder we lost.