Chapter 23: Foxes Moving House

Hu Jinhua played for a while longer, and only after a daze did he recognize what kind of place this space was.

"I can use this Immortal Genealogy to enter this house, the location of the courtyard's Dharma Realm... Is this similar to the Yinzhai of the deceased? No, this is a Daochang, or rather, a Dongfu."

"Then what does it look like if I step out from the Dharma Realm?" Hu Jinhua pushed open the door of the courtyard within the Dharma Realm, and in an instant, a gust of yin wind blew, causing him pain on his face.

Outside, it was gray and bleak; a pitch-black old tree, thick enough for over a dozen people to encircle, blocked the way, its canopy stretching for several miles like a giant umbrella.

The Back Mountain was even more gloomy, with the Guiku Lin stretching out.

Hu Jinhua still wanted to go out, but he discovered that pairs of dark red eyes suddenly emerged not far away, radiating malice and covetousness, staring at this suddenly opened portal.

They even locked eyes with Hu Jinhua.

It seemed that in the blink of an eye, they drew near; the owners of these eyes seemed to have teleported, pressing closer step by step.

Hu Jinhua was startled, retreated back inside the door, and closed the bolt.

In an instant, from that eerie perspective, the portal appeared out of thin air and vanished out of thin air.

"The outside is actually also a Dharma Realm."

Hu Jinhua also had a heritage; he had previously heard seniors recount the situation of a Yin Spirit leaving the body to travel the Dharma Realm, and it was exactly this kind of gloomy, miserable appearance.

The Dharma Realm is not the underworld; the Dharma Realm is merely the "cognition" constructed by the thoughts of all living beings, a projection of consciousness.

Therefore, when people worship Gods and Buddhas, the Gods and Buddhas often reside within the Dharma Realm.

When people fear ghosts and demons, ghosts and demons will also breed in the Dharma Realm, and some obsessions and grievances will transform into Dharma Realm creatures within the Dharma Realm.

Cultivating in the Dharma Realm, the concept of time is different from the outside world; after all, the speed of thought is very fast. For example, reading a book: in the mortal world, there is the restriction of the physical body, reading page by page, and one might not even remember it; in the Dharma Realm, one only needs a glance to remember it all, and if the thought is solidified, one will not forget it upon returning to the physical body.

Hu Jinhua realized the preciousness of the "God Immortal Art" passed down by Xu Jia.

"It seems that after being arranged, this house will form a shelter within the Dharma Realm, like a deity's temple Daochang or a Great Demon's cultivation Dongfu."

"For me, it is not just a place of shelter where one cannot enter without invitation, but it can also allow me to peacefully increase my wisdom and cultivate my Daoist Practice within the Dharma Realm."

Hu Jinhua was emotionally stirred and for a moment did not know what to say, only silently swearing in his heart to be loyal to Xu Jia without second thoughts.

After admiring the Fox Immortal Hall courtyard in the Dharma Realm for a while longer, Hu Jinhua finally left, returned to the old tree by the Luanzanggang, and told the other foxes this good news.

"Good fortune, good fortune! That place is a residence like a God Immortal Dongfu."

The foxes under the crooked-neck tree tilted their heads to listen to Hu Jinhua's description, already beginning to look forward to it intensely, and one by one they began to pack their things.

Actually, there wasn't much stuff—just some ragged clothes and hats; the foxes often wore human clothes and human hats, then asked their companions, "Do you think I look like a human?" and then put on airs, standing up to learn how to walk like humans.

Or there were some copper coins, books with words, and damaged toys that children didn't want...

But the foxes were all reluctant to part with them, packing them up one by one to take away.

Waiting until night, the four foxes that had become demons transformed into human shapes, two in front and two behind, carrying bundles, with some large foxes and small foxes that hadn't become demons in the middle, about seven or eight of them. They lined up in rows and just like that moved away from the old crooked-neck tree.

Although the Fox Cave under the old crooked-neck tree was very ordinary, the Single-Testicle Fox Du Xiu was still reluctant to leave it, and with great effort, he found a stone to block it, thinking that perhaps there might be a time to return in the future.

Hu Jinhua scolded, "You blocked the door; what if a fellow clansman wants to live here in the future? Leave some goodwill."

In the end, they only half-covered the entrance and headed toward the Huxian Tangkou that Niu Congcong had set up at Sha Erzhu's house.

Hu Jinhua held the red paper to clear the way, and surprisingly, no dogs came to bark, allowing them to arrive safely at this secluded house in the corner of the village.

The foxes had never lived in a house where humans lived; as soon as they entered, they rolled around, while Hu Jinhua taught Hu Duxiu and the others to kowtow to the Dharma Lord Xu Jia and attach their thoughts to the names on the Hall Genealogy.

Thus, the small foxes that had become demons also entered the Dharma Realm and were stunned by the strange scene where things grew at the movement of a thought: "What kind of place is this? It truly is an Immortal's Dongfu!"

So one conjured a flower, another conjured a blade of grass, but their thoughts were not specific, and the things they conjured could not last long, unlike the mottled fox who had received enlightenment and had nearly a hundred years of Daoist Practice, with wisdom far more developed, not inferior to an ordinary human.

Hu Jinhua stopped them from playing around and set down the rules: "We have today's good fortune all thanks to Master Xu, but you are not allowed to talk nonsense outside and leak this, especially to fellow clansmen like Hu Agui. If you bring trouble, don't wait for Master Xu to speak; I will pierce your necks myself and skin you alive!"

Hu Duxiu, Hu Delu, and Hu Butang were startled and nodded repeatedly.

The most tragic torture for a fox is skinning; fox fur is valuable, especially fox fur skinned while alive, which is even more valuable.

Previously, they had fellow clansmen who hadn't amounted to much caught by hunters; the first thing they did wasn't to kill them, but to bring them home alive.

The foxes that had become demons would follow to try and rescue them, only to see the fox pierced through the neck by an iron hook, hung on a rack, and then have its entire skin peeled off while still alive.

The fox wouldn't even be dead yet; if not given a quick end, it could even scream in the wind for half an hour, and even if it died directly from the pain, the skinless flesh would still twitch.

The foxes that saw this scene were both terrified and helpless.

The hunters kept seven or eight mountain-chasing dogs by their sides, and they weren't afraid of the fox demons' magic; they themselves had mountain-chasing arts, which specifically countered the spirits and demons of the mountains.

Hu Jinhua using this to threaten them was the most powerful threat possible.

Seeing them trembling with fear, Hu Jinhua softened his tone: "During the day, only we few can transform into human shapes to go out, but you three don't have enough Daoist Practice, and it's easy for dogs to smell your scent; if they bite you, I'm afraid you'll reveal your true form."

"So try to go out as little as possible; when you have nothing to do, tidy up the vegetable garden in the backyard so we can sell vegetables at the morning market later."

"The situation in the Back Mountain must also be figured out; the juniors who haven't become demons should be settled in a safe Dongfu in the Back Mountain; don't live with us."

"The most important point is that you must never push open the portal in the Dharma Realm to go outside. Our strength is still shallow, there are many dangers outside, and there might even be some ghosts or demons that seize the door and enter, occupying this place; wouldn't we lose face?"

"Do you understand?"

"Understood!"

Only then did Hu Jinhua set his mind at ease and begin to communicate with Niu Congcong, who had set up the Huxian Tangkou.

(End of chapter)