Chapter 534: Special Tutoring 2

Ye Wenxin pretended to eat dinner. Over time, she realized the half-cooked food had been infused with Yin energy, which made it a nourishing delicacy for ghosts and spirits alike. However, this food was too much for humans. Eat it for too long, and Ye Wenxin would eventually turn into a ghost like the others.

To prevent this, Ye Wenxin faked eating it all while secretly storing the food in her bag of holding. She then waited for the right time to dump the leftovers into the pond to feed the fish.

The kitsune accompanied her the whole time. After distancing herself for the last few days, her mood had improved significantly. Ye Wenxin guessed she had found a new unfortunate target, so she didn’t pay much attention. Hand in hand, the two went to the kitsune’s secluded residence.

The interior arrangement hadn’t changed much except for a few new portraits. The ink hadn’t completely dried, suggesting they were a few days old.

Ye Wenxin sat, and the kitsune brought over tea and pastries. Opening a textbook, she patiently explained the day’s quiz questions, helping Ye Wenxin deepen her understanding.

Ye Wenxin became even more absent-minded, nodding now and then. She had thought the torment would end after an hour or so, but the kitsune’s desire for interaction was too strong. As her brain cells began to die at an alarming speed, Ye Wenxin looked at the kitsune with a wry smile.

The kitsune’s expression turned cold again. She lightly knocked on Ye Wenxin’s head.

“You won’t learn anything with this attitude, Xiaowen.”

“Miss, I’ve never been good at studying. If the young miss’s mother hadn’t insisted on me coming here to learn, I wouldn’t be sitting here now.”

Ye Wenxin was ready to start her “passing the blame” strategy, trying to attribute her stupidity to the harshness of reality. But the truth was that Ye Wenxin had had no time for studying. She was busy being the strongest in the world, busy accepting challenges, and never took time to expand her knowledge.

“How can a person belittle themselves like that?” More upset than ever, the kitsune began lecturing Ye Wenxin about not underestimating herself. Ye Wenxin pretended to feel ashamed, lowering her head. “But I’ve studied Buddhist teachings extensively. Name any book, Miss, and I can recite it backward.”

Ye Wenxin had likely learned the most during her stay at the Southern Dipper Temple. During the ten years in the Bright Mirror Formation, she had read almost all the temple’s scriptures, their content ingrained in her mind.

The kitsune first thought Ye Wenxin was about to crack a joke, but her face paled as soon as she mentioned reciting Buddhist scriptures.

Buddhist scriptures were a formidable force against demons, ghosts, and other non-human creatures. However, Ye Wenxin felt that a Demon Lord reciting Buddhist scriptures daily was a disgrace to the Southern Dipper Temple’s reputation. So, she usually refrained from using them against others. But the kitsune’s reaction suddenly made her curious about how much harm the scriptures could inflict on demons.

“A-Alright, let’s continue studying.” The panicked kitsune tried to steer the conversation away. Ye Wenxin pretended to demonstrate and immediately began reciting a section of the Demon Seeker Mantra.

The Demon Seeker Mantra was an intermediate-level Buddhist scripture from the Southern Dipper Temple. It didn’t have much damage but could detect the presence of demons. Once chanted, non-humans would feel a headache, allowing the reciter to distinguish demons from humans.

After a long while, the kitsune’s expression finally turned noticeably paler. She wanted to cover her head but was afraid that Ye Wenxin would realize she was a demon, so she pretended to be unaffected by the Demon Seeker Mantra.

Ye Wenxin sped up the chanting, eager to test the kitsune’s endurance.

The mantra worked like Brother Sun’s Band-Tightening Spell¹. The more she chanted, the more intense the pain became. Within a few breaths, the kitsune couldn’t take it anymore. She lunged at Ye Wenxin, desperately trying to cover her mouth.

“Stop chanting.” There was malice in the kitsune’s face. She wanted to tear Ye Wenxin apart but couldn’t. Ye Wenxin was her student, and she shouldn’t do something so cruel.

Ye Wenxin affected a puzzled expression to mask her inner schadenfreude. If Buddhist scriptures worked on demons, they might become another key technique alongside Flower Burial.

She feigned innocence and asked, “What’s wrong, Miss?”

Looking at the kitsune pressing her down, she suddenly realized how suggestive this position was. The kitsune’s face was just inches away from hers. Ye Wenxin could feel her warm breath hitting her face and smell her fragrance.

Pink hearts swirled around Ye Wenxin’s peach blossom chains, searching for angles to break through Ye Wenxin’s defenses. However, the peach blossom chains didn’t seem to appreciate being treated as a mere plaything. The black skeletons hidden within the pink hearts reappeared with their woeful expressions.

The kitsune shifted her body slightly. She seemed lost in thought just now but quickly regained her composure. “Alright, let’s resume the lesson.”

She stood up and added, “However, the rules are different this time.”

Ye Wenxin appeared confused. The kitsune continued with a serious face, “This time, you will retake the quiz based on what I just taught you. If you get any question wrong, there will be punishment.”

The kitsune produced a ruler. Ye Wenxin could almost imagine it audibly slapping her face. Forcing a smile, she asked, “That seems a bit too painful, Miss. Isn’t there a gentler method?”

Recalling the excruciating memory of the ruler hitting her palms, Ye Wenxin was unwilling to endure such punishment again. She knew herself well. A terrible student like her coming to the kitsune for lessons was a death sentence.

“Something not painful?” The kitsune looked distracted, thinking of something. She glanced at Ye Wenxin’s petite face, biting her lip. “There is a method that’s neither painful nor forgettable.”

Leaning in, she appeared the true embodiment of a kitsune. However, the woman calling herself Asuka was, in truth, a bewitching kitsune. Ye Wenxin sensed the kitsune intended to engage in something suggestive with her. But the kitsune was a sucker for love and probably wouldn’t go that far with a woman. So, she nodded and asked, “What do you plan to do, Miss?”

As she considered scenarios along that line, she couldn’t figure out what could be painless and unforgettable. The kitsune replied with a cryptic smile. “You’ll find out soon enough. Let’s get started first.”

This cliffhanger left Ye Wenxin speechless. However, recalling the previous lessons, she felt she had understood about seventy to eighty percent of the material, so she shouldn’t have any issues. She nodded in agreement, and the kitsune pulled out a sheet of questions identical to those from earlier today.

Ye Wenxin began to answer them earnestly while the kitsune sat nearby, enjoying her snacks and patiently waiting.

---

Footnotes:

1. 1. Refers to the incantation used for controlling Sun Wukong’s circlet. As the name suggests, the incantation tightens Sun Wukong’s golden circlet to an excruciating degree. The longer it’s chanted, the tighter it becomes. ↩︎