The Little Fox's Immortal Cultivation Encyclopedia

The constables walked back and forth, maintaining order and dividing the throng into several lines. Each line was guided by a temple keeper, and on a small table to the side, writing brushes, ink, paper, and neatly stacked lanterns were prepared in advance.

"Please proceed in turn, without crowding. If you cannot wait, you may go home on your own; there is no need to rush."

The onlookers stirred slightly, but no one was willing to leave. They had long been interested in the lamps on the table, a step that had never been taken before in the Autumn Festival celebrations.

Caiyu stretched his neck, peering into the gaps in the crowd. Unlike the recitation of prayers, the lamp-lighting ceremony wasn't held on the altar, so he couldn't see it clearly.

Li Lang smiled, reached out and lifted him up, placing him steadily on his shoulder, and murmured softly, "Don't rush, it'll be your turn soon."

Caiyu suddenly grew taller, gaining a much wider field of vision. Looking from afar, he noticed something was amiss.

The lamps on the square table were of all kinds and sizes, unlike the lamps in some temples or Taoist temples in the past, which were categorized and arranged according to their meaning of blessing or cost. Instead, they were just mixed together haphazardly.

What's even more unusual is that after the lanterns are lit, the worshippers are allowed to take them home along with the lantern plaques and enshrine them themselves.

Pu Caiyu pondered for a moment, then dismounted from the shoulder and patiently followed the group, moving slowly.

Time flowed by, the sun began to set, and before we knew it, the queue had formed in front of us.

"Go ahead." Li Lang raised his hand and ruffled his hair. "You go first."

Caiyu nodded and eagerly stepped forward. The temple keeper smiled at him, picked up a lamp from the table, and handed it to him.

As she got closer, Caiyu noticed that there wasn't a trace of oil in the lamp, and the wick wasn't hemp thread or lamp wick, but just a reddish-white downy hair lying around.

The afterglow gently fell upon the downy fur, emitting a barely perceptible warm glow.

"Take a strand of hair," the temple keeper said softly, "and mix it with the liquid in the lamp."

Caiyu's eyes widened, but she still followed the temple keeper's instructions carefully, pulling out a strand of hair and twisting it together with the downy hair.

The temple keeper handed out a lantern: "Write down your name, then close your eyes and pray to the fox god."

Caiyu held the brush and wrote her name on the lantern sign stroke by stroke, then closed her eyes and prayed silently.

"I hope Dad..." The thought had barely formed in his mind when he felt a soft, furry touch brush against his body, carrying a slight warmth. It was fleeting, almost imperceptible, leaving only a faint itch.

He instinctively opened his eyes, and a golden flame inexplicably ignited in the lamp before him. A gentle breeze blew by, but the flame did not flicker at all; it burned brightly.

Caiyu looked at the hand holding the lamp; a soft, faint glow emanated from the palm and vanished in an instant.

"Alright, take it home and worship it properly. Don't worry about the lamp going out; it will keep burning forever."

Caiyu nodded and followed the crowd away. Beside him, different people held different lanterns, each burning with the same flame. One, two, ten, a hundred. The candlelight shone bright yellow, spreading through the streets and alleys, converging into a dazzling sea of ​​lights.

Like a spark falling to earth.

The sea of ​​light converged, then diverged with the footsteps of people, turning into different alleys. The river continued to disperse, transforming into specks of starlight that disappeared into courtyards.

……

The fox lay on the peach tree branch, eyes closed and deep in thought.

But its eyes were not dark; one after another, the lamps of the human world lit up in its eyes, and the points of light converged to form a flowing sea of ​​stars.

Warm and bright, silent and vast. Countless prayers welled up in the fox's heart.

"May the Fox God protect my child so that he can grow up safely and healthily, with few illnesses and disasters."

"I wish my man who has traveled far away would return home soon, and have a safe and smooth journey."

"May the elderly in my family be healthy, have a good appetite, and suffer less from illness."

The fox slowly pried open the almost solidified willpower, calmly peeling away impurities, purifying and refining it. The golden brilliance and occasional turbidity were stripped away, leaving only a simple, viscous, heavy, and luminous white.

Tiny specks of starlight moved beneath the skin, slowly flowing towards the base of the tail. Where the light flowed, fluorescent white seeped into the underlying downy hairs, then trickled down to the tips of the hairs.

All the radiance eventually coalesced at the base of the tail into a warm, round ball of light.

"Click."

A crack appeared at the top of the ball of light, like a seed sprouting or a sparrow hatching, from which countless pure white light threads were drawn out, stretching upwards slowly and steadily.

It's so itchy.

The fox looked back and saw a soft, ethereal white tail slowly unfurling from its base.

"Great! The fox has a new tail!" The fox paused for a moment, then its eyes widened with delight rather than surprise. "Even if another city of people comes, I don't have to worry about my tail being plucked clean!"

"The fox's tail has nine orifices, which is the secret of the fox clan's cultivation. Those born with nine tails are endowed with the spiritual essence of heaven and earth, and their nine orifices open naturally, making them innately perfect in their Dao nature, unlike ordinary foxes."

"Ordinary foxes do not possess this endowment; they must cultivate diligently to refine their apertures and increase their tails. Each time an aperture is condensed, a tail is added. Each aperture condenses the fruits of one's own cultivation and practice. When the apertures are opened, supernatural powers are revealed."

Oh, I see.

The fox wagged its white tail with curiosity, and the world in its eyes suddenly seemed to split apart.

Hundreds and thousands of perspectives overlapped before its eyes simultaneously, yet the fox felt no dizziness. Following the connection of the lamplight, the fox carefully observed the world through human eyes.

The fox could see a group of people gathered around a butcher shop, slaughtering the fattest pigs and geese, then carefully processing them, sticking red paper on the pigs' foreheads and tying silk ribbons around the geese's necks.

They excitedly discussed whose offerings would be chosen by the fox spirit after the offerings were placed on the altar the next day.

A man stood nearby, his eyes darting around anxiously, comparing the others to the goose in his hand. After glancing left and right, he quietly reached out and tied his silk ribbon to the largest goose.

The fox saw everything through the eyes of an old man.

The fox saw the shrew family with talismans pasted on their hands, its paws constantly digging into the soil, traversing underground, recording every trace of malevolent energy. Every now and then, it would sneak up to the stall, hollow out the ground, and let a fruit or two of sweet cake fall out, which it would then stuff into its cheeks.

Behind them followed a swarm of rats, a dark mass, who knew when they had been subdued. They were following closely behind them, burrowing into the soil.

They also have the Cloud Master's talisman drawn on their bodies.

How many talismans did Abbot Yun draw?

The fox then saw the temple keeper approach a man wearing a hat, repeating the instructions to light the lamps. The man hesitated for a long time, and after several tugs, he reluctantly took off his hat, revealing a bald forehead that shone brighter than any lamp in the setting sun.

The fox smacked its lips. Compared to him, its own tail was only slightly sparse, not bald at all.

The fox watched quietly, peering through lamp after lamp, through pair after pair of eyes, observing with curiosity and keen observation.

All sorts of human phenomena came one after another.