Little One (1)

Xiao Bai couldn't believe what they were seeing right then and there. Even the fox woman had fallen silent the moment their eyes caught a familiar figure walking towards the ICU where Zhao Yichen and Yu Yan were. 

They had decided to lure out the wraith tonight to leave the hospital with them, tricking it to come into a sacred shrine that was located five hundred meters away from the hospital. 

However, the moment they saw the young woman, Shen Minyao had been rooted to her place and didn't dare to take a step towards the ICU. Her eyes were fixed on the oblivious young woman busy surveying the area. 

"I'm pretty sure I'm not hallucinating, but milady, are you seeing what I'm seeing right now?" The white cat resting on Shen Minyao's shoulder asked. How come a person that had been dead for several hundred years was now in the flesh, standing a few meters away from them? 

Was this a trap to lure the nine-tailed fox woman? This young woman reeked with the scent of the shamans. What was the Li family up to now? Had they found out that the nine-tailed fox had managed to escape from its seal? 

"What do you think?" The fox woman scoffed, but her eyes had an unfathomable glint on them. "Heavens must be really laughing at me right now. How dare they use Little Jiu to spite me like this," she said with a bitter tone. 

Whoever that young woman was had a striking resemblance to the human the fox woman had taken in as her ward in her previous life. Little Jiu was an orphan the fox woman saved from being sold to a brothel at the young age of thirteen. 

Since then, Little Jiu had become the personal attendant of Su Daji, the fox woman's previous host, accompanying her even at the imperial palace when Su Daji was forced to serve the emperor. Little Jiu had been the second human the fox woman deeply cared for in her long life, treating the human girl like her little sister. 

Eventually, Little Jiu grew up and fell in love with the fox woman's elder brother who was also a nine-tailed fox, a forbidden love between a demon and a mortal. 

It wasn't until Su Daji was hunted not only by the rebels but also the shamans did Little Jiu lose her life by protecting Su Daji from the series of onslaught the rebels and the shamans made against them. Little Jiu's sudden death had caused the fox woman to go berserk, going into a killing spree and leaving a single human alive within the thousand li radius. 

No wonder the humans made the name Su Daji synonymous with a malevolent spirit who caused the demise of an old kingdom. Since then, her name was known to men and women of history forever for her great beauty and 'eternal infamy'. 

To lose Little Jiu… was to lose a part of the fox woman's self. So for her to see a young woman walking with the same face as the human ward she came to care for in her previous life, it felt like an insult to the fox woman. 

Of all the familiar faces she needed to see again, why did it have to be Little Jiu? 

She had never cared about what humans and fellow demons said about her, but the moment they colluded to harm her—killing her human ward in the process—had made her unleash the wrath and viciousness that had never been seen before by any humans. 

"Milady, what should we do now? The wraith is about to show up now. If that girl remained here, even if she's a shaman, I don't think she would be able to exorcise the wraith on her own," Xiao Bai reminded his mistress of the situation they were in.

However, the fox woman remained unperturbed with their problem. This young woman might have shared the face and the scent with their Little Jiu, but how much did she retain from her past incarnation? Moreover, she was reborn as a shaman that would clearly pose a threat not only towards the fox woman in the future but to Zhao Yichen as well. 

"Milady…" Xiao Bai called after her again. 

"Let's wait and see what she's up to," Shen Minyao replied. If this woman came here because of the demons taking control of the place, then she was a fool to face them on her own. 

Only an experienced shaman who had faced demons and ghosts for years and decades would be able to ward them. Shen Minyao and Xiao Bai were sure that this girl didn't have enough experience under her belt to exorcise these demons, so what the hell was she doing here? 

Xiao Bai sighed inwardly. If his mistress wouldn't intervene, he had no doubt that this foolish little girl would lose her life if the demons decided to come after her at once. 

"You know it would come after you, and yet you willingly came on your own? I must say you surely don't know what's good for you." The two heard a familiar voice and saw the same grim reaper they met yesterday. He was leaning near the wide windows of the hospital with his arms crossed over his chest. 

"Can't wait to see me die, huh?" Shen Minyao chuckled. "But not today, dear. Not today." 

The grim reaper only raised a brow, and then his attention turned to Li Fei'er. 

"I thought you said you don't like being associated with shamans, and yet you brought one today," he told Shen Minyao. 

"What made you think that she is with me?" The fox woman frowned. "She foolishly came on her own. You think I would ask her for help? What are you doing here anyway? I thought you can't deal with wraiths…" 

The grim reaper shrugged. "I have to see it for myself… how this problem will end."