Deceit

After making sure that everything was alright with her daughter, Xu Yue once again opened the spatial ring given to her by her ancestor and took out a random jade slip.

Only a few moments after that, under the lazy eyes of Xu Huan, Xu Yue closed her eyes as she began comprehending it.

Sometime after that, Xu Huan's eyelids began moving, slowly but surely covering her eyes, as the little fox fell asleep.

...

The moment Xu Huan opened her eyes and stared at her mother, who seemed to have not changed in the slightest, she couldn't help but scratch the back of her head with her paw.

But at the same time, Xu Huan herself had changed rather significantly, having grown another tail whilst she had been sleeping.

'I'm not sure how long my nap was, but it couldn't have been too long, could I have possibly already caught up to big sister?' thought Xu Huan as an extremely rare sneaky look appeared on her face.

A moment later, a large silver paw suddenly appeared next to Xu Huan, creating a hole in space for her to pass through.

The moment Xu Huan passed through the hole, the small smile present on her face suddenly vanished, as she stared at the scene in front of her with her mouth gaping.

Xu Xiaoqing, who currently had three tails, was easily being thrown about by Xu Yanmei, who had a whole five tails.

Looking at the scene in front of her, the two tails behind Xu Huan, which had been previously held up high, lowered themselves between her legs.

'Did a longer long time pass than I expected?' thought Xu Huan as she watched Xu Yanmei suppress Xu Xiaoqing in a corner of the room whilst looking through a certain spatial ring.

Only a few moments after that, a bunch of different items floated from Xu Xiaoqing's spatial ring to Xu Yanmei's ring, under the latter's watchful eyes.

Suddenly, Xu Yanmei raised her head to look at Xu Huan, her eyes lighting up as soon as she saw her.

A fraction of a moment later, a large paw suddenly picked up the tiny two-tailed fox and bought it closer to Xu Yanmei.

"Sister, did something happen?" asked Xu Yanmei as the giant paw patter Xu Huan's fur.

Although she heard Xu Yanmei's words, as she stared at the five tails emerging from the latter, did not say anything for a few moments.

"How much time passed since I entered seclusion with Mother?" asked Xu Huan, slightly dreading the answer which would inevitably come.

"Just over 340 years, so, what's the matter," said Xu Yanmei, causing Xu Huan to suddenly freeze.

As she turned and looked back at the two tails emerging from her body, as well as at Xu Yanmei's five tails, Xu Huan felt an emerging dread.

"It's nothing, I was just curious," mumbled Xu Huan before quickly walking out of the room, leaving Xu Yanmei and Xu Xiaoqing alone.

After a few moments, Xu Yanmei turned to Xu Xiaoqing.

"Do you think this will trick her into cultivating more seriously?" asked Xu Yanmei, causing Xu Xiaoqing to slightly nod.

"The worst case scenario is that she soon discovers how much time has actually passed, but even so, this will still implant fear into her."

"Best case scenario, she immediately goes into seclusion without ever learning how much time has passed," said Xu Xiaoqing as a glint passed through her eyes.

"Hmm, that would indeed be good," mumbled Xu Yanmei as she touched her chin with her paw.

"But even so big sister, your five tails even managed to trick my senses, how did you create them?" asked Xu Xiaoqing as she moved behind Xu Yanmei, whilst touching the latter's tails.

"They aren't fake," said Xu Yanmei, causing Xu Xiaoqing to suddenly freeze.

Looking at her big sister, who had a faint smile on her face, Xu Xiaoqing slightly gulped.

"That's very impressive..." mumbled Xu Xiaoqing as she stared at her own third tail, which had just grown out.

Only a few moments ago, Xu Xiaoqing was very confident, having managed to grow out her third tail in under one hundred years.

But as she looked at her big sister, Xu Xiaoqing finally learned how Xu Huan had felt just a few moments ago.

Only a moment later, in a manner extremely similar to Xu Huan, Xu Xiaoqing left the room, leaving Xu Yanmei alone.

Not long after she left, Xu Yanmei let out a slight chuckle, as she suddenly turned to her human form.

"Both of them should be in seclusion by now, I can go out in this form without scaring them to death," mumbled Xu Yanmei as she used her human hands to touch the six tails which were emerging from her back.

To not break the spirit of her cute little sisters, Xu Yanmei had decided to not show her sixth tail to them, fearing that this would affect them negatively.

Although Xu Yanmei frequently punished Xiaoqing for causing trouble, she was also quite adept at doing so herself, but sadly, she did not have the strength to do so up until now.

"Sword Region, here I come," mumbled Xu Yanmei as she walked out of the room, ready to go inform her mother that she would temporarily leave the sect.

Although Hulli Jing could be quite protective, Xu Yanmei was sure that the latter would let her go after seeing her cultivation.

After all, in the Sword Region, Hulli Jing could take action relatively quickly to save her daughter if something happened to her.

At the same time, by that point, Xu Yanmei would probably be next to Xu Yue, who had sensed that something was about to go wrong using the Dao of Fate.

As Xu Yanmei had predicted, she did not face much danger while going out in the Sword Region.

Of course, the same could not be said by the other cultivators and forces of the Sword Region, who now had to deal with an extreme headache.

Sadly, though, this was a story for another time.