My Evil Wife Is a Nine-Tailed Fox

Yan Lin felt utterly helpless at the moment. On one side, if she dared to escape, she would once again fall into one of the fox woman's enchantment spells. On the other side, the venomous Gu demon was staring at her, waiting for her next move. She didn't anticipate that something like this would happen when she lured the nine-tailed fox demoness by kidnapping her human contractor. 

It was a mistake for her to underestimate Shen Minyao, who had yet to reach the high rank. Only now did Yan Lin realize that she'd only given the nine-tailed fox demoness a reason to seek her in the pretense of saving her human contractor. 

The trap to kill her and her brood, wiping out their very existence, had been laid out not only by Shen Minyao but also Lord Qing some time ago. Yan Lin wasn't even aware of it until now. 

Still, how could Yan Lin admit defeat now that she faced the person responsible for her twin sister's death? Even if she had to die today, she needed to take Shen Minyao along with her, no matter what! 

Meanwhile, Shen Minyao yawned behind her hand, realizing that she'd grown worried about nothing earlier. Yan Lin wasn't enough to pose a threat towards her, nor to Zhao Yichen. Of course, she was the one who set the trap. 

The man who bumped into Zhao Yichen during his uncle's funeral was a human, but his scent reeked of something else. Shen Minyao didn't need to rack her brain to know what that meant. There was only one person who would want to use Zhao Yichen to lure her out like this, and it was none other than Yan Lin. 

It was for this reason that she'd asked her two guardians to weaken the barrier at Zhao Yichen's home. She allowed Yan Lin's people to think that they had tricked her through discreetly marking Zhao Yichen earlier. 

Xiao Bai and Yu Yan were both confused, but they followed her orders anyway. They could only watch in wonder as demons sneaked into Zhao Yichen's home and took him away. Even now, Zhao Yichen was still sleeping soundly, unaware of the commotion that was happening while he was out. 

Shen Minyao stared at the other demoness with boredom. She knew that if she were to devour Yan Lin's demon orb, there's a chance she would break into the high rank, but she didn't have any intention to feed on this vile creature. Instead, she would feed the demoness to her very young shikigami that still needed a lot of nourishment before he reached maturity. 

"Baiyu, I'm giving you your first meal. Do not waste nor leave a single trace of it." She patted the side of the head of the huge white snake next to her, her eyes flashing red as she looked at Yan Lin, who was now visibly trembling from fear. 

'Idiot,' the fox woman thought. In the demon world, showing fear was as good as waving a white flag towards the enemy. She was a little disappointed that Yan Lin was nothing but a lesser demon compared to Consort Yan who resisted showing fear, her eyes still filled with defiance even while she was being tortured. 

'Want to kill me with this level of disappointing strength? What she was even thinking, bringing her brood to death along with her? So stupid.' Shen Minyao frowned. 

She stood up and decided to leave the blood-sucking demoness to Baiyu and check on her human contractor. She lifted a hand and enchanted the whole room, so Yan Lin wouldn't be able to escape by breaking the glass window behind her. Yan Lin would need to defeat Baiyu first if she wanted to leave this room. 

Shen Minyao had enough of this farce already. She might be weaker when it came to power ranking, but Yan Lin would still need to train for several centuries to defeat her. Well, it wasn't like this weakling was going to live through that night. 

"Wait! Shen Minyao! Where do you think you are going?!" Yan Lin yelled when she noticed that the nine-tailed fox woman was dismissing her right on the bat. 

However, Baiyu obstructed the way and hissed. He bared his fangs that were dripping with venom, waiting for the perfect chance to strike. 

"I seek nothing but to fight only the strongest demons in the world. Dealing with such a weakling is a waste of my time. Be glad that at least, I'm allowing you to be part of the Gu demon you've cultivated and raised from the very start," Shen Minyao said before entering the bedroom where Zhao Yichen and Mu Qing were. 

She found the grim reaper deep in his own thoughts, and she didn't dare to question him what transpired in his meeting with his superiors. It was obvious that he was given the task to eliminate her himself if things got worse after they dealt with Xuan Yanrui. 

Such a cowardly move from the netherworld… the fox woman thought as she lay on the bed next to Zhao Yichen. Her hand reached out to play with his hair, while her arm propped under to support her head. His breathing was still even, indicating that he was in a deep slumber. 

Perhaps an after effect of the mark Yan Lin left on him earlier… Shen Minyao thought. It's better this way, so Zhao Yichen wouldn't have an idea what could happen to her in the future. 

Although she and Mu Qing argued and had disagreements sometimes, she held respect towards this odd grim reaper. He was the only grim reaper she'd been acquainted with in her long life as a demon. 

"I don't mind if you want to kill me," she whispered under her breath. She knew Mu Qing would be able to hear her clearly, regardless of how soft she said those words. 

"I'm not one to kill someone I am acquainted with," Mu Qing replied, still keeping his attention to the cityscape in front of him. 

"But you need to understand that I'm still a threat to humanity. While I'm sure that it's not your responsibility to kill a demon like me, it would lessen the burden you need to pay to be reborn again." Shen Minyao reasoned out, but Mu Qing already knew of this. She was only confirming what he already knew. 

"No. I refused to be used in such an underhanded way to eliminate you. I would rather spend some more centuries collecting human souls than kill you with my own hands. No matter what crime I did in my past life, having your blood on my hands would be worse." The grim reaper was clearly upset with the current orders he received. 

How could they ask him to do something like that? 

"No, you don't have to do this to protect me, but if the day comes, and I lose myself again in an insane killing spree… Mu Qing, I want you to kill me. I'm sure my brother and Li Fei'er wouldn't be willing to do the job, but you are." 

This time, Lord Hell turned around to face her. Half of his face was covered in shadows. 

"Do you trust me this much?" He questioned her, wondering if he'd heard her right. 

"Yes," the fox woman replied without batting an eyelid. 

"I'm not saying this because I grew fond of these humans… I only want to avoid a calamity if I were to lose myself again," she said, not breaking her eye contact with him. 

Mu Qing fell silent at that. So, Shen Minyao knew… and yet, she's still asking him to kill her if that happens. 

"Fine. I give you my word. I would not hesitate to turn my blade against you if that time comes," he replied. Perhaps this was the answer she needed to hear all this time. 

The corner of Shen Minyao's lips broke into a smile. She was pleased to hear Mu Qing's answer. 

"But what about him?" Mu Qing was referring to Zhao Yichen, who was still oblivious to the problem Shen Minyao was facing. 

"He would live so long as my previous fox orb is still in his body," Shen Minyao explained, "but I doubt his life would be an easy one, considering no one would protect him once I perished in this world." 

"Someone like you isn't easy to eliminate." 

"I suppose you are right." The fox woman chuckled at that. "Even Li Yun and Jiang Mo weren't able to kill me centuries ago. Ah, if they didn't have such an attachment to Su Daji, they could have killed me easily." 

"Perhaps you are mistaken, then. The one whom they couldn't bear to kill wasn't the human Su Daji but you." 

Shen Minyao hummed, but she didn't say anything in response. It wasn't like Mu Qing was wrong with his assumptions.. In fact, he might have stated a fact that she'd been trying to ignore for some time now.