Reborn To Be The Imperial Consort [BL]-Chapter 65: Zopyra — X

"Please cease your steps, Clan Leader!"

Hu Lijing froze, his right foot suspended in the air, unable to touch the floor. Tension seeped into his muscles as he looked in through the open doors of the shrine, the smoke of incense blurring everything within his line of sight.

He didn’t move an inch, not daring to even make a single muscle twitch was his foot hung on the threshold separating the shrine from the outside world.

"Priestess?" He called out, voice soft, concern lacing the singular word as a frown decorated his handsome visage framed by his amber locks. "Is something the matter?" He asked, glancing inside the shrine of their god.

"Please, step back." The priestess shook her head, hand held up to him.

Without protesting, Hu Lijing nodded and retracted his foot, not finding it in himself the courage to slight the god residing in the shrine.

"Did I perhaps do something to slight our deity, priestess?" He inquired, taking in the troubled expression on the fox’s face.

Despite himself, the nine-tailed fox could not help but feel the threads of worry crawl into his heart, their slithering path weaving a rope of distress. And the rope twisted into a knot, filling him with an uncanny unease in the pit of his stomach.

The priestess made no sound, neither answering his question nor offering a word of reassurance. As she stood in front of him with her eyes closed while wearing a deep frown on her otherwise gentle face, Hu Lijing felt his heart skip a beat or two.

As time crawled ahead, seconds bleeding into minutes, Hu Lijing’s worry turned into silent distress as he watched the priestess purse her lips together, her slender form bathed in the dim pallor of the shrine behind her.

A cold numbness clawed throughout his veins, cold as ice, it bled into the nerves in his body, his feet rooting themselves on the ground under them.

After the torturous silence stretched out for what felt like an eternity, the priestess finally opened her eyes. Taking a step out of the prayer hall of the, she looked up at him, her serene gaze filled with what he could only identify as worry.

"Clan Leader," her words were a whisper and her whisper gentle like herself and the breeze that carried the scent of spring. "Are you unaware?"

Hu Lijing stood his ground, head bowed as he gave her a confused look. "Unaware of what, Priestess?"

Her lips parted, eyes widening ever so slightly in bewilderment as she looked up at him. "So, you are unaware indeed."

Her cryptic words did not sit right with Hu Lijing. He believed himself to be a fairly patient person, a fairly patient fox spirit, though the said virtue had never been his forte.

Against his better judgement, the divine fox bristled, worry seizing his heart as his head spun with countless possibilities of something going down hill.

"What are your words supposed to mean, Priestess?" He gritted out, taking a deep breath. "I fail to understand the implication behind your cryptic inquiries."

At his words, the female fox spirit at least had the decency to look something akin to sheepish despite the placid facade she adorned herself with.

Sweeping her hand out, gesturing behind Hu Lijing, she looked at him, eyes twinkling with something unknown as she smiled.

"Follow me, Clan Leader. It would be better not to discuss this matter out in the open. Especially not in front of our deity’s shrine."

Her words sent a chill down the nine-tailed fox’s spine, shoulders tensing instinctively as he stole a glance at the inside of the shrine.

Though not many were aware, their god, their guardian, the Ten-tailed divine fox who had ascended to godhood several millennia prior...

—He had long since fallen. He was no longer a revered deity of heaven. But a fallen, disgraced god who’d disappeared from the abode of gods.

Yet, their clan continued to worship the fallen deity.

When Hu Lijing was younger, he had dared to ask the former clan leader. All he got in answer to his question was an ominous glance and a fretful warning—

— "Never speak of his name ever again, Lijing." The six tailed elder had warned him, ill-concealed worry in his eyes. "He might overlook this once, but the next time... He will come."

"Clan Leader?"

Hu Lijing flinched out of his thoughts and abruptly looked away from the shrine, a shiver wrecked his body as he all but whirled around, nodding swiftly as he strode after her.

"Yes, I’m coming."

As he took several steps away from the maw of the dim lit shrine, as though under some compulsion, he couldn’t help but look back.

His heart stuttered against his ribcage as he turned to look back over his shoulder, hands fisting his wide sleeves.

The moment he caught a glimpse of the shadow looming in the corner of the shrine, Hu Lijing’s heart ceased.

—Staring right back at him were a pair of ethereal and cold-blooded, crimson in hue, eyes. Through the shadow, a set of sharp teeth bared at him, giving him a wide grin.

Hu Lijing jumped, stumbling on his feet as a scream ceased in his throat. Sweat trickling down his brows. ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom

... What was that thing?

Fear curled in his gut as the primal fear of the strong ingrained in the soul of those weaker spiked in his heart. Shivers wrecked all over his body as the nine-tailed fox’s sharp claws sprang out, his body perceiving itself to be in danger and hence more than ready to defend.

What was that?

Blood red, glowing crimson flashed in his mind, sending an instinctive shudder running throughout him.

What was that thing?

Hu Lijing had lived in this realm for almost a thousand years. Not once had he ever seen something like that. Not once had anything, anyone, inspired such bone chilling fear that his body gave a fight or flight response.

His heart hammered in his chest, white hot surge of blood coursed in his veins as he breathed heavily, claws digging into the hard dirt under him, breaking through the first layer of the ground.

His mouth ran dry, throat parching as he tried to swallow while making an effort to somehow stand on his feet once more.

To no avail. His feet felt weak, powerless as the numbness spread throughout his body.

When he blinked, all he could see was red.

Blood red.

A familiar colour that had been plaguing his mind for ages. Red like the colour of his dreams, red like this hue of viscous blood flowing out of his kinsmen’s bodies.

Crimson like the fluid that stained his face, hands and body, metallic was the taste of it on his tongue, in his dreams.

Hu Lijing flinched.

What was that..?

"Clan Leader!" Startled exclamation of the priestess running to him and Hu Lijing snapping his head to look at her, hand raised as his trembling fingers pointed at the darkness drowning the shrine inspite of the lamps burning.

"Who— no, what is in there?" Without intending, Hu Lijing found himself sharing at her.

Her pallid features were enough for him to seize the threadbares of secret hidden within that shrine.

"Priestess." He growled, beautiful amber eyes flashing with feral rage, instinct telling him to pounce, to protect himself and tear apart whatever was hidden in those damned shadows. "What is there?!"

The priestess bowed her head, kneeling beside him as her fingers shook around his upper arm. However, she remained silent.

Hu Lijing’s rage grew, fear intertwining with the hot fury in a destructive dance. "What are you hiding?" He whispered to her, low voice hoarse as he glared at her, looking like he was going to behead her instantly.

Despite his frightening countenance, the priestess showed not a speck of fear, instead her lips pursed together, her words trapped in her throat.

"Priestess..." Hu Lijing hissed, courtesy forgotten in face of distress as he seized her by the throat, squeezing the thrumming pulse under his palm as his claws scratched her flesh. "I do not like repeating myself."

The fox spirit whimpered, her hands wrapping around Hu Lijing’s wrist as she looked at him with panic in her eyes, feeling her airflow stop as she stared into his glowing amber eyes.

The nine-tailed fox seemed to have lost his mind.

"Clan Leader! Clan Leader!" With great efforts, she choked out, trying to pry his voice claws off her neck. "Clan Leader, please don’t let it get to you! Clan Leader, please snap out of it! Clan Leader—" a sharp sob left her lips as the nine-tailed fox bared his fangs at her, eyes bloodshot "—Clan Leader!! Fight it! Please, fight its influence! I beg you, I beg you not for myself but the child growing within you!!"

As soon as her scream fell, Hu Lijing’s grip slackened, fury changing to confusion before the confusion gave way to shock.

Before he knew it, the nine-tailed fox dropped to his knees, hands pressing on his belly as he looked down stiffly.

"What...?" He craoked out, eyes clearing away as the blood receded from the stark white sclera, the unknown influence breaking.

"My What?" He breathed out, looking down at her limp form in daze.

"Y-you are—" the Priestess coughed harshly, her eyes glancing towards the shrine as her cracking voice dipped to a whisper. "—you are with a child, Clan Leader."