"I'm sorry, you're a good guy, but we're just not suitable for each other..."
"Damn it, friend-zoned again!" A drunken Li Yun Dong muttered under his breath, "The same old, cliched lines to fob me off!"
Recalling his confession under the teaching building that morning, Li Yun Dong couldn't help but feel frustrated and bitter. "Am I really that unfortunate? To get friend-zoned twenty-one times in my first year of college?"
"Screw it, I'll find someone prettier than you all one day!" With a ting, the elevator door opened. Li Yun Dong, staggering, step out of the elevator, and pulled out his keys at the entrance of his rented apartment.
His parents divorced when he was young. His father found a foreign woman and lived a carefree life abroad. His mother, not wanting to be left alone, also found a foreign man and emigrated to Australia, leaving him alone in China, with only a bit of "relief fund".
The unruly Li Yun Dong started to mess around from his junior year, and with his grades, he could only manage to get into the best university in Tian Nan City. Although it wasn't a big deal in China, the Arts Department of the university was famous and had produced many celebrities. The school was full of beauties. Unfortunately, according to the scientific theory of "opposites attract," where there are beautiful women, handsome men are also in abundance.
Although Li Yun Dong was not bad looking, he wasn't particularly good looking either. These days, men should either be handsome or unique. For those who look average, sorry, but if the friend-zone card isn't given to you, who else should it be given to?
Li Yun Dong was ambitious, only pursuing the prettiest girls in school, hence why he got friend-zoned so many times in a year. His continuous pursuit and continuous failure have turned him into a laughing stock on campus.
Thinking of those faces mocking him, especially those eyes laughing at him for being a toad wanting to eat swan meat, Li Yun Dong clenched his teeth in anger.
"Darn it!" Li Yun Dong stood at the door, raised his arms, and yelled. With a ping, the key fell to the ground.
Li Yun Dong bent down to pick it up, only to find a red fox-terrier lying at his door, its hind leg covered in blood. It was obviously injured.
The fox-terrier turned his head and struggled to lick his wound, all while looking pitifully at Li Yun Dong.
Those eyes immediately aroused Li Yun Dong's sympathy, and he picked up the fox-terrier, "Did your owner abandon you too? How pitiful, alas, same as me! My parents don't want me. Everyone looks down on me and rejects me. Is that the same for you? Don't worry, don't cry, I'll take care of you. I won't reject you!"
As you step through the door, you'll find yourself in the living room, which leads out to the balcony. Between the living room and balcony is a floor-to-ceiling window, covered by a thin, gauzy curtain.
In the middle of the living room is a glass coffee table, fitted over a cozy carpet. On the glass surface rests a PS2 console, beside which is a stack of game CDs. Next to the CDs, half a glass of cold water has been left unfinished.
Carrying a small fox, Li Yundong can no longer muster energy to support his inebriated body. He falls next to the coffee table, onto the carpet, and is soon loudly snoring.
The trembling little fox in his arms gradually calms down. Its eyes seem to become even brighter in the cool moonlight. It nudges Li Yundong's chin with its nose, testing whether he's genuinely asleep.
After a few tests, the fox finds that Li Yundong is sleeping like a log. Curling up its body, a faint azure light begins to emit, resembling countless light threads. These threads seep into Li Yundong's body, then slowly return to the fox, turning to a fiery red, then after returning to the fox, they turned back to azure again.
After repeating this process several times, the fox seems to rejuvenate after absorbing some of Li Yundong's Yang Qi. Its claw wounds stop bleeding. Suddenly, it jumps out of Li Yundong's arms, spins on the spot, and turns into a girl wearing a fiery, red long dress.
She looks around fifteen or sixteen, about 1.65 meters tall. Her eyes are bright and clear, incredibly insightful. The pupils are so dark that they seem to emit light, and flutter vivaciously with every small movement.
After carefully observing the room, the girl pats on her chest, and quietly says to herself, "That was a close call. I almost died here. My master worked so hard to steal this Human Essence Golden Elixir for me. What a pity it would be if I had died here before the chance to consume it?"
Examining Li Yundong, the fox-girl thoughtfully looks at the drunken man who had been holding her. Somehow, a certain sentiment fills her heart: "This fellow's background is quite similar to my own."
The fox-girl stood up, planning to leave the room. But then a thought struck her: with her foes doggedly pursuing her and her injuries not completely healed, what if she was discovered upon leaving?
"I might as well consume the Human Essence Golden Elixir right now!" The fox-girl draws out a round, gold-coated pill about the size of a pinky nail, reverently holding it as if it was her greatest treasure.
As soon as the golden pill is taken out, the entire room is filled with brilliant golden light, as if everything was bathed in bright daylight.
She had barely managed to steal the golden pill and had been relentlessly pursued to a point where she found no time to consume and digest the golden pill.
The thought had just crossed her mind when, out of the corner of her eye, she spotted two green lights flashing outside the window. Her body tensed, and she stared in fear at the direction of the window.
"It's over, it's over, how did they catch up again?" The little fox turned pale, panicking.
Why are these guys so relentlessly following her? No matter where she fled, they always managed to catch up?
The little fox thought as quick as a flash, but the sense of two overpowering auras rapidly approaching her caused frenzy. All of a sudden, her gaze fell upon Li Yundong beside her, and it struck her: Could it be possible that the aura emitted by the Golden Core in her hand had attracted the pursuers?
With swift reflexes, the little fox pounced next to Li Yundong, swiftly pinched his cheek, shoved the Golden Core into his mouth, and quickly transformed into a small fox hiding in his arms.
The little fox's scheme was definitively cunning. She dared to put the Golden Core into Li Yundong's mouth, hoping to make use of his child-like Yang energy.
This type of Yang energy is the purest in the world. It is the essence of a person's vital energy and resides in the perineum, only able to escape when it is lured forward by a woman's unique Yin energy.
The Yang energy has many uses, one of them being that it can cover up many types of aura, such as the extreme Yin energy, the unclean energy, and even the unique spiritual energy emitted by the Immortal Pill or divine artifacts.
The little fox dared to put the Golden Core into Li Yundong's mouth, not fearing that he would swallow it, because firstly, the Golden Core is not a melt-in-your-mouth Dove chocolate, and secondly, because Li Yundong was obviously drunk. People in this state will not swallow what is in their mouth unless they have to swallow it with water.
The Yang energy on Li Yundong's body could cover not only the Immortal aura of the Golden Core but also the Yin energy on the little fox. It was like killing two birds with one stone.
Sure enough, the moment the little fox jumped into Li Yundong's arms, the two flashes of green light flying outside the window suddenly stopped. Two figures appeared on the balcony, shadowing a graceful figure, vaguely recognisable as two women.
"It's strange, how could she disappear all of a sudden?" One woman, with a cold voice, whispered.
"Sister Ziyuan, have we been chasing the wrong person?" asked another woman, her voice sounding more jovial and naïve.
"Absolutely not!" The colder woman denied categorically.
"Well, let me go in and check, our trail suddenly stopped here!" The chirpy girl spoke.
Upon hearing the two women's conversation, the little fox initially felt self-satisfied with her clever plan, her fox tail even pointed upward in pride. However, when she heard that the woman wanted to break in for an inspection, she was instantly scared into a ball, all trembling, not daring to breathe loudly.
But another voice, cold and aloof, reprimanded in a low tone, "What nonsense! How can a cultivator disturb the ordinary mortals?"
The vibrant-voiced girl protested, "But, how can we explain when we go back?"
For a while, both women standing on the balcony fell silent.
The little fox was both shocked and scared, her heart was in a flutter. She kept praying, "Heavenly Grandfather, please leave swiftly, don't come in, I'll kowtow to you!"
Yet, as these thoughts incessantly ran through her mind, suddenly, Li Yun Dong coughed violently. His mouth parched, he tried to swallow, yet there's a Human Yuan Golden Pill in his mouth - how could he swallow that down?
The round, smooth Golden Pill rolled down his throat causing him great pain. Groggily, he barely sat up and stretched out a hand, fumbling for something on the tea table next to him.
The little fox's eyes widened in alarm as she witnessed Li Yun Dong's hand reaching for the half-drunk cup of water on the tea table. He gulped down huge swallows of water, drinking both the water and the Golden Pill in a single fell swoop.