Xiao Yue jumped up and down saying: "The chapter is less than 50% complete, just wait until midnight to read it!" Hu Qi naturally smiled and replied: "I heard from the Fox Official of Dongshan that the little fox's name is Yunmian."

  Wen Ting murmured "oh" and unconsciously repeated in her mouth: "... Yunmian."

  His gaze drifted off for a moment, and when he came back to himself, he saw Huo Qiuli smiling brightly at him. He couldn't help but feel his face heat up as he explained, "I just remembered her name. She's from Qingqiu Village, and since no one else was taking care of her, I did it for the young master of Qingqiu. Now that you know, you should remember too, so you can help out in the future."

  "I know."

  Hú Qī smiled and said, "He naturally knew that the young master had a cold face but a kind heart, and was concerned about what happened earlier."

  He took a step back and bowed: "Since the name list has been delivered, Hu Qi will take his leave."

  "Go."

  The young master nodded.

  Hu Qi said: "There are still fifteen days before the assessment. The assessment time for each mountain head is specially arranged at different times. Hu Master's wife has instructed that after all, it is to select a young master who can read books in the future, so it is better for the young master to go and take a look personally."

  "Good."

  Hú Qī paid his respects and bid farewell.

  After the departure of Huo Qi, Wen Ting stood alone in the courtyard under the night sky. He held a sword in one hand and his gaze fell on the stack of nameplates that Huo Qi had placed on the stone table in the courtyard, and he suddenly paused.

  "Cloud Slumber..."

  He hadn't gotten a clear look at his opponent's face back in Japan, and now it was even more indistinct, only remembering that he was a small white fox, but for some reason, the pair of eyes in his mind were still vivid.

  ...this sentimental emotion, and I don't know where it comes from.

  Wen Ting's heart slightly stirred, somewhat dazed, but ultimately didn't speak, and instead re-gripped his sword. ... Cop Fox Qiutian flew out several zhang away, heard a sound behind him and turned back, only to see a flash of sword light, and the young master had already resumed practicing his sword in the night.

  The fox smiled and quietly left.

  ……

  In autumn, the Qingxiu Mountain area is exceptionally quiet and leisurely, with mountains full of wild fruits that can't be finished eating. In this peaceful atmosphere, time seems to slow down as well.

  After Yunmian transformed into a human by worshiping the moon that day, she returned to her home in the fox den.

  Although she was still a bit out of spirits, Yunmian knew that after autumn came winter. If she didn't take advantage of the harvest season to stock up on food, she might not be able to get through the long winter. So for the past two days, she had been making an effort to perk herself up, dragging her tail as she ran back and forth in the mountains, carefully storing the fruits she brought back in the mountain cave.

  She worked hard during this period, and even when she saw a butterfly, she didn't run halfway to chase it. Before long, she piled up a large heap of fruit in the cave. She ate the perishable fruits first and left the non-perishable nuts for later, planning to dig a snow hole and bury them after winter arrived.

  When Yunmian had gradually piled up the food to a height much higher than herself, it was already the fifth day. On this day, Yunmian had just crawled out of the cave and ran for only a few steps when she saw a small mountain fox jumping around excitedly, waving its tail at her nonstop.

  Yunmian was actually still a bit uncertain about Qingqiu's life, but seeing someone she knew made her heart feel at ease, and she quickly waved her tail in excitement, hopping and jumping towards her.

  Xiao Yue jumped down from the stone and ran agilely to her side. The two foxes trotted along for a while, Xiao Yue curiously nudged Yunmian's neck with her head and asked: "Your bell looks great, but is it broken? Why doesn't it ring?"

  After that night of worshiping the moon, the relationship between the two became quite good. When Yunmian saw Xiaoyue ask, he hastily replied: "Nothing's wrong, it seems to be like this..."

  As she spoke, Yunmian jumped up and down on the ground with force.

  The little bell rang out with a crisp "ding-dong" sound, and Xiao Yue exclaimed in surprise: "It really rang!"

  Yunmeng excitedly let out a loud "Wow!" towards her.

  Yunmian actually didn't know what was going on herself, she had been wearing this bell since her memory started. She liked the shiny golden bell very much and also liked its tinkling sound, vaguely knowing it was called "Golden Feather Bell". However, while watching it happily, the bell would ring slightly when moved, and after listening for a long time, it became a bit annoying, especially when Yunmian rolled over twice during sleep and woke herself up.

  She fiddled around the small pond for half a day, hoping that the bell would stop ringing. Yunmian was originally a bit embarrassed, but unexpectedly, after she thought so, the bell actually wouldn't make any more noise at random times.

  This could have ruined Cloud's nap, a little fox was jumping and rolling around the edge of the pond for half a day, by the time she had mastered the bell's trick, it was almost dark.

  Yunmian and Xiaoyue discussed the bell for half a day before continuing on their way towards the mountain forest.

  According to Hu Guan's repeated reminders that day, today is the day they officially start their cultivation in Qingqiu, and they must arrive at school on time for class.

  They had not gone far when they saw a school nestled in the depths of the green hills.

  Yunmian's spiritual intelligence had just opened, and even though she had been waiting on Qingqiu for several days after worshiping the moon, there were still many things that she couldn't figure out. She was confused, to say the least. She imitated Xiaoyue's actions, handing over the paper she had received that day and the remaining Osmanthus branches from her worship of the moon to the fox official guarding the entrance. The fox official looked at them and then smiled, allowing them to enter.

  Yunmian originally wanted to follow Xiaoyue all the way, but didn't expect that she had just happily followed a few steps when she was hastily stopped by Huo Guan.

  "Although it's training, this year is different from usual."

  The fox official explained patiently: "The young master's reading selection is imminent, and in the past, each mountain school has been teaching and practicing on its own, with different progress sequences. However, for the assessment ten days later, the Fox Palace specially sent a chief fox official from Qingqiucheng at the source of the Si River to teach everyone for ten days. The positions in the dojo these few days are all temporarily arranged, you are in the west dojo today, and your friend is not in the same place."

  To be honest, Yunmeng was still unclear about the situation at Qingqiu Academy, but after hearing Hu Guan's words, he realized that he had misunderstood and his face turned red as he apologized with a "Wooo" sound.

  Xiao Yue didn't think that much, she was also wandering around, and only after hearing Huo Guan's words did she take out her paper scroll again to take a look. Upon discovering that they were indeed not in the same place, she let out a disappointed "ah" and swung her tail at her, saying: "That's okay, we'll meet up next time!"

  Clouds slept and she waved goodbye. She carried a laurel branch, somewhat nervously walking to the western Taoist temple, feeling around for a while, finally finding what seemed like the location of the western Taoist temple. She clumsily went in and found an empty cushion to sit on, waiting until the Taoist priests arrived, soon after which the teacher came.

  As the outside fox official said, the one who came to guide recently is the main seat fox official in Qingqiu City, whose cultivation status is much higher than that of ordinary fox officials.

  The man who came in was wearing a moon-white long gown, with a crown of the same color on his forehead, his face was white and beardless, not speaking or laughing, different from the imagined old gentleman, but his serious expression and the seven tails behind him immediately calmed down the large group of small foxes in the house, and the house that was bustling just now suddenly fell silent.

  A young man with a cold expression scanned the surroundings, looked at the various colored small foxes crouched on the tatami mat, and ignored their drooping ears. He shook his sleeves and sat down in the front seat, swung his seven long tails behind him, and began to lecture.

  Yunmian was also shocked and hastily picked up the pen that had been placed in front of her, struggling to remember.

  The little foxes are studying in the school, originally they would mainly follow the local fox officials to learn the way, learn to repair their tails, and learn some living skills. According to the different local customs, they will also teach some daily knowledge such as identifying tree fruits, planting spiritual grass, and preparing for festivals. But these days' lessons are all set up for the young master to select future companions to enter the Fox Palace, which is different from usual.

  The Academy has four main classrooms, each with a fox official as the teacher. In addition to lectures on deeper Taoist scriptures, heart secrets, and techniques, they also teach political theory, geography, the history of mountains and seas, the lives of immortals, and the lives of ordinary people.

  This content is vastly different from what the little foxes usually come into contact with, almost everyone starts from scratch, and some even have to overthrow their original cognition to learn. Everyone's acceptance degree is different. The main fox official will write something on paper every day after class, approximately recording the reactions and emotions of the little foxes one by one.

  He thus spent ten days in the school, and when the tenth day's lessons were over, he took up his books without a word and went away, leaving behind him a large group of little foxes staring at each other in amazement.

  Yunmian didn't have much concept of doing homework, but just heard that Hu Guan and others said it was very important, so she was afraid of not doing well, and whether she understood or not, she followed the format to write down on paper.

  At this age, most young foxes haven't even started learning characters, and Mr. Fox doesn't care, talking more and more difficultly to himself.

  Yunmian was even more perfect and couldn't write, so she drew a small symbol for everything she heard. When she heard "guǒ" (fruit), she drew a round fruit, when she heard "qī" (seven), she drew seven vertical lines, when she heard "hú shēng sān wěi chéng rén" (fox gives birth to three-tailed human), she drew a small fox with three tails and then a horizontal line, next to which she drew a person.