A pair of slender hands moved through the tea ceremony with practiced ease—warming the pot, adding leaves, pouring water, decanting the brew. Every motion flowed like clouds and water, unhurried yet without a wasted second. Tea fragrance rose with the steam, curling in the dim light, as if even the air had grown still.

  This was clearly the host's private tea room: the celadon tea scoop had slightly worn edges, the purple clay teapot had developed a warm patina from years of use. No deliberate arrangements for guests—intimate and personal.

  Mrs. Lei suddenly seemed to remember something. She looked up at Dax: "You mentioned earlier that my father once helped you and your brother. So Li Rein was your…?"

  The corner of Dax's eye twitched involuntarily: "My former superior. Something like—half mentor, half brother."

  Mrs. Lei gave a cold laugh: "Oh? Is that so. But I heard you were the one who filed the official complaint against him to the Court. And that Earth God position of yours—that's when you got promoted, wasn't it?"

  She lifted her teacup and blew on it leisurely: "That case is still quite the topic of discussion, you know. Even us foxes who rarely leave our dens have heard several versions."

  Dax tilted his head back with a bitter smile: "Yes, I filed the complaint. Not only did I get promoted, but they even gave me my own grand temple. Right in the busiest part of downtown Longjiang. Mrs. Lei should visit sometime."

  Mrs. Lei's expression turned mocking: "Pity about Rein. My father always said, if he'd chosen him back then… things would be very different now."

  She set down her teacup, tone laden with meaning: "It's just that such a brilliant hero ended up being sold for so little."

  Dax said nothing more.

  Mrs. Lei focused on brewing tea.

  After a long moment, Dax hesitated, clearly choosing his words with great care:

  "Look...Miss Su—"

  The words had barely left his mouth when a glare shot across the table like a blade.

  "Trying to get me busted? Call me Mrs. Lei."

  Dax rubbed his nose: "Uh… Mrs. Lei. Then I'll speak plainly. With you gracing our humble territory, I should have paid my respects long ago, but I've been tied up with various matters. Today finally presented the opportunity. And meeting you in person—you truly live up to your reputation. Extraordinary."

  Dax had meant to ease Mrs. Lei's suspicions. But his flattery missed the mark entirely, landing squarely on a sore spot instead.

  Mrs. Lei's face changed instantly. She slammed her teacup on the table, splashing half the tea: "Reputation? Hah. I didn't expect someone as thick-headed as you to gossip like those old demons at the village gate."

  Ling quietly pricked up her ears, face betraying nothing as she sipped her tea.

  Dax belatedly realized he'd put his foot in his mouth and scrambled to recover: "Oh no, Mrs. Lei, you misunderstand! What I've heard are all tales of your heroic exploits—single-handedly trapping three Great Principle Golden Immortals in your Immortal-Slaying Illusion for three whole years! I heard one of them even got married and had children in there—lost his virginity and everything. Such renown—who in the jianghu doesn't know of it! To experience it firsthand today, I must thank Mrs. Lei for showing mercy."

  Mrs. Lei's expression finally softened somewhat. She smoothed a strand of hair from her forehead, the corner of her mouth lifting slightly before she forced it back down: "Hmph… Let's get to business. Just give me a straight price. If possible, I'd rather not disturb my father."

  "Well… I'll need Mrs. Lei to explain everything in detail before I know how many palms need greasing… Also, when the illusion broke just now, there seemed to be some strange shadows?"

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  Mrs. Lei lifted her teacup, tone flat: "Just now… there wasn't only the illusion I conjured from thin air. There were also twenty-two… wrongfully killed souls. Lei's spirit was burned like that by them."

  Dax's face changed dramatically: "How is that possible? That many vengeful spirits right under my nose—how could I, the Earth God, not notice?" He whipped around to Ling. "Ling, did you see them?"

  Mrs. Lei gently blew on the tea foam, a mocking smile playing at her lips: "Because… I had already sacrificed half of Lei's soul to them. Every single one of them carried Lei's aura. After that, they were respectfully guided in by that idiot master."

  "Add my illusion on top of that—if you could detect them, I'd die of embarrassment."

  Ling blinked her big innocent eyes, gazing at Dax with naive certainty: "Oh, that explains it. I was running around in circles in there too, completely lost."

  Mrs. Lei's hand holding the teacup paused slightly.

  Dax's aura suddenly flared. A barrier descended silently, enveloping all three. He stared at Mrs. Lei, all trace of his earlier mercenary manner gone, expression deadly serious:

  "If what you're saying is true, this is huge— If the authorities catch wind of this, I'll walk away with a reprimand. But you, Miss Su, Syrie—you'll be facing Heavenly Punishment. Starting at a thousand years!"

  Syrie was stunned by this suddenly assertive Dax. Her cultivation was deep, but she'd only been out of the fox den for a few years. She was used to her world's straightforward ways and hadn't dealt much with the Court's old foxes. She panicked slightly:

  "You… don't try to scare me! It's not that serious. Lei got what he deserved. I was just upholding justice! Why all the questions—trying to jack up the price or shake me down?"

  "Miss Su, the mortal world isn't the place for your vigilante justice. From your perspective, Lei's fate might seem deserved, and those wronged souls might be sympathetic. But let me tell you—in the Court's eyes, no matter the circumstances, you're the unforgivable one for breaking the rules. Taking the law into your own hands equals questioning the Heavenly Dao equals rebellion against the Court— do you understand the gravity of what I'm saying?"

  Syrie pressed her lips tight. They were indeed in the same boat now, but one was a traitor with a record, and the other… didn't even bear mentioning. She found it hard to let down her guard.

  Ling had also lost patience with this fox's evasive drip-feeding. She slapped the table: "Dax, stop wasting words on her. She's committed something this big and she's still hiding things from us? Grab our guy and go! Let the Soul Reapers come—we're done here!"

  Dax played the good cop: "Ah, I don't want to either, but we owe her father a favor… Though it seems she doesn't need us to repay it… Fine then, go get Wynn. Let's head back early—I've still got a report to write for today's mess…"

  "…Fine! I'll tell you everything, okay?! But let me make this clear—I'm flat broke right now. You'd better not have any designs on me!"

  The two exchanged glances and sat back down across from the fox.

  Syrie took a deep breath, clearly finding this difficult to say: "So… you've probably heard about my grievances with these two Lei spouses. It's been trending on the Spirit-Net who knows how many times. Completely humiliating…"

  "Let me tell you as the person directly involved—ninety-nine percent of what's online is true! Tell me, don't these two deserve their miserable ends?!"

  Though worried, Dax couldn't stop the corner of his mouth from twitching. He twisted his face, barely suppressing a laugh: "Uh… if that's really the case, then, indeed, it is quite… reasonable…"

  Syrie shot him a sidelong glance, cold laughter in her heart: Still pretending to be above it all, old fart? Says he doesn't gossip, but I bet he's chewed through my scandal eight hundred times behind closed doors!

  "Right? I showed restraint multiple times. I was plenty magnanimous. They're the ones who kept digging their own graves. I almost got killed by them too— Anyway, the real Mrs. Lei's death was an accident, but I was tangled up in that karma. The Underworld people promised me that as long as I played out the script attached to Mrs. Lei's life on schedule without messing up the key plot points, they'd cover for me."

  Dax was unfazed by this kind of arrangement. He nodded: "Understood. What about Lei?"

  "He brought it on himself—Hell collected him way too late!" Syrie said bitterly. "In the script the Underworld gave me, he was always fated for this tribulation. By the end of this year, there was a ninety-nine point nine percent chance he'd suffer a stroke during an argument with his wife and spend the rest of his life wasting away in a wheelchair. In the end, he'd die either by fire or heart failure—basically the type prone to catching fire."

  She paused, looking somewhat embarrassed: "I was still trying to figure out how to start a fight with him. Then one night, I was alone in my room… you know, when you're living under someone else's identity that long, you have to be careful to wear her original parts. I was wearing her scalp—had peeled it off her head. Wearing it all day, it gets unbearably itchy, so I wanted to take it off and air out."

  "Then Lei suddenly barged in, caught me with my skull exposed. He'd been drinking too much again—naturally he had a stroke on the spot."

  Ling's eyelid twitched as she listened. She went through handful after handful of sunflower seeds.

  Dax nodded thoughtfully: "Mm… that actually works out. Timeline checks out, result's about the same. So why risk complicating things?"