The Legend of the Fox Yokai of Jirisan

A month had passed since my audience with the Lord of the Mountain.
Unfortunately, I still had not figured out how to absorb yolyeok.
I mustered up the courage to ask the Lord again, but he only told me to ‘leave’ once more.
What a stubborn tiger he is.
However, I didn’t just loaf around for the past month.
The [Fox Magic] technique of infusing my tails with yolyeok was more versatile than I had imagined.

[Fox Magic]
Transformation

[Fox Magic]
Fox Fire

[Fox Magic]
Fox Fire – Healing

[Fox Magic]
Fox Fire – Binding

…

…

…

Everything except what was missing.
Fox Magic was an incredible technique, to the point of embarrassing me for despairing when I thought I had simply reincarnated as an ordinary fox.

However, there was one minor issue.
Using Fox Magic required an enormous amount of yolyeok.
Since I had yet to awaken the ability to absorb yolyeok, using Fox Magic was tantamount to shortening my own lifespan.
Moreover, the power of Fox Magic increases in proportion to the number of tails.
The [Fox Fire] with three tails could barely heal a blister.
The [Fox Fire] with four tails was quite useful, able to heal small scratches.
I haven’t tested beyond that.
Yolyeok is equivalent to my lifespan, so I didn’t want to intentionally injure myself just to test the healing effects, which weren’t immediately important.

My current state was far from being full of yolyeok.
In fact, I hadn’t absorbed any yolyeok since becoming a fox yokai, so having a lot of yolyeok would be strange.
If I just continued breathing without doing anything,
I might be able to last about 5 years.
Of course, the more I used [Fox Magic], the more my lifespan would shorten.
In other words,
If I didn’t want to die with my lifespan depleted, I had to find a way to absorb yolyeok as soon as possible.

How vexing.
As a modern person living in the 21st century, I would normally search the internet for any knowledge I lacked to satisfy my curiosity.
Unfortunately, the yokai society was a primitive one without any scientific advancement.
Well, shouldn’t a true leader adopt a cultural attitude of accepting good civilization? In that sense, the Lord has failed as a leader.
He keeps babbling incomprehensible things like whether I will become a Celestial Fox or an Evil Fox.

If I had it my way, I would steal a smartphone from the Jirisan hikers outside this inner realm.
But attempting to leave this inner realm in my current state would be suicidal.
According to the squirrel yokai Depo, there are even yokai exorcists called ‘Taoists’ or ‘Martial Artists’ among humans.
He said it’s best for even the strongest yokai to avoid fights with Taoists and Martial Artists.

If I just sit here, I might die with my lifespan depleted before ever figuring out how to absorb yolyeok.
But if I go outside, I’ll just get shot by the yokai exorcists or the Jirisan government officials I met last time.
…I don’t know what I should do.

As I sat atop a tree, clutching my head in agony over these thoughts,
“Miho, Miho, Miho, Miho, Miho!”

Ah.
Speak of the devil, and he shall appear.
It wasn’t the Lord of the Mountain, but the lightning squirrel who came.
This guy has nothing to do, so he comes to me once a day just to jabber on endlessly.

“Miho, Miho, Miho!”
“Ah, what! My head hurts, stop yapping so loudly!”
Worried about my yolyeok, I snapped at the annoying squirrel.
No doubt he came to spout some useless nonsense again.

“I found out how Miho can absorb yolyeok!”
“…What?”
Really?
I asked Depo again, intrigued.
“How did you find out?”
“I asked the Lord of the Mountain!”
“…But he didn’t tell me when I asked.”
“Miho, are you perhaps disliked by the Lord?”
“Of course not. So, what did the Lord say?”
“The Lord said he once saw a fox yokai with multiple tails at a mountain in China thousands of years ago! Her name was Daji or something. Anyway, Miho! In that sense, do you not want to come with me to have an audience with the Lord…”

I cut off the lightning squirrel’s words, hurriedly climbed down the tree, grabbed the little squirrel yokai’s skin, and said:
“Never mind that Daji yokai. Just explain, quickly!”
“Mi, Mihooo, let go! You’re stretching my skin!”
“Speak!”
“Owwww, I’m dizzy, Miho…!”
“Speak, I said!”
“Tha, that Daji fox yokai… ugh… was a nine-tailed gumiho who… absorbed yolyeok by eating the livers of human males! Now let go!”
“…What?”

Dumbfounded by Depo’s words, I unconsciously released my grip, dropping him to the ground.
“Kkhick.”
Whether Depo fell to the ground or not, I began organizing my chaotic thoughts.
Right.
The story of a fox yokai with multiple tails eating the livers of human males is so famous that even I knew it.
Why didn’t I think of that?
Eating human livers.
That means killing humans.
Me.
Until recently, I was human myself…
There’s no way I can take hundreds or thousands of lives just to survive myself.
I asked Depo again, grasping at straws.
“…Is there no other way?”
“Nngh… I don’t know! According to the Lord, Miho has to figure it out herself?”

Another way.
Another way.
Another way.
…Ah.
It wasn’t like I had no guesses at all.
The legends about fox yokai are so famous that I’ve seen them more times than I can count.
Depending on the folklore, fox yokai with multiple tails usually obtain yolyeok through one of two methods.
Either they eat human livers like that ancient Chinese gumiho Daji.
Or.
They devour human life force.
…Why did this obvious information only occur to me now?
No.
It’s not that I couldn’t think of it, but that I didn’t want to.
Originally, before becoming a yokai, I was human, and before becoming female, I was male.
As such, there was no way for me to reach the insane conclusion of ‘devouring the life force of human males.’

I finally understood what the Lord meant by Celestial Fox and Evil Fox.
Celestial Fox, the benevolent fox yokai that devours human life force.

If it devours the life force of a thousand humans without harming them, it can ascend and become a Heavenly Fox.
Evil Fox, the malicious fox yokai that eats human livers.
If it kills and eats the livers of a thousand humans, its soul will become thoroughly corrupted, granting it immense power to wreak havoc on the world.

It was like acquiring information I had already known.
To summarize the information:
In order to obtain yolyeok,
In other words, in order for me to survive,
I either have to kill hundreds or thousands of human males, or
Go around devouring the life force of hundreds or thousands of human males.

Unable to accept the situation I found myself in, my body began to tremble uncontrollably.
Without realizing it, I used Fox Magic – Transformation to take on a human appearance.
My blue eyes shone with a crazed light, and my hair stood on end as if charged with static electricity.

“Damn iiiiiit!”
I howled at the sky, my enraged roar mingling with the cry of an infuriated fox, echoing through the forest.
“Hee-eeek… Mi, Mihooo…? Miho, calm dowwwwn!”

Calm down?
In this insane situation where I have to kill or devour humans to survive, you tell me to calm down?
Perception.
Fueled by my rage, another tail sprouted from my body.
Perception.
Four tails became five.
Perception.
Five tails became six, emanating an eerie yolyeok into the surroundings.

“Uh, uhhhhh… Miho…! The yo, yolyeok is too… too much…”

Naturally, my physique began transforming from that of a young child into an adult woman.
Perhaps evolving to more easily devour the life force of males, my breasts also began growing larger, and judging from the weight I felt, their size was not modest.
But such trivial matters meant nothing to me, blinded by rage.

With six tails sprouted, an uncontrollable amount of yolyeok began radiating in all directions.
“Wh, why is the yolyeok so high…! Scary! Scary! Scary! Scary! Mi, Miho, I’ll come back laterrrrr!”

To survive, I have to kill males or devour their life force.
Being reincarnated as a fox yokai sucked, and being reincarnated as a female sucked too.
It was one shitty thing after another.

Screw yolyeok.
I’d rather have my lifespan run out and die than do such a thing.

…

…

…

It was only after a while of releasing yolyeok that I realized how foolishly I had acted.
Realizing the situation, I hurriedly retracted my tails and roughly calculated how much yolyeok I had left.
Originally, I had enough yolyeok to comfortably last about 5 years.
But due to blindly unleashing my power in extreme rage just now,
I had used up more than half of the remaining yolyeok in my body.
Although I’m not sure, I might die of yolyeok depletion in about two years at this rate.

Well, that’s good!
It’s just a little sooner than the fate of dying from yolyeok depletion anyway.
“…”

As I said that…
I was a fox with an exceptionally strong will to live.
I don’t want to die.
Even if it’s unsightly, I want to survive somehow.

Soon, I realized what I had to do immediately.
Sleep.
Sleeping slows down yolyeok consumption, so to last as long as possible, I had no choice but to sleep.

And so, I slept.
Two years passed.