Chapter 130
Hedgepa explained that this was the way of communication and submission among the fox clan. The lower-ranking party would actively reveal their magical aura to the higher-ranking one, who could then choose to remember this aura and locate the other within three days at any time.
The Moon Fox clan leader was exquisitely beautiful, rivaling even the elves, and each Moon Fox exuded a unique fragrance that was incredibly pleasant. As Yu Xunge walked, she realized she had never encountered two identical scents.
After disguising herself, Yu Xunge also sprayed on the perfume Hedgepa had given her. She could smell it before applying, but once it was on her, the scent vanished from her own perception.
Having beautiful beings come close to whisper in her ear was not an unpleasant experience, and Yu Xunge didn’t even have to return the gesture. Of course, when she encountered the seven-tailed and eight-tailed foxes, she would have to lean in to sniff their ears as well.
But there was no need to worry; according to Hedgepa, the seven-tailed and eight-tailed foxes were at the city lord level and were rarely seen.
As for the highest-ranking nine-tailed Moon Foxes, there were only nine in the entire clan, known as the Nine Moon Emperors.
Each main city had three Moon Emperors who kept each other in check—monitoring the other two to prevent any from slacking off more than themselves.
You wouldn’t see a Moon Emperor on the streets; what kind of street was worthy of their personal stroll?
**Chapter 185: The Library of Moon Lake City**
After having her ears blown at all the way, by the time Yu Xunge reached the library, they felt almost numb.
Climbing hundreds of steps, she paused before the grand entrance of the library, where two three-tailed Moon Fox guards stood on either side, and a four-tailed Moon Fox was pacing nearby. Upon seeing Yu Xunge, all three Moon Foxes approached her.
Then, her ears were blown at again three more times.
The four-tailed Moon Fox asked, “Which clan do you belong to?”
Yu Xunge replied, “Frosttail.”
There were a total of 72 clans among the Moon Foxes, and if one clan produced a nine-tailed Moon Emperor, that clan would automatically ascend to royal status. Conversely, if their Moon Emperor fell, the clan would have to erase the runes that represented their royal lineage.
The Frosttail clan was headquartered in Moon Forest City. Although the Moon Foxes often communicated, there were at least ten thousand six-tailed foxes, and even city lords might not know them all. According to the information Hedgepa had gathered, the Frosttail clan had the most six-tailed Moon Foxes.
The four-tailed Moon Fox presented a golden fox tail, cradling it in both hands and offering it to Yu Xunge. “May the Moon Goddess bless all Moon Foxes.”
It was unclear how long Hedgepa had coveted the Moon Foxes’ potion books, but she had informed Yu Xunge of all these procedures.
Six-tailed and higher Moon Foxes had the privilege to enter the library freely, but they needed to leave a drop of blood beforehand, preferably from the tip of the ear.
Yu Xunge pinched her earlobe, drew a drop of blood, and pressed it onto the fox tail.
The four-tailed Moon Fox stepped back, and the two three-tailed Moon Fox guards pushed open the grand library doors, which stood about five meters tall.
Yu Xunge walked in calmly.
The doors closed behind her with a heavy thud.
As she navigated through the aisles of books, it felt as if she were walking through a rainforest, with a starry sky above and a full moon hanging down, casting a gentle yet bright light that allowed her to clearly see the titles of the books.
She felt as if she had entered a labyrinth, with the bookshelves serving as walls. Looking around, she saw shelves filled with books in every direction. Fortunately, the passages between the shelves were about three meters wide, and starlight floated in the air.
At times, the starlight would coalesce into various magical symbols, representing the categories of books in the current area.
Yu Xunge had prepared for this moment for days, memorizing etiquette and maps, as well as the exclusive magical script of the Moon Fox clan.
The starlight made the layout feel less oppressive and instead filled it with a sense of mystery and beauty.
Yu Xunge planned to first locate the book Hedgepa wanted, and once she confirmed its position, she would grab it all at once.
This was the most basic professional ethic of a thief—scout first, then take the goods.
Yu Xunge kept track of the cooldown time for her disguise skill. Ever since she began using it while walking through Zelan Star, she had tied a small timer to her wrist. This timer could be set to any duration, and when the time was up, it would vibrate gently, making a sound so soft it could only be felt by the body.
In the past, to maximize her disguise time, she had gotten used to setting it for 55 minutes, leaving herself ample time to prepare, whether to return to Blue Star or to transform into a cat early.
Today, however, she set the timer a bit longer at 59 minutes, wanting to see if she could push the limits and save a few bottles of the potion that reset skill cooldowns.
To do this, she had even repackaged half of the potions into a form that could be consumed directly—she had confirmed with Hedgepa that the new material wouldn’t affect the potion’s efficacy. She stored this portion in a magician’s false tooth, just in case.
What if she found herself in a situation where it was inconvenient to retrieve the potion at the crucial moment? She could extract the potion from the magician’s false tooth and swallow it directly.
She had considered using skill crystals instead of potions to save them, but Hedgepa had promised to teach her how to brew the cooldown-resetting potion once she got the book. According to Hedgepa, the difficulty lay in the technique, not the materials, so she didn’t bother expending energy on skill crystals.
For some reason, the control over blank skill crystals had tightened recently, and the Special Affairs Bureau sent her ones that had to be recorded each month.
In addition, she had also divided her 50-year-old daughter red wine into several 3ml portions and stored them in the false tooth for emergencies.
As Yu Xunge walked past row after row of bookshelves, she found sections on language, history, literature, magic, martial arts, body forging, and cooking… fragrances.
Hmm? As she walked, she paused in the fragrance section, discovering that it occupied a full ten rows of bookshelves. The shelves here were taller than the library doors, and each row was long enough that at her walking speed, it would take ten minutes to traverse.
Ten rows? This scale rivaled the history of the Moon Foxes.
Moreover, it was particularly lively, with a Moon Fox holding a book standing every few meters, both six-tailed and seven-tailed.
Unable to resist her curiosity, Yu Xunge stepped in for a closer look, only to find that just the section introducing scents occupied an entire row of bookshelves, with half of them discussing the fragrances crafted by famous foxes within the clan.
And the categories for how to create fragrances were countless.
Divided by type, there were liquid fragrances, solid fragrances, bath fragrances, magical fragrances, and more…
Divided by function, there were several rows of bookshelves for courtship, healing, mystery, attack, blessings, curses, tracking, and so on…
Yu Xunge felt like a country bumpkin in the city.
Huh?
Wow?
—Ah, seven-tailed, sniff the ear!
This is a thing?!
—Ah, seven-tailed! Hurry, lean in and sniff the ear to say hello!
What a strong scent…
Is this fragrance for real?!
—Ah, another seven-tailed! Sniff, sniff!
Yu Xunge reasonably suspected that among the Moon Foxes, if one was smelly, it would be a capital offense.
She even suspected that the ear-sniffing wasn’t just to convey magical aura to the higher-ups, but rather to assess the quality of each other’s fragrance.
Her wrist vibrated, and Yu Xunge quickly pulled out a bottle of the cooldown-resetting potion and drank it. Then she used her disguise skill again; her appearance remained unchanged, but the 59 minutes of consumed disguise time was refreshed.
No more browsing…
Yu Xunge left the fragrance section, glancing back three times as she walked deeper into the library.
However, having seen this area, she decided that after getting the book, it would be better to use the escape gem Hedgepa had given her to leave.
Before coming, she had specifically sought out Zhao Shuying to buy skill crystals that could teleport her back to Blue Star when crushed, thinking that if the situation wasn’t urgent, she could save the escape gem for later.
But now she felt her understanding of the other races was far too limited. Recently, the other races had become sensitive to the presence of Blue Star people on Zelan Star, so it was better to be cautious and not risk losing her chance to escape.
Not long after drinking the second bottle of cooldown-resetting potion, Yu Xunge found the alchemy section, and the number of books there indicated what the Moon Foxes valued more. Compared to the ten rows of fragrance books, the alchemy section had only two rows.
In Hedgepa’s eyes, the Moon Foxes were a race that didn’t know how to cherish their own talents. They possessed the alchemical secrets bestowed by the Moon Foxes but chose to study fragrances instead. Hedgepa felt it was her duty to help the Moon Fox clan restore the glory of alchemy.
Yu Xunge thought: Well, the sun of Zelan has spoken; who would dare to oppose?
As Hedgepa’s apprentice, she was here, so of course, she would lend a hand. Whatever she could take… no, whatever she could help with, she would do.
**Chapter 158: Mist Blade Moon Emperor**
Finding books was a hundred times more troublesome than locating sections.
The latter only required walking down the aisle and checking the magical scripts on either side, but finding books meant looking through them one by one. The 859 volumes of "Moonlight Potions: Alchemical Keys," which she had thought would be the most troublesome to find, turned out to be the easiest because an entire row had titles with over 98% similarity, making it hard to miss.
The real challenge lay with the other two types: "The Most Mysterious Potion Materials: Moonlight," which was divided into three volumes, and "Moonlight and Time," which had only two volumes. Finding five books among tens of thousands—perhaps even over a hundred thousand—was no small feat.
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