Skinwalker Belle – Chapter 380 – Nine-Tailed Celestial Fox Spiritual Imprint

Su Yue was taken aback and shook her head.

“Because you’re smart.”

Lin Fan raised a finger.

“And you fear death.”

That was too blunt—so blunt that the blood drained from Su Yue’s face in an instant.

“A person who fears death has one advantage: to stay alive, they’ll work harder than anyone else.”

Lin Fan’s tone was casual, as if she were commenting on the nice weather today.

Su Yue’s lips moved. She was just about to kneel and pledge her loyalty.

But before her knees could even bend, her entire body froze in place.

A surge of Mental Strength poured out from Lin Fan.

It wasn’t suppression.

Suppression only makes people afraid.

This was different—it seized Su Yue’s soul directly, like an invisible hand gripping her consciousness and turning it over and over to inspect it.

Sweat beads broke out on Su Yue’s forehead, one after another.

“But fearing death alone isn’t enough.”

Lin Fan stood up.

Step by step, she walked toward Su Yue. With each step, another white fox-tail phantom materialized in the void behind her.

One, two, three… nine.

The manifestation of the Nine-tailed celestial fox bloodline.

As the phantoms swayed, the Spirit Energy in the entire room trembled.

Su Xiaoxiao unconsciously stepped back half a pace. Even though she had witnessed this more than once, every time it felt like someone was squeezing her heart.

“You’re part of my core inner circle. From now on, you’ll be handling all sorts of matters.”

“Personnel, intelligence, military affairs, finances… which of those isn’t a matter of life and death?”

Lin Fan extended her right index finger.

A cluster of pink light flickered to life at her fingertip.

The light looked soft and warm, but Su Yue’s pupils contracted violently.

This was the absolute Bloodline Suppression that a Nine-Tailed Celestial Fox exerted over lower-ranking fox clans.

The spiritual blood inside her body screamed wildly—not to resist, but to urge her to kneel.

“I’m the kind of person who’s petty and suspicious. I sleep with one eye open.”

Lin Fan looked down at Su Yue, her voice soft.

“Only those who place their lives in my hands can I truly trust to use.”

“Su Yue, are you willing?”

The intonation of a question, the meaning of a statement.

Su Yue’s mind raced.

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Refuse? How could she possibly refuse?

Setting aside the fact that she didn’t even have the right to refuse, even if she truly did, would she even make it out the door of this room?

But Su Yue wasn’t someone who only calculated life and death.

She had lived for many years, walked a long road, and met enough people.

She knew very well what level of existence stood before her.

A woman who could single-handedly prop up Azurewood City.

A woman who made Ah Hu and those unruly Blue Star people willingly bow their heads in submission.

A woman who, with a few words in the square, had bound thousands of hearts into a single rope.

Following someone like this—it wasn’t a loss.

“Su Yue… is willing!”

She gritted her molars and squeezed those three words out from the back of her throat.

“Quite decisive.”

Lin Fan’s fingertip touched Su Yue’s brow.

No thunder or lightning. No heavenly phenomena.

Just quietly, a stream of pink light drilled from her fingertip into Su Yue’s Mental Sea.

The Nine-tailed celestial fox Mental imprint.

Then Su Yue’s pupils went unfocused.

Overwhelming images flooded into her mind like madness.

She saw the Mist Forest outside Azurewood City.

A woman in a black dress and combat attire walked over the corpses of demonic beasts strewn across the ground, her pace unhurried, her body splattered with blood.

That face—it was Long Ningshuang.

The scene shifted.

In the main hall of the Border Dragon City lord’s mansion.

A young girl sat in the seat of honor, one hand propping up her chin. With a single casual remark, she decided the fate of life and death for hundreds of people.

That face belonged to Long Wu.

The scene shifted again.

The plaza of Azurewood City.

Hair white as snow, bearing divine and sacred, ten thousand heads bowed in reverence.

Three faces overlapped into one, finally merging into the woman who now looked down at her.

Su Yue’s body trembled like a sieve.

She was too clever—clever enough to instantly piece together everything that had once puzzled her.

Why could someone from Blue Star possess such overwhelming strength?

Why did everything Lady Ningshuang did seem to pave the way for someone else?

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Why did the supplies Long Wu sent always align so precisely with Azurewood City’s needs?

It was all the same person.

Two streams of tears slid down her cheeks, dripping onto the polished floor.

“So… so it was you all along…”

Su Yue’s legs gave way, and she dropped to her knees, her forehead striking the ground heavily.

This kneel was not coerced.

The Nine-Tailed Celestial Fox’s mental imprint was indeed domineering—it reshaped one’s perception of their master from the very roots, turning loyalty into something carved into the bones, as natural as a heartbeat.

But at least eighty percent of Su Yue’s kneel came from genuine, heartfelt shock.

She finally knew who she had been fighting for.

“Long Ningshuang is me. Long Wu is me. Lei Li is me as well.”

Lin Fan lowered her eyelids, gazing down at Su Yue prostrated at her feet.

“Su Yue, now do you know who you serve?”

Su Yue pressed her forehead even lower, her voice hushed but every word crisp and clear.

“Your subordinate Su Yue pays respects to… my lord.”

Beside them, Su Xiaoxiao watched the scene unfold—not with fear, but with an excited clap of her hands.

“Congratulations, big sister! You’ve collected another obedient little fox!”

Lin Fan shot her a glance.

“You seem happier than anyone.”

“Of course.”

Su Xiaoxiao said with complete confidence: “Before, I was the only one who knew your true identity. Now that Sister Su Yue shares the burden, shouldn’t I be thrilled?”

This girl was nothing if not pragmatic.

Lin Fan withdrew the pink glow from her hand, flopped back onto the sofa, and resumed her usual listless demeanor.

“Get up. We’re all family now—no need for all that bowing and scraping.”

Su Yue rose from the ground, tears still glistening on her cheeks, but her fox eyes already shone with a clear, bright light.

The mental imprint changed more than just loyalty—it broke through a barrier of perception, elevating Su Yue’s perspective to align with Lin Fan’s on the same level.

Before, she had been the acting city lord of Azurewood City, worrying over the affairs of a single city.

Now she understood that the chessboard held in her lord’s hands was far vaster than Azurewood City.

“Please give your orders, my lord.”

Su Yue wiped her face, her voice sharp and crisp.

“First.”

Lin Fan raised a finger and wagged it.

“Long Teng, Long Yi, and Long Yan—get them settled. Especially Long Teng. His mind hasn’t been right lately. Don’t let him sit idle.”

“Idle hands breed trouble.”

“Find him something to do. Repair the city walls, haul bricks—anything that’ll wear him out enough to pass out the moment he hits the pillow.”

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“Second. Send Jiji on a trip to the Craftsman City. I don’t care what method he uses—negotiating a partnership or holding a blade to someone’s throat—I want the first batch of weapon prototypes combining Blue Star technology with otherworldly alchemy within a week.”

“If he can’t manage it, tell him not to bother coming back.”

“Third…”

Lin Fan’s gaze fell on the rift hanging at the edge of the sky beyond the window.

“Sooner or later, the Dragon Emperor Hall will trace the trail all the way to Azurewood City.”

“By then, it won’t be a matter of reasoning.”

“City defenses, personnel, supplies, evacuation routes—review everything from scratch. Prepare for war ahead of time.”

“Yes!”

Su Yue answered crisply.

She turned to leave, but Lin Fan’s voice came from behind her.

“Wait, one more thing.”

Su Yue stopped immediately and turned back around.

Lin Fan walked barefoot to the floor-to-ceiling window.

In the central plaza of the city, workers were busy around a half-finished fountain, following a European-style landscape design proposed by Blue Star architects, topped with a sculpture of an angel spitting water.

Lin Fan watched for two seconds.

“Who designed that fountain?”

“An engineer from Blue Star called Old Zhang. He said it referenced some Florentine style…”

“Tear it down.”

Su Yue was taken aback.

“Huh?”

Lin Fan scuffed the floor with her toes.

“Ugly.”

Su Yue opened her mouth, then closed it again.

That fountain had cost considerable man-hours, but if the Lady said it was ugly… then it was ugly.

“Build a statue instead. Of me.”

Lin Fan spoke with her back to Su Yue, her half-profile reflected in the glass.

“Big. Tall. Visible from fifty li outside the city walls.”

“As for the design…”

She thought for a moment.

“Make it like how I looked in the plaza just now. White hair, white dress—as intimidating as possible. Don’t skimp on materials. Spend whatever it takes.”

Su Yue’s mind worked quickly, and she responded immediately.

“Yes! Erecting the Lady’s image will do wonders for uniting the hearts of the city. I’ll arrange the construction at once…”

“That’s for show.”

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Lin Fan turned around.

“The substance is what really matters.”

She walked to the desk, pulled over the architectural blueprints of Azurewood City spread across it, grabbed a pen, and jabbed a black dot at the central plaza.

“Dig a pool beneath the statue’s base. Ten meters in diameter—no need for anything bigger. Line the bottom with white jade, and carve formation patterns all around the edges. The kind that looks incredibly profound but no one can actually understand. The more esoteric, the better.”

“A pool?”

Su Yue frowned.

“What’s it for?”

“To hold Energy Potion.”

The moment those four words left her mouth, the air seemed to still for an instant.

Su Xiaoxiao’s hand trembled as she held her cup, nearly spilling her honey water.

Energy Potion.

She knew exactly what that was.

Back at the Western Sichuan base, a single drop of Energy Potion—diluted who knows how many times—could make a group of survivors fight tooth and nail over it.

That stuff could awaken Special Abilities in ordinary people, bring the gravely wounded back from the brink of death, and make those who drank it feel an unshakable, fanatical devotion to whoever provided it.

Now the Lady was saying she wanted to build a pool.

A whole pool.

Su Yue took a deep breath, the abacus in her mind clicking through calculations at lightning speed.

“Is the Lady planning to sell Energy Potion publicly? Indeed, with reasonable pricing, this single revenue stream could fund Azurewood City’s entire military budget—and it would attract outside Evolved beings to come and pledge their allegiance…”

“Sell?”

Lin Fan tossed the pen onto the desk without even lifting her eyelids.

“Think bigger.”

Su Yue was stunned.

Lin Fan raised a finger in front of her and wagged it side to side.

“Free.”

This time, even Su Xiaoxiao was dumbfounded.

“Free?”

Su Yue thought she must have misheard.

“Lady, are you saying…”

“Free. Not a single coin charged.”

Lin Fan clasped her hands behind her back and lifted her chin slightly.

“Not just the residents of Azurewood City can drink. Traveling merchants from outside, refugees passing through, scattered cultivators fleeing disaster—no matter where they come from, as long as they reach this pool, they can drink as much as they want, no limit, until they’re full.”

She paused, tilted her head in thought, then added another line.

“Even if a stray dog passing by is thirsty, let it have a couple of laps too.”