Blazing flames exploded from the demon fox's mouth. It hadn't had the chance to bite off Fang Zhou's arm when the explosion's force shattered its brain upwards and penetrated down into its lungs.
Flames spewed from its mouth, nose, and ears, turning the fox's head into a burning torch.
After releasing the fireball spell, Fang Zhou hastily pulled out his arm, but not faster than the explosion. His entire forearm was left bloody and completely numb.
The huge body of the demon fox fell backward with a thud, sending up a plume of green smoke, and transformed into a giant fox almost the size of a grown person, its head still aflame.
Fang Zhou also fell to the ground, his physical injuries and mental exhaustion making him feel dizzy, nearly passing out.
From the fight with the two female fox demons to now, Fang Zhou had used six illusion spells plus three fireball spells, and controlling his Random Left Hand, draining all his spirit energy. The last fireball was released with everything he had left.
The explosion's injuries were not light either. With spirit exhaustion, Fang Zhou was now barely holding on with his 8 point of Stamina. If another fox demon came, it could easily take him down.
Fang Zhou sat on the ground, gasping for breath, and glanced at the notification of the successful mission.
[Successfully killed the man-eating demon fox]
[Reward: Masculinity x8, Purple Card x1]
[Completed side mission— Subduing Demons and Eliminating Evil]
[Reward: Righteous Reputation+1]
This time, a new twist appeared in the mission, an additional side mission—Subduing Demons and Eliminating Evil, which even awarded 1 point of Righteous Reputation. What was that for?
Fang Zhou opened the system panel and found a new section at the bottom, Righteous Reputation, along with a detailed explanation.
[Righteous Reputation: This value affects your status within the Righteous Sect. If it becomes negative, you will automatically join the Evil Sect.]
Clearly, this is a reputation value. The higher the score, the higher your status within the Righteous Sect. This status doesn't seem to refer to an actual rank or position, but rather how others view you—as a dignified and upright figure, a chivalrous person, someone who can easily gain intimacy and trust.
If the reputation value becomes negative, no matter how noble you look, people will think you're a treacherous villain, a shameless evil follower.
This reputation value might seem useless, but if used well, it can be quite entertaining. For example, building high reputation and then committing bad deeds, others will never suspect you. Even if discovered, they might think you had good reasons and easily forgive you.
If the reputation value is negative, then it's perfectly suited for undercover operations, able to act freely without easily being exposed.
Of course, that is a strategy in the game. Whether it could be implemented in reality is another question. For now, Fang Zhou can set it aside and explore its specific uses later.
This was his first hard mission, and it was far more challenging than previous ones. A slight misstep could lead to a grisly end. If it weren't for the last-minute use of the Fireball, Fang Zhou would have either miraculously survived or disastrously failed today.
However, the reward was quite generous, a full 8 points of masculinity. Most importantly, he was rewarded with a purple card.
Now this purple card was spinning in Fang Zhou's mind.
This is the first time Fang Zhou has received a purple card. Unfortunately, he is now injured all over and has no interest in chanting spells. He directly chooses to draw a card, as a purple card is guaranteed to be a good item.
The purple card began to spin rapidly, rings of rainbow-like light spreading from underneath it. Absolutely beautiful.
As expected of a purple card, even the special effect of the card draw was worth more than a trivial amount.
Spinning to its limit, the glowing purple card finally exploded, countless light points converging to form a long sword.
[Evil-Slaying Sword: A sword imbued with evil-slaying energy, can cause damage to demons.]
It was an equipment card. Fang Zhou had completed many missions and had always drawn skills and items, but this was the first time he had drawn equipment.
And his weapon had just broken, but now he has drawn a new one—it's like sending a pillow when he's sleepy.
"I am indeed the author's darling," he spat, "No, I am indeed the King of Luck!"
A longsword materializes out of thin air in Fang Zhou's hand. It is shaped like a Han sword and is much heavier than his previous broken sword. There is no sheath, and the blade has faint red patterns on it, resembling talismanic runes.
Fortunately, this sword is called the Evil-Slaying Sword. If it were named the Demon-Repelling Sword, Fang Zhou would rather use it as firewood than wield it.
After resting for a while, Fang Zhou uses the Evil-Slaying Sword to help himself slowly rise from the ground.
"Huh?! What is this?"
As Fang Zhou was preparing to leave, he suddenly noticed something inside the scorched head of the demon fox.
He uses the Evil-Slaying Sword to dig open the demon fox's head and picks out a dark, glossy little ball. Picking it up, it feels cool to the touch. He doesn't know what it's made of—it's neither metal nor wood. It survived the burning without damage and is still cold to the touch.
Fang Zhou couldn't understand what it was. Was it the so-called demon's pill? But the demon fox didn't seem that powerful.
He should ask Ling Xiaoyue about it. It would be nice if the system could help identify it.
As this thought crossed Fang Zhou's mind, a line of text suddenly appeared.
[Illusion-Repelling Orb: A rare brainstone of demon species, carrying it provides immunity to low-level mental spells.]
Hiss ~
Fang Zhou gasped. This system actually had an identification function. How terrifying!
"Hey, do you have an alchemy function?"
"What about a store? Is there a store?"
"You must have an in-app purchase feature, right? Without that, you're not even a proper system, you're worthless!"
No matter how Fang Zhou tried, the system remained silent and did not respond further.
Never mind, one shouldn't be too greedy. Having an identification function was a pleasant surprise.
Fang Zhou played with the Illusion-Repelling Orb in his hand. He never expected that this thing would turn out to be a brain stone of a demon, as he had initially thought it was a demon's core. However, its effects were not bad at all, being able to immunize against low-level mental spells.
Illusion techniques are a type of mental spell. Fang Zhou already had high mental resistance, and with this Illusion-Repelling Orb, he could be considered as having a low-level immunity to mental magic.
Awesome!
The next time he encounters a fox demon, Fang Zhou will let them know what their nemesis feels like.
He carefully hid the Illusion-Repelling Orb, then glanced around the cellar and let out an sigh, "I have avenged you, rest in peace."
Before coming here tonight, Fang Zhou had asked Wang Fu Lai, the Hu family had been kind and virtuous for several generations and did not deserve such a fate.
A cold wind suddenly swirled in the cellar, carrying a faint moaning sound, as if someone was crying, or perhaps thanking.
For a moment, Fang Zhou saw more than a hundred men, women, old and young, kneeling down in unison before him.
He rubbed his eyes and looked again, but everything had disappeared, including the cold wind.
He pursed his lips and turned to leave the cellar.
As he stepped out of the cellar and into the backyard, Ling Xiaoyue, dressed in white, suddenly flew from the sky and landed in front of him.
Ling Xiao Yue was still immaculately dressed in white, without a speck of dust. In one hand, she held a wine jug, and in the other, she carried the bodies of two adults fox demons, much larger than the Hu Yiling sisters, but slightly smaller than the man-eating fox demon in the cellar.
Clearly, the two adult fox demons did not manage to escape and were killed by Ling Xiaoyue.
With this, the family of fox demons had been completely annihilated by the master and apprentice.