"Mother, you..." Qi'er looked at the Demon Queen with concern. At this moment, the Demon Queen's entire body was flushed crimson, and her beautiful fingers had turned into sharp blades. "Why are the colors of your two eyes different?"

The Demon Queen tilted her head back alluringly, her nine spirit tails swaying casually behind her, appearing like a beautiful landscape. She extended her crimson lips and let out a long sigh, asking, "Is this the legendary Ghostly Blue Eye? Why did you pass it on to me?"

Jun Bugu maintained a calm and tranquil heart. "I simply don't want the Primal Embryo of the Demon Realm to find no worthy opponent once it breaks the ice seal, hehe."

"The Primal Embryo of the Demon Realm, you mean Sha Jun Tianxia himself?" The Demon Queen had certainly heard of it, but she was puzzled by this fellow's true objective. "Are you one and the same as Sha Jun Tianxia?"

"I just don't wish for the power of the Fox Clan to be mixed into the Demon Realm's Primal Embryo." Jun Bugu turned and walked back, the myriad of maple leaves scattering wildly in the wind. "To allow the descendants of the Fox Palace to have the strength to breathe in this Boundless Realm is enough for me to face the Ancient Fox Clan, hahahaha!"

"You..." The Demon Queen tried to step forward to keep him back, but Jun Bugu vanished in a flash, and all the maple leaves in the entire scene disappeared with him. "The Ancient Fox Clan... who exactly is this person?"

Qi'er rushed to support the Queen as she noticed the drastic change in her mother's body. "Mother, are you alright?"

The Demon Queen shook her head. At this moment, the full force of her power surged through her; she had never felt so confident. "No matter what, the day Sha Jun breaks the ice will be the end of this turbulent age, and I hope the Fox Palace can rise from it."

"Aooo..." At this moment, divine beasts howled throughout the Fox Palace courtyard. They rose onto their hind legs, brandishing their claws and fangs. Jun Bugu's power had reignited a frenzy within these creatures.

"Aoa!" The Demon Queen's expression shifted, veins popping on her forehead. She immediately transformed into a colossal fox and leaped out of the palace doors. Her hands became claws as she pounced on the giant werewolves standing guard outside, tearing them to shreds in a single move. "The power of the nine spirit tails is truly extraordinary. With this power, who would the Fox Palace still need to fear!"

...

Behind the gate of yellow gemstones lay a pristine, ethereal jade-green immortal realm. The sky in that realm glowed with extraordinary light, and within the grasslands and forests, countless beautiful foxes darted about.

"Hey, are you okay?" Ye Xiu hauled Jun Bugu up. This fellow had put a great deal of effort into opening this gate. "I think those things attacking us intentionally guided us here. There must be something you need inside."

Jun Bugu brushed the dust from his clothes. Such an expansive and richly colored scene excited him. "Ye Xiu, what place is this? Is there such beauty within the Boundless Realm?"

Beautiful places are usually rife with danger. Before the two could fully react, they were surrounded by countless foxes in the middle of the grassland. The variation in the number of tails on those foxes suggested they must be from the Fox Palace.

"Hoo..." A gust of clear wind blew through, carrying with it several captivating figures. It turned out those foxes had transformed into human form in an instant. They preened and posed, graceful and seductive. "Who dares trespass upon the Fox Domain, and two unhairy little men at that? Hahaha!"

Ye Xiu looked coldly at these women. It seemed this scene was not an illusion but a real presence. "What exactly is this place?"

"A place you shouldn't have come to!" Suddenly, a burst of malice descended, and a gigantic blue fox plummeted from the sky. It pinned Ye Xiu down, glaring at him with its pair of blue-violet eyes. "This is a dreamscape, Jun Bugu's dreamscape! What are you doing here?"

Jun Bugu tried to use the Absolute Blade to slash the fox, but his attack passed right through its entire body. He tried attacking the surrounding foxes as well, but to no avail. "How can this be? My dreamscape!"

Ye Xiu sucked in a sharp breath. These entities were solid to him, but to Jun Bugu, they were mere illusions of a dream. "Since I am already here, what are my options?"

"Then you can only die here!" The fox furiously slapped Ye Xiu. Ye Xiu raised the Heavenly Scorn Sword to block, but he was sent flying a great distance, leaving deep gouges across the grassland where he skidded.

"Ye Xiu!" Jun Bugu could only watch, unable to interact with any of it. At this moment, his head began to throb painfully. In some past dreamscape, he seemed to have seen this scene; he had seen these foxes. "There seems to be a place like this in my memory? I can't be sure if the memories I've lost exist here."

"It doesn't matter if you're unsure. I'd like to know how to get out of here!" Ye Xiu rolled and regained his footing. The fox had already moved horizontally beside him. He unleashed a strike with his Heavenly Scorn Divine Sense, slicing across the fox's body, and a scent of blood instantly permeated the air. "This thing is too large; it can't be dealt with in one or two moves."

"Aoa!" The fox's blue-violet eyes flickered, and it instantly manifested nine tails. The tails arched into the air, forming nine sharp cones, which aimed directly at Ye Xiu and plunged down.

"Dong! Dong! Dong!" Ye Xiu evaded using the Soul of a Hundred Insects, but the fox seemed able to see his movements and preemptively blocked every path. "Is it because of those eyes?"

After a frenzied attack, the fox suddenly calmed down. It reverted to human form, and a stunningly beautiful, blue-clad woman appeared beside Ye Xiu. "You carry the power of the Fox Clan within you too?"

Ye Xiu nodded. His Azure Eyes shone brightly—this was the resonance between Fox Clan kin. "I just want to know what this place truly is?"

The fox woman extended a hand and gently caressed Ye Xiu's eye, saying softly, "So it is the Azure Eyes. Do you know whose memory you are currently situated in?"

"Jun Bugu's?" Ye Xiu looked at Jun Bugu in confusion; that fellow was looking back at him with a bewildered expression. "You mean everything in this scene, including yourself, is only alive within his memory?"

The fox woman nodded, her face full of seductive charm. "We have survived within his memory for far, far too long. And this particular memory is one he cannot recall. What I mean to say is that his identity has an unavoidable connection to the Fox Palace, nothing more."

Ye Xiu sighed. He had thought that journeying to the Infernal Fire Purgatory would involve tremendous hardship to obtain the Absolute Meridian Celestial Pivot. He hadn't expected this trip to be tailor-made for this fellow, Jun Bugu. "How do I break free from his memory? Or rather, does his memory end here?"