Chapter 13-377: Foxy Ladies (1/2)
The Hu Hsaio were a race of evil spirits whose heritage tied them to the Orient. Moving away from those lands rapidly changed their natures and weakened them, so even if one chose to follow the Chinese, Koreans, Japanese, or other ethnicities of the areas overseas, they would quickly return when they felt their powers waning.
They belonged to the Lower orders of the Celestial Bureaucracy, i.e., they were affiliated with the Dead, Damned, and Demons. Still, they were Fey, not demons, although the nature of their powers and abilities ranked them alongside succubus in their behavior.
Their most singular feature was when they were in their natural forms, they looked like beautiful fox-like anthros, with elegant ears, soft fur, and most importantly, bushy tails that could number from one for the very youngest of them, to nine for the most senior and powerful members of the species.
The kitsune, the fox demons, shared this multi-tailed aspect, but who had it first was a matter of conjecture, and the two species got along only tangentially.
The hu hsaio, however, were responsible for much of the dire reputation for evil, trickery, and duplicity associated with foxes.
Their standard tactic was to assume a charming human female form and seduce or romance their way into marriage with an agreeable mortal. Once they had the mortal’s love, they would use their gifts to further the mortal’s position in life, removing obstacles to his path of advance, and not incidentally giving themselves access to more wealth, status, and power.
Once they had reached an appropriate level, they would consume their husband’s soul as payment for the gifts they had bestowed upon him, and use his hapless love to spur their own evolution to a higher level, growing an additional tail and then going elsewhere to start the process over again.
A hu hsaio who was revealed was in a dangerous situation, as they needed to survive on the love of mortals to sustain themselves, not merely lust, which would slowly wear away their strength over time. One kept as a sex slave would rapidly wither away and die, and they knew it.
The number of tails that one had indicated their power and status among the race. As their tails grew, so did their charm and magical power. A Nine-Tailed hu hsaio was a dangerous and lethally charming creature, experienced with life and making bargains to further their status and schemes, while toying with the hearts of mortals and immortals alike.
They could also be Pact Grantors, another way of pulling in suckers to defend them and manipulate them. The Nine Veils of the Lotus Pact was one of the Enchantment Pacts, with only the most basic Wrath for offense, but replete with mind-bending and illusions to charm, dominate, and basically enslave one’s targets and rivals.
In the masculine-dominated society of the Orient, women willing to use that Pact to get ahead were not few, and formed an unseen secret society of dangerous and beautiful women pulling deadly strings behind the scenes. However, their beauty alone meant that there were men willing to dare those strings even if they knew of them... which only expanded and sustained the power of the hu hsaio.
The Cultivators were not immune to the blandishments or charms of the foxwomen, and could even be considered more susceptible, given their arrogant belief in themselves and willingness to indulge in otherwise forbidden things. Of course, getting love out of a Cultivator was difficult, but a foxwoman could easily sustain themselves out of the fondness of one, and they would earn a rich harvest if they stole one’s love. Having such a clever, beautiful woman as a spouse, concubine, or lover catered to Cultivator egos, and their skills at scheming and politics were very useful in the competitive world of the Daoists.
The Buddhists naturally had no use for them, and either chased them away or slew them outright.
That was naturally how Shvaughn had found the first one, languishing among the Sects of Shanghai during our storming of the city. The hu hsaio had tried to pass herself off as just another fleeing human, but Shvaughn had felt the aura of a secondary Pact Grantor, one empowered by another more powerful one of their kind, and acted promptly.
It turned out she had very little to fear from the two-tailed hu hsaio, and had Consumed her without much effort. This also got her access to the memories of the fox spirit, and Shvaughn had quite happily hunted down two more of them, a three and a four-tail, before they could flee properly.
The fox spirits were sinister and malicious, but they weren’t made of Sin like Fiends. Shvaughn had no problems dealing with them, and naturally enough enjoyed manifesting fox ears, tails, and fluffy fur if she so desired.
The hu hsaio were Fey, malicious spirits, and naturally enough could be Bound and Sealed. Appropriately enough, finding some additional volunteers to hunt them down in various locations wasn’t too awful hard. The knowledge of one led to the others, either as rivals or peers, and very rapidly, the hunters started climbing the ranking ladder of the hu hsaio hierarchy.
They were naturally scattered all across Southeast Asia, some even finding opportunities to infiltrate into India amid the chaos and displaced people there, taking over the identities of dead women or simply spinning out a lone survivor story whole cloth, and insinuating themselves into the rapidly evolving hierarchy getting reformed out there.
The hunt for fox-tails was on.
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Mei Suo had fled to Darwin when the Japanese Fleet evacuated what they could and headed to Australia. Since then, she had married three times, moving her husbands into positions of power, only to kill them when the time was right and she could blame it on others.
Her fourth kill was of her last lover, a Cultivator she had hidden from all those hunting him. His gratitude for her kindness was just the tonic she needed to claim her sixth tail.
She was romancing her fifth target, a valiant young officer heading to China to join the Penance Army, when she, both of her daughters, and three grand-daughters vanished from Darwin with a quiet word of explanation to Governor Yamamoto.
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Cho Su-Su had followed the great migration of the nineteenth century to the distant land of America and the many Chinese workers working on the railroads, roads, and ships that plied the West Coast.
The land was alien and hostile to her, but none of her traditional rivals were present, and the tens of thousands of native Chinese buffered her against the alien land, while the lack of women proved fertile ground for plying her wiles among the men.