Chapter 1

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I am the Goddess Cranemoor, worshipped by heaven and earth.

While taming Qionqi, I accidentally killed the disciple who had followed me for over a hundred years.

To atone, I drew out my Divine Essence and sent her into the Cycle of Reincarnation.

Then I demoted my own celestial rank, disguised myself as a servant of Cranemoor, and went to her family's home in person to beg forgiveness.

On the first day, they asked me to give my cultivation to the eldest sister.

I did not hesitate. I channeled a thousand years of cultivation to help her forge an immortal body.

On the second day, they forced me to steal the Goddess's dark phoenix mount and hand it over to the second brother.

I gritted my teeth and gave up Nyxphoenix too, though it hurt to part with him.

On the third day, they ordered me to bathe, change, and go serve as old master Glen Henson's concubine.

The Cosmic Pouch at my waist stirred.

Even Qionqi rolled over, unable to help laughing at me.

【They're working you like a beast of burden, and you're taking it?】

【I'm a ferocious beast of the ancient age, and I got caught by a spineless coward like you!】

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I squeezed the Cosmic Pouch hard.

Everything I had bottled up over the past few days, I took it all out on Qionqi.

【I came here to atone. Nothing they ask of me is too much.】

【After all, I'm the one who ended Tinglan's life with my own hands. And she died innocent, killed under my care.】

Qionqi scoffed, then drawled his warning.

【You wait and see. This family will only push further and further.】

【My nose is the sharpest there is. I can smell the greed on them.】

I lifted my eyes and looked again at Old Mrs. Henson before me.

She was Tinglan's mother, and one of the elders of the fox clan.

Long ago she had committed a great crime, and was sentenced never to ascend to immortality.

So all three children she bore came out with mediocre talent.

The year I took Tinglan in, it was only because I saw how diligent and hardworking she was that my heart softened for a moment.

And now this woman had grown old, her looks faded, cast aside by her own husband.

So she had set her sights on the immortal bloodline in my body.

She thought I was nothing more than a low-ranking servant of Cranemoor, an easy mark to squeeze.

I bent at the waist toward her and refused, my voice perfectly even.

【This is one thing I cannot do. I cannot be a concubine.】

Old Mrs. Henson knocked over the teacup on the spot, and the scalding tea splashed all over me.

Then she lashed out with her fox tails and hoisted me up into the air.

【My youngest daughter Tinglan is dead, and you won't even bear me one child to make up for it? You dare tell me you can't be a concubine?】

【No. Tonight you'll climb into the old master's bed, and until you've borne him a child to pay the debt, don't think you'll set one foot outside this fox den!】

I had hidden my divine breath, and now I could not move.

Qionqi thrashed around inside the Cosmic Pouch, so furious he started arguing the case.

【This wretched fox can't even make anything of herself, and she's forcing someone else to breed. Does she think her husband's some lump of gold?】

【Cranemoor! Open this pouch for me. I'll jump out and swallow her whole!】

With great effort, I forced a few words out.

【Mrs. Henson, I came to repay a debt of gratitude. That is exactly why I don't want to bring harm on your family.】

At that she loosened her tail, giving me a chance to plead my case.

I wrote out my own birth chart and handed it to her to see.

【Mrs. Henson, I was born to bring ruin on any husband. In all the wide world, only at the Goddess's side can such a fierce birth chart be held down.】

【If an ordinary immortal so much as touched me, I fear he'd lose his very immortal rank.】

【My refusal is for the old master's own sake.】

Hearing that I was destined to bring ruin on any husband, Old Mrs. Henson recoiled as if from a snake, jerking back several steps.

As luck would have it, just then Tinglan's second brother, Christopher Henson, came riding back on the dark wind, and caught those very words.

His brow furrowed, and suspicion took root.

【Mother, I think it's obvious. She just doesn't want to be Father's concubine, so she made up this lie to fool you!】

【The way I see it, knock her out, send her straight to Father's bed, get a litter of fox pups out of her, and she'll behave soon enough.】

Unhurried, I held out both my hands to him instead.

【Fine. Then tie me up, go ahead.】

【The Lord of Destinies' Book of Fate records it plain enough. This birth chart of mine is truly a rare one. I doubt I'll find a decent husband in all this life.】

【If I'm to be a concubine, then a concubine I'll be. I accept it.】

Mother and son were both cowed by what I said.

They exchanged looks, and neither dared step forward, each afraid of catching some curse off me.

But my thoughts went back to Tinglan while she still lived, how she always saved up the celestial dew the Celestial Palace supplied.

She said her mother feared nothing more than being laughed at for growing old and losing her looks.

So she wanted to save up more to bring home, to nourish her mother well.

I drew a Fairyberry seed from my sleeve and set it gently on the table.

【It took me five thousand years to find this one seed. Nourish it with spiritual power day by day, and the fruit it bears can keep one's looks unfading and add a hundred years of life.】

【Since I cannot be a concubine, let this be my compensation.】

Mrs. Henson's face lit up, and she quickly gathered the seed into her sleeve.

But Christopher Henson beside her would have none of it, pointing at my face and cursing me out.

【Nourish it with spiritual power? You're trying to work my mother to death!】

【If you mean to give it, then plant it and grow it yourself for my mother. Only then does it count as sincere!】

【You've served at the Goddess's side all this time. Grow it within ten days, that's not asking too much of you, is it?】

I froze for a moment, but in the end I nodded.

Only now Qionqi in the Cosmic Pouch was displeased again.

Ever since he'd gone into the Cosmic Pouch, his stomach growled with hunger every day.

And now he had to sit in meditation with me before a fruit tree, day and night.

In the dead of night, he finally couldn't take it, and spoke up in a mournful drawl.

【Cranemoor, don't tell me you'll end up so spineless that even I get thrown in to plow two acres for their family……】