Chapter 579: The Root Of All Evil She closed her eyes, inhaling deeply. When she opened her eyes again, she had fallen completely in character.
Her eyes were wide, filled with ambition and curiosity, yet besides that innocence, they also held traces of ancient centuries-old wisdom.
Just like that, she stood motionlessly in the snow, oblivious to the blizzard billowing on her clothes, ignorant to the noise created, even as they swept up layers of snow.
Her face was so pale that it was almost transparent. In the midst of the transparency, glowed a tinge of rosiness on her cheeks; adding on to the aestheticism of her features.
Her entire person was blanketed in white. Only her red lips and the rosiness of her cheeks indicated that she was a living thing, otherwise, she could have been a statue carved out of ice.
“Xiao Bai! Xiao Bai...”
Someone was calling her name from behind. “What are you doing standing over there? Come and play with us in the snow.”
When she turned around, it was finally revealed that the petite figure was a child, about 12 or 13 years of age, with hints of baby fat rounding out her face. However, at the same time, she possessed a chilling beauty, a pure and untouched beauty like the snow.
“Come and play with us, Xiao Bai.” The little foxes continued to wave their bushy tails at her.
The little girl suddenly cracked a grin, with hints of joy rising up and sparkling in her eyes. She ran toward them.
Crash! She fell onto the ground. When she raised her head, her entire face was covered with snow.
“Haha...”
“Look at Whitey, she can’t even run!”
“She has used to being on four legs, so of course, she cannot walk properly with two.”
“Whitey, Whitey... why do you want to become a human? Isn’t it amazing to be a fox?”
The little girl picked herself up from the ground as she wiped the snow off her face. She continued to run forward, her body gradually morphing into a beautiful white fox cub. Her thick fur was the exact same shade as the snow, its ethereal beauty putting the other foxes to shame. As for her eyes, they resembled the clearest of crystal, pure and untouched – shimmering with the reflection of the world she saw.
“Achoo!”
Yan Huan shuddered as she burrowed into her large coat.
“You were the one who chose this place, so you gotta suck it up and deal with it.” Yue Ran chided as he fixed her makeup. “Despite having the choice to brush it up with post-filming editing, you still insisted on coming and freezing yourself.”
“If we had settled with those, it wouldn’t be realistic enough,” Yan Huan explained before she sneezed again. She had seen the result of post-filming editing on other films, but regardless of how professional they were and how realistic they tried to make it seem, the effects would never be as natural as actually filming it at a natural location. More importantly, relying on special effects would make the cinematography less visually impressive, especially since they were planning to make their movie 3D. Hence, she was more than willing to brave the harsh weather to get the most realistic scenes.
“Achoooo....” She sneezed again, feeling like she was about to die of hypothermia.
Yue Ran raised his eyebrow. “You’re a woman but you’re willing to sacrifice so much. Stop making life difficult for men, they can’t measure up to you.”
“Aren’t you still comfortably alive?” Yan Huan sniped as she wrapped her coat tighter around herself. At the thought of having to take it off later, she could already sense a headache coming.
It was really cold outside, a lot colder than she had imagined it to be. It was almost too much for her body to bear.
“Yan Huan, are you ready?” Director Jin called from outside. The cameras were ready for them to start filming again. Everyone was actually in the same situation as Yan Huan; they were all cold, but none of them were freezing as much as she did.
Everyone else was wearing outerwear made of warm cotton, but what about her? Stripping down to her costume, she stepped out of the tent again to shoot the next scene.
In the next scene, it was still the same white fox. The Little Fox cleaned its face with its tail, and in the blink of an eye, a little girl appeared in its place. She was the human form of the Little White Fox.
She was still standing at the peak of the snowy mountain, peering down at the base of the mountain. According to the female elder, that was the human realm. The elder also said that humans would never be able to discover where they were because this region was buried in snow all year long. The foxes were born and raised here, and they would hone themselves at this very same place. Eventually, they could learn to take on a human form and continue to evolve into a local deity.
The elder had remarked that the Little Fox had the most talent and potential out of everyone else in the fox tribe, hence, she had the highest chance to attain the status of a local deity. However, she moved on to say that humans were the scariest, and most complex animals that they would ever encounter in the human realm.
They were born with kindness and purity in their hearts, but they grew up in the company of cruelty and evil.
The entire lifetime of a human teetered between good and evil. They could be kind at the start, but end up even more ferocious than any wolves, more poisonous than any snakes and more ruthless than any tigers.
Humans are certainly such a complex species.
The elder added that as long as the tribe did not go near the humans, then they could live on without worries. For centuries, numerous descendants of the tribe had made irreversible mistakes because of the humans, but at the end of the day, the humans blamed the fox tribe for everything.
Even so, the Little Fox still longed to experience life in the human realm.
The wind continued to blow on her face, but her eyes remained as clear as crystal.
“Elder, I wish to live in the human realm.”
Xiao Bai reverted to her fox form and sat on her haunches next to an old lady with a head of silvery hair.
“Sigh...” The old lady embraced the Little White Fox on the ground, gently caressing its marble-like white fur. “Xiao Bai, I’ve told you before, you have the most potential out of all the fox cubs in this tribe for the past century. If you are willing to put in the effort, you can definitely become a deity. Even if you might not advance to the level of a heavenly deity, at worst you could still become a local deity.”
“The mortal realm is the root of all evil, whereas humans are the source of all evil.”
“But Xiao Bai wants to go,” pleaded the Little Fox. It was determined.
The elder placed her wrinkled fingers on the Little Fox’s furry head. The Little Fox had a tiny mouth, and eyes as big as crystals. When the sunlight shone on her marble-like fur, it glinted like the snow.
The Little Fox sensed something dripping on her fur. When she raised her head, she saw that the elder was crying. But why? She did not know why the elder became so teary.
Vaguely, she heard the elder sigh.
“Life.”
“Life, what is life?”
The Little Fox was baffled. She curled herself into a ball, using her long bushy tail to cover her face. Outside, the snow was still falling, blanketing the ground in a layer of pure white frost.
The snow on the mountains was an everlasting white, and it had always been clean and untouched. Everything was peaceful there. It was home to a tribe of foxes that belonged to the arctic fox species, who stand aloof of all worldly affairs. This was a sacred land in a heaven unknown to humans.