I, The Substitute, Am With The Main Character Extra 10

While the organizers of the Grand Heroes Assembly were still speculating about the intentions of the master of Baohe Temple, the temple was already bustling with preparations to attend the event.

For Baohe Temple, a cultivation sect with very few disciples, the Grand Heroes Assembly held great significance. Baohe Temple had considerable strength, especially with its master and the eight elders, each a well-known figure.

However, Baohe Temple had an oddity—they had incredibly high standards for accepting disciples, only admitting those with exceptional talent. In other sects, disciples with such talent would be treated as prized pupils, but at Baohe Temple, their first task upon entry was to sweep the grounds for five years before they could officially start their training.

Additionally, since new disciples were required to spend years sweeping, Baohe Temple only accepted exceptionally talented disciples under the age of sixteen.

This created yet another limitation.

To some, Baohe Temple clearly wasn’t an ideal place to join. Moreover, once one entered Baohe Temple, they were bound for life and could never leave. As a result, very few people applied each year.

Yet despite this, Baohe Temple had no intention of lowering its standards. Instead, they employed unique ways to attract people—such as the allure of their temple master’s face.

The temple master’s face was a powerful weapon. During the master’s first appearance at the Grand Heroes Assembly, many unsuspecting young girls and boys were lured into applying for disciple selection. However, as the years went by, it became increasingly difficult to fool people with mere looks, so they had to resort to other tactics.

Their latest tactic was Xueya.

While foxes were common, a fox with multiple tails was not, as most multi-tailed foxes believed they could eventually evolve into nine-tailed foxes and ascend to immortality, thus unwilling to become a pet for cultivators. That’s why Wenfu’s teacher had sent Xueya to the temple master, even though he knew his master had never kept a pet.

A beautiful person paired with a fluffy creature—there was no greater attraction.

Wenfu’s teacher thought so, at least.

However, to the cleanliness-obsessed master of Baohe Temple, this fluffy creature was quite unrefined.

It ate sloppily, hated wearing clothes, didn’t like bathing, and had a nasty temper.

Wild and untamed.

And now, this wild and untamed Xueya was preparing to leave Baohe Temple. In just one day, he realized that being a pet was no easy task, especially with such an aloof master. He decided it was time to find a new owner.

“You’re leaving?”

“Yes! I don’t want you as my master anymore!” Xueya said, tilting his head up. But realizing that the height difference made him less imposing, he jumped onto the table to look the young man in the eye.

But the master didn’t seem to care, his gaze still fixed on the chessboard in front of him. This irritated Xueya, who didn’t understand chess—he’d never even seen a chessboard. Xueya had never gone to school and learned his tricks by eavesdropping on others. Watching the master fiddle with the black and white pieces, Xueya wanted to flip the board but held back, knowing he still needed a way out.

“Did you hear me?” Xueya tried to prod the master with his paw.

The master raised his hand to avoid Xueya’s paw, finally glancing at him. “If you want to leave, fine, but you’ll need to repay everything you’ve eaten, worn, and used in the past two days before you go.”

“You want me to repay?” Xueya was stunned.

The master calmly placed his chess piece down and said, “Yes. Baohe Temple isn’t a charity. If every beast came in pretending to be a pet and mooched off us, Baohe Temple would fall into ruin.”

Xueya panicked, defending himself, “I didn’t come to mooch. I just think we’re not suited as master and pet, so I wanted to leave.”

“I said you could leave, but you must first repay what you’ve used these past two days,” the master insisted.

Xueya felt uneasy. He’d only eaten two meals, so it shouldn’t be too hard to repay, right? At worst, he’d catch a few more chickens to make up for it. But it was winter, and wild chickens were scarce. He resigned himself to his bad luck for coming without thinking things through.

“How many chickens do you need?” Xueya asked, his heart aching.

But instead of an answer, he heard a quiet chuckle.

“Chickens? Are you talking about ordinary chickens? Do you know the clothes you dirtied this morning? They’re worth three thousand spirit stones. You could buy three thousand chickens with that. And that’s just for the clothes. The spirit water you used is even more expensive—thirty thousand spirit stones for a single bucket. How many chickens do you plan to give me?”

Though not particularly well-educated, Xueya understood that the numbers the master mentioned were astronomical, far beyond what he could repay. He’d never even seen three thousand chickens in his life—how could he possibly repay that?

“It’s not like I wanted to wear the clothes. You forced me to,” Xueya tried to dodge the debt.

The master gave him another glance. “I never intended to take you as a pet. You offered yourself.”

Xueya had no retort to that. But realizing he couldn’t repay, he racked his brain for a solution, only to hear the master say, “If you can’t repay, stay and work it off. One day equals one hundred chickens.”

Without much thought, Xueya immediately agreed, “Deal.”

Two days later, he followed the master to the Grand Heroes Assembly.

Although Xueya owed a large number of chickens, he didn’t think it was entirely his fault. After all, it wasn’t like he wanted to wear those uncomfortable clothes. He swore he’d never wear clothes again.

Feeling wronged, Xueya became quite lax in his duties, spending his days basking in the sun on the ship. One overcast day, unable to find any sunlight, he wandered back to the cabin.

Xueya’s cabin was next to the master’s, and as he passed by, he caught a strange scent. The smell made him press himself against the door, sniffing hard. But the door blocked much of the scent, frustrating Xueya.

He began scratching at the door. After a while, the door opened a crack, and he slipped inside, following the scent to the master, who was meditating.

The master’s room was specially crafted, with a pure white jade bed. The master sat atop it, deep in meditation. Xueya, completely captivated by the scent, ignored the master’s meditation and leaped onto the jade bed, crawling onto the master’s lap.

The scent was emanating from the master. Xueya sniffed closer and, without thinking, bit down on the master’s finger. Soon, though, the bite softened into a gentle hold.

Something seemed to flow from the master’s fingertip, making Xueya feel tipsy, as though he’d drunk fermented fruit wine.

While Xueya was in this daze, the master quietly opened his eyes. He looked down at the five-tailed fox on his lap, which was now nuzzling his hand with its front paws, its white belly exposed, and its five tails sprawled across the jade bed in a state of utter relaxation.

The master watched for a while before attempting to withdraw his hand. But as soon as he moved, the fox’s grip tightened, and it let out a dissatisfied whimper. Seeing this, the master calmly pulled his hand away. The five-tailed fox immediately grew anxious, jumping up to grab his hand. When it couldn’t reach, it started whining, pressing its head against the master’s face, begging, “Master, master, give it back.”

After much nuzzling, Xueya finally managed to grasp the master’s finger again, falling back into a drunken stupor, his hind legs twitching occasionally. Not long after, he passed out completely, sprawled across the master’s lap like a lifeless fox.

When Xueya woke up again, it was already the next day. He realized that his cultivation had improved, and there was an itching sensation at the base of his tail. This discovery filled Xueya with joy. He had been alive for over fifty years, and the number of tails he had had never changed. Although fifty years was still considered young for a fox, he had always been bullied by other foxes because he had fewer tails, and his mother had passed away while his father was unknown.

But if he could cultivate into a nine-tailed fox before the others, who would dare bully him then?

With that thought, Xueya rushed out of his room and headed to the master’s chambers.

However, today he didn’t smell the sweet fragrance. He stared at the temple master, who was brewing tea, his gaze confused. He had clearly smelled it yesterday—why was it gone today?

He moved closer to sniff.

Before he could jump on the master, Xueya was picked up and moved aside.

“Don’t come so close. Your fur will fall into the cup,” the temple master said, his tone calm but with a hint of disdain in his actions.

Xueya, dangling in the master’s grasp, swung back and forth, his five tails swaying along. Normally, if someone showed disdain for him, he would argue back, but today all he wanted to know was why the scent had disappeared.

“Master, why don’t you smell like that anymore?” Xueya asked.

The temple master placed Xueya on the ground, cast a cleansing spell on his hands, and continued brewing tea. “I never had a scent.”

“You did! I smelled it yesterday! It was so sweet!” Xueya, unable to climb onto the table, moved closer to the master’s leg and sniffed around it. He detected a faint scent, like that from clothes, but it was entirely different from what he had smelled the day before.

“What you smelled was the pure spiritual energy that overflowed from the Jiuguang technique,” the temple master remarked, as if only just remembering. “Oh, I forgot that beasts like you love that kind of spiritual energy.”

Upon hearing this, Xueya’s ears perked up. “Pure spiritual energy?”

There was pure spiritual energy in the world, but it was extremely rare. With so many beasts competing for it, areas rich in pure energy were always occupied by powerful monsters, leaving no chance for someone like him. Xueya never expected that the young man in front of him could produce pure spiritual energy. If he could absorb it every day, becoming a nine-tailed fox would be within his reach!

He decided not to leave, no matter how cruel or unreasonable this man was. He would shamelessly stay by his side. Once he became a nine-tailed fox, he could settle the score with him later.

With that in mind, Xueya immediately hugged the master’s leg, ingratiatingly calling him “master.”

“Master, when will you cultivate that technique again?”

“Later this afternoon,” the master replied unhurriedly.

“Can’t you do it now?”

“It’s tea time now.”

This answer left Xueya quite dissatisfied, but he couldn’t show it. Instead, he lingered in the master’s room. However, before long, he was kicked out because, according to the master, his shedding fur was scattered everywhere.

Xueya: “…”

He had so much fur—of course it would fall out! Hmph, this annoying cultivator, just wait! Once he became a nine-tailed fox, he’d make this man eat his fur!

Despite being thrown out, Xueya didn’t go far. He gave up basking in the sun and instead focused on lying at the master’s door, waiting for him to start cultivating the Jiuguang technique.

Just as Xueya was about to doze off, the familiar fragrance finally reached his nose. He quickly got up, scratched at the door, squeezed inside, and with one swift leap, jumped onto the master’s lap and latched onto his hand, starting to absorb the energy.

The whole sequence of movements was performed smoothly and swiftly.

Before long, his two hind legs twitched again in comfort.

***

On the third day, Xueya went to absorb more pure spiritual energy, and this time he absorbed it for even longer than before. He stayed so long that while still in the master’s lap, he began to feel a strange sensation at the base of his tail.

It was itchy and painful, and he couldn’t absorb any more energy. Xueya began rolling around on the master’s lap.

By the time the master opened his eyes, slightly disturbed, there was a sudden “pop,” and Xueya had grown another tail. The new tail sprouted quickly, and before Xueya could even look at it, he felt his inner core rotating at high speed.

This wasn’t good—he was about to transform into a human!

It was said that the face a beast takes on during their first transformation remains their face forever, and it cannot be changed. Xueya needed to turn into a beauty! But with so little time to think, he couldn’t recall what the beauties in his fox clan looked like. All he could see in his mind was the face of the temple master.

With another “pop,” the temple master found the fox on his lap had transformed into a human.