Chapter 1: Prologue

It was my mission to gather and record all the events of the world.

I was born for this purpose and lived diligently fulfilling it.

That is, until I encountered this recent obstacle.

“What kind of person is the current Fox Master[1].?”

I went around asking all the great yokai of the world.

He was such a unique individual, after all.

The responses I received were truly varied.

Strong. Weak.

Yokai-like. Not yokai-like.

Well, what am I supposed to make of that?

I continued walking, recording these unsatisfactory answers.

“Is this the last one?”

I don’t need the answers of riffraff.

I’m a great yokai of a certain caliber myself, you know.

The one who resides here is a great yokai famous for his ferocious temperament.

I hear he’s originally a tiger who guarded a mountain in the human realm.

I don’t know how he became a yokai, but if he’s only ferocious in temperament, that’s fortunate. They say he’s incredibly strong.

I’m risking my life to fulfill my duty here, I’ll have you know.

As I entered his domain, a suffocating killing intent enveloped my entire body.

‘Hmph, I’m a great yokai too. This level of killing intent is nothing.’

I comforted myself as I took each laborious step forward.

Upon discovering me, he raised his hand in greeting.

“Kuhaha! Silver Horn, you rascal, you’ve finally come to see me!”

He’s probably mistaken that I’ve come to record his strength.

Hoo.

After taking a deep breath, I asked.

“What kind of person is this Eunho?”

At the mention of ‘Eunho’, the Mountain King’s expression noticeably hardened.

“Eunho… You mean the current Fox Master?”

“Of course.”

I didn’t miss the flash of fear that crossed the Mountain King’s eyes.

He stroked the scar on the nape of his neck as he spoke.

“He’s completely insane. With his tyrannical personality where everything is done on a whim, and his arrogance that leads him to even beat up immortals…”

I was surprised.

To hear the words ‘tyrannical’ and ‘arrogant’ come from his mouth.

Just how terrifying must this person be…

The Mountain King’s eyes gleamed fiercely.

He clenched his jaw so tightly that I could hear the ‘crunch’ of his fangs grinding together.

“If that bastard had been weaker than me, I would have personally strangled him with my own hands…”

Thud.

“?”

The Mountain King’s head, which had been spewing vitriol, rolled on the ground in its entirety.

“Hieek!”

When did he appear?

The young man who had sent the Mountain King’s head flying with a single blow.

Silver hair fluttering in the wind and long, slanted eyes.

An arrogant gaze looking down at me.

I knew as soon as I saw him.

Ah, this must be Eunho.

“Child.”

His clear voice directly penetrated my mind.

I instinctively took a step back.

The fear of encountering a predator overwhelmed me.

He was on a completely different level from the great yokai I had met until now.

“Are you the Silver Horn fellow who’s been digging around about me lately?”

“Huh? Y-Yes…”

Am I going to die?

If he could kill the Mountain King in an instant, even I wouldn’t be able to escape no matter how hard I tried.

The corners of his eyes, which had been looking down at me, curved strangely.

“You can record it then.”

“Pardon?”

When I asked again, he spoke with a displeased expression.

“Record that I will now ascend and become an immortal[2].”

What is he talking about now?

It was something I hadn’t expected at all. A yokai ascending?

As I stood there with a bewildered expression for a moment, he made eye contact with me and spoke again.

“Are you not going to do it?”

“Pardon?”

“I asked if you’re not going to record it.”

I took out my writing tools from my bundle and began to write.

It was utterly incomprehensible, but what could I do?

It seemed like he would kill me if I didn’t write.

Only then did Eunho, the leader of the fox yokai known as the Fox Master and the king of all yokai in the yokai realm, smile with satisfaction.

At that time, I didn’t know.

That his talk of ascending actually meant becoming human.

***

Story 1

Everything was easy for me.

In the world of yokai where existence is proven only by strength, I was the strongest.

I was born a great yokai from the start, and even those who had made a name for themselves in the world were no match for me.

Whenever our fox yokai were beaten and returned by tigers, dragons, and other ill-tempered creatures, I would invariably seek them out and slaughter them.

It was after about five hundred years of this repetition.

No one dared to touch our fox yokai, and naturally, I became king.

Of course, there were those who secretly tried to keep me in check.

Unable to confront me openly, they would resort to underhanded tactics behind my back.

And that was my mistake.

To fall in love with a human woman.

Back when the human realm and yokai realm weren’t separated as they are now.

There was a time when a monk named Dharma created something called martial arts and came at me.

Naturally, he had no choice but to limp back home.

How many days had passed since then?

He came back to me again, bringing along a friend and disciple of his.

His name was… Sam… something.

Anyway, he was a similar fellow.

Talking about the Taiji this and the harmony of yin and yang that.

Of course, I sent them both to the afterlife amicably.

Thanks to my consideration, their friendship will be eternal even in death.

The problem was that Sam guy’s younger sister.

I had thought myself quite a cold-hearted yokai, but seeing those chicken-drop tears of hers, how my heart ached.

Truly, without reason and without restraint, I fell for her.

Ah, so this is love, I thought.

Even knowing it was dangerous, I kept her by my side.

Her adaptability was terrifying.

Jangho, my most cherished subordinate, was a great yokai in his own right at the time.

The image of her fearlessly pulling his tail is still vivid in my mind.

Of course, so is the image of Jangho, conflicted between killing intent and loyalty.

And so, she died.

Ah, of course, not by Jangho’s hand, but by other great yokai.

Those who usually kept me in check saw their chance when I let my guard down, and took her away and killed her.

Haha, stupid fools.

If it had been me, I would have used her as a hostage.

I thoroughly tracked down and eradicated not only all the great yokai involved in that incident but also all the yokai associated with them.

At the time, burning with petty vengeance, I killed indiscriminately, over and over.

It was then that I met the being who is now beyond that door, the Tathagata.

True to his name, he suddenly appeared and made a proposal to me, whose hands were never dry of blood.

Given my temperament at the time, it would have been fitting to tear him to pieces, but I didn’t.

Or rather, I couldn’t.

The highest ascended immortal of the celestial realm, Lü Dongbin or Nezha?

He was on a completely different level, incomparable to such beings.

At least on the level of the Jade Emperor, I’d say.

That’s why I specially listened to him.

“How about becoming human by accumulating merit?”

“Human?”

“I am one who helps all things in the world not to lose their way in the wheel of fate. Your appearance is so pitiful that I cannot just stand by and watch.”

It sounded like nonsense, but on the other hand, it was intriguing.

Born a yokai, I had been a king, and I had experienced love.

I was sick and tired of struggling back and forth with weaklings.

Unlike humans, yokai don’t really have a lifespan, so to think I’d have to keep doing this for eternity.

Rather, becoming human as he suggested and living an ordinary life until death seemed appealing.

It was quite exciting for me, who had never been ordinary.

“But what do you mean by merit?”

The lecherous Tathagata[3], then as now, simply answered with a smile.

Right, that’s when the hardships began.

In the name of accumulating merit, I used my kingly powers to separate the human realm and the yokai realm.

There was quite a backlash from the man-eating yokai who could only grow stronger by consuming human souls, but what could such beings do against me?

Occasionally, I would beat down those who forcibly squeezed through the barrier and caused havoc in the human realm.

I returned the books that were in the possession of Dharma and that Sam whatever, whom I had kindly killed together, to their homeland.

It was truly gratifying to be called a benefactor and to be treated to alcohol and music.

What I disliked the most was attending to those Daoist immortal bastards from the celestial realm.

I took charge of all sorts of errands and miscellaneous tasks.

Especially those who had a history of being beaten by me made me work even harder.

The period when I attended to them was about seven hundred years into my merit accumulation, so I can only see it as the Tathagata using his head.

If I had accumulated merit for a shorter time, I would have thrown it all away and beaten them all up.

However, even for me, seven hundred years was too much time to waste.

So I endured and endured for several hundred more years, and finally now.

After accumulating a thousand years of merit, I stood before this door once again to meet the Tathagata.

I didn’t bother mentioning that I would be reincarnating as a human.

There were quite a few who would set everything aside to come kill me if I became human, even though they’re now bowing their heads to the ground.

Yes, saying that I would ascend to the celestial realm and become an immortal was indeed a good move.

“I shall take my leave now. I hope that your hearts remain unchanged, and I support your efforts to widely spread my achievements to future generations.”

Jangho nodded his head vigorously, his face covered in tears.

After leaving a warm(?) word of encouragement to Jangho, whose path of hardship seemed clear, I pulled the door handle.

The sight of Jangho’s snotty face as he wailed and the glares of some yokai who seemed relieved bothered me a bit, but what could I do?

This is the fate I have carved out for myself.

As I took a step inside, the door closed abruptly, as if severing all ties with those things.

Thud-!

The sound of the closing door is rather cold-hearted.

There, the Tathagata was waiting for me with a benevolent smile.

“You have come.”

“Yes.”

At my informal speech, the Tathagata-like figure standing next to the Tathagata glares at me.

Where do you get the nerve to… I ought to gouge out those eyes…

But no, the sage who has completed a thousand years of merit accumulation cannot do such a thing.

“Do you have any regrets?”

“None at all. If I were to regret and give up now, there are quite a few who would need to quickly run away. Well, that might be fun in its own way.”

“Your resolve is admirable. Ah, there’s a bit of merit left, so I’ve prepared a small gift.”

“What is it?”

The Tathagata didn’t answer.

He only responded with his usual smile.

I thought any further conversation would be largely meaningless.

I closed my eyes.

The Tathagata’s large palm spread out in front of my face.

A massive flow starting from my two feet began to travel up my entire body and gather in the Tathagata’s palm.

Soon, following that flow, a small bead emerged from my mouth.

Ha, this is quite precious…

It was the culmination of yokai power I had accumulated for well over a thousand years.

It’s commonly called inner dan, or sometimes a fox bead.

The Tathagata grasped the bead, which was emitting a blue light so intense it chilled its surroundings.

The bead, which had been emitting an even fiercer light as if resisting, eventually concealed its light entirely within the Tathagata’s palm.

“It’s truly enormous.”

I am quite remarkable, aren’t I?

Now, farewell to all these things.

“Namu Amitabha…”

With that unpleasant sound as the last thing I heard, my physical body slowly sank.

As if I had fallen into a very wide and deep sea, my entire body gradually became heavier, and my breathing slowed bit by bit.

How far… will I sink?

Soon, my breath stopped completely.

***

How long had it been since my breath had completely stopped?

The area around my solar plexus started to feel tight, and eventually, I felt death approaching right before me.

Death, faced with a body devoid of yokai power, was immense.

And frightening.

All sorts of thoughts raced through my mind.

Could the Tathagata have played some trick?

Yes, why did I come to trust such a fellow without any suspicion?

The small spark that started with this groundless suspicion soon blazed into certainty.

He’s trying to kill me.

This must be a plot hatched by those who hold grudges against me!

Damn it, to fall for such a trick.

You bastard! I’ll tear you to pieces right now!

First, I’ll rip the Tathagata to shreds, then I’ll crush those immortal bastards who used me.

Then those lowly yokai who sent resentful and contemptuous gazes at my back, and then, and then…

I put all my strength into my body that refused to move.

Cold sweat flowed helplessly, and thick veins rose on my temples.

My closed eyes became bloodshot as if they were about to burst.

And my heart pounded furiously…

Huh? Did I have a heart?

I felt a pulse near my solar plexus.

Yokai don’t have anything that could be called a heart.

Right now.

This was the moment when the fate of me, who had ruled the yokai realm for a thousand years, was being overturned.

A cool breeze swept across my entire body, ruffling my hair.

All the strength in my body drained away, and my eyes naturally opened.

I frowned at the uncontrollable mass of light,

and soon my vision quickly returned.

I must have reincarnated. After all, a heart is unique to humans.

At that moment, someone opened the door with a creak and entered.

“Young Master must regain his strength quickly…”

Fortunately, it was a weak-looking human woman.

There’s no way a human could be in the yokai realm.

Which means.

“Is this the human realm?”

“Young Master!”

The woman cried out with a joyful face, her eyes even welling up with tears.

“What on earth is going on… Ugh!”

Suddenly, an intense headache struck as if my head was about to split open.

I tried to support my body by grabbing the bed with one arm, but it was too much for a body without yokai power.

As I squeezed my eyes shut, unable to bear the headache, something began to unfold in my mind.

It was the life of a human.

Born as the eldest son of a massive merchant group called ‘Cheonha Merchant Guild[4]’, he had suddenly fallen ill at a young age and was recuperating…

But he had just died now.

Age… about fifteen?

Compared to the life I had lived, it was a time not even worth a speck of dust, but the experience of having fifteen years of memories enter my mind at once was accompanied by unbearable pain.

After a time of endurance, all the memories and experiences of the boy seeped into my mind, and the pain gradually faded away.

“Hoo…”

I immediately raised my heavy body and approached the bronze mirror placed on one side of the room.

I see.

The memories belonged to the boy who had occupied this body.

Tathagata, you bastard, you talked about reincarnation and whatnot, but in the end, you just stuffed my soul into a shell?

But, the shell looks familiar.

Long, slanted eyes, a chiseled jawline, and although thin from illness, a slender yet sturdy build.

While not completely identical, it bore a striking resemblance to my previous life’s appearance.

Ha, so this was the small gift he was giving with the remaining merit?

Well, it’s a bit embarrassing to say it myself, but among fox yokai, I was a nine-tailed fox with the most exceptional beauty.

At least the appearance was satisfactory.

And the woman still standing there with a dazed expression, no…

“Nanny.”

The thought escaped my lips before I realized it.

She was Lim Yoon, the nanny who had taken care of this body’s owner since childhood.

She stared at me with wavering eyes for a moment, then seemed to recall something and shouted towards the outside.

“Quick, tell the great Master that Young Master Eunho has woken up… No, I should tell him myself! Please wait a moment, Young Master!”

She hurriedly left the room with excited steps.

Huh, even the name is the same.

I didn’t think much of him before, but this Tathagata fellow has quite a mischievous side.

More importantly, I had truly become human.

The thousand years I endured accumulating merit came rushing back as both sorrow and emotion.

I felt my nose tingle at the residual emotions washing over me like waves.

Lü Dongbin, the so-called greatest ascended immortal of the celestial realm, Queen Mother of the West (Xi Wangmu), the mother of all immortals, and that psychopath Master of the Cloud-Chamber (Zhongli Quan)[5].

These were the great Daoist immortals who had tormented me all this time.

I had sworn that if I failed to become human, even if the chances were one in a thousand or one in ten thousand, I would definitely tear them into three or four pieces.

But what does it matter now?

I have become human, and moreover, judging from Eunho’s memories, I’m quite wealthy.

This appearance in front of the mirror… anyone would fall for it.

I will live and die as an ‘above average’ human man, ordinarily and comfortably.

“Haha!”

It was a day that made me laugh spontaneously.