Despite the Sovereign Fox Lord's oppressive aura and bloodthirsty nature, he had not ruled the Huli Jing with an iron fist. Quite the opposite, in fact. He had been just and wise with his decisions, bringing prosperity to the dying Bai clan.

Thus, the celestial fox gods had always tiptoed around their Sovereign Lord. They had lived and breathed in fear whenever they approached him, but they did it willingly, with great respect, not wishing for any other to replace him.

However, the suffocating air of malevolence that the Sovereign Lord had always carried with him had currently diminished. It was definitely there under the surface, if one looked hard enough.

Yet it seemed as though his oppressive aura had been reduced to a mere humming threat vibrating in the wind.

Xiao An Hua, Xiao An Fei, and Bai Yu had simultaneously regarded their Lord with their own sense of spiritual awareness.

Astonished by their discovery, they nearly jumped out of their skin in shock.

The comparison to the previous throttling malice that had brought deities to their knees from sheer agony, astounded the fox god's subjects, throwing them into great confusion.

The Bai clan's subordinates might have been considered as servants in their social ranking, but they were still immortal beings nonetheless. An immortal was an entity who could see with more than just their eyes, listened with more than just their ears, and smelled with more than just their nose.

Immortals were beings capable of a deeper level of awareness, of consciousness. Their senses worked on a metaphysical level, that had naught to do with their physical forms.

There were some immortals who had once begun their cultivation journey as mere mortals, and struggled to achieve this higher level of understanding as they trudged through the path to immortality.

In contrast to the struggles of a mortal to cultivate his or her spiritual senses, there also existed immortal deities who were bestowed with a deeper perception from the moment of their birth, such as the celestial foxes.

Nevertheless, it didn't really matter how any of the immortals came to gain their higher level of consciousness. For all immortals, godly or not, shared this one thing in common.

All immortals used their inner senses, their spiritual awareness, to comprehend and perceive their surroundings. In fact, when faced with some of the incredible forces lurking in the Heavenly realm, this perception became vital to one's survival.

As such, anybody with a deeper level of perception who had encountered Bai Qingyue previously, would immediately feel the need to distance themselves away. Instinctively sensing the Sovereign Fox Lord's intimidating power, those godly entities had often went running for their lives.

At least that had been the case, until today.

"Sire, is it really you?" Bai Yu squealed under Bai Qingyue's hold, being unable to recognize the spiritual force of His Lordship.

"What a daft question." Bai Qingyue sighed and opened the sack. He grabbed Bai Yu's scruff and pulled him up to hang mid-air, at his eye level.

"It really is you!" Bai Yu exclaimed in shock, smacking his snowy paws on each side of his furry cheeks as he momentarily forgot his precarious position.

Xiao An Hua and Xiao An Fei rose together and regarded their Lord, shape-shifting into their human forms. "Sire, your aura. It has been altered."

"Oh?" was Bai Qingyue's only unconcerned reply.

"Your aura seems a lot more pleasant." Xiao An Fei piped up cheerfully, circling Bai Qingyue in awe.

Xiao An Hua grabbed her sister by the collar and dragged her a few steps back, maintaining an appropriate distance.

She said, "My sister is right. Your aura seems to have merged with Her Ladyship's."

The Sovereign Lord didn't speak a word and pursed his lips. From a bystander's perspective, he would have seemed displeased, angry even. But that wasn't actually the case. He was just concealing his embarrassment.

'Since when did my Lord start acting all timid, not much different than a shy maiden? Is this another new side of him?' Bai Yu thought as he gawked at the Sovereign Lord. He couldn't believe his own eyes.

Sure enough, as Bai Yu inspected his sovereign further, he noticed His Lordship's ears were tinted red!