Chapter 3

Oscar lunged toward Josie, his face twisted in pain. "Saintess, save me! His Highness wants to kill me!"

Josie shielded him with one arm, frowning. "What's going on? Why would His Highness suddenly do that?"

Oscar lifted a trembling hand and pointed at me in Father's arms. "Saintess, His Highness discovered the child I birthed for you. He insists that the child is his and wants to kill me to silence me forever!"

Josie was stunned. "What did you say? What child?"

Oscar sighed and explained that his family had a secret art that allowed a man to bear a child for a woman. He loved Josie too much, so he'd secretly gotten pregnant with her child and then given birth to it.

He said, "Saintess, if this ever got out, you and I would both be condemned. That's why I kept it a secret and had the child myself.

"I never would've imagined that His Highness would somehow discover this after Her Highness gave birth and would even try to snatch our child. He even accused me of switching out his child for ours. Saintess, please save our child…"

It was an absolutely ridiculous story, but Josie believed it. She lifted her head and said to Father, "Your Highness, if this truly is my child with Oscar, then please return him to us."

Father let out a cold laugh. Instead of loosening his hold, he hugged me even tighter.

"Josie, I can't believe you trust everything he says. Fine. Let's assume that he really can carry your child. He's a mongrel, and you're a black fox. How could the two of you possibly produce a nine-tailed white fox?"

Josie was left speechless.

Father had hit the nail on the head. She was a black fox, and Oscar was a mongrel. Neither of them had particularly pure bloodlines, and their cultivation levels were low. That was the only reason the Black Fox clan's leader had allowed them to be together.

Otherwise, with her status as the Black Fox clan's Saintess, how could she have ended up with nothing more than a mongrel?

Father's words made Josie feel humiliated. She was about to argue back when Oscar stepped forward. "Your Highness, what is that supposed to mean? Are you the only one who can have a nine-tailed white fox? Are you saying that the rest of us, with our weak spiritual power, aren't worthy?"

He turned to Josie. "Saintess, our child has been snatched away. Are you really going to just stand there and let him insult us like this? Let's go demand justice with the Fox Emperor. Let His Majesty decide what's fair and prove to us that there's still fairness in the Foxborne Realm!"

Seeing how resolute Oscar looked, Josie finally pushed down the last trace of doubt in her heart. She didn't question him any further and immediately raised her hand to use a communication talisman.

Moments later, a commotion rose from outside the hall. The Fox Emperor had arrived, and he hadn't come alone.

Because Mother was giving birth that day, a large group of fox clan relatives had been waiting outside for news. The scene Oscar had made earlier had been anything but quiet, and these clan members, who'd long been craning their necks for gossip, smelled drama in the air.

Now that Josie had asked the Fox Emperor to step in, how could they possibly stay put? One after another, they flooded into the hall. In the blink of an eye, the spacious bedchamber became so crowded that there was barely any room left to move.

Josie and Oscar both dropped to their knees in front of the Fox Emperor. Oscar recounted the situation and pointed straight at me in Father's arms. "Your Majesty, that is my child with the Saintess, yet His Highness abused his status and seized the child from me.

"He even falsely accused me of switching out his child with ours, and he tried to kill me to silence me. Your Majesty, please stand up for me!"

All eyes in the bedchamber instantly shifted to me, and a wave of murmurs broke out.

I curled up in Father's arms, so angry I was about to explode. [Oscar is really good at spinning a lie. Father, you have to believe me. I'm definitely your child!]

Father stepped forward and addressed the Fox Emperor, "Father, this is my child."