The Legend: The Fox's Tale

Legend has it, that during the mid 900 BCE in the Koryo Dynasty, a nine-tailed fox was borned with the name of Yuria, and it was the most beautiful creature of the universe that anyone has ever layed eyes on. Mother Syin, a Daoist prationer, saw how Yuria's charm is too malevolent for anyone to bear, asked King Heaven to let her be the one taking charge in caring for the fox.

Mother Syin descended from Heaven and took the fox away into a hidden cave where she took care of the fox all until her adult years. Yuria grew up to be a very well-behaved child, but there is just one trait in Yuria that made her dangerous. It was curiosity. At the age of seven, Yuria slitted a fish into millions of pieces just to find the 'magical thing' that kept the fish breathing underneath the water for so long. When she was eleven, she cuts open all of the rooster's necks in order to find the sound they make that kept waking her up at dawn every morning. Yuria's extraordinary practices was calmed down by Mother Syin as she ages.

One day, a Shaolin monk was lost during his track and was led up to the cave. He saw the nine-tailed fox when he entered the cave and fainted from seeing such an indifferent creature. Yuria was frightened, for she never had intruders to the cave, ever. The fox approached the monk and fell in love with the features of his face, and was curious as to how the human world was like. When the monk woke up, thinking that it was all just a dream but to see the nine-tailed fox in front of him once more, he ran away as fast as he could from terror.

Wanting to become human to be with the monk, Yuria stole Mother Syin's spell books and transformed herself into a human and gave herself special powers to become an immortal. She rushed after the monk's tracks to find him and show him how much she really wanted to be with him for eternity, only she did not realized that she was an immortal and he was not.

She walked to the village, and first saw an old man chopping woods in the heat exhaustingly, she decided to come over and give the old man a helping hand. Instead of accepting her gratitute, the old man fell down to the floor, dead from seeing such beauty on earth. The old man's wife came out from the house to give her husband his medications, but to found him dead on the floor. She too, died from a sudden shock.

Yuria was petrified from such sorrow, slowly walking backward, she ran away deep into the village and started thinking to herself the that the human world is full of sorrows.

In her track, she saw a group of five scholars, four of which abusing one. She saw how unethical it was, and decided to step in to stop the horrible crime. The scholars, surprised to see how beautiful a person can be, bled rapidly from the nose and fell down to their deaths.

Once again, Yuria did not know what to do, and ran away. She thought to herself that the human world is full of sorrows and cruelties.

When Yuria arrived at the Shaolin temple, she met the one monk that she had loved and told him that she fancies him and would like to live with him for the rest of her life. Seeing how a beautiful person would ever take notice of him, the monk decided to take advantage of the situation and wedded the nine-tailed fox without knowing what her true form is, illuminated from her charm like how every men in the world was.

The couple moved to a cabin up north and lived together for five years happily.

On their Fifth year's anniversary, the monk decided to go gather some ancient herbs from the West Woods to prescribe for his wife so her beauty would shine on forever. As he was picking up the shiitake mushroom to put in his basket, a wild bear approached and attacked him from the back:

"Help me!" the monk yelled.

Upon hearing her husband's cries, Yuria used her special powers to fly to him. When she saw the bear, she knew she had to help her husband and get him out of danger, but she cannot do it in her human form for the bear was way too big for her strength as a human to defeat.

Yuria transformed into a nine-tailed fox and and bit off the bear's head.

When seeing Yuria's true self, the monk was horrified and ran away. He reached the end of a mountain without knowing so and fell down to his death.

Yuria was beyond misery upon her husband's death and ran back to Mother Syin, thinking to herself that the human world is full of sorrows, cruelties, and hypocrites. She does not want to belong to a world where the person she loves does not love her for her true colors. When she returned to Mother Syin, her curiosity took over her and she wanted to experience how death can wash away all the griefs in her heart:

"I do not want to be in a world where I have to see such sorrow, cruelty, and hypocrites for the rest of my life. I want to feel how it is like to be coming to an end. I want to become a mortal!"

Hearing such cries, Mother Syin fulfilled Yuria's last wish for her. Mother Syin took out her sabre and murmured her spell:

"Since you've killed eight people with your charm, I will cut down eight of your tails, leaving you with only one life to bear you until the end of your last year."

Yuria lived until the day of her Sixth anniversary. She believed that she has finally escaped into serenity when her eyes rolled white, smile widened.