Tamamo-no-Mae（glitter1）

Tamamo-no-Mae is a pale-faced, golden-furred nine-tailed fox, representing the ultimate form of Japanese fox spirits. Well-versed in dark sorcery, she possesses the power to bewitch the human mind and bring ruin to living beings. Inhabiting the Nasuno Plain in Shimotsuke Province (present-day Tochigi Prefecture), a centenarian fox cultivated a two-tailed form. Endowed with supernatural powers, cunning, and agility, its remains can even give rise to all manner of rare treasures. Assuming human form to approach rulers, it conspires to shorten their lifespans through wicked schemes in order to usurp their thrones.

Under the lore where "an additional tail grows for every century of cultivation or each heavenly tribulation survived," a spirit gradually evolves from an ordinary single-tailed wild fox through two and five tails; only upon sprouting the ninth tail does it shed its mortal form, ascending into a golden celestial fox or an all-powerful supreme demon.

Severing Tails to Spare Lives (The Nine-Lives Technique): Similar to the folk belief that "cats have nine lives," in many mythical tales and xianxia lore, each tail of a nine-tailed fox harbors an extra life or an innate demon core (neidan). When facing heavenly tribulations or mortal blows from formidable foes, it can sever a tail as a sacrificial decoy to slip away unseen. With each lost tail, its spiritual cultivation drops by a century, and only when all nine tails are severed does it meet true death.