The lizard's wings spread wide as it swung forward, hovering silently. Its golden eyes glowed intensely as it stared down at Yulan, who lay on the floor bleeding from his mouth, eyes and nose—his gaze lifeless.
Huh, Lizarius thought, this one is different.
Unlike the others who died instantly from the soul attack, this one tried to fought back—even if only for a moment. It resisted.
Though in the end, it still died.
The lizard hovered quietly above the corpse, narrowing its golden eyes.
That shows the soul attack isn't just able to kill anyone instantly. Need to—
Then—
"That was fast."
The voice came through a voice transmission.
Without shifting its wings, Lizarius turned its head.
The fox appeared beside it quietly, a pouch clamped between its teeth.
It dropped the pouch with a soft thud and gave the lizard a sidelong glance.
"You're already done?"
The fox's tone wasn't surprised—just vaguely curious.
Its eyes flickered as it looked at the body, ears twitching.
"This is way faster than I expected. The battle didn't even begin before it ended."
The fox muttered to itself, frowning:
> Killing two fourth-layer cultivators in moments. Didn't even see how or what it did.
One moment I was looting my treasures, and the next, their presence just vanished—one after the other.
The fox studied the corpse, tilting its head and furrowing its brow—not in concern, but in interest.
Its nose twitched.
No visible wounds.
No burns.
No piercings.
Just a lifeless shell, meridians torn, leaking blood from every orifice.
After a beat, it blinked and huffed through its nose.
"Tch. Whatever."
It shook the thought off and glanced at the spirit shield lying next to Yulan's body. Its eyes gleamed.
"Hoh… This isn't just pretty, it's valuable. A mid-tier defensive tool.
Way more useful than the spear. With this, I could defend myself without burning through all my talismans—and still attack with the spear."
The fox grinned, eyes gleaming.
"You mind?" it asked, glancing at the lizard.
Lizarius didn't respond, still watching Yulan's corpse with an unreadable expression.
The fox snorted.
"Didn't think so."
With a flick of Qi, the shield floated up and disappeared into the fox's pouch.
The fox placed its paw lightly on the pouch it had dropped earlier. With a flick of Qi, it opened. The corpse on the ground began glowing faintly, then rose and drifted into the pouch, vanishing as it sealed with a hum.
"Here's your pouch. I've already put the other two corpses inside," the fox said, glancing at the lizard. Its eyes flickered as the pouch floated closer. The lizard grabbed it with both front paws.
The fox glanced over at Jinhai's corpse, moving to crouch beside it. Gleaming eyes stared at the jade fan, paw hovering just above its surface. It muttered, "Ironleaf jade forged into a fan—a mid-tier Earth-grade spirit tool. Really good stuff. I could imprint it… or better yet, resell it."
The fan flickered with Qi and floated into its pouch. The corpse also began glowing faintly, rising and floating into the pouch hanging at the fox's side.
"Open your pouch," the fox said, glancing at the lizard.
The lizard stared, then turned its head toward the pouch in its paws. It infused a small amount of Qi; the pouch flickered open as the corpse floated inside. The pouch sealed again.
The pouch then flew into the fox's larger pouch.
"Alright, now that's done. Let's get going. We first need to find the mid-stage cultivator, take all the precious items along with the corpse, then locate the cultivator monitoring the formation. Kill them and seize control of the formation. That way, no one gets out of the estate to alert the other families."
The lizard stared at the fox with wide golden eyes, thinking: So the fox plans to use the formation to trap the humans inside.
I didn't know the formation could do that. Since the rest aren't in the Foundation Establishment, they won't be able to escape.
Hmm, the fox is smart.
The lizard compressed its energy as its body shrank smaller, now just tiny paws holding the pouch.
It flew closer and landed gently on the fox's head. The fox glanced at it but said nothing, moving quickly and disappearing from the spot.
---
The incense smoke curled lazily around the arched beams of the Formation Pavilion, where Elder Shan Zhen sat cross-legged upon a woven reed mat.
His robes, deep forest green and embroidered with faint silver willows, shimmered gently under the spiritual light of the hovering formation disc before him.
Though still firm of posture and alert of eye, Shan Zhen bore the creased brow and weathered skin of a man who had long served—a cultivator in the third layer of Foundation Establishment, in his hundred-and-twenties.
Not ancient, but seasoned by both battle and bureaucracy.
The defensive array of the estate glowed faintly on the disc: concentric lines of jade-light forming a dome over the grounds.
All seemed still—the faint hum of spiritual energy flowing through the ley-lines undisturbed.
Until it wasn't.
A flicker. A tremble in the threads of Qi.
Shan Zhen's eyes snapped open.
He pressed two fingers to the disc, infusing a tiny spiritual sense through it, trying to locate the disruption—but found nothing. The formation held firm.
No breaches. No alarms.
Yet...
His heart twisted sharply as he stretched his spiritual sense outward, beyond the pavilion, into the estate grounds.
Silence.
Where once the aura signatures of his fellow Foundation Establishment elders pulsed like steady beacons—now there was emptiness.
One... then another.
Vanished.
Snuffed out.
Not masked.
Not hidden.
They're... gone.
He turned sharply, already striding toward the door.
The formation still hummed, but now he understood: someone had slipped through—unseen—using a weakness he had missed.
"Damn it all," he muttered, voice low and taut. "A cut beneath the bark..."
Without a word to the guards outside, Shan Zhen swept from the pavilion—the weight of his Qi coiling tightly around him like a storm yet to break.
He moved not with the swiftness of youth, but with the precision of someone who knew every inch of his estate—and feared what he would find waiting in its heart.