A dull, sickening **crunch** echoed from within the crater.
The talisman master's words never made it past his throat.
An invisible maw clamped down over his skull—
And crushed.
Bone split like brittle pottery.
Blood sprayed outward in a dark arc across the shattered earth before the body finally collapsed, motionless.
For a moment, the forest returned to silence.
The fox watched without blinking.
"…That stunt was quite expensive," it muttered dryly. "An earth-grade spiritual tool… gone just like that."
It exhaled slowly.
"Well. I hope it wasn't a waste."
With a controlled descent, the fox lowered itself into the crater. Rubble shifted beneath its paws. The scent of scorched earth and burned qi lingered thickly in the air.
It extended its divine sense outward.
There.
With a faint pulse of qi, something half-buried beneath broken stone lifted into the air.
The talisman master's special weapon.
The rings spun weakly before the fox, their once-smooth surfaces now spiderwebbed with cracks. Spiritual light flickered unevenly through fractured inscriptions.
The fox's expression tightened slightly.
"…Tch. Two earth-grade weapons gone so easily."
It rotated the damaged rings once with its qi, inspecting them carefully.
"One might be repairable," it mused. "But it's not worth the effort."
Its tail swayed once.
"I'll sell it. Let someone else waste resources trying to fix it."
The cracked weapon vanished into a storage pouch.
The fox then turned its gaze toward the corpse.
Charred robes. Burned flesh. Smoldering embers clinging stubbornly to torn fabric.
Its eyes narrowed faintly.
"Let's hope your storage pouch had better luck than you did."
A flicker of qi swept over the body.
Ash shifted.
Cloth tore.
And from beneath the corpse's side—
A small, dark pouch slid free, edges singed but intact.
The fox's eyes gleamed faintly.
"…Good."
It lifted the pouch into the air, weighing it lightly with its divine sense.
"If nothing else, this makes up for the spear."
The scorched storage pouch slipped into the fox's own with a satisfied flick of qi.
"Alright… that's enough," it muttered. "We should wrap this up and get out of here before someone decides to investigate all this noise."
Smoke drifted lazily between the trees. The forest floor lay scorched black. Steam continued to rise from the stream nearby.
Beside the crater, an invisible shape stood over the fallen cultivator.
A wet sound echoed softly.
The lizard slowly dragged its tongue across its maw, tasting the lingering metallic warmth of blood. The lightning had faded from its scales, but faint arcs still crawled beneath the surface like dying embers.
The fox didn't look directly at it.
It couldn't.
Instead, it lifted the headless corpse with its divine sense. The body rose stiffly from the ground, ash falling away as it hovered midair.
"Where are you at?" the fox asked casually, eyes scanning the empty air.
No response.
The corpse slid into the fox's storage pouch with a muted pulse of qi.
A faint ripple disturbed the air a few paces away.
The invisible lizard remained silent.
It gave one last slow lick across its maw, savoring the lingering iron in the air. Its nostrils flared gently—smoke, scorched bark, blood, burnt qi, fading fear.
Satisfied.
It padded forward without a sound.
A faint displacement in the grass.
A whisper of air.
Then—*thump.*
A light weight settled atop the fox's head.
The fox's ears twitched slightly, but it didn't look up.
"Alright," it said calmly.
Its qi stirred.
A soft distortion rippled outward from its body like heat haze. Fur blurred. Edges softened. Its outline shimmered—
—and then the fox faded.
Not vanishing instantly, but thinning into the night until only the faintest warping of starlight remained.
The fox slowly raised one paw.
It stared at it.
Nothing.
It flexed its toes experimentally.
Grass bent beneath unseen weight.
"Good," it murmured. "Still clean."
Above, the lizard shifted slightly, spreading its wings just enough to steady itself before folding them again. The invisibility layered seamlessly over both of them.
The clearing behind them lay silent.
Blackened earth.
Cooling bodies.
No witnesses.
The fox lowered its paw and began walking.
Invisible beneath the veil of night, the fox did not leave immediately.
It stood still for one breath.
Then another.
Its divine sense spread outward like a thin, careful net.
Satisfied that no hidden aura lingered, it moved.
Silently.
Methodically.
A corpse at the edge of the scorched treeline lifted from the ground without a ripple of qi. It hovered briefly—then vanished into a storage pouch.
A blade half-buried in mud—collected.
A cracked talisman still faintly glowing—collected.
A blood-soaked storage pouch clutched in a stiffened hand—the fox paused only long enough to peel it free before storing both pouch and body.
The stream hissed beside them, vapor rising steadily from its surface.
Charred demon beast corpses floated downstream.
The fox stepped lightly across the stones, retrieving them one by one.
Nothing wasted.
Not bone.
Not core fragments.
Not broken tools.
Above, the lizard remained quiet, its presence a cold, patient weight. Occasionally its tongue flicked out, tasting the air, ensuring no hidden survivor crawled away.
Minutes passed.
The battlefield grew emptier.
Cleaner.
Until at last—
Nothing remained.
No corpse.
No weapon.
No trace of the ambush save for scorched earth and shattered trees.
The fox stood at the center of the devastation, invisible eyes sweeping the clearing once more.
*That's all.*
The least one could do after expending an earth-grade tool, it thought dryly.
It turned.
Without hurry.
And began moving back toward River M.
The forest gradually shifted from burned ruin to ordinary night. Crickets resumed their song farther out. Leaves rustled softly overhead.
The fox did not speak.
Its thoughts were steady.
The hunt was complete.
Now—
Back to town.
Back to blending in.
Back to preparing for the next move.