The lizard continued eating without pause, bone cracking softly between its jaws, scales faintly shimmering under the lamplight.
The fox watched for a moment—then, with a flick of thought, the Soul-Severing Needles vanished back into its storage pouch.
Its bushy tail twitched once.
Satisfied.
"Alright…" it murmured. "Now it's about to get real."
Its eyes narrowed slightly.
"We're going in with the main team."
A quiet exhale left its nose.
"This might take all night."
With a smooth motion, the fox opened its storage pouch again.
Wind stirred inside the room despite the sealed barrier.
Two massive wings slid out and unfolded across the floor.
The wings of a six-layer Wind Eagle.
Even severed from the body, they radiated dense wind-element qi. Feathers shimmered with faint currents, edges razor-sharp yet light and durable. Each feather carried layered wind inscriptions along the bone shafts—natural formations imprinted by the eagle's bloodline.
The fox stepped closer.
"This…" it said calmly, "was the real prize."
It circled the wings slowly.
"Foundation Establishment cultivators can fly. But only briefly. It drains energy quickly, and the speed isn't impressive."
It lifted one wing slightly with its divine sense.
"If you're trying to escape, and your pursuer doesn't have wings or a flying tool, yes—you can gain distance."
Its eyes glinted.
"But against a beast cultivator with wings?"
A faint chuckle.
"You won't get far."
The fox tapped the bone ridge thoughtfully.
"And even without wings, a proper flying tool can outpace a winged beast—if the tool is higher grade and faster."
It paused.
"Speed isn't about who has wings."
"It's about who has the better medium."
The wind around the severed wings responded faintly to its qi.
"These wings still retain their structure. The bloodline hasn't fully dissipated yet."
It turned toward the lizard briefly.
"I'm not using them to graft onto myself."
A small smirk.
"That'd be crude."
"This is refinement."
The fox sat down. Its divine sense extended again—far deeper this time.
It wasn't imprinting.
It wasn't erasing.
It was dismantling.
The fox began separating the wings at a structural level—isolating the wind channels embedded in the bone, identifying the natural formation nodes cultivated by the eagle.
"Most cultivators waste beast remains."
Its claws traced faint patterns in the air.
"I don't."
Wind circled the room like a restrained storm.
A compressed sphere of wind essence hovered in front of the fox, spinning slowly, feathers and bone already refined into pure flowing structure. The air hummed with sharp pressure, brushing against the defensive barrier like an impatient blade.
The fox exhaled slowly.
"That," it said, eyes reflecting the rotating currents, "is exactly why I'm not wasting this."
It flicked its paw.
From its body, its armor emerged—dark, sleek, and fitted to its smaller frame, originally obtained from the Iron Claws Eagle. Layered plating, reinforced with defensive inscriptions, built primarily for resilience rather than speed.
The fox studied it carefully.
"Defense alone isn't enough."
The wind sphere rotated faster.
"And escape alone isn't enough either."
Its eyes narrowed slightly.
"So I'll create both."
The armor floated upward, suspended in midair.
The fox raised a claw—
Instead, three earth-grade fire talismans slid out from its storage pouch and hovered around the wings.
It did not hesitate.
The talismans ignited. Flames erupted outward, but not chaotically. The fox controlled the spread, confining the fire into a controlled forging ring. Heat flooded the room, pressing against the barrier, causing the air to shimmer violently.
The lizard paused its feeding again, golden eyes watching silently.
The fox's divine sense expanded—steady, surgical.
The fire began heating the armor first. Not to melt it—but to soften its inscriptions.
"To fuse two structures," the fox muttered, voice calm despite the rising heat, "you must destabilize them without destroying their core arrays."
The armor glowed red.
Wind roared louder.
The fox flicked its paw again. The compressed wind sphere burst outward—not explosively, but like liquid threads. Streams of wind essence surged into the softened armor, weaving through cracks in its defensive inscriptions.
The moment wind met heated metal—
The reaction was violent.
Clang!
The armor trembled.
Wind howled.
Flames flared brighter.
The fox gritted its teeth slightly.
"Easy…"
It extended thin strands of Yin threads again, guiding the wind currents into specific channels.
"Layer one—outer mobility."
Wind formed curved pathways along the back and sides of the armor.
"Layer two—burst acceleration."
Denser currents compressed along the rear plating.
"Layer three—stabilization."
Smaller wind spirals embedded along the shoulders and edges to prevent spin imbalance mid-flight.
The armor began to hum.
Fire continued burning, reshaping the metal structure to accept the new formations.
The fox's breathing grew heavier. Sweat dampened its fur. Only a twentieth of its energy remained after the earlier recovery pill—and even then, forging like this was draining.
But its eyes remained focused.
"I'm not grafting wings."
The fox's voice lowered.
"I'm building propulsion."
The back plating shifted slightly—curving, opening vent-like structures.
Wind compressed inside.
The fire talismans burned brighter—then dimmed.
Cracks formed in the talisman paper.
The fox pushed harder.
"Dual-function core… defensive matrix remains intact…"
The armor flared with light—blue wind veins glowing through red-hot metal.
Then—
The talismans disintegrated into ash.
The flames vanished.
Silence followed.
The armor hovered midair. No longer glowing red.
Now faint lines of pale blue wind inscriptions pulsed across its surface.
The fox lowered its paw slowly. The armor descended gently.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then—
A faint whummm echoed.
Wind circulated internally. Controlled. Stable.
The fox stared at it.
"…Not bad."
It reached out with divine sense and nudged the propulsion array slightly. The armor lifted—just a few inches off the ground. Without the fox pouring qi into it.
The fox's eyes gleamed.
"Passive wind circulation."
It smiled slowly.
"And when I pour power into it…"
The vents at the back flickered. A concentrated burst of wind blasted outward, pushing the armor forward across the room before the fox halted it.
The defensive barrier trembled slightly from the pressure.
The lizard blinked.
The fox's tail swayed with satisfaction.
"Defense reinforced."
It tapped the chest plating lightly.
"Wind cushioning added."
It glanced at the back vents.
"Burst acceleration ready."
Its breathing was slightly heavier now.
"But…"
It narrowed its eyes thoughtfully.
"This is only the prototype."