His right hand closed like an iron clamp, catching the Silver-Crowned Snow Fox precisely by the scruff. The Snow Fox let out a sharp, brief cry and struggled futilely a few times before going completely limp, its lively eyes filled with terror and despair.
Feeling the weight in his hand and the exceptionally smooth fur, Li Bufan felt an immense sense of accomplishment. He had already exceeded his main goal for this trip! Two Silver-Crowned Snow Foxes were worth far more than ordinary Snow Foxes, enough to exchange for a wealth of cultivation resources. They might even draw some attention from the higher ranks of Lin Manor.
Yet after the elation, a thread of doubt quickly surfaced.
"Too easy... and far too strange." Li Bufan frowned slightly, looking over the Silver-Crowned Snow Fox in his hand, larger and faster than the previous one. "Snow Foxes are rare to begin with, and Silver-Crowned Snow Foxes are an exceptional breed hardly ever seen. An ordinary hunter could spend months in the mountains and count himself incredibly lucky to stumble across a single ordinary Snow Fox. But I..."
He carefully recalled the past half month: he had easily caught an ordinary Snow Fox shortly after entering the forest, then encountered a tiger and bear fighting. After narrowly escaping death and killing the gray-clad Wu Ershijiu, he had secluded himself to make a breakthrough. Almost immediately after emerging, he had found and captured this even more valuable Silver-Crowned Snow Fox without much trouble.
So little time, yet his gains were almost impossibly rich.
"When things stray from the ordinary, something sinister must be lurking!" Li Bufan's gaze flickered. "Something unusual must have happened deep in this forest to make these normally elusive, exceptionally cunning Snow Foxes—especially the silver-crowned breed—so active."
Looking at the trembling Snow Fox in his hand, a bold idea occurred to him.
"What if... I follow it? No, let it lead the way." Li Bufan pondered for a moment. "It wasn't fleeing aimlessly earlier. It seemed to have a fixed route, a direction toward its den. If something really is amiss, there might be clues near its den or wherever it was trying to go."
He was not insatiably greedy, but opportunities and risks went hand in hand on the martial path. If Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures had truly appeared, or some other unusual event had occurred, this might be his chance to advance further! Besides, understanding the forest's strange changes would greatly help him leave safely.
His mind made up, Li Bufan hesitated no longer. He found a tough vine and carefully bound the Silver-Crowned Snow Fox's mouth and limbs, preventing it from biting him or struggling free without suffocating it or injuring it too severely. Then he gently set it on the snow.
Once released, the Snow Fox immediately struggled on instinct to stand, looking around in panic.
Li Bufan held his breath and focused, suppressing every trace of his presence until he seemed to become a stone. He trailed far behind, tracking it soundlessly with the nimbleness of Spirit Monkey Three Leaps and the cover offered by the snowy terrain.
After struggling to its feet, the Silver-Crowned Snow Fox turned a few bewildered circles, seemingly still shaken. A moment later, as though sensing something, it suddenly grew restless. Rather than trying to run toward the more open plains, it turned and staggered toward the darker Primeval Forest, where ancient trees towered into the sky. Its legs seemed slightly injured, leaving it limping and much slower, which made it easier for Li Bufan to follow.
Li Bufan's heart stirred. There really is something strange here! The Snow Fox did not seem to be simply fleeing for its life and returning to its den. It looked more as though some invisible force was driving or drawing it in a particular direction.
He followed cautiously, keeping just close enough to see its movements without being discovered. The deeper he ventured, the stranger his surroundings became.
The chill in the air seemed more biting, yet it was not ordinary cold. It carried a kind of... indescribably sinister chill. The snow underfoot grew deeper, and the trees grew taller and denser, shutting out the sky and sun. The forest dimmed as though dusk had arrived early.
More alarming still, he discovered traces of Snow Foxes in more than one place along the way! Their routes were remarkably similar to that of the fox he was following!
"So many Snow Foxes are heading in the same direction?" Li Bufan's curiosity and vigilance both reached their peak.
The pursuit continued for roughly an hour, taking him deep into an area he had never entered before. The trees here were frighteningly ancient, some requiring several people to encircle them. Their bark cracked like dragon scales, and their twisted, tangled branches hung thick with icicles and fluffy snow.
The Silver-Crowned Snow Fox leading the way slowed further and further, finally stopping before a massive cliff covered in thick ice and snow. At its base, a pitch-black opening was barely visible, like the entrance to some enormous creature's lair—or perhaps a naturally formed fissure.
The Snow Fox paced anxiously before the cliff, whining softly, seemingly eager to enter yet afraid of something.
Hidden behind an enormous ancient tree, Li Bufan watched closely. He noticed that the nearer he came to the cliff, the more pronounced that sinister chill became. Moreover, an exceedingly faint... unusual fragrance seemed to linger in the air.
The fragrance was peculiar, cool and distant. A single breath of it faintly stirred his blood and vitality, which had been slightly depleted by the journey!
"This is..." Li Bufan's pupils contracted, and his heart involuntarily quickened. He remembered accounts he had read in miscellaneous books of strange tales: extraordinary treasures born of heaven and earth were often accompanied by unusual phenomena—oppressive cold or striking fragrances that drew nearby spiritually attuned creatures!
Could some rare Spirit Item be hidden behind this cliff?
Just as his thoughts raced, something suddenly changed!
Whoosh!
Without warning, a piercing whistle came from behind him to one side! It headed straight toward his hiding place behind the tree!
Li Bufan's scalp prickled violently! A sense of mortal danger washed over him like ice water poured over his head! Before he could even think, his body reacted!
Spirit Monkey Three Leaps erupted at full power! Rather than moving forward or backward, he sprang like a startled monkey, all four limbs driving him impossibly upward at an angle. He scrambled straight onto the trunk of the ancient tree beside him, which would take two people to encircle!
Thud!
An arrow carrying tremendous force buried itself in the trunk where he had just been hiding. It sank several inches deep, its shaft vibrating violently! Had his reaction been even a fraction slower, it would have pierced him through!
"Oh?" A faint exclamation came from the woods, tinged with surprise.
Still shaken, Li Bufan pressed himself tightly against the back of the trunk, his heart pounding. The timing, force, and accuracy of that arrow far surpassed Wu Ershijiu's! This was undoubtedly an expert!
"Who's there? Sneaking around and shooting from ambush!" Li Bufan shouted sharply, straining to sense his opponent's position.
"Hmph. Your reactions aren't slow." An icy voice rang out. Accompanied by the soft crunch of footsteps through snow, a figure slowly emerged from the dense woods nearby.
The newcomer also wore a gray leather coat, though its material was clearly superior. His build was lean and powerful, his gaze sharp as an eagle's. He held an ancient-looking longbow that gleamed with a cold luster, and a saber hung at his waist. His attire resembled that of Wu Ershijiu, whom Li Bufan had killed earlier, as though he were an improved version of the man. Yet his presence was steady and weighty, far beyond anything Wu Ershijiu could compare with.
More importantly, the character "Wu" was clearly embroidered on the collar of his leather coat!
A member of the Wu Family! Judging by his imposing presence, he was probably at least at minor mastery in muscle tempering, perhaps even major muscle tempering! But he likely had not come for Wu Ershijiu. Presumably, he too had discovered this place's mysteries and happened across Li Bufan.
"Hmph. Your reactions aren't slow." The Wu Family expert's voice was icy, his hawklike gaze fixed on Li Bufan as he stepped out of the woods. He did not attack immediately, instead sizing Li Bufan up. Alongside the killing intent in his eyes was a trace of grief he could barely conceal.
"In the depths of winter, few people can venture this far into the forest to hunt." He spoke slowly, his voice low and strained, as though holding immense pain. "My younger brother Wu Jiang and I are both guards of the Wu Family. We entered the mountains to hunt together and agreed to meet yesterday. But he... went out to scout an area the day before yesterday and never returned..."
His voice trembled slightly, and his fingers whitened around the bow. "I searched everywhere he might have gone. All I found were signs of fighting and dragging... and this." He took a broken wooden token from inside his coat, the character "Wu" faintly carved into it.
"This is the token carried by an official Wu Family household guard. Now he's gone, and only the token remains—and it's broken... He... he must have been murdered!" Wu Hai abruptly raised his head, his eyes bloodshot, towering hatred almost spilling out of them. "Wu Jiang was rash and sometimes too eager to win merit. He wasn't much of an achiever, but he was still a genuine initial muscle tempering cultivator, close to minor mastery! Ordinary beasts couldn't possibly have bested him! Anyone capable of killing him in these mountains was no ordinary hunter. It had to be a martial artist!"
His gaze swept over Li Bufan like an icy blade. "I didn't put my full strength into that arrow, but it was still far beyond what an ordinary Skin Tempering Realm cultivator could easily dodge. Your footwork, speed, and timing clearly belong to the muscle tempering stage—and at least minor mastery! Within dozens of miles of here, I can't find another suspicious person with that kind of strength who just happens to be in this place!"
Wu Hai's voice suddenly rose, echoing through the silent forest like the roar of a wounded beast. "Boy! Tell me! Did you kill my younger brother Wu Jiang?!"
Biting killing intent pressed down as though it had substance, almost suffocating him.
Li Bufan's nerves stretched taut. He knew there was no chance of settling this peacefully. Although their encounter was accidental, the man had singled him out through clear reasoning. He took a deep breath, suppressing the faint ripple the man's grief had stirred in his heart. His own blood and vitality surged as he met those bloodshot eyes without backing down. Under the law of the jungle, the weak were meat for the strong. Since the man had already decided he was guilty, explanations would accomplish nothing.
He neither admitted nor denied it. He merely placed the bound Silver-Crowned Snow Fox gently on the snow behind him, steadied his breathing, and said coldly, "When hunting in the mountains, blades and arrows have no eyes. Whether we live or die is left to fate. If someone wants to kill me and steal my treasures, he'd better be prepared to be killed instead."
Under these circumstances, those words were as good as a direct confession!
"So it was you!!!" Boundless grief and fury instantly swallowed Wu Hai's eyes. He let out a deafening roar as his blood and vitality erupted, his presence several times fiercer than before, whipping up the snow like a gale! "Good! So life and death are left to fate, are they? Then today, I'll let you taste this 'fate' yourself!"
"For killing my brother Wu Jiang, you and I cannot live beneath the same sky! Today, I, Wu Hai, will offer your head to his spirit in heaven!"
Before his words had finished ringing out, Wu Hai slung the longbow onto his back and drew the gleaming saber at his waist with a sharp clang! The blade quivered and hummed, tracing a bone-chilling arc of light through the dim forest!
He stamped down hard, blasting a shallow crater in the snow, then charged at Li Bufan like an enraged, maddened tiger. He bore towering hatred and the formidable strength of peak minor mastery in muscle tempering, just one step from major muscle tempering! He moved blindingly fast, the fierce wind of his saber slicing through the air. His cultivation clearly far surpassed his younger brother Wu Jiang's, and he attacked with the resolve to fight until one of them was dead!
Battle erupted in an instant!
Before you continue