Immortal Grove City.
Inside the Teleportation Harbor.
The light faded, and the Heavenly Fox Clan's party emerged from the formation's patterns.
Tushan Xue led the way, her skirts untouched by dust, her face cold as frost.
Hu Shan followed half a step behind her. More than a dozen fox cultivators filed after them, their sleeves fluttering and drawing sidelong glances from the cultivators in the Teleportation Harbor.
Dong Qian had originally been near the front too, half a step to Tushan Xue's right.
But the moment they passed through the harbor gates and stepped onto Immortal Grove City's main street, she quietly slowed her pace.
First she let Hu Shan pass, then two Spirit Transformation Stage fox guards. After them came the young fox women of the Nascent Soul Realm, passing her one by one.
By the time the entire party had left the city gates and taken flight east toward Immortal Grove Mountain, Dong Qian was at the very back.
Or rather, she had placed everyone in front of her.
She had chosen that position deliberately.
From the rear, everyone's back remained in her sight, and she would have the most time to react if anything happened.
She had not developed this habit only after coming to the Kunwu Continent.
Years ago on the Cangluo Continent, when she had been an unremarkable disciple of the Water Dragon Sect, she had walked at the back whenever she went out on a mission.
She had never made a habit of exposing her back to anyone else.
After she joined the Heavenly Fox Clan, the suppression of her bloodline and her exclusion by the clan had not worn away that caution. They had only driven its roots deeper.
So even without Ji Yuan's warning—"This trip is dangerous. I can't shake the feeling