Night on Appearance Cliff Mountain was silent.
The peaks seemed draped in silver gauze, their stillness holding a hint of cold, murderous austerity.
Shi Miaozhen led the group through the mountain forest. Picking out a black pine ahead, she gauged its height and pointed. "This tree is tall and dense, and it's quite far from the other trees. This is a good place to put one too."
Hearing her eldest senior sister give the order, their youngest junior sister, Lin Youqing, went over to set it up.
She took a black pine branch from her Storage Artifact, a heavy black fruit hanging from it. Walking up to the chosen pine, she flew into the air, cut off a branch high in the tree, then fitted the pine branch she had taken out against the cut.
Then she formed a hand seal and cast a spell, spreading a wash of green light over it. The fruit-bearing branch was grafted onto the pine.
Lin Youqing landed and stepped back a few paces, then changed her hand seal and pointed forward. Ting.
A spark of spiritual light activated it, and the fruit immediately emitted a hazy white glow, vaguely shaped like a mutant beast.
Shi Miaozhen stepped forward again and raised her hand to pour in moonlight essence. The beast's shape gradually filled out, becoming a ferocious, snarling striped tiger over ten feet long. It leaped and pounced there like a living creature.
"All done." Lin Youqing dusted off her hands and smiled. "That's the fifth Fake Fruit we've set up, right?"
"Yes." Shi Miaozhen nodded. "I infused the moonlight essence myself, so I'll sense it when I get close. We certainly won't fall for it. But anyone from the other teams who comes within ten paces of this tree will be engulfed