657. Nephrela's Priests

On the shore, white waves beat against the reefs again and again.

Xinyue, the Cat-folk priest, crouched on a rock, her tail swaying gently behind her, her amber vertical pupils fixed on the movement beneath the water.

A black shadow flashed through the water. She lifted both claws, and a pillar of earth rose from the water, thrusting a half-arm-long salmon with gleaming scales out of it.

Xinyue's right claw shot out like lightning, piercing the soft flesh behind the fish's gills. The fish struggled twice on the tips of her claws, then soon fell still.

She grinned, revealing sharp canines, and brought the fish to her nose for a sniff.

The fresh, lively scent, tinged with the briny smell of seawater, made her nod in satisfaction. She planned to make a soup with this fish and give the High Priest a change of taste.

"It really isn't easy, meow."

They were currently hiding on a deserted stretch of coastline in the west of the Empire. It was close to Eleanor's territory and technically belonged to a Blood Clan baron, but since it had no real value and there were no settlements nearby, it was utterly uninhabited.

This was one of the Hand of Passing's many hidden refuges. The reason they had hidden here was precisely because it was concealed and convenient. Being by the sea meant they could easily obtain food without needing to search over a wide area, reducing the chance of being discovered.

Only, looking at it now, they had miscalculated a little.

It was indeed hidden enough. After hiding here for so long, no one had searched this area.

But there was a problem with food.

For some unknown reason, most of the fish in the sea had vanished. The efficiency of catching fish from the