The late-night wind swept through the alley, carrying a sound like a mournful whimper. Moonlight cast shadows of varying lengths from the green brick walls on either side.
Chu Bai stopped at the entrance of the alley, his gaze profound as he stared toward its end.
Just a short while ago, the white fox silhouette had clearly escaped into the labyrinthine tiled-roof buildings. Relying on its nimble Body Technique and Illusion Technique, any ordinary Spirit Monster would have taken the chance to flee as far away as possible.
Yet when Chu Bai returned, a flash of snow-white light darted through the tangled shadows of the giant scholar tree. It was like a provocation, or perhaps an invitation.
"The Fox Spirit again..."
Instead of anger, Chu Bai chuckled, a wry smirk playing on his lips. He gently rubbed his fingertips and muttered to himself, "To double back right under my nose... you’re a clever one, aren’t you? No wonder the Wuu Family’s bunch of Early-stage Qi Cultivation Cultivators were run completely ragged by you."
This time, he didn’t rush to activate his Fire Element Ring and give chase blindly.
His earlier failure had already proven that in this labyrinth of residential buildings, simply chasing at top speed would mean falling into the creature’s preferred hit-and-run tactics.
Chu Bai slowly closed his eyes, his feet planted firmly on the flagstones. Within him, the Guiyuan Technique began to surge like a torrential river.
’Besides, if it had already escaped, why come back?’
’There must be something wrong with this place.’
His Divine Thought, which had been spread out like a tide and was somewhat diffuse, was now forcefully compressed and consolidated. Then, with him at the center, it erupted outward like an invisible, hemispherical barrier!
Fifty feet... seventy-five feet... one hundred feet!
He pushed his Divine Thought to its absolute limit. Within a hundred-foot radius, the rise and fall of every dust mote, the swirl of every wisp of breeze, even the dormant insects in the cracks of the old scholar tree’s bark—all of it was rendered in his mind with perfect clarity, forming a dynamic tableau over which he had absolute control.
"Got you."
Chu Bai’s eyes snapped open. A Dark Gold light flared in the depths of his pupils as his Golden Eye Shattering Illusion technique pierced through the falsehood.
Within the range of his Divine Thought, the dead-end alley revealed a bizarre scene.
The white fox silhouette was indeed beneath the scholar tree, but it wasn’t crouching on the ground. Instead, it was hovering in mid-air, about three feet off the ground.
Even more strangely, the Spiritual Power fluctuations emanating from the Fox Spirit were incredibly faint. In fact, their frequency perfectly matched the ebb and flow of the old scholar tree’s life force. Their auras were so intertwined they seemed to be a single entity.
This was the real reason it had been able to evade the detection of his Demon-slaying Iron Token and lie hidden in the bustling city for over a month.
’A shared life, a linked fate... their Qi is intertwined...’
Chu Bai took a step forward. His voice was cool, cutting through the dead silence of the alley. "I was wondering how the Demon Qi in this busy district was being filtered so cleanly. It turns out it wasn’t just a fox. The ’old master’ at the end of this alley has also gained sentience."
The moment he finished speaking, a sinister, cold whirlwind suddenly whipped through the otherwise tranquil Dahuai Lane.
The old scholar tree, laden with the residents’ drying laundry and steeped in the mundane life of the city, began to tremble violently despite the lack of wind. Its leaves rustled, the sound like a low moan, or perhaps a rising roar.
In Chu Bai’s Divine Thought, this was no ordinary tree.
Its roots, which plunged deep into the earth, pulsed with a faint green light. They were like countless thick veins, greedily drawing the Spiritual Mechanism from the Earth Veins below.
On its ancient, gnarled bark, the crisscrossing lines vaguely converged into the shape of an old, hollow-cheeked face. Where the eyes should be, two points of green light now gleamed.
A Tree Spirit!
This old scholar tree—worshipped by the alley’s residents, used to dry their clothes and to find shade for countless years—had been nourished by the very essence of their mortal lives, and had silently cultivated itself into a Spirit Monster.
The white Fox Spirit was now affectionately rubbing against the trunk of the scholar tree, all attempts to flee abandoned.
The previous cunning and terror in its eyes were gone, replaced by the fierce determination and deep attachment of one protecting its home.
’A Spirit Monster protecting its home, a Wood Charm providing shelter.’
Chu Bai stood with his hands clasped behind his back, making no move to cast a Magic Technique.
But the authoritative presence of a Regular Ninth Grade Demon Slaying Officer emanated from him, along with the Spiritual Power fluctuations of a Qi Cultivation Fifth Layer cultivator. The pressure rolled toward the end of the alley like a great, crushing mountain.
"The Wuu Family reported a lost Fox Spirit. They failed to mention a Tree Spirit was hiding here as well. It seems this ’escape’ wasn’t a simple case of an untamable beast."
"It must have been your influence."
Inside the dead-end alley, the air seemed to freeze. Only the leaves of the old scholar tree fluttered in the still air, making a frantic rustling sound, like the whispers of a great crowd.
The aged face hidden in the tree’s bark grew more distinct. Within its empty eye sockets, the two points of green light swiveled, locking onto Chu Bai.
"Young Master... do you see me as a deity, or as a man?"
The voice was ancient and deep, carrying the weight of ages, as if it were being squeezed from the very soil deep beneath the earth.
With each word, the Yin Qi in the alley grew heavier, faintly threatening to suppress the Spiritual Light emanating from Chu Bai.
Chu Bai’s expression remained impassive, but the hand hidden in his sleeve tightened slightly. Inwardly, he was on high alert.
’It’s a plea for apotheosis!’

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