Bai Heng remained concealed among the branches and leaves, Heavenly Fox Concealment operating at full strength.
Her aura blended almost perfectly with the surrounding environment; even her breathing and heartbeat had grown so faint they were nearly undetectable.
Her divine sense (telekinetic power) stayed carefully extended to the very edge of her perception range, observing the unexpected visitor like the quietest of spectators.
The man was tall and slender, dressed in a somewhat worn pale-cyan daoist robe of simple cut with no obvious sect markings.
His steps were unhurried, as though he were revisiting an old haunt rather than searching for anything.
As he drew closer, his features became clear in the sparse sunlight filtering through the leaves.
He appeared to be in his late twenties, with refined, handsome features and the pale complexion of someone who rarely saw sunlight.
A faint air of detachment lingered between his brows.
His calm gaze swept across the devastated surroundings—the snapped trees, the overturned soil—clearly stirring memories.
Watching him, Bai Heng pieced together fragments from her memory.
That snowy afternoon more than a year ago… the figure tumbling from the sky and rolling into the snow pit… followed immediately by the crimson radiance that pursued him relentlessly, destroying everything in its path…
Although she had only caught a fleeting glimpse at the time, and the man had been disheveled and desperate, his silhouette and the sharp spirit that had not been entirely extinguished even in dire straits overlapped faintly with the person before her now.
It was him—the young man who had been chased that day.
Compared to his panicked state back then, his aura was now steady and condensed, his bearing calm and composed.
Clearly, in the past year or so, not only had his injuries fully healed, but his cultivation had likely advanced as well.
The young man stopped at a relatively flat patch of ground that still showed faint traces of what had once been a shallow pit.
This was exactly where he had fallen.
He crouched down and pressed his palm gently against the slightly uneven soil.
A faint, almost imperceptible cyan spiritual light bloomed in his palm.
Instead of spreading outward, the light seeped into the earth like quicksilver, carrying a peculiar pulling force.
The soil shifted slightly, as if something were being slowly drawn upward by invisible threads.
Moments later, a palm-sized, gray-white fragment with irregular edges broke through the surface and floated into his hand.
It resembled a piece of bone, its surface smooth and engraved with extremely intricate, dense, and ancient-looking dark-red runes.
The runes seemed alive. The instant the bone fragment left the soil, a faint dark glow flickered across them before subsiding once more.
The young man stared at the bone fragment in his palm, a complicated look flashing through his eyes—relief mixed with a touch of heaviness.
He quickly stored the fragment away in his storage pouch.
Bai Heng understood.
So the root of the chase that had devastated Little White’s family had been this peculiar bone fragment.
The young man had been quick-witted.
Even in that life-or-death moment, he had thought to hide the item on the spot, draw the pursuers away, and then patiently wait for the danger to pass before quietly returning to retrieve it.
Having recovered the item, the young man turned to leave.
But as his gaze swept across the large rock Bai Heng had once moved into place with her telekinetic power, his steps suddenly halted.
His eyes fell on the soil beneath the rock.
That was precisely where Bai Heng had buried Little White and her family.
Nearly two years had passed.
Wind and rain had leveled the original mound until it was almost flush with the ground, and fallen leaves had covered it further.
Yet upon close inspection, subtle differences from the surrounding natural terrain were still visible.
More noticeably, the large rock serving as a marker stood out rather conspicuously.
Curiosity flickered in the young man’s eyes.
He walked slowly to the rock but did not touch it rashly.
Instead, he released a gentle thread of divine sense that flowed like water, probing beneath the stone and into the surrounding soil.
After a few breaths, he withdrew his divine sense.
A trace of surprise crossed his face, quickly turning into thoughtful contemplation.
He stroked his chin and slowly circled the rock halfway, his gaze carefully scanning every inch of the ground and the surrounding trees.
Suddenly, he raised his right hand, palm upward.
A ball of pale-cyan spiritual light slowly condensed, emitting a gentle yet distinct spiritual energy fluctuation.
He made as if to smash the ball of spiritual light toward the rock—or rather, toward the grave beneath it.
Hidden in the tree, Bai Heng’s heart tightened.
Her claws instinctively dug into the rough bark.
But she forcibly suppressed the urge to reveal herself.
On one hand, the clear gap in cultivation between them made it unwise.
On the other, she keenly sensed that the young man’s action seemed more like a probe than a genuine threat.
Sure enough, he held the light ball in his palm, maintaining the ready-to-strike pose for a full five or six breaths, yet never actually released it.
The corner of his mouth seemed to curve in an extremely faint, almost imperceptible arc.
Then he slowly turned, his gaze not fixed on any single spot. Instead, he swept the quiet forest with a seemingly casual air.
His voice was not loud, yet it carried a calm penetrative quality that spread gently through the woods.
“Fellow Daoist, how much longer do you plan to watch from the sidelines?”
Bai Heng sighed inwardly.
As expected, he had still noticed some faint traces.
Was her mastery of Heavenly Fox Concealment still insufficient, or did he possess some special detection method? At least he did not seem to have pinpointed her exact location or identity; the vague address of “fellow Daoist” showed that much.
She remained silent, maintaining her concealed state like an inanimate stone in the forest.
The young man waited a moment. When no response came, he showed no irritation.
He dispersed the spiritual light ball in his palm, clasped his hands behind his back, and let his gaze return to the large rock as if speaking to himself—or to the unseen listener.
“More than a year ago, this humble one… I was chased here by enemies and fell into this place in haste.”
He paused, as though recalling the scene.
“Though the situation was critical, I still retained a sliver of clarity in my divine sense and scanned the surroundings. I remember over there,” he pointed toward the general direction where the tree hollow had once stood, now long gone, “there was a tree hollow with three foxes—one adult and two small ones.”
“Now, beneath this rock, the soil holds only two fox skeletons. One large, one small.”
His tone was even, as if stating the most ordinary fact.
“Who would go to the trouble of piling stones so solemnly for wild mountain foxes?”
“The people chasing me had a clear purpose—seizing treasure and killing. They would not have bothered with such a thing. Even if others passed by later, hunters would only take pelts and meat, while cultivators would scorn the act. Ordinary people rarely venture deep into these remote mountains.”
He paced slowly, his gaze sweeping across the surrounding plants and trees.
“After thinking it over, only one possibility remains—though it sounds rather far-fetched, in this world it is not entirely unheard of.”
He stopped and looked at the rock again, analytical light gleaming in his eyes.
“The missing little fox buried its own family.”
“After all, while rare, there are precedents of wild creatures gaining opportunities, awakening their spiritual intelligence, and even stepping onto the path of cultivation.”
His analysis was clear and logical, guessing the truth with remarkable accuracy.
Having finished, he raised his right hand once more.
This time, the cyan spiritual light coalescing at his fingertips was sharper and more condensed, aimed directly at the large rock from a distance.
The threat was far more overt than before.
“Whether that ‘fellow Daoist’ is here or not, if you still refuse to show yourself, I will have no choice but to dig up this fox grave and take a closer look.”
His gaze swept the surroundings a third time, his tone still calm.
“Perhaps I was mistaken? In that case, my apologies.”
As his words fell, the spiritual light at his fingertips flickered uncertainly.
In the tree canopy, Bai Heng let out a soft sigh.
This man was not only strong in cultivation but also sharp-minded.
He had deduced so much from the slightest traces.
Moreover, his threat to destroy the grave was clearly a tactic to force whoever was hiding to reveal themselves.
It seemed she could not avoid this encounter today.
Very well. Since he had already pointed it out, continuing to hide would only make her seem guilty.
Besides, from his words and behavior so far, he did not appear to harbor strong malice. At least he was nothing like the brutal pursuers from back then.
Bai Heng’s thoughts raced. If he truly turned hostile, with her current cultivation and techniques—plus the potential assets from Yun Qing’s storage pouch belonging to a Golden Core cultivator—she was not entirely without a chance to escape or even counter him.
Still, unless absolutely necessary, she did not want to use items that might reveal her origins.
Having decided, Bai Heng quietly dispelled most of the effects of Heavenly Fox Concealment while still keeping her aura tightly restrained.
She leaped down lightly from the dense foliage and landed on the soft fallen leaves without a sound.
Then, at an unhurried pace, she stepped out from behind a thick tree trunk and appeared in the young man’s field of vision.
The young man saw a snow-white fox with fur that shimmered with a faint lustrous glow in the dappled forest light.
She stood quietly not far away, her clear, intelligent eyes gazing at him calmly.
The instant he saw Bai Heng, surprise flashed clearly in his eyes, followed by an expression of “just as I thought” and an undisguised spark of appreciation.
He immediately dispersed the spiritual light at his fingertips, lowered his hands naturally to his sides, and gave Bai Heng a slight nod. His posture was respectful, and his tone grew gentle.
“This humble one is Lu Liang, a loose cultivator from the mountains. I was rude earlier; please forgive me, fellow Daoist.”
He paused, looking into Bai Heng’s unusually calm eyes that held none of the usual dullness of ordinary beasts, and added,
“I meant no harm. I was merely passing through an old site and noticed some intriguing traces. Out of curiosity, I resorted to that little test. I apologize for disturbing your peace.”
Bai Heng simply looked at him quietly, offering neither sound nor any other response.
Dude lucky MC not the local xianxia offense me anyway die cheat protagonist