The fox lowered her head again, turquoise eyes glowing as thin strands of spiritual sense wrapped once more around the storage ring.
The fractured soul imprint trembled under the pressure.
Cracks of golden light slowly spread across it as she ground it down piece by piece.
Her focus deepened.
The world around her faded from awareness.
Nearby, the small white lizard watched quietly.
His golden eyes lingered on her for a moment.
*She'll take a while again.*
The imprint of a Golden Core cultivator wasn't something erased in minutes. Even weakened, it demanded patience.
And after the chameleon—
Nothing else had come.
No beasts.
No wandering cultivators.
Just silence.
The lizard's gaze drifted toward the surrounding forest.
*Waiting here again… is pointless.*
He needed more evolution points.
More energy.
More genes.
If he wanted to break through to the **Golden Core stage**, hunting was necessary.
Before leaving, he turned back toward the fox.
She remained completely focused, unaware of anything beyond the ring floating before her.
The lizard raised one claw.
Then—
**CRACK.**
He drove it into the earth.
Spiritual energy surged outward.
The ground around the fox suddenly trembled.
Massive **earth spikes** erupted upward in a circular formation. Thick stone pillars rose like jagged teeth around her position, curving inward slightly to form a rough protective cage.
The spikes were tall.
Dense.
Solid.
The fox didn't even react.
Still completely focused.
The lizard studied the formation briefly.
*It won't stop someone at mid Foundation Establishment.*
*Or even some early-stage ones.*
But that wasn't its purpose.
If something tried to break through—
The impact would echo through the stone.
He would hear it immediately.
Satisfied, the lizard turned away.
His senses spread outward.
His ears twitched slightly as he listened to the forest.
His golden eyes began to glow faintly.
Spiritual energy currents became visible again, flowing through the valley like thin rivers of light.
Then—
His body began to shrink.
Large scales compressing.
Muscles tightening.
Within seconds, he returned to his smaller form.
The air around him bent slightly.
Light warped across his scales.
Then—
He vanished.
Invisible once more.
Silent as drifting wind.
With his senses stretched outward—hearing sharpened, vision glowing gold—the invisible storm dragon slipped quietly into the forest again.
Hunting had resumed.
---
The invisible ripple of wind slipped between the trees.
Leaves trembled faintly as the small white dragon passed, but no sound followed him. The forest remained calm, unaware that a silent predator moved through it.
His golden eyes glowed faintly beneath the canopy.
Spiritual currents flowed around him like pale streams. Every living creature left traces in that flow—animals, insects, birds resting on branches.
But those were not what he was looking for.
He needed stronger prey.
Something worthy of the energy he sought.
The invisible lizard continued deeper into the valley, his senses expanding outward. His hearing sharpened, catching distant scrapes of claws against bark, the slow shifting of earth beneath burrows, the occasional wingbeat high above.
Still… nothing significant.
Minutes passed.
Then his eyes narrowed slightly.
There.
Far ahead.
A disturbance.
The ground trembled faintly, as if something heavy had just landed. Spiritual currents twisted around a dense aura—stronger than the chameleon, but not overwhelmingly so.
Mid **Foundation Establishment**.
The lizard slowed.
Carefully drifting toward the source.
The forest opened into a rocky hollow where broken stone pillars jutted from the earth like old bones.
In the center stood a massive creature.
Its body was thick and powerful, covered in dark green scales that reflected faint streaks of moonlight filtering through the canopy. Two long tusks curved upward from its jaw, and its shoulders rippled with muscle as it scraped the ground impatiently.
A **Stone-Tusk War Boar**.
The creature snorted, sending a puff of dust into the air. Its hooves cracked the rocky ground beneath it as it rooted through the soil, searching for spirit herbs buried below.
The invisible dragon circled silently above the hollow.
Watching.
Studying.
The boar was strong.
But slow.
And its attention was fixed on the ground.
The lizard's body coiled slightly in midair as wind gathered faintly around him.
Lightning began building quietly along the dark scales at the tip of his tail.
This hunt—
Would end quickly.
He drifted higher into the shadows of the trees.
Invisible.
Patient.
Waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
---
High above the hollow, the invisible storm dragon remained perfectly still.
The wind around him barely moved.
Below, the **Stone-Tusk War Boar** continued tearing at the ground with its tusks, ripping up soil and stones in search of spirit roots.
It snorted loudly.
Unaware.
The lizard's glowing golden eyes watched every movement.
The boar's breathing.
The rhythm of its muscles.
The angle of its spine.
A creature like that had thick hide and powerful bones. A careless strike would only anger it and turn the fight into a prolonged struggle.
He could not afford that.
His energy still wasn't fully recovered.
Lightning gathered silently along the black spike at the end of his tail.
Wind currents tightened around his body.
Still invisible.
Still silent.
Below, the boar suddenly lifted its head.
Its ears twitched.
For a brief moment, it sensed something… strange.
The air felt heavier.
The forest seemed too quiet.
But before it could react—
The air **split**.
The invisible dragon dropped from the sky like a falling spear.
The wind screamed for a single instant.
The boar looked up—
Too late.
**CRACK!**
The lizard's lightning-coated tail struck downward like a divine nail.
The spike punched through the top of the boar's skull.
Lightning erupted inside its body.
The creature's eyes bulged.
A violent tremor ran through its massive frame as electricity surged through its nerves and spine.
It tried to roar.
Only a broken grunt escaped its throat.
The ground shook as the enormous beast collapsed with a thunderous **THUD**.
Dust rose into the air.
The forest fell quiet again.
The lizard landed lightly on the boar's back.
Lightning slowly faded from his scales.
The boar twitched once.
Then went still.
Dead.
The predator lowered his head and sank his teeth into the creature's thick neck.
Blood rich with spiritual energy filled his mouth.
He fed calmly.
Efficiently.
Minutes passed.
The massive body slowly lost its vitality as the lizard devoured it.
Then—
The familiar voice echoed in his mind.
**[System Notification]**
**[Energy Conversion Complete]**
**[5430 Evolution Points Gained]**
The dragon's ears twitched slightly.
Another message appeared.
**[Gene Acquired: Stone-Tusk War Boar]**
**[Traits Detected:]**
• **Titan Muscle Density**
• **Earth Charge Force**
• **Bone Reinforcement**
**[Would the host like to fuse the gene?]**
The small white lizard lifted his head slightly.
Blood dripped slowly from his fangs.
His golden eyes flickered.
Far away, he could still faintly sense the fox's spiritual pressure as she continued grinding down the storage ring's imprint.
She was still working.
Still safe.
The dragon glanced down at the boar's chest.
Inside the pool of blood, the demonic beast's **core** glowed faintly with earthen light.
He picked it up with his maw.
Swallowed.
Then calmly responded in his mind.
"…Fuse."