Chapter 287: Reunion with Zeta

“Naturally, I’m gonna borrow little sister’s life to make some quick cash.”

The thin man’s smile gradually turned cruel. He clenched his dry, bony fist in front of Zeta, revealing the aura of the Fifth Magicka Stage, clearly set on having her.

The tall man puffed out his chest, crossed his arms, and tucked his hands under his armpits. Then his muscles bulged, his body swelling like an ox, looking mighty and imposing.

His eyes remained fixed on the petite fox princess cornered in the alley, not an ounce of pity on his face.

Zeta put on a terrified expression, gulped loudly, then silently backed against the wall and began to sob softly.

“Boo hoo hoo~ Someone save me~”

She feigned fragility, wiping the glistening tears from the corners of her eyes.

But in this city, no one would come to play the hero saving a damsel in distress unless they could also get a cut.

Once the thin and tall men drew closer, Zeta pouted and let out a light hum, then looked at them as they approached.

“Aren’t you even a little curious why I’m worth a hundred thousand gold coins?”

“……”

That question stunned them both.

Yeah…

How was this girl worth a bounty of a hundred thousand gold coins?

In the City of the Other Shore, there was a large bulletin board posting many bloody tasks.

Completing those tasks not only earned you a bounty but also could catch the eye of the Hall of Shadows.

Many who came to the City of the Other Shore were Mortalbloods who practiced Battle Techniques. Their highest limit was the Sixth Rank. To climb higher, they needed a Bloodline.

Despite the new method of using Potions to assist advancement spreading from the West Wind Empire, most people either didn’t know about it or chose to stick with the old ways—seeking Bloodlines across the continent by joining various organizations and factions.

And in the City of the Other Shore, the Hall of Shadows was the most attractive.

Someone with a posted task that offered a hundred thousand gold coins as a reward was definitely not an ordinary person.

But a hundred thousand gold coins was a lot—several times more than what they had lost as their stake. Tempted by such a huge sum, who could resist? So the two had trapped Zeta in the dead-end alley.

The thin man’s face twitched. He snapped out of his dream of a hundred thousand gold coins in an instant. Without even warning his tall companion, he turned on his heel and tried to leave.

But as he turned, he saw Zeta about five or six meters away, facing away from him, slowly swishing her tail.

She tilted her head slightly, a pleased smile curling her bright red lips.

Zeta pressed her middle finger against her index finger, her pinky raised high. On that vividly red nail hung a bead, also a striking blood red.

She gave her hand a light shake, and the blood bead fell to the ground.

Then came a thud.

That sound was both the body hitting the floor and the thin man’s heartbeat.

The thin man stepped back and felt something sticky under his foot. He looked down—it was a spreading pool of blood.

His scalp went numb. The last shred of hope in his heart was completely drowned in the pool of blood at his feet.

Another thud, but this time it was him falling to his knees.

The thin man scrunched his face miserably.

“Lady, I’ve got elders to take care of and kids to raise. My family’s pitiful—a wife and a widowed mother, plus three starving children. At least let me off with a few slaps for running my mouth, spare my life, please.”

“Hehehe, you sure know how to joke.”

In Zeta’s deep blue eyes, a playful glint flickered.

The thin man promptly started slapping himself, kowtowing and begging for mercy between hits, making Zeta laugh uncontrollably.

First arrogant, then submissive—truly amusing.

“Alright, alright. Your auntie here is in a very good mood today, so I won’t toy with you anymore. I’ll warn you: if you don’t get out of here now, you’ll lose your life.”

“Yes, yes! Thank you for your great kindness, my lady! When I get home, I’ll set up a statue of you and worship you every day!”

The thin man scrambled to his feet as he spoke, not forgetting to grab his buddy’s corpse. Even that could be exchanged for some coins in the City of the Other Shore.

Bad luck? Nah, they were brothers!

Since it was already a corpse, might as well make use of it.

Zeta covered her mouth with a light laugh.

Her narrow, beautiful eyes looked toward the darkness surging like a tide not far away. The thin man had just jumped onto the wall and saw the same scene.

Terrified out of his wits, he dropped his brother’s body and fled in a different direction, only to be blocked by a curtain of night after running a short distance.

The City of the Other Shore had no daytime, only an endless night.

But nights differed there.

A normal night in the city was twilight with a faint glow, but what was closing in now was pure darkness descending.

The thin man almost immediately fell into despair.

The Hall of Shadows had arrived…

But then he quickly realized: their target wasn’t him, but the most important Golden Fox Princess.

Just as he was about to shout that he was only passing through, his body was swallowed by the darkness. In an instant, he felt a strong sensation of falling.

Before he could even cry out, he plummeted into the depths of the dark world.

As for where that place was… only the upper echelons of the Hall of Shadows would know the true source of the darkness that shrouded the City of the Other Shore.

Zeta watched coldly, not a trace of panic on her face.

She spun around and flicked her tail, and three balls of blue foxfire whirled into the darkness, then exploded into a massive blue flame, hindering the darkness’s advance.

The eyes hidden within widened in surprise.

Emerging from the black curtain were stark white bone masks—some from various animals, even rare Magical Beast skulls.

Each mask concealed a dedicated assassin of the Hall of Shadows, who had taken countless lives.

Zeta bared her small canine teeth and licked her red lips before speaking.

“What, scared?”

As she finished speaking, her azure pupils deepened, then ignited with a deep blue flame. Not just her eyes, but her body and tail also burst into blue fire.

Zeta spread her fingers, her long red nails still vivid against the blue flames.

Her smile grew more pleased. With a slight shift of her foot, she was already within the darkness in an instant.

Where she passed, five bone masks were sliced horizontally, and crimson blood spurted out, falling into the depths of the dark.

But Zeta didn’t fall like the thin man had, because the blue fire blocked the domain effect of the darkness—something the Hall of Shadows hadn’t anticipated.

Still, they weren’t pushovers and immediately counterattacked.

The bone masks concealed themselves, and pitch-black blades hid perfectly in the shadows, with no sound or presence for Zeta to track as she ventured deeper into the dark domain.

Yet even so, Zeta still easily dodged their attacks and even killed them in return.

This made the Hall of Shadows commander grit his teeth silently, deciding to face Zeta himself.

Sensing the approach of that aura, Zeta blinked, took a deep breath, and shouted loudly.

“Zeta’s tired of playing!”

“……”

A fair hand abruptly landed on Zeta’s shoulder, and in an instant, she vanished from her spot. The Sixth Rank assassin who had charged in with his magic power found only empty air.

[How is that possible!?]

The commander stared blankly at the empty space. He couldn’t fathom how Zeta could be immune to the dark domain, or how a hand that looked like a woman’s could take her out of this separate layer of space!

After a fruitless search, he gave an order to his men, and the deep darkness quickly receded.

Finally, it was gathered into a floor-to-ceiling mirror.

But the mirror’s surface didn’t reflect the outside—it showed a passage leading into darkness, more like a painting than a mirror.

Undoubtedly, it was a high-level Magic Tool.

The tall figure in the bone mask draped a black cloth over it, clenched his fist, and rasped to his subordinate beside him.

“Keep searching. We must tear that vixen to pieces!”

No answer came.

The assassins melted into their own shadows, disappearing from the area to continue hunting for Zeta’s trail.

Days earlier, Zeta had pulled off a big stunt and then started a guerrilla campaign.

Even the Hall of Shadows, the ruling power of the City of the Other Shore, couldn’t find where the elusive fox princess was hiding.

In an ordinary room, Enya watched Zeta lying face-down on the bed, rubbing her cheeks against the blanket. She sighed helplessly and said, “I never slept here.”

“Huh?”

Zeta sat up immediately and tossed aside the pillow she was hugging. Enya raised an eyebrow and smiled.

“But earlier, while you were out playing, I did lie down for a bit.”

“I knew it! That’s why it smells like Sister Enya.”

Zeta grabbed the discarded pillow, lay back down in the covers, and wriggled endlessly, in a great mood.

Enya gave Zeta a look.

She slowly walked to the bedside and sat down. But as soon as she did, Zeta popped out of the covers and leaned in almost body-to-body, sniffing her.

Zeta frowned as she sniffed, then looked up at Enya with a pout, her earlier cheerfulness gone.

“Sister Enya has the scent of some dirty thing left on you.”

“Dirty thing…”

Enya naturally knew Zeta meant Yifu.

She sighed again, looking a little hurt, and said, “A dragon girl grabbed my wrist earlier. That must be her scent. Zeta-chan sure is sharp.”

“Damn that dragon girl!”

Zeta snorted.

Enya smiled and placed her hand on top of Zeta’s head, stroking it.

“If it were your sisters, they wouldn’t say it outright.”

“That’s because I’m not a sister.”

Zeta muttered softly, then wrapped her arms around Enya’s waist and pressed her head against it, rubbing back and forth.

Zeta was leaving her own scent on Enya, trying to overwrite the faint trace of Yifu that had stained her.

Enya pushed Zeta away and shifted a little.

“Alright, tell me what you did.”