Chapter 109: Dinner Before Departure

Moon looked at his hands curiously. "What is it?"

Nox scratched the back of his neck, a little shy. "Nothing much. Just a privacy formation so others can’t eavesdrop or hear anything inside. I’ll set it around you before you start."

Moon nodded.

He glanced toward the kitchen. Even if he trusted Marina and Amelia a little, taking precautions was always better.

While Moon refined, Amelia could only see an ordinary witch working. She could not see the hand seals or the spiritual energy swirling around the cauldron.

Moon refined two batches of poison pills from Stardust lily residue and made sleeping powder from the dead wastrel leeches and the scavengers’ core they had collected.

Both were meant for the scavengers.

When he finished, he divided everything into five portions and packed them into pouches.

He also stuffed rejuvenation pills, fasting pills, recovery pills, siki, SikiMon stones, spare clothes, and a few other necessities into each one.

Nox watched from the side, quietly admiring how thorough Moon was.

Axe came back around that time with Oshan.

They were carrying one elk and four wild rabbits.

Moon furrowed his brows. "You went hunting? At this time of night?"

"No." Axe dropped the animals with a thud. "I went to test my new weapon and the communication jades I made."

He pointed to the games. "They were hunted when I checked the needles and the new machete."

He tossed five jade pendants toward Moon.

Moon caught them with his left hand and examined them with his divine sense.

The craftsmanship was surprisingly fine. Even in his old world, a novice would not be able to refine jade this cleanly. A small smile spread across his face.

He tossed the jades to Oshan, Nox, and Axe, then looked around. "Where’s Ugo?"

"Backyard," Nox said. "Checking on the plants."

Moon frowned slightly. "Why is he always planting things lately? Was he like this before?"

Axe shrugged. "Not really. He’s been acting strange recently."

Moon sent a short telepathic signal.

At this distance, he could still reach him. He could not tell if it was because of the bud inside him or the mating that night, but something was clearly bothering Ugo.

He would deal with it later.

When Ugo returned, the five of them sat around the table again.

Moon divided the storage pouches. He had already given one to Ugo earlier, so he took two more from the Lupine Palace and handed them to Nox and Axe.

Axe held the small pouch up.

It looked like something a girl might carry for decoration. When he stuffed his hand inside and felt the space, his eyes widened a little.

A flicker of interest rose in them.

Moon knocked on the table. "Let’s map out the plan."

"Say it," Axe said.

"We can’t go through the Lupine Palace, and we certainly can’t take the main routes. It would take ages, and there are too many guards out there."

"So we’re going through the Alpine forest?" Nox asked.

"Yes. That’s the only way."

Axe muttered, "I saw quite a few hidden shadows on the way earlier. Maybe around twenty of them."

"We can throw a maze formation on them," Nox suggested.

Moon looked at him in mild surprise. Had Nox advanced this much in just three days?

Nox only scratched the back of his head, a little shy under the stare.

Ugo knocked on the table. "We can do that. When they are trapped in the maze, we sneak into the bushes."

Moon nodded. "We won’t fight the scavengers if we can help it. I refined sleeping powder using the leeches and the scavenger cores we collected. We’ll put them to sleep so we don’t trigger any shadow guards. But I’m not sure if the guards are already sitting right at the mouth of the crack."

Axe said, "They could be. After all, we dropped there and vanished."

"But they never enter the gorge because of the poison," Nox pointed out.

"That’s true. Even when searching, they always avoided the deepest parts."

Moon stayed silent for a moment.

He knew the Black Sea Gorge was a forbidden place for most people. But his intuition this time was not completely at ease.

After all, they had sold poison-removal pills in the city.

Someone might have gotten bolder.

"Alright," he said finally.

"We go. If we run into real trouble, we can still hide into the Lupine Palace first. The problem is we’ll be ejected at the same place, but it will still buy us time. Also remember—once we’re inside the caves, the palace is sealed. We can’t use it."

They finished the basic plan just as Amelia called them in for dinner.

The table inside the main room was overflowing. Platters of roasted ram ribs, spiced mountain hare, and thick chunks of honeyed meat lined the wooden surface.

The rich savory steam filled the entire room.

They sat down and started eating with real appetite, as if the coming night did not exist yet.

Before anyone could bring up the journey, Nox wiped his mouth, stood up, and walked to the center of the room.

His hands moved in a rapid, fluid pattern.

A subtle translucent barrier sank into the walls and tightened around the whole space.

"Done," Nox mumbled, sitting back down to grab another rib.

Moon smiled faintly.

He could tell Nox was a little eager to show off his new skill.

"I set a base formation to block any eavesdropping," Nox announced.

"No master or shadow guard outside will be able to catch even a single whisper from this table."

"Wow! Brother Nox, are you working now?" Marina exclaimed in surprise.

To her, Nox was always a playboy who liked to go around giving flowers to girls.

"Shut up, I have always been a hardworking Man." Nox glared at her.

Axe grinned, his gray eyes glinting under the lamplight. "Childish."

The room fell into a comfortable silence after that.

They simply ate.

When the last of the meat was gone, Moon stood up.

"Let’s move."

Marina’s face immediately fell. "So soon? Brother, you just came back."