It did not take long for the masked men to realize that these children were nowhere near as easy to deal with as they had expected.
The boy in blue moved like a monkey.
One moment, he was right in front of them.
The next, just as someone reached out to grab him, he slipped neatly through the gap between two men and appeared on the other side.
Several masked men surrounded him and chased him in circles, yet somehow failed to even touch the edge of his clothes.
Instead, he had them stumbling over one another in frustration.
“Catch him! Don’t let him get away!”
One of the men shouted angrily.
The boy in blue acted as though he hadn’t heard a word.
He pivoted on one foot and slipped between another pair of men, moving with such ridiculous energy that anyone watching would have wanted to grit their teeth.
And yet, for the moment, none of them could do anything about him.
Compared with him, however, the boy in green was far more dangerous.
During a brief opening in the fight, he snatched the long spear from one of the masked men.
His hands tightened around the shaft.
Then he turned and swept it across in one clean motion.
The force behind the attack was sharp and direct.
More than a dozen Green-Rank cultivators surrounding him failed to react in time and were knocked down one after another.
That single move was enough to change the expressions of everyone still standing.
Several of them instinctively stopped for a moment.
Those were Green-Rank cultivators.
More than ten of them had attacked together— and they still couldn’t block one strike from a nine-year-old boy?
They had assumed that once they caught up with these children, taking them back would be easy.
After chasing them for so long, they had finally managed to force them to stop.
Only now did they realize that catching up had been the easy part.
And the young prince from their own clan wasn’t any less troublesome.
The unusually good-looking boy remained near Evelyn.
There was still some distance between him and the masked men, but the hidden weapons in his hands were frighteningly accurate.
Whenever someone tried to circle around from the side, he would immediately strike.
Almost every attack forced the person back.
Each of the three boys was difficult in a different way.
For a while, the masked men gained no advantage at all.
As more of their companions fell, the ones still standing began to panic.
If this continued, forget bringing the boys back— whether they themselves could leave safely was becoming a problem.
That was when one of the masked men shifted his gaze.
His attention quickly landed on Evelyn, who was still sitting in the grass not far away.
The little girl looked even younger than the three boys.
She had remained sitting there the entire time with a small red fox in her arms, looking as though she hadn’t even understood what was happening.
And one of the boys had specifically been sent over to protect her.
That meant they clearly cared whether she got hurt.
The masked man’s gaze darkened.
While the others kept the boys in green and blue occupied, he quietly pulled out a hidden weapon.
Spiritual energy gathered around it.
Then he aimed it at Evelyn.
Evelyn’s eyes shifted slightly.
She had been watching the masked men from the beginning.
So when she noticed one of them suddenly turning his attention toward her, she nearly felt black lines appear across her forehead.
Seriously?
Why was she the innocent fish getting dragged into trouble again?
What did any of this have to do with her?
She had only been sitting here enjoying the breeze and petting a fox.
How had she somehow become the convenient hostage target?
If she had known today would turn out like this, she should have calculated her luck before leaving the house.
That thought had barely appeared before she rejected it herself.
Forget it.
It probably wouldn’t have helped anyway.
Ever since coming to this world, Evelyn had realized that not every skill from her previous life worked exactly the way it used to.
Protective spells and certain techniques still functioned well enough.
But fortune reading— especially when she tried using it on herself— was almost useless.
Every time she tried, the result either came out completely chaotic or left her even more confused than before.
So instead of depending on that, she might as well rely on herself.
Fortunately, Evelyn wasn’t the type to sit around waiting for someone else to save her.
She looked at the masked man.
The lazy expression she had worn earlier gradually faded.
Actually— this wasn’t a bad opportunity.
For years, she had never completely figured out how strong she was now.
Since someone had kindly delivered himself straight to her, she didn’t mind testing it.
With that thought, Evelyn quietly prepared herself.
Not far away, the boy in green was still surrounded by several masked men.
He swung the spear and forced the people in front of him back.
He saw someone raise a hand.
And the hidden weapon in that hand was aimed directly at Evelyn.
His heart tightened.
The pretty boy was watching another group of enemies and hadn’t noticed what was happening.
“Danger!”
The warning left his mouth almost instantly.
At the same time, he swung the spear and forced back another masked man who had rushed toward him.
Then he tightened his arm and threw the spear directly at the attacker.
But he was still a step too late.
The moment the spear left his hand— the hidden weapon, wrapped in spiritual energy, was already flying toward Evelyn.
Evelyn had been ready to move.
But before she could— her arms suddenly felt empty.
A small red figure shot past her.
She didn’t even have time to react.
The little fire fox that had been resting peacefully in her lap just moments earlier had already thrown itself toward the incoming weapon.
The next second, its tiny body jerked violently.
Then it fell heavily onto the grass.
Blood quickly began to seep from the wound.
It soaked through the soft red fur and slowly trickled down between the blades of grass.
Evelyn froze.
Her eyes remained fixed on that patch of red.
Only when she clearly saw the little fire fox lying motionless on the ground did her mind finally catch up with what had happened.
“Huo’er…”
Her pupils tightened sharply.
The small hand she had reached out stopped in midair.
The little creature that had been curled up safely in her lap only moments ago was now lying there without moving.
Blood was still flowing from its body.
She could have handled that attack herself.
Why had it jumped out?
Evelyn’s thoughts became a mess.
Then a wave of anger suddenly surged through her chest.
It came so quickly that she barely had time to process it.
At almost the same moment, a strange, burning power erupted from somewhere deep within her body.
It spread rapidly through her limbs, hot enough to make her entire body ache.
Instinctively, Evelyn tried to suppress it.
She couldn’t.
The more she tried to hold it back, the more violently it pushed outward.
And with it came every bit of frustration and hurt she had buried over the past five years.
Five years.
What kind of life had she been living?
Her father ignored her.
Her stepmother constantly made things difficult.
Most of the people around her either feared her or disliked her.
At three years old, she had been sent away to a haunted estate and forced to find her own way to survive.
She grew her own food.
Took care of herself.
And dealt with all those restless spirits and strange creatures that appeared after dark.
Usually, she complained.
She cursed.
She grumbled about how unfair everything was.
But she still did what needed to be done.
No matter how miserable things became, she had survived one day after another.
But that didn’t mean she had no feelings.
She could feel hurt.
She could feel wronged.
Just because she could still joke about things— did that mean none of it mattered?
The little fire fox was one of the very few creatures that willingly came close to her.
It never feared her.
Never avoided her.
Never looked at her with disgust.
Whenever it came here, it naturally moved closer, curled up beside her, and rested in her lap.
It let her hold it.
It let her stroke its soft red fur again and again.
And now— because of her— it was lying in a pool of blood.
Evelyn stared at the blood on the grass.
The anger inside her grew heavier.
Then chase them.
What did that have to do with her?
She had never provoked them.
And Huo’er certainly hadn’t.
If they cared so little about other people’s lives— then they couldn’t blame her for being merciless.
Die.
All of you— just die!
Her rage slammed repeatedly against what little reason she had left.
Evelyn clenched her teeth.
But she could no longer suppress the power surging through her body.
The next instant— a powerful aura burst from her.
Everyone fighting nearby noticed something was wrong almost at the same time.
The air seemed to become heavy in an instant.
A crushing pressure swept outward, so intense that even breathing became difficult.
A moment earlier, the masked men had still been surrounding the boys.
The next— all of them froze.
The weaker Green-Rank cultivators could not withstand the pressure at all and collapsed one after another.
The remaining Blue-Rank cultivators barely managed to stay standing, but they were clearly injured.
Each of them stared at Evelyn in shock.
At that point, no one cared about continuing the chase.
They immediately retreated while they still could.
But Evelyn wasn’t paying attention to them.
She couldn’t control the power inside her.
She didn’t even know how to make it stop.
All she could do was endure as that pressure continued pouring out.
The longer it lasted, the weaker her small body became.
At first, she had only felt burning pain.
Soon, even her arms and legs began to lose strength.
Evelyn lowered her head and looked at the little fire fox lying not far away.
She wanted to go over and pick it up.
But before she could take even one step— her vision went black.
She never even managed to reach out.
Her consciousness disappeared completely.
Her small body lost all strength and collapsed softly onto the grass.
Blood from the wounded fire fox quickly stained the edge of her clothes.
At the same time, the disturbance in the mountains had also reached the Sterling brothers, who had been discussing matters elsewhere.
Their conversation stopped at once.
The strange aura had appeared suddenly and disappeared just as quickly.
But one of the brothers immediately went pale.
Evelyn lived near the rear mountains.
An uneasy feeling rose in both men’s hearts.
Without continuing their discussion, they immediately headed toward the mountains.
They followed the lingering traces of the aura for some time before finally reaching a wide clearing.
And the scene before them made both men stop.
Bodies lay scattered across the grass.
The heavy smell of blood hung in the air.
Evelyn lay unconscious on the ground, her clothes stained red.
The little fire fox was lying beside her.
And the three boys from earlier were still nearby.
None of them looked particularly well.
Clearly, they had also been affected by whatever had just happened.
The moment Evelyn’s uncle saw the blood covering her clothes, all color drained from his face.
“Evelyn!”
Without hesitation, he rushed forward and bent down to lift her from the ground.
The child in his arms gave no response.
Her small body rested limply against him.
That only made his panic worse.
After confirming that she showed no sign of waking, he suddenly raised his head.
His gaze landed on the three boys.
His voice turned cold.
“Who are you?”
“What did you do to her?”
“We didn’t do anything!”
The boy in blue immediately tried to explain.
His own face was still pale, and there was almost no color in his lips.
Clearly, the pressure from earlier had affected him too.
But under that questioning gaze, he no longer had any trace of his usual carefree expression.
He quickly raised both hands.
“Really! We didn’t hurt her!”