The invisible **Lizard** moved through the forest like a thought slipping between trees.
No sound.
No disturbance.
Only faint distortions where the air bent around his concealed form.
His senses stretched outward.
Not just sight.
Perception.
He no longer observed the world with eyes alone.
He felt it through spiritual flow.
Threads of energy.
Life signatures.
The subtle movement of power woven throughout the environment.
Far in the distance, faint voices drifted through the trees.
The village.
Mortals continuing their ordinary lives beneath the shadow of cultivators passing through their land.
"…Did you hear? They're still searching the valley…"
"…Keep your head down. Don't make eye contact…"
Fear.
Respect.
Survival instinct.
The lizard ignored them completely.
They were neither prey nor threat.
Only background noise in a world that had long since ceased to matter to him.
His focus narrowed further.
His perception expanded.
The forest transformed into a layered map of spiritual signatures.
Weak beasts.
Low-level cultivators.
Residual traces left behind by stronger beings that had passed through earlier.
None of it interested him.
None of it was enough.
He drifted forward silently, continuing his search.
His ears flicked faintly as he filtered through distant sounds.
Wind brushing against leaves.
Beast calls echoing far away.
A group of cultivators traveling across a ridge.
All dismissed immediately.
His hunger no longer moved aimlessly.
It possessed direction now.
Purpose.
He needed something denser.
Something worthy of consumption.
The forest below remained completely unaware of the invisible presence moving above it.
No beasts reacted.
No instincts sounded alarms.
Nothing disturbed the natural flow of the environment.
Only an unseen predator gliding soundlessly through the wilderness, searching for prey worth devouring.
Then—
A faint fluctuation.
His head tilted slightly.
Spiritual energy ahead.
Denser.
More structured.
The invisible **Lizard** slowed.
Not physically.
Mentally.
Because the fluctuation ahead felt different.
More refined.
More controlled.
His senses immediately locked onto it.
Analyzing.
Measuring.
Then his thoughts stirred.
"…Mid-stage Foundation Establishment."
Not weak.
Not compared to everything else he had sensed throughout the forest.
Most spiritual signatures scattered through the region belonged only to Spiritual Refining cultivators.
Minor sect disciples.
Wandering cultivators.
Small beasts.
Insignificant.
But this one stood above the rest.
Its spiritual flow carried stability.
Compression.
Control.
The lizard drifted silently between the trees, still fully concealed as he closed the distance.
Branches did not move.
Leaves barely shifted.
Nothing revealed his approach.
The spiritual energy ahead became clearer.
Not alone.
Several weaker signatures surrounded the stronger one.
A group.
Traveling together.
The lizard's golden eyes narrowed faintly beneath his concealment.
Still hidden.
Still undetected.
Then voices reached him through the forest.
"…Senior Brother, are we really heading deeper?"
A younger voice.
Uneasy.
Another answered calmly.
"…The sect already confirmed traces of demonic aura in this region."
A brief pause followed.
"…If we find anything valuable left behind near the tribulation area, the rewards won't be small."
Greed.
Expectation.
The lizard continued forward soundlessly, watching and listening.
The trees gradually parted, finally revealing the group clearly.
Cultivators.
Five in total.
Four at Spiritual Refining.
One at Mid-stage Foundation Establishment.
The strongest among them wore dark blue robes marked with a silver crest near the shoulder.
A sect disciple.
A sword rested at his waist while spiritual energy circulated steadily around him.
Alert.
Experienced enough to survive within this forest.
But not experienced enough to notice what already hovered above him.
The lizard remained suspended silently between the trees.
Completely invisible.
Golden eyes fixed downward.
And deep within him, that quiet hunger stirred once again.
The **Lizard** did not attack immediately.
The hunger remained controlled.
Quiet.
Because the words they spoke interested him more.
He moved closer.
Silently.
Drifting between the trees like something unreal.
Until he hovered only inches away from them.
Close enough to hear their breathing.
Close enough to see every subtle shift in expression.
And still—
Nothing.
No alarm.
No awareness.
No instinct warning them that death already surrounded them.
His concealment remained flawless.
The group continued through the forest cautiously.
The Foundation Establishment cultivator led from the front, scanning the surroundings carefully.
One of the younger disciples spoke again.
"…It's already been months."
Frustration lingered in his voice.
"…If that beast was really injured after tribulation, shouldn't someone have found it by now?"
The senior disciple shook his head lightly.
"…You're underestimating tribulation beasts."
His voice remained calm and steady.
"…Anything capable of surviving Golden Core tribulation is far from ordinary."
Another disciple swallowed nervously.
"…But the elders said the entire area was searched."
"…Twice."
The senior cultivator kept his gaze forward.
"…And they still found nothing."
A brief silence followed.
Then he continued.
"…No corpse."
"…No cave dwelling."
"…No trail."
"…Nothing except the ruined basin."
The younger disciples exchanged uneasy looks.
One of them spoke carefully.
"…Do you think it left the territory?"
The senior cultivator frowned slightly.
"…Maybe."
A pause followed.
"…Or maybe it's still here."
The forest suddenly felt colder to the disciples after those words.
Because none of them wanted the second possibility to be true.
The invisible lizard hovered silently beside them, listening.
And now he understood.
Months had already passed since his tribulation.
The sects had searched continuously for the beast that survived heavenly lightning.
For him.
Yet they found nothing.
Not even traces.
His concealment had worked perfectly.
Even Golden Core cultivators seemed incapable of tracking him once he fully concealed himself.
The realization settled calmly within him.
Useful.
Very useful.
Below him, the disciples continued speaking nervously.
Completely unaware that the creature they had spent months searching for floated silently beside them.