After reaching an agreement with the tiger girl inside the Cave Heaven Gourd.

  They left the gourd and returned to the outside world. The tiger girl stretched lazily, then directly released her divine sense to scan the area extensively.

  Seeing this, Xia Li was so startled that he immediately smacked the back of her head.

  "What are you doing? Are you trying to get killed?"

  Releasing divine sense to scan was a two-way positioning action—the one being scanned could also sense the scanner's location.

  "I'm looking for something... Don't I have you as cover now? If we encounter people, I won't be attacked anymore."

  This was one of the reasons the tiger girl was willing to pretend to be a demon slave. The demon slave identity worked well on the human side—at least humans wouldn't attack on sight.

  "No no no, you'll still be attacked. I'm being hunted right now. If you draw my pursuers here, we'll be in big trouble!"

  "What? Wait, then isn't pretending to be your demon slave a pure loss?"

  "What loss? Aren't you trying to repay a debt?!"

  "Tch..."

  The tiger girl clicked her tongue. Compared to repaying a debt, it was clearly because she wanted to search for something nearby that she'd agreed to pretend to be a slave.

  "Speaking of which, what's your name?"

  "Hu Hu Fu."

  "Fu Fu Fu? Tiger Talisman? Hu... your name is cursed, isn't it?"

  After mispronouncing it twice, Xia Li grew annoyed. Only a crazy person would choose a name that made tongues twist.

  "My name has great charm to it. Tiger roars and all beasts submit. What's wrong with it?"

  "Change it, or I'll give you a nickname."

  "Go ahead."

  "Though you're all gray, you should have White Tiger bloodline. White Tiger is one of the Four Symbols, positioned west, governing metal of Geng, representing the Wu Fierce God—also like autumn among the four seasons, its essence stern and killing. You might as well take Qiu as your surname."

  "The character 'Fu' in your original name meaning 'to crouch' is well chosen—a tiger crouches before pouncing, killing intent arrives in an instant. You can be named Qiu Fu."

  "Among the four seasons, after autumn's crouching comes winter's snow. Snow is pure white—may you one day cultivate into a true White Tiger."

  Xia Li gave the tiger girl a new name. Demon naming was rather casual—they'd use their original form as surname and add a few random characters. Only the great tribes would consider cultural depth.

  "As expected of a human, so cultured. Your words sound so pleasant! I like this name."

  "Good that you like it. So, Qiu Fu, what exactly are you looking for around here?"

  "Not a thing—it's a little fox from my tribe who wandered off."

  "Huh? Aren't you a tiger?"

  "I don't live with the tiger tribe. I was picked up and raised by the fox tribe since I was little. I'm now a member of the fox tribe."

  "I see... So how do we find this little fox? We can't just search blindly without any leads, right?"

  When Xia Li said this, Qiu Fu also furrowed her brow and let out a long sigh.

  "I originally had one of its tail-tip hairs as a scent guide, but it was lost when I was forced to fight humans."

  "Then how are we supposed to find it!"

  "But I still remember its scent and smell. Following the scent might take us on a few detours, but we'll find it eventually."

  "Alright, let's search together. Once we find it, we leave immediately. We can't stay in this area. That roar you let out probably tipped people off to your significance. Speaking of which, was that roar a divine ability?"

  Ordinary techniques couldn't achieve that level. That roar had shaken the mountain forest, able to directly shatter people—truly terrifying!

  "It is indeed my bloodline divine ability, Fierce God's Roar. I know it exposed my bloodline, but I had no other choice at the time. Luckily the first person to arrive was you. It's really fortunate you have a demon fetish."

  "Is this demon fetish label never coming off?"

  Xia Li had been labeled a demon-fetishist right from the start. If this label didn't increase demons' friendliness, he would have denied it no matter what.

  "Never mind that—I smell the little fox's scent! It's that way!"

  Qiu Fu immediately started running through the forest. Xia Li quickly used telekinesis to hold her in place, walked up to her, and smacked the back of her head again.

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  "Can you be more careful? We need to move stealthily! Stay close to me. I can block detection. And lighten your movements!"

  "Don't hit my head!"

  She opened her mouth and hissed at Xia Li. Seeing this, Xia Li almost reflexively hit her head several more times.

  "You!!"

  "Sorry... I couldn't help it when I saw you hiss."

  Though Xia Li's family raised dogs, during his college dorm days there were many stray cats near the building. Some of them liked to hiss at people. When Xia Li kindly fed the cats and got hissed at, he would strike with thunderous force, pressing down on the cat's head and smacking it.

  This was for their own good—it prevented them from scratching people later.

  And tigers were classified as felines on Earth, so their behaviors naturally had similarities, triggering Xia Li's passive response to hissing cats.

  Qiu Fu was lucky. If Xia Li still had his right arm prosthetic, those smacks would have been too much for her.

  "Fine, you're my savior, and you're helping me find the little fox. I'll endure..."

  "That's right, just cooperate when I ask, don't cause trouble!"

  "Ha..."

  She wanted to hiss again.

  Xia Li immediately raised his hand.

  "Achoo!"

  She pretended she had just sneezed.

  "What? I just sneezed. Why are you raising your hand?"

  "Better be just that."

  Xia Li lowered his hand and activated the anti-detection field, telling Qiu Fu to lighten her steps as she continued tracking.

  But when Qiu Fu said they'd take detours, she meant it—it was basically going in circles. After two full days of winding about, they finally started finding valuable information.

  Like footprints and fur caught on shrubs.

  Once they had the fur, tracking became much more efficient.

  That same day at noon.

  Qiu Fu followed the scent to behind a rock. But the moment she crouched down, Xia Li sensed intense killing intent emanating from her.

  Xia Li immediately frowned and walked forward to observe.

  Behind the rock was a pool of blood.

  "Little Fox..."

  Qiu Fu picked up blood-stained leaves and sniffed them, then stood up and, ignoring Xia Li's earlier warning, rushed toward the forest ahead at maximum speed.

  Seeing this, Xia Li had no choice but to follow, only hoping Qiu Fu's commotion wouldn't attract Heaven Alliance's attention.

  After following for nearly a quarter hour...

  Beneath a flourishing tree, a white fox that had stopped breathing lay at the base. An arrow had pierced through its chest and back.

  Qiu Fu's hair had hardened and stood on end—she was about to bristle.

  Xia Li quickly approached the white fox and probed it with his divine sense.

  "Don't panic, there's still breath. It's not dead!"

  As he spoke, Xia Li immediately took out pills and fed them to the white fox to keep it alive.

  "How is it? Can it be saved?"

  "It's tricky... This arrow is a spiral-shatter arrow. Its heart was completely shredded. Its cultivation is too low to survive without a heart..."

  "Then what do we do? I... I..."

  "Don't panic, I have a way!"

  Saying this, Xia Li immediately communicated with the Heaven Chip in his mind.

  【Are there any suitable emergency prosthetic manufacturing plans?】

  【Searching database...】

  【Twelve options found. Recommend immediately crafting a Tri-Form Emergency Heart Pump】

  【I'm releasing body control to you. Start forging immediately!】

  【Mission received】

  Upon receiving the command, the Heaven Chip immediately took control of Xia Li's body and retrieved the prosthetic fragments he had previously removed from inside his body from the phase ring.

  Those fragments were made of good materials—Xia Li had kept them for emergencies.

  He could quickly disassemble the usable materials and components and manufacture them into emergency prosthetics.

  So-called emergency prosthetics had no other functions and couldn't connect to the Heaven Chip, but they were absolutely sufficient for replacing organs to temporarily preserve life.