Chapter 223: Disappearance

The thought resurfaced, but it didn't bring the anticipated exhilaration or sense of relief.

The hot "courage" in her chest that had driven her to kick doors, submit reports, and walk away seemed to quietly wane the moment she stepped out of the Ten Kings Office's gloomy gate into the brilliant sunlight.

In its place was a hollow bewilderment, and a hint of… boredom?

Yes, boredom.

No longer having to face those terrifying dossier descriptions, no longer having to grit her teeth to investigate possibly haunted places, no longer having to endure Lord Han Ya's expressionless stare and the endless taunts of his "Tail"…

But then, what next?

She stopped at an elderly vendor's stall selling sugar paintings, watching the crystal‑clear syrup swiftly sketch cranes, Star Chariot, and flock of sparrows on the iron plate, and drifted into a reverie.

She patted her pocket; aside from the brocade pouch, it was empty.

Oh, she quit, and her salary vanished.

She kept walking, passing a street performer's stage where an orange‑haired girl was juggling a daring fire‑spitting act, surrounded by cheering onlookers, while the livestream's floating jade token glimmered in midair.

Huo Huo glanced at it, uninterested, and slipped away silently.

Finally, she reached a relatively quiet path and sat on a bench meant for resting.

Behind her sunglasses, her gaze drifted aimlessly forward, then slowly rose to the sky, watching the Star Chariots that followed fixed routes in endless streams.

They streaked across the blue canopy, leaving faint cloud trails, orderly and each heading toward its own destination.

As Huo Huo watched, she suddenly felt a bit tired.

Not physically, but a kind of lingering mental fatigue.

Since she forcibly "silenced" Weiba Daye, he had been very quiet—so quiet that it even felt unfamiliar to her.

Without that voice constantly ringing in her ear, mocking her cowardice and uselessness, the world was indeed quieter, but also… too quiet.

She took off her sunglasses and rubbed her slightly sore eyes.

The warm sunshine bathed her, and the cool breeze brushed her cheeks—very pleasant.

Yet her heart remained empty.

(What… should I do now?)

Just as she was about to be lulled by this empty serenity, a light, sly female voice, as if pressed against her ear, suddenly slipped into her ear without warning:

"Yo~ look who this is? A lost little fox, looking… so bored~"

Huo Huo didn't move, not even turning around.

She couldn't muster any enthusiasm for anything now, even for the suddenly appearing mysterious voice.

She merely blinked; after removing her sunglasses, the sunlight was a bit glaring.

The voice, laced with amusement, continued: "Boredom is a waste of life~ How about joining a game? A super—invincible—thrilling competition? If you win, there might be an unexpected surprise, you know?"

"A competition?"

She tilted her head slightly, but kept looking ahead, and the voice, sounding half‑asleep and bewildered, asked, "Interesting?"

"Interesting?"

The voice at her ear seemed to relish the question, letting out a bell‑like, mischievous laugh, "Hehe~ Of course it's interesting! A ten‑thousand‑fold more fun than those boring dossiers you read at the Ten Kings Office! It's truly 'fun' that makes your heart race and your soul shiver!"

"Truly makes the heart race… fun…"

Huo Huo repeated it, and the hollow inside her seemed stirred by those words.

What she lacked most now was probably the "something" that could fill this void.

Excitement? Fun? Seems… not bad?

"Then…" she said softly.

"Then?" the voice replied, full of anticipation.

"Fine." Huo Huo nodded, her tone unruffled, more like yielding to some sudden impulse.

"Hehe~ As you wish!"

The voice announced cheerfully.

The next second, Huo Huo sitting on the bench vanished as if erased by an invisible eraser!

No warning, no light or shadow effect, no sound—just as if she had never sat there.

Only the pair of large black sunglasses she had just taken off and set nearby, having lost their support, "clack" fell onto the stone slab under the bench.

Not far away at a street corner, Gui Naifen, pretending to adjust the livestream jade token while her peripheral gaze stayed fixed on Huo Huo, suddenly widened her eyes, and the jade token in her hand almost slipped out.

"Wo—what?!"

She jolted, swearing, her mind rattling like rusty gears, clicking toward the empty bench, then snapping back, rubbing her eyes hard, and looking again.

The person… gone?!

The fox‑person girl who had just been sitting there dazed, vanished into thin air right under her eyes?!

A massive transformation into a living person?!

Xianzhou's latest trending invisibility technique?!

Or Gui Naifen, staying up editing videos, hallucinating?!

Gui Naifen felt a chill surge from the soles of her feet straight up to the Heavenly Spirit Dome, and the jade token in her hand began shaking wildly—not from fear, but because her own hand trembled.

It's over, it's over, it's over!

Lord Han Ya's assigned surveillance Task!

The target performed a ground‑zero disappearance right under her eyes! How is that to be reported?!

Will the Ten Kings Office think she was incompetent and make up lies?!

Will her little livestream account get banned?!

And almost at the same time, at the milk‑tea stall opposite, Sai Fei Er, arguing with Bai Hang over whether pearls are round or square for a better chew, had sharp blue cat‑like eyes that keenly caught the situation at the bench.

Her ears twitched, and she instantly turned her head, catching the final frame of Huo Huo's vanishing silhouette and the falling sunglasses.

"Wow!"

Sai Fei Er exclaimed in amazement, patting the Bai Hang beside her who was biting a straw, "Bai Hang, Bai Hang! Look over there! Do all you Xianzhou people have the ability to 'shapeshift anywhere'? In a flash they vanished!"

"Pfft—!!!"

Bai Hang's sip of milk tea almost splashed all over Sai Fei Er's face, but fortunately they turned their head in time, choking and coughing repeatedly.

"Cough cough cough! Wh‑what 'relieve oneself anywhere'! Sai Fei Er, don't misuse the words!"

She wiped her mouth while looking in the direction Sai Fei Er pointed; the bench was completely empty—no one there.

"Really! Just now there was a little girl who, like you, has a Tail sitting there, swish! In an instant she was gone! Like a magic trick!"

Sai Fei Er gestured, her face earnest as if saying "I'm not lying to you," then her eyes brightened, "Oh! Something also fell!"

She flickered slightly, as if it were just an illusion, and the next second she already had a pair of black sunglasses in her hand.

"Look, this one fell on the ground."

Bai Hang looked skeptically at the empty bench, then at the sunglasses in Sai Fei Er's hand—just a plain style, nothing special.

"You must be seeing things, right? Maybe they just stood up and walked away?"

"Impossible!"

Sai Fei Er was adamant, confidence filling her eyes, "With my eyesight and speed, could I be wrong? She definitely vanished with a 'whoosh'! Not just walked away!"

Bai Hang remained half‑skeptical, but she noticed that Gui Naifen, who had been wandering at the street corner earlier, now wore a look as if she'd seen a ghost. She hurried over to the bench, looked left and right around it, bent down and rummaged on the ground for something, then suddenly straightened, her confusion deepening, began scanning the surroundings, muttering something under her breath.

(It seems… there really is something?)

Bai Hang's curiosity was piqued.

She tugged Sai Fei Er, "Come on, let's go take a look."

As the two approached, they heard Gui Naifen muttering to herself while scratching her ears and chin, "…It clearly fell here, didn't it? Where are the sunglasses? I just saw the sunglasses fall here! How did they disappear the moment I came? This is like seeing a ghost!"

Bai Hang halted, glanced at the sunglasses in Sai Fei Er's hand, then at Gui Naifen's anxious, bewildered face, and felt a sudden thump in her heart.