Ed felt uneasy. The reason he hadn't acted earlier was that it wasn't the right moment.
Though the fox-woman seemed exhausted, she was still facing Ed. If he made a move, she would definitely notice.
As a sorceress, she had too many ways to protect herself. Ed couldn't afford to face her directly.
He needed to wait for the perfect moment!
For now, he had no choice but to stay quiet and walk behind the fox-woman with Luna, following her deeper into the cave.
"Ed…" Luna trembled uncontrollably along the way.
"It's alright," Ed gave her a calm, reassuring glance.
The deeper part of the fox-woman's cave was filled with a sharp, sulfuric stench.
Magic crystals hung on the stone walls, their light flickering intermittently.
Ed gripped the Moonstone hidden in his sleeve. Four runes in his palm were faintly heating up. Luna, pale-faced, walked behind him, twisting her fingers tightly around the hem of her clothes.
"You two are so lucky, With all the failed experiments before you, this time will definitely succeed!"
The fox-woman said with a smile, bending over a cauldron of potion in the corner of the room.
Ed activated his hunter's senses and immediately noticed the purple liquid in the cauldron, bubbling with gas.
Inside, there were several glowing green werewolf claws and human skeletons floating in the vile concoction. It was enough to make anyone nauseous.
The fox-woman scooped up a bowl of the potion and turned back to look at them with a grin. "So, which one of you wants to try it?"
No one spoke. The fox-woman's smile faded into a displeased frown as her voice grew darker with magical pressure. "Did you not hear me? You're both unwilling, is that it?"
"I… I'll do it," Luna suddenly stepped forward.
She lifted her head, her expression resolute.
The fox-woman's icy demeanor softened a little. "Good. That's the spirit."
With that, she handed over the dangerous-looking purple potion.
In fact, there was still one more step in the potion-making process. It required magic to crystallize the solution properly.
However, success was within reach, and the fox-woman could hardly wait any longer.
Luna walked toward her, tears streaming down her face. She turned to Ed and said, "Ed, it's my turn now. Goodbye…"
Ed remained silent, his face unreadable.
Luna reached the fox-woman's side. With tears glistening on her face, she lifted the potion and was about to drink it all at once.
"Luna, now!" Suddenly, Ed shouted!
The fox-woman was startled, immediately glancing at Luna with suspicion, but Luna didn't budge.
"You…"
The fox-woman turned to face Ed, only to find him already holding the Moonstone, its blinding silver light exploding in his palm!
Taking advantage of her distraction, the four runes filled with moonlight transformed into streaks of light, speeding toward the fox-woman's face! Furious and shocked, she had no time to react.
The silver light exploded in mid-air, sending shockwaves that hurled all the experimental equipment into the air!
Luna was also thrown back by the shockwave, landing hard on the ground. The potion she was holding spilled everywhere. As she raised her head, she saw the cave in complete disarray.
When the smoke from the explosion cleared, the fox-woman was kneeling on the ground. Her limbs had been blown off, and beneath the torn flesh, her white bones were exposed, blood pouring relentlessly from her wounds.
She never imagined that one day, she would fall at the hands of a mere slave.
And this slave, all along, had seemed so ordinary.
Despite her grave injuries, the fox-woman sat on the ground, laughing. "Hahaha, hahahaha..."
Her laughter was sharp and chilling, sending a shiver down one's spine. As she lifted her head, her face remained intact, but it no longer held the allure it once had.
Her face was covered in wrinkles, aged like the bark of an old tree. The more blood she lost, the deeper and more pronounced the wrinkles became.
This grotesque, aged face paired with the haunting laughter made her resemble a witch, and Ed couldn't help but frown.
"I've heard that female sorceresses use certain magical means to delay aging and prolong their lives. It seems this fox-woman is no different," Ed thought to himself.
In truth, the fox-woman had been drawing on the blood of her own kin to keep herself young.
The more she used this method, the more she began to resemble her fox-tribe ancestors. She not only took on their physical traits but also developed an innate ability to charm men.
"How many lives have you destroyed?"
Ed's face darkened as he picked up a large, heavy stone, ready to crush the sorceress's skull and put an end to her once and for all, before she had a chance to retaliate.
"Whoosh!"
Suddenly, the sorceress, who had been laughing maniacally, opened her mouth wide. As if prepared for this moment, a thick, black mist began to pour out from within.
The black mist moved incredibly fast, soaring through the air before shooting directly into Ed's body, piercing into his head. His vision immediately went dark.
"Ed!" Luna screamed in terror. The black mist had barely brushed past her, but she shivered uncontrollably.
The cold that emanated from the mist was unbearable, as though it had frozen her very organs. Though it lasted only a moment, it was enough to make Luna feel like she was on the verge of death.
"Hahahaha, this is the Moon's Cold Poison Mist, a toxin I spent my entire life researching and refining. It's extracted from the moon itself!" The sorceress laughed cruelly, her eyes bloodshot with madness.
"You will feel an ice-cold chill, worse than death, completely unable to move! And this pain will last for an entire month. When the poison fully erupts, your body will freeze solid and you will die!"
Bang! Ed strode forward, grabbed the stone in his hand, and slammed it down hard onto the sorceress's forehead.
As for the so-called "immobility," it had no effect on him at all. The sorceress's skull cracked open under the impact, and hot, bloody matter poured out from the wound.
"You... how could..."
The sorceress's words were cut short as she collapsed to the ground, her body stiffening in death, her eyes wide open in disbelief.
Ed dropped the stone. The blackness in his pupils slowly receded. Luna rushed forward, her face full of concern. "Ed, are you alright?"
She was deeply worried—after all, the black mist had clearly entered Ed's brain, yet he appeared perfectly fine, even moving freely.
Ed glanced at her, his hand pressing against his chest. He explained briefly, "I told you, I can't feel the cold, but the part about the month... that could be true."
Ed really did feel as if something had been planted inside his organs.
By all rights, the moon's toxin should have had no effect on him. But who knew what else the sorceress had added to it?
Ed was genuinely worried that, as the sorceress had warned, he might die after a month.
"No, Ed, I won't let you die! There must be an antidote!" Luna clung to Ed, speaking with determination.
Ed smiled faintly. "How could there be an antidote? She's the one who created the poison, so she's the only one who could make the cure. But now... she's dead."
He pushed Luna away gently, took a final glance at the sorceress's cold, lifeless body, and walked toward the inner part of the cave.
With a powerful motion, he began flipping over the various cabinets and drawers, emptying everything onto the floor—scrolls, books, magical potions, and treasures.
Ed grabbed whatever he could and decided to take it all with him. He turned to Luna and said, "We're leaving tonight."
Even though it was still dark outside, every extra minute spent here added more uncertainty to the situation.
Ed had no intention of staying here any longer.
Before leaving, he was determined to raid the cave for anything useful.
It was his compensation for all the suffering he had endured over the past days.
"Ed, this is for you," Luna said, seeing Ed's actions. She bent down and retrieved a small cloth pouch from the sorceress's cold corpse.
Ed reached out and took the pouch, his eyes lighting up for a moment. "This is a storage pouch. It must be something the sorceress made herself."
Sorcerers often created these magical items, and a storage pouch was essentially a form of spatial magic.
Since the sorceress was now dead, Ed was able to freely sense the contents of the pouch. Most of what was inside were ores and magical potions.
"This small pouch can probably hold the space of an entire library," Ed thought, treating it like a prized possession. He began filling it with everything valuable he could find in the cave, all the items the sorceress had left behind.
Materials, ores, and such weren't particularly surprising, but what caught Ed's interest most were the books.
He realized that his understanding of this world was still far from enough.
While he was focused on gathering more information about the world around him, he also hoped to find a way to unravel the poison inside him.
However, as he flipped through the pages, he found that all the books here were focused on potion-making and sorcery scrolls.
"Sigh," he muttered in disappointment, casually tossing a book aside.
Luna, on the other hand, was also looking through the books, but when she saw the pages, her focus sharpened and her interest deepened.
"Luna, let's go. There's no way to cure the poison in me," Ed said, having nearly finished raiding the cave. He turned to her.