Book 3: Chapter 42: Touches of the Greater Dao

"I have little patience for cake ingredient stealers!"

The words bounced off the ridge and scattered into the morning air.

Meng Li pressed herself flatter against the boulder she'd chosen as her observation point. Her tails, all nine of them, coiled tight around her body as she studied the figures before her. The copper-haired foxkin crouched beside her, vertical pupils locked on the clearing below and jaw still bruised from last night's warehouse debacle. A few more foxkin flanked them along the ridgeline, white robes traded for stolen grey cloaks that smelled like tannery runoff.

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