In Qu Jianlei's view, his grasp of the Natural Dao was not bad, and the Praying Rain Array had not been activated that night.
Even Jia Shuiqing should have been basically incapable of noticing that he had left.
But what he had not expected was that although everyone lived in seclusion at Misty Rain Terrace and took great care to restrain their auras, they did not suppress them completely.
After all, the entire island was filled with their own people. Who were they supposed to guard against by concealing all their auras? Teammates regularly visited one another and sparred, so leaving behind a trace of aura made it easier to keep in contact.
Thus, Jing Yuexin noticed the moment his aura vanished.
However, she also knew that once the First One decided to sneak away quietly, no one would be able to find him.
"Learned to run away from home now? You've really grown capable... If you're not back before dawn, I'll have no choice but to catch you in the act."
Qu Jianlei did indeed return quietly just as dawn was beginning to break.
However, he was not in a very good mood, because his haul was terrible: a damaged handkerchief.
The thing had been buried in the silt of a River Channel, and it had not taken him long to find it.
Then he tested it and found that it could not be activated at all—the handkerchief was missing nearly a third of itself. How was he supposed to activate it?
Based on the material and the patterns carved upon it, he could roughly determine that it had likely been a defensive magical artifact.
The problem was that it had been completely destroyed, with no value left whatsoever!
Although he had been mentally prepared for the possibility that