After leaving Hackenlo Street, Li Wen did not choose to return the same way. She continued along the street, blending in with the crowd and turning onto a road that led to the craftsmen's workshops in the South End. The afternoon sun stretched the shadows of street trees to long slants, and the air was filled with the distant sounds of metal tapping and wood planing. She didn't walk fast, and her pace was steady, just like any outsider who had just arrived in Royal Capital and was getting familiar with the environment.
But after walking less than two hundred meters, her keen senses caught the incongruous noise behind her. It didn't sound like the casual footsteps of ordinary pedestrians. Instead, it was two footsteps that were deliberately gentle but seemed particularly jerky due to lack of training. They try to blend in with their surroundings, only to reveal their presence.
Someone is following her.
Li Wen's expression did not change at all, but it was already clear in his heart. She didn't look back, she just maintained her original pace and walked naturally into a narrow and sparsely populated stone path at a fork in the road.
The footsteps behind him hesitated for a moment, and then followed in, and the distance became closer. In the air, a trace of ether fluctuation was so weak that it was almost imperceptible, spreading quietly like a spider's thread, trying to lock her position. It was obviously a tracking or positioning magic, and it was very clever and skillful. If she hadn't already promoted the dual path to Stage Two, she might not have been able to find it.
Sure enough, it's Arcane Academy's person.
Li Wen suddenly realized that he might have underestimated the importance of the so-called "secret treasure" to Sunday Secret College from the beginning. It was so important that it allowed those lonely and arrogant magicians to abandon their reputation as magicians and send people to keep an eye on a sick and ignorant innocent woman. Perhaps since Fire Mage stole the so-called "secret treasure", Sunday Secret College's eyes have probably never left his only relative, waiting for someone to fall into his trap.
And a stranger like her might have alerted the group of magicians as early as when she knocked on the door of Hackenlo Street 21.
She did not stop, but instead sped up a bit and walked deeper into the craftsman area. The pursuers behind her immediately followed, their poor stealth skills exposed in the empty alleyway, but the tracking magic composed of ether always clung to her body like a tarsal maggot.
Li Wen knows very well that the opponent's strength is at least above Stage Three. At this distance, once she chooses to turn around and fight, the opponent doesn't even need to open his mouth to chant. A simple spell-casting gesture and an instant spell are enough to make her passive. She couldn't give the other party any chance to cast spells.
Must get rid of them.
Li Wen's eyes quickly swept around. The craftsman area was perhaps one of the most noisy and chaotic areas in the entire Camelot. The loud sound of hammers hitting anvils, the harsh friction of sawmills, and the strong smell emanating from leather tanning workshops all together formed a chaotic scene. The roads here are intertwined and filled with all kinds of raw materials and waste, making it a natural maze.
She turned two corners in a row and slipped into a narrower alley. This alleyway is flanked by tall warehouse brick walls covered with moss, and the end is completely blocked by a pile of discarded wooden boxes and rusty metal parts, forming a dead end.
The footsteps behind him approached quickly and stopped at the entrance of the alley. Two figures in well-dressed clothes blocked the only exit. Each of them held a shimmering crystal in their hands, obviously ready to cast a spell.
In their eyes, Li Wen is already a turtle in a jar.
Li Wen did not look back, but walked calmly to the end of the alley. She turned her back to the two pursuers and slowly raised her hands. Under the vigilant gaze of the other party, she injected magic power into her hands. The surface of the dark gray gloves seemed to be infiltrated by a layer of flowing shadow, and the texture became illusory and unreal. The outline of her body blurred, turning into a thin, almost translucent shadow.
The next moment, she took a step forward, and her whole body blended into the thick brick wall in front of her silently, without making a sound, as if it had never existed.
The two people at the entrance of the alley were stunned. They rushed to the end of the alley, stretched out their hands to touch the cold and solid wall, and kicked the pile of debris blocking the road with their feet, with disbelief written on their faces. There was no one in the alleyway, and the tracking spell was completely broken the moment the target disappeared.
On the other side of the wall, the figure of Li Wen re-condensed into a solid entity from the shadow of the warehouse. She didn't stop for a moment and immediately continued moving along the corridor between warehouses. Grasp of Shadows can only be used twice a day, and she must leave enough room for the next accident that may occur.
However, as soon as she walked less than fifty meters, a new sense of crisis came from above her head.
A more obscure ether wave came from above the head. She glanced up and saw that between the gaps in the building, the scene of a small patch of sky was extremely slightly distorted, as if there was an invisible lens suspended there, indifferently overlooking everything below.
Scrying Eye.
Arcane Academy's tracking method was more comprehensive than she expected. Not only do they have ground personnel, but they also deploy magic detection units in the air that cannot be blocked by physical obstacles. This meant that as long as she was still exposed in the open area, no matter how she escaped through the wall, she could not really escape the opponent's sight.
Li Wen immediately changed direction and ran towards the direction with the loudest crowd in the distance - the largest open-air market in the Southern District.
Five minutes later, she dove into the crowd. The market was crowded with people, and the air was mixed with the aroma of barbecue, the pungency of spices, the smell of leather and the sweat of the crowd. The cries of vendors, the bargaining sounds of customers, the music of minstrels and the playing of children intertwined to form a noisy ocean.
Here is the best cover. The magic eye hanging high in the sky may be able to locate her approximate location, but in such a dense crowd, it is almost impossible to accurately guide ground personnel to arrest her.
She lowered her body and used the cover of the crowd to quickly move between stalls. The pursuers behind him were indeed blocked by the crowd and slowed down. They did not dare to openly use large-scale spells in the market, so they could only squeeze through the crowds with difficulty, trying to keep up with Li Wen.
Li Wen's eyes quickly swept ahead, looking for the final escape strategy. Her eyes finally locked on the back of a row of large stalls, where several freight carriages were parked preparing to leave the city. One of the carriages was filled with huge cargo boxes wrapped in heavy canvas, and the coat of arms of a well-known spice merchant's guild was printed on the carriages.
That's it.
She saw the right moment and turned suddenly in front of a stall selling cloth. The owner of the stall was arguing with the customers about the price and did not notice the figure squeezing past. Li Wen did not hesitate at all and injected magic power into Grasp of Shadows for the second time.
Her body turned into a shadow again, and this time she walked straight through the stall's counter, which was made of heavy oak boards.
"Bang!"
The mountain of various fabrics piled up on the counter was disturbed by the weak air current as she walked through it. It lost its balance and collapsed like an avalanche, burying both the customer and the stall owner who were haggling.
The sudden change instantly detonated the surrounding chaos. The stall owner's scolding, the customers' screams, and the surrounding crowd's uproar all came together, and everyone's attention was drawn to it. The two Arcane Academy trackers were also blocked by the sudden commotion, and could only watch helplessly as the target's figure disappeared on the other side of the chaos.
Taking advantage of this perfect opportunity, Li Wen had quietly walked around to the back of the spice caravan's carriage. She climbed nimbly to the back of the last carriage, lifted a corner of the canvas, and got in.
The carriage was filled with goods packed in sacks, and the rich mixed aroma of cinnamon and cardamom almost paralyzed people's sense of smell. Li Wen huddled himself between two huge sacks and completely covered himself with canvas.
Almost at the same time she hid, the coachman's shout sounded, and the carriage began to slowly start, and with the wheels bumping over the stone road, it drove away from the noisy market.
The strong scent of spices perfectly concealed her own scent, and the moving carriage made the continuous locking of the magic eye in the sky meaningless.
Li Wen leaned against the sack and slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air. She glanced at her hands. The shadowy atmosphere on the Grasp of Shadows surface had completely dissipated, becoming plain and simple.
[Shadow Walk (0/2)]
It's safe for now.