The personal guard lowered his voice:
"The scouts reported this morning that they made camp at Falling Geese Slope, thirty li away, last night. At dawn today, they broke camp and began searching this way again."
"About two thousand cavalry. Their formation is spread wide, like a comb raking through every mountain gully."
Situ Lie's knuckles turned white around the bamboo tube.
Chen Xuanli, an Early-stage Organ Refining martial artist skilled at hunting through mountain terrain, had led two thousand light cavalry in the battle at Cross Ridge, specifically striking the flanks of the routed allied forces like a wolverine that would not release its prey once it had bitten down.
After the allied forces scattered, Xiao Jin split his troops into five columns to pursue them one by one.
Chen Xuanli took charge of hunting down the remaining Kaoshan Sect forces.
He had pursued them for seven days.
From Crossridge Pass all the way into the Cangwu Mountains, he had neither hurried nor slowed, yet had always remained within ten li of them.
Situ Lie had tried ambushes, splitting his forces to lure the enemy, and taking dangerous cliff paths to cut off their pursuit.
But Chen Xuanli was like an old hound, his nose uncannily sharp. Their ambushes had been exposed beforehand, their divided forces swallowed one by one, and the cliff paths had only led to their rear being encircled and cut off.
Over seven days, the mountain infantry who had escaped with Situ Lie had dwindled from 2,200 to fewer than three hundred.
What chilled Situ Lie's heart even more was that Chen Xuanli never launched surprise attacks at night.
Every day, he broke camp at dawn and made camp at dusk. His marching pace was neither fast nor slow, and every few days he even