Phantom Shadow Demon Trace

Volume 2: Phantom Shadow Demon Trace, Chapter 23: Ding Jiangshan

"Since this is an internal matter for your sect, I won't interfere. However, Junior Brother Bai, you must stay close to us. There is a group of cultivators nearby who are targeting these demons, and they don't have good intentions, so you must be careful."

However, Zuo Yanfei's tracking ability was truly beyond reproach. She led Tang Ruowei on a circuit through Ding Jiangshan, yet she remained firmly locked onto the trail of those demons.

Tang Ruowei began to rack her brains, trying to figure out how to bluff her way through this.

"That makes sense." Tang Ruowei waved her hand and said, "Besides, I'm useless once we get here; I never learned how to track Yao Mo."

"Junior Brother Bai? How did you get here?"

"Where is this?"

The two split up to inquire in the villages near Ding Jiangshan, and sure enough, they managed to uncover some clues.

"Oh? Has Older Sister Yanfei studied how to track demons?"

The villager rambled on, then looked up at Tang Ruowei and Zuo Yanfei.

"But Ding Jiangshan is so vast, where should we start looking?"

"Of course, both young ladies are quite striking. If I weren't so old, I might have lost my appetite and sleep for a while myself."

"Is that so?"

After walking along the mountain path for a short while, Zuo Yanfei keenly discovered the traces of the demons. According to her tracking, the footprints of the demons vanished into the woods on the side of the mountain path. Consequently, Zuo Yanfei and Tang Ruowei had no choice but to abandon the flat road, hacking through the thorns on either side to follow the tracks left by the demons.

It was just that the trail of these demons seemed to be veering away from the mountain.

The two tracked the Fox Demons, gradually venturing deep into a stretch of forest that no one had ever entered. Zuo Yanfei led the way agilely, occasionally helping Tang Ruowei—who still had to lift her skirt to walk—choose her path, while educating her on the knowledge hunters used to survive in the wild.

"When they entered the mountain, those spirits must have been in human form. And to attract a lecherous Crown Prince, they must have been quite beautiful; walking in a place like this, they would be very eye-catching." Zuo Yanfei looked full of confidence.

"Leave it to me."

The two watched as the villager walked away carrying his hoe. Zuo Yanfei said to Tang Ruowei, "This is most likely them. The Monster Race has a natural charm effect on mortals. Let's go, Ruowei, let me show you my skills at catching foxes."

Zuo Yanfei replied, "But I know how to track foxes. Since they ran into the mountains, those demons must have reverted to their original forms to hide. As long as we can find them, we can uncover the truth behind the Crown Prince's murder."

"You're welcome, you're welcome. Who told us the journey here was mostly by land?"

Withdrawing her gaze, Zuo Yanfei said to Tang Ruowei, "Thanks to your escape technique, Ruowei, otherwise I definitely wouldn't have been able to get here so quickly."

Except for Zuo Yanfei, Tang Ruowei estimated that the group of cultivators hunting them likely hadn't invested in the skill of tracking foxes by footprints. If these demons circled around inside Ding Jiangshan, they might actually be able to lure those cultivators into the mountain and then escape in the chaos.

Zuo Yanfei exclaimed in surprise.

"No, that was an advanced training course in the Divine Martial Heavenly Army."

Zuo Yanfei looked at the earthen hole and said to Tang Ruowei, "Ruowei..."

Tang Ruowei immediately seized the opportunity, echoing Bai Qiuran, "The message was indeed left by me. Senior Brother Jueyun has profound cultivation and was certainly capable of bringing Junior Brother Bai here before us."

Standing by the teahouse at the foot of the mountain and looking up, the stone statue built by the former emperor of Dingguo was very conspicuous. A tall man dressed in imperial armor, leaning on a great sword, stood by the mountain looking into the distance, appearing majestic and extraordinary.

For example, which fruits could stave off hunger, which herbs could heal wounds or neutralize toxins, which leaves were easy to ignite for starting a fire, and so on. After this lecture, Zuo Yanfei's image in Tang Ruowei's eyes gradually shifted from a majestic female general to a primitive woman roaming the mountains. Her silver spear even gave the maiden the illusion that it was just a wooden lance.

After several days of stopping and going, Tang Ruowei and Zuo Yanfei arrived near Ding Jiangshan in the southern part of Dingguo.

"They are circling around."

Tang Ruowei blinked, looking at the massive stone statue nearly fifty meters high in front of her.

Tang Ruowei reached out and grabbed Zuo Yanfei's shoulder. After a moment of thought, she reached out with her other hand to grab Bai Qiuran. Then, she took a deep breath, circulated her True Essence, and took both of them into the earth.

"It seems they haven't started acting yet."

"Uh... well."

Zuo Yanfei cupped her hands to him.

Zuo Yanfei said, "Cunning little foxes."

"Alright, now, stay close to us."

Bai Qiuran's nonsense came out quite naturally.

Zuo Yanfei said, "We should be able to find out where they entered the mountain by asking around."

"Leave the rest to me."

One had to know that she and Tang Ruowei were only able to reach the vicinity of Ding Jiangshan from the capital of Dingguo so quickly by relying on Tang Ruowei's unique earth-escape method. How did Bai Qiuran, a mere Qi Refining Stage cultivator, manage it?

"Oh, Senior Sister left me a message using a secret technique of the Azure Nether Sword Sect when she left earlier."

"So it was Senior Brother Jueyun who brought you here? Then that's no problem."

Zuo Yanfei led Tang Ruowei, following the villager's directions, and entered the mountain from the path the demons had taken.

"Understood." Bai Qiuran replied with a grin, "Many thanks for your concern, Older Sister Zuo."

"It turned out that after you and Senior Sister left, I happened to run into a Golden Core stage senior who was passing through Dingguo, and I asked him to bring me here. Right, Senior Sister? You remember Senior Brother Jueyun, don't you?"

"I heard that when Neighbor Wang Er was talking, he accidentally saw the face of one of the girls. It was so beautiful, like a fairy descending to earth. Wang Er is still living in a daze even now."

Zuo Yanfei suppressed the doubts in her heart.

"Is... huh?"

"Oh, so that's how it is. So they were hiding here."

"Thank you for the information." Tang Ruowei said pleasantly.

According to the nearby villagers, not long ago, several women wearing straw capes and bamboo hats that covered their entire bodies had come to the area and entered the mountain through a mountain pass on the north side of Ding Jiangshan.

Zuo Yanfei subconsciously responded, but then noticed something strange about the voice. She looked up and discovered that Bai Qiuran was standing behind her and Tang Ruowei, stroking his chin and looking at the earthen hole on the ground with a curious expression.

Tang Ruowei nodded.

Zuo Yanfei circled the emperor's stone statue, then pointed to a spot behind the stone platform at her feet and said, "Right here. Foxes usually live in tree holes or earthen burrows; this hole must have been dug by them."

However, this kind of misdirection was useless against Zuo Yanfei, who came from a family of hunters. Leading Tang Ruowei, she tracked the foxes' trail again, all the way to the place where they were truly hiding.

"Those foxes are under the Dingguo Emperor's stone statue?"