Shedding the Tail

The alleyway was deep and gloomy.

The towering earthen walls on both sides sliced the moonlight into jagged fragments, casting mottled and eerie shadows upon the ground.

Su Chen's footsteps were neither fast nor slow, and with every step he took, there was almost no sound to be heard.

His breathing was deliberately suppressed, long and faint, as if he had merged into the color of the night.

However, about thirty meters behind him, two other sets of footsteps followed like the pendulums of a death knell—unhurried, yet clinging to him relentlessly.

The sounds were light, leaving no trace upon the ground; clearly, these were experts who had undergone specialized training.

But they had miscalculated one thing.

Because of a light rain the previous night, the ground of this alleyway had accumulated several inconspicuous little puddles.

Every time Su Chen's peripheral vision swept over the murky water, he could clearly capture the two black, ghostly silhouettes trailing him in the reflection.

He was being watched.

A cold chill crawled bit by bit up his spine.

It wasn't for the twenty gold coins in his purse.

If they were ordinary robbers, they would have swarmed him and struck him down long ago, given that he was nothing but a frail, powerless youth.

This kind of tracking—keeping a distance—had only one purpose.

What they wanted was not money.

It was fire.

It was the secret behind the ability to produce the Rock Fire Seed!

This realization caused Su Chen's heart to sink abruptly.

Possessing a treasure is a crime.

This principle, which he had understood in his past life, was now baring its fangs at him in the most cruel and direct manner.

He did not turn his head, nor did he choose to turn and bolt.

On the Dou Qi Continent, a commoner competing in speed against a trained cultivator was no different from seeking his own death.

His face remained calm, almost to the point of numbness.

Yet, hidden within his sleeves, his fingernails were already deeply embedded into his palms.

The stinging pain kept him absolutely composed.

His brain began to operate at an unprecedented speed.

A map of the Wutan City slums unfolded rapidly in his mind; every alleyway, every corner, and every piece of terrain he could utilize became incredibly clear.

That was the result of the past few days, spent measuring the environment step by step with his own feet to familiarize himself with it.

He hadn't expected it to come in handy so soon.

He needed an environment complex and chaotic enough to shake off the tails behind him.

One place instantly jumped out from the map.

Labyrinth Alley.

It was the most chaotic, filthy, and notorious area in the slums.

The alleyways crisscrossed like a spiderweb, and countless illegally constructed shacks sliced the sky into narrow slits.

It was said that even the City Guards could lose their way if they entered that place.

That was his only path to survival.

At the next intersection, Su Chen's footsteps turned seemingly casually, heading in the direction of Labyrinth Alley.

The two black shadows behind him followed without the slightest hesitation, clinging to him like his own reflection.

In their eyes, this prey already caught in the net was merely making its final, dying struggle.

A quarter of an hour later.

Su Chen stepped into the perimeter of Labyrinth Alley.

The thick, sour stench in the air—a mixture of rotting food, filth, and poverty—made his stomach churn.

But he couldn't afford to care about that.

His pace suddenly accelerated!

He slipped like a slick loach, instantly darting into a narrow crevice that could only accommodate one person.

The footsteps behind him also suddenly picked up speed!

The two black shadows no longer bothered to conceal themselves; faint cyan Dou Qi swirled around their bodies, and their speed surged, like two hunting hawks pouncing, biting down hard on Su Chen's trail!

"Kid, stop running!"

A cold, low shout came from behind, carrying the mockery of a cat playing with a mouse.

"Come with us, and you'll suffer less!"

Su Chen turned a deaf ear.

His chest heaved violently, his lungs burning as if scorched by flames.

But he dared not stop.

Relying on the map in his mind, he sprinted frantically through this labyrinthine network of alleys.

Turning left, weaving right, crossing a courtyard piled high with trash, and ducking beneath the shed of a local household.

The pursuers behind him were far superior in strength, but their unfamiliarity with this complex terrain became their greatest handicap.

Several times, they were delayed for a moment by sudden dead ends and blocked paths.

And it was these precious moments that bought Su Chen a vital chance to catch his breath.

Yet, the gap in strength between the two sides remained an insurmountable chasm.

The distance was closing, bit by bit.

Thirty meters.

Twenty meters.

Ten meters!

Su Chen could even feel the sharp, biting wind from behind, stinging the skin on the back of his neck.

Just then, a three-way fork appeared before him.

To the left and right were deep, dark alleys leading to unknown destinations.

Directly ahead, however, stood a high, dead wall built of blue bricks.

A dead end.

"Heh, let's see where you run now!"

The pursuers behind him let out a sinister laugh.

The two men moved left and right, sealing off all of Su Chen's retreat paths, and approached slowly.

Their faces wore the cruel look of those who had already secured victory.

Su Chen leaned against the cold wall, gasping for air, his face seemingly etched with despair and terror.

He watched the two men closing in, his body trembling slightly with "fear."

"Who... who are you? What do you want?"

His voice carried a perfectly measured tremor.

One of the taller men in black sneered.

"Kid, stop the act. Hand over all the flames you have, and... the method to obtain them. Maybe then we'll leave you with a whole corpse."

Su Chen's pupils contracted sharply.

As expected!

His guess had been confirmed.

He leaned against the wall, his body slowly sliding down as if he had already given up resistance.

"The... the flames are all where I live..."

The two men in black exchanged a glance, the greed on their faces intensifying.

"Take us there!"

Just as they let their guard down, preparing to step forward and seize Su Chen, the moment arrived.

A sudden change occurred!

The terror and despair that had filled the eyes of the boy slumped on the ground vanished without a trace, replaced by a cold, decisive madness!

His body, like a spring compressed to its limit, lunged violently to the side!

In the corner behind him lay a pile of broken wooden planks and foul-smelling straw mats.

Su Chen's hand ripped through the pile of debris with a fierce motion!

Beneath the clutter, a pitch-black hole was revealed.

It was a dog hole.

A narrow, filthy, foul-smelling dog hole!

Without a moment's hesitation, Su Chen used his hands and feet, diving headfirst into it with a posture that was incredibly wretched yet lightning-fast!

"Damn it! We've been tricked!"

The faces of the two men in black changed drastically as they finally realized what had happened.

They never could have imagined that this boy, who appeared to have no way out, would escape in such a manner!

The two men rushed forward in a fit of rage, desperate to squeeze through after him.

But that dog hole, which was just the right size for the slender Su Chen, was far too small for two grown, burly men—they couldn't even fit their heads through!

"Damn it!"

The leader of the men in black roared, slamming his fist into the wall with such force that the hard blue bricks instantly spiderwebbed with cracks.

"Split up and chase him! He can't have gone far!"

On the other side.

Su Chen scrambled out of the dog hole, ignoring the filth and stench covering his body, and immediately took off at a dead sprint.

He knew that dog hole would only buy him a dozen seconds at most.

But that was enough.

Utilizing this precious head start, he darted through a series of shortcuts that only the local rats would know.

Finally, he plunged into a night market that was still brightly lit and bustling with noise.

The cacophony of hawkers and the dense crowd instantly swallowed him whole.

He was like a single drop of water merging into the vast ocean.

Su Chen didn't dare linger; he shoved into the throng, tossed a few copper coins at a stall selling old clothes, and snatched up the most inconspicuous gray coat he could find to drape over his shoulders.

Then, he ducked into an empty corner, turned his original, washed-out clothes inside out, and smeared mud across his face.

Once finished, he looked like a completely different person.

He leaned against the cold corner of a wall, his back to the noisy crowd, and finally unable to hold it together any longer, he began to gasp violently.

His back was already soaked through with cold sweat.

The exhaustion of surviving a brush with death surged over him like a tide, making his legs tremble uncontrollably.

He had won.

In the way a cultivator would find most disdainful and shameful to mention, he had won this pursuit against an opponent of vastly superior strength.

Dignity?

In the face of life and death, dignity was worthless.

The night had deepened.

When Su Chen dragged his exhausted body back to that dilapidated little courtyard, the moon was already hanging high in the sky.

He double-locked the creaky wooden door and shoved a broken table firmly against it.

Only after doing all this did he finally relax, collapsing onto the floor in a state of total collapse.

The room was deathly silent, save for the sound of his own heavy breathing.

This near-death experience was like a bucket of ice water, dousing the smugness he had felt after earning his first pot of gold.

He was completely sober now.

In this world, without strength, the exposure of even the slightest bit of wealth could invite a fatal disaster.

He had thought he was being careful, but in the end, he had underestimated the greed of the human heart and overestimated his own ability to cope.

The street-stall model had to end.

It was no different than a three-year-old child walking through a busy market clutching a gold brick.

He needed a safer, more hidden, and more powerful platform to transform the Rock Fire Seed in his hands into true strength.

A thought became incredibly clear in his mind.

The old blacksmith's words echoed in his ears once more.

"Go to the Alchemist Association in the city center, or... go to the Miteer Auction House."

"That is where it belongs."

Su Chen slowly raised his head, his gaze seemingly piercing through the tattered roof.

Before, he had only considered those places as backup options.

But now, they had become his only choice.

Miteer Auction House.