Before a conscription garrison outside Tan Spring Prefecture, Xu Chengtong had been watching the place.
At that moment, a veiled glimmer flew over from afar. He immediately caught it in his hand. A ray of light from the talisman message sank into his body, and he at once learned the words exchanged between the shadow image attached to it and Zhang Yu.
With Zhang Yu's reply, he hesitated no longer and walked into the garrison.
It was strange, really. In the past, he had acted without restraint in Nether City, yet he had never felt truly secure. Now that he was under discipline, his heart instead felt exceptionally steady, and he was willing to abide by the rules.
His concealment arts were exceedingly skillful. Though there were cultivators in the camp, not one of them detected his presence.
Although the aura within that flying vessel had been muddled at the time, so long as a person remained alive in this world, they would always leave behind quite a few traces. As a former steward of Nether City, he still possessed this much skill in tracking.
Before long, he arrived before a military bastion. His body flickered, and he entered the inner chambers. He did not press farther in, merely tilting his ear to listen.
For a time, the sounds of everyone in the bastion breathing, speaking, walking, and moving all entered his mind. There were at least a thousand people here, yet from these sounds alone, he could distinguish every single one of them in fine detail.
Among them, he heard one unusual voice. It was unusual because this person's walking, movements, and habits were utterly out of place among the soldiers in the bastion.
This person's footsteps were light and brisk. He was young, no more than thirty. Xu