Envoy

"Ghost Ape?"

Shang Qi turned and looked at the black shadow that had landed beside him.

"Should we pursue?"

"I ran into him over there just now."

Ghost Ape gave a brief explanation. "But he got away."

"He got away? That guy escaped from your hands?"

Shang Qi was somewhat surprised, but then he seemed to think of something. He immediately closed his eyes and carefully sensed the surrounding auras.

The next moment, there was not a single aura within the range of his senses.

Unwilling to accept it, he expanded the range of his perception.

Yet he still found nothing.

A martial artist's uniquely surging aura of blood and vitality should have been like a bright lamp in the darkness of night, glaringly conspicuous.

But at this moment, he found nothing at all.

"A technique for concealing one's aura. No wonder."

Shang Qi opened his eyes, his expression darkening.

"Ghost Ape, take Li Xiao's corpse and that young master of the Feng Household's corpse back. I'll pursue that guy."

"Yes."

Ghost Ape nodded and turned to leave.

Shang Qi, who remained where he was, said no more. He took something from his robes.

It was a slender white incense stick, as thick as a finger.

He quickly lit it. After the white smoke drifted upward for a moment, it pointed in a certain direction.

"Over there, is it?"

A flash of icy cold glinted in Shang Qi's eyes.

The materials for this Blood-Tracking Incense were rare. A single stick was worth tens of thousands of taels of silver. Within a hundred li, it could track and locate the trace of blood aura within a Blood Embryo Pill, thereby pointing the way.

Even as an envoy, he could only bring three sticks whenever he went out.

He had used one in the previous town, and now, of the only two remaining, another had been consumed.

"You damned old bastard. Once I catch you, I'll definitely refine you into a human sacrifice for testing medicine!"

Shang Qi's low voice, brimming with hatred and venom, echoed through the night sky for a long time.

By the time the sun rose, the fires at the Feng Household and Thunder Martial Hall had mostly been extinguished.

At the gates of Chi City.

A graceful white figure strode into the city.

Passersby all cast curious, probing glances at her.

She was a tall woman. Her plain white martial attire wrapped around her long, slender figure, while her pretty, otherworldly face carried a thread of biting chill. The longsword at her waist added a dash of heroic bearing that could force others back three paces.

Anyone could tell that this woman was a martial artist, and that her background was extraordinary.

After looking over the people around her, Luo Qingshuang's delicate brows furrowed slightly.

Were the martial artists in this city all this weak?

She looked around, yet could not even find a single Dark Force martial artist.

Had such a place truly been chosen by that organization as a testing ground for medicine?

As Luo Qingshuang pondered, she strode deeper into the city.

Before she had gone far, she smelled something scorched.

She instinctively headed toward the source of the burnt smell. Before long, a residence burned down to nothing but an empty frame entered her sight.

Moreover, judging by the sparks still not fully extinguished on the ground, the fire had clearly happened not long ago.

"Fire? Could it really have been them?"

A thoughtful look appeared on Luo Qingshuang's lovely face.

In the several towns she had tracked through before, any place connected to those people would eventually be reduced to ashes in a great fire, leaving behind no trace whatsoever.

By the time she arrived, there would only be scorched earth. She could not find any information or intelligence at all.

The same kind of fire had happened again, and coincidentally, it had occurred while she was pursuing that group.

It was difficult for her not to connect this fire to those people.

After thinking it over, she found Chi City's city lord and immediately revealed her identity.

"Eh? A Haotian Sect token? A true disciple? This lowly one had eyes but failed to recognize Mount Tai. I failed to recognize Your Excellency's identity and did not welcome you properly. Please forgive me, Envoy."

When Chi City's city lord saw the token Luo Qingshuang produced, he shuddered. Supporting his round, bulging belly, he dropped straight to his knees.

Unlike himself, a city lord in name only, this woman before him, beautiful as an immortal fairy, was a true disciple of that super sect. Her status was exalted and her strength terrifying—far beyond what a small fry like him could afford to provoke.

"Enough. Spare me the false courtesies. Tell me exactly what happened in Chi City last night, as well as every recent abnormal occurrence in the city."

Luo Qingshuang could not be bothered with pleasantries and directly asked about what concerned her.

"Ah, yes, Envoy. Actually, this matter began with the Thunder Martial Hall master, Li Xiao, breaking through to Transformation Force..."

The city lord of Chi City immediately recounted every major event from the past half month to Luo Qingshuang in full detail.

After finishing, he could not help adding another sentence.

"Envoy, these martial brutes are truly hateful. They run wild and act tyrannically in Chi City, utterly lawless. They treat me, the city lord, with contempt, ordering me about as though I were their servant. I think the higher sect should arrange a few..."

"Ah, I understand. That's all."

Luo Qingshuang had no intention of listening to what came next. She waved a hand to cut him off, then quickly left.

After leaving the city lord's manor, she swiftly sorted through the intelligence she had just received in her mind.

"A grandmaster who suddenly stepped into Transformation Force, and the Feng Household pulling strings behind the scenes."

"The fires at the Feng Household and Thunder Martial Hall last night... erasing every trace."

"That's right. These are exactly that group's methods."

"I've finally caught your tail!"

Luo Qingshuang clenched her fists, her heroic face filled with excitement.

To complete this mission assigned by the sect, she had already wandered outside for three months.

Now, at last, she had managed to gain something.

As long as she caught one of them, it would be enough for her to return to the sect and report completion.

She did not want to waste too much time on this exceedingly troublesome mission.

After all, while she was outside carrying out missions, the other true disciples were all cultivating desperately. By the time she returned to the sect, someone might challenge her and seize her position as a true disciple.

Just imagining such a thing gave her an enormous headache.

However, as long as she caught hold of that group's tail and obtained some solid evidence, she could return to the sect and report in, then toss this troublesome mission to someone else.

She did not have much time to waste on this kind of rotten business.

After accumulating strength for so long, it was time for her to launch an assault on the Core-Embracing Realm.

Luo Qingshuang soon arrived at the city gates and asked the guards whether they had seen anyone leave last night.

The result she received left her somewhat puzzled.

The guards had indeed seen people leave. There were three in total: a masked old man and another person had headed in the same direction, while the last, a burly fellow, had carried something on his back and gone in the completely opposite direction.

"Northwest, and southeast..."

Luo Qingshuang held her chin and thought for a moment before making her decision.

"I'll go northwest. More people went in that direction."

Having made up her mind, she circulated her force into her feet. Her entire body vanished into the distance as swiftly as a ghost.