Dai Youheng left Star Luo City alone, without alerting anyone.
Perhaps the losses from several failed assassination attempts had been too great, or perhaps Zhu Man was wholly occupied with preparing another, even more vicious scheme. This time, his journey north was unusually peaceful, and no one came to trouble him again.
He did not enter the Sun Moon Empire directly. Instead, he took a detour west, eventually arriving at Maple Leaf City, a prosperous border city between the Heaven Dou Empire and the Sun Moon Empire.
Situated at a strategic crossroads, the city enjoyed thriving trade and took its name from its distinctive maple-leaf scenery. In the original storyline, this would become an important location for the student exchange between Shrek Academy and the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy. Choosing this place was both fair and safe for either side.
But that was at least a year away. At present, no banners of Shrek or the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy flew in Maple Leaf City. There were only merchants traveling north and south, Soul Masters of every description, and the faintly perceptible tension peculiar to the border between two great nations.
Naturally, Dai Youheng had not stopped here to admire the maple leaves. He checked into an unremarkable but quite clean inn and requested a fine room. Afterward, he rarely ventured out, as though he were merely an ordinary traveler passing through.
He was here for one reason alone: to wait for Ling Ya.
Before leaving Star Luo City, he had not asked Ling Ya to accompany him. For one thing, he needed Ling Ya to remain there, ensuring that his mother and younger brother emerged from that "anticipated" kidnapping with a fright but no harm, while executing his plan flawlessly and gathering sufficient evidence.
For