Following the Trail

That night, after setting up his tent, Wang Qi prepared to rest... but a glance outside at Ran Jiao, who was getting ready to sleep in her clothes, left him feeling a little embarrassed.

After all, no one else carried even a tent on their back when they went out on missions...

He thought it over, but had no intention of displaying any gentlemanly gallantry by giving up his tent... though he had not known Ran Jiao long, he could already tell she had a fierce sense of pride.

If he offered her the tent, she would probably snap right back at him, treating him as quite the "gentleman," so he simply said nothing.

The night passed without incident, little did he know that the sight of a certain someone hiding in his tent to sleep still left the slit-pupiled young woman silently seething... she would never sleep in that tent, of course, but why couldn't he read the room and sleep out in the open with her?

In short, Wang Qi really did leave Ran Jiao with a deeply contradictory impression... on the one hand, she was very "grateful" for his fussiness, which made her look just like a normal person.

On the other hand, his fussiness often made her grind her teeth with resentment... wasn't he taking it a little too far?!

Nothing more happened that night.

With Ran Jiao beside him, apparently capable of sensing his out-of-body consciousness, Wang Qi did not leave his body to cultivate that night.

He simply sat in meditation and practiced his qi cultivation to restore his energy and strength, then went to sleep.

But while his body slept, his consciousness did not leave it. Instead, it remained inside and began considering the problem of the Light-Concealing Shadow-Masking Spell.

He discovered that his thoughts were remarkably clear in this state. Something he had only half understood during the day now quickly yielded a possible solution.

This state reminded him of stories he had heard about scientists finding inspiration in dreams. He felt that perhaps those had not been dreams at all, but instances when those scientists had accidentally entered a state resembling subconscious thought, allowing them to tap their own potential and find answers.

Gradually, he began to feel that what roamed outside at night might actually be his subconscious!

And it was through this subconscious thinking that he began to grasp how to improve his Light-Concealing Shadow-Masking Spell... the normal spell acted upon the caster, so once the incantation was complete, spiritual force covered the body and could remain there for a considerable time.

But if Wang Qi wanted to expand the area covered by the light-blocking spiritual force, that force would easily dissipate under all sorts of external influences.

Thus, to keep the spell's effect going, he had to ensure the stability of the spiritual force covering that area... and to maintain that stability, perhaps he could find a way through the use of internal qi and mental power...

He wanted to turn this spell into a concealed space that could persist for a long time through a continuous supply of mental power and internal qi... or, in other words, an invisibility barrier!

He had a direction now. Next came figuring out how to modify it to achieve that goal...

Before dawn the next day, they each packed their belongings and prepared to set out.

They traveled quickly. Even through the difficult mountain terrain, it took them only half a day to cross the boundary of Langya Commandery and enter Mount Tai Commandery.

Speaking of Mount Tai Commandery... it truly was a place surrounded by mountains. Had there been a satellite map, it would have shown that almost all its county seats lay within a narrow strip encircled by mountains, making them easy to defend and hard to attack.

It was precisely this mountainous terrain that allowed the band of outlaws ravaging Mount Tai Commandery to evade the Commandery Troops' encirclement campaigns while continuing to wreak havoc in the area...

In fact, everyone had understood the situation as soon as Xu Ping explained it... claiming that the Commandery Governor was unwilling to mobilize on a large scale for fear of harming innocents was merely gilding the Mount Tai Commandery Governor's reputation. The real reason was probably that the Commandery Troops could do nothing about these bandits!

After entering the mountain forests of Mount Tai Commandery, Wang Qi and Ran Jiao became much more cautious. They carefully observed everything in the forest, examining signs of human activity.

They agreed on a time to meet again, then split up to conduct a brief reconnaissance of the surrounding area.

"A large group definitely camped around here briefly. I saw quite a few animal bones left behind, as well as extinguished campfires."

When the two met up again, Wang Qi reported what he had observed.

Ran Jiao nodded and said, "I found similar traces, but they must have left a long time ago. Otherwise, a large gathering of people would inevitably have disturbed the snow cover, and the ground would show signs of icing over after freezing again... there's still snow covering this place, with no footprints. That means they had already left by the time of the heavy snowfall at least five days ago."

Wang Qi nodded at that, then added, "There are very few signs of animal activity nearby, either. They must have hunted down almost all the wild animals that originally lived around here."

"Perhaps we should head closer to Fei County and take a look. There are a lot of them, so if they want to survive, they'll have to go down the mountains to plunder."

Ran Jiao nodded, then added, "But it's hard for the mountains to sustain displaced people without food reserves in winter. I think they might have a permanent base... but it won't be here."

Wang Qi said nothing more, and the two continued cautiously onward.

They moved quickly, and before long they had emerged from the mountains.

The moment they left the forest, Ran Jiao pulled on a large hood, concealing the upper half of her face from the bridge of her nose upward.

Outside the mountains, they would encounter people, and her appearance really was ill-suited to such encounters.

This time, Wang Qi naturally took the lead. Their objective was clear: follow the field ridges at the foot of the mountains, and they would eventually reach a village where they could ask for information.

Mount Tai Commandery's long, narrow terrain meant that arable land was extremely scarce. This was also why Commandant Lin Chu was unwilling to train troops there... training troops required convenient access to nearby food supplies. Given the Divine Archer Battalion's consumption, stationing it in Mount Tai Commandery would probably eat the entire commandery into poverty.

Langya Commandery, over in Xu Province, was different. Not only could they obtain grain locally, but if that proved insufficient, supplies could easily be transported from the seats of other commanderies in Xu Province across the Xu Province plains.

The winter wheat fields were covered in snow as well, and only the raised field ridges marked the way.

After walking for a while, they did indeed spot a village with houses scattered some distance apart.

Then they entered the village...

Only to find it unexpectedly deserted.

There were no children playing, and most of the houses were empty. Even useful belongings were gone... all that remained was a mess of scattered debris.

"Was this place looted?" Wang Qi murmured.

But Ran Jiao swept her gaze over the surroundings and said, "There are still survivors. Someone's in that house."

Surprised, Wang Qi looked toward the house she indicated. At first, he saw nothing, but as they approached the wooden house, he really did seem to glimpse something flashing past through a fairly wide gap in the planks.

"You've got incredible eyes!" Wang Qi exclaimed.

Ran Jiao replied coldly, "They were just too obvious."

She seemed reluctant to discuss her eyes at any length.

Wang Qi wasted no more words. He walked over, gently knocked on the wooden door, and called, "Is anyone inside? We're only passing through and wanted to ask for some information. We won't hurt anyone."

Yet the door remained shut. They could clearly hear heavy breathing behind it, but whoever was inside simply refused to let them in...