Shaking the Tail

The setting sun sank westward, dyeing the seemingly endless rooftops of Luo Shen City gold and crimson.

Xiao Yan walked through the streets of the outer city at an unhurried pace, his expression calm, like an ordinary young man from the countryside heading home after a day in the city.

But his soul perception had long since spread out in silence, covering every corner within a hundred zhang behind him.

Four people.

Four cold, murky Spiritual Energy fluctuations mingled with the passing crowds, trailing him at a steady distance. Their methods were hardly sophisticated: sometimes they stopped at roadside stalls and pretended to browse the wares, and sometimes they leaned against a wall and feigned idle conversation. Yet those dark red eyes never once left Xiao Yan's back.

Blood Butcher certainly is impatient.

Xiao Yan smiled faintly to himself, but his pace did not change in the slightest.

In his current condition, if he confronted Blood Butcher head-on, he might be able to hold his own for a while against the late-stage Divine Soul Realm cultivator by relying on his judgment and technique. But if four Blood God Clan disciples who likewise cultivated the power of blood fiendishness swarmed him at once, he feared he would not last even three moves.

Besides, he had arranged to meet A Heng at the city gate. If he led these people there, that innocent mountain girl would likely be caught in the crossfire.

So he had to shake them off.

Xiao Yan's gaze swept discreetly over the streets and alleys ahead. In his mind, the Bewildering Tracks Array's Spirit Mark diagram, which he had pieced together bit by bit with his soul power over the past two hours or so, slowly emerged.

The paths of those Spirit Marks, the nodes through which their power flowed, and the weak points in their distortion of perception were all engraved clearly in his memory.

At a fork ahead, he turned left and entered a long, narrow alley.

The four Blood God Clan disciples exchanged glances when they saw this. One of them gestured, and all four quickened their pace and followed him in.

The alley was not long, with towering courtyard walls on either side. Its far end connected to another street. The four hurried through and rushed out of the alley, only to stop dead in their tracks.

People came and went along the street ahead, but the figure in coarse cloth was nowhere to be seen.

"Where is he?" The leading Blood God Clan disciple's face darkened.

"He was right in front of us. How did he disappear in the blink of an eye?" another asked, looking around in bewilderment.

"Split up and find him! He's a sickly weakling. He can't have gone far!"

The four split into two groups and searched in opposite directions along the street.

Not long after they left, Xiao Yan slowly emerged from the shadow of a courtyard wall in the alley.

He had never actually left it.

The alley was precisely where several of the Bewildering Tracks Array's Spirit Marks converged. The array's distorting power was most concentrated here, and anyone standing in a particular spot would be concealed by that power, seeming to vanish into thin air from an outsider's perception.

Of course, the concealment could not last long. A careful search would uncover him sooner or later, but against these four Blood God Clan disciples, who knew nothing but how to follow someone and were utterly ignorant of arrays, it was enough.

Xiao Yan brushed the dust from his clothes, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly. Then he turned and followed another gap in the Spiritual Energy that only he knew of, making his way unhurriedly toward the city gate.

Along the way, he changed direction three more times. Only after confirming that no one was following him did he slow his pace.

Passing a medicine shop called the Hundred Herbs Hall, Xiao Yan stopped and went inside.

Now that he had spirit liquid, there were some things that no longer needed to wait.

The shop was small, and its proprietor was a kindly middle-aged woman. Xiao Yan stood at the counter for a moment, his gaze sweeping over the medicinal ingredients stored in wooden compartments. He could not name most of them, but when he leaned closer and examined them carefully with his soul power, he could discern their medicinal properties. Some were mild, some were hot and fierce, some were yin-cold, and others carried a vitality remarkably close to Spiritual Energy.

"Three portions each of this, this, and that one." Xiao Yan pointed out several medicinal ingredients with mild properties that could nourish the meridians, then asked for a small, ordinary bronze cauldron.

The woman swiftly wrapped everything up, and Xiao Yan paid three drops of spirit liquid. Her eyes lit up at the sight of the liquid, and she gave him an extra packet of dried flowers, said to calm the mind.

By the standards of this world, these medicinal ingredients were nothing more than the most common wares. But for Xiao Yan as he was now, they were the first step toward testing the medicinal properties of this world's ingredients.

He could not keep relying on the dozen or so old pills in his Storage Ring that were being eroded.

He had to use this world's medicinal ingredients to refine pills that belonged to this world.

When he came out of the Hundred Herbs Hall, the city gate was already visible in the distance.

At the gate, A Heng stood on tiptoe with an empty bamboo basket on her back, anxiously looking toward the city. Her little face was red from the cold, and she had clearly been waiting a long time. Only when she saw Xiao Yan appear did her tightly knitted brows finally relax, and she waved as she ran over.

"Big Brother Xiao! What took you so long? I thought you'd gotten lost!"

"I did get lost for a little while." Xiao Yan smiled. "Sorry for the wait."

"It's all right, it's all right." A Heng waved her hand, then asked a little hesitantly, "So... did you sell your pill?"

Xiao Yan did not answer. Instead, he took a tiny jade bottle from his robes and placed it in her hand.

A Heng froze. She looked down and opened the jade bottle, then stood rooted to the spot, as if she had been struck by lightning.

Inside the jade bottle were ten whole drops of Supreme Spirit Liquid.

In the fading light of the setting sun, the crystal-clear liquid refracted a dreamlike luster. Even someone like A Heng, who had never cultivated, could faintly sense the pure Spiritual Energy it contained.

"Th-this..." A Heng's hands began to tremble, and she hurriedly tried to push the jade bottle back into Xiao Yan's hand. "Big Brother Xiao, this is too much! I can't accept it! I only lent you two crystals..."

"The two crystals were what you lent me." Xiao Yan held her hand still and said earnestly, "But that life was saved by you and your grandfather."

A Heng opened her mouth, her eyes reddening at once. Holding the jade bottle as though it were a fragile treasure, she was unable to speak for a long while.

Ten drops of spirit liquid were a fortune she and her grandfather could not have earned by selling herbs for ten years. With this, her grandfather could have his chronic leg ailment treated at the best medicine shop in the city. They would never again have to worry about going without charcoal in winter. She could even... even try cultivating the Spiritual Energy she had admired since childhood.

"All right, put it away. Don't let anyone else see it." Xiao Yan smiled and ruffled her hair. "It's almost dark. Let's go back."

A Heng nodded vigorously, tucked the jade bottle securely inside her clothes, and followed Xiao Yan out of the city gate, looking back every few steps.

The two followed the mountain path they had taken on the way there, heading toward Bluestone Village.

Dusk closed in, and the mountain forest gradually darkened. Insects chirped in waves. A Heng was in high spirits, humming an unknown mountain tune along the way. Xiao Yan walked beside her, occasionally joining in for a line or two, looking quite relaxed himself.

"Big Brother Xiao." After they had walked for a while, A Heng suddenly stopped humming and spoke softly. "Do you think... someone like me can cultivate?"

Xiao Yan glanced at her. The girl's face showed some apprehension, along with an anticipation she could not hide.

"Why do you ask?"

"My grandfather says cultivation depends on talent. The people in the village don't have much talent, so all they can do their whole lives is farm and gather herbs." A Heng lowered her head and kicked a stone at her feet. "But I always thought how nice it would be if I could cultivate. Then I could protect Grandpa, and I wouldn't have to be bullied by those guards every time I came to the city..."

Xiao Yan was silent for a moment. Then he laid two fingers gently against A Heng's wrist, sending an exceedingly faint wisp of soul power into her body to make a circuit.

A moment later, he withdrew his fingers, a flash of surprise passing through his eyes.

Although the girl's meridians had never been opened, they were unusually supple. Moreover, there was a faint trace of vitality within her that resonated with the Qi of the plants she had been around year after year. In the terms of the Dou Qi Continent, hers was a physique with an innate affinity for Wood Attribute energy.

"You have talent," Xiao Yan said with a smile. "And quite a bit of it. Once my injuries have healed, I'll teach you."

A Heng jerked her head up, her eyes wide and round, seemingly unable to believe her ears. Then she gave a cheer and jumped several times on the mountain path, nearly sending her bamboo basket flying.

Watching her bounce with joy, Xiao Yan's lips curved slightly upward.

But he was not nearly as relaxed as he appeared.

Blood Butcher's words kept echoing in his ears.

You'll have to leave Luo Shen City sometime.

Though he had shaken off his pursuers today, the Blood God Clan had many eyes and ears in Luo Shen City. If they cared to investigate, sooner or later they would find where he was staying, find Bluestone Village, and find A Heng and her grandfather.

When that happened...

Xiao Yan's gaze turned a shade colder.

Just as the two reached the mountainside, with the scattered lights of Bluestone Village faintly visible, Xiao Yan's steps suddenly faltered.

He turned his head and looked toward a distant peak on the right.

On that peak, a figure seemed to stand quietly in the night. Clad in a dark red robe, the figure blended into the darkness. Had Xiao Yan's soul perception not far surpassed that of ordinary people, he could never have noticed the figure.

The figure was looking down at Bluestone Village in the mountain hollow.

An instant later, the figure silently slipped into the mountain forest and vanished from sight.

"Big Brother Xiao, what is it?" Noticing that Xiao Yan had stopped, A Heng turned back and asked in confusion.

Xiao Yan withdrew his gaze, a gentle smile returning to his face. "Nothing. I saw an owl."

He resumed walking, but deep in his eyes, an icy chill slowly gathered.

It seems the only tails I shook off were the ones in plain sight.