Taking the Long Way Around
Long Tian and Yu Jin did not return by the same route.
They exited through the back door of the tailor shop, passed through a narrow alley, and turned into the old residential area on the north side of the town. They then followed an old stone-paved road, mostly overgrown with weeds, until they reached the outskirts of town. This road was longer than the main road, but it avoided the main street and the direction of the village entrance. As Long Tian crossed the town boundary, he glanced back. He could see two figures dressed in short robes from the Spirit Hall walking in from the east entrance, talking to several townspeople on the street. He looked away and continued walking along the stone-paved road.
Yu Jin followed beside him, and after walking about a mile on the stone path, they turned onto a dirt road over a low hill. The road forked at the top of the hill; to the left was a shortcut back to the main road, and to the right was an old hunter's trail that stretched along the hill. Long Tian squatted down at the fork to examine the wheel tracks and footprints on the ground, confirming that there were no recent new footprints on the old trail, before getting up and walking to the right. This road was a longer route, but there were only a few scattered hunter's huts along the way, no villages, so it was less likely to run into patrols.
As darkness fell, they had already left the outskirts of Bluestone Town. The bushes on both sides of the old path grew densely in the twilight, their branches and leaves stretching out to cover most of the road, making a continuous, soft rustling sound as they walked. Long Tian stopped to rest for a while behind a low, sheltered slope, took out his water bag, drank a couple of sips, and handed it to Yu Jin. Yu Jin took it, drank a sip, tightened the cap, handed it back, squatted down by the slope, and glanced back in the direction they had come from to make sure no one was following them.
"They should still be checking things in Bluestone Town. According to Tang San, they'll stay in that area for quite a while," Yu Jin said, squatting on the slope, his tone calm. "Once we bypass the town, we don't need to rush."
Long Tian nodded, tied up his water bag, sat on the slope for a while, and after confirming the direction, continued along the old path. When it was completely dark, the old path merged into a wider dirt road ahead, with ruts and hoofprints on the surface, like a passage connecting several villages. He squatted down beside the dirt road to check the direction, confirming that this road led to the outskirts of Soul Hunting Town, and then continued along it.
There were few pedestrians on the road at night. In the distance, the occasional barking of dogs and scattered lights could be heard, their sounds broken by the wind. They walked for nearly an hour, and as they approached the outskirts of Soul Hunting Town, they turned at a fork in the road onto a slope leading towards the stone house. The grass on the slope was covered with dew, shimmering with a fine layer of silvery white in the moonlight. Their footsteps left dark tracks that gradually faded and disappeared behind them.
It was late at night when they returned to the stone house. Long Tieshan was still sitting by the stove, the fire in the hearth had been smoldering, with only a layer of dark red Yu Jin flickering slowly among the embers. He heard the door open, looked up, glanced at Long Tian and Yu Jin's faces, and pushed a bowl of porridge that was warming on the stove towards them. Long Tian sat down at the table, drank the porridge, and briefly recounted his trip to Bluestone Town to re-register and the sighting of the patrol team entering the town. After listening, Long Tieshan didn't ask any further questions, added a piece of firewood to the hearth, and the flames leaped up again, illuminating half of the wall in the house.
The next day at noon, Shen Mo walked into the courtyard along the fork in the road with a lighter pace than usual. He stopped by the well and said, "The patrol team spent the night in Bluestone Town and left this morning. They headed north towards Soul Hunting Town. They didn't find anything unusual in the Bluestone Town registration records; they just collected a few villagers' self-reported Soul Power information and left."
Long Tian sat on the threshold, braiding a piece of old hemp rope into a shorter one. He stretched the braided rope on his knees to make sure the tension was even, then tied it to the buckle on the leather bag. He stood up and walked a few steps in the yard to test the bag's movement, confirming it fit his body better than before. He walked to the well, squatted down, and sat on the well platform to readjust the bag's straps, adjusting the water bag and food bag to more convenient positions. Then he stood up and stretched his shoulders in the yard.
Yu Jin walked over from the side of the house and handed Long Tian a small cloth bag, saying it was some dried herbs he had picked that morning at the foot of the slope, kept in his leather pouch in case he encountered any water or soil acclimatization issues on the road. Long Tian took it, put it in the side pocket of his pouch, tightened the strap, and stood by the threshold for a moment. The sunlight outside shone from the east, spreading a uniform warm color across the courtyard. As Long Tian stood by the threshold, the Dragon Shadow hovered close to him in the air, its wings folded, its eyes slightly lowered, and the light layer on its forehead shining in the sunlight, more stable and restrained than before. He stepped out of the threshold and walked down the slope, Yu Jin following half a step behind him, the two disappearing one after the other at the bend at the end of the slope.