Daunted at the Sight

"To insult our beloved Prefect Li is utterly intolerable!"

"That's right!"

"Report to the authorities!"

"Let's go to the prefect's office and report this to the authorities. We must find that scoundrel!"

"They might be spies from the Xiong State!"

"I discovered that there were also words written there that insulted the prefect!"

"The person who wrote these abusive words must be found and beaten to death!"

At the morning market, as Zhang Xuezhou occasionally fanned the flames, more and more people joined in.

Regardless of whether you can recognize the characters written on the city wall, they certainly won't say anything nice.

The crowd was filled with righteous indignation, and some even sought out the patrolling soldiers.

After some discussion, several patrolling soldiers began to lead the way, while the butcher Wu Qingsong and some onlookers walked angrily at the front.

Although he was the second eyewitness, Wu Qingsong looked around but couldn't see the young man who first spotted the pancake, so he took up the mantle of reporting it to the authorities.

As a major military city, Shanggu County has fewer winding streets than cities like Fuping County. The streets are laid out in a cross shape, which means that you can eventually reach the Prefect's Mansion by walking in a straight line.

Watching the commotion from a distance, Zhang Xuezhou followed for a quarter of an hour before finally seeing Wu Qingsong kowtowing and reporting to the authorities.

"That damn sense of justice!"

Seeing that Wu Qingsong had already kowtowed before even entering the prefect's mansion, Zhang Xuezhou felt that he couldn't do such a thing.

However, compared to reality, a slower pace of social development inevitably leads to a more stringent class system.

Given the prevailing social environment, Zhang Xuezhou might feel somewhat surprised and uncomfortable, but Wu Qingsong and others considered it perfectly normal.

Wu Qingsong shouted loudly until a middle-aged man wearing a scholar's hat came out of the prefect's mansion, at which point he embellished the story and told the whole story.

"There are characters as tall as a person written on the city wall! Oh no, this means a top-tier Technique Method expert has entered the city!"

The middle-aged man wearing a scholar's hat had a solemn expression.

More than enduring a few insults, what truly alarmed him was the person who performed the spell.

"The Prefect patrolled all night and is still recovering. Please take me to that part of the city wall so I can identify who this treacherous being from the Xiong State has entered Shanggu County!"

The middle-aged man in the scholar's hat called for a soldier to lead his horse, then mounted it, with a group of soldiers following closely behind, and some onlookers running after him.

"Lord Ning Cheng possesses extraordinary Technique Method; he will surely be able to capture that villain directly!"

Wu Qingsong shouted from behind the horse, which made Zhang Xuezhou aware of the middle-aged man's name.

However, his familiarity with the various cultivators within the Han Dynasty was limited, and he couldn't immediately tell which school of thought the other party belonged to.

"Don't come after me!"

There are countless Technique Method used by cultivators.

It wouldn't be surprising if someone used the words left by Zhang Xuezhou through his magic as an index to find Zhang Xuezhou.

If it were a military officer investigating, Zhang Xuezhou could remain calm and watch the show, but he had to be wary of experts in Technique Method.

For a moment, Zhang Xuezhou also mingled in the crowd and followed them outwards.

He watched from afar as Ning Cheng examined the characters back and forth. When the deep blue Law Power on Ning Cheng's fingers was imprinted on the character 'Li', Zhang Xuezhou turned around and followed the crowd out of the city.

Entering the city involves numerous procedures for scavenging and collecting, but leaving the city is much simpler, especially since many people leave the city to work in the morning, making the checks less stringent.

Zhang Xuezhou handed over the token, which the soldier casually took, glanced at, and then told him to leave.

Inside the city wall, Ning Cheng kept touching the words on the wall.

Where his hand touched, the stone dust that Zhang Xuezhou had brushed off earlier rose up and filled the words on the wall back in.

"This is the reverse application of fossilization techniques, which formed the characters on the stone wall. However, I don't yet know this reverse technique, and the number of people in the Han Kingdom is limited. To achieve such precision in forming characters, the other party's level of cultivation in these techniques must be terrifyingly high. Which old ghost from which school came here to play? But these characters are not yet finished, and the imprints are getting fainter with each stroke. Is it because they feel they have written too many characters, or is their Law Power insufficient to make a copy? This is really strange!"

Ning Cheng looked at the large characters, as tall as a person, on the stone wall, and then focused on the second half of the text.

Fuping County?

He murmured the place name to himself.

"Is this guy here to provoke us and court death?"

The distance between Fuping County and Shanggu County is not far; if one were to urge a swift horse on a gallop, the journey would take only an hour.

Regardless of whether it's a diversionary tactic or some other strategy, it's unlikely to shake the foundations of Shanggu County.

Conversely, Li Guang, the governor of Shanggu Commandery, was most skilled at shooting and killing Technique Method.

No matter what kind of old ghost, monster, or immortal they are, once Li Guang discovers them and designates them as hostile targets, they will be shot down from a kilometer away in a timely manner.

"Go!"

As he chanted softly, Ning Cheng touched the character 'Li' with his finger, and a streak of blue light shot through the air and flew away.

"It really is heading towards Fuping County!"

He read it aloud, then quickly turned his gaze back to the prefect's residence.

He can discern laws and release pursuit marks, but Ning Cheng's combat ability is not strong; he mostly serves as an assistant to others.

He uttered the word once, then spurred his horse and began his return journey to the prefect's residence.

"Fellow villagers, please make way. I am aware of this spy, but I will need the help of the officials in the Prefect's office to apprehend him," Ning Cheng said.

"Here you go!"

Several soldiers shouted, further dispersing the crowd of onlookers. Once a path was completely cleared, Ning Cheng slowly rode his horse out.

"I hate this thing!"

What he feared most came to pass. Zhang Xuezhou had been worried about tracking spells like Law Power imprints, but he didn't expect that his worries would lead him to fall victim to them so quickly.

Looking at the deep blue Law Power mark on his buttocks, he couldn't help but feel fortunate that he had run away early.

Any act of underestimating one's opponent will come at a price, and Zhang Xuezhou, having gone through years of trials and tribulations, clearly knows how to guard against such behavior.

"I need to dawdle with Master Dong a bit longer... Well, even if I learn the technique to break it, the purity of my Law Power is nowhere near the level of this opponent. I'm afraid it will be difficult to remove this tracking mark. Besides, this isn't something the Yin-Yang School can do, so I'm afraid my skill level will be limited even if I learn it!"

Tracking with Technique Method is an amazing ability, but breaking marks is considered a rather useless Technique Method.

The reason for this is no different from what Zhang Xuezhou mentioned: a high level of cultivation means one is not afraid of the opponent's Technique Method tracking; as long as the Technique Method mark is found, one can forcefully break it by using Law Power to cleanse it.

Those with low cultivation levels find it difficult to break through the marks of Technique Method, and even those who possess Technique Method that can break marks need to be slowly refined.

By the time the Law Power imprint was erased, most of his own Law Power had been consumed.

Furthermore, there are differences between sects, resulting in significant variations in the skill levels of practitioners from different schools.

Rather than seeking out such Technique Method, it's better to find other ways to save your life.

"For example, increase the distance!"

Zhang Xuezhou's current method of countering the Technique Method mark is very simple: he will try to increase the distance between himself and the caster, and then ask Dong Zhongshu to remove the Technique Method mark.

Once outside the city and into uninhabited territory, Zhang Xuezhou spread his wings and quickly took to the air.

When he glanced back at the mark on his buttocks, he felt as if a pair of eyes were watching him from the distant city of Shanggu.

The opponent seemed to see his image through Ning Cheng's Technique Method imprint. A deadly sharpness came over him, and Zhang Xuezhou felt as if the opponent was about to pierce through his body.

This greatly alarmed Zhang Xuezhou.

With a powerful flap of his wings, he quickly moved away from the great city that filled him with awe.