Aspiring to the Immortal Path - Chapter 697
Chapter 697: Pursuit
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Horizon Ocean Pavilion suddenly became very lively.
30% more disciples than usual were picking up missions, and if one looked into the details, one would find that these additional disciples belonged to the All-Talent Society.
Such unusual activity naturally couldn’t be hidden from the watchful, and both enemy and neutral factions understood that Xu Miaoran had emerged from seclusion.
Hidden Dragon Hall, the Wind Squad.
Qing Feng sat in his seat, and down below, several men wearing black were reporting the situation.
Qing Feng stroked his chin. “Is she finally moving? It seems like Xu Miaoran has finally gotten whatever she was waiting for. Bei Wang, you’re responsible for keeping watch on Xu Miaoran. Has she done anything lately?”
The man called Bei Wang replied, “In the last two years, Xu Miaoran has rarely left her quarters, and when she does go out, it’s only around Great Wind Island and not anywhere far. When your subordinate’s people followed her, they found that in the last few months, she has been boating on South Lake, snow walking in the West Mountains, and most recently, she paid a visit to Cherryfall to view the flowers. She gave the order to lift the movement ban on the All-Talent Society upon her return from that town. Thus, she should have gotten her confidence from there.”
“Do you know which people she interacted with?”
Bei Wang took out a list of names.
Qing Feng didn’t take it, waving his hand and saying, “Capture and interrogate them.”
“This…” Bei Wang hesitated. “But these are all normal civilians subject to Horizon Ocean Pavilion.”
“Hmmmm?” Qing Feng looked at Bei Wang.
Bei Wang’s heart trembled as he replied, “As you command!”
Once Bei Wang was gone, Qing Feng stroked his chin for a while and said, “Since the All-Talent Society is finally moving, the inter-domain trade will probably start back up soon. Tian Lan, keep an eye on Xu Miaoran and Hong Yuan. Notify me when they start to move.”
Another man in black appeared, grunting before departing.
After giving these orders, Qing Feng sank deep into his chair, falling into deep thought.
Was it all bravado? Or did she really have something to back it up?
Qing Feng didn’t know, but he knew that it didn’t matter. His superiors had lost their patience.
Sang Hongmei was waiting for news for him, and he did not dare to disappoint her. He could only hope that Xu Miaoran would start moving quickly.
Xu Miaoran didn’t disappoint.
After only two days, Qing Feng received word that Xu Miaoran and Hong Yuan had gone to Guiding Star Palace.
Guiding Star Palace was where Horizon Ocean Pavilion’s teleportation formation was located. All disciples who were going afar but didn’t want to go by foot would teleport here. Of course, they would have to pay the costs themselves.
Upon hearing this, Qing Feng immediately set off for Guiding Star Palace.
A disciple was waiting there for him. He bowed to Qing Feng and said, “Wind Captain, my respects. Xu Miaoran and Hong Yuan just entered the teleportation formation.”
“Do you know where they went?”
The disciple shook his head. “Only the manager of the teleportation formation knows.”
Qing Feng strode inside and went up to an elder that was seated within.
He directly said, “Old Feng, might I ask where Xu Miaoran went?”
Old Feng didn’t even look up as he replied, “Apologies; I am duty-bound by Guiding Star Palace to not divulge the destinations of others without orders from above. If Wind Captain wishes to know, please go to my Heavenly Secret Hall and get an order from the hall master.”
Qing Feng chuckled. “I would not dare to force you to do anything that would make you break the rules. But I suppose that nobody went into the formation after Xu Miaoran, yes?”
Old Feng was taken aback as Qing Feng continued, “This one wishes to use the teleportation formation, but leave it on the current destination. This isn’t against the rules, right?”
Qing Feng handed over a spirit jade, and then he handed over the spirit stones needed to activate the formation.
The old man took the spirit jade and chortled. “As expected of the Wind Captain, your mind works rather quickly. Then, if you would please.”
Qing Feng waved a hand behind him, and the subordinates of his Wind Squad entered the teleportation formation.
The formation activated, and the group appeared within the hall on the other end.
After looking around, a Wind Squad member said, “It’s Scattercloud Island, in the western part of Endsea, 1400 kilometers from Great Wind Island.”
The Hidden Dragon Hall, similarly to the Basking Moon Sect’s Secret Hall, was charged with the shady jobs in Horizon Ocean Pavilion, like secretly investigating others, and it had people with various abilities under its command. That this man could tell where they were from a glance at the hall they were in was an indicator of just how well-prepared they were.
Qing Feng showed the person on duty his Hidden Dragon Hall identity placard and asked, “Where did Xu Miaoran go?”
The person on duty didn’t dare to hide something from the Hidden Dragon Hall, and pointed. “They went south.”
The group charged out of the hall.
A cultivator summoned a small dog, with a thin body and a pointed snout, almost like a fox. This was one of the Beast Refining Gate’s famous hunting dogs, the Longsnout Hound.
The cultivator took out a piece of cloth and brought it up to the small dog’s nose.
This piece of cloth had come from Xu Miaoran, and the Wind Squad had gone to great lengths to obtain it.
The dog barked twice and then flew up, running through the air as it headed south.
This was the ace card for the Wind Squad when it came to tracking. As for that question, it had just been for verification.
The Longsnout Hound was slow compared to a cultivator, so it only ran a few steps before a cultivator picked it up, using it as a guide as they ran off in full pursuit.
In a flash, they arrived at a small forest.
After entering the forest, they spotted a hidden teleportation formation on the ground, which they discovered because it had just been used and had left behind traces of energy pulses.
“Found it.” The group was gleeful.
Everyone knew that Xu Miaoran couldn’t possibly use Horizon Ocean Pavilion’s teleportation formation for the inter-domain trade. She was only using Guiding Star Palace to reach her own teleportation formation, which was why they weren’t surprised to see this new teleportation formation. On the contrary, they were full of anticipation.
Although they saw that the teleportation formation was unguarded, none of them dared to be careless.
Qing Feng waved a hand, and a cultivator let out a curtain of light. Under that gentle light, a small Warning Mouse appeared in front of the teleportation formation, snoozing away.
But everyone knew that if they stepped into its alarm range, this guy would let out a big shout.
Xu Miaoran would undoubtedly sense this, for next to the Warning Mouse was a sound trap.
After discovering the Warning Mouse, the cultivator who was holding the Longsnout Hound released a white fog. With this white fog, the Warning Mouse wouldn’t even wake up if it were being eaten alive. This person had learned part of the Beast Refining Gate’s mantra. Because this mantra was incomplete, he would never be able to go beyond Mortal Shedding, but this was precisely why he could so diligently serve his sect.
Other than the disciples originating from their respective academies, the six major sects would also recruit some people every year through special channels, teaching them arts and techniques that had little chance of aiding their advancement. This was precisely so that they would possess special abilities and focus on their missions because they had no hope of higher office. Otherwise, if everyone were focused on cultivating, who would be there to handle the small stuff? Some problems couldn’t be solved just by issuing missions.
Once the Warning Mouse had been dealt with, the cultivator from earlier looked around again. Once he confirmed that there were no problems, he nodded at Qing Feng. On Qing Feng’s command, another cultivator went up to the teleportation formation and inspected it. After a while, he said, “It’s a small-scale teleportation formation with a maximum distance of five hundred kilometers.”
“I knew it wouldn’t be that easy,” Qing Feng grunted.
He had never hoped to immediately find the teleportation formation leading to the Blood River Domain. Putting aside the fact that it was too easy, the location wasn’t right either. Tang Jie couldn’t have possibly placed the teleportation formation in the territory of Horizon Ocean Pavilion, let alone in an unguarded little forest. If that were the case, then some random passersby might end up getting transported to the Blood River Domain!
Multi-layer teleportation!
There was no doubt that this teleportation formation led to some other place in Endsea, not the Blood River Domain.
And on the other end of this teleportation formation, there had to be some cultivator or surveillance spell art keeping watch.
If Qing Feng’s group wanted to give chase, they had to go through this teleportation formation, which meant they were bound to be discovered. Nobody could obscure the pulses produced by a teleportation formation’s activation, not even Violet Palace or Immortal Platform cultivators, nor was there time to take care of the watcher. The moment they stepped onto the soil on the other end, the alarm would be triggered.
Through this method, Xu Miaoran could easily discover anyone who was tracking her.
This was also why they had not used any tracking methods on Xu Miaoran before this—following someone through multiple teleportation formations without being discovered was just too difficult.
For this reason, for Qing Feng, the trust test of everyone’s tracking abilities started here.
Qing Feng had prepared long for this day.
After confirming that this formation couldn’t lead to the Blood River Domain, Qing Feng sneered, “Then what are you waiting for?”
As he spoke, four more cultivators came forward, thrusting out their palms toward the formation, hazy rays of light emerging from their hands.
This light fell on the teleportation formation, which immediately erupted in light, formation lines appearing throughout the forest.
One could say that this was the real teleportation formation. The four cultivators were working together to suppress the View Gate of the teleportation formation so that it could no longer be hidden.
“Hurry!” Qing Feng barked.
The cultivator who had inspected the formation quickly moved up and began to examine the formation lines, occasionally muttering words and numbers that someone on the side would write down and analyze.
He was examining the entirety of the teleportation formation and deducing from its structure where it led.
Unlike the teleportation formation of Horizon Ocean Pavilion, which was connected in many directions, formations like this, which Xu Miaoran was using to throw off her enemies, were meant to go in only one direction, so if one could deconstruct them, one could find out where they led.
If they couldn’t pursue her through the teleportation formation, they would find out where it led. So long as it was in the Rosecloud Domain, she would never be able to escape the pursuit of the Wind Squad.
This was Qing Feng’s pursuit method.
No matter how many layers of teleportation there were, he would slowly unwind the cocoon until the true form was finally exposed.
As the four cultivators maintained the suppression, more and more numbers were coming out of the formation cultivator’s mouth.
Finally, that cultivator shouted, “Found it! It leads to the eastern end of Southshore Island!”
“Clean up all the traces, and then we move out!” Qing Feng ordered.
Everyone immediately went to work, removing any evidence that they had been there.
The beast-taming cultivator raised his hand, and several points of starlight disappeared into the Warning Mouse’s body. The little mouse blearily opened its eyes, but when it saw that there was nothing around it, it went back to sleep.
