Chapter 100: Tracking Gongsun Huaiyu, The Yaoguang Saint Son Appears
Chapter 100 – Tracking Gongsun Huaiyu, The Yaoguang Saint Son Appears
Cradling Little Black in his arms, Chen Changsheng stepped out of the room and swept the surroundings with his Divine Sense.
A moment later, the corners of his mouth curled into an amused smirk. “That little girl is quite cautious.”
“She actually managed to erase the Divine Sense mark I left behind. However, her Dao foundation is still a bit too shallow.”
As he spoke, Chen Changsheng stroked Little Black’s head and murmured,
“That foolish girl probably hasn’t run far. It’s up to you now.”
Hearing these words, the sickly Little Black let out a weak bark toward a specific direction.
Seeing this, Chen Changsheng casually strolled in the direction the little beast indicated.
In the cultivation world, pursuing an enemy almost entirely relied on sweeping the area with Divine Sense.
To evade such a net, there were generally two methods. The first was to completely seal one’s aura, an absolute gamble of stealth dependent on the opposing mastery of both parties.
The second was simply to flee, putting as much distance as possible between oneself and the pursuer to escape the absolute radius of their Divine Sense.
The Kunlun Holy Land was teeming with powerful cultivators; recklessly casting a vast net of Divine Sense would be seen as a blatant provocation.
Therefore, theoretically speaking, locating Gongsun Huaiyu should have been a monumental task for Chen Changsheng.
However, Gongsun Huaiyu had overlooked one fatal flaw; she had completely forgotten a crude, mortal method: tracking prey by their physical scent.
Although Little Black’s condition was terribly grim and it possessed absolutely zero combat prowess,
it was still a primordial beast. Its sense of smell was vastly superior to any human’s, easily capable of pinpointing Gongsun Huaiyu’s general heading.
Armed with this heading, how could an old monster like Chen Changsheng possibly lose her trail?
……
“Woof!”
Nestled in his arms, Little Black barked once, seemingly attempting to display its terrifying ferocity.
Yet, that weak, milky yip possessed absolutely no ruinous intent whatsoever.
“Tsk tsk!”
“Just because you fools lost Gongsun Huaiyu’s trail doesn’t mean you get to vent your frustrations on me!”
“Trying to shadow my footsteps? You are far too green.”
With those words, Chen Changsheng casually tossed the man in his grip onto the hard earth.
Wiping the blood from his mouth, the Kunlun Holy Land scout spat coldly, “Chen Changsheng, this is the Kunlun Holy Land. You cannot act so brazenly here.”
“Gongsun Huaiyu suddenly vanished from our surveillance. Where exactly did she go?”
Chen Changsheng lacked the slightest bit of interest in acknowledging the scout’s demands.
“A mere pawn like you has no right to question the heavens. Just scurry back and report today’s events truthfully.”
“And do not bother sending any more shadows after me. If you truly wish to monitor my movements, Jiang Feng must come himself.”
As his words fell, Chen Changsheng’s figure simply dissolved into the void, vanishing from the scout’s sight.
Chen Changsheng paid no heed to this trivial disturbance. Right now, his entire focus was fixed upon Gongsun Huaiyu.
Exactly what kind of affair would drive Gongsun Huaiyu to risk alerting the entire Holy Land to her movements?
This situation was growing quite interesting indeed!
……
“Big Brother Nalan, is this a medicinal herb?”
A young woman clad in rustic, unadorned robes bounded over, proudly holding up a stalk of wild grass.
Hearing her voice, a man with a sickly, pale complexion lifted his head.
His garments had been washed until the colors were completely faded, and the woven basket strapped to his back clearly indicated he was a humble herb gatherer.
Gently taking the plant from the woman’s hands, the man inspected it and smiled. “This is called a Lovesickness Seed. It is indeed a medicinal ingredient.”
“However, it harbors a latent toxin and must be handled with utmost caution.”
Earning his validation, the woman instantly puffed out her chest with pride. “Big Brother Nalan, just admit it! Am I amazing or what? I found a spiritual herb on my very first try.”
“Hurry up and praise me!”
Looking at the woman’s radiant expression, the man let out a faint, warm laugh. “Yes, yes, yes!”
“Thanks to your sharp eyes, I’ve managed to harvest an abundant bounty of herbs today. Let us go see what lies over that ridge.”
“Alright!”
The woman agreed with bubbling enthusiasm, her footsteps light and joyful as she marched ahead.
Yet, every few paces, she would subtly turn her head to check on the sickly man trailing behind her, seemingly terrified that he might stumble and fall behind.
As time trickled by, the silhouettes of the duo gradually disappeared into the mountainous horizon.
However, they remained completely oblivious to the ancient pair of eyes quietly observing them from behind a distant, rocky outcrop.
……
“Tsk tsk!”
“Mortal affections truly do blind the heart. Surrounded by the mortal perils of an enemy camp, and yet she still finds the time to play out a mortal romance.”
“Little Black, do you think I should step out there and shatter this picturesque illusion?”
Chen Changsheng held the sickly pup up to his eye level, murmuring aloud to himself.
But the utterly exhausted Little Black had no energy to entertain his master’s cynicism. After a weak yawn, its eyelids slowly drooped shut.
“Reel in that suffocating killing intent of yours. Gongsun Huaiyu is no weakling; you are going to alert her.”
Still gently nudging Little Black awake, Chen Changsheng casually tossed this bizarre statement to the empty air behind him.
Before the syllables could fully dissipate, the Yaoguang Saint Son manifested from the void directly behind him.
However, the usually refined and profoundly serene Yaoguang Saint Son was now radiating an apocalyptic killing intent from head to toe.
Only after a long, suffocating silence did the Yaoguang Saint Son finally suppress his murderous aura, whispering in a frosty tone, “Do not interfere in this. I have no desire to kill you.”
Hearing the threat, Chen Changsheng turned around with a relaxed, cynical smile.
“Just a moment ago, I was genuinely wondering how this foolish girl, Gongsun Huaiyu, had suddenly grown so capable.”
“To silently slip through the Kunlun Holy Land’s tracking net… Now it all makes sense. She had the Yaoguang Saint Son sweeping away her tracks!”
“Back at the Kunlun Stone Workshop, you deliberately held back a lethal strike. I suppose it was for this exact reason.”
“Though I must say, your hand was rather heavy that day. A fraction more True Qi, and you would have snuffed out her little life completely.”
Faced with Chen Changsheng’s casual deduction, the Yaoguang Saint Son remained silent. Instead, he turned his profound gaze toward the two fading silhouettes in the distance.
“At the Kunlun Stone Workshop, you purposely slowed your pace by half a step,” the Yaoguang Saint Son finally spoke.
“It appeared as though you were merely shielding the raw stone you had chosen, but in reality, you were allowing Gongsun Huaiyu the opportunity to capture you.”
“To proactively entangle yourself with a member of the Seventy-Two Wolf Smoke… it meant you shared a karmic link with them.”
“With a monster like you acting as an anchor, I knew Gongsun Huaiyu would not perish.”
“And the heavens have proven me right. Your karmic ties to the Seventy-Two Wolf Smoke run incredibly deep.”
Hearing this, Chen Changsheng flashed a knowing grin. “As expected of the Yaoguang Saint Son. Your eyes see through the fog of the Dao quite clearly.”
“But since we are laying our cards on the table, don’t you plan on enlightening me about the identity of that short-lived ghost over there?”
Hearing this moniker, the Yaoguang Saint Son shot Chen Changsheng a heavy, deeply meaningful glare.
“That ‘short-lived ghost’ is my blood brother.”
“Cough! Cough! Cough!”
Caught entirely off guard, Chen Changsheng choked on his own breath.
“My apologies. I completely failed to sense that level of karma between you two.”
“But to speak frankly, your brother is standing at death’s door. The ignorant masses might be blind to it, but surely his own kin can see his life force draining away?”
“I know,” the Yaoguang Saint Son replied softly. “He suffered catastrophic damage while still in the womb. I was the one who personally cut him from our mother’s belly.”
“Ah, so that is the root of it!”
“Pardon me. It seems I’ve carelessly prodded another open wound.”
Even an old monster like Chen Changsheng felt a rare twinge of awkwardness.
It seemed that every time he opened his mouth today, he was ruthlessly trampling on someone’s deepest tragedies.
“Then why haven’t you taken your vengeance?” Chen Changsheng pressed, genuinely curious.
“With your supreme status and cultivation base, drowning your enemies in blood should hardly be a difficult task.”