Actually, Qianye and Ji Tianqing were hiding in a shallow ditch nearby, the landscape serving to break their pursuers’ line of sight.
There was a certain person lying immobile behind them. Ji Tianqing had covered him up with a strange green cloth that insulated his aura entirely. According to her, this person was Cui Yuanhai, and she had simply knocked him out to prevent the man from moving about.
At this moment, Qianye and Ji Tianqing were huddled up together, and the latter was still pushing herself into his arms. There was no helping it because Luo Bingfeng’s perception and gaze were exceptionally sharp, capable of covering long distances in an instant. He would sense even the slightest of hints.
Qianye was circulating Bloodline Concealment to the maximum extent, reducing his aura until it was as indistinct as the common earth rat. This served well for deception. Ji Tianqing, on the other hand, didn’t have this kind of power, so there was still a bit of aura leaking out constantly. She might be able to fool an ordinary expert, but it was far from enough against Luo Bingfeng.
Qianye had no other choice but to cover her body with his own, hoping to reduce the outflow of aura as much as possible. The only aura-concealing cloth she had had been used to cover the old man, so she had nothing to hide herself with.
The two thus shrunk cautiously into the pit, hiding in a simple and primitive manner.
If only Luo Bingfeng would fly a hundred or so meters into the air, he would probably see Qianye and Ji Tianqing. Nonetheless, the man and woman never moved after appearing there.
The lady giggled with her mouth covered. “Look at your identity! How dare you think about robbing a junior. Besides, a single miss in cultivation is as good as a mile, even more so for someone with a special constitution like mine. Even if you manage to get his cultivation art, I might not be able to use it.”
“Even if you can’t use it, we can still borrow it and use it for reference.” Luo Bingfeng was fairly obstinate.
Helpless, the woman sighed. “A cultivation art like that is no doubt a peerless item, you should know even better how valuable it is. Even if you manage to borrow it, it’ll be too great of a favor. Don’t even think about cheating other people. Even though we’ve fallen to this state, we cannot lose our ideals.”
The man nodded. “Rest assured, I’ll bring out sufficient compensation. It’ll be fine as long as he’s tactful, and I’ll even owe him a favor. But if he’s not smart, don’t blame me for being merciless.”
Ji Tianqing poked Qianye and asked in lip-language, “What art do you cultivate? It sounds really powerful!”
“... A very ordinary art.”
“You think I’ll believe you?”
“I’m really speaking the truth.”
And nothing but the truth it was—the Combatant Formula was a staple art that anyone in the empire could cultivate, and the Song Clan Ancient Scroll wasn’t really important to the Song clan, either. It was obvious from how easily Song Zining had brought it out.
Ji Tianqiang was apparently skeptical. She gave him a fierce glare, indicating that she would settle this score after going back.
At this point, Luo Bingfeng had scanned the area several times to no avail. He finally took the lady’s hand and vanished, shaking his head helplessly as he did so.
Qianye didn’t act carelessly, though. He slowly released Ji Tianqing and performed a hand signal at her. He then picked up the cloth-wrapped old man and tread forward while Ji Tianqing followed silently from behind.
The two moved at the speed of ordinary humans, and it took them half of the night before the piercing sensation from their backs faded away. Only then did Qianye heave a sigh of relief, knowing that he had left Luo Bingfeng’s perception range.
Ji Tianqing was also pale. It would seem the entire night’s torment had done a fair number on her.
For a while longer, they traveled quietly with none of them speaking a word. Luo Bingfeng’s perception range and his ability to attack just by looking were far beyond anyone’s imagination. This city lord had kept himself well-hidden, and his methods were unfathomable. He seemed unable to leave Tidehark for some reason, and that was the only reason the duo had managed to flee. Otherwise, there was no telling what their fate would be.
Qianye might be able to escape with the combination of Spatial Flash and Bloodline Concealment, but it was impossible to do so with Cui Yuanhai in tow.
Qianye soon found a cave, in which he put down the man on his back and unraveled the cloth. It was indeed Cui Yuanhai inside the cloth—he was still unconscious and even his breathing and heartbeat had stopped. Nonetheless, there were wisps of faint origin power flowing gently around his heart and throughout his entire body, probably a life-saving measure Ji Tianqing had set up for the old man.
The young miss walked over and struck Cui Yuanhai’s chest with her palm. Her origin power stimulated his vitality, awakening his heart and blood flow, but sending him into a deep sleep. After undergoing a state of disguised death, what he really needed was rest.
There were no signs of abuse or beatings on the man’s body, and neither were there any restrictions on his origin power. He seemed fairly well except for some weakness. It would seem that he was at least treated well in the Tidehark weapons factory.
Feeling relieved after checking on Cui Yuanhai’s status, Qianye thought of something else. “You said you have a way to deal with the divine champion, did you mean that command token?”
Ji Tianqiang was quite generous—she whipped out the token and tossed it to Qianye, saying, “You can have it!”
Qianye didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry after giving it a glance. This was more an iron slab than it was a command token. There were two words carved into it: Buzhou.
Judging from the words, this was probably an imitation of Zhang Buzhou’s command seal. The problem was that even Qianye could see how badly written the two words were. It wasn’t even a proper carving! As the leader of the human race in the neutral lands, there was no way Zhang Buzhou’s command token would be this lousy.
One would be hard-pressed to fool a child with this token, yet it had managed to deceive the city lord of Tidehark.
“This command token…” Qianye simply couldn’t figure out what was so special about it. There was nothing unique about it from the inside out. Even its material was the most ordinary of iron, the type that would rust after a day or two.
“This is an imitation of Zhang Buzhou’s personal command seal, I spent an entire silver coin to get it carved.”
Qianye was speechless.
“This… is how Zhang Buzhou’s token looks?” Qianye was finding it hard to believe that a character who had cultivated to such a stage would appreciate this ugly design.
“Of course not, I’ve never even seen how the man’s token looks like. I just made it up randomly, it’s fine as long as the words Buzhou are there. It doesn’t matter what we think as long as the other party thinks it looks similar.”
Qianye realized the trick here. Ji Tianqing had used a certain secret art to interfere with Luo Bingfeng’s perception, making him believe that this was Zhang Buzhou’s personal command token. This made the man hesitate, allowing the two of them to escape.
With Luo Bingfeng’s cultivation, he naturally would’ve sensed something off about the situation. That was why he had come after them later on. Nonetheless, the delay afforded the escapees enough time to prepare and hide.
Qianye had rarely, if ever, seen someone of Luo Bingfeng’s determination, perception, and ability. Being able to deceive such a person meant that Ji Tianqing’s unassuming secret art was quite terrifying.
In truth, this art wasn’t entirely new—her true appearance and cultivation had always been a mystery. All this time, Qianye could only remember that she was a beautiful lady. As for how beautiful she was and what made her so, he couldn’t put his finger on it.
If even Qianye was in this state, there was no need to talk about other people.
Despite her mysterious origins, Ji Tianqing had always stood by him since her debut. The occasional interaction between them had always been of mutual assistance. Hence, Qianye paid little heed to her identity. Every expert had secrets, and knowing more wasn’t always a good thing.
Qianye put Heartgrave and East Peak back into Andruil’s space and returned the green cloth to Ji Tianqing. He then picked up Cui Yuanhai and made ready to return to Southern Blue.
However, Ji Tianqing didn’t move, and her eyes remained fixated on Qianye’s necklace.
“What’s wrong?” Qianye felt odd.
Ji Tianqing only came to after hearing Qianye’s voice. “Nothing, I’ll tell you when we go back.”
Nodding, Qianye began running toward Southern Blue. He didn’t think Ji Tianqing was interested in this necklace in particular. Even if he were to give Andruil’s Mysterious Realm to her, she couldn’t use it without the corresponding bloodline. Additionally, she owned similar equipment of her own that wasn’t inferior to this pendant.
The two ran swiftly on the ground, lest Luo Bingfeng’s men sense them in the air. Running on the ground was faster, anyway. Only those close to the heavenly monarch realm or people with Zhang Boqian’s space traversal powers could fly faster than running.
Seeing Ji Tianqing keeping up with him at a steady pace, Qianye felt a rush of youthful competitiveness come over him. He began accelerating—going faster and faster—but Ji Tianqing was still able to follow him.
Qianye secretly felt surprised and wanted to test her limits. As such, he unleashed his full physical strength prowess and dashed off, covering dozens of meters with each leap.
At this point, Ji Tianqing could no longer maintain her literal walk-in-the-park demeanor. Numerous afterimages appeared behind her as she strove to keep up with Qianye, flashing hundreds of meters with each step.
Seeing her finally use a secret art, Qianye felt a sense of relief. He was, after all, a specialist in physical strength and could—with the aid of origin power—outlast Ji Tianqing’s secret art. Qianye would be the winner in speed if she couldn’t bring out an even higher-grade skill.
She might have other secret arts, but Qianye possessed Spatial Flash as well. So, he was quite confident in victory.
He had known her for some time, but this was the first time Qianye had the upper hand against her. He couldn’t help but feel a rush of delight as he slowed down somewhat.
Ji Tianqing caught up and said through clenched teeth, “Vulgar! barbarian! Not elegant at all!”
Qianye knew she was cursing him for claiming victory by brute force. A win was nonetheless a win, and this was a fact that couldn’t be changed. So, he simply allowed her to spout criticisms as he sped toward Southern Blue with a smile.
Southern Blue came into view at noon the next day.
The two had run thousands of kilometers without rest, and even Qianye was feeling somewhat fatigued. Ji Tianqing was rather pale and no longer able to hide her exhaustion. She heaved a sigh of relief upon seeing Southern Blue. “I’m beat! After this, I’m going to eat a giant meal and sleep for the entire day!”