Chapter 245

"Hmph, you unreliable thing, good thing I had the dragon soul watching her door early on." Jiang Tu met the dragon soul outside the gate.

"She's still in the city." These past few days, the dragon soul was woken by Jiang Tu before dawn, just to use its spiritual body to put a tracking mark on people when the neighbors went out.

Jiang Yu thanked it, "I only know that with you and the dragon soul watching, I'm not worried she'll escape.

And if I rush to chase her too closely, if she leaves the city directly we can catch her easily, but if she takes a teleportation array, we'd have to buy a ticket first, and the time she spends waiting in the hall is enough for me to get there.

"You're often reasonable." Jiang Tu gave her a big white-eye.

And when they arrived at the teleportation hall following the dragon soul's guidance, the second of the Five Slaughters was indeed waiting there.

Seeing Jiang Yu go to buy a ticket for the next trip, Jiang Tu suddenly thought of a problem: "How do you know she's on the next trip, not the one after that?"

"As long as I have a ticket, I can change the teleportation destination at any time." Jiang Yu only needed to have a ticket in hand.

But just as she was taking out spirit stones to buy a ticket, Xu Wu and a few other Ten Thousand Swords Sect disciples also happened to come buy tickets, and coincidentally they were going the same route.

Xu Wu is a perceptive person; as she walked toward the waiting room specially built for Golden Core and Nascent Soul cultivators, she glanced extra at Jiang Yu sitting in the hall's scattered seats.

"Has she noticed you? Normally, the Thousand Illusions Mask cannot be seen through even by Nascent Soul cultivators."

"And you haven't seen each other in thirty years—could she really recognize you at a glance?" Jiang Tu also noticed Xu Wu's oddness right away.

"Probably it's the aura; everyone has their own traits."

"Don't keep staring at her over there." Jiang Yu calmly flipped through a cultivator's travelogue, only occasionally glancing at the Five Slaughters' second not far away with the corner of her eye.

The latter sat there with eyes closed, unmoving, but inside she was irritated beyond measure; she hadn't expected her teammates to suffer three losses at once.

And while she waited at the agreed point for the unreachable leader, no one had shown up yet, which likely bodes ill.

Sigh, they clearly screened and picked a Golden Core and a Foundation Establishment cultivator to handle, but who would have thought that the Foundation Establishment one was actually a mid-stage Golden Core cultivator, not to mention he brought a seventh‑grade spirit beast.

Cultivators who can afford high‑grade spirit beasts are mostly disciples of big sects; these sect scions are utterly hateful—clearly a Golden Core cultivator pretending to be Foundation Establishment, pah.

She didn't know that Jiang Yu, whom she resented, was at that very moment watching her from a seat several zhang away.

And when the teleportation line she had bought was called, she hurried forward to board, only to see several Golden Core cultivators already ahead of her.

Looking closer, the Golden Cores who boarded were either from the Ten Thousand Swords Sect or the Profound Heaven Sect; after a few more glances, they all turned out to be sect disciples.

Exactly, the Golden Cores currently standing on the teleportation array are Xu Wu, Deng Yuanwu, Wen Luo, Xue Miao, and the like.

The second of the Five Slaughters suddenly hesitated, so Jiang Yu, who was coming up behind, also had to turn toward the ticket counter and wait for her move.

After a moment, the Five Slaughters' second finally turned around as the teleportation began, also walking to the ticket counter and telling the attendant, "Change my ticket."

This time Jiang Yu stood right beside her and actually saw her change the destination—from the Union Joy Sect to the Heavenly Demon Sect.

"Jiang Yu, your luck is really good." Jiang Tu couldn't help but sigh; she seemed to have anticipated the other's move.

Jiang Yu continued waiting at her seat; fortunately, after an hour, the Heavenly Demon Sect line arrived, and without any hiccups she and the Five Slaughters' second were teleported together to a city under the Heavenly Demon Sect's jurisdiction.

Moreover, the Five Slaughters' second seemed quite familiar with this city, heading straight for a small weapons‑forging shop as soon as they arrived via the teleportation array.

"Dragon soul, how long can your tracking mark last?" Jiang Yu stopped chasing and entered the clothing shop opposite the forge.

The dragon soul deliberately yawned, truly fond of that soul‑nourishing tree root: "As long as she doesn't dispel it, it can persist forever."

"Can you keep an eye on her? I want to go rest by the soul‑nourishing tree."

"Sure." Jiang Yu only hoped the opponent would leave the city quickly, because fighting is also prohibited inside demonic cultivators' cities.

And that Five Slaughters' second quickly left the shop, but then went to the teleportation hall again.

Jiang Tu was puzzled: "What is she up to? If you keep following her in like this, she'll definitely notice you."

"Boss, I'll take this set of robes; is there a place to change clothes?" Jiang Yu immediately decided to change outfits.

Not long after, she changed into new clothes, put on a hood that conceals spiritual sense, left the clothing shop and headed straight for the teleportation hall.

Fortunately, the Five Slaughters' second was waiting for the teleportation array again, allowing Jiang Yu to repeat her trick.

The two reappeared in a new city, already an hour later.

This time, the Five Slaughters' second who was being tracked found an inn to stay in.

"She's holed up again." Jiang Tu's tailing was boring to the extreme.

Jiang Yu, meanwhile, bought a map to check; upon looking, she discovered this place was already near the border between the Heavenly Demon Sect and the Union Joy Sect.

She quickly contacted Mo Yizhou, asking whether the spirit‑stone mine was nearby.

When Mo Yizhou received the message, he was on patrol and immediately replied: "You also want to come join the fun? All the big and small sects have been sending wave after wave of people."

"Now beside the spirit‑stone vein, the two sects have set up a temporary market, and many cultivators are rushing over hoping to snag a bargain."

Jiang Yu thought and guessed: "Did the two sects team up to mine it?"

"Yes, the spot happens to straddle the border, each side taking half; after two fights they still haven't decided a winner.

"The Heavenly Demon Sect saw that continuing to fight would gain them nothing and would only weaken its newly won position as leader of the demonic path, so it proactively sought cooperation." Mo Yizhou did not hide anything from Jiang Yu.

And he told her: "If you have time to come over, I'll return a few storage rings to you."

"So that means your people have already withdrawn back to your own sect.

"Then where is Nan Su?" Jiang Yu's main target is him.

"He's leading a patrol; I'm in his squad.

"I was just about to notify you after today's shift ends.

"Jiang Yu, I advise you not to make a move at the spirit‑stone mine; the two sects have left more than twenty Golden Core cultivators, and two great Nascent Soul elders are guarding here." Mo Yizhou feared that if she rushed in for revenge she'd be surrounded.

As a result, he saw Jiang Yu's reply: "Do you recruit loose cultivators to mine?"

"Ah, we don't." Mo Yizhou couldn't follow her train of thought.

Jiang Yu then asked: "How long will he stand guard?"

Mo Yizhou looked up at the bow where Nan Su was and said: "One month."

Just as he sent that, he saw True Person Nan Su suddenly turn his head, those icy, gloomy eyes fixed on him: "Junior Brother Mo, what are you doing during the patrol?

"Do you have any important message that requires you to reply over and over?"

"Please understand, Senior Brother—I have a beloved beauty constantly asking me when I'll go home." Mo Yizhou could certainly not tell the truth.

His perfunctory remark immediately drew teasing from two other fellow disciples.

True Person Nan Shu also couldn't say much about him, merely turning silently to gaze into the distance; another failed attempt at forming a Nascent Soul made him irritable.

In Mo Yizhou's view, his demeanor was entirely due to his lifespan nearing its end, causing despondency, and shortly afterward he sent a message to Jiang Yu to inform her.