Chapter 14: Shadow Sect

Wudi ran as fast as he could, even though he had killed two martial dao realm combatants, he knew he was at the end of his rope and couldn't fight against the two chasing him. In most of his fights, he was able to jump realms with an element of surprise, but it would be nearly impossible to beat them in his current condition. He had almost nothing left in his dantian. Luckily, the two were left dumbfounded and were still across the river, giving him a huge head start. However, he had to lure them to some degree, so they wouldn't go back to the fight already. The two quickly ran in pursuit of Wudi, as they could tell that he didn't have much strength left in him.

Wudi eventually came to a stop and circulated his martial intent to the max. He jumped into a train and hid, hoping they would go right by him. Wudi waited a long time, but neither of the two disciples from the Thousand Poison Sect actually came. "They didn't go back, did they?" Wudi wondered with a frown. "Well, it doesn't matter. I did what I could." Wudi began to sit and reflect on the battles of the night as he meditated in the tree.

In a different area of the mountain, Ji Xuanming sat on a carriage with a different inner division heading to the western outpost. The two teachers leading at the front began to talk amongst themselves when a Yin Pigeon delivered a message to the two. "Teacher Liang's caravan was attacked, and the third prince is missing," one of them said with a frown. Ji Ren replied, "Hopefully brother Shou won't be too late. It seems what we were speculating actually came about." Hearing this in the back jolted Ji Xuanming from his cultivation, and he had a complicated look and eventually sighed.

Wudi suddenly opened his eyes when he heard movement below. He continued to circulate his martial intent to stay hidden. He wasn't sure how long it had passed since he started cultivating to replenish his qi, but he knew it had to have been a few hours because the sky was slowly brightening, and he felt his dantian was almost full again.

Looking below, he soon saw Jiang Feng walking behind an Elder in green robes. Jiang Feng had his head low like he was just scolded, and the elder had an angered look. "Are you sure this is where the brat went?" Jiang Feng nodded profusely and said, "The disciples reported to me that they chased him into this direction and decided they may not be his match and came back."

"I've personally already come through here an hour ago but also can't find the brat. According to the two he should be badly wounded," the Elder said furiously. "My nephew Bocheng died to the brat while you all played with those from the academy, not only that but the brats from the academy got rescued and all our spies in division one have been revealed, and we still don't have the gold drum medallion." The Elder was fuming because they didn't gain a single thing from revealing themselves and couldn't even locate the Gold Drum Medallion.

Wudi was relieved from hearing their conversation but soon was sweating bullets. The Elder was clearly in the Martial Divine Realm, and this spelled bad news for him. He knew the elder would likely sense him once he began to focus on looking for Wudi again, and he'd be screwed at that point. His internal injuries hadn't healed, and fighting a Martial Divine Realm with his cultivation was impossible. The same tricks wouldn't work on a Martial Divine Realm cultivator because of their divine sense. He knew there was nothing he could do besides circulate his martial intent and do his best not to leak even the tiniest amount of aura.

Jiang Feng looked like a beaten dog and said, "I'm sorry Elder Yang." Elder Yang snorted at Jiang Feng's apology and began to calm down. Suddenly Elder Yang looked up at a nearby tree and frowned, Elder Yang called out, "Who's there?" Jiang Feng instantly went on guard. Wudi knew he was caught but quickly realized that Elder Yang seemed to also be on guard against Wudi. It seemed that Wudi's martial intent was more formidable than he realized.

Wudi quickly thought of a plan and made his voice sound very hoarse. He said, "Disciple of the Shadow Sect greets Elder Yang." Elder Yang slightly let his guard down and asked, "What are you doing here?" with a tinge of suspicion. Wudi responded with, "Here to kill the third prince." Elder Yang connected the dots and nodded his head in understanding.

Elder Yang contemplated for a moment and said, "If we find him first, then we'll save the body for you." It remained silent for a small period of time before Wudi said, "He went west." Elder Yang was excited because it seemed the Shadow Sect hadn't caught wind of the Gold Drum Medallion. They only stationed this disciple here to see if Wudi would come back through.

Elder Yang didn't find the situation suspicious because the Shadow Sect was the only power on the continent that had the unique arts of being able to hide from one's divine senses. They wouldn't show themselves unless necessary. The Shadow Sect had very few disciples, but their intelligent gathering and tracking were impeccable. With him promising to hand the corpse over, they'd likely not mind using him as a borrowed blade. The Shadow Sect only acted when one paid for their services.

Thinking of obtaining the Gold Drum medallion made Elder Yang feel hot in the head, and he wanted to head west immediately. He looked at Jiang Cheng and said, "Stay here, and I'll head west. Send me a message if they find his location." Wudi, hearing this, cursed inside. Jiang Feng was already stronger than Wudi, and he was currently injured. Wudi smiled though and thought, "At least this Elder Yang will be out of the way momentarily."

Jiang Feng nodded like he was plucking seed from the ground. Elder Yang disappeared towards the west at great speed. Jiang Feng was nervous and sat down while observing his surroundings. He thought, "I can't believe he left me here with a disciple of the Shadow Sect." Jiang Feng had goosebumps while thinking of the assassin not far away. He couldn't even sense the other's presence.

Wudi was having similar thoughts of immediately wanting to leave the area. He said to himself, "The moment I spring into action to leave, my cover will be blown. It's too hard to manipulate my intent so finely while moving. He'll likely figure out what's going on as soon as I move."

Wudi slowly took some items out of a bag and went over what was inside. Surprisingly, it was the items on Dengyu and Bocheng's bodies. They didn't have any spatial artifacts, so what they had wasn't much, and their bags were tied to their waist. The moment he killed Bocheng, he ripped the bags off their bodies and ran as fast as he could. He hadn't had a chance to check the items till now.

Jiang Feng could hear slight movement and asked, "Did you get a report? Is his location known?" Wudi smiled and said in a gruff voice, "He went to Swallow Peak in the Northeast." Jiang Feng smiled and said, "Good," at the same time he broke a talisman and a message was sent to Elder Yang.

Wudi smiled mischievously and decided he'd mess with them for a bit. He knew how far Swallow Peak was, but he honestly didn't know much else about the area other than that. Heading further East would take them out of the territory the academy had control over.

Wudi smiled as he thought of a plan and looked over the items he got; luckily, there was some medicine and even one of the pills that Dengyu had swallowed after Wudi injured him. Wudi frowned looking at the pill but still put it in a safe place in the off chance he might need it.