Chapter 497 - 493: Successive Failures
Chapter 497: Chapter 493: Successive Failures
"What a cunning Demon."
Fang Han opened his eyes, a thoughtful look flashing within them as he muttered to himself.
This Grandmaster Demon truly was cunning.
It had somehow managed to spread its aura in multiple directions.
The trackers who followed those trails would only be led astray.
By the time they realized the trail had gone cold and turned back, the Demon would be long gone. Any scent it left along the way would have likely dissipated.
"HUMMM—"
Fang Han took a deep breath and closed his eyes once more.
He pushed the *Thousand-Mile Soul Lock* technique to an unprecedented level.
A mysterious energy flowed from his nostrils, spreading like a vast, invisible net, blanketing the entire ten-mile radius.
His mind was intensely focused, sifting through the dozens of seemingly identical auras, filtering, discerning, and selecting.
He was searching for that one "special" aura.
Time trickled by in the silence.
At a certain moment—
Suddenly, his senses caught an extremely faint fluctuation.
The fluctuation was so faint it was almost nonexistent.
Like a speck of dust falling into the ocean, it was instantly swallowed by the endless waves.
If he hadn’t been pushing his *Thousand-Mile Soul Lock* to its absolute limit with his mind so intensely focused, he would have never detected this anomaly.
And the direction this aura extended was very likely the path the Grandmaster-level Demon had taken.
"Found it."
Fang Han opened his eyes, a glint of Essence flashing through them before vanishing.
The aura was incredibly weak—so weak that even with his *Thousand-Mile Soul Lock* at the Realm of Perfection, he had almost missed it.
The Grandmaster-level Demon’s Breath Concealing method was stronger than he had anticipated.
"Due west!"
The aura was heading due west.
"SWOOSH!"
Without a moment’s hesitation, Fang Han’s figure flickered. He executed the Wind God Step and shot westward like a silent, formless breeze.
Before leaving the valley, he paused for a moment.
He turned his head, his gaze falling upon a high ridge outside the valley.
The ridge was covered in dense woods and swirling mist, shimmering with a hazy glow in the afternoon sun.
He withdrew his gaze, his body moved again, and he quickly disappeared into the depths of the forest.
「---」
「One day later.」
Su Wan stood at the mouth of the valley with her hands behind her back, her clear eyes filled with a mix of anticipation and unease.
A full day had passed. She wondered if the dozen or so tracking experts had made any progress, if they had found the Grandmaster Demon.
Just then, a figure darted out from the dense woods to the east.
It was the burly man with the animal-hide pouch at his waist.
His expression was grim, and his steps were heavier than when he had left the day before.
Su Wan stepped forward to greet him and asked,
"Tang Jun, what news?"
Tang Jun shook his head and took something from his robes, laying it flat in his palm.
It was a scale, about the size of a palm, and pitch-black. It shimmered with a cold light in the sun.
"That beast made a fool of me."
Tang Jun’s voice was hoarse with a touch of shame.
"I followed the aura for hundreds of miles. It was getting stronger and stronger, so I thought I was about to catch up, but in the end—"
He paused, holding the scale out to Su Wan.
"All I found was this. It should be one of the beast’s scales."
Su Wan took the scale. It was slightly heavy and cool to the touch.
Her heart sank, but she still managed a gentle smile and offered some words of comfort.
"It’s alright. The Demon is cunning. This isn’t your fault."
Tang Jun sighed, walked to the side, and sat down on a green rock, silent and sullen.
Before long, two more figures returned.
One was the thin, gray-robed old man, and the other was the blind woman with the black cloth over her eyes.
Their expressions were just as grim.
Su Wan went to meet them and asked,
"How did it go, you two?"
The gray-robed old man shook his head, took a pitch-black scale from his sleeve, and said in a low voice,
"I pursued it for hundreds of miles and only found this."
The blind woman also produced an identical scale, her voice hoarse.
"The same for me. The Demon’s aura was attached to this scale."
Su Wan took the two scales, her heart growing heavier.
’Two more.’
The Demon had actually used its own scales as decoys, scattering them in different directions to lure the trackers down the wrong paths.
Such a scheme was terrifyingly cunning.
Over the next few hours, more trackers returned one after another.
With each person who returned, Su Wan would step forward and ask.
And every person gave the same answer—the tracking failed, and all they brought back was a single, pitch-black scale.
Without exception, all of them had been led on a wild goose chase by the Demon.
Su Wan had already collected seven or eight scales.
Her heart sank lower and lower.
Just then, another figure appeared from the northwest.
It was Elder Luo Qi of the Netherworld Pavilion.
Hope sparked in Su Wan’s heart. Luo Qi was famous throughout Qingyang County for her tracking prowess, her reputation immense. To date, she had only ever failed once.
She hurried forward to ask,
"Elder Luo, what news?"
The words had barely left her mouth when she got a clear look at Luo Qi’s face.
Her originally stern face no longer held a trace of its earlier confidence.
In its place was an ill-concealed sense of shame and embarrassment.
A bad feeling crept into her heart.
Luo Qi didn’t answer right away, merely taking a pitch-black scale from her sleeve and handing it over.
Her voice was hoarse and strained.
"I only found this. That beast made a fool of me."
Su Wan took the scale, and the last shred of hope in her heart was completely extinguished.
’Even Luo Qi failed.’
This was the Elder of the Netherworld Pavilion most skilled in tracking. It was said that, aside from a certain mysterious thief, no one had ever escaped her Tracking Technique.
But today, even she had fallen short.
Luo Qi stood with her hands behind her back, her gaze fixed on the vast forest in the distance, her face unreadable.
But in her unsettling eyes, there was a flash of failure that even she was unwilling to admit.
’With my *Seeking the Obscure and Scrutinizing the Minute* at the level of Great Success, I thought I would surely redeem myself this time. But I didn’t even catch a shadow of the Demon before being led astray by a single scale.’
Time gradually passed.
In the valley, all of the dozen or so trackers had returned, except for Fang Han.
Su Wan’s gaze kept drifting to the valley entrance, her clear eyes filled with a mix of hope and worry.
All the other trackers had failed. It was a total wash.
Now, their only hope rested on the young man who had yet to return.
Luo Qi seemed to notice Su Wan’s gaze, and the corner of her mouth twitched slightly.
"Elder Su."
Her voice was hoarse, with a hint of coldness.
"Surely you’re not still pinning your hopes on that Fang Han?"
Su Wan turned to meet Luo Qi’s gaze but didn’t speak.
"I have decades of tracking experience. My knowledge is far beyond what that young punk could possibly have."
Luo Qi stood with her hands behind her back, her voice flat but firm.
"If even I failed, how could he possibly succeed?"
Su Wan was silent for a moment before replying, her voice still gentle.
"Elder Luo, while True Inheritor Fang is young, he does possess considerable skill in the art of tracking."
"Considerable skill?"
Luo Qi scoffed.
"A Tracking Technique relies most heavily on experience. I admit his Talent is astonishing and his combat power is enough to rival a Second Grade, but tracking is another matter entirely."
She paused, her gaze sweeping over everyone present.
"Everyone here has been immersed in the art of tracking for decades. If even we failed, what difference can a twenty-year-old kid make?"
Though no one voiced their agreement, most of the people present gave a slight nod.
A Tracking Technique valued Talent, but it valued experience even more.
It required years of accumulation, and an intuition and experience honed through countless hunts and counter-hunts.
No matter how much of a genius Fang Han was, he was ultimately too young.
Su Wan saw everyone’s reaction but said nothing more.
She knew that Luo Qi’s lack of faith in Fang Han was partly due to the poor relationship between the Netherworld Pavilion and the Qingxuan Sect, but also because she genuinely didn’t believe in him.
After all, even these seasoned veterans had returned in failure.
What could a twenty-year-old possibly do?
Not far from the valley, on the high ground that Fang Han had glanced at before leaving.
On the ridge, ancient trees reached for the sky, and vines hung down like curtains.
Three figures stood beneath an ancient tree so massive it would take several people to encircle it. Their auras were completely concealed, making them seem like three dead logs or three stubborn rocks, perfectly integrated with the forest.
The person on the left was lean and gaunt, dressed in a deep cyan robe whose corners fluttered slightly in the mountain breeze.
His salt-and-pepper hair was casually tied up with a Wooden Hairpin. His wrinkles were as deep as if carved by a knife, and his skin had the pallor of someone who rarely saw the sun.
It was none other than the Supreme Elder of the Qingxuan Sect, Gu Changqing.
The person on the right wore a golden kasaya, with a benevolent face and long, drooping eyebrows.
His eyes were half-closed as if he might doze off at any moment, but a closer look would reveal a flicker of golden light that occasionally flashed in their depths.
He stood beneath the tree with his palms pressed together, his aura as tranquil as an old well. This was the Supreme Elder of the Vajra Temple, Hui Ming.
The person in the center had an ordinary face and wore a bluish-gray robe. A common-looking longsword hung at his waist, its Sword Scabbard looking somewhat worn.
He stood there so casually that he seemed like an ordinary Jianghu Traveler just passing by, with no presence at all.
But on closer inspection, one would notice that his position was precisely in the gap where the other two’s auras intersected.
This was the Supreme Elder of the Tingyu Building, Shen Mo.
Three Grandmasters, three gazes, all fixed on the valley below.
With the Grandmaster-level senses of the three, the conversations in the valley still reached their ears clearly.
They learned that the Martial Artists participating in the hunt had been tricked by the Demon.
Shen Mo’s ordinary face showed no expression, but a faint trace of disappointment flickered in his placid eyes.
Gu Changqing stood with his hands behind his back, his expression calm.
Hui Ming kept his palms together, his eyes still half-closed. Only the fingers flicking his prayer beads paused for a fraction of a second before resuming their original rhythm.
Seeing the trackers fail one after another, even the renowned Luo Qi, had ultimately failed.
Shen Mo finally spoke.
"Even that Elder from the Netherworld Pavilion has failed."
His voice was flat, betraying no emotion, but the disappointment in his eyes as he looked at the valley was no longer concealed.
"That Elder from the Netherworld Pavilion has a Tracking Technique that ranks among the best in Qingyang County. If even she couldn’t track that beast, the others have even less hope."
He paused, his gaze sweeping over the dejected trackers in the valley as his voice grew a little deeper.
"I’m afraid this hunt is also doomed to end in failure."