258: Evasive Enemy

Evasive Enemy

The nearest stack of rocks and antlers was soon within sight. As if in a silent agreement, the rest of our group gathered around it and waited for Wen Shiyin, expectant eyes following the artifact in her hands. It appeared that the power of this new tracker had earned its fame at Mount Hua already.2

"This is the amplifier that you found last night?" Wen Shiyin asked me, crouching down to study the stack. "The spiritual power over it is quite strong indeed."

I nodded. An amplifier absorbed the lingering spiritual power in nature to strengthen itself over time, thus bringing more energy into the ritual it was used to support. In the mere few days after the sword spirit's arrival, the strength of these artifacts had grown beyond our expectations.

Wen Shiyin uttered another spell under her breath. Everyone watched quietly as a sliver of white light rose from the rocks and antlers, drifting into the tracker in her hand. The needles on the artifact spun even faster than before, and I couldn't help but marvel at the skill it must take to master this artifact. How could one possibly follow the directions of such fast-moving needles, let alone dozens of them at the same time?

"Our target isn't far away from here," Wen Shiyin said at last.

"Close enough to reach before the end of the day?" someone asked behind me.

Wen Shiyin looked down again. A slight surprise crossed her face. "In fact … It appears to be drawing closer toward us on its own …"

From the corner of my eye, I saw a few blank stares passing between the group. But the news didn't shock me—if the sword spirit was eager to get her power back, then it was only natural that she stayed close to where I was, and Mount Hua's presence today might just have interested her enough to make a new appearance.

It wasn't long before she proved me right. I felt it closing in on us, the familiar spiritual power that was no longer only pulsing from the symbols and artifacts. "I sense it now," I said, my hands moving to my swords.

I doubted that the rest of the group could sense the shift in this power as well as I did, but everyone followed suit, swords in hands. The hush of the woods was all we could hear. We watched our surroundings intently until suddenly, I swirled at the presence materializing behind us.

There she was, perched atop a short pine with her arms crossed, staring down with a contemptuous smile over her lips.

"I see that you've forgotten about our bargain," she tsked. "I thought I was being generous by giving you three days … Yet you disappoint me by turning to others for help."

Those words probably made no sense to anyone else in the group, though no one paid them any heed anyway. With a unison of shings, everyone drew their swords, and the senior disciples lunged at her first.

A clatter of metal replaced the earlier silence, accompanied by waves of spiritual power flashing in busy arcs among the maze of trees. I kept my hands on my sword hilts and kept my distance, hoping to use this opportunity to watch and learn the sword spirit's moves in closer detail. But either she had seen through my intention, or she had no plan to waste too much effort on us at all, as she barely used her swords the entire time. Instead, she used those same tricks that helped her get away from Bai Ye and me before, shifting fast to evade the attacks in a blur of shadows.

"Senior Yun," Qi Lian called as he moved towards the front. He nodded towards the figure dashing like a ghost between the blades. "She seems hesitant to take us head on, and I doubt it's because of leniency. Why is she avoiding crossing swords?"

The answer was on the tip of my tongue when the sword spirit laughed darkly. "Because you aren't worth revealing my techniques to my real enemy." She shifted her position instantaneously one more time, disappearing in front of a disciple just before his sword came into touch with hers. "You're delusional if you think I can be defeated like this."

I gritted my teeth and gripped the hilts of Twin Stars. But just as I took my leap towards her, she smiled knowingly. "Don't forget, your time is running out," she hissed. And just like that, I watched her disappear in front of my eyes once more, a crimson light flashing in her wake.

"Follow her!" someone shouted. "Don't let her run loose!"

Wen Shiyin raised her tracker. The needles were still spinning, and everyone summoned their flying swords, ready to follow her directions. But then the spin became slower, slower, until finally coming to a stop, every arrow pointing at a different angle.

"This is …" Wen Shiyin muttered. "I can't trace her anymore … She's out of the range I can sense with this artifact."

"Your artifact that could track targets from hundreds of miles away?" the disciple next to her gasped. "How could she have traveled that far in the blink of an eye?"

"She's good at space manipulating spells," I explained. "I've lost track of her too many times in the past few days. And I'd be careful following her as well, since she also seems to know a decent deal about setting up traps and portals."

A murmur rose in the crowd, and I saw the concerned looks on a few people's faces. "Then what should we do now?" someone asked.

"Let's look into all these marked locations first and see if we can find more clues," Qi Lian suggested. "But I wouldn't be surprised if this matter winds up back in Master's hands. Our opponent seems too good at being evasive."

The tinge of uneasiness tugging at me all day suddenly grew at those words. If Teng Yuan becomes involved in this … How long would it be before he recognizes the sword spirit's face?

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