Chapter 352 - Familiar Rewards and a Returning Mark

Chapter 352: Chapter 352 - Familiar Rewards and a Returning Mark

Su Bai had barely left the mountains behind when he encountered a group of traveling cultivators.

Their flying artifacts crossed the distant sky in a loose formation, heading toward Radiant Sky Sect.

He continued along his own route without changing speed, allowing the distance between them to widen before descending behind a wooded ridge.

By the time he returned to the air, a plain gray robe had replaced the darker one he wore when leaving the sect.

The Cloudshift Dressing Art worked smoothly.

Su Bai glanced down at his sleeves while guiding the flying sword eastward.

Clothing alone would accomplish little against someone deliberately following him, but it could make a casual description less useful.

He preferred to begin the journey with fewer people remembering exactly how he looked.

During another brief stop, he retrieved several objects he had kept stored since Fallen-Star Sanctuary.

The Glacier-Lung Bone Mask settled over the lower half of his face, followed by the Wraith-Slumber Manacle around his wrist. He turned his hand once, checking the familiar fit, then placed the Myriad-Catastrophe Thumb-Ring on his left thumb.

With his hood drawn forward, much of his distinctive appearance disappeared beneath mask and ordinary cloth.

The mask made his next breath unexpectedly comfortable.

Su Bai had almost forgotten how pleasant it felt to wear. The air passing through it reached his lungs smoothly, and the faint tightness from traveling against the wind eased.

He adjusted the hood before returning to his sword. His old equipment had spent enough time sitting uselessly in storage.

Some distance farther along, the thumb-ring drew a small amount of Qi from him.

A heavy sensation briefly touched his spiritual control before Reversal answered.

The burden dissolved into an unusual lightness, and the flying sword beneath his feet responded to the next adjustment with remarkable precision.

Su Bai guided it through a shallow turn and immediately noticed how little effort the movement required. The Spiritual Heaviness debuff had become a rather convenient travel aid.

Every ten minutes, the ring would choose another unpleasant effect to inflict on its wearer.

Su Bai had always appreciated an artifact willing to provide variety, especially when the cost amounted to a little Qi and the occasional surprise.

He checked his direction against the position of the sun and increased his speed. The sword carried him over the next ridge without the slightest hesitation.

Travel felt different after entering the Nascent Soul Realm.

His spiritual sense extended farther, his control remained steady through changes in the wind, and guiding the sword no longer occupied much of his attention.

He could examine the route ahead while maintaining his flight almost instinctively.

Mountains that would once have taken considerable time to cross now passed beneath him before he had finished considering where to land.

When the airway became empty, he retrieved the Grievance Bell.

Su Bai first checked the surrounding sky with spiritual sense, then supplied the bell with a small thread of Qi.

Its low note traveled beside him through the wind. Reversal softened the disturbing power into the familiar clarity he had experienced in his courtyard, leaving his thoughts pleasantly settled.

He allowed the sound to fade before ringing it again.

The leaf inside his throat Gateway Dantian trembled.

Its movement followed the resonance closely enough that he could distinguish the beginning and end of each response.

A faint comfort gathered around his throat, subtle enough to disappear whenever he stopped paying attention.

The sprout remained small and incomplete, although its reaction seemed a little easier to perceive after repeated exposure.

Su Bai watched it for a while before carefully maintaining the same amount of Qi.

He continued the experiment along the quieter stretches of his journey.

Whenever other travelers approached, the bell returned to storage and he gave his attention to the route.

After their paths separated, he waited until the surroundings were clear before allowing another soft note into the wind.

By midnight, the rhythm had become familiar enough that he found himself looking forward to the leaf’s faint response.

The system interrupted him while he was crossing a broad public airway.

[Ding! Signed in at the Cloud Lane (Public Airway).]

[Reward: Heavy-Air Sludge.]

Su Bai glanced at the familiar substance inside his System Inventory.

He had consumed his previous supply during the journey home, and another portion would certainly be useful.

Even so, he had begun hoping that the public airways might eventually offer something different. He absorbed the sludge while the sword continued eastward, and the reversed pressure brought a buoyancy that made the next increase in speed almost effortless.

His recent sign-ins at Clear Cloud Peak had been equally predictable.

The automatic rewards had added more Obscuring Mind-Fog Tea Leaves and Slumbering-Lotus Fog Talismans to his supplies.

Su Bai was pleased to have them, but returning to familiar locations had made the system’s habits increasingly obvious.

A place he had never visited might offer something entirely new. The thought added a small measure of anticipation to the journey.

Soon, the Eastern Region’s approaching routes had already appeared beneath him.

Su Bai slowed over a stretch of wooded hills and retrieved the map. He followed the indicated route with one finger and compared it with the larger road winding between the hills below.

Jadeleaf City lay farther ahead.

Su Bai had heard of its tea long before having a reason to visit.

Merchants carried its products across the surrounding regions, while travelers spoke of the gardens spreading through the hills outside its walls.

Between Azure-Jade City and Jadeleaf City, he was beginning to suspect that people in this part of the world considered jade an essential ingredient in naming a respectable settlement.

He wondered whether the tea would justify the confidence.

The city’s reputation also made it a sensible place for Ning Shuang to remain.

A Void-Shattering cultivator governed Jadeleaf City, and the rules placed considerable emphasis on keeping private disputes outside its boundaries.

Cultivators from different factions could enter and trade, provided they obeyed the city’s restrictions.

Someone belonging to a demonic sect would attract attention in many righteous territories. Jadeleaf City offered enough traffic and enough restraint to make a temporary stay less troublesome.

Su Bai stored the map and looked toward the distant hills.

He had yet to see the city walls when something stirred inside his spirit.

The sensation was faint, but he recognized it before it grew stronger.

Su Bai’s hand tightened slightly around the edge of his sleeve as his attention turned inward. The Dark Mark remained where it had attached itself long ago, carrying the reversed connection that had once warned him of an approaching enemy.

Now a distant pull drew his awareness toward the forest below.

His flight slowed.

The demonic cultivator who had marked him should have been dead after the battle outside Radiant Sky Sect.

Su Bai had watched the man’s body wither into ash while an unfamiliar power carried his soul eastward, beyond Li Xuanzong’s reliable pursuit.

The connection had survived, stretched thin enough to become almost useless across the distance.

It was becoming clearer again.

Su Bai descended behind a stand of tall trees and stored his flying sword.

For several breaths, he remained still beneath the branches, judging the direction.

The pull came from deeper within the forest, somewhere away from the main road. He checked the Void Ring’s concealment before moving.

The man had escaped without his original body, but Su Bai had no intention of deciding how weak he had become from that fact alone.

An injured enemy could still possess dangerous methods.

Nevertheless, finding him before he recovered presented an opportunity Su Bai could hardly ignore.

He remembered the slaughtered companion whose blood had fueled the escape and the soul disappearing beneath its strange protective light.

If that cultivator regained his former strength, the next meeting would become considerably more troublesome.

Su Bai drew his hood closer and followed the connection between the trees.

The mark’s response strengthened gradually.

He moved over the forest floor with Frictionless Phantom Step, allowing his spiritual sense to spread carefully ahead.

The wind carried the smell of damp leaves and the faint trace of wood smoke.

A few moments later, he detected several presences gathered around a clearing. Su Bai reduced his pace and approached through the cover of the undergrowth.

His eyes widened when he saw the group.

The first familiar face belonged to Ning Shuang.

She stood near the center of a small camp, her expression carrying the cold composure he remembered from their previous encounter.

Several members of her group waited nearby, watching a man bound against a tree. Heavy chains crossed the captive’s torso and arms. Blood marked one corner of his mouth, and his clothing had been torn around the shoulder.

Su Bai recognized him as well.

The man had traveled with Ning Shuang when they last met. His face was bruised now, but Su Bai remembered enough to identify him.

That should have made the situation easier to understand. Instead, the Dark Mark stirred so clearly that Su Bai’s attention immediately returned to the prisoner.

The connection led straight to him.

Su Bai remained motionless behind the trees while his gaze settled on the bound man’s face.

The pull carried the same presence that had fled from the battlefield as a soul.

He followed it once more to be certain, and the answer remained unchanged.

Whatever had happened to Ning Shuang’s subordinate, the demonic cultivator who marked him was now inside the camp.