Chapter 99 - 75 : Wanted (2)

Chapter 99: Chapter 75 : Wanted (2)

Inside, Ethan’s thoughts were already falling into place.

A wanted order.

That explained the looks he had been getting. It explained why people were paying more attention to lone travelers and why the same reaction had followed him from one road to another.

But there was still something he didn’t know. How much had Azure Cloud actually revealed, and how much did they think they knew about him?

There was only one way to find out. He needed to see the notice himself.

By nightfall, Ethan reached the settlement. He waited until the road had grown darker before entering, when the flow of people had thinned enough that he could move through without drawing unnecessary attention.

Lanterns hung outside small shops and food stalls, casting warm light across the narrow street. Travelers gathered beneath wooden awnings, eating late meals and talking over bowls of hot broth. The smell of roasted meat drifted through the air, mixed with smoke, horse sweat, and the damp scent of recently watered earth. Cultivators moved among ordinary people, some carrying weapons openly, others wearing plain robes that revealed nothing about their origins, while a few kept their faces hidden beneath hoods.

Ethan lowered his own hood slightly. Not enough to conceal himself completely, but enough to avoid drawing unnecessary attention as he made his way through the settlement.

He didn’t stop.

As he moved his Blood Perception spread through the surrounding streets, picking up the vitality of those nearby. Most were weak. A few Body Tempering cultivators stood among them, along with several early Qi Refining cultivators.

Nothing that concerned him.

He didn’t need to fear everyone simply because Azure Cloud was hunting him. He only needed to know who might actually pose a danger. That was different.

Ethan continued through the settlement, passing food stalls where travelers sat beneath wooden awnings, eating and drinking after a day’s journey. The street was still active despite the late hour, with merchants tending to their stalls and cultivators stopping for food before settling down for the night.

A little farther ahead, a wooden board stood beside the road, covered with several sheets of paper. Ethan’s attention shifted toward it as he passed, and he slowed when he noticed a few people gathered around it.

He stepped closer.

Wanted notices covered most of the board. Different names. Different descriptions. Different rewards.

The numbers caught his attention first.

Twenty spirit stones.

Thirty-five.

Fifty.

One notice offered seventy-five.

But the reactions around the board told him more than the numbers themselves. A young Body Tempering cultivator stared at one of the notices in disbelief, while two older cultivators discussed another in low voices. One man shook his head at a reward and muttered that it wasn’t worth the trouble. Nearby, another cultivator leaned closer when someone mentioned a higher number.

No one treated the rewards casually.

Even among cultivators, those amounts carried weight.

Ethan’s gaze moved across the notices again. He understood why. Spirit stones were not ordinary currency. He had already learned that much.

His thoughts returned to the six rogue cultivators from the ravine. Six cultivators had been willing to chase him for the sake of a reward, yet when he searched their bodies afterward, he found only five spirit stones among all six of them.

Five.

The five spirit stones made the value of the rewards clearer to Ethan. At this level, even a few spirit stones were not easy to come by.

He had only three left after spending two on his robes.

His gaze moved to the next notice, then stopped.

His own face stared back at him.

It was a rough illustration. Not perfect, but close enough. The notice described him as a young male with a pale complexion who usually traveled alone. Early Qi Refining. Blood-related forbidden cultivation. Dangerous. Associated with disappearances and attacks. Escaped Azure Cloud Sect pursuit.

The weapon description was wrong. They had called it a short blade.

Ethan’s eyes remained on the paper as he read the next line.

DEAD OR ALIVE.

Then he saw the reward.

150 SPIRIT STONES.

Ethan stared at the number.

One hundred and fifty.

For a moment, even he had to admit that it was a handsome reward. He had only three spirit stones left himself, while the six rogue cultivators he had killed had possessed only five between them. Compared to what he had seen so far, one hundred and fifty spirit stones was an enormous amount of resources.

His gaze shifted toward the cultivators gathered around the board. Their reactions made the value even clearer. One cultivator stared at the notice as though checking whether he had read it correctly, while another quietly cursed beneath his breath.

Someone farther back asked, "One hundred and fifty?"

"That’s what it says."

"For one person?"

"Apparently."

A few cultivators lowered their voices after that, and the mood around the board changed.

Ethan looked back at the notice. He could understand the reaction now. One hundred and fifty spirit stones was enough to make even him briefly wonder what kind of resources he could buy with it.

The thought passed as quickly as it came. After all, the person on the notice was him.

Ethan looked at the reward once more. It seems Azure Cloud sect really wasn’t holding back.

Interested cultivators could obtain a tracking talisman through designated Azure Cloud channels for one spirit stone.

Ethan’s expression changed as he read that line again.

One spirit stone.

His thoughts returned to the talisman he had taken from the Azure Cloud cultivator near the stream. At the time, he had focused on what it could do, but the notice made him realize that he had overlooked something important.

The talisman wasn’t following him. It was searching for something connected specifically to him.

His spiritual signature.

Ethan considered the thought for a moment. A cultivator’s spiritual signature was different from simply sensing Qi. It was more like a mark carried by the person themselves, something that could identify them even when their appearance or surroundings changed.

Changing his robe wouldn’t matter.

Neither would taking another road.

Ethan already knew what happened once someone carrying the talisman came close enough. The faint reaction, the direction it gave, the way it became stronger as the distance narrowed, he had experienced it himself.

Ethan stared at the one-spirit-stone price. For a Body Tempering cultivator, that wasn’t a trivial purchase. For some, it might be everything they had. But that was precisely why it worked.

Anyone could search without one, but serious hunters had an advantage. Teams could pool their resources, stronger cultivators could provide the stone, and even a group of Body Tempering cultivators could gather enough from their savings. A sufficiently wealthy rogue cultivator could even buy one alone. One spirit stone opened the door. One hundred and fifty waited on the other side.

Ethan slowly folded his arms. The calculation was simple. Spend one to search for one hundred and fifty. Even if the search failed, the loss would hurt.

But if it succeeded...

The single spirit stone would be the cheapest investment he had ever made.

He looked at the notice again. The reward was enough to completely change a cultivator’s circumstances. It could buy cultivation resources, whether pills, techniques, weapons, or simply the time needed to cultivate without constantly worrying about survival.

For a Body Tempering cultivator, it could be a chance to change the entire course of their cultivation. Even an early Qi Refining cultivator could use such a sum to sustain serious cultivation for a long time.

The reaction of the people around the board suddenly made more sense. This wasn’t simply greed over a pile of coins. It was the possibility of advancement, the possibility of obtaining resources that might otherwise remain out of reach, and with them, the possibility of changing one’s future.

Ethan’s gaze moved across the street. A merchant laughed beside a stall while a pair of cultivators drank beneath a lantern, and travelers continued coming and going. Most of them had never seen him before and might never have cared about him at all. But that could change the moment they saw the notice, heard about the reward, or had a talisman placed in their hands.

Ethan exhaled slowly. "They don’t have to find me." The words were barely louder than the movement of the street. He looked back at the notice. "They only have to make someone else want to." That was the real danger. Not the Azure Cloud Sect itself. Not anymore. The sect had turned his existence into an opportunity.

Anyone could become a hunter.

A burst of conversation drifted from a nearby table.

"...Azure Cloud is already stretched thin."

"Because of the Crimson Purge?"

"Because of what else? Haven’t you noticed how tense things have been lately?"

A pause followed before another cultivator lowered his voice.

"I heard it’s worse than that. Villages have been disappearing along the border. Even travelers are going missing."

"Then why waste so much effort chasing one blood cultivator?"

"They’re not."

"What?"

"They’re not wasting their own people on him. Think about it. If the fighting’s getting worse, why pull disciples away from the border just to search every road for one fugitive?"

"So the bounty..."

"Exactly."

The cultivator gave a quiet laugh.

"Why send ten disciples after one person when you can put up a reward and let half the region search for him instead?"

Ethan’s eyes narrowed slightly.

That made sense.

Azure Cloud wasn’t incapable of pursuing him. They simply had more pressing problems. If the Crimson Purge Sect was pushing the border hard enough to make villages and travelers disappear, the sect’s attention would naturally be divided.

And that explained the bounty.

They didn’t need to spend their own manpower searching every road. They only needed to give everyone else a reason to search for him.

Ethan looked once more at the wanted notice.

One hundred and fifty spirit stones.

Suddenly, the amount felt less like a reward and more like a tool. The sect had taken a problem it didn’t have the manpower to handle and turned it into an opportunity for the entire region.

He stepped away from the board.

Ethan stepped away from the board.

He had seen enough to understand what he was dealing with. The bounty was already drawing attention, the description was spreading, and the tracking talismans meant that anyone with enough resources could turn a glimpse of him into a pursuit. Changing his clothes might buy him some distance, but staying ahead would require more than simply looking like someone else.

The hunt had changed the way he needed to move; from now on, carelessness would carry a price.

He walked toward the edge of the settlement.

As he passed a side street, another notice caught his eye, pasted against a wooden post. The same face stared back at him, followed by the same description and the same number.

Ethan barely slowed before continuing on.

Outside the settlement, the road was quiet again. He pulled his hood a little lower and continued beneath the moonlight, his footsteps soft against the packed earth. There was no fear in him yet, only a growing irritation at how quickly a simple escape had become more complicated.

He had spent days putting distance between himself and Azure Cloud, only to realize that the problem had grown beyond the sect itself. Being tracked was one thing. Being recognized was another. But the real complication was what happened when people learned what he was worth.

A person who had never cared about him could become interested the moment they saw that notice. A curious glance could become suspicion. Suspicion could become a search. And somewhere along the road, there would always be someone willing to take the risk for one hundred and fifty spirit stones.

He still intended to reach Lunar Echo territory. That hadn’t changed.

What had changed was the uncertainty along the way.

He had already been avoiding settlements whenever he could, keeping to quieter roads and choosing his movements carefully. None of that became useless simply because a bounty had appeared. But now, even the precautions he had relied on had to account for people who were actively looking for him.

They didn’t need to know where Ethan was going. They only needed to notice someone matching the description and decide the reward was worth pursuing.

And with one hundred and fifty spirit stones attached to his name, that possibility was no longer something he could ignore.

Ethan glanced back once. The settlement lights were already fading behind him. He turned forward and continued east, his thoughts settling around the change. For some time now, he had been putting as much distance as he could between himself and the Azure Cloud Sect, while dealing with the occasional curious glance or the few people who had already decided he was worth taking a risk against. He had never been under the illusion that the road was safe.

But this was different.

Those encounters had been scattered, driven by suspicion, curiosity, or someone’s own calculation. Now there was something far more direct waiting for anyone who recognized him: one hundred and fifty spirit stones. The sect hadn’t created the danger around him. It had simply given that danger a reason to spread.

Distance would still help, but it would no longer be enough by itself. Wherever the road took him, there was now a chance that someone would see his face, remember the notice, and decide the reward was worth acting on.