Rapid Pursuit

She left? When Ji Jue received the news, he was taken aback, completely dumbfounded. He almost doubted his own ears. Yet looking back from where things stood now, Wen Wen's resignation and departure seemed to have been a foregone conclusion all along—whether it was her gloomy, violent binge-drinking over recent days, the chaos caused by Dreamloss Syndrome a few days ago, or even her "family" kicking down their door... With her personality, it was impossible for her to remain in Yacheng, acting as if nothing had happened, ignoring it all and going about her life as usual. The moment she realized she had become the source of trouble, she had already made up her mind. Ji Jue had already sensed something when she came over to drink with him, but he never expected she would act so swiftly and decisively, without the slightest hesitation. This decisiveness—no, what seemed like an admirable trait to others was probably just this irritable older sister clenching her fists, unable to stomach it any longer. Just like leaving now without saying goodbye. Even though she knew Ji Jue couldn't possibly leave things be, even though she understood that this was no longer her problem alone— "When it comes down to it, she's just putting on a tough front!" Her eyes rimmed with red, Tong Hua couldn't help but grumble, "She's an adult, yet she acts like a child! She could've told me anything, but she didn't say a single word. "Did she watch too many hard-boiled action movies or something? She doesn't care at all about how anyone else feels! It's so childish!" "That's how people of the Huangxu path are, stubborn temper and all. Maybe once she finishes what she has to do, she'll come right back. There's no need to act like it's a parting between life and death." Old Zhang handed her a tissue to soothe her emotions, sighing with feeling. "Rather than asking for help, what she hates most is being seen as a burden or a nuisance, isn't it?" Xiao An remained silent, sitting on the sofa, frantically pressing buttons on his game console without knowing what he was doing. He wanted to say something, but didn't know what to say. Several times he started to speak, only to swallow his words. Now, seeing Ji Jue walk in, his eyes instantly lit up as if finding a savior. "Brother Ji Jue..." "I've heard the gist of what happened." Ji Jue rubbed his face. He had sped all the way here after waking up, and his head still ached terribly. "Don't worry. She still owes me a round of drinks. Since when can you ditch your debt, pack your bags, and run?" Who does that? Look at the pathetic state of the Beishan Section right now: a helpless old man, a heartbroken little sister, a powerless kid, and a backbone figure who bolted like she was fleeing a mountain of debt—and rode off on the only motorcycle the department had! This whole family is falling apart! It's practically devoid of conscience! Wen Wen, how could you have the heart? No matter what, I have to catch her and drag her back first! Otherwise... Sister, you wouldn't want your little sister falling into my hands, would you? "When was it discovered?" Ji Jue asked, feeling a headache coming on. How had he been thrust into the role of a Great Detective like this? Where's the Aether? Put it to some use! Oh, right, the Aether is still shedding pearly tears... Xiao An raised his hand. At eight in the morning, Xiao An arrived at the Beishan District branch office, planning to be there the moment the new game launched to start exploring. Then he found Sister Wen's office door open. Being the most considerate kid in the section, he carried a broom in to clean her office and empty the ashtray, only to find the ashtray completely empty. Pressed beneath the ashtray was a resignation letter. Three short, punchy lines: [Respected Warden Lyu: I quit. Sorry. —Wen Wen] It wasn't in standard formal print; the handwriting was scrawled after drinking, the character for "Warden" was even written wrong, crossed out, and rewritten, and she hadn't even included the date! Looking at it made Ji Jue feel thoroughly ill. No, Sister, who in their right mind would approve a resignation letter like this?! The very instant he finished reading, his first instinct was to tear the damn thing up, but he paused and folded it back up. He looked at Tong Hua. "Can you see anything?" Tong Hua's eyes reddened even further, completely inconsolable. On one hand, aside from the fact that Sister Wen had been dead drunk, she couldn't perceive a single thing—she lacked the ability. On the other hand, Wen Wen knew her far too well and had taken precautions, leaving behind zero clues for her to work with. What was more, Wen Wen undoubtedly carried a Mirror lineage blessed artifact specifically designed to block Aether tracing. It was bad enough that her big sis had ditched her and run without a word, but she had premeditated blocking her too! Who could take that? "All right, I basically get it." Ji Jue sighed. Finally, he looked at Old Zhang and shook the resignation letter in his hand. "Does anyone else know about this thing?" Old Zhang seemed to understand what he was getting at, answering knowingly, "Nobody will spread word of it. For now, it's strictly within the Beishan Section." Ji Jue wasn't an outsider. To this day, he was still the Beishan Section's off-the-books partner craftsman, officially registered with the Security Bureau. Ji Jue pressed, "In other words, according to the system, Sister Wen is still on duty, right?" "That's right, and currently marked on leave," Old Zhang said. "She has one week of sick leave." "Then as long as we bring her back within a week—" Old Zhang nodded. "Then this never happened." Snap! Ji Jue folded the resignation letter and shoved it into his pocket. "Fine, then that's the plan!" He made a firm promise. "Hold down the fort here in Beishan District for now. Leave Sister Wen to me!" In Haizhou, if Wen Wen thought she could pack up and flee behind his back, she was looking down on him to say the least. If she took an airship or went through something like the Star Core Association, he might indeed be out of his depth. But considering Wen Wen's financial situation—a wallet so pitiful it would make a rat weep, and credit cards permanently on the brink of overdue fees—that was simply unrealistic. Besides, someone at the Exaltation rank like Wen Wen was subjected to strict surveillance when entering or leaving borders. Going through legitimate channels would immediately trigger an anomaly alert from the Security Bureau. And if she took illicit channels—out of every ten smugglers' speedboats running frozen meat outside Haizhou right now, seven and a half ran on motors from Haian! Not to mention the shipyard partnered with Chen Xingzhou, and Xinquan's influence. Even if he couldn't openly hunt for her through Huangji channels, as long as he could determine the direction she left in and the boat she boarded, wouldn't there be plenty of ways? As for how to persuade back a Huangxu whose temper was flared up so badly that nine oxen couldn't budge her—well, that would have to rely on hard effort and Hot Blood. What else could he do? It wasn't like he could knock her unconscious and lock her up by force, right? Ji Jue sighed deeply, feeling his headache flaring up again. "Isis, help me search for Sister Wen's signal." "Already initiated." Just a few seconds later, Isis's voice sounded through his earpiece: "Phone is unresponsive, powered off. Scanning Yacheng surveillance feeds... Scanning... No identifiable features detected; target is suspected to be disguised. Scanning Yacheng public transit... No trace of public transit usage found. "Do you require a deeper investigation? I require your authorization to unlock the [Crisis Protocol]." "No need, that goes too far." Ji Jue shook his head. When designing the Crisis Protocol, he had established early on that it was not to be used unless he had to achieve his objective by any means necessary. Once unlocked and activated, Isis would use her capabilities alongside the server racks Ji Jue had prepared with Deus Ex Machina, leveraging pre-established springboard servers to forcibly seize control of the Haizhou Supercomputing Center. She would assume total control over all public infrastructure, extending even to the computer equipment and satellite systems of the Haizhou garrison base—and even tapping into the Security Bureau's system to post bounties. If necessary, she could even bring all of Haizhou to a complete crash, plunging it into total chaos. What kind of situation would it be if Haizhou blew up before Wen Wen was even found? Good things still had to be kept under wraps. Still, that didn't mean he was out of options... Ultimately, Sister Wen knew him too well, not even having any tracking devices installed on her motorcycle. Yet unfortunately, she didn't know him well enough either... and at the same time, she didn't know herself well enough. Did she really think that with her dismal finances, she could pull off any high-end stealth operation?! "Isis, help me check her gas card." Ji Jue crossed his arms and sneered. "Let's see just how far she can run." "Understood." In less than two minutes, Isis's search results came back. At 7:10 AM—roughly an hour before Xiao An's discovery—records from a fuel station showed that Wen Wen's gas card had been used at a station on the outermost edge of Yacheng's Beishan District. Surveillance footage showed her swiping her card to fill up the motorcycle's tank, not even asking about today's fuel prices. With unprecedented extravagance, she had used up the entire balance on the card all at once, along with the fourteen hundred she had snatched back that morning, filling four portable jerrycans to the brim. Then she rode off. She drove straight out of surveillance range— Yet right before she left, almost out of helplessness, she had turned back toward the gas station behind her—or more precisely, waved toward the gas station's security camera. As if a silent farewell. Then she vanished. "Tch..." Ji Jue's expression instantly turned solemn. He suddenly felt that his interception plan might fall through. "Where did she go? Out of the city?" Tong Hua tried to discern the direction, baffled. That gas station was terribly far from the city exit, completely the opposite way. "Why make such a massive detour?" "The answer is, she didn't make a detour." Ji Jue covered his face, letting out a long sigh. "Damn it, Huangxu!" Indeed, that place was terribly far from leaving the city or reaching the wilderness outside, disconnected from everywhere. But one glance at the map and coordinates told the whole story. While it wasn't near any main roads, it bordered the sea! Who needed roads? Just fill the bike with gas, pop the Huangxu stasis zone, and it would lay out a path right over the ocean surface for the motorcycle to speed across freely. No speed limits, no surveillance cameras, not even traffic lights! Just twist the throttle all the way and ride like hell! To make matters worse, dense fog had blanketed the sea this morning, followed by overcast drizzle around noon, leaving her whereabouts a total mystery. She couldn't be tracked anymore. If she rode fast enough, she might have already left Federation waters by now. If he had known earlier, he would have used the excuse of free maintenance to impound her motorcycle first! "Is Grandpa free?" Ji Jue turned back to look at Tong Hua. Tong Hua froze for a second, then looked despondent. "Grandpa went to Midtown. He just left yesterday... But Uncle Ting is still around. I—" "No need." Ji Jue waved his hand. Tong Yuan's departure already made the Tong family's attitude clear. Even if they went to Tong Ting, nothing would come of it. When people of the Aether path didn't want to get involved in something, you wouldn't find them even if you knocked on their door. If they truly didn't want to see you, you might end up getting hit by a car on the way. The Tong family was far too cautious. They strictly forbade Celestial Chosen in their family from using the Eye of Aether under non-essential circumstances. They could be said to be the least Aether-like Aether practitioners, or rather, it was precisely this caution that put people at ease. Whether the Tong family didn't care, didn't want to get involved, or couldn't get involved didn't matter. Not knowing which route she took was fine too. He could just go intercept her at the destination! Ji Jue pondered for a moment, then turned back to look at the anxious, fretful silly girl. His smile turned mysterious. The silly girl blinked, looking as if she had suddenly realized something. She took a step back in terror, but then, as if making up her mind, she gathered her courage and stepped forward again. Just like a martyr facing execution. "Y-You... whatever dirty trick you have... bring it on!" She wiped away her still-wet pearly tears and puffed out her chest. "For Sister Wen, I'll put it all on the line!" No, really, what kind of person do you people take me for?! Ji Jue only felt his fists itching. Just a little dummy— Without holding back in the slightest, he delivered a knuckle strike to the top of her skull, his knuckles grinding and boring in furiously. "Since you're putting it all on the line, obediently hand over your secret stash of treasures!" "Huh?" Tong Hua was stunned, unable to process it for a moment. Was that how the script went? "What else? I could throw you into the furnace to smelt you down too—care to bear with it?" Ji Jue's face fell into a scowl. "Materials! Hand them all over, right now! Little dummy, you wouldn't want—" Who are you calling a dummy! Tong Hua flared with brief fury, her face flushing red as she raised a fist in protest: "I-I'm going to... go fetch them right now! Very quickly, wait just a moment!" Even her surrender slide was so silky smooth. Ji Jue shook his head. One hour later, Ji Jue had returned to his workshop carrying a huge pile of materials scrounged from Tong Hua, along with a sizable haul seized during Beishan District's anti-smuggling crackdowns. All the equipment was already preheated. At the same time, resting on the table were two Blessings freshly delivered from the Balance Chamber of Commerce: The Aether's [All-Attuned] and the Heart Pivot's [Ever-Mindful]. Within two fist-sized chunks of amber, the radiant glow of the Blessings rose. One could tell that the craftsmen from the Balance Chamber of Commerce had handled them well; the structures of the Blessings were complete, both had undergone a qualitative transformation, and both were specialized for perception and directional tracking. Among them, the effect of All-Attuned was to magnify the user's perception, allowing it to break through limits to more easily detect minute clues or hidden conditions, observe the flow of spiritus, and even perceive the clinging entanglements of lingering resentment and remnant thoughts. It could be called the magnifying glass tool of the Aether path. Ever-Mindful, on the other hand, allowed the user to tap into the collective unconscious, generating a vague intuition regarding someone constantly on their mind. If there was sufficient power and one's attainments in the way of the Heart Pivot were profound enough, one could even sense the specific condition on the other end— whether they were dead or alive, well or harmed. Combining these two Blessings formed the Blessing chain most commonly used by craftsmen when crafting tracking items. It was also widely praised for being simple and convenient. Regrettably, between Aether and Heart Pivot, these two Blessings happened to hit both types Ji Jue was least skilled in. Still, no matter—he had to try anyway. On the way back, he had crammed at the last minute, flipping through numerous related papers from the association, gaining a bit more confidence. Now, there was no time for ritual baths, fasting, or composed meditation. Time to forge! An hour later, after crafting four prototypes without any mistakes, Ji Jue finally felt confident enough to invest the Blessings, pouring his full concentration into the process. The procedure wasn't overly complex. To enhance the effect, Ji Jue had even introduced a degree of Great Sin staining. Utilizing the aura of Weiyang and Defilement, he forcibly twisted the power of both Blessings, catalyzing them to the limit. The performance was more than twice as strong as the original. The drawback, however... well, he seemed to have created a consumable. Once it came out of the furnace and he held it in his hand, he could feel the abnormalities in the spiritus circuits of the palm-sized, compass-like creation. Efficiency and speed were elevated by more than a tier, but the engine was still the same engine. Pumping in all the nitrous in the world couldn't change its fundamental nature. Fast as it was, it wouldn't last more than a few uses. Still, no matter. As long as it got the job done. Without hesitation, Ji Jue unsealed the solid quicksilver in his hand, channeling the seized spiritus into it. The first target he sought to locate was that female brat Wen Su, who had run into his workshop to cause trouble. The needle condensed from faint light immediately spun wildly. Ji Jue could only feel spiritus pouring in continuously and vanishing. Yet in the end, it merely indicated a rough direction through the swaying of the needle, unable to lock on. After pinpointing an approximate heading through that initial surprise probe, the needle soon lost the target completely and spun erratically. A Heart Pivot practitioner after all. By now, she had likely sensed the lock-on from Ever-Mindful and reacted. Ji Jue immediately cut off the operation. Don't try to overtake opponents on their home track; it was too easy to crash. Especially in the treacherous circle of Heart Pivot practitioners. She was seventeen, a minor, and he might genuinely be outmatched by her there. The next one was presumably Wen Wen's target of hatred: The mastermind fanning the flames and scattering the spiritus plague everywhere this time—Wen... Wen what was his name again? Whatever, doesn't matter— Ji Jue once again poured spiritus from the solid quicksilver into the device, using the resonance between spiritus and the soul itself to search for every trace the target had left behind. Snap! The needle compass vibrated faintly, its spiritus circuits groaning under the overloaded operation, seemingly on the verge of fracturing at any second. The entire compass heated up rapidly; within a few short seconds, it grew burning hot to the touch, glowing faintly red. Yet this time, the needle of faint light trembled violently, only revolving in futile circles, completely unable to lock onto the target's position. Ji Jue's expression gradually darkened. He could perceive the barrier of Defilement hanging like a vast, sky-covering fog between them, rendering the target entirely unlocatable. Amidst the rapid drain of spiritus, a distant phantom seemed to surface before Ji Jue's eyes. In the mist, the sinister outline of a three-headed giant serpent faintly loomed. One of its heads turned back contemptuously, looking right at him, silently baring its fangs in a sneer. Mockery. The interference of Abyssal Depths against Weiyang; the counterattack of Defilement against Defilement. Ji Jue's efforts were doomed to be in vain. The other party even turned the tables, channeling Defilement and Abyssal Depths to exert pressure and backlash upon Ji Jue's creation, intending to let Ji Jue taste the bitter fruit of his own actions— Yet in that very instant, Ji Jue couldn't help but laugh out loud. "Finally got you!" If he hadn't wanted Wen Su to sense anything, then against this guy, he had been terrified the man wouldn't notice! If he didn't notice, how could he interfere in return? And how else could Ji Jue find an opening to exploit?! Snap! Ji Jue clutched his five fingers resolutely, injecting yet another wisp of spiritus into the compass—his own spiritus! Grandson, did you forget? When your incarnation came to Xinquan last time, I left a little souvenir in your head! Without the slightest hesitation, he detonated the spiritus that had remained in the other party's consciousness—the trace carried back through backlash when the incarnation was struck down! Detonation! What Ji Jue was seeking wasn't the other party's location, but that wisp of spiritus lingering inside the soul wound he had inflicted! The instant burst of spiritus was like reopening a wound. In the fog, the body of the three-headed serpent convulsed for a fraction of a second, fury surging forth like thunder. And in the very instant the enemy lost control, the compass needle locked in on the range and direction. Instantly, the compass severed its connection! Pull the plug—done playing with you! The scorching compass continued to buzz, groaning under strain. Cracks had already appeared in the Blessings inside; it wouldn't last more than a few more uses. Yet in that split second, driven by Ji Jue's push, it had keenly captured the target's direction and approximate location. It was actually in the same general direction as Wen Su—which meant there was a very strong possibility the two were together right now! "Isis, map." Instantly, amidst flowing silver light, a map of the mortal realm manifested in the empty air before Ji Jue in the workshop. Beneath his feet lay the position of Xinquan. Following the direction the needle pointed, a straight line was drawn, slicing through the Endless Sea, skimming across Mid-Continent, and vanishing past the boundaries of the southern waters. Tracing the specific information remaining in the compass, Ji Jue strode forward through the projected map. Finally, he came to an abrupt halt. He lowered his gaze, looking at the map rapidly magnifying beneath his feet—at that string of desolate, sparsely inhabited islands in the southeastern Endless Sea between Mid-Continent and the Federation. That was where Dreamloss Syndrome had first spun out of control and erupted before spreading throughout the entire world, a forbidden wasteland formed under massive spiritus spills and collapse mutation effects. A sea of demons where not a single living soul remained... "Why is it you again?" Ji Jue bent down, reached out, and tapped that stretch of ocean shrouded in fog and driving rain. The place where everything began. —The Punabantu Archipelago!