Mud bubbles gurgled in the marsh.
A thin mist billowed, and shadows of trees loomed heavy.
Tan Hao flew straight westward. He was not moving fast, and his escape art was far from exquisite—a performance somewhat ill-suited to his cultivation realm—allowing the masked man and Qin Sang to keep up with ease.
The masked man was exceedingly patient. After leaving Stone Island, he showed no rush to make a move, silently trailing behind Tan Hao as they ventured deeper into the desolate, uninhabited depths of the marsh.
Or perhaps it was prudence.
The masked man was also in the early Foundation Establishment stage, possessing an aura stronger than Tan Hao's. Moreover, he held the advantage of launching a premeditated ambush against an unsuspecting foe. Even so, a lion must exert all its strength when hunting a rabbit; it was best to strike only when complete success was guaranteed.
A single lethal strike.
He was waiting for the exact moment Tan Hao let down his guard.
Tan Hao was not entirely heedless. Along his flight path, he laid down several concealed restrictions, but both the masked man and Qin Sang spotted and avoided them with ease.
The dead of night was silent, rendering the marsh all the more gloomy.
A quarter of an hour later.
The masked man tracked him into a grove of trees and suddenly halted. He had lost Tan Hao's trail.
The ancient trees in this grove were not dense, offering an unobstructed view of the surrounding space. Just moments ago, Tan Hao's aura had been advancing steadily in a straight line toward this very spot, only to vanish abruptly without the slightest warning.
The masked man released his spiritual sense and swept the area, yet found nothing at all.
A night breeze gently stirred, and everything remained calm and ordinary.
Tan Hao seemed to have vanished into thin air, disappearing so completely that not a single trace was left behind.
Not far behind, Qin Sang lay concealed in the crown of a tree, secretly observing the scene.
Because of the distance between them, Qin Sang had not seen how Tan Hao disappeared either. Just like the masked man, he could not tell whether Tan Hao was hiding somewhere nearby or had employed some other method to shake off their pursuit and fled far away.
*I underestimated Tan Hao...*
Qin Sang frowned slightly in thought, yet he made no move to reveal himself, sitting tight like a patient angler.
The masked man surely had tricks of his own.
True to Qin Sang's expectations, though the masked man failed to flush out Tan Hao after a search, he showed no sign of impatience. Instead, a sinister sneer formed on his lips, and he retrieved a round mirror-like magic tool.
Pressing his index and middle fingers together, the man channeled his spiritual power and rapidly drew upon the round mirror.
Peculiar talismans sank into the mirror one after another, and the surface began to gleam. Gradually, the light grew increasingly dazzling, shining like a full moon.
Yet the masked man concealed all of this radiance, allowing not a glimmer to leak out.
As the final stroke fell, the masked man barked under his breath, "Rise!"
The round mirror flew from his palm at his command, ascending straight into the sky. It hung embedded in the night sky like a bright moon, its "moonlight" dispersing the surrounding mist.
Clear radiance showered down, instantly illuminating the surroundings as bright as day.
In the next instant, the man snapped his head to the left. There, between two ancient trees, an exceptionally faint phantom was creeping outward—who else could it be but Tan Hao?
Whatever method Tan Hao had used, he had concealed himself in the shadows, masking his aura to perfection as he slowly crept away.
At that moment, he was right at the edge of the "moonlight." Had the masked man acted just a moment slower, Tan Hao would have slipped away.
Unfortunately, there were no second chances.
Tan Hao had prepared an escape route in advance just in case, but he had never imagined that someone harbored ill intentions toward him, followed him, and dismantled his arrangement with such ease.
Suddenly exposed by the round mirror, Tan Hao felt a chill run down his spine, his hairs standing on end. He knew all too well that anyone capable of trailing him here without a sound and effortlessly ferreting him out had to possess a cultivation realm far surpassing his own.
Tan Hao did not even dare look back, not even knowing whom he had provoked. His form abruptly turned into a streak of escape light as he fled with all his might.
Though he knew the odds of escape were practically nil, he refused to give up so long as a sliver of hope remained.
Watching Tan Hao's fleeing streak of light, the masked man did not immediately give chase. Surprise flashed in his eyes, quickly overtaken by the fury of having been fooled. He was almost driven to exasperated laughter by the sight.
"Dammit, he's only in Qi Refinement!" the masked man cursed loudly.
No wonder the masked man was so enraged. Even Qin Sang had not expected that once Tan Hao unleashed his escape art at full strength, the true cultivation realm he exposed was merely the thirteenth layer of the Qi Refinement stage.
Had the masked man known earlier that Tan Hao was merely a Qi Refinement cultivator, he could have effortlessly captured him back on Stone Island. Why would he have needed to shadow him so cautiously for so long?
What had aided Tan Hao in disguising his aura was that strange mask.
Even Qin Sang had been deceived by him.
Qin Sang had seen magic tools or incantations capable of concealing an aura, but this was the first time he had ever seen a magic tool capable of masquerading as a higher realm, and doing so flawlessly.
That mask was truly extraordinary; even Qin Sang, who was already in the middle Foundation Establishment stage, had failed to notice anything amiss.
He wondered whether the late Foundation Establishment experts had detected it. Still, since Tan Hao dared to participate in the auction and the secret market, he must have possessed immense confidence in the mask's capability.
It certainly could not have escaped the eyes of Core Formation cultivators, but Core Formation cultivators would never demean themselves by making things difficult for him.
Such a disguise was paper-thin once tested, offering no actual boost to Tan Hao's strength.
Just like now, the moment Tan Hao engaged in combat or pushed his limits, his true depth was laid bare.
It was only because Stone Island was governed by the rules of Yinshan Pass, where cultivators exercised great restraint and rarely picked fights, and because Tan Hao never actively courted trouble, that he had kept up the deception until now without being unmasked.
Unable to sustain the mask any longer, Tan Hao's true face was also exposed to Qin Sang's view.
It truly was Tan Hao!
Compared to his days in the Kuiyin Sect, he looked much older and more weathered.
Qin Sang was already seventy. Tan Hao was only a few years younger than Qin Sang, yet he looked like a middle-aged man in his forties, appearing even older than Qin Sang.
For immortal cultivators, this was entirely normal. If Tan Hao remained unable to achieve Foundation Establishment, his aging would accelerate over the next twenty years, eventually turning him into a frail, white-haired old man.
Yet Tan Hao was already over sixty years old and still had not reached Foundation Establishment; his future hopes of breaking through were exceedingly slim.
Compared to his time in the Kuiyin Sect, Tan Hao's facial features had not changed drastically, allowing Qin Sang to recognize him at a glance.
The high spirits of Tan Hao's youth were completely gone. His face bore a weathered weariness that had never been there before, and his eyes held an exhaustion he could scarcely conceal, stirring a deep sigh within Qin Sang.
The immortal path pursued by cultivators was so ethereal and elusive. In truth, they were merely one of the myriad living beings struggling just to survive between heaven and earth.
The masked man cursed a few more times, then leisurely waited for Tan Hao to gain some distance before casually setting off in pursuit. In his eyes, the treasures on Tan Hao were already his for the taking.
Behind him, Qin Sang quietly followed, secretly summoning the ebony sword.
He had originally planned to let the masked man probe Tan Hao's background, but that was no longer necessary. In a clash between the two, Tan Hao would not even last a few exchanges before being slain by the masked man.
Chapter 332