Tailing

“She got into Felix's car? And Felix is leaving Sword Flower right now?” Outside Sword Flower University, inside an ordinary matte-black sedan, a black-haired young man clad in purple listened to his subordinate's report. “Looks like tonight's the night. Staking this place out for so many days has finally paid off.” He exhaled a long breath, pulled a cigarette from a metal case, and took a slow drag. As the car's ventilation system sucked the smoke away, he said, “Uncle Willer, please wake Uncle Coruno.” The middle-aged man in the back seat nodded and nudged the gaunt man beside him, whose eyes were closed. After a moment, the gaunt man opened his eyes, looking thoroughly annoyed. “I was just about to deduce the first affix...” “With your skills, stop pretending to be a detective and just brute-force it like an honest man,” the middle-aged man sneered. “You don't have the chops for this, you know?” “I'm a mystery novelist! How can I just brute-force dream bubbles every single time?” “But you write social mysteries!” “Are social mysteries not real mysteries?!” “All right, all right,” the black-haired young man said with a chuckle, the cigarette held between his fingers. “Felix has left Sword Flower. Time to make our move.” “Lerouche, are we really tailing Felix?” the middle-aged man asked gravely. “He is the second son of Vosloda, after all. If anything goes wrong...” “Not even Vosloda can stop our Valuda family from obtaining the secret to breaking through to Sanctuary!” Lerouche stubbed out his cigarette. Watching the silver sedan glide past them, he started the engine and trailed after it. “As long as we secure this secret, our Valuda family might just take that next step and become the Sixth Pillar of the Starry Country!” The people inside the car were none other than Lerouche Valuda and the Sanctuary Sorcerers ‘Barrage Meteor’ Willer and ‘Ashes’ Coruno! Willer was Lerouche's uncle and the Valuda family's Gun Sorcery Sanctuary; Coruno, meanwhile, was a Wind Sorcery Sanctuary who had accepted the Valuda family's patronage and become the son-in-law of Count Void Star! The Valuda family had only these two Sanctuaries. For them to cram themselves into this car and wait for days on end naturally meant they harbored nefarious intentions—they wanted to steal the secret of how the Sword Princess had advanced to Sanctuary in just half a year! To achieve this, Lerouche had deliberately joined the Swordsmanship Club and spent over half a month trying to get close to the Sword Princess. Yet he could never breach her personal boundaries. In the end, he had made a desperate gamble by confessing his feelings to break the ice, but the Sword Princess had a heart of stone; she wouldn't even hand him a friend-zone card. Yet beyond a frontal approach, the Valuda family had prepared covert moves. As the wealthiest among the newly risen nobility, Lerouche was unstinting with his pocketbook power. Under the guise of ‘courting the Sword Princess,’ he had bribed almost every student within five meters of her just to obtain her detailed schedule, hoping to deduce what secret method she used to advance so swiftly. As the investigation deepened, a suspicious figure entered their field of view: Felix Vosloda. If Felix were merely pestering Sonia, Lerouche might have assumed he was also courting the Sword Princess. The problem was that Felix actually rarely met Sonia face-to-face. More often than not, the moment Sonia left Forest Hall, Felix would enter right on her heels. Their schedules were identical, offset only by a slight time difference. And this wasn't a coincidence lasting a day or two; it had been an ongoing routine for over a month! If anything, Felix seemed more like a stalker. But the second son of Vosloda—how could he be so pathetic as to only dare tail a girl from afar? Not to mention that even Lerouche had heard of Felix's reputation as a playboy. As for whether Felix was also trying to steal the Sword Princess's secret technique, careful thought ruled that out as well—if her secret technique were kept anywhere she normally frequented, someone would have unearthed it on the very night the Meteor Tribulation concluded! Therefore, only one possibility remained: Felix and Sonia were communicating in secret! Lerouche had no idea how they specifically communicated, nor did he need to know. All he needed to know was that Felix was in on the secret! Thinking about it now, the reason no one could find the Sword Princess's secret technique was most likely that it wasn't on her at all. She was merely the product of the secret technique. The one who truly possessed the secret technique was probably Felix! Was it a fortuitous encounter from the Void Realm? Or Vosloda's latest research breakthrough? Either way, the Valuda family had to get a piece of the pie! It was precisely for this reason that ‘Barrage Meteor’ Willer and ‘Ashes’ Coruno had stayed holed up outside Sword Flower University with Lerouche for six days and six nights, waiting for an opportunity! Among the newly risen nobility, Count Void Star had reached the level of the Five Pillars in almost every respect. However, their high-tier combat power consisted of only two Sanctuaries, leaving them completely incomparable to the Five Pillars. Yet cultivating high-tier sorcerers took nearly a century across generations rather than a decade or two, and the overnight-wealthy Valuda family could not stomach such a protracted return on investment. They had certainly tried to poach Sanctuaries, but most Sanctuary Sorcerers cared little for gold or silver; they prioritized sorcery inheritances, such as the Vosloda family's Wave Swordsmanship. And what sorcery inheritance did the Valuda family have? None! Thus, upon learning of the Sword Princess's ‘half-year to Sanctuary,’ they had tried every conceivable way to win her over. Hearing that the Sword Princess admired Daidalos, they had poured money into Daidalos's new play without hesitation, specifically reserving a role for her, eager to corrupt this worldly naive Sanctuary Sorcerer with wealth! Yet the Sword Princess had turned down the offer! Beyond that were numerous other attempts, yet the Sword Princess had not responded to a single overture. Lerouche's initiative in approaching the Sword Princess had actually been born of desperation. Deep down, he detested mud-footed bumpkins of village girl origin like her. Even after becoming a Sanctuary Sorcerer, someone of her background carried a persistent air of cheapness in the way she spoke. Playing around with them occasionally in small towns was fine—a change of flavor, and in a way, doing a good deed by giving pretty country girls dreaming of marrying nobility and living in Jialesi a taste of that fantasy. But if he actually had to marry the Sword Princess, Lerouche would feel nothing but humiliation. Getting the secret technique from Felix was therefore ideal. The Sword Princess was merely a lucky beneficiary of that secret technique; stripped of it, she was nothing at all. *I will make you realize that turning down my goodwill at the Swordsmanship Club that day was the most regrettable decision of your life!* With a dark expression, Lerouche trailed the silver car from a distance, completely unafraid of being exposed. ‘Ashes’ Coruno was already casting the miracle ‘Slip Through the Night with the Wind,’ stirring a breeze capable of concealing all things. Amplified by the darkness of the night, they and their vehicle blended seamlessly into the gloom, undetectable even to detection miracles. Before long, the silver sedan left the urban district of Jialesi and arrived at a relatively remote factory. Excitement surged through Lerouche. “This must be the site where the secret technique is performed! Ready the recording gear. The moment we get inside, document every single layout and setup!” ‘Barrage Meteor’ Willer remained somewhat hesitant. “Won't this offend Vosloda...?” “Vosloda sits on a secret like this without sharing it—*they* are the ones offending every noble in the Starry Country! We only want to experience this technique ourselves, and it's not like we won't pay for it. Whatever resources this secret technique requires, our Valuda family will cover it all!” Lerouche said. “Once we know the secret technique, it'll be Vosloda begging us instead!” “Father has entrusted this matter entirely to me. Uncle Willer, Uncle Coruno, let's move!” Willer asked, “Should we contact the family head first?” The request was reasonable. Lerouche reined in his eagerness and activated his miracle bracelet, but soon shook his head. “No, there seems to be jamming equipment nearby. The miracle bracelet can't connect to the outside world—Vosloda really spared no expense to conceal this place.” “Wait, jamming equipment often scans for all signals in the area. They might have already noticed uninvited guests! We can't wait any longer!” Willer and Coruno exchanged a glance and nodded. Together with Lerouche, they made a decisive move into the factory. Casting a miracle to reveal the tracks left after Felix exited the vehicle, they quickly discovered a hidden underground passage! They arrived before an iron door. Exchanging glances, the three powered on all their recording devices and breached the door! The secret technique was definitely inside! *** Void Realm, Distant Sky Realm, Illusory Bubble. “A hollow hole the size of an eye in the left palm, and whoever is gazed upon cannot move... That's the Four Pillar Cult's ‘Stunning Eye’!” Cult leader Yaxiu provided an official confirmation: “Your classmate is a Four Pillar Cultist!” Sonia nodded. “You mentioned before that you were once restrained by the Stunning Eye. I remembered right away.” Diya asked nervously, “Then you didn't join them, did you, Sword Princess? Those people are all wicked villains!” “Of course not.” Sonia shook her head. “Although Felix's offer was indeed very tempting, every Four Pillar Cultist you've ever run into was scum that devoured people whole without spitting out the bones. Am I really going to get lucky and bump into a good branch of the Four Pillar Cult? Rather than gamble on that kind of luck, I'd rather bet on a certain someone suddenly becoming faithful and devoted.” Yaxiu scratched his head. Weise suddenly spoke up. “If you were immobilized and unable to channel sorcery power, couldn't he have simply taken you away?” “Yeah, I thought I was going to be taken away too,” Sonia said. “But it's not like I had no way to fight back... Hah!” A valiant swordswoman sorcery spirit manifested in her palm—Wave Sword. “The instant I was immobilized, Wave Sword leaped out and stabbed Felix for me. The wound was pretty serious, but I didn't apologize—he's the one who ambushed me,” Sonia scoffed. “Once his palm moved away, the effect of the Stunning Eye wore off. I told him I'd think it over, then walked away.” “Right now, he's probably looking for someone to treat his injury.” *** Lerouche, ‘Barrage Meteor’ Willer, and ‘Ashes’ Coruno burst through the iron door and immediately operated their recording gear to capture everything inside. Only, contrary to the ‘secret technique chamber’ they had envisioned, what met their eyes was a grand and solemn underground hall. Bizarre, eerie murals covered both walls, opulent and dazzling chandeliers hung throughout the hall, and four towering statues stood in the four corners: a valiant general, a refined middle-aged scholar, a kindly old man, and a pure maiden. “...?” Inside the hall, more than a dozen Four Pillar Cult sorcerers stared at the three uninvited guests. A profound chill surged up Lerouche's spine and spread through his entire body. He swallowed hard, legs trembling violently, an unspeakable terror clutching his heart in a vise—he realized that among these dozen-odd sorcerers, he recognized every single one besides Felix. What was more, Felix was the weakest among them. The rest were either celebrities frequently featured in the news or top-tier sorcerers whom even his father, Count Void Star, had to curry favor with! At that moment, Felix was clutching her eye as blood poured steadily from between her fingers. Tonight was a routine gathering of the Four Pillar Cult. She had thought she would surely convince Sonia this time; with the two occasions aligning, she could have brought Sonia along to formally join the cult. Unexpectedly, Sonia had not agreed after all, and Felix had ended up getting her eye pierced by Sonia's sorcery spirit instead. Felix hadn't bothered finding a healer either; any of the uncles and aunts here could easily heal her eye. However... “I'm sorry,” Felix said with deep guilt. “It seems I led them here.” “It doesn't matter. All external signals are jammed here.” A female sorcerer beside her reached out, healed Felix's eye, and said gently, “We can still remedy this.” The gazes of these celebrity sorcerers—so genial and amiable in the public eye—turned cold, cruel, and sinister as they looked upon Lerouche and his companions. Willer and Coruno erected their Sanctuaries at once, but this barrier capable of defending against anything brought them little sense of security. Not daring to turn their backs on these people, they slowly retreated, trying to back out of the underground hall. Lerouche trembled uncontrollably within the Sanctuary. Willer and Coruno were pale as paper, dripping with cold sweat, their hearts pounding in terror! They had already realized that they had stumbled upon an unimaginable secret. Yet there was still a chance. They were Sanctuary Sorcerers, tactical weapons—they wouldn't die here so easily— “Oh? Guests tonight?” Someone was behind them! And just one person! In a flash of lightning, Willer and Coruno acted with seamless coordination, striking simultaneously at the newcomer behind them. As long as they took this person hostage as a shield, they could cover their retreat and escape— “Greetings, Seat of Touch.” In the split second before losing consciousness, they heard those celebrity sorcerers greeting the figure in reverent awe.