Chapter 55: Escape

Ma Mingyuan strode quickly down the streets of Cangxing City’s outer city.

After he had emerged from the secret realm, he had burned his blood essence without the slightest hesitation and successfully escaped from the many cultivators coveting the Sword-Nurturing Gourd.

Once he returned home, it took him several days to make up for the blood essence he had lost.

After his body recovered, he altered his appearance, disguised himself, and smoothly sold the Sword-Nurturing Gourd, exchanging it for many spirit pills and talismans, as well as a protective ritual implement.

As for the few paper slips that had come with the gourd, he kept them for the time being. He planned to wait until the turmoil over the secret realm had passed and his own cultivation had improved before selling them.

With the help of the first-rank and second-rank pills he had obtained in exchange for the Sword-Nurturing Gourd, his cultivation quickly reached the bottleneck of mid-stage Qi Refining. He could break through to high-level Qi Refining at any time.

As his thoughts drifted, Ma Mingyuan unknowingly arrived at the entrance of his home.

He gathered his focus and carefully opened the door. From the doorway, he pulled out a thin strand of hair. There were no signs that it had been broken.

Immediately after, he took out a long-nosed exotic beast and had it sniff all around the room. It did not detect any trace of anyone having come in.

The door had not been opened, and there was no aura left behind by a cultivator inside the room. Ma Mingyuan felt much more at ease, though out of habit, he continued sprinkling a thin layer of silver sand over the floor.

“Mm?”

He let out a soft sound of surprise, then slowly crouched where he stood. In the silver sand on the ground, several faint footprints had appeared. Judging by the pattern of the soles, they did not belong to the shoes he usually wore.

“Someone’s been here! And they weren’t here to steal. They came purely for me.”

Ma Mingyuan’s heart went on high alert.

“The hair at the door hasn’t changed. That either means the intruder used some method to enter through the roof or pass through the wall, or they discovered the hair I arranged and restored it to its original state when they left. Add in the fact that they deliberately erased the lingering aura in the room, and it’s basically certain they came prepared.”

“Only, he—or they—didn’t expect my precautions to have already reached the level of counter-surveillance.”

Ma Mingyuan’s method of scattering silver sand on the floor was something he had learned back in the mortal world. It did not involve spirit energy or spiritual sense. It relied purely on his own eyes and the experience he had built up over time.

He carefully inspected the arrangement of the room again and found no signs that any objects had been disturbed.

“Not for wealth, then mainly for the person.”

After making that judgment in his heart, Ma Mingyuan immediately realized the dangerous situation he was currently in.

In the darkness, something seemed to be secretly watching him.

He calmed his mind, carefully observed his surroundings, and after confirming that he was not under surveillance, went to the side room next door.

He moved aside a wooden table, then dug out more than ten stacked earthen bricks and opened a wooden door that had been closed downward, revealing a pitch-black hidden passage inside.

When he had chosen his residence in the outer city, he had already considered this sort of problem. Ten zhang from the residence was an artificial stream. In his spare time, Ma Mingyuan had dug a hidden passage between the residence and the stream.

The hidden passage was concealed and buried extremely deep. Unless a high-level Qi Refining cultivator used spiritual sense to search inch by inch, it would be very difficult to discover its existence.

“After preparing for so long, it’s finally come in useful. Unfortunately, this hidden passage can only be used once. After this, it won’t be very effective anymore.”

Ma Mingyuan used the Turtle Breath Art, held his breath, focused his mind, and slipped into the dark passage.

Not far from his residence, two mid-stage Qi Refining cultivators were constantly monitoring the activity inside Ma Mingyuan’s room.

On the other side, two more mid-stage Qi Refining cultivators were standing ready in full formation, not daring to be careless in the slightest.

The four mid-stage Qi Refining cultivators were split into two groups. Even if Ma Mingyuan grew wings, he would not be able to escape.

“I really don’t know what the higher-ups are thinking. It’s just monitoring a single mid-stage Qi Refining cultivator, yet they actually sent four cultivators of the same level. Don’t they think that’s too wasteful?”

“I heard this person has a great deal to do with a secret realm. Stay sharp and don’t be careless. If he escapes, we won’t have any good fruit to eat.”

The other person kept his eyes fixed on the direction of Ma Mingyuan’s residence as he spoke flatly.

“This guy really is alert. He actually set up a little trap at the door. Luckily, Senior Brother, you were one step better. You found that strand of hair, and when you left, you even used a spirit beast to erase the aura.”

“Mm.”

“Once the Foundation Establishment Uncle-Master arrives, we’ll be free. We’ve made a great contribution this time. Uncle-Master will definitely reward us well.”

“Say, don’t you think that cultivator called Ma Mingyuan is being a little too quiet?”

…

In a crude room at the very edge of the outer city, Ma Mingyuan sat cross-legged on the ground, carefully thinking over whether he had exposed any flaws.

Because this room was located at the outermost edge of the outer city, the rent was much cheaper than the previous one. He had rented it as a precaution against unexpected need.

He basically came and went alone. Only he knew the location of this safe house, and he rarely came here in normal times.

At this moment, his figure was more than two inches taller than before, and his appearance and bearing had also changed greatly. His face now gave off a gloomy, ruthless impression.

This was a disguise cultivation method he had learned back in the mortal world. He used internal force to alter his bones and muscles, while the art of disguise changed his features and bearing. His entire person had undergone a complete transformation.

On the physical level, he relied on this disguise method. As for his spiritual power aura, he had the Turtle Breath Art previously taught to him by the Paper Figure, which could conceal his aura very well.

He hid in this room for three days. Only when he saw that no one had pursued him did he finally feel completely at ease.

“Who exactly has set their sights on me?”

Ma Mingyuan pondered silently in his heart.

“An old grudge? Not very likely. I haven’t offended that many people. Either they don’t know my real identity, or I killed them.”

“A new grudge? If it’s some newly formed enmity, then what caused it?”

“The greatest possibility is that secret realm I entered the last two times. Someone may be coveting the third-rank Sword-Nurturing Gourd in my hands. After all, for the Qi Refining stage, the value of that spiritual herb is far too high.

“It may also have something to do with the secret realm paper slips I sold last time. Previously, too few cultivators knew about the secret realm, and the value shown by the secret realm wasn’t considered high either, so there weren’t many people paying attention to me.

“But now it’s different. A secret realm capable of producing a third-rank Sword-Nurturing Gourd can’t be said to have low value. The value of that mysterious Paper Figure and the paper slips has risen with the tide as well.

“If someone wants to obtain information on the secret realm and the Paper Figure, then in the eyes of interested parties, I’m probably the breakthrough point.”

Ma Mingyuan sighed inwardly. It seemed he would have to handle the few paper slips in his possession with great caution. The slightest carelessness, any mishandling at all, could possibly bring him a disaster that would wipe him out.

However, he did not regret it. After all, he had gained far too much from the secret realm and the Paper Figure.

Whether it was the Turtle Breath Art he had used when escaping, or the pills that helped him cultivate and were about to let him break through to high-level Qi Refining, or talismans, ritual implements, and the like, all of these were things that, as an independent cultivator, he could usually only dream of.

“Senior Paper Figure has shown me great kindness. I must do what it instructed me to do, and I have to do it even better than it asked.

“The paper slips must be handled properly, but before that, the most important thing is still to raise my cultivation to high-level Qi Refining.

“In Cangxing City, high-level Qi Refining counts as a power above the middle tier in the city. It can be said that with that, I’ll have the ability to protect myself inside the city.”

Ma Mingyuan understood this clearly in his heart. He took out a blue-black pill and swallowed it.

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