57 Following the trail (1/2)

Bai Yun stood up and quickly walked to the innermost area. As he walked, he felt two more of his marks disappear. By the time he reached the innermost area, only half of the stone seats were left.

Bai Yun had changed his appearance by then. He reached the entrance of the innermost rea in no time. Once inside, Bai Yun sat down on one of the stone seats and pretended to absorb the flames. He even pretended that he was finding it a bit difficult to do so. But in truth, Bai Yun was having all of his senses spread around the innermost area trying to find the person who took the stone seats.

Bai Yun immediately locked onto one person. He was walking around carelessly looking as if he was also trying to look into the mystery of the hell pit. But Bai Yun only smirked when he saw his acting.

According to the Assassin God, all assassins had to be good actors. Sneaking in and killing someone was only a single way to kill someone. Sometimes the easiest way to get inside a target's place of living was to be invited in. At those times you would need to blend in seamlessly, lest doubt arise. Only such an assassin was worthy of the name. Thus this philosophy, along with the ability of the Assassin God's technique meant there were lots of teachings on acting in the legacy. Bai Yun scoffed when he saw the way the person was moving. It was amateurish at best.

When the mysterious stranger faced him, Bai Yun quickly used the recording jade to capture his face. Then Bai Yun watched as he neared a stone he had marked and bent over as if to inspect the seat. People were used to this by now and simply turned away. Bai Yun was the only person paying attention to him. Thinking that no one was watching him, Bai Yun watched as he quickly replaced the stone with a stone of his own with practiced ease. The flame barely flickered when the switch was made. It was not his first time he had done this.

Bai Yun watched as he went around the room replacing the stone seats. All this time, Bai Yun was doing pretty well with his acting. Bai Yun had deduced the time the stranger would take in order to finish up and leave, and Bai Yun was acting so that he could give up and leave alongside him. He was pretending to be sweating and shaking with pain by then.

Soon enough, the stranger had finished collecting all the stones and started to leave, while pretending to be saddened by the fact that he couldn't find any clues.

Bai Yun watched as he got closer, and got up from his seat. He was sitting only a short distance from the entrance, so the stranger would have to pass through him to get to the door. Bai Yun sighed, got up and moved to the door. He was hobbling the whole time he was on his way. The two of them reached the door at the same time. Then Bai Yun pretended to stumble and fell towards the stranger. The stranger reached out to hold him instinctively.

”Thanks.” Bai Yun mumbled.

”It's okay. First time here?” The stranger smiled as he looked at Bai Yun. Now that he had completed his mission, he was quite free and relaxed. He had been doing this for months and had not run into any problems. Thus his confidence had grown.

”Is it that obvious?” Bai Yun smiled.

”There are not a lot of people who cannot handle the flames here once they get used to it. You are the exception here.” He laughed.

Bai Yun thanked the stranger for one final time, and the two of them quickly separated. Bai Yun took a step back to inspect the place where the closest marked stone was, only to see that it was replaced by an empty stone. Bai Yun slowly made his way through the floor and exited the hell pit. By then not only had he lost the stranger, but he had also returned to his original looks.

As he stood there Bai Yun smiled as he felt the tracking mark that he had placed on the stranger.

There was no way that the Assassin God's legacy did not have a tracking technique. The stumble and fall of Bai Yun were intentional. He had used that time to place the racking mark on the stranger. It was a complex mark that could only be placed by someone who cultivated in all three paths at the same time. There was no way that anyone at the qi step could see through the tracking mark.

But there were indeed some faults with the technique. The distance the mark could be tracked was not too great, and you needed to have physical contact to place the track, at least in the initial stages of cultivation.

Bai Yun looked at the direction the tracking mark was pointing to. With a start, Bai Yun realized that it was going to the place where one could take a clan bus. There was no way Bai Yun could allow the stranger to escape his range. So he cast wind motion and chased after the stranger.

Bai Yun reached him just as the clan bus was arriving. Bai Yun had changed his appearance and clothing by now, so he did not recognize him. Bai Yun entered the same bus as the stranger. To Bai Yun's surprise, he realized that the bus was heading towards the gates of the Bai clan. He used his soul tendril to keep track of the stranger. He saw that the stranger was heading outside the clan.

Bai Yun frowned when he saw this. This meant that whichever force was responsible for the theft of the hellfire was not internal to the clan. This did not bode well.

The bus reached the gate of the Bai clan after some time. By now dusk had fallen. Bai Yun left the Bai clan following the stranger.