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Qing Xuanling grabbed Qing Huayan's wrist and leapt onto a nearby rooftop. Most of the houses belonging to mortals did not exceed two stories, so it wasn't very difficult.
She landed on the roof alongside her clan companion, a year her junior, and briefly glanced down at the street where several figures were starting to run to catch up with them.
She gave her companions one last look before dragging Qing Huayan along as she fled.
They ran so fast that none of the Ink Sword Sect's enforcers could catch up to them.
The situation at Ji Mimi's house was similar. The hunting hounds failed to stop the Qing clan members from escaping.
Qing Muyu and Qing Tanwei were the ones who took the twins and fled separately. The rest escaped on their own.
The hunting hounds desperately tried to stop them by attacking with their broadswords, but instead of halting them, they only ended up taking blows wreathed in fire or meeting sudden deaths.
Qing Hanlin had stopped holding back.
He attacked with his rapier, which seemed to vanish through the air, and killed two hunting hounds on the spot, opening an escape route for everyone.
Everyone seized the opportunity and fled in all directions, killing several Ink Sword Sect enforcers along the way.
The street in front of Ji Mimi's house fell into a tomb-like silence after everyone left. Several minutes later, when all movement had ceased, Cheng Yogun's lifeless body suddenly stirred.
His face was utterly calm as he rose from the ground. He brushed off a shoe print from his chest and sighed.
"What exactly does the Master want with those kids...? He doesn't want to kill them, but they don't seem useful to him either. Is it really just a game?"
Bewilderment flashed in Cheng Yogun's eyes, but he quickly regained his composure. He pulled out his communication artifact and began issuing several orders.
"Have half the battalion withdraw. I will personally participate in this hunt; your involvement is no longer necessary..."
Cheng Yogun swiftly gave a series of orders, ensuring his men couldn't actually catch the Qing clan members while still applying enough pressure.
It took him at least five minutes, making sure nothing happened outside his plans. When he finished, his empty gaze turned toward the houses of several mortals.
His eyes gleamed with a sinister light.
"It's a waste to let good food go to waste..."
His voice, devoid of all emotion, was enough to send chills down anyone's spine.
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"Sixth Sister, are you feeling better?" Qing Xuanling looked at Qing Huayan with concern as they rested in a fairly secluded alley after losing their pursuers. "I think I ran too fast..."
Qing Huayan wiped the sweat from her forehead and shook her head.
"You ran quite fast, naturally. You're a body cultivator. It would be strange if I had managed to keep up with your pace, but don't worry, it's better this way. I don't think I could have escaped so easily without you..."
Although Qing Huayan was the youngest of them all and the most lively and curious member of the group, she was strangely sensible. Overall, she was quite a reliable companion.
'Though what she said is true. We managed to lose our pursuers too easily...'
She couldn't help but smell something strange about all this, but no matter how much she thought about it, she couldn't find an answer. In the end, she concluded that the Ink Sword Sect was simply somewhat mediocre at chasing people down.
As for their reputation of having the best hunting hounds in the entire city, she attributed it to the diviners the Ink Sword Sect possessed, which, as far as she knew, wasn't particularly well-known. At least none of her companions were aware of such a thing.
Perhaps the clan didn't know about the Ink Sword Sect's diviners either.
Qing Xuanling sighed deeply. The waters of Ziyu City ran much deeper than she had expected. Alliances, demonic cultivators, mysterious hidden forces, and even diviners. None of these were good news for the Qing clan.
"Ninth Sister, hasn't anyone ever told you that you tend to get lost in your thoughts too often?" Qing Huayan smiled as she lightly tapped Qing Xuanling's forehead. "I feel like you worry too much about things beyond your control~ Shouldn't we be thinking about how to reunite with the others now or to reach the place those loose cultivators told you about?"
Qing Xuanling's expression froze, briefly stunned.
"Haha, I guess I'm a bit obvious." She couldn't help but smile. "You're right, I should focus on how to get out of this now."
Their situation wasn't exactly bad, but it wasn't good either. Though they were no longer being pursued, they could still occasionally hear the Ink Sword Sect enforcers passing by.
It was obvious they hadn't abandoned their search yet. If they let their guard down, they'd be in trouble again.
"The main problem we have is how to reach the location those rogue cultivators gave me without them discovering us..." Qing Xuanling got a headache. She wasn't exactly skilled at infiltration.
"I think I have a solution for that." Qing Huayan smiled. She crouched down and began making strange sounds with her mouth while tapping her finger lightly on the ground.
Qing Xuanling watched with perplexity. She could sense that Qing Huayan was using a technique at that moment, but she couldn't grasp what kind.
Just as she was about to ask what she was doing, the ground in front of Qing Huayan began to tremble.
The stones forming the floor beneath them both began to crumble as a furry heads emerged from the ground!
Qing Xuanling's eyes widened.
"M-moles?"
Qing Huayan laughed as she petted the several moles that came out of the ground. "They're my pets. They're beasts that haven't become spiritual beasts yet, so cultivators don't usually pay much attention to them. That's also why I was able to tame them so easily!"
The corners of Qing Xuanling's lips twitched as she looked at the dozen moles in front of Qing Huayan.
The moles didn't look particularly threatening; on the contrary, they were somewhat cute. Their dark brown fur and star-shaped noses were especially charming. But Qing Xuanling's sharp eyes caught something.
'Their claws have a metallic gleam! These moles are certainly on the verge of becoming spiritual beasts; they can no longer be considered mortal animals!'
Qing Xuanling crouched down and discreetly petted one of the moles, which welcomed the stroke gladly. She asked Qing Huayan with a serene expression, suppressing her smile at the mole's cuteness.
"Won't it be dangerous to have these little ones as our scouts? The people of the Ink Sword Sect are all ruthless bastards. They won't hesitate to kill them, no matter how cute they are."
"You're a bit naive, Ninth Sister." Qing Huayan laughed. "How common do you think beast tamers are? I don't think there's anyone else in the city besides me. If it weren't so rare, the clan wouldn't consider me on the same level as monsters like you or the rest!"
"I don't think those people are so idle as to attack such small animals! They probably just mistake them for rats or something!"
Qing Huayan smiled proudly. She had always felt a bit bad about being the weakest in their group. After all, she possessed the lowest cultivation alongside Qing Xuanling, being at the fourth layer of Qi Refinement.
Though it might not be so unusual considering she was also the youngest of them all, she had grown up receiving abundant resources from a young age, unlike Qing Xuanling. The fact that she remained at the fourth layer despite all that was entirely due to her mixed spiritual roots.
Someone with such talent would naturally not be highly valued by the clan.
And yet, the clan regarded her on the same level as Qing Xuanling and the others.
All for one reason: Her talent in the path of beast taming.
A talent rarely seen in the city, and even rarer in the Qing clan. Qing Huayan was likely the first person with such talent since the clan's founding.
And today, she finally had the chance to prove how useful she could be. It was only natural that she was radiant.
Qing Xuanling chuckled lightly. "Hehe, Sixth Sister is undoubtedly quite interesting! Alright, let's proceed with your plan. Let these little ones guide us!"
"Yes, ma'am!" Qing Huayan smiled and gave a military salute. "Little earth-diggers, split up and find a route where no one is passing to reach this location!"
The moles, measuring at most fifteen centimeters, imitated Qing Huayan's military salute and scurried into the alley, dispersing.
Qing Xuanling watched the scene with curiosity and a bit of disbelief. "Aren't they pretty smart?"
"Haha, no, they're not that impressive; it took me three months to teach them that salute~" Qing Huayan shyly stuck out her tongue. "They're only so obedient thanks to a beast taming technique my parents bought for me. With it, I can send them easy-to-understand mental commands."
Qing Xuanling sighed in awe. She finally understood why it seemed that something was missing from Qing Huayan's orders. "What an incredible technique! It's practically magical...!"
Qing Huayan's eyes shone as she nodded. "Of course it's incredible! Though my parents sought out the technique, it was the clan that provided most of the funds! Although, well, I'm not really the person the clan has invested the most in. The cultivation techniques of the other brothers and sisters were also acquired at a high price by the clan."
Surprise appeared on Qing Xuanling's face this time. "Seriously? As far as I know, all their techniques are of high quality, at least Profound Grade! A Profound Grade technique alone is enough to serve as the foundational inheritance of a small Foundation Establishment family or sect!"
Qing Huayan rolled her eyes. "Seriously, you hadn't realized that? You're a bit slow on these things, Ninth Sister. Don't forget that the clan currently focuses its teachings on the fire element. Even though it's only because we're especially skilled in artifact refinement and alchemy, our repertoire of non-fire techniques is quite scarce."
"Do you really think the clan would have had techniques suited to the other brothers and sisters talents?"
Qing Xuanling's ears reddened slightly. She had to admit it made sense. The techniques and elements used by the other brothers and sisters were quite diverse and unique. It was truly impossible that the clan would have had cultivation or combat techniques for them from the start.
Still, she couldn't help but be impressed by the funds the clan spent on their geniuses. Profound Rank techniques were often invaluable, treasures sought after by hundreds of desperate and eager cultivators.
That the clan spent so much effort and money showed just how much importance they placed on nurturing geniuses. It also showed they were actually hiding certain things from the other forces in the city...
'It's impossible for a clan with only nine or ten cultivators in the Foundation Establishment realm to acquire so many legacy-worthy techniques... Sigh, the depths of those old fogies run much deeper than I can imagine.'
At first, she had thought the Ink Sword Sect was quite sinister for hiding the existence of their diviners, but now it seemed her beloved clan wasn't much better...
Qing Huayan hadn't been idle while Qing Xuanling got lost in her thoughts once again.
She had been exchanging telepathic messages with the little earth-diggers. Though the distance had already stretched to over two hundred meters, a rather crazy distance for telepathic communication, Qing Huayan was a genius in her own field.
She had managed to modify her beast control technique so the beasts could send telepathic messages to each other, meaning even if one exceeded her maximum limit of fifty meters, the little earth-diggers could create an invisible network that extended Qing Huayan's information gathering range several times its original size!
At this moment, Qing Huayan's head was filled with fragmented information arriving every few seconds. Though she had managed to train the little earth-diggers to send more complete information than usual, she couldn't perform miracles either.
The little moles weren't very smart to begin with. The fact that they could manage to send which paths they had taken and which people they had seen was already quite incredible.
The task of organizing and processing the information fell entirely on Qing Huayan.
Sweat trickled down her forehead as she concentrated. Half an hour passed as Qing Huayan expended more and more divine sense, the main driver of her beast control technique.
Qing Xuanling noticed this and quickly searched something her spatial bag: A pill bottle.
She quickly took out a light blue pill from the bottle and placed it in Qing Huayan's mouth. "It's a Nascent River Pill, a pill that increases divine sense recovery by a tenth and halves the rate at which it's depleted!"
The Nascent River Pill was one of the most difficult medium-grade pills to refine, but in Xuan Dan's eyes, it was child's play! So Qing Xuanling had several bottles of this pill in her storage bag!
"Thanks, Ninth Sister, I'm almost done here...!" Qing Huayan smiled weakly.
The eastern district of Ziyu City was quite extensive to begin with, with countless roads and alleys. Moreover, the Ink Sword Sect's surveillance was rather strict, with at least one black-clad enforcer watching every few streets.
The only good thing was that the fools didn't bother to patrol and just stayed in one place, watching their surroundings. Otherwise, Qing Huayan's task would be several times more complicated!
And yet, it took her another ten minutes to finally find a clear route to a place that was just under two li (less than a kilometer) away!
"Finally!" Qing Huayan collapsed onto the ground when she finished, exhausted. "I've found the route, we can leave immediately!"
Qing Xuanling briefly patted Qing Huayan's head. "Well done. We'll start moving in ten minutes. You need to rest too. You can do a final check of the route once you recover."
Qing Huayan didn't refuse and quickly sat in a lotus position, focusing on recovering her divine sense. She got up exactly ten minutes later.
"Let's go." She took the lead and quickly guided them along the route she had found.
They moved at high speed, no longer needing to slow down due to potential surprise attacks. On top of that, along the way they encountered several of Qing Huayan's moles. She patted them on the head and ordered them to return underground.
As the two of them advanced, the other team members were also making their way using various methods, each at different speeds and facing different difficulties.
But though undoubtedly, Qing Xuanling and Qing Huayan were the fastest. None of the others had arrived at the meeting point when the two of them got there.
The meeting point was, naturally, the place that the loose cultivators told Qing Xuanling about.
Qing Xuanling looked around, which turned out to be a small market selling low-grade items or defective goods that most people wouldn't want to use.
"... People in the world aren't stupid. With the Ink Sword Sect people being as arrogant as they are, it's impossible they'd set foot in a place like this." Qing Xuanling sighed.
Qing Huayan scoffed outright. "Their arrogance will be their downfall one day; it's no wonder they already have small and big problems for being so haughty!"
Qing Xuanling smiled and stepped into the market while looking for a specific place.
Several male cultivators tried to approach them, but a single murderous glance from Qing Xuanling scared them off. There was no one particularly skilled in such a rundown market.
Both ignored the street stalls and reached the deepest part of the market, where even common stones were sold as if they were celestial materials. Basically a place for scams.
Several outrageous offers reached the two girls' ears, though they ignored them all decisively. The merchants' silver tongues were so smooth that Qing Huayan had hesitated over whether it was a good idea to buy something or not.
Luckily, Qing Xuanling stopped her and led her to a small fabric shop at the end, where a wrinkled old man sat, displaying his wares: Wooden figurines of various things.
There were even ones of cultivators, demonic beasts, or spiritual beasts.
And in reality, they were of quite good quality.
"Ninth Sister, this mole looks so pretty...! I want it!" Qing Huayan's eyes sparkled.
Qing Xuanling smiled bitterly and ignored Qing Huayan for the moment. Instead, she sat down in front of the old man's stall and murmured as quietly as she could.
"The stained heavenly ink defiles the sky and earth, the great scholars bear crippled hands, and all living beings endure a thousand calamities..."