Chapter 484: Chapter 413: Offense and Defense

The full-figured woman in the white dress had only just left the grounds of the County Magistrate’s Office. After a few leaps across the sprawling rooftops, she had crossed two fairly wide streets.

Suddenly.

An icy chill, like prickles on her back, rose from the depths of her being without warning.

This was not killing intent, but a pure, malicious sense of being watched—as if a pair of eyes in the shadows was firmly locked onto her every move.

’I’m being watched!’

She knew all too well where this feeling was coming from.

Less than an hour ago, she had used this very same method to lock onto the man from the deal, tracking him all the way to the County Magistrate’s Office.

’But how long has it been?’

In the blink of an eye, the tables had turned.

Now, she was the one being hunted.

’Who is it? An accomplice he called for?’

’Or is there another player in the game, the proverbial oriole to my mantis?’

For a moment, shock, anger, and confusion flooded her mind.

The full-figured woman in the white dress stopped abruptly, her feet planted on the flying eave of a pavilion.

Sword in hand, she stood on high alert, her lightning-sharp gaze scanning the surrounding darkness.

Her Divine Sense surged outwards like a tide, instantly blanketing an area hundreds of feet in every direction.

The string and bamboo music from a distant brothel, the sleep-talk of the citizens, the night watchman’s wooden clapper, the calls of night birds...

But she detected no powerful or unusual auras of any Martial Artists.

The heart of the full-figured woman in white sank.

The county town was densely populated, its ambient auras already a chaotic mess.

If her opponent was deliberately concealing their aura to appear no different from a common person, it would indeed be difficult for her to pinpoint their location in a short amount of time.

"Martial Aunt, what’s wrong?"

Seeing this, the tall woman who had been following close behind landed beside her and asked in a low voice.

"We’re being watched."

The full-figured woman in white sent a voice transmission, her tone laced with an icy chill.

The tall woman was taken aback, clearly surprised.

She couldn’t understand who, in a small place like Jiangkou County Town, could make her Martial Aunt—a Grandmaster—react as if she were facing a powerful foe.

She immediately asked in surprise, "Is it... the man from the deal?"

The full-figured woman in white shook her head. "This person’s Cultivation is no weaker than my own. It’s not likely to be him. But even if it isn’t, he’s almost certainly connected to this."

The tall woman frowned. "Then should we still go to Hongyan Pavilion and capture those two?"

The full-figured woman in white sneered. "It doesn’t matter. Since he’s locked onto us but hasn’t made a move, he must not want to cause a scene in this crowded town. If that man could slip away like a cicada shedding its shell, then so can we. Let’s go. We’ll head back to Hongyan Pavilion first. When the others arrive, we’ll strike with lightning speed and eliminate them all."

"Yes," the tall woman replied with a nod, asking no further questions.

"Let’s take the alleys. The rooftops are too conspicuous."

The full-figured woman in white’s figure floated down from the eave, landing silently in a narrow, secluded alley below that was cluttered with miscellaneous junk.

The tall woman followed close behind.

The alley was long and dark, flanked by high courtyard walls. The moonlight only illuminated a thin sliver down the center, leaving most of it shrouded in deep shadows.

The two women had just landed, their footsteps light, and were preparing to move on.

Suddenly.

About fifty feet ahead, toward the alley’s exit, a figure emerged from the shadows near a corner without any warning.

He just stood there silently, perfectly blocking their path.

He appeared at the precise moment they had just regained their composure and were about to move—not a second sooner, not a second later.

The full-figured woman in white froze, her entire aura instantly stretched taut, her gaze fixed on the figure blocking their path.

Cold moonlight slanted in from the alley’s narrow entrance.

He wore an unremarkable gray robe, had a somewhat stocky build, and wore a plain wooden mask.

’Who else could it be but the man from the deal at Hongyan Pavilion?!’

However, what made her heart pound and her pupils shrink was that the faint, ambiguous Void Transformation aura he’d had on him before had now vanished without a trace.

In its place was an aura as deep as an abyss and as profound as the ocean—an obscure presence that, even when she probed with the full force of her Guiyuan Divine Sense, was like a clay ox sinking into the sea, completely impenetrable.

’What "Void Transformation" weakness? He was clearly hiding his true Cultivation!’

’I’ve been tricked!’

The expression of the full-figured woman in white changed drastically, her voice becoming as cold as winter ice.

"Who... exactly are you?"

The newcomer was, of course, Chen Li.

Earlier, back at the County Magistrate’s Office, when the full-figured woman in white had ordered a high-profile search, he hadn’t fled. Instead, he had used Qi Concealment to hide on the ground floor of County Magistrate Feng Zijing’s personal residence.

Right under their noses.

How would the government constables ordered to conduct the search dare to do a thorough job on the County Magistrate’s own home?

They were just going through the motions, doing a sloppy, perfunctory job.

This allowed him to easily evade what had appeared to be a meticulous manhunt.

"What’s this? You two don’t even know who I am, yet you dare to plot a double-cross... Who gave you the courage?"

Chen Li stood in the alley with his hands clasped behind his back, his gaze piercing through his mask as he answered her question with one of his own.

"You!"

The full-figured woman in white hadn’t expected Chen Li to expose their intentions so directly and with such scathing words. She was momentarily flustered, her embarrassment quickly boiling over into fury.

"What double-cross?! Watch your mouth! How dare you make such baseless accusations!"

"Baseless accusations?"

Upon hearing this, Chen Li simply let out a cool laugh.

"The moment I left Hongyan Pavilion, you locked onto me with your Guiyuan Divine Sense and began to trail me. You even coerced a Court official, throwing the County Magistrate’s Office into chaos... All this effort, such persistence..."

His gaze grew cold. "Could it be that you’ve taken a liking to me and followed me all this way to confess your feelings? If you wanted to double-cross me, just say it. Why be so shy about it? You’re an old maid of seventy or eighty; do you really think you’re some innocent, thin-skinned virgin?"

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