An hour later, Zhao Xieren sighed as she finally made up her mind. 

“Let’s go with this route. We’ll head to the right side instead of the left since the right side is closer to the city,” Zhao Xieren said as she pointed to the map. While travelling towards the Zhao Family camp, they had traveled in a southeastern direction. As such, Zhao Xieren decided to focus on going back west. 

“Alright, that sounds good,” Qian Yu nodded. 

“Like this, we’ll be able to reach an intersection from where these three entrances meet up while avoiding possible enemy confrontations. There’s also this route that goes to an intersection with four entrances, but there was a battle there between our men recently so I doubt Sun Hong had gone this way,” Zhao Xieren said.

“Anyways, we can look for traces of any battle when we get to this point. Tracks will be covered by the snow but remnants of battles can’t be removed so easily. Though it’ll take longer, there haven’t been any reports of fights between the unknown group and our own forces yet in this area. If we go past this point though, we will need to be extra cautious since we don’t have control of information about this part as it was too far away from the base camp,” Zhao Xieren continued explaining. 

“It sounds fine,” Qian Yu nodded. 

With that in mind, the three headed off with Zhao Xieren leading.

A few hours later, the group arrived at the point where the three entrances and their respective pathways met up. Climbing up a tree, Qian Yu looked around as he tried to find any clues or signs of Sun Hong. A smile appeared on his face as he noticed some oddities.

“There’s something over there,” Qian Yu said as he jumped off the tree. 

Leading the two girls, Qian Yu ran towards the area as he saw that there were traces of battle. Even though the sky was snowing heavily, it didn’t completely hide everything as broken trees and a few weapons were scattered around.

“Thank you Zhao Xieren,” Qian Yu said as he prodded around with his spear and found a few corpses. They were all wearing black clothing and nothing special could be found on their bodies. 

“It’s nothing,” Zhao Xieren smiled and sighed in relief as she was right. 

“This should be where that kid met Sun Hong. The city is only a few hours away from here,” Qian Yu said after he realized he could still see the city after climbing up the tree previously.

“Alright we should go on then. Sun Hong is about half a day ahead of us since she spent a lot of time bringing back the kids. We can only catch up since she’s more likely to spend time fighting others as long as we go on the right path,” he continued impatiently.

“Mhm, let’s go,” Zhao Xieren nodded as she took the lead once again, heading towards the new path that was created from the intersection.

“Hehe, doesn’t this remind you of the winter hunt,” Qian Yu nostalgically remembered travelling with Zhao Xieren.

“I guess it does,” Zhao Xieren admitted. 

“Yeah, instead of tracking down spiritual beasts, we’re trying to find Sun Hong,” Qian Yu smiled.

“Hmm, there’s been a few spiritual beast corpses already,” Qian Yu said as they continued forward. Along the way, they didn’t encounter any live spiritual beasts and only corpses.

“Yeah, this should be the right way,” Zhao Xieren nodded as she grew more and more confident.

Soon, they reached a point where the path dissected into two yet looking at the map, one of them led to a dead end and the group went the other way. 

After a few hours, the signs of battle became more apparent. “This is pretty recent, maybe half a day or so,” Qian Yu said as he bent down and looked at the first human body in a while. 

“Let’s hurry then,” Zhao Xieren said as the group started heading down the path even faster than before.

Hours passed as the amount of bodies they found increased. By the time the sun was setting, they heard the sounds of battle from afar. 

“Let’s go,” Qian Yu said as they rushed towards the sounds. 

Getting closer, a group of people were seen in front of them. 

A smile instinctually rose up as Qian Yu saw a cloaked figure in the middle of the others. Holding a giant large sword, the figure was currently fighting a group of 6 others. 

As he was about to run forward, Qian Yu felt someone pulling him back.

“Calm down master, we can’t be rash!” Zhen Yue said.

“They are all at least in the soul foundation realm. We need to ambush them,” Zhao Xieren said. 

Hearing her, Qian Yu nodded. Looking at the current state of the battle, Sun Hong seemed to be able to hold her own against the eight cultivators. However, she wasn’t able to get an advantage and it seemed like it was a stalemate.

“Up against Sun Hong’s overbearing strength, even though they are all weaker than her, their teamwork must be exceptionally impeccable,” Qian Yu took a deep breath. Unlike before in Liu Wang’s inheritance realm, the pairs were decided randomly hence Sun Hong could easily take on 2 people at once who weren’t coordinated with each other. This however, was completely different.

“Let’s get closer,” Zhao Xieren nodded. Getting closer to the fight, they soon recognized that they were all either middle or high ranked soul foundation fighters. 

“What a dangerous force,” Zhao Xieren couldn’t help but mutter as she bit her lips.

“Any plans?” Qian Yu asked. Towards this group of fighters who were completely out of his league, Qian Yu felt completely useless and started contemplating bringing out Tian Xinyi. The only issue with that was fighting could worsen her injuries.

“What are your martial techniques,” Zhao Xieren asked, not knowing what Zhen Yue’s martial techniques were. 

In response, Zhen Yue explained before Zhao Xieren closed her eyes and thought. Yet, a few seconds later, her eyes opened as she said, “The fox spirits are small so it’ll be hard for the enemy to pay attention to them. However, if they get too close, they’ll eventually be noticed when they try to attack the enemy. Instead, distance the foxes out so that they explode and distract the enemy. Using the chaos, I can go in for a quick attack.”

Hearing her idea, Qian Yu nodded as he said, “Good thinking, but what about me?”

Shaking her head, Zhao Xieren simply said, “You just stay here, it’ll be impossible for you to get close enough even with the fox explosion since you don’t have a martial technique to instantly get closer to the enemy like mine.”

“I- alright then,” Qian Yu said as he calmed down, slightly disappointed that he couldn’t really do much in this fight. 

“Let’s do it then,” Zhao Xieren glanced at Zhen Yue.

“Mmm,” Zhen Yue nodded as she closed her eyes. By her side, the two fox spirits formed as they silently ran out from the bushes and trees the three were hiding behind. Following behind, Zhao Xieren ran forward with her sword in her hand. 

‘It’s my first time seeing her fight as a middle stage soul foundation fighter,’ Qian Yu observed as Zhao Xieren approached the enemy.

*Bam!* the fox spirits managed to get close as they blew up, covering the battlefield with white smoke. The sun was already setting and the battlefield wasn’t well lit, allowing the smoke explosion to be utilized to the fullest.

“What!” “What’s going on?” A few shouts of confusion rang out. 

As they shouted, Zhao Xieren took this moment to attack. From Qian Yu’s past experience, the “Wandering Blade in the Soundless Night” was a sword technique involving silent but swift and deadly attacks, perfect as an assassin-like technique. 

*Slash!* Qian Yu saw the first sword slash amid the cloud of smoke. 

“Arghh!” a person yelled out in pain as another 4 sword slashes came rapidly after. 

“Ahhh!” another voice yelled out in a different part of the smoke as it seemed Sun Hong had managed to take advantage of the moment of weakness to attack when their teamwork couldn’t repel her. 

“Damn it, Zhao Family’s Wandering Blade – 5 slashes,” a voice yelled out as the smoke settled. Looking at the source, Qian Yu saw that the figure had 3 large cuts on his body. 

Even with the help of the smoke, it seemed like Zhao Xieren’s attack wasn’t fatal. Nonetheless, it seemed noticable and would definitely affect their fighting strength.

“Damn it, 3’s gone. Retreat!” one of them decisively shouted as they looked around. A man was slain and on the ground. With only 5 of them now, they knew they had no chance.

“Ugh!” “Argh!” Still, it was wishful thinking of them as they ran off as the suspected Sun Hong chased after them with a speed much greater than their own and in a matter of seconds, only one had managed to escape.

By now, Qian Yu and Zhen Yue had already caught up with Zhao Xieren. 

As the cloaked figure turned around and removed her hood, dark red hair drooped down past her shoulder as a smile was seen on her face.