Xue Lan asked herself this, thinking of her next step.
"I'm decently strong... maybe I should go after bigger prey."
The thought of it was enticing to her, she just had to find her next target. As she stood up, her eyes widened just a bit as she suddenly hid behind a few trees. Looking ahead, the woman was dead silent as she watched the small river where she had washed herself.
It was empty for a moment but then several figures appeared, kneeling down and looking at the ground. Dressed in black robes, this group began to examine the surrounding area, looking for clues.
"Are they... are they trying to track me down?" she wondered.
Xue Lan took a step back, quietly retreating several more steps before moving into a more suitable hiding spot.
On the other side, the trackers were busy surveying the area whilst their leader, Yi Jian, stood there and kept watch. He gave them several minutes, glancing at them every now and then before asking for a report.
"What have we found?"
One of them turned to respond, cupping their fists and looking down.
"It was the woman, there doesn't seem to be any sign of an expert. She spent a night here at least", they replied.
"Right."
Yi Jian sucked in a cold breath, looking slightly on edge.
"Not far from here was where we found the Azure Flag Caravan. Whoever killed Shen Yuan, killed them as well. They even took the silver that was meant for the Chen Clan", he muttered.
Looking off into a distance, he sighed before turning away.
"This is slowly becoming a mess. At this point, either there was an expert or... the woman was secretly one. Either way, we have to report this to the Four Noble Clans and the City Lord. Depending on their decision, we may have to stop the investigation and call for an expert from the sects. Until then, we'll continue. Have we found any more tracks?"
"What?"
Hearing their conversation, Xue Lan was slightly shocked. No doubt, she was the one they were looking for but what was she going to do?
"This is just... too perfect, isn't it?"
She had a grin going from one cheek to the next and joy filled her heart. Right when she needed stronger prey, they came to her instead.
Xue Lan looked at them, her eyes moving from one person to the next, evaluating each one of them.
"Six in total, the strongest of them is in the Spirit Realm. Could I do it?" she asked herself.
The more she thought about it, the more she wanted to do it. After all, the timing was just too good and they were tracking her.
"Even if I don't kill them now, I'll have to kill them later. No, it'd be better if I kill them now, what if they come back with even more people? Maybe even hunting parties? No, no, I can't have that, I should just get rid of them while they're still here. But they're probably watching their surroundings... I should wait and watch them. There'll be an opportunity to get rid of them at some point."
Muttering to herself, the woman looked back at the masked figures, eyeing them like prey.
Yi Jian suddenly looked up, staring out into the wilderness. He narrowed his eyes, taking a careful look around the area.
After a few seconds, he looked away.
"Strange, it felt like someone was looking at me just now", he thought.
The man then looked at his subordinates.
"All of you checked our surroundings, right? Did any of you find anything strange?"
They all turned to him and shook their heads.
"Aside from the tracks we've already found, no", one of them replied.
"Really now... We should hurry it up, I'm sure that the City Lord as well as the Four Noble Clans want to wrap this case up. The woman's probably dead. If not, she'll die soon enough. We'll have to move on and find out who this mysterious expert is", he said to them.
"Yes, leader!"
"Right, let's go follow these tracks and see where they take us."
They all nodded in understanding before finishing their work in this area. By then, it was slowly getting darker and the group moved away from the river, following Xue Lan's tracks. Funnily enough, the one they were looking for was stalking them from behind, moving from one hiding spot to the next.
As it turned dark, Yi Jiang pointed at two of his men.
"You two should go back to the city to inform everyone of our findings and ask for the City Lord's decision as well. Whether or not we continue this chase depends on what he wants", he said.
The two masked men nodded before running off.
Suddenly, he turned around, checking their back. His eyes narrowed as he vanished as well, reappearing a hundred meters behind them. But when he reappeared, there was nothing to be found.
"Strange, I could've sworn that I felt something... Maybe I'm not getting enough rest", he thought.
On the contrary, he was just a bit too late to catch her.
As soon as those two split off from the main group, Xue Lan took notice and made her move.
Leaping from tree to tree, she followed them, quickly closing the distance without them noticing.
Just as they moved covertly under the night, so did she. The only thing one could see from her was her eyes, glowing red and leaving behind a trail of light. Unfortunately neither were looking for two red dots chasing after them.
They didn't even notice as she closed in, her clawed nails emerged from behind, grabbing them both by the neck.
Not a sound came out of their mouths as their throats were constricted, As both fear and shock filled them, they looked out of the corner of their eye and saw her. The red irises, the insane smile, on top of that, the unmistakable scent of blood coming from her.
The nail guards dug deeply into their necks, piercing the skin and letting the blood run down.
The only noise that came was the cracking sound as both of their necks were crushed. It was quick and sharp, Those with trained ears could hear it all too easily.
Yi Jiang's gaze suddenly snapped towards where the two messengers had gone.
"We're not alone! Take out your swords!" he shouted
The other three followed as he unsheathed his sword and they all sprinted through the forests, tracking down them down. It took no more than ten minutes for Yi Jiang to find them and when he did, his eyes were wide open at the startling scene.
"What... is this?"
As the others followed and were met with the same sight, even they felt a cold shiver down their spine.
In front of them were the two men tasked with returning to the city but they were far from being alive. Their faces were frozen in fear with their eyes and mouths wide open. Their skin was deathly pale as all of their blood seemed to have been drained away.
The inside of their throats was out in the open as it was both torn up and twisted. But the hole in their chests was the wound that grabbed everyone's attention.
It was in the middle of their chest, right where their heart was. It was large and impossible to ignore, it looked as if they had been impaled by an incredibly thick stake.
Yi Jiang walked up to them and knelt down, touching their bodies and examining the wounds.
"They didn't die that long ago, it might've been just a few minutes but... these injuries... They're the same as Azure Flags Caravan! Their blood was drained away and their hearts were taken."
He suddenly looked up and brandished his sword.
"It's that expert! They can't be far! They might even be close to us! Watching even! Stay close! Keep your eyes out! They have to be somewhere."
Everyone did as he said, grouping together and pointing their swords outwards. Although their faces were covered, one would see beads of sweat in between the gaps of their masks. Their eyes darted from one way to the other.
Even though they had their weapons out, the blades were trembling. After all, no one wanted to end up the same way as their comrades.
Gritting his teeth, Yi Jiang looked at his surroundings. trying to find even a glimpse of this expert.
"Where are you? Where?!" he shouted out.
As his voice echoed out, another voice responded with melodious laughter followed by a few words.
"Ahahaha, I guess I've been found out. It doesn't matter though. I just have to finish up."
It was a woman's voice ans as soon as he heard it, things began to fall into place in his mind.
"No, it can't be", he muttered, "The woman... was the expert?!"
As soon as that thought came, his gaze suddenly stopped as he saw something.
A pair of glowing red eyes.