Tower of Heaven

By the time the two enemies faded over the horizon, Atlas was the one in trouble.

He had been taking it easy and keeping the attention of the two phoenixes on himself, but they were fighting seriously. They had no way of knowing why Atlas started randomly attacking them, after all.

He was only able to tell them to calm down after he sensed that the enemies had retreated far enough away. At that point, he put qi into his feet and retreated as far as he could.

"Wait!"

He held his hands out in front of himself and stopped the two. In any normal case, they would not have listened to him. However, Feng Ziran had her own thoughts on the matter, so she held her hand out and signaled to her comrade.

"Zhiying, stop."

The two of them halted in their tracks, still several feet away from Atlas in case he decided to attack.

"So, are you done with your charade?"

To his surprise, Atlas didn’t have to explain the situation at all. Once he stopped them and dropped his hostility, Feng Ziran was able to put the pieces together.

"I more or less understand that you attacked me for some kind of plan, but I’ll need an explanation of what that plan is before I decide if I’m angry or not."

Atlas smiled wryly. Really, it was the best reaction he could hope for, so he didn’t complain.

Nodding, he answered her question.

"I could tell that you were driving them to death. People like them usually have means of ending their own lives if they are pushed into a corner, and I couldn’t allow them to use those."

"So you decided to let them get away instead?"

"Yes, but not without a price."

Atlas held his hand up, showcasing a small string of qi that swirled around his finger. It didn’t mean anything on its own, but in context…

"You placed a qi marker on him?"

"I did."

"You’re skilled enough to place qi markers?"

"I am."

Tracking could be done through several methods, but if one was confident in one’s strength, then using a qi marker was the best way.

In essence, it was a piece of one’s own qi that remained inside of the enemy’s body. One could vaguely sense the location of this qi and use it to follow a target.

Qi markers could be found by anyone able to detect the qi, so it was only a viable method for those able to properly disguise their energy signatures. More importantly, it required something that cultivators at their level were not supposed to be able to do.

Separating qi from the body.

All qi originated from the body even for techniques that seemed to be created from afar. When Atlas used something like [Titanfall], he would send qi from his body into the air to summon the titanic waterfall.

In order to separate qi and still maintain a connection to it, one had to reach a much higher level. Usually, even peak geniuses only began to use this technique when they were a ways into the World Core Realm. ℞äƝо฿ЕS

Feng Ziran was right to doubt the veracity of Atlas’ words. She was also correct that in most cases, Atlas could not use qi separate from his body yet. It wasn’t a matter of experience, but a matter of the qi in his body. He still had not reached a level where it could hold a connection with him at a long distance.

However, he could make qi markers because he knew of a loophole he could exploit.

In essence, the qi in his hand never separated from the qi in that man’s body, but it was much more complex in practice.

Nevertheless, that was not something that needed to be explained to Feng Ziran.

"Since you know that I wanted to track him, I don’t need to explain the rest, do I?

"You don’t."

Feng Ziran nodded as if she’d understood everything. After glancing at Feng Zhiying, she nodded again.

"Fine. I’ll keep the fact that you left the palace a secret, but you have to let me follow them with you."

Atlas raised an eyebrow curiously.

"That is fine with me, however, is it truly something you need to trade for?"

Feng Ziran shrugged her shoulders.

"I don’t like to owe debts. I don’t know what kind of person you are, but I will not give you the opportunity."

Once again, it seemed to be an ideology motivated by past experiences. As it benefited him in the end, Atlas chose to ignore it and move on.

"We’ll wait a bit longer. Those two will likely stop somewhere for basic healing before leaving for their true destination. We do not want to alert them anywhere in the midst of that journey."

They would become the orioles stalking the mantis.

Or were they still mantises unaware that the beings in front of them were actually cicadas?

The meteor calamity had been ongoing for several hours now, and Atlas managed to stay away from the most catastrophic areas.

However, as he continued to chase the truth of the matter, he was bound to fly further and further into the storm.

***

As Atlas awaited the chance to take the leap of faith, his two keys to the eye of the storm dug their way into a mountain and created an artificial cave. There, they sat and rested. The conversation that took place between them wasn’t anywhere near peaceful.

"Keugh…! I can’t do this, Samuel. We need to get back and find a healer."

"Come on, Devin. You know what’s happening at the headquarters right now. Going back is basically asking for death!"

"Staying here is death for me, dipshit! Look at this!"

The man pointed at his own stomach before looking at his comrade.

"You’re acting fine because basically nothing happened to you. If that guy wasn’t targeting the phoenixes, I would’ve died there!"

"Haha, you should thank him next time you meet. I guess you got unlucky that you got hit, but it’s good that he wasn’t after us in the end."

The wounds inflicted on them were at two different levels. On one hand, the man named Samuel only had a few broken bones and some scorch marks on his skin. On the other hand, the man named Devin had a gaping gash in his stomach and skin that had almost been turned entirely to ash.

It was a miracle that he was able to talk so freely, but that could be attributed to the healing pills he was ingesting.

"We can’t stay here for long. We need to go back."

Devin’s voice was serious. Too serious for Samuel to ignore.

If the two hadn’t been friends, he could’ve easily ignored it, but Devin wasn’t just anyone to him.

"Haa…"

Samuel sighed to himself before peeking out of the artificial cave and looking at the sky above.

"Well, we still have a few hours before it gets really bad, so let’s try to leave as soon as possible."

Stay tuned with empire

Just like that, plans were made. In order to save Devin, the two needed to reach the main base of their organization.

It was perfect for them, and it was perfect for those following them.

Really, in situations like these, there was nothing better than predictable people.

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