Death... and me

Roan noticed how the Spiritual Sense of the City Lord disappeared after he ran for a few kilometers.

'Could it be that he was afraid of coming out? Well, seeing a human with cultivation like mine probably fired a few alarms in his head. Well, whatever... That's good for me.'

Roan then ran for a bit longer, changing his direction here and there every once in a while. Eventually, he stopped in the middle of a snowfield. The visibility was very poor due to the snowstorm happening at the moment. As mentioned before, the cold of this planet could ignore Spiritual Energy Barriers. However, Roan was a master of Yin Energy, so it didn't bother him.

However, the same couldn't be said for Frandin. Obviously, he was having difficulty driving the cold out of his body, especially since he didn't have Water Element affinity as many Zasfins do.

Roan used his Spiritual Sense to find a direction and soon found a small cliff, not more than a few meters high. However, it was enough for him to work. He quickly dug a small cave before entering it with Frandin. Following that, he closed it with a boulder, keeping the storm outside. At his level of cultivation, making something like this was pretty much effortless.

"Drive the cold out of your body with your Spiritual Energy. We'll be waiting here for the time being until things calm down outside."

Frandin, who was trembling, quickly nodded and focused on the task. At the same time, Roan used his Soul Connection with Rean to tell him about what happened.

'They found you? How? Unless someone with a strong enough Spiritual Sense was close to you, they shouldn't have noticed your presence. Not to mention you were using my Light bending skill as well. Wait a second! Did you perhaps spread your own Spiritual Sense? Those guys might have noticed your presence because of that.'

Roan shook his head as he replied.

'Do you take me for an idiot? Obviously, I didn't use Spiritual Sense.'

Rean thought about a possibility.

'I guess it might have been some kind of monitoring formation that doesn't rely on Spiritual Sense or sight. Although you aren't as good as me at the Spiritual Sense and Light bending skills, you should be good enough for a place like this city.'

Roan immediately denied that idea as he answered.

'No, that's unlikely. They knew where I would exactly appear. If it was just a monitoring formation, they would have to first react and come after me. But they attacked the moment I reached the top of the wall. That was a premeditated attack. They knew where I was and mounted that trap for me. It's just that they completely underestimated my strength. Otherwise, things might have been more serious.'

Rean pondered over the matter a bit before saying.

'There's a problem. If that was really the case, why didn't the Nascent Soul Realm guy appear there first? If it was him, you would have been forced to run into the Soul Gem Dimensional Realm straight away.'

Roan agreed with Rean.

'Correct. That means that they did see me going up the wall, but they only found out when I was close by. That being said, they only noticed my presence when I got close.'

Rean understood what Roan meant.

'I see. That means the enemy expected that you would try to run away from the city, so they set up their forces around the points they thought you would try to escape from. Once you got close, those guys attempted to take you down but didn't have the time to wait for others to come.'

Roan was satisfied that Rean could guess that much.

'Exactly. Still, the main problem remains. How did they find out that I was there?'

Rean insisted, though.

'I still think it might have been a monitoring formation. After all, they set up their forces where they thought you would appear.'

Roan narrowed his eyes after hearing that. Somehow, he didn't think that to be the case.

He then looked at Frandin, who seemed to have recovered a bit.

"Frandin, do you know why they found our presence there? Could it be that it is possible to scan an area with Soul Power, just like you can do with Spiritual Sense?"

Frandin then opened his eyes after hearing that and thought over the question for a moment.

"Hmm... It should be possible depending on your Soul Power. In my case, for example, I can spread my Soul Power up to more or less ten meters. It doesn't act like Spiritual Sense, though. It's just that the distance can't be compared. My Spiritual Sense goes much, much further away, so I never use Soul Power for such things. In fact, almost no Zasfin uses Soul Power for scanning since Spiritual Sense is much better. Not to mention that Soul Power uses a lot more energy."

Finally, Roan understood how he was found out. However, he couldn't blame Frandin for not telling him that. The reason Soul Power was used to look for him was none other than his fault. Roan then contacted Rean back and explained the situation. Naturally, Rean understood it as well.

'Indeed, that was your fault, then. You were able to hide Calina and your cultivations while you were right in front of Falin. Not to mention that a lot of Zasfins stopped around to watch the show. Until the moment you released my Spiritual Sense bending skill and cut Falin's arm, no one could tell what your cultivations were.'

Rean then continued.

'Naturally, they understood that you had some method of hiding your presence against Spiritual Senses. Especially after you disappeared from everyone's Spiritual Sense with Calina and Fandin on your side. Because of that, they knew that Spiritual Sense was useless, so those Core and Soul Fusion Realm cultivators went to the points on the wall they thought you would try to use.'

'Because the scanning range of Soul Power is several times smaller than Spiritual Sense, they only noticed your presence once you got close. My Spiritual Sense bending skill works with just Spiritual Sense. I have no idea how to bend Soul Power. First of all, we can't even feel Soul Power unless the Zasfins show its tangible form in front of us. That's why they could tell where you were while you had no idea you were being observed.'

Roan agreed with Rean.

'Correct. That being said, your Anti-Spiritual Sense formation won't be of much use if someone checks the workshop with Soul Power instead. Normally no one would use Soul Power, just like I said. However, the times are different now.'

Rean pondered for a bit after hearing that.

'Very well. I already made a few pieces of equipment. Let's move out and sell them in the next city. They only saw you and Frandin leaving the city, so they probably think Calina's still here. If they find my workshop, they won't alert me and call their City Lord or any other Nascent Soul Realm cultivator they might have here first. It's too dangerous if I suffer an attack from such a high-level enemy since I might not be able to react fast enough.'

Roan nodded.

'Correct. I already opened some distance from the city, so just teleport to where I am.'

Following that, Rean told Agis, Qia, and Malaka about the situation. Following that, Rean sent everyone into the Soul Gem Dimensional Realm before entering it himself. Naturally, Rean used the location of Roan's body to come out, easily exiting the city.

In the end, Rean was right. Someone had really noticed his and Calina's presence in the workshop. Around a minute later, the workshop was invaded by another Nascent Soul Realm Zasfin from one of the city's powers. They had acted extremely fast, trying to not give Rean the time to react. Unfortunately for them, Rean and everyone else was gone already. Little did Rean's group know that they escaped in the nick of time.

"They're gone. However, they were here just a moment ago. Spread our forces and check the surroundings. Remember, Spiritual Sense is useless against them. Make sure to use your Soul Power."

"Yes!"

The City Lord received the information about the workshop and came to take a look at it. After that, he ran an investigation in the entire city, trying to find any clue about Roan's group. It was then that he discovered something interesting. He discovered that Frandin and Roan might have appeared in the Bloodline Trial Office. Naturally, he checked what they wanted there.

"Bloodline Trial? Could it really have been them? But... why?"