Night falls.

It's exactly ten o'clock.

At the entrance of Yulan Lane in the old city, a figure slowly comes to a stop. The man is dressed in black, wearing a duckbill cap, and walks along the alley wall. He moves quickly, disappearing into the night in just a few seconds.

It's Shi Li.

After Shi Li's figure disappears, a wisp of fire slowly emerges in the distance.

Gu Shen remains calm, slowly approaching the entrance of Yulan Lane.

After activating the "Fire Vision," the walking trajectory left by Shi Li is very obvious... like fireworks in the dark night, his path is clearly visible at a glance.

Gu Shen furrows his brows slightly.

The shadow representing Shi Li's walking trajectory twists and turns, sometimes walking swiftly in the alley, sometimes stopping abruptly, guarding against someone following him. He is so cautious... presumably, he still carries a seal that monitors the aura of Transcendents.

"Does Shi Li know that someone is following him?"

Gu Shen squints his eyes.

Who walks like this, other than a normal person?

Could it be that Hu Danian's usual investigation has aroused his suspicion? This powerful offensive Transcendent should not be so sensitive, right?

Regardless, it is the right choice for Hu Danian not to follow too closely.

Shi Li is already suspicious.

After pondering for a moment, Gu Shen slowly moves forward, keeping the maximum distance while following these residual traces... his special ability of fire, and the keenness to capture details, is unmatched by many high-level mentalists, so he is quite skilled in tracking.

He is confident that he won't be discovered by Shi Li.

But just to be safe, it's better not to follow too closely.

...

...

"Achoo!"

The moment Shi Li enters the alley, he sneezes again.

He looks grim, rubbing his nose forcefully.

What the heck?

The last time he sneezed, he didn't take it seriously... and soon he had a gun pointed at his head.

This time, what's the situation again?

Could it be that the goddess of fate is once again giving him a hint?

"Is someone... following me?"

After standing still for a while, Shi Li finally thought of this reasonable explanation... he continued to move forward, suddenly pressed against the wall, holding his breath, and began to wait.

After waiting for a long time, there was no response at all.

So he continued to move forward with an unchanged expression, but not long after, he turned around instantly and started running back in the direction he came from.

If someone saw these actions, they might find it amusing... but in reality, this is a very effective way to test if someone is following him.

Unfortunately, Shi Li gained nothing. He even ran back in the direction he came from for hundreds of meters in one breath, without seeing a single trace. The old city at night is already desolate, and he chose the most remote alley entrance, where there is not a single sound, and it's so quiet that you can hear a pin drop.

Shi Li stands suspiciously in the place where he sneezed, looking around, with the shadows of the trees and the rustling of the leaves.

The intuition of a Transcendent rarely goes wrong.

With the lesson from last time, he is being so cautious.

"If that's the case, take out the compass... and take a look."

Shi Li took out a compass from his pocket... it was square, about the size of a palm, with gold and silver edges, looking very new, not like an old item.

His fingertips were surrounded by a silver light, slowly injecting it into the compass.

"Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh—"

The pointer on the compass quickly spun around and returned to its original position.

Shi Li breathed a sigh of relief, muttering to himself.

"Was it... just my imagination?"

He continued to move forward along Yulan Lane.

Gu Shen, hidden in the grass, was already drenched in cold sweat.

He was following well, but suddenly, without warning, Shi Li's aura stagnated, and then this guy, like a madman, turned back and ran. If he hadn't made the right decision to follow from the farthest distance at the beginning... he would have been discovered at that time.

Finally, he held his breath, quickly retreated, and returned to his hiding place.

What made Gu Shen's heart race... was the compass that Shi Li took out, that ancient seal, obviously from the hands of the Longevity Foundation. Gu Shen guessed that the compass should have the effect of detecting the aura of surrounding Transcendents... he was ready to pull out the Ruler of Truth and confront Shi Li head-on.

But... the compass didn't detect him?

Indeed.

The fire is an extremely special existence.

Normal detection methods cannot capture him through mental power.

This time.

Gu Shen's tracking progressed much more smoothly. Shi Li no longer meandered around, and he probably didn't have much time to waste on the road... as he moved very quickly, Gu Shen also slightly increased his pace.

But as he walked, his expression became serious.

"If I go further... it will be Yuandan Street!"

He had a bad premonition in his heart... in the end, Shi Li's figure disappeared into the darkness of Yuandan Street.

With the fire swirling around him, Gu Shen looked towards that dreaded old street... to ordinary eyes, there was a thin layer of mist, but in his eyes, it was a thick haze that couldn't be dispersed.

"Wait a minute..."

Gu Shen's pupils contracted.

Not far from the entrance of Yuandan Street, he saw a toppled motorcycle. It was the vehicle that Hu Danian had brought him here on, lying askew in the ruins and garbage at the entrance of the long street.

Approaching cautiously, after seeing the scene clearly, Gu Shen's face suddenly changed.

The motorcycle had fallen over.

There were also splatters of blood on the roadside.Not far from the car, a withered, frail skeleton lay askew, its flesh and blood completely drained, leaving only a layer of skin. The face was destroyed, making it impossible to identify the person... But what was certain was that this skeleton was dead beyond any doubt.

"Damn it."

Gu Shen's expression turned extremely ugly. Hadn't Hu Danian said he was very cautious in his actions?

How much time had passed?

What exactly was lurking in that street?

He didn't hesitate and immediately began to retreat.

But what made Gu Shen's scalp tingle happened... He clearly remembered the route he had taken to get here, but when he tried to retrace his steps, the surrounding landscape had become unfamiliar, and the fog was getting thicker.

The visibility in the fiery vision began to blur, dropping sharply.

He stopped in his tracks, held his breath in silence, calmed himself down, and accepted the reality.

"I've entered Yandian Street..."

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Only upon entering Yandian Street could one feel... the fog that haunted the dreams of the old city's residents was so tangible that one could barely see their own hand in front of their face, let alone discern directions in such dense fog.

The first thing Gu Shen did was to stop moving.

He had lost his sense of direction, and even his best skill, the fiery vision, couldn't find the right way in this fog... In that case, he needed to minimize wrong attempts.

And at this critical moment, he didn't dare to summon the fiery vision recklessly.

Because right now, Shi Li was in Yandian Street!

At this point, it was almost certain... the smog in the old district was the scheme of the Longevity Foundation, and these madmen had control over the sealed object. Who knew how much they could see?

"This is not a dream, but a real world."

A sense of familiarity washed over him.

Gu Shen had seen this fog more than once in other people's dreams, but back then he couldn't understand the despair of the dream's original owner. Now, truly engulfed in the smog, he began to feel that something was off...

In the fog of Yandian Street, his mental strength was being consumed every moment.

After the tempering of the Jingzhe Breathing Technique, his mental strength was still solid. How long could he last in this fog? Once it was exhausted, would he end up like those people before him?

Or... even worse.

Thinking back to the corpse next to the motorcycle, Gu Shen's expression became grave. Perhaps this was what awaited him next.

For some reason.

The more he inhaled the fog that devoured his mental strength, the calmer he became, so calm that he could hear every heartbeat and the sound of a needle dropping in the silent city within the fog, a footstep.

He stood quietly for five minutes.

Not a single sound came from the fog.

"After Shi Li entered Yandian Street, he disappeared without a trace..."

The fiery vision could no longer track his movements.

"If he can see in this fog... Given the caution he exercised on his way here, he must have discovered me."

"He hasn't taken any action... I can only guess that he doesn't know I've entered this street."

"So... I can only assume that this fog blinds everyone, friend or foe alike."

Gu Shen murmured, "Yandian Street is full of dilapidated factories. He must have entered one of them, and that factory must be where the sealed object is located..."

If that was the case.

Then all he needed to do was find the place where the "fog" was thickest, and that would be where Shi Li was!

"If I can't get out of Yandian Street... then maybe I can try... to destroy the sealed object..."

The thought was insane.

Shi Li was at least a fourth-tier offensive force.

But... in the fog, he was unaware of Gu Shen's presence, and it was likely that he would let his guard down in Yandian Street.

Based on his previous calculations, a surprise attack with the fiery vision had a chance of success.

If the attack failed, retreating back into the fog would also mean a successful escape.

Rather than wasting away and turning into a mummy... it was better to take a bold risk!

Gu Shen narrowed his eyes, carefully summoning a wisp of fiery vision to attach to his forehead... The dense fog seemed to reach out with a palm, covering the eye that opened on Gu Shen's forehead.

But he could still sense the changes in the fog in different areas.

Slowly groping his way, Gu Shen moved forward bit by bit, controlling his footsteps, striving to make no sound.

"It's in this area..."

Gu Shen stopped in front of a heavy iron gate that would tremble with the wind. He dared not touch it... Relying on the intuition of the fiery vision, he had found this area, probably three to four abandoned factories in a row. This was the smallest area he could determine.

"Shi Li is likely in one of them."

Gu Shen narrowed his eyes.

He took a deep breath, ready to move forward again.

"Snap!"

A hand suddenly landed on his shoulder.