Meanwhile, Su Yu was hiding in an alley far away from them.

Suddenly, his tribulation character started pulsing. The pulses were much more intense than before.

"Crisis?"

Su Yu cursed inwardly. The damn character had been pulsing so frequently that he was starting to get confused. In fact, the tribulation character had barely stopped pulsing since he entered the city.

After thinking about it, Su Yu dashed off again. But this time, the tribulation character continued pulsing at the same intensity despite his movement. He had only purchased an hour of the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion's service. If he didn't accomplish anything before the hour ended, he would have paid the price of two Mountainsea corpses for nothing.

He wanted to approach Final Armor's group, but his tribulation would go crazy each time he attempted to do so.

"What's going on?"

Su Yu cursed inwardly.

Was it really so dangerous?

***

At the same time.

Dao Cheng and company were frowning as well. Was this a mere coincidence or was Su Yu really so cautious? He had been changing locations endlessly, resulting in the crane constantly switching directions mid-flight.

It was so frequent that Dao Cheng had the urge to start cursing loudly. If this crane hadn't been purchased from the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion, he would start suspecting that it was damaged already.

Why was Su Yu moving so frequently? Just what was going on? No matter how cautious he was, there was no need for him to switch locations every few seconds even when they were so far away, right?

Final Armor couldn't help asking, "Is this thing even accurate?"

"The Heavenly Hunt Pavilion is still trustworthy when it comes to doing business."

Dao Cheng was feeling very helpless. What else could he say? Su Yu was simply too cautious. Or perhaps he had some sort of treasure capable of detecting them from afar?

Would something like that exist? Definitely. But would Su Yu have one of them?

Dao Cheng sighed endlessly. He was starting to feel that he had not prepared enough before launching this operation against Su Yu. It would have been much better to act after a Sunmoon arrived. With the strength and speed of a Sunmoon, catching Su Yu would be much easier.

Without a Sunmoon, it was way too hard for them to keep up with Su Yu's concealment skills and erratic movement.

***

"Fuck!"

Su Yu cursed inwardly. What was going on? His tribulation character was still going crazy. The hour he bought with two Mountainsea corpses was almost up. What the hell was happening?

"The nearer I get to those fellows, the crazier the tribulation character gets. What does this signify? Are they capable of killing me? Or are they somehow capable of detecting me?"

Su Yu was still quite confident in his concealment skills. But something was definitely off with how his tribulation character was acting. After gazing into the distance, he frowned as he confirmed one fact.

The tribulation character would go crazy if he approached them. If he remained still and waited for them to approach him, the tribulation character would go crazy as well. From this, could he conclude that they had a way of detecting him the moment he entered a certain range from them?

"Detecting my presence..."

A certain possibility emerged in his mind. He took out the index copy, hesitated slightly, and wrote on it, "How much to cancel the tracking service purchased by Dao Cheng?"

He was starting to suspect the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion.

He added, "If you refuse to answer, I'll throw the index copy away. I will not transact with you anymore after this."

He was still unsure, but he wrote as though he already knew the answer. This was a strategy he had decided upon in his interactions with the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion. It didn't matter if he was unsure. He only needed to act like he knew everything.

If it was a wrong guess, so be it. There was no harm in trying, so why should he care?

***

Inside a certain floating palace. The masked individual called out at his superior again, "Elder, Su Yu found out that we're tracking him. How should we handle this? He is requesting for a cancelation of the tracking service."

"We have accepted the payment for the service. There is no canceling it." The faceless elder said, "Tell him to throw the index copy away if he wants. He will pick it back up again sooner or later."

"Yes, Elder."

The faceless elder shook his head, "This is probably just a guess on his part. But this human brat sure is shrewd. Be very careful in your communications with him. He might be young, but he is incredibly crafty. He is comparable to some of the cunning old foxes of the human race."

The masked man asked curiously, "Elder, who are you referring to?"

"The humans have a lot of such individuals. Of the myriad races, the immortals are the most mysterious, the divines are the proudest, the devils are the most domineering, the demonic beasts are the most rash, and the humans are the most cunning."

That was the conclusion of the elder.

"Humans? Cunning?" While typing his reply to Su Yu, the masked man said, "No matter how cunning they are, they still have to rely on our services."

"Do not underestimate anyone." The faceless elder warned, "The moment the myriad races discover our location, they will not hesitate to act against us. In fact, it is likely that some experts have already discovered clues of our whereabouts. They have merely been waiting for the perfect opportunity to wipe us all out with one strike. As a member of the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion, wariness is something you should never lack. As a contact person of the index holders, remember that you can never be too careful. Do not leak anything you shouldn't. The moment they find out the exact whereabouts of our headquarters, they will stop at nothing to end us."

"Yes, Elder."

The faceless elder said, "You shouldn't have been put in charge of someone as cunning as Su Yu. You're simply too new. But the department is lacking in manpower. Since you showed a lot of promise, you were assigned this task. I hope you can learn more from your interactions with this human."

"Elder, can I learn new things just by interacting with him?"

"Of course."

The faceless elder said, "Have you not noticed? The way he guessed the presence of Dao Cheng and the way he guessed that we were the culprits responsible for tracking him contained numerous lessons. The sophistry of Su Yu is something you can learn from. The way he forms his words and sentences to get what he wants for free is something you can also learn from. He might be young, but he has learned the cunning of the human race well."

"I understand."

***

Meanwhile, Su Yu was cursing madly.

Holy shit!

Those greedy bastards were basically profiteering from both parties in the conflict. What even was the point of his previous purchase? What could he do with the one hour he bought? His opponents had a way of detecting him.

Damn the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion! Both he and the immortals had paid a large price for their services, but neither of them had actually benefited from the services they bought. The Heavenly Hunt Pavilion was the only party to have profited from this.

"Index copy..."

Su Yu clenched his teeth as he stared at the index copy in his hands. The Heavenly Hunt Index didn't even mind exposing the fact that they were tracking him through the index copy because they were confident that he could not do without it.

External assistance was something everyone would need at one point. And the Heavenly Hunt Pavilion had indeed been very helpful for him. Could he even bring himself to throw the index copy away? He could always pick up another copy at a later date, so they weren't even worried that he would throw this copy away.

Thus, they would rather protect their reputation and come clean, telling him that they couldn't cancel a service they had sold. He could simply toss the copy away this time and pick up another copy in the future to continue dealing with them.

"Index copy, location tracker..."

At that time, his gaze landed on the little furball who was having a great time eating willpower in his sea of willpower. Since the little fellow had been fed, it was time to work.

"Furball."

"Ya, ya..." The furball flipped his body before realizing that Su Yu was speaking to him. He hurriedly said, "I can't go out anymore. If I go outside again, my dada will notice me and take me back home."

"..."

Su Yu said nothing. Was that real?

"Isn't your dada supposed to be sleeping back home?"

That was what the little furball had told him previously.

"But he can wake up. If I keep going out, he will notice me and take me back. I can't go out anymore."

"..."

Was the furball lying?

Su Yu was unsure. The furball once mentioned that his dada was a Pseudo Emperor. That was merely a title instead of a cultivation level, but someone with that title would at least be an Invincible. Who would dare to call themselves a Pseudo Emperor without being at least an Invincible?

"Will your dada kill me if he's here?"

"No. You smells nice."

"Will he eat me?"

"We don't eat humans. We only eat yummy stuff."

Fuck! Would this fellow's dada eat his golden book?

So be it. Su Yu decided to not risk it. Instead, a clone appeared beside him. The clone was holding onto the index copy. Weren't they looking for him? Weren't they tracking him? Enjoy.

Under his control, the clone dashed off with the index copy in hand.

***

At the same time.

One of the characters swirling above Dao Cheng's palm suddenly started bleeding.

Alarmed, Dao Cheng sent Jiu Xuan a voice transmission, "Watch out. This is greatly inauspicious."

Jiu Xuan asked doubtfully, "Is it Su Yu?"

"I'm not sure. Jiu Xuan, if we can't kill Su Yu tonight, we will leave the moment morning arrives. If there is any danger later, hide behind Final Armor. Do not separate from him."

"Big Brother Dao Cheng, is he really that dangerous?"

"He is very dangerous. People like him are extremely hard to kill. That applies to him, to Mo Duona, to Zhan Wushuang, to Xuan Wuji...Every name in the Heaven Index belongs to someone who will not die easily. These were the children of destiny. Even if they were to perish, countless experts would perish alongside them."

That was the truth. He was speaking from experience. Just how long had it been since they unfolded their operation against Su Yu? In such a short time, two Mountainseas and numerous Cloudbreaches had perished.

One ought to note that Su Yu was only one of the weaker ones in the Heaven Index. If it was someone at Mo Duona's level, they would probably need to sacrifice several Sunmoons to still fail in the end.

At the mention of Mo Duona, Jiu Xuan said, "Big Brother Dao Cheng, is it possible that Mo Duona will get involved? He's in the city as well."

"Unlikely. He is probably waiting for his own fortuitous encounter. Unless we disturb him, he won't make a move."

The conversation ended there. One could never be too cautious. His divination results had been inauspicious for the entire day. This was too worrying. If they couldn't achieve their goal by the end of the night, they should just leave. At this time, the paper crane switched direction again.