"Senior Sister?"
Xiao Linlin was taken aback, a hint of confusion creeping into her thoughts: "Didn't she marry into the Boundless Sea? How come she's here..."
"have no idea."
Su Lin shook his head, and after a moment of silence, added, "But I'm absolutely sure I didn't smell it wrong. Without the influence of cognition, my senses can't be wrong. I'm very sure it's this smell."
"It's not her own natural scent, but a local aromatherapy fragrance."
"I bought this scented candle for her when I came down from the mountain before. She really loves this scent."
Su Lin was quite certain of his judgment. After all, during his time in Jian Ge, he had the most frequent and intimate contact with Xu Zhenshu and was very familiar with some of Xu Zhenshu's little quirks.
"Could it be... that the marriage in the cognitive trap is fake? Or did Senior Sister Xu return to her old home after getting married?"
Xiao Linlin murmured, "That shouldn't be the case. Returning to a familiar place would only evoke memories. So, she's never been here before, and has been hiding here all along? Hiding at the foot of the mountain!"
"Brother, quickly find the source of this smell!"
"I'm looking for it."
Su Lin's gaze remained calm as he continuously swept across the crowd.
While maintaining a low-key, slow pace, he channeled his spiritual energy to enhance his perception, constantly trying to detect this subtle, different scent within the crowd.
Not long after.
Su Lin's gaze was fixed on a middle-aged member of the evil sect. This guy was ugly and balding. He was standing in front of a stall, playing with some materials for forging weapons and occasionally haggling with the stall owner.
This mercenary and greasy appearance doesn't look like Xu Zhenshu at all.
But ironically, this guy had the strongest scent, and Su Lin was almost 100% certain that the faint scent wafting through the streets originated from him.
"Did you use a disguise technique?"
Su Lin asked Xiao Linlin in a low voice. Xiao Linlin quietly took out a small mirror from the warehouse and casually looked at it as Su Lin passed by the man. Then she shook her head and replied, "It's not disguise or pretense, it's him."
"This item is S-rank. At least any disguise method below S-rank can be detected. I don't think any martial arts practitioner in the local world has S-rank disguise ability."
Xiao Linlin's answer made Su Lin frown.
"Could it be that he also likes using this kind of aromatherapy? Or is it a misunderstanding?"
"Maybe so. After all, it's a heretical sect, and perverted fetishes like male-to-female incense use might exist."
Xiao Linlin put away the small mirror and pondered, "But I'll still follow along and see. I have nothing else to do anyway, so I'll see if there's really a misunderstanding."
"Um."
Su Lin nodded and silently paced around the area.
He didn't have to wait long before he saw the middle-aged man slowly get up and leave, carrying a bulging tattered cloth bag in his hand.
Su Lin followed far behind, observing secretly. He noticed that the person walked around stopping and starting, often lingering in places frequented by members of various evil sects, and seemed to be doing nothing out of the ordinary.
But Xiao Linlin quickly noticed a subtle difference: "Brother, something's not right... This guy doesn't seem to be from out of town. He's not dressed much, his hands and feet are clean without any mud or leaves, and he's not carrying any weapons. He obviously lives in the city."
"And since he's a local, why does he frequent places like pharmacies and blacksmith shops? And judging from how familiar he is with the shop owners, it's probably not his first time buying from them."
"His long-term purchase of these items is probably because someone in his family is injured or is practicing martial arts... But if that's the case, why not just go to a doctor to get the medicine made, instead of buying the herbs himself?"
"He wants to refine medicine and forge weapons himself... It must be much more complicated, but he seems not to care."
Xiao Linlin narrowed her eyes slightly: "This can only mean that the medicines and weapons he refines are probably not recognized by the mainstream and cannot be easily exposed."
"What kind of people can't be easily exposed these days?"
Upon hearing this, Su Lin blurted out in his mind, "Upright!"
With good and evil reversed, the righteous faction naturally has to hide, and everything they need to practice martial arts must not be exposed.
The reason Su Lin didn't notice was because his worldview was still rooted in the idea of a world where good and evil were equal, and he hadn't immediately adapted to the new world's trends.
In a normal environment, it's normal for members of evil sects to act furtively, and the things they buy are relatively scattered and common.
But nowadays, these cults are the most upright and honorable groups. Is it really necessary for them to do this?
"Disguised as a righteous person from an evil sect?"
Su Lin couldn't help but chuckle to himself: "An underground worker, huh? This guy's definitely up to something!"
He sensed something was wrong and followed closely.
Two hours later, the middle-aged man seemed to have finished his shopping. He wandered around several small paths, circling the city, giving off a strong sense of counter-surveillance.
Therefore, Su Lin could only send out a wisp of his divine sense to keep an eye on things from a distance, and could no longer follow them.
"He must be hiding something. He's so wary even though no one's following him."
Su Lin became more and more certain, until he sensed with his divine sense that the guy suddenly turned around and disappeared into a courtyard.
An ordinary elderly couple was chopping firewood in the courtyard. The middle-aged man used his lightness skill to conceal his presence, slipped into the cowshed, crawled a hundred meters through a dog hole in the corner of the cowshed, emerged from a new large courtyard, and jumped into an abandoned well in the courtyard.
"It was hidden quite well."
Su Lin raised an eyebrow and quickly followed the trail to the courtyard.
The courtyard looked quite large, with disciples of various evil sects walking around inside. By focusing their qi and listening carefully, they could roughly determine that this was a temporary encampment of an evil sect within the city.
But they were clearly unaware that people were hiding beneath the building.
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