Chapter 952 – Misdirection

The northeast was close to the forest’s edge, and adventurers had left woodland trails from previous passages, making it convenient for exiting the forest.

Although the straight-line distance to exit the forest was shorter near Stardrop Falls, a steep mountain range stood in between. The side closest to Stardrop Falls was a sheer cliff face, making direct passage virtually impossible.

When a slave-catching party captured Elves, everyone’s first instinct would be that they’d flee toward the forest’s edge. If she hadn’t used the Origin-Tracing Spell to witness that scene, she never would have imagined they’d head toward Stardrop Falls.

Moreover, the enemy was well-versed in Elven methods and had prepared corresponding magic scrolls to conceal their tracks.

Mo Lan slowly withdrew her fingers and stood up. She needed to relay this information to Aiwendar and the others in a plausible way, without exposing herself.

After a moment’s thought, she had a plan.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The forces of nature around her began to flow in a unique, harmonious rhythm, resonating with her.

At a time like this, nothing served better as an excuse than “natural resonance” — something every Elf in the tribe knew about, yet only she could enter frequently.

After several breaths, she exited the state of natural resonance, opened her eyes, and addressed the other Elves:

“Something isn’t right. I just attempted to resonate with the surrounding nature, and the information I perceived was very chaotic.”

She pointed northeast first. “The traces in that direction… are too ‘deliberate.'”

Then she turned toward the southeast — that area where the vegetation appeared intact and virtually untouched. “Over here… the growth state of these plants is abnormal. They should have been heavily trampled not long ago, but now they exhibit an unnatural, forcibly-regenerated freshness. The residual energy traces have also been thoroughly scrambled, making them nearly undetectable.

I suspect the enemy very likely has someone skilled in nature-type magic, or possesses related magical items. They deliberately left obvious misleading traces to the northeast, while their true destination is deep within Stardrop Falls!”

Upon hearing this, Lila and Kelly immediately reassessed both directions. Looking carefully, after Mo Lan’s revelation, the traces to the northeast did indeed carry a stiff, “performative” quality.

And that patch of overly “pristine” woodland to the southeast — to the eyes of experienced druids — did reveal subtle inconsistencies in the rate of vegetation recovery. It was just that the more conspicuous traces to the northeast had previously captured their attention.

Aiwendar was more cautious. He circled once in the air, his sharp gaze sweeping back and forth between the northeast and southeast:

“Human cunning far exceeds our imagination. The concealed traces we’ve now discovered to the southeast, and the deliberately obvious traces left to the northeast, could themselves both be misdirection.

They’ve anticipated that we, as Elves, excel at tracking and rely on natural perception. They intentionally left obvious traces to the northeast as the first layer of bait, then ‘carelessly’ let us discover the ‘real’ concealed traces to the southeast, luring us in that direction.

In reality, they might have taken a third route entirely, or both routes might have people on them — the main force carrying Polly and Celine on one path, while another group deliberately takes the other to create a diversion!”

This possibility sent a chill through Lila and Kelly.

“Aiwendar makes a good point,” Lila said thoughtfully. “We can’t let ourselves be led entirely by the clues in front of us.”

“So what do we do next?” Kelly looked toward Aiwendar.

Aiwendar said: “I’m fast. I’ll go northeast alone and scout deeper to confirm whether those traces completely disappear at the border, change direction midway, or show signs of a rendezvous point. The three of you head southeast toward Stardrop Falls to investigate. If you find the targets, don’t expose yourselves — wait for Rhindor and the others to arrive before taking action!”

Mo Lan: “…”

If she hadn’t seen the trees’ memories, Aiwendar’s analysis would indeed have been very sound. He had even guessed correctly — both directions did have people moving along them.

For a nature Elf who spent his days dealing with plants and animals, having such strategic thinking was truly remarkable. No wonder Matil had sent him first to scout the situation, and Rhindor had put him in charge of leading the team!

But she couldn’t very well say at this point that she had seen the main force heading southeast, and that Polly and Celine were in that direction too.

She could only accept Aiwendar’s decision.

The group left markings nearby that only Elves could read, explaining their findings and where they were headed next, making it easy for Rhindor and the others to follow when they arrived. Then they split up.

Aiwendar transformed into a Swiftwind Falcon and soared northeast to track.

The traces in this direction had also been partially concealed, but the concealment wasn’t particularly skillful — not enough to fool his sharp eyes. Leveraging his aerial advantage and abundant experience, Aiwendar quickly spotted two people hurrying along near the forest’s edge. Polly and Celine were not with them, and their number didn’t match the scale of the traces originally left behind. Only then did he confirm — this direction was the misdirection.

These two were two levels below him. Aiwendar swiftly captured them and demanded to know where Polly and Celine had been taken.

But no matter what, they refused to talk. Aiwendar had no choice but to restrain them first, then used druid magic to summon two forest deer to carry them as he headed southeast.

Meanwhile, Lila, Kelly, and Mo Lan, tracking deeper southeast toward Stardrop Falls, faced an entirely different situation.

Tracking in this direction was extremely difficult. The enemy had clearly invested far more resources and effort into concealing their trail here.

It wasn’t merely a matter of sweeping away footprints or encouraging plants to grow back over trampled vegetation. They had disrupted the spiritual essence of surrounding plants, used special powders to confuse scent trails, laid numerous traps to slow their pursuers, and occasionally left new false leads.

Every step required all three of them to proceed with extreme caution and careful discernment. Progress was agonizingly slow.

Many times, they had to stop and repeatedly verify whether a stretch of path that showed almost no abnormalities had truly been traversed.

And whenever this happened, Mo Lan would use the Origin-Tracing Spell to view the memories of nearby plants, then conveniently “enter” a brief state of natural resonance before pointing out a direction based on “that.”

Her guidance pulled their tracking back onto the correct path time after time, just when they were on the verge of reaching a dead end.

“Thank goodness for Moira’s natural resonance. Without it, just the two of us would have been thrown off long ago by these endless concealment techniques.” Kelly perched on a tree branch, gazing down at yet another faint trace Mo Lan had identified — one nearly impossible to discern with the naked eye — and remarked to Lila with deep appreciation.

Lila landed nearby, her expression grave: “They’ve expended an enormous amount of effort on this route. Using magic scrolls, potions, and possibly single-use magical items so lavishly just to conceal their tracks… this is definitely not merely to set up an elaborate misdirection. This direction must be their true escape route!”