The art of escape might sound simple, but it actually requires more than its name may entail. One must look much deeper and in between the words in order to truly understand the art of escape or AOE. Okay, gamers might say here that AOE is area of effect, but we're not playing a game here, we're saving a life here, my life to be precise. AOE actually are the acronyms for the three important factors of an escape master, as in yours truly, me.
A, stands for Arranged. Basically, you must arrange or plan out your escape or basically find an escape route. That may sound straight forward at first, but sometimes it can be the most difficult step depending on where you are trapped. For me, I have already found an escape route, as you know I was able to successfully sneak clones out.
O, stands for Oasis. Oasis is the salvation in a desert just like it would be the safety net for my escape plan. Basically, always have a backup plan that can keep you safe or your life intact. As the saying goes, "If you live another day, you have another chance". For me, my Oasis is obviously Ling'er. I'll be leaving a clone with her when I escape, and if I fail, I will act out my death with my main body, sneak back in, and replace my clone. This will allow me to claim that it's just my clone out exploring, and that I have no desire to leave. Ling'er will be my proof that my clone was actually there. Not sure if the mad man will believe it, but it's the best plan.
E, you may believe stands for Escape itself, but nope. It actually stands for Evade. Before you escape, you must be able to evade the detection of those who are detaining you, and after you escape, you must be able to evade the pursuer's pursuit. Once again, this may seem easy. Some may say blend in with the crowd or run far, far away, but this is a cultivation world where cultivators can easily track an escapee down, chase after them with speeds faster than a car and maybe even just directly breaking through space to instantly reach the escapee. I'm unsure if divination exists in this world, but in other novels I read, they exist, and if they exist in this world, I'll be hard-pressed to evade; however, can't worry about that for now. I don't have the power to block divination yet.
Though, I still need to get rid of this Qi tag on me before I can go. Miraculously, after the madman started cursing me, I finally had a way to remove the Qi tag, without detection. I noticed that every time I was cursed, basically take mental damage, the Qi tag seems to get weaker. It seems it might be attached to my soul somehow, and mental attacks that injure my soul also causes damage to it due to AOE damage. After the wear and tear over the days, it's finally about to go *poof*. So, I planned to have my clones go suicide for a couple more time in acids, and that'll probably do.
Once again, the silent night descends while madman goes to bed. Of course, I spawned a clone to go to bed with Ling'er while I hid in the bushes outside her room. Oh~ I wished I could stay forever in her bosom, but alas, I am a "righteous" man who can't take advantage of a lady like so. I must distance myself before she falls for me, causing her heart to shatter once I leave. *cough* Anyways, let's put my plan in motion.
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I spawn a team of 3 clones and sent them to sneak out first. They then jumped into the river all at once and was devoured by Mr.Fish. I'm not even sure if it's the same fish, but plan succeeded. Thank you for your sacrifice. The Qi tag has finally dissipated. Now I personally sneaked out with my main body from the bushes and out the forest. I was wondering if Mr.Aura would write about a series of unfortunate events, but fortunately, he seems to be asleep. I successfully made it out of the forest and to the river. I spawned a clone as decoy and have him hop in first. I waited about a minute, then hopped in myself. I absorbed as much Qi-Infused water as I can in order to recover as much Qi as possible for the coming battle.
As I got closer and closer to the lake, I know I've reached the critical section. If I mess up, I might end up as fish food, truly this time. I ignored the annoying notifications that kept popping up and when I was about 1 minute away from the lake, I spawned my second and third decoy clone in front me. Meanwhile, Mr.Fish popped up and ate decoy one. I had decoy two and three swim off towards the center of the lake while I swam towards the shore once we reached the lake.
As expected, Mr.Fish went for the "crowd". I spawned two more decoys as far behind me as possible and had them sim towards the center. Then, I spawned another two, then had them swim away from both me and the center. Mr.Fish was confused for a bit, but went after the closest ones swimming towards the center first. *gulp* Then Mr.Fish went after the "crowd" again. By the time Mr.Fish ate my last two decoys, barely a minute has passed, but it has given me enough time to get to and hop onto shore even though I froze a couple of times due to the pain feedback. Then Mr.Fish turned my direction, but finally decided to dive back into the lake.
I finally escaped didn't I? I did didn't I?! Yes! I hopped away towards the city in joy. I reached the city walls, then I crawled around looking for one of those openings to slip in. Of course there was none because there's a freaking Qi barrier formation on the walls of the city, lovely. So I had to "sleep" outside until morning. Then I basically as naturally as possible rolled into one of the carts of a merchant queuing up to enter the city. I think I was spotted a couple of times, but I acted like a pool of blood by flattening my shape as much as possible, kind of like crouching. When the guards searched the cart, I was so glad that they didn't have divine sense. I used my own divine sense to check where they were searching and avoided those areas until they are done searching. That went smoothly. The cart drove through the gate while I was anticipating some sort of alarm being set off for detecting a monster, but I guess they allow Demon or "evil" cultivators into the city, so why not monsters. Once the cart drove pass a less populated area, I immediately hopped off.
Then, infiltration success. I crawled towards the less populated area smugly as I thought of how much of a genius I am, but I forgot that Mr.Aura won't let me off that easily. That's why the less populated area I am at just so happens to be the slums and I just so happened to be discovered by a group who made the slums their home.