At this moment, Lu Tianzi could at least take solace in the fact that he did not choose to join the assault party under an alias as Gong Shengjie had suggested.

There was simply no way that his crude disguise would have been able to pull one over the discerning eyes of these people in the assault party!

Now that he had chosen to act independently, Lu Tianzi could at least find a way to take advantage of any potential ruckus that were to be caused by the assault party. Perhaps he could even pick off any stragglers to aid in furthering his Slaughter Essence system.

However, that was all only theoretical.

In the first place, he would have to be able to tail the assault party without being discovered. That would be the only way to take advantage of their actions.

But that was truly a tall order for any Essence Building realm martial artist.

Every team within the party was led by an Essence Condensation realm martial artist. In fact, there were even two of them in the main team!

Hu Shenwei, being at Primary Essence Condensation realm, was naturally one of them.

Upon entering the Essence Condensation realm, a martial artist's strength of perception would grow to a level incomparable to before. While it varied from individual to individual, it was still something that normal Essence Building realm martial artists could not hope to match!

Lu Tianzi sighed helplessly.

He would no longer be able to rely on Gong Shengjie to solve this problem for him. Even Gong Shengjie would probably be unable to do anything about it.

Somehow or rather, Lu Tianzi would have to find a way to hide his presence from these martial artists who were at a higher cultivation realm than him.

After the meeting with Gong Shengjie, Lu Tianzi did not immediately return to Uncle Ye's house. Instead, he headed straight for the marketplace.

While it was not a foolproof plan, he at least had a rough idea on how to mitigate this problem to a certain extent.

The Skunk Flower was a special plant that gave off an overpowering pungent smell whenever pressure was applied to the base of its flower, or its receptacle. Its most common usage was to flush out pests in the house, but Lu Tianzi had other plans for it.

By applying a layer of honey to the petals, it was actually possible to stimulate the Skunk Flower into releasing the natural smell of grass instead of the usual pungent version. Lu Tianzi was intending to rely on this converted property in order to provide a form of cover during the operation.

In the wilds, a person's scent was a huge giveaway for his location. Another person might not be able to notice, but just by analysing the movements of wild animals that were more sensitive to scents, it was not difficult to deduce to presence of an individual.

Lu Tianzi could only pray that this plan of his would be sufficient to hide his presence. As long as the assault party did not feel threatened, it was unlikely that they would rampantly spread out their perception to search around them.

After all, if a martial artist's perception was spread out in all direction, then the distance covered would naturally reduce. For that reason, martial artists would usually concentrate their perception in a specific direction unless they were on guard for sneak attacks.

On top of that, constantly sweeping out their perception in all directions was not only draining on their psyche, but it would also subject themselves to a greater possibility of being discovered by the demons.

That would go against the whole point of the assault party's decision to employ guerrilla tactics!

---

A few days later, Gong Shengjie arrived before the South Gate in a grand fashion, with a huge group of men following behind him.

Seeing this, the gate master hurriedly exited his office as he went to personally greet Gong Shengjie. Even though the gate master was older and definitely stronger as an individual, he still could not afford to offend the son of a District Head.

"May I know what Sir Gong is here for today?" the gate master clasped his hands respectfully towards the young man before him.

"Open the gate, I have some business that I have to settle outside!"

Gong Shengjie's voice was domineering when faced with the gate master, completely different from the gentle tone that he had been using with Lu Tianzi and especially Ye Xiangyuan.

Upon hearing Gong Shengjie's demand, coupled with the impolite tone, the smile on the gate master immediately froze.

"Sir Gong, that might be a little difficult to do. As you already know, the City Lord Manor has passed down instructions not to open the gates for the time being.." the gate master answered hesitantly.

The gate master's job was not a difficult one, simply being in charge of managing the South Gate and the respective sentries. Every procedure had already been set in stone, so he did not even need to give instructions and his men would already know what to do in every situation.

However, things become tricky when people of high authority wanted him to bend the rules for them, just like what was happening right this moment. He could only try to bring out the name of the City Lord Manor in hopes that Gong Shengjie would back down.

"I am not asking you to let workers out of the city. I just need my men to go out there and do something for me. It will not take more than thirty minutes, so don't give me that crap!"

Unfortunately for the gate master, Gong Shengjie was not taking no for an answer.

"This.. may I know what Sir Gong wants to do outside of the city? Maybe my men and I can help to do it for you instead?" the gate master could only curse his luck.

Of all times, why did Gong Shengjie have to come when he was on duty?

"Are you questioning me now? If I want to do something, I naturally have my reasons for it. I don't need your suggestions on what I should do!" Gong Shengjie yelled out in anger. "So are you opening the gate or not?"

"But if anyone comes and finds that the gate is open, then I will not be able to answer.." the gate master still did not give a clear answer.

"Then I will personally stay here while my men go out to do their job! If there is a need to answer to any queries, then I will be the one answering. Is that good enough?" Gong Shengjie knew that this was an important compromise that he had to make, and promptly decided to do so.

The gate master could only grit his teeth in frustration as he weighed his options. If it was truly only for a short period of 30 minutes, then it might not be too much to bend the rules a little to get into the good books of the son of Gong Tiesha.

After all, the South Gate was still located in the Workers District, and Gong Tiesha's influence was strong in this area.

Who knew what advantages he would be able to enjoy if he managed to establish good relations with the son of Gong Tiesha?

"Open the gate!" the gate master finally announced, and the huge South Gate started to creak open.

"Move out!" Gong Shengjie immediately ordered.

"Yes!" the men behind him hurriedly streamed out of the gate.

The gate master watched with worried eyes as they left the safety of the city walls, and could only pray that he did not bet on the wrong option here.

Among these men was naturally the disguised Lu Tianzi.

All of this was nothing but a smokescreen by Gong Shengjie, designed to sneak Lu Tianzi out of the city!

After Gong Shengjie's subordinates were done with their imaginary job, they would then return to the city. At the same time, Lu Tianzi would make full use of these 30 minutes in order to sneak into the forest and out of the view of the city sentries.

This plan depended heavily on Lu Tianzi's ability to sneak out of the observable range of the sentries. If he were to be found, it might be difficult for even Gong Shengjie to talk his way out of the situation.

However, Gong Shengjie had decided to trust him on this one, and thankfully that decision paid off in the end, as Lu Tianzi swiftly disappeared into the shadows of the forest.

The assault party had already left early in the morning, so Lu Tianzi was already running late.

Sadly, Lu Tianzi did not possess tracking skills. Having left the city much later than the assault party, he was unable to discern the exact direction that they had headed towards.

Thankfully, by making a Heaven's Oath with a demon previously, he had managed to obtain information regarding the location of the Shadowfront Fortress.

Since Lu Tianzi had precise information on hand, all he had to do was to head in the direction of the Shadowfront Fortress and it should eventually lead him to the assault party.

After all, their targets were one and the same.

Applying a slight pressure on the receptacle of the Skunk Flower, a sudden burst of scent resembling that of grass instantly enveloped Lu Tianzi.

At this moment, Lu Tianzi's scent had been completely overpowered by the effect of the Skunk Flower, to the point of being almost impossible to detect. Even wild beasts that were adept at detection through scent would find it extremely difficult to pick up Lu Tianzi's trail!

With that out of the way, Lu Tianzi now felt much more comfortable with hurrying through the forest.

But at the same time, he carefully swept his perception out in front of him while travelling through the forest, extremely wary about where he was headed.

The last thing that Lu Tianzi wanted was to accidentally run into the assault party. If that were to happen, then he could effectively kiss his freedom goodbye!

On top of that, he also had to make sure to avoid confrontations with powerful wild beasts that he might come across on the way, making detours around any that he encountered.

After two days of travelling, Lu Tianzi finally detected some signs of life that did not belong to wild beasts!

It was almost night time by now, and the sun was already starting to set over the horizon.

After getting close enough to his targets, Lu Tianzi agilely climbed into the thick canopy overhead, all along careful not to alert them to his presence while doing so.

From his high vantage point, Lu Tianzi was able to clearly see that four men were setting up camp in a small clearing up ahead.

With a single look, Lu Tianzi was already able to easily identify the figures before him.

That was because behind each man was a long tail that simply could not be missed!

All along, Lu Tianzi had been expecting to come across the assault party, or at least just one of the three teams.

Who would have thought that the first people he came across would actually be a group of demons?

Lu Tianzi calmed his breath as his thoughts raced, trying to consider his next move.

Not knowing where the assault party was actually placed him in an extremely disadvantageous position right now.

It was one thing for the assault party not to look out for their backs, but there was nothing stopping them from sweeping their perception to search for any potential threats ahead.

If Lu Tianzi had accidentally passed by the assault party, then there was even the possibility that he was now positioned right between the group of four demons and the assault party!

In that case, then any mistakes by him might easily result in the assault party discovering his existence!

After realising that fact, the first thing that Lu Tianzi did was to carefully retract his perception.

As long as his perception was actively sweeping out, it would only make it easier for others to lock onto his current position. Thankfully, he had at least climbed into the trees, a location that people usually would not investigate into.

Due to a lack of information, Lu Tianzi did not know what the exact situation was. But there was no reason not to be careful.

And for the same reason, he would not want to confront the group of demons by himself.

Lu Tianzi was here to find a way to take advantage of any ruckus caused by the assault party, not to help them bear the risks!

In any case, he already had a direct line of sight to the demons' camp, and did not have to keep his perception locked onto them.

Lu Tianzi thus decided to wait patiently, tucked away in his little corner among the leaves.

Even if the demons were to leave, he would at least be able to know the direction that they headed towards.

But unexpectedly, Lu Tianzi did not have to wait for as long as he thought.

At the very instant that the final ray of sunlight was retracted from the sky, five men simultaneously rushed out from the dense vegetation around the demons' camp!

It was a sneak attack by one of the three teams in the assault party!