Chapter 173: Aura Compass
"What do you think?"
Qing Zhiyan furrowed her brows and answered.
"I only have a few guesses. Probably someone from my family has already joined hands with Skinwalker and told it everything about my trip. After all, I did tell my family that I'm coming back."
Shen Yu shrugged.
"There is another possibility. The Skinwalker might have already invaded the Imperial Palace and that lead it to discover this information. It probably got the body of someone high ranked."
Qing Zhiyan sighed, as she knew the probability of this happening was very high.
"Yes, this can also happen. Let's say that the Skinwalker got the news of my trip from the Imperial Palace and then decided to infiltrate the Mercenary group Hastor hired. This way, even if Hastor took different routes it would easily know since the vessels are somehow connected with each other."
Shen Yu nodded.
"You're right on that. From the remains of the merxenaries, I concluded that some of the members were actually the vessel of Skinwalker as they had the same residual Soul energy in them. I'm guessing that when it self exploded to get away from him, it couldn't control it's powers properly and ended up detonating every single vessel in the area."
A sighe escaped from Qing Zhiyan as she remembered how every vessel of Skinwalker had exploded which meant Shen Yu's hypothesis was right.
"However, there is still a single problem master. Why didn't Hastor detect the Skinwalker's vessels in the mercenaries but he did when it ambushed? It's too bizzare!"
With frown on his face, Shen Yu asked.
"How do you actually detect him?"
Instead of answering his question, Qing Zhiyan simply took out a small circular badge from her storage ring and gave it Shen Yu.
He took it and began to analyse it. It looked very similar to compasses in shape and had a arrow inside it, which was covered in in a red glass which glowed with many small Runes. Not only that, below the dial there was a big Rune Formation which governed the arrow's movements.
Shen Yu smiled after seeing it. With just a glance at the Runes, he already knew it's functions.
"This is actually a good device. The Runemasters in the capital city are truly worthy of their name for making this kind of thing."
Qing Zhiyan smiled.
"Yes, Master. The Skinwalker is a strange Spiritual Creature who is unlike other Spiritual Creatures. As you know, other Spiritual Creatures do anything to eat human or even other creatures."
Shen Yu nodded, as he already knew the reason for that.
"They mostly attack because of the life force and Souls of humans. They get stronger by consuming them, after all. That's why those strong Spiritual Creatures never venture towards human settlements as they couldn't care less about the measle amount of life force and Souls of humans."
Qing Zhiyan chuckled softly as she noted the information.
"Yes, but this Skinwalker is different. It's as if it isn't after the life force or soul. It just randomly appears anywhere and does whatever it wishes. One of the reasons the Major Sects and Empire doesn't see the Skinwalker as a high level threat is because of this. They Skinwalker doesn't cause much problem."
Shen Yu snorted hearing that.
"Or that they don't have the capabilities to know the trouble it causes."
Qing Zhiyan shook her head.
"That's why they created this Aura Compass and gave it to all important members. It works on simple principle. It detects the fluctuations between our Soul and physical body. Normally, it's completely fine as our body are harmonized with the soul."
She took a sip of tea and continued.
"But the case with Skinwalker is different. Since it seizes other's body so the soul is not compatible with the physical body which creates fluctuations. This Aura Compass detects those fluctuations and tell us about the identity of the person."
Shen Yu nodded.
"But it seems there are still loopholes. This couldn't detect the vessels in Mercenary group. I have a theory for it, though. The Skinwalker probably took over weak Cultivator's bodies so it was easy for it to force the harmonization with the physical body. There are some complexity involved in this but I'm sure it could do this with weaker bodies."
Qing Zhiyan pursed her lips hearing that, as it would create a big problem if they couldn't even detect the Skinwalker's vessels.
Shen Yu saw through her thoughts and chuckled softly.
"You don't need to worry about the Skinwalker. I'll give you an upgraded version of this Aura Compass so even if it pulled out its shenanigans, you'll know it. Beside, I've already decided to look into this matter as the Skinwalker seems very interesting to me."
He licked his lips and added in a low voice.
"Especially since it is related to the Senter Valley base of our Shadow Garden."
With a surprised look on her face, Qing Zhiyan asked.
"So the real body of Skinwalker is actually hidden in the Senter Valley base?"
But after thinking about something, she shook her head.
"But if that was the case then master would have detected it the last time you visited the base. There is no way you would miss something like this."
Shen Yu shrugged.
"It's main body is probably sealed and since I didn't really scan the area properly, I might have missed it. Making something like that in the middle of wilderness is too suspicious to begin with, especially since how powerful the Rune Formations there are, so yeah I'm sure the Skinwalker is sealed there."
He saw a mysterious glint passed through Qing Zhiyan's eyes and asked.
"You're planning to use the Skinwalker, right?"
Qing Zhiyan smiled, not hiding her thoughts.
"Not the Spiritual Creatures itself but it's name. The Major Sects and Empire is only at ease with the Skinwalker because it never goes overboard, well, except this time. But it is a Empire level threat nonetheless. They can't ignore it and we'll use that."