Eklavya’s group and Zeliang’s group separated soon after the plan had been finalised, each heading in different directions to carry out their assigned roles. The quiet forest that had surrounded them moments earlier now felt like the opening stage of a silent battlefield. Without exchanging unnecessary words, both groups moved into the trees, their mission already set in motion.

  Eklavya and Solan advanced toward the right side of the valley while Zeliang led the rest in the opposite direction, each step carrying them deeper into the vast forest where the members of the Falling Leaf Sect were scattered.

  As they moved from left to right through the forest, Eklavya spoke in a calm but firm voice, “Follow me closely.”

  His eyes remained attentive to their surroundings while he carefully adjusted their path. At the same time, he kept track of the elder’s Divine Sense Domain, making sure they never crossed into that invisible boundary.

  The sensing range of a Grandmaster was not something to be taken lightly. Even the smallest disturbance within that domain could alert the elder to their presence.

  Moving with calculated caution, Eklavya gradually shifted their route toward the right side of the forest before eventually slowing to a stop. For a brief moment, he turned his gaze toward the distant direction where the elder rested somewhere within the valley.

  Solan halted just behind him, silently waiting. Eklavya’s attention then shifted away from the elder’s direction toward another part of the forest—the place where one of the Falling Leaf Sect groups had been located on the map.

  He took a slow breath, drawing the cool forest air deep into his lungs, then exhaled steadily as he centred his focus. As his breathing calmed, a faint glow appeared around his arms. The fifth formation ring manifested around each forearm, spinning slowly with a low hum of circulating energy. Without hesitation, Eklavya separated two rings from each arm and guided them downward. The glowing rings slid along his body before settling around his legs, where they began rotating once again, amplifying his movement and speed.

  In the next instant, Eklavya bent slightly and jumped onto a high tree branch above them. The branch barely trembled beneath his landing. Without pausing, he pushed forward and began moving rapidly across the forest canopy, leaping from one tree to another with remarkable speed.

  Solan immediately followed, climbing onto the branch and attempting to keep pace with him. However, despite his strength as a three-star Master Warrior, matching Eklavya’s speed proved difficult. The formation rings surrounding Eklavya’s legs allowed him to move through the trees like a shadow carried by the wind.

  Within a short time, the distance between them widened until Eklavya disappeared completely from Solan’s sight. Yet Eklavya had not truly abandoned him—subtle traces had been left behind along the branches, small signs that Solan could follow if he paid close attention.

  Solan finally slowed and came to a halt on one of the thicker branches, his eyes scanning the surrounding canopy. The forest stretched endlessly before him, layers of leaves and branches weaving together until it became difficult to distinguish one path from another. For a brief moment, he frowned, wondering where Eklavya had vanished so quickly.

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  ‘Where did he go?’ he thought. He couldn’t believe that a Practitioner Warrior could move at such speed—he, a Master Warrior, hadn’t been able to match it.

  Then his gaze dropped toward the branch beneath his feet. There, pressed faintly into the thin layer of moss covering the bark, he noticed a subtle mark—the impression of a shoe. It was not deep, but it was deliberate. Solan’s eyes sharpened immediately as he recognised what it meant.

  A small smile appeared on his face.

  Eklavya had not disappeared carelessly; he had intentionally left a trail behind. The marks were faint enough that an enemy would likely ignore them, mistaking them for natural disturbances in the forest, yet clear enough for someone who knew what to look for.

  Solan crouched slightly to inspect the next branch ahead. Another faint imprint was visible.

  “Smart,” he murmured.

  Without wasting another moment, he resumed moving, following the trail left behind. He leapt from one branch to another, carefully keeping his eyes on the subtle marks guiding his path deeper through the forest canopy.

  Meanwhile, far ahead of him, Eklavya was moving at extraordinary speed.

  The formation rings spinning around his legs amplified every motion of his body, turning each step into a powerful launch that carried him across wide gaps between the trees. From a distance, his movements would have looked almost unreal—his figure flickering through the branches like a silent phantom passing through the forest.

  Branch after branch blurred beneath his feet as he continued forward. To anyone watching from below, he would have appeared like an assassin moving through the treetops, silent and swift, leaving almost no trace of his passage.

  Within only a few minutes, he had already covered a remarkable distance. Gradually, the terrain around him began to change. The flat valley floor began to rise, and the trees grew slightly thinner as the ground beneath them sloped upward. The subtle shift in elevation told him exactly where he was now.

  He was leaving the valley behind. The forest ahead began climbing toward the lower slopes of the surrounding mountains, where the terrain became rougher and the paths between trees narrower.

  Eklavya finally slowed his pace and came to a stop on a thick branch high above the forest floor.

  The trees here had begun to thin as the land sloped upward toward the mountain, allowing small gaps through which the distant terrain could be seen. For a moment, he remained perfectly still, letting the forest settle around him.

  Then he activated the mark at his wrist. A faint golden shimmer appeared in front of him as the translucent map unfolded in the air. His eyes scanned it quickly. The cluster of purple dots marking the first group of the Falling Leaf Sect was now extremely close to his position. Eklavya tilted his neck slightly from side to side, a quiet crack echoing from his joints as he loosened the tension in his body.

  “Well, Magha,” he said inwardly, “what stars of Master Warriors are present in that group?”

  Magha responded through their mental connection almost instantly.

  “There are five Master Warriors in total. Two of them are one-star Master Warriors, one is a three-star Master Warrior, and the remaining two are five-star Master Warriors.”

  Eklavya listened calmly, his gaze still fixed on the glowing points displayed on the map. The numbers did not worry him; instead, they simply helped him shape the approach he was about to take. Closing the map with a flicker of fading light, he stepped lightly onto another branch, his movements slower now as he approached the location of his targets.

  “Well,” he murmured quietly to himself, a faint smile forming on his face, “then let’s finish this quickly.”