It's a Trap

Without Wen Shiyin's help, the intricacy of tracking soon manifested itself. The signs we picked up from demons and artifacts alike were weak and unstable, and they ended up leading us in circles a few times. When we followed Xie Lun's talisman readings to a shack on the edge of the village, we held so little faith in our tracking accuracy that we didn't even expect to find anything useful.

"They must've changed where to hide the prizes after seeing our strategy in the last round," Xie Lun mumbled as we stepped over the threshold. "I don't remember it being this difficult last year."

"Or decreased the number of good prizes," I chuckled. "We took enough of those in the last round anyway."

Xie Lun laughed. "That's true. I wonder how well Wen Shiyin must be doing right now with that new tracker—"