My dao to eternity

He gave them a full day's lead before he followed.

Not out of hesitation. Distance, on the southern road, was safer than proximity — a full day meant he could trail them at the edge of his ordinary range rather than his enhanced one, close enough to track their movement, far enough that even the sword-bearing woman's listening would find nothing but empty road behind her. He left Quiet River Town on foot, no flying, a plain traveler's pack over one shoulder and nothing in his bearing to distinguish him from any other man walking south on ordinary business.