There was nothing wrong with the route Ronin's group had taken.
The problem lay with the city itself.
After the shadow clone flew a certain distance at astonishing speed, its position suddenly changed.
The shadow clone did not notice this change on its own.
Ronin was the one who observed it, because the shadow clone suddenly vanished from directly ahead of him. The disappearance lasted less than a second, and when the clone reappeared, it was already extremely far away.
The shadow clone had been teleported!
A large number of Gold and Silver Ingots had vanished along with it, and it was those missing Gold and Silver Ingots that revealed what had happened to the clone.
Most importantly, from the memories returned to Ronin after the shadow clone dispersed, he could clearly tell that the clone had never realised it had been teleported.
Ronin memorised the location where the shadow clone had disappeared.
As for the Deep Purple smoke soldiers Ging created, they had failed to reach that location. After all, once they triggered the city's rules, a truly enormous number of Gold and Silver Ingots awakened.
The large force of Gold and Silver Ingots gave the smoke soldiers no chance to struggle and rapidly eliminated all of them.
However, once the smoke soldiers and shadow clone disappeared, the awakened Gold and Silver Ingots returned to standby mode. Only the patrolling units continued diligently carrying out their duties.
"We're going there." Standing beside the stone building's window, Ronin pointed toward the location where the shadow clone had disappeared.
As long as they did not travel by flying above the city's buildings, the bronze armour would protect them from attacks by the Gold and Silver Ingots.
Ronin wanted to know where they would be transported after reaching that location.
Naturally, he would not test it personally. He would send another shadow clone first.
They had obtained an extra suit of bronze armour during their previous operation, making it perfect for this experiment.
The shadow clone left the building again, this time wearing bronze armour.
It reached the location Ronin had selected without obstruction, but the expected teleportation did not occur immediately.
"It's the height," Kurapika reminded him.
Ronin nodded. He had also noticed the key difference.
The shadow clone slowly began rising into the air using the Ultra-Light-Weight Rock Technique. The instant it rose above the height of the buildings, the nearby Gold and Silver Ingots reacted.
But they were already too late.
The shadow clone vanished instantly!
Everything happened so abruptly, yet it also seemed completely natural.
The vanished shadow clone reappeared elsewhere. Its first reaction was not to observe its surroundings, but to descend from the sky. While falling, it even created an ordinary clone in midair.
The moment that clone appeared and the shadow clone descended below the height of the buildings, a golden beam flashed through the air and struck the decoy, reducing it to white smoke.
The shadow clone's heart tightened. It surveyed its surroundings while preparing for battle.
Had it not been a shadow clone, it might not even have been able to tell whether it had truly been teleported.
Everything within sight appeared completely unchanged. Even the building where Ronin's real body should have been standing remained exactly where it belonged.
But because it was a shadow clone, it could clearly sense that the real body was not inside that building. Ronin was somewhere much farther away.
This allowed the clone to confirm immediately that the instant it exposed itself above the rooftops, it had indeed been transported elsewhere.
The shadow clone landed on the ground, and the activated Gold and Silver Ingots ignored it.
It seemed that after destroying the decoy above the buildings, they had immediately returned to standby mode.
At the same time, Ronin looked toward the distance.
The shadow clone had remained intact for so long after being teleported. There was only one possible explanation: its strategy had worked.
Creating a decoy immediately after being transported and using it as a scapegoat was effective.
After confirming this, Ronin created a second shadow clone and had it put on the last spare suit of bronze armour.
Once the second clone reached the location beyond the teleportation point, Ronin dismissed the first clone.
After clearly understanding the situation at the other location through the memories it returned, everyone fell into deep thought.
However, no matter how they considered it, they reached only one conclusion.
They had to go there and try it themselves.
Based on the current situation, this teleportation mechanism might be the key to entering the ancient city's central area.
There might be other paths leading toward the centre, such as travelling underground. However, the underground passages were completely unfamiliar to them, so Ronin had not yet considered that option.
In his opinion, the teleportation route was currently their best choice.
"The simplest method is for me to store all of you inside Fun Fun Cloth first. At present, I'm the only one who can determine whether the teleportation has occurred by sensing the position of my shadow clone," Ronin explained.
Only by identifying the exact moment of teleportation could he create a decoy and escape unnoticed.
After considering the proposal, everyone nodded in agreement.
What Ronin needed to do next was simple.
He left a shadow clone behind as a positional marker, reached the teleportation point, and leapt high into the air.
The instant he sensed that the distance between himself and the marker clone had changed abnormally, Ronin created a decoy. The clone took his place in the air while his real body dropped toward the ground.
With the experience provided by the two shadow clones, Ronin performed the entire sequence in one smooth motion.
The decoy was torn into smoke by golden beams in midair, but that no longer mattered to Ronin.
He released everyone he had stored away.
Looking at the street, which appeared almost identical to the one before they had been teleported, everyone fell into thought.
Just as no one could determine what to do next, Kurapika suddenly spoke.
"We did move forward."
"What do you mean?" Ronin did not understand.
He genuinely could not see any difference between this place and where they had been before the teleportation. Even the Gold and Silver Ingots standing on alert looked exactly the same as those from their previous location.
"This corresponds to the building where we were staying earlier."
Kurapika walked to the front of the building that matched their former shelter.
Then, under everyone's confused gazes, he released his chain.
The chain stretched across the building's doorway like a measuring tape.
"Do you see it? It's two links shorter!"
Ronin and Ging immediately understood.
"One chain link should be about five centimetres. Two links means ten centimetres. I'm not particularly good at maths, so I can't calculate it clearly, but one thing is certain—we moved forward and are now closer to the city centre.
"However, if we continue advancing at this speed, who knows how many years it will take us to reach the centre of this enormous city?" Ronin said, explaining his understanding.