Book 13 Chapter 14

Penetration (浸透)

The night can reveal many things that cannot be seen in the light of day, but it can also hide many things. Especially on a night like tonight, when the moonlight was weak, it was perfect for hiding.

The old man and the woman were clad in tight black robes that clung to their bodies. These black robes are the standard dress of those who go into hiding.

They headed to the least guarded area first, the one they'd been eyeing. As expected, the most heavily guarded area was where the markers were stored. It would take a lot of work and effort to get past the guards. Luckily, the marks were not their goal, though it would be nice to learn their identities, but it was easy to imagine the risks involved. They reeked of danger, like a decomposing corpse hidden in a dank place.

Getting over the wall was no problem. She moved with the agility and silence of a cat in her slender jiao gu. You can't be called a black martial artist with just a face. You need to have a corresponding skill set. If the only criterion for selection was the face, she would not be called Black Dao Sahua, but Black Dao Thirty-six Hua.

According to my research, this entire table is rented by the Zhongyuan Bureau. That means there is no safe zone in there. I needed to be careful.

We had no problem getting over the fence. However, I didn't realize that there was a bonfire in the backyard and a security guard standing guard. We almost got caught. If Hanno hadn't warned us to be careful, we might have been caught.

She silently motioned toward the patronage room.

'Did I mention it's a sponsored 3rd floor room…….'

Hanno was suspicious; he'd been paying a fortune teller, Hana, during the day to get the information she wanted. She told him that the most prestigious rooms in the palace were on the third floor. She had been informed that the small lords of the Zhongyuan Domain and a few others occupied the entire third floor, so it was likely that the man she had seen was there as well.

A woman stepped quietly out of the deep shadows of the fortune-teller's patronage building. Her face is obscured by a cloak, but the shapely curves of her body reveal that she is a woman. She is followed by a man in the same cloak. When the mask was removed, it was revealed that the man was actually an old man. It was Eunseulan and Hanno. No one noticed their movements. They were as ghostly as ghosts and as stealthy as the night.

The building was three stories high.

Snowflake raised her finger and pointed upward. She wanted to go up there herself. Hanno shook his head. It was too dangerous and he couldn't agree. However, Snow Flower stubbornly refused the old man's wishes and insisted on her own will. Her eyes, shining like polished jewels, spoke for her. The old man knew that no matter what he said to her now, it wouldn't work. It was unusual for him to be so forceful.

'What on earth made her do that?'

He's clearly motivated by something powerful. But he didn't think to poke around in his current position.

Hanno nodded. Then he pointed his finger downward. He meant that he would stay here and watch over her. A light of gratitude shone in the two eyes of Eunseulan that peeked out from behind her mask.

Boom!

She bowed lightly and lifted her gaze to look at her target.

"Great!

It was three stories high, but that didn't bother her. She leapt lightly, using her wits, and landed safely on the eaves of the first floor. But there was no sound like a feather landing. Even the bumps that twitched at her slightest gesture remained silent, and Hanno watched in pure admiration.

Eunsulan gently climbed the eaves of the first floor, then the second and third floors, and soon reached her goal. She kept her body close to the roof, lest the warriors patrolling below notice. This was to prevent the moonlight from revealing the new model.

'What do we do now…….'

The third floor was no exception. It would be time-consuming to go through them all. It's also dangerous.

She quietly closed her eyes for now and maximized her hearing. Her hearing range began to increase.

The quiet trickle of water in the distance, the wind carrying the crisp evening air, the chirping of crickets, the crackle and crackle of a fire, the patter of people's feet. She had the ridiculous thought that she could even hear the moonlight falling. The quiet night was beginning to turn into a din in her ears.

It was then that her ears picked up the kind of sound she was hoping for.

"Ready?"

"Everything is fine."

"There's no room for error."

"Nothing, of course."

One person asked and one person answered, but because all the windows were closed, it wasn't clear. So even though we knew the content, we couldn't recognize the voices.

"Let's give it a try.

It was a risk, of course, but it was worth taking. She moved with the lightness of a cat and crept closer to the window where she heard the sound. She soon grabbed one of the beams in the second floor eaves and spun around it. A smooth, clean turn. It was as if the weight didn't exist. Soon she was dangling from the eaves of the third floor. Then she let go and landed with a thud.

But there's a catch.

Voila!

A very faint shaking of the tiles. Eunseulan swallowed hastily. Apparently, the tile she had stepped on had been excited in the first place, unlike the others.

Her heart raced from the extreme tension. A cold sweat soaked her back. She stiffened like a statue, refusing to move. Instead, she tuned every nerve in her body to full alertness. Then she used all of her heightened senses to keep an eye on the window.

"You didn't get caught, did you?

Nervousness tightened my heart. My throat burned with thirst.

I watched for a while, but didn't see any movement beyond the window.

'Phew…….'

Relieved, she gently lifted her foot off the tile. This time there was no sound at all. Pressing herself against the wall of the room where the conversation was taking place, she listened quietly. The voice of the young man she had heard earlier on the roof caught her ear again.

"…But reports say we've already lost a wagon!"

You hear a rustling sound outside your window. A figure, apparently a subordinate, was thrown to the ground. He must have done something wrong……. But what kind of wrong, even she couldn't guess.

"Sin, I apologize. I wasn't expecting bandits to appear out of nowhere with flaming arrows……."

"Lame excuses, I don't want to hear any more! "

The young man's voice cut through his subordinate's excuses. It was an impassive voice, devoid of emotion, Eunseulan thought, and for a moment he wondered. He thought back to the man he knew, and wondered if his voice was this emotionless. The answer was no.

"Did I get it wrong?

Then I heard it again. It sounded like someone, probably a subordinate, was begging with both hands.

"and it's disgraceful."

The man's voice was shaking so badly when he answered that even she, eavesdropping from the window, could tell he was genuinely afraid of his boss. This was a hierarchy built on fear rather than trust.

"What is the progress of Phase 2 of the operation?"

Again, the man with the emotionless voice asked.

"We've already made contact, and we've confirmed the identity of the gansei we planted. The first batch will be moved in a week's time."

The answer is as quick as a loyal dog wagging its tail at its master.

'Half a day, a week, a month?

The unintelligible gibberish only reinforced her suspicions, but she couldn't see the point yet.

"Good, make sure you don't make any mistakes, because I want to see the spectacular view of the volcano in full red bloom."

"Fuck!"

The subordinate replied, bowing deeply.

'Red flowers?

She didn't understand why the words had such an ominous ring to them, but she felt it instinctively.

The conversation is over.

The sound of the door slamming shut reached her ears outside the window. The man, presumably a subordinate, stepped back.

Eunseulan was deeply conflicted right now. She couldn't be sure from his voice alone. She would have to see his face, but that meant taking a lot of risks. If the man was who she suspected, her martial arts might not be enough.

'Shall we go back?

Just then, a black shadow leapt out from behind her back.

The pale moonlight illuminated the tenuous darkness like a lost traveler's guide.

Click!

With each step the man took, one red dot after another was imprinted on the road. The red dots on the pavement were just black dots in the pale moonlight that shone in the darkness of the night.

"Ugh…, if I don't let you know soon……."

I let my guard down too much. I underestimated my opponent. Every nerve and muscle in my body screamed with each step I took. My stomach was on fire.

One in a tree, one on the roof, and one between the alleys. He had already eliminated three pursuers. The night had covered their deaths in secrecy, but he knew that many hounds were still on his tail, smelling his blood.

However, the initial wounds he received from a certain figure put him at a disadvantage, and he had to pay a heavy price to escape. Wounds on his forearms and thighs.

"Damn, they're going to……."

The pursuers were professionals. It wasn't just the ability of the markers to see. He could tell, having spent so many years in this darkness. As Eunsulan had suspected, there was a backside to Saein's eyes. But she was not by his side now.

'I was called the God of Heaven and Earth, but I let my guard down and ended up like this……. ugly.'

Blood trickled from the wound, but it didn't erase the self-deprecating smirk on his face.

If anything were to happen to her, I would not be able to face him. He would have to rescue her somehow. There was only one way he could do that now.

"If you don't let me know soon……."

Ahead of him, a massive darkness-devouring peak gleamed faintly like a spearhead in the light of the new moon.