Heaven’s Shadow

Old Ma muttered, but his words were indistinct.

The young gongzi shrugged indifferently, "Up to you. You are a dead person anyway, it doesn't matter whether I know your identity or not." At this point, he eyed Old Ma once again, seemingly thinking of something. With sudden interest, he said, "However... I am a little curious who it is. Just exactly which Shadow has such an ability to keep your mouth so tightly sealed, that you would rather die than to reveal anything?"

Under the dim, yellowish glow of the burning candle, Old Ma grinned and chuckled. The young gentleman chuckled along with him as well.

Just like that, a strange sight of two completely foreign smiling faces looking at one another.

The wind outside the tavern whistled coldly as the night sky darkened further.

...

At the foot of the tea mountain, the mournful cries of the wind were mixed with the countless voices hurling abuses, most of which came from within the dark forest. An intense chase was going on, with clashes between blades in the background, and the battle has reached fiery heights. However, due to the exceptional darkness, it was difficult to tell what was happening in the forest from the outside. In fact, even those persons right at the forest boundary were unable to obtain a clear read of the situation.

However, at a sudden moment, the entire forest turned silent. All ruckus seemed to have fallen off the edge of a cliff, disappearing abruptly, rendering the silence even more so obvious.

The darkness of the night was as dense as ink, at the same time resembling the massive fangs of a savage beast, filled with malicious intent.

Noises from footsteps could be heard in the forest gradually, breaking that abrupt silence. Peculiar sounds, seeming to be interacting with one another, echoed softly through the forest. There were tinges of anger, surprise, as well as anxiety.

After yet another moment, shadows flickered within the forest and someone strolled out from within. It was a masked male who was fully dressed in black. Soon, several figures who were dressed similarly emerged behind him as well. Most of them held in their hands weapons that gleamed with ruthlessness. The crimson-red color of blood could be observed on the edges of some of their blades.

A tense atmosphere lingered in the air. At the same time, a faint stench of blood could be detected.

"Where is he?"

"I don't know. He suddenly disappeared."

"It was as though he was an apparition!"

"Search for him once more!"

"We've already searched through the entire forest."

"Could he have escaped up the mountain?"

"Impossible, there were people keeping watch outside and they had not noticed any signs of that Shadow."

It appeared to be a leader and with several of his men clothed in black, and they were gathered together discussing agitatedly. It seemed that they had a clash of opinions and an argument had broken out.

After a period of quarreling, the black-clothed men eventually decided to split into two groups. Half of the men would continue searching through the forest whereas the other half would head to the village below.

There were around ten black-clothed men who remained at the foot of the hill. They quickly split up; a few of them went to search the forest, a few of them stood guard on the narrow mountainous path, and a few of them returned to the straw cottage and started to overturn everything within.

A ruckus started to break out beneath the night sky. It seemed that the black-clothed men were starting to fluster. Perhaps it was because they had not expected that the prey that seemed so secure within their grasp could escape from their dense encirclement, that they had a savage expression on their faces.

Not too long after, an exclamation echoed from inside the straw cottage, and there was a tinge of delight to his voice. It seemed like someone had noticed something important. A commotion broke out among the black-clothed men outside the straw cottage and a couple of them hurried in. One by one, the few men who had gone into the forest also emerged and hurried toward the straw cottage.

At this moment, someone had already lighted a torch. Under the glow of the torch, everyone within the cottage could see clearly that there were a lever and a secret passage beneath the bed in the straw cottage.

This discovery delighted the black-clothed men! In the midst of their discussion, with a torch in hand, someone had started to explore the secret passage cautiously.

At the same moment, outside the cottage, in the depths of the forest that had quietened down, in a dim cranny, a figure stood up suddenly.

There was a bizarre aura within the darkness. Icy-cold, with a deep killing-intent. In this nook, darkness was omnipresent but, somehow, it seemed to congregate densely around that figure, as though an impregnable wall of ice.

That figure stepped forward and very slowly, his face became visible. It was Lu Chen. Vaguely, another figure could be seen lying on the floor, motionless.

However, what was strange that Lu Chen's attire was different from before. He had put on clothes belonging to one of the black-clothed men. What was even more bizarre were the mysterious black flames were burning in his pupils.

He slowly lifted his hands, revealing a piece of black cloth in his palms. Then, just like the other black-clothed men, he used it to cover his face. This removed all physical traits that identified him and at this moment, it seemed as though he were a member of the black-clothed men from the very start. For some reason, even his disposition seemed to have changed as well.

Glancing at the straw cottage beyond the forest from afar, a slight frown appeared on his forehead. Inside the silent forest, he stood quietly for a moment. He then shot a musing gaze toward the village at the foot of the mountain.

※※※

"That Shadow had met with an accident which afflicted him with severe wounds, causing his cultivation to be crippled, rendering him no different from a mortal." A calm voice echoed in the small tavern. There were a few black-clothed men standing at the doorstep, listening to the words of the young gongzi. His words sounded exceptionally tranquil and there wasn't even a hint of anger on his face. But for unknown reasons, these black-clothed men looked frightened, and their bodies were trembling slightly.

"More than a dozen of cultivators surrounded a powerless mortal, and you came back to tell me that he had escaped?"

The young gongzi chuckled, as though he was amused by the words that he had said. "That doesn't seem right, doesn't it?"

After a moment of hesitation, the black-clothed man standing at the direct center of the group by the door bucked up his courage and said, "Gongzi, that fellow is by no means a mortal. A few of our brothers had crossed blows with him, but that person's moves were savage and brutal. He isn't someone that should be underestimated."

The gongzi seated by the table frowned. It seemed as though he didn't bear too much doubt toward the words of the black-clothed man. A hint of suspicion surfaced in his eyes as he muttered, "What is going on? Could it be that those fools from the Immortal Alliance had sent us bogus news?"

The group of black-clothed man did not dare to speak. Then, he quick-wittedly shot his gaze toward the plump Old Ma, who was lying on the floor in a pathetic state, and spoke, "Gongzi, why don't you try interrogating this fatty once more? He must have news on that Shadow."

Old Ma's head tilted and he suddenly spat a mouthful of saliva and blood toward the entrance and cursed, "Go to hell! Using me as an outlet for your frustration after failing in your mission, why don't you spend your efforts on capturing that fellow!"

...