Chapter 219: Darkshadow
It took plenty of skills to differentiate footsteps from the pitter-pattering of rain outside. Xia Fei’s keen awareness had noted the fresh set of faint sounds coming from the forest beyond; while the rain was pouring rather discordantly, a certain cadence could be heard in those footsteps, and each step taken was evidently heavier than raindrops.
“Not good! We have five men incoming,” Xia Fei said in a deep voice.
Phantom knitted his brows together. Without needing to guess, it was most definitely those men from the a.s.sa.s.sins’ sect who had come to this planet. The three corpses were still lying in the cave horizontally. If Xia Fei was spotted next to them, he would surely get implicated. After all, the convoluted story was not something he could explain easily in just a sentence or two.
“Best hide yourself for now. Try not to get caught up in an altercation with the disciples.h.i.+p,” advised Phantom.
Xia Fei nodded, rapidly backing away.
The cave was deep and rugged. It was not hard to hide in such surroundings. Xia Fei leaped up and was as agile as a water snake, lodging himself into a hollow stone crevice, staring out to the entrance.
Soon, five figures came in hesitantly. From their stature, they appeared to be four men and one woman. All were using Breath Control, carefully venturing within as they observed the situation around them.
One of them, a man fairly advanced in his years, squatted by the entrance and said after scanning the area, “There’s no doubt that our sixth brother has gone here. Let’s go and find him inside; how could he just run off like that during the trial?”
Hearing this familiar voice, Phantom abruptly informed Xia Fei. “That’s our eldest sect brother. His cultivation is crazy high and he is skilled at tracking. Looks like we hafta plan for the worst-case scenario.”
Xia Fei showed a mischievous smile. “At worst, I’ll just reveal your existence to them. Surely, your fellow sect brothers will know how you look via description, won’t they?”
Phantom shook his head with a grave expression. “The reason I can remain in my spirit form after dying is that I’ve secretly learned a forbidden art in our disciples.h.i.+p. I’m afraid they won’t let you off even if you reveal everything, and there’s also the possibility of them killing you to keep this matter under wraps. I may end up dying, too, with this.”
Xia Fei had no idea what to say. It was indeed very strange that Phantom could remain a spirit after death, and the existence of such a forbidden art would most definitely be hard to believe.
The five very quickly discovered the three corpses, and because they had been trained in the art of killing since young, these people were not at all surprised and very calmly went left and right, examining the injuries of the corpses as they tried to determine what had happened.
That old-timer frowned. The three corpses were in a weird state; two were naked, while another had been stabbed in the chest. By the looks of the wound, he could tell that it was created by their Heartseeker Tri-dagger.
Furthermore, the corpse had been moved by someone, so even if he was a tracking expert, it was much more difficult for him to deduce exactly what had happened earlier.
Nonetheless, no matter the case, one thing was certain: There had definitely been a fourth person here, and this person might perhaps still be inside the cave, for the blood was warm, meaning that only ten minutes had pa.s.sed at most since this tragedy occurred.
The five did not say a word, communicating to one another through hand gestures while hiding in dark corners.
“They are currently trying to determine what happened here. My eldest sect brother saw how strange things had transpired and concluded that you’re the one who killed two of the three, while my sixth sect brother was a casualty of internal strife,” Phantom explained to Xia Fei as he interpreted their hand gestures.
Xia Fei was quite surprised. “Your eldest sect brother could actually make such an accurate deduction despite the crime scene being in this state… That’s truly very incredible.”
Phantom was solemn. “Of course, it’s not that simple, but my eldest sect brother isn’t entirely correct in his deductions. He is of the opinion that first second sect brother’s son killed sixth sect brother, then you capitalized on the situation to kill the rest, even going as far as to rape and rob these corpses of their possession after.”
Xia Fei nearly laughed out loud upon hearing this. What sort of deduction was that? It was only the adulterous pair who was naked, yet he had become the beast in this situation. There was also the fact that the two were of different s.e.x, making it extremely pervesed for this eldest sect brother to a.s.sume that Xia Fei was someone who ate both men and women.
He was being self-depreciative deep down, but Xia Fei was actually concentrating very hard, for the five a.s.sa.s.sins had already begun their slow probing of the cave. It was evident that they were not about to give up finding the murderer Xia Fei.
Breath Control provided Xia Fei with very good protection, and with how the hiding spot he had chosen was a rock crevice in a dead end, as well as how poorly lit the cave was, it would be extremely difficult to spot him through vision alone. These people all kept looking around the cave, but none of them managed to discover Xia Fei’s presence.
The five rendezvoused by the cave entrance, silently communicated through hand gestures again, then they collected the corpses and left the cave.
Only at this point did Xia Fei heave a sigh. From their footwork and their well-developed regulation of the Breath Control technique, it was clear that they had high cultivations, and if he were to be caught in a battle with them, it would most definitely be a very difficult fight.
Though they had left, Xia Fei was not in a hurry to leave. He patiently waited for several more hours and only came out from the rock crevice after he confirmed that no one outside was monitoring the cave.
“Let’s go. We’ll go where you said the six-leaf rain lotus should be growing,” Xia Fei said.
“You’re still going?” Phantom knitted his eyebrows. “It’s too dangerous. Those sect brothers of mine will most definitely search the entire planet for your tracks, so why don’t we leave immediately?”
Xia Fei shook his head. “If we leave as soon as we can, this planet may not be accessible to us in the future since this incident happened.”
Phantom was in deep thought for some time. For such a major incident to have occurred here, his disciples.h.i.+p would surely be in a state of uproar and definitely would not be using this place as a trial ground anymore, for this place was no longer safe.
Going by their usual practice, the moment something like this happened, they would immediately use an alternate site. Meanwhile, the planet itself might be completely obliterated in order to cover up all evidence that the a.s.sa.s.sins had once been here.
“Fine. Let’s make it quick,” Phantom said heavily.
Xia Fei headed out of the cave, but he suddenly stopped dead in his tracks after taking a few steps. He then said to a seemingly blank rock wall, “Come out. There’s no need to hide.”
Phantom was very puzzled. “What’s going on?”
That was when the craggy rock surface suddenly moved.
A black figure stepped out from the rocky wall and slowly walked to the center of the cave, sealing off Xia Fei’s retreat.
This person had an old and wrinkled face. His beard and hair was white with a pair of sharp, piercing eyes, and he was wearing an all-black combat suit.
Unhurriedly, he shook his head and asked Xia Fei, “How did you discover my presence?”
“I didn’t,” Xia Fei replied. “I merely said that out of circ.u.mspection and you showed yourself.”
This old man laughed uproariously. “I never would’ve thought that, after living to my age, I would actually be fooled by the likes of you, but I saw your expression change, and even your eyes went to where I was hiding; how coincidental is that…”
Xia Fei smiled. ” Perhaps my acting was too good and I got pretty lucky.”
The old man nodded as his eyes suddenly turned fierce. “I wouldn’t say you’re THAT lucky. You failed to escape after killing my juniors, after all.”
Xia Fei was silent. This old man very apparently possessed a rare stealth ability, meaning that it was not five people that came from the beginning but six.
While the five might have left, this old man had actually stayed behind and patiently waited.
Meanwhile, Phantom had a ghastly expression on his face, telling Xia Fei in a very complicated tone, “This is my second sect senior, Darkshadow. He’s very powerful.”
Xia Fei gleaned plenty of meaning from his words. First, there was no doubt that this old man was very powerful. Even if Phantom did not say it, Xia Fei could easily make that connection through the air around the old man. Second, the two parties here were Xia Fei on one end and his sect senior on the other. Phantom was caught in a dilemma, uncertain on what to do.
“Actually, you’ve done very well as is. My five disappointing juniors have truly been tricked by you. Unfortunately, you were just lacking in patience by that bit. If you continued hiding for several more hours, even I would leave eventually. It’s unfortunate. Really unfortunate,” Darkshadow slowly said.
He was smiling the entire time as if completely unguarded against Xia Fei. He was giving off this sense akin to Buddha playing with Sun Wukong in the palm of his hand. He was not at all concerned with Xia Fei escaping or retaliating.
“With you saying that, doesn’t it mean that the other five have no idea that you’re here?” Xia Fei wondered.
“That’s right. This is actually the first time yours truly has been discovered.” Darkshadow smiled.
Phantom could feel a chill run down his spine. It turned out that his second sect had been secretly following and observing them every time they went off for their trials, making him wonder if the mistakes he had made when he was younger were all seen by this old man.
“I’ve only killed two out of the three.” Xia Fei lit a cigarette as he freely admitted to the act. Since there was no way for him to escape, Xia Fei decided to just let his guard down and act completely nonchalant, though his mind was racing over every possible way to escape as he considered how to deal with the present situation.
Xia Fei’s unexpected ease caused Darkshadow to become somewhat skeptical. He could not make sense of how Xia Fei could remain so calm. Such an att.i.tude was completely unlike someone who had given up and was pleading for his life, for there was not a hint of despair in Xia Fei’s eyes. There was simply indifference.
“I know that,” Darkshadow replied. “Right now, I’m wondering why the kid Greenshadow killed his sect senior.”
Xia Fei pursed his lips, not revealing the matter with how Greenshadow was having an affair with his sect senior’s wife. Revealing this would thoroughly disgrace the a.s.sa.s.sins’ sect, and in that instance, Darkshadow would definitely kill him no matter the case just to maintain the innocence of the dead.
Xia Fei remained silent, his eyes observing his surroundings.
“Young man, staying quiet won’t be enough to save your life. You have no other options left aside from telling me everything you know,” Darkshadow persisted.
Xia Fei lightly flicked the cigarette between his fingers, the tiny burning ash falling to a puddle not far away; a soft sizzle could be heard when contact was made.
At that moment that the cigarette b.u.t.t landed in the puddle, Xia Fei directed strength to his legs and agilely twisted his frame, das.h.i.+ng right toward the depths of this cave.
Darkshadow chuckled and gave chase unhurriedly. This was because he had already thoroughly investigated this cave and knew that it just led to a dead end. Unless Xia Fei had the ability to burrow into the ground, there was surely no way for him to escape.
After sprinting for about a hundred meters, Xia Fei abruptly activated his Celestial Moon.
“Disperse!” Xia Fei bellowed. The eighteen disk blades spun, flying to the rock wall on his left.
An opening was instantly made through that thick rock, connecting to another pa.s.sage.
Some of the many caves that covered the face of the rocky cliff were very close to each other, and Xia Fei’s keen senses had discovered a weak point along the rock and broken through it in one move, forcibly creating a fork that led to another cave.
It was only at this point when Darkshadow realized that Xia Fei had long been prepared. Letting out a cold snort, he promptly disappeared into the darkness and was just like what his name suggested: a shadow in the dark, lurking in the gloom.