The festivities were in order, the city of Beijing was lit up with the fervor of celebration a.s.sociated with the Emperor"s birthday. To the common man, there really was a festive atmosphere, after all the emperor only celebrated his birthday every decade, and this time it was an important celebration. The emperor was turning 500 which came as a shock to most as it was believed the emperor was much more younger than his recently revealed true age.But none the less it didn"t matter in the long run, because those who were perceptive enough could feel the tensions in the air. A lot of things would be going down tonight, and a lot of people would be making a play for power. It sizzled with antic.i.p.ation and scent of plots and schemes, haunting and soothing in it"s own way, one would even find such an atmosphere beautiful.
There was a rush in the air that was incomparable to sky diving at 30 thousand feet, it made you want to rush head first into the obvious flames that were sizzling, not at all caring that you would get burned and burned pretty badly too.
Alex looked at the mirror, the white suite with motifs of white dragons on wind like swirls seemed to highlight his light chocolate skin. He was neither black, nor white, not at all citing t whatever demographic of skin color the world had right now. His narrowed eyes seemed sharper, and their blue green orbs came off as cold, so cold that anyone who looked into them would feel themselves freeze. He had on black suede shoes, as the form fitting suit hugged his body closely, he had on a black long sleeved shirt, and had on cufflinks with the Wudang sects yin-yang symbol. The collar of his white suite jacket was black, and his hair was packed into a small pony tail while his face haircut was uncovered.
Louis and Yun Fao were dressed in all black suits with the same printed motifs of dragons, and a ma.s.sive yin-yang symbol on their back. The triplets had on the same thing, they were his retainers so they had to dress to show him off, but at the same time similar enough to show their connection to the sect and their master. Weapons were not allowed, so there were no spatial rings or any sort of storage ornaments, there was just a simple silver band on their fingers with the words (Feng) on it, easily translated into (Wind).
Alex knew he was more than just that element, but this was what the world was using to identify him, after all he had great talent with the wind element, any other apart from the talent in the wood element didn"t matter to the cultivation world. The tailor that had been chosen for them had done her best to make all of them look good and presentable for the banquet, and to their specifications she was able to make the clothes comfortable enough to fight in.
The only person not dressed was Khan, but then again on the arrangements of the Emperor a small silver white armor was made for the peculiar creature that lived within Alex"s mantle, obviously Khan was going to be a center of attraction today. And why Alex wasn"t to find of such, the Kamaitachi was on top of the world and has been moving around in his new armor with his head held high, like a kid who was given new clothes or a new toy.
The banquet was scheduled to start two hours from now, but it was already packed full with people who came early, certain parts of the Palace was empty, which means this was just the time for them to make their move, Alex had a remnant to exorcise and question. Alex opened the door to his room and went out, he gave the guards standing outside a curt bow as he made his way towards the gardens. In the time that they"ve been here, he had learnt from Louis that their resident bordered the barracks, and the coroner"s lab was actually located at the extreme end of the barracks.
"Young Master we"re going to be running interference in exactly sixty seconds, you have to make your way to the blind spot between the garden wall and the barracks, it"s the only way the arrays around the palace won"t notice you jumping the fence." Louis voice came through a tiny ear piece in Alex"s ear, if one looked closely, they would see an inscription that glowed a dim green as Louis"s words came through.
"I"m already there Louis." Alex"s voice came through, shocking Louis as he blinked his eyes for a second, before forwards, heading towards the side entrance of the barracks.
"Alright, I"ll be making the music in three, two, one….....Bonjour my good guards, me name is Louis Lumiere no! Are you strong good looking men up for a short game of cards! I have money!"
*c.h.i.n.k! c.h.i.n.k!*
Alex couldn"t help the smile that swept across his face at the sound of a doing pouch jiggling, Sabine had shifted those coins from the guards that were responsible for patrolling their residence, apparently the guards were among those who believed the Wudang sect and the emperor were in cahoots, she happily decided to teach them a lesson, and no their money was being used to scam other guards. Alex jumped up, clearing a four meter wall in one leap as his body made an arch over it, before he twisted in the air and landed on the other side, silent as a feather, and with the grace of a bird. There were a bunch of trees where he landed obstructing him for the view of the soldiers who were still busy running drills on an open field.
Alex shifted his eyes a bit, ignoring the half naked soldiers and their sweaty bodies, as the ran with ma.s.sive rocks held over their heads, he moved around the trees, keeping his body low and making sure his clothes didn"t get dirtied, he was looking for something, and it was proving to hard to find when suddenly he heard a loud clang and the sound of gears shifting. Alex quickly went up a tree and moved his eyes in the direction of the sound, barely three seconds late two soldiers, both male made their way out of a hole from within the hollow of a tree. It was a well hidden secret entrance that led straight to the infirmary which was conveniently right next to the coroner"s office.
"Guys I found the secret entrance, two guards just came out of it." Alex said as he kept his gaze on both men.
"Were we exposed! What are they doing there?" Yun Fao"s startled voice came through the ear piece.
"They"re kissing, I"m pretty sure they"re about to have s.e.x, both of them, both guys.....I"m going to knock them out now, they"re just recruits, barely in the open meridian realm."
As soon as Alex finishes speaking, his body feels off the tree, moving silently pa.s.sed another tree like a white ghost in the night. He came to a stop behind the soldiers who were fervently kissing each other and trying to take the others trousers off, Alex was still a bit shorter than they were, and he would very much prefer to not have to come into too much contact with them so as not to dirty his clothes. He threw a punch, smashing his fist into the open back of one of the soldiers, forcing him forwards as his head smashed into his partner"s, dislodging a few teeth and sending him to dream Land. They both fell to the ground in a tangle of bodies, a swift slap to the back of the head and the guard that"s sure to have spine problems for a while pa.s.sed out too.
Alex had good control of his strength, he just needed to figure out more effective methods to utilize said strength. He dropped down into the entrance swiftly, there was tunnel underneath it and it was thankfully empty if anyone else. Alex raised his head up and spoke out loud.
"Guys I"m in, making my way towards the infirmary."
"Great now please hurry it up, the party is in full swing, even with the Emperor"s absence, we need to be there like yesterday!" Sabina"s voice rang out with her sisters echoing agreement.
Alex gave them a nod they couldn"t see as he ran down the entire length of the damp tunnel, it was about 500 meters long, and the entire distance was traveled by Alex in under 2 minutes. His speed greatly increased even without the augment of Qi or techniques. The other end of the tunnel was ramp that led up to a set of double doors, Alex opened it a bit, peering through a crack to see if there was anyone else in the storage room behind the door. There was no one, he opens the door as silently as he could, slipping into the storage room that smelled too strongly of antiseptic. He ignored the smell of ammonia and made his way out, what lay beyond was a doctor"s room, surveillance in the barracks was next to none and according to Louis info, the area around the infirmary and coroner"s office had absolutely no surveillance, which means Alex could move without the worry of being caught.
Alex slipped out of the office until a ward, there were curtains arranged on both sides, all of them were closed, there were patients on beds within some of the curtains, while others were vacant. The people here were either asleep or pretending to be asleep, either way, none of them posed any trouble for Alex as he slipped outside the ward. He had to move north next, moving down a long hallway until he came to pair of metal double doors, not to talk about the infirmary, the mortuary would definitely be the least populated place if at all there was anyone there considering it was 8pm in the evening. Alex took a deep breath and stepped into the mortuary, and what he saw was the stuff of nightmares.