Kidnapping

*Crunch*

The sound of crunching dried leaves on my way to Nielong expels with every step. The red leaves on the brunches indicated Autumn's arrival.

...

I decided to be lighter with my feet and step on the leaves, no crunch is heard now.

Amazing, my entire body is as faint as a feather, I can stand on the edge of the leaves with the entire structure intact.

Once I step into Nielong, many eyes shot their attention to me.

"It's an outer disciple."

"Leave him a path, he is on patrol."

Many bows at me as I go.

No, I attract too much attention, I should change out of this sect robe. I visit a clothing store near as the lady of the store welcomed me with a big smile.

-----------------------

I change into a normal white robe and leave the store, I should store Azrim as well.

Now then... The amount of eyes on me has decreased...But there are a few particular pairs of eyes spying on me from somewhere.

I stop and close my eyes. I am in between two buildings.

...

*thud*

!

It's above, my spies are above me.

For now, I shouldn't do anything about them. From the Qi fluctuations, they are in the Foundation Establishment, easy to kill if they decide to move.

I enter a food pavilion and take a seat. The waiter smiled at me and asks "Is there anything you would like to order?" He hands me a paper menu.

Hm...

"Braised Duck and some buns," I say.

"Understood."

He leaves to attend to another customer.

...

"Haven't you seen Patriarch Wang, he is so handsome!" Says an old woman

"Yeah! Such a talented young and handsome genius, anyone is lucky to be his bride!"

Nothing interesting there, I move my focus to another conversation.

"*cough* *cough* Ahem...The war at the eastern is still raging huh." Says a man behind. He is sitting with four other friends.

Everyone in this inn is infected. At some point, people's bodies got used to the virus and are rarely affected by it. The virus won't die but it won't thrive either. That doesn't matter for now.

"Be glad that doesn't affect us, we are so far away."

"You think so? There are rumours of Jie Sheng entering Tiansu you know." Says a woman.

What?

"Wait really? Shit. We won't be caught in the conflict right?"

"Don't jinx us. We will be left to fend for ourselves, the Murim Alliance don't care about us commoners-"

"Sh! Don't talk about them..."

?

Two mysterious presence starts approaching me, I pretend to not notice.

"Are you interested in their conversation?" Someone asks me.

I turn around to see a tall and slim lady wearing thick makeup and luxurious robes. Her oversized robe reveals a bit too much cleavage. Beside her is a masked woman with a large sword behind her back.

She smiles at me.

...

She took my silence as an agreement and sat across me.

"I am Jing Qigang(Chapter appearance: Reputation). I will get to the point. I can give you some information about the war in exchange for information about your sect leader."

This suspicious-looking lady is investigating me? "Why are you asking me? I'm nothing but a mere outer disciple."

After I said that, the waiter came back with my food and bowed to me.

I take a bite off the duck meat.

"You are the earliest disciple who came out and I have a tight schedule."

...

"Alright, I will tell you what I know," I say.

She asked me several questions about how fast I progress in cultivation and what I look like. I answered those according to what a new outer disciple would know.

"I see thank you. I will keep my part of the deal. There has been an ongoing sudden war between the demonic sect and the Murim Alliance at the border of Juhong. It's a wide known fact that a divine demonic being from the upper realm called Jie Sheng initiated it. However, the transcendent masters present activated the heaven and earth array to suppress the demon who went into hiding. The Murim Alliance are putting all of their resources into finding him throughout Kunlai." Says Qigang.

Tch. So it's a wide known fact... No wonder she was so willing to give up that information.

I look outside, many Murim Alliance members are flying around looking for Jie Sheng.

"Also, two of the heavenly demon disappeared." Says Qigang.

"I see-"

"Help! Please!" A woman who runs into the inn suddenly cries out.

?

It looks like one Murim Alliance member is in the inn, inspecting the rooms.

"What? What do you want?" The Murim Alliance man asks in annoyance.

"My child! My child was kidnapped!? That-"

"Huh? I don't care. Find the Heavenly Divine Dragon sect, they govern this city." He says.

"B-But..."

I sigh. "Please excuse me," I say.

Qigang nods.

"I'm an outer disciple. What do you need?" I ask.

"Outer disciple?" The woman gazed at me in disappointment. "Please inform your sect that my child has been kidnapped! I need help."

"What? I am enough, where did they go?" I say.

"But-"

"Where did they go?" I ask again.

...

The woman panics and bites her fingernails. "No no... You won't be able to find them in time and save my child. Please!!!" She tried begging the Murim Alliance member again by throwing herself onto him.

"Ugh... Fuck off!" He pushes her back as she collided with a table.

"Ack..."

"If he failed to save your child, that's the sect problem. Not mine. I'm already busy as it is finding one single bastard, stop wasting my time!" And the man leaves cruelly.

...

"Do you want to save your child or not?" I ask again, glaring in irritation at the lady.

She grits her teeth and nods. Giving in, she guides me to her residence.

...

We leave behind a bleak atmosphere in the inn, Qigang throws a glance at her servant. "Follow him."

"Huh?! Lady Qigang, but-"

"It's okay, I can handle myself. My instinct is telling me something is weird with that boy. Just observe him for a while."

The masked lady gulps and bows. "Understood."

-----------------------

"This is his room, he disappeared when I check up on him this morning." She says.

...

At first glance, this room seems to be an untouched simple bedroom with a simple bed, window, and wardrobe.

But...

The room's flooring has one very small dent, a martial artist came in and supported his or her weight on a toe. It's an expert who was here not too long ago.

Wait...

Kidnapping?

I look at the window, there are traces of Qi in the room and on the window. To leave so many tracks...is the person inexperienced despite having high cultivation?

Or is it...a bait?

"Ma'am, how young is your child?" I ask.

"E-Eh? He is five years old. Why?"

I see, it might be linked.

"Recently, not only in Nielong, many places in Tiansu experienced kidnapping of young children," I say.

"What?! The rumours were true!?" She exclaims.

"Even if it is false, you shouldn't let your guard down, this is the Murim," I say as I pull open the window.

"Wait! Y-You will tell your sect about this right?!" She says.

I click my tongue. "Yeah, I will."

No fucking way will I do that, what can they even do? All of them are such cowards without me.

Besides, I have some speculations. It's the blood sect again.

It is common knowledge that forbidden rituals and techniques require high sacrifices of Yin and Yang or life essence as a baseline.

Children are sources of both. Younglings have high yin and yang balance while wielding a long life ahead, which indicates high life essence.

I have information that they aim to shake the Murim for their ancestor's glorious return. Their ancestor might also be a fellow outworlder.

Hmmm...but that's something a disciple of the Blood sect knows. It may not be accurate. I need more knowledge.

I smile.

How kind of them to enter Nielong, I won't let them get out of my grasp.

Although I thought about that, the traces disappeared once outside.

!!

Someone is observing me again... A peak core formation. The masked lady from before was a peak core formation, is it her? Well, it doesn't matter.

I sit on the roof and ponder. How do I find them? Where is a place they most likely will go? They most likely need the child alive...

!!!!!!

In the corner of my eyes, I see a small whiff of red Qi...blood Qi. It blows across Nielong.

They are still here! But it's hard to pinpoint their location. If I focus on my sight, I can see the various Qi around me but there are so many types of Qi floating around. I can't exactly-

*sniff*

...I smell something familiar. I look to my left and notice the trail of blood Qi again.

...

Does Qi have a smell? No...

I look at an inn, there are no streams of Qi but I can smell subtle chicken and rice.

Does some Qi have a smell?

Azrim.

Azrim?

He is still gone. What happened to him?

I don't know what's going on but I should the smell of blood.