He pushed the lever down, and the hidden passage closed with a loud crack. Having finished his weapon maintenance for today, there was no reason to linger in the secret base any longer. He put the brick back in, concealing the lever. No one could possibly find this place unless they resolved themselves to knock on every single brick in the walls surrounding the underground maze of sewer waterways. Satisfied, he turned around and followed the memorized way towards the exit.

But no matter how many times he visited this place, he could never get used to it. Fuhei’s foxy sense of smell was just too sensitive for the stench of the sewers. But at the very least, he wasn’t retching anymore, which might designate some progress, or perhaps regress, depending on the point of view.

The guards were weirdly on edge past several days, and he suspended all his daredevil operations for the time being. Still, the area is rather damp, and even applying various oils and storing his equipment in secure containers, wasn’t enough to fully protect it. As risky and unpleasant as it was, regular visits underground to maintain his tools of the trade were simply necessary…

…if he wanted to continue doing his job of a vigilante hero, that is.

Suddenly, he heard a noise. Someone was coming! He quickly hid behind a nearby corner. Although he wasn’t wearing his signature outfit now, if someone met him here, it would draw suspicion to his daily persona. And that would be very, very troublesome.

….but something was strange. The footsteps were uneven, as if the stranger was over-encumbered, or had trouble walking. A drunken hobo? Hopefully he won’t fall in the dirty waterway, that would be a very unpleasant way to die!

As if to answer these ruminations, there was a loud splash, and a litany of curses followed.

Morbidly curious, he glanced from beyond the corner.

A bald man was crawling out of sewage, coughing out excrement every couple of seconds. Yup, very unpleasant way to go. Luckily for him, somehow, he made it out of there alive!

….then the man suddenly fell on his back and stooped moving. Minutes passed, and he didn’t get up. Was he dead after all? There is no way Fuhei was going to go around just to avoid some passed-out drunkard!

Irritated, he walked out of hiding, and walked briskly past the sprawled man, hoping he can’t make out Fuhei’s facial features in the dark. However, just as he made it past the man’s torso, he felt a rough hand grip his ankle.

This is bad!

“L-listen” whispered the baldie, his voice shaking unsteadily, as if speaking individual vowels was immensely difficult for him.

Now that he took a closer look, that was no ordinary dude. Although the color of his stained and damp robes was rather indiscernible in the already dimly lit underground passage, there were rather recognizable cloud patterns sewn into it. Yep, this man is from the sect!

“Y-you must….take this…” he waved his dirty, moist hand.

“Oh, no worries, there is plenty of this around!” sarcasm is sometimes a good response in face of perceived danger.

The man shook his head sadly.

“No-no! Thi-this!” he said again, some kind of determination in his voice. While waving his hand frantically around, enough liquid content dripped off it to reveal a golden ring adorning one of his fingers.

“What is this?”

“A magical artifact..very powerful…m-my master will pay handsomely…”

Now that was interesting. He carefully slipped the ring off the delirious man’s hand and inspected it. It didn’t look very different from other jewelry. Oh well, if it’s nothing special, he can just sell it on the black market.

“T-take it to my master…”

This man clearly didn’t know the rules of the street. Maybe he grew up in some privileged human household that knew no poverty, before being accepted into the cultivation sect and living above everyone else in luxury. Pathetic!

“Are you crazy? Haha, no way. If it’s really magical, why would I give it up!?”

He took out a small knife he had hidden in his pocket, and squatted over the baldie, threatening him.

“However, it’s a bit inconvenient that you saw me here, perhaps I should…”

“No-no, you don’t u-understand! My master! Ne-needs to get it, travel north, look for…”

“Whaat? I can’t hear you over the sound of how much I don’t care!”

However, the weirdo just kept repeating the name of his master over and over again, in between simple phrases such as “north”, “power”, “duty” and such. His mind was clearly not in the present, and it seemed that he was losing it more and more with every passing moment.

Suddenly, the man went silent. His head rocked backwards, and a new, foamy white fluid started spilling out of his mouth, so different from yellow, brown, and green liquid substances that stained him so far. His body was convulsing violently, and his eyes looked like they were going to burst out of the sockets. All of this lasted but a couple of minutes, and soon enough, he was motionless like a stone.

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Is he dead?

Fuhei sighed, and hid his knife. This is for the best. As much as he hated humans, he didn’t actually want to stain his hands with anyone’s blood if he could avoid it, yet leaving a living witness, much less one associated with the sect, would be troublesome.

Just as he thought that, another loud noise approached from the direction of the sewer entrance.

Now what!?

It sounded like multiple footsteps, and they were closing in quickly! These were no drunken hobos for sure!

Fuhei once again ran back to where he started from, and hid behind the corner of the underground corridor. The footsteps were closing in, and he tried to breathe as shallowly as possible, afraid to move, afraid to make a single noise. However, soon enough, they stopped.

They found the body!

Some shouts, some questions. Looks like they aren’t sure what to do now. Suddenly the chaotic symphony of many voices talking at once stopped, and a dominant, unmistakably feminine voice took the lead.

“Pick up the corpse, make sure you don’t drop anything, and follow me.”

She was answered by eager salutes and affirmative grunts, and the sounds of a large object being lifted up were heard among a cacophony of huffing and puffing. Fuhei dared to glance just a little bit, curious about the identity of this new group.

As expected! The guards!

These pigs can’t do anything on their own unless they are ordered around. And the one giving the orders was….some unknown woman, he assumed in her early twenties, wearing the robes with characteristic cloud patterns sewn into them, their golden lining clearly visible even in the relative darkness of the underground tunnel.

Looks like the sect came to clean up their trash!

But they are too late…he smirked and played with the ring, already safely hidden in his pocket. Looks like -someone- found the treasure before them!

Driven by curiosity, he tried to make out the features of the woman, but it was too dark to see them clearly at this distance. Suddenly, one of the guards carrying the body stumbled and almost fell into the sewage.

She cursed and ordered the group to halt. Looking for something in her pockets? And then there was light!

Illuminated by the fire stick, he caught a glimpse of her face. This is—-!

Fuhei quickly pulled back, just in case any of them had an idea to look in his direction, his heart beating rapidly. Listening to their footsteps becoming progressively more distant, he dared to take a couple of deeper breaths, and tried to calmly analyze what he just saw.

Half of the woman’s face was covered by bandages, which was both unusual and suspicious. After all, these cultivating monsters are pretty much invincible. What could have hurt her so much to warrant this? The answer is quite obvious-either it was some freak accident, or it was a work of another cultivator. Perhaps the guy they just recovered?

Or maybe she’s hiding her identity from someone? Would bandages make a good disguise? Why not wear a mask, like himself?

Then another curious thing. Her skin tone was distinctively dark. She was a Chuhua! Now then, it was not unheard of cultivators occasionally emerging among the nomadic ethnic minority, but most of the time they would associate with their own clans, or become devils and end up hunted down mercilessly.

He never heard of Chuhua people being recruited into the all-powerful Wuyun sect, but then, considering their expansion in recent years, perhaps they lowered their standards?

And lastly, perhaps most concerning, what he assumed to be robes, was actually a uniform. That uniform, that accursed black uniform he hadn’t seen in four years! It’s them! What are they doing here, again!?

Ahh, it’s useless, it’s all useless!

Fuhei shook his head and scratched his neck nervously.

No matter what he was thinking, it’s just his theories. He needed to calm down. He needed more information. He needed to investigate. Like his uncle often said, he needed to use his head some more!

He got up and stealthy cut it to another corner, then took the longer route out of the sewers, just in case the guards were uncharacteristically vigilant today, and kept an eye on the main exit. He had the entire underground maze memorized, and knew of all the entry points, the same probably can’t be said about them!

Too bad, Fuhei’s new friends will have to wait a bit longer.

Oh well, he could always make up some excuses about his work keeping him or something. He told them a made-up story about working in a “shady business” in the slums, which wasn’t even that far from the truth.

That was not the problem. The problem was that he was really looking forward to playing that new board game that Annu promised to buy him, and they probably already started without him!