Chapter 25 - Escape
"Hei! Use your secret card now! We need to get out of here right away!”
Hearing Kang's words, Hei nodded with his head to indicate he had understood. Then he started to climb the stairs first, while Kang calmed and gave orders to the newly freed people.
Once on the ground floor, without hesitation, Hei passed through the door that led into the inner rooms from the back corridor.
As it was said before, it was a room with huge sofas and a meeting table. Everything was decorated with elegant and expensive ornaments, and the walls were covered with beautiful paintings.
Without wasting time admiring the opulence of the room, Hei went straight to the stairs that led to the first floor where the merchant was with his guard.
At the top of the stairs, two guards were waiting for him with their weapons drawn. Evidently, the guard Feng wasn’t the only person in charge of the protection on the first floor.
With readiness, they began to activate their spirit power, but Bao Bei stared at them in the eyes, and they assumed blank expressions as the aura that began to condense on them became extinct.
Hei, therefore, shortly before reaching them, swung his spear, and with its sharp head, he cut their throats clean.
Blood spurts came out violently as the two guards collapsed on the ground. Although they were bleeding profusely, they didn't seem to mind it as they didn't even try to stop the blood from leaking out.
Without paying further attention to the two of them, Hei went on. He was in another long corridor with various rooms on the sides that served as bedrooms.
Not knowing in which room the merchant and his guard were, Hei wanted to break down the doors one by one, but Bao Bei beckoned him to go directly to the door to the left on the bottom of the corridor.
Following what his mother had told him, Hei promptly headed for the door and kicked the handle to open it.
The door was forcefully opened, and from inside, Hei could see Dong Zhen’s figure. With trembling movements, the merchant was sitting on the ground, leaning against the bed.
It seemed that the amazement of seeing the door of his room smashed had frightened him. However, Hei, looking at him, had a strange feeling as if something was wrong.
'Mother-'
'Come in, don't worry. Your intuition isn’t wrong, but they cannot do anything to you with me here.’
Without further delay, Hei ran forward into the bedroom.
On the side of the door, hidden by a piece of furniture, were the merchant's personal guard, Feng, kneeling while he had both his swords held up.
As soon as Hei entered, Feng threw himself at full speed against him, aiming at the intruder’s chest, as if he wanted to impale him on the wall.
Over the years, Dong Zhen had adopted this tactic several times but, even if someone had suspected it could be a trap, the possibility of being able to kill the merchant and their confidence in their own abilities, made Dong Zhen's enemies choose to enterer the trap, confident that they could still succeed.
However, Feng's abilities were far superior, and none of those who had made an attempt on the merchant's life remained alive.
Indeed, even Hei, despite perceiving something wasn’t right, was still forced to enter to kill Dong Zhen.
However, this time, things didn't end up like the merchant and his guard had thought. They hadn’t calculated the factor that there could be someone extremely powerful and dangerous among the intruders, more than what the guard Feng could handle.
Before he could reach Hei, Feng felt his body being paralyzed, and he felt his spirit power being suppressed.
With horror, he looked at the boy who had just rushed into the room. He didn’t dare to believe that such a young man could possess such power.
After all, although the strongest sects’ sect leaders in the Rainbow Island could easily defeat him, it didn’t mean that they were at a level that they could prevent him from moving or even circulating his spirit power.
Seeing his bodyguard stopping, Dong Zhen for the first time in many years had a hint of fear as he called loudly,
"What the hell are you doing? Why did you stop? Take him out now!! Did you hear me?"
But Feng wasn't even able to open his mouth. As much as he tried to force himself, all he could produce was nothing but confused sounds.
Bao Bei then told Hei, ‘I immobilized him, so you don't have to worry. Finish him right away so you can get back to the others.’
‘Thank you, Mother. Without you, I would not have succeeded.’ Hei affectionately said to his mother.
Indeed, even if he expected something like this, Feng's strength was something he couldn’t handle at this moment.
Even if he had parried with his spear, the force behind that blow was so strong that it would have impaled him to the wall anyway.
So, Hei took his spear with both his hands, and with a heavy lunge, the weapon penetrated Feng's windpipe. The guard then fell to the ground without even being able to react.
Looking at his trusted guard over many years of service, Dong Zhen was genuinely taken by pure terror. Never he imagined that Feng would have been killed so quickly, much less by a boy.
As he began to think of what words to use to plead to be spared, Dong Zhen recognized Hei's face.
"But you are that brat who stopped my wagons. Please, whatever you want, it's yours. Do you want the buffaloes? Then you can take them all, just don't hurt me.” The merchant desperately begged as he tried to rely on Hei's desire to save the buffaloes. He didn't know that Hei had already ascertained the water buffaloes’ condition.
Seeing him plead in that way, Hei didn't answer but simply pointed his spear at the merchant.
His mother had taught them that it was dangerous to leave someone alive who had tried to kill you once.
However, she had also taught them they should decide after evaluating the circumstances. Regarding the man in front of him, who was pleading for his life, there was certainly nothing that could make Hei change his mind.
Thus, he stabbed him to the heart with his spear and immediately ended his life.
Probably others would have tortured the merchant or given him a slow death for what he had done, but Hei didn’t like to torture living beings. If he had to take a life, then he might as well take it off quickly.
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He also didn't have time to waste to teach the merchant a lesson. The priority was to get out of there and free the imprisoned buffaloes.
As Hei finished the merchant and his guard, Ye and Xing, for their mother's order, left Hei's body to explore the bedroom. Eventually, they found several bags full of gold coins.
They didn’t represent the totality of Dong Zhen's wealth, but it was still a nice sum. It was certainly enough for Kang's group to get a new life.
Taking the gold coins’ bags after placing his spear behind his back, Hei lowered himself to bring his two little sisters back up and then turned to his mother.
‘Mother, can you deal with the other guards who are coming? I also wish you call the buffaloes by telling them to come.’
‘I've already done it, my little one, don't worry. As for the guards, they fainted on the ground, so you are free to go.’ Bao Bei replied, knowing well her son.
Although it would have been easy to put an end to those guards’ lives, creating another massacre would cause another ruckus like the bandits’ massacre of bandits in Leaf Village.
By making them faint instead, even if they could connect the incident with the strange boy the merchant met during the day, it would be seen instead as the work of some strong organizations that had hired assassins to kill Dong Zhen without leaving a trace.
After all, it was difficult for a newly arrived young foreigner to be able to take out one of the most influential people in Green City on the same day of his arrival.
However, Hei had accomplished this task over the course of a day. Whether it was for some premeditated karma or just for a fortunate chain of events, he had managed to do all this.
Without wasting time, he went down to the ground floor and from there, went out of the building, straight towards the main entrance of the merchant's estate.
Waiting for him, there were already the water buffaloes with the albino buffalo in command. There was no trace of Kang and the others.
Actually, Kang wanted to stay to wait for Hei, but, although the guards were fainted on the ground, it didn't mean they were already out of trouble.
Nevertheless, seeing the water buffaloes arriving at the main entrance, Kang realized that Hei was fine, and he would get by. Thus, without further delay, he took the others away from that place.
Seeing that the water buffaloes were already there, Hei smiled and gave them a quick look to see if they were okay. The albino buffalo, therefore, approached him and beckoned with its head to jump on his back.
Following the request of the buffalo, Hei first gave the bags containing the gold to his mother to put them in her pocket dimension. Then he climbed on its back. From there, he could feel the vibrations produced by the breath of the buffalo that echoed through its skin. Although it was full of wounds, it was very soft and warm to the touch, and being on its back wasn’t so bad.
At that point, the albino buffalo emitted a bellow and began to march, immediately followed by the other buffaloes who lined up in pairs with the albino buffalo alone at the front of the line.
Shortly after, they began to accelerate their pace and then ended up galloping at full speed. To avoid falling, Hei lowered himself by placing his head on the albino buffalo’s back and clinging on it firmly, while paying attention not to hurt him.
Fortunately, Dong Zhen lived in a less crowded part of the city, not too far from the main entrance, and it was also late afternoon. Therefore they found few people in the streets who were utterly stunned to see a herd of adult buffaloes running at full speed on the streets.
Nevertheless, after recovering from their initial astonishment, they soon began to run with terror to get out of the way and avoid being crushed. This chaos continued to spread as the buffaloes advanced.
Once they arrived at the city’s main entrance, the guards positioned there watched the scene unsure on how to act. Usually, it should be their job to quell any chaos that occurred in their surveillance area, but who was so foolish as to block the run of mighty animals like buffalos. So they watched, paying attention only that the people nearby weren’t involved, by making them move away.
Seeing that the guards didn’t want to act, Hei gave a short sigh of relief, and, once out of the city, he signaled the albino buffalo to head towards a precise direction. Waiting for them in a specific place, were the rest of Kang's group who were anxiously awaiting news of their leader and their other companions, hoping that they would be well and could be reunited again.
But instead of Kang and his companions, what they saw was nothing but the indistinct masses that approached at high speed towards them.
With the terror that soon spread in them as they thought it was Dong Zhen's men who came to capture the rest of the group, they started running to escape. But their speed wasn’t comparable to that of the buffaloes, and in no time they were reached.
However, rather than the scene they had imagined in their heads, they saw several buffaloes slowing down. On the back of a white buffalo, they saw a familiar face. It was the boy brought by their leader and who had gone along with the others.
Relieved that it wasn’t Dong Zhen's men, the people there approached Hei and soon started bombarding him with questions. Seeing that Kang's group hadn’t arrived yet and unable to follow all the questions that were being asked, Hei gave a summary of what had happened.
On hearing that everything had gone well and that their companions would soon arrive, they emitted cries of joy. Although they trusted Kang, they didn’t expect such a result without victims or injuries.
Han, who was among those people, approached Hei, who had meanwhile descended from the albino buffalo.
"Not only did you save me today, but you helped us all. You helped my family. I really don't know how to repay you. I'm grateful to have met you, though."
Hearing Han's sincere words, Hei smiled briefly and scratched his head. In his opinion, he had done nothing for which he deserved to be thanked. After all, Hei hadn’t saved Han because he was driven by a sense of altruism and justice, nor had he joined Kang because he wanted to rescue his kidnapped companions. His goal was just the buffaloes, although he would help other people if he had had the chance.
"It's nothing. There is no need for me to thank you, your boss has already repaid the favor." Hei said briefly, not wanting to be thanked further.
After a while, Kang finally arrived with all the others he had led away from Dong Zhen's estate. Since Hei had done all that chaos at the entrance, they had managed to get out not seen, using a secondary exit known by few people.
The Sons of Underworld’s members, seeing their leader return with their companions, burst into tears again and ran to greet him. Even though it had only been a few hours since they had greeted each other, it seemed like years had passed for all of them.
After taking a while to calm his subordinates still in the throes of their emotions, Kang ordered them to take out reserve clothes and supplies for the people they saved along with their companions. Without questioning his order, his subordinates began to help the former slaves, telling them reassuring words.
Taking advantage of the fact that he had finally freed himself from their encirclement, Hei approached Kang with the gold coins’ bags recovered from his mother's dimensional pocket.
"Dong Zhen, as well as his guard Feng, are dead. I also found these in his room. Although they aren’t enough to make all these people live in luxury, it is enough to give them a home and a normal life."
Listening to what Hei said, Kang assumed a strange expression looking with desire at the money that was being offered to him. "I cannot accept, if it weren’t for you we wouldn’t be alive now. It's only thanks to you that we can laugh and joke in joy, so this money is yours."
"If you don't want them, then I'll throw them down here. In that case, you or another person will be free to take them. Remember, I'm not your subordinate, so I don't have to do what you tell me." Not leaving Kang time to reply, Hei threw the bags on the ground attracting the attention of everyone present.
With the eyes of his subordinates watching him, Kang began to sweat. For pride, he wanted to refuse such generosity since he felt that he still had to repay the debt for being helped with the liberation plan. However, this choice wasn’t just about him, but all the people he was in charge of. Being the boss meant protecting and giving a future to the people who took orders from him and were willing to follow him in any situation.
After thinking about it for a while, he decided to accept by silencing his pride.
"I don't know how to thank you, Hei. One day I will surely repay the favor, rest assured. It goes not only for my honor but for all the Sons of Underworld’s members."
After saying this, he respectfully bowed his head toward Hei. Seeing their leader make such a gesture, the other members also followed his example and bowed to Hei. This also applied to the former slaves. They had understood from the conversation that it was thanks to that boy that they were now free.
Embarrassed by the gratitude and respect of so many people, Hei was at a loss for words, not knowing how to respond. His mother and two sisters were pleased. That Hei was thanked and respected was more gratifying than to be appreciated themselves.
Fortunately, Kang soon pulled him out of this situation, ordering those present to begin preparations to leave. Since there wasn’t much left for the evening, they had to find a secluded place to sleep. At the same time, they had to decide how to move.
"Hei, even if you don't want to be thanked, at least let me offer you another meal for the time being. I don't accept a no as an answer, what do you say? "
Convinced by his mother that it wasn’t a bad idea and by his two little sisters who were hungry again, Hei accepted the proposal smiling, "All right. One last meal then, before separating our paths."
So all the people in that place moved like a single group in search of a more secluded area where they could spend the night instead of remaining in full view on the terrains that surrounded the city.