Chapter 23 - Infiltration

Fortunately, after Kang gave his orders, it didn't take long for the residents to pack their belongings into bags.

Not living in luxury, they knew how to live with the bare essentials. Obviously, over the years, they had accumulated various personal items, but they weren’t as important as their own life.

Of course, Hei had nothing to prepare since he didn't live there, but he started helping them anyway to take down tents and store the food for the journey.

Kang and the other four selected for this mission came out of their tent armed. They all had similar leather protections, but each one differed in the type of weapon he had.

Zenko had red hair and a massive build. Taking advantage of this feature, his choice of weapon was a battle-axe held with both hands.

Yuhan and Delan were twins with light brown hair. They had a slimmer build than Zenko, but you could still see that they had a well-trained body. Respectively, they had a double edge sword and a pair of sharp daggers.

Sen instead used a bow. He had long black hair and the most slender body of all. However, he had sharp eyes that allowed him to observe the situation calmly and to use his bow as best he could. At his waist, he had a short dagger in case he had to switch to close combat.

Finally, Kang had a metal staff that reached his eyebrows. It was different from the metal stick that Hei saw in Kang's hand when he entered through the secret passage in the wall, both in size and in the quality of the weapon itself. Evidently, this was his real weapon. He also carried a dagger in his waist.

Seeing that they would leave soon, Hei took the opportunity to give the last food leftovers from the meal to Xing and Ye. Because of that bad news, the people at the table had lost their appetite, leaving various leftovers on the table.

Since he had been taught the value that represented what he ate, Hei couldn’t bear that food was wasted, so he gave it to his two little sisters so that they could be full of energy.

When they finished eating everything, Kang told the people present with a resolute look, "Well then, remember what I said. Two hours, no more. If you don't see us coming, go away immediately. Remember always to stay together and help each other. "

At that point, the two groups left the room towards the dark tunnels and then split up at some point. The first one headed to Dong Zhen's shop. The second one to the city gates from where they would then go outside.

Once separated from the others, Hei asked Kang for details of how they would enter without being seen. The young man set off first with an introduction to how the space around Dong Zhen's shop was structured.

The merchant had bought a large piece of land and built walls around it. There was a single entrance guarded by guards while the perimeter of the walls was also guarded.

Going straight from the front entrance, there was Dong Zhen's shop. Although it was called a shop, it was nothing more than the merchant’s residence where he preferred to conduct his business, since his men surrounded him. Behind this ‘shop,’ there were two other smaller buildings.

"The building from at we will arrive is where the animals are kept. As they aren’t kind people, the animals that are forced to stay there all the time. Without the possibility of going to the pasture, the animals must necessarily carry out their needs there. Therefore, to remedy the problem, the merchant's men placed a hole that leads to the city's sewer system to dispose of the animal's organic waste. These underground tunnels are connected to the city's sewer system, which is connected to that hole." Kang explained as they passed through these tunnels, the smell inside was strong, but it started to get more and more intense as they approached the sewer system.

Hearing that they would enter the place he was looking for, Hei gave a start. He didn't expect to find them so fast.

This was a good thing for him since he could ascertain the conditions of the water buffaloes immediately, but he would have to wait to free them.

Given that Kang was the one who had shown him the secret passage, he certainly couldn’t abandon him without helping him free his kidnapped companions.

"From the way you are explaining, I infer that you have already used that passage and not just one time, have you?" Hei asked thoughtfully.

It was hard to believe that he knew so much information without having experienced this passage himself and without having explored the place a little.

Kang smiled slightly at Hei's question, "Yes, I discover passage a long time ago when I wandered through these tunnels trying to memorize the routes. Sometimes I return to see what the situation is like. I have always considered Dong Zhen an enemy to be eliminated. Even though, up to now, I have never engaged in such an action, except for a few small skirmishes with his less important men. But my experience is limited only to the outside, I never went inside the buildings to avoid alerting the guards, so I don't know how much use my information has."

"No, the ones you have are already more than I could have hoped for. Don’t worry. We will free your companions.” Hei said, trying to console Kang lightly. Although he didn't show it on the outside, Hei knew how restless Kang was inside.

After walking a little more, they reached the entrance that led to the sewer system, and from there, they finally reached the hole.

From inside the sewer system, you could barely see the outside as there was a large number of feces, manure, and other waste in the hole. The stench was incredible, and flies were flying everywhere.

However, the group paid little attention to this. Indeed, they wouldn’t pull themselves back from fulfilling their mission just to avoid getting a little dirty.

So, one by one, with Kang in front of everyone, followed then by Hei, and finally, by the other four, they slowly came out of the hole and ended up getting completely dirty with everything present in the duct.

Ye and Xing made some complaints about the smell, not being used to it, and they held their breath while waiting to come out. Hei had already got used to the smell and tried to console his two little sisters to resist.

Once they all came out, they saw that they were near a wooden building. From outside you could hear animal noises coming from inside.

There was no guard nearby, but it wasn’t a surprise. After all, who would guard some animals, considering the stench that laid there?

Fortunately, it was blowing a bit of wind, and the group could breathe a bit of clean air. At the moment, it was still afternoon, although it would soon start to set. If there was a positive thing in the fact that it was still daylight, it was that, at least, they wouldn’t have visual difficulties in moving, although this would be the same for their enemies.

Seeing that they were still adapting to the environment, Hei started moving to the adjacent building, followed shortly by the others.

The building in question was nothing more than a stable; inside, the water buffaloes were sleeping, each in their own designated spaces, on one side of the stable; the other was occupied instead by the manger.

Hearing that there were people, the water buffaloes began to wake up and moo but were immediately stopped by another bellow with an authoritarian tone. The albino buffalo had produced it.

This one came out of the perimeter area where it was sleeping and looked towards Hei, who was approaching.

When he reached it, Hei held out a hand and placed it on its head as he looked at the spirit beast straight in its eyes, "I came as I promised, today you and your companions will be freed. But it is not yet time to leave. I must first help them free their companions. Then we can leave. For the moment, stay here and keep the others ready for the escape, okay?"

The albino buffalo bowed his head slightly to tell him that it had understood, then pointed to a point towards the manger where there was a small wooden bedside table with a drawer.

Seeing that the albino buffalo was insisting on that direction, Hei approached the bedside table and opened the drawer. Inside there was a jade container, and after opening it, Hei saw that there was a small round object inside.

Intrigued, Ye and Xing came out and approached the object. But it was Bao Bei who explained what it was, ‘That is the egg of a bee. If they have taken the trouble to keep it in a container, the hive from which it was taken is likely a hive of spirit beast bees. Therefore the bee inside has the possibility of being born or at least developing as a spirit beast. The spiritual beasts bees are highly sought after because of the honey they produce, which has beneficial effects for cultivation. However, raising a colony is not a simple task.’

After listening to his mother's explanation, Hei took the egg gently. It had been so long since he had seen one. The last time was the eggs of his little sisters.

Without hesitating, he handed it to his head in the direction of his mother, who immediately understood what her son wanted. The egg quickly disappeared in Bao Bei’s pocket dimension.

Seeing that the egg had been secured, the albino buffalo relaxed and began to prepare his companions. Besides it, there were eight other buffaloes.

When he had finished what he had to do, Hei returned. Kang and the others were looking at him with a dazed expression. The spectacle that had taken place before their eyes was so incredible that they even wondered if they were dreaming.

The interaction between Hei and the buffalo was far from normal. It seemed as if they were really talking between them. They had already noticed this detail during the banquet, but they didn't think Hei was capable of something like talking with a beast whom he didn't have a spirit pact with.

"I've finished, now we can go and save your friends," Hei said as he joined them.

"Yes, sure. Let’s continue.” a little surprised, Kang shook his head to get concentrated again. It wasn't the time to be impressed by other things; saving his companions had the priority.

Thus, the six of them left the stable in the direction of the other building. Kang had only glanced at the outer perimeter, so he didn't know if the second secondary building contained the slaves under Dong Zhen's possession.

When they arrived there, they saw that there were two guards at the entrance. These were fully armed, though they were gasping due to the heat.

Seeing them, the group stopped to decide how to proceed. The problem was that they couldn't afford to make a fight break out at all. The noise from this could alert the other guards. The only solution was to finish them in one fell swoop.

As they thought, Hei found the situation familiar and remembered the strategy used before in the alley. So he proposed to others to climb on the roof and attack from the top to take them by surprise and take them out.

The others accepted the plan, and the group moved to the back. Fortunately, the area under Dong Zhen's jurisdiction was enormous. Otherwise, they would have been identified by the guards around the perimeter as they attempted to climb the roof of the building.

The first to reach the roof was Hei, who helped others to climb. Once they were all up, they approached the ledge to give a rapid peek before they had to shrink back.

In the distance, two other guards were approaching, carrying some crates. From the direction they were going, Hei and the others could see that they were headed toward this building.

At that point, each member of the group pondered whether to attack or not. Although there were six of them and the guards were only four, they had to take them out with one shot.

Initially, they had planned to attack the two guards at the entrance in groups of three, but with the addition of two other enemies, this plan had become impossible.

While Kang was undecided whether to wait for the two new guards to go away or risk to take them out along with the two originals guards on the spot, Hei came out saying.

"If necessary, I can take one out, along with my spider and my snake. It's not a problem."

Hearing this, Kang's eyes suddenly lit up, "Really? If you really can, then I can take one while the others can attack the other two in pairs. "

Hei nodded with his head. With his little sisters, he was sure to take his target out in a surprise attack.

Therefore, when the two guards with the crates stopped at the entrance to talk to the two guards stationed there, all except Sen, who remained on the roof to attack with his bow, fell from the roof like raptors and each attacked their targets.

Without showing mercy, they aimed directly at the head of their enemies. With the gravity’s force to increase the power of their blows, it was unlikely that the guards could survive the attack.

Hei's spear, therefore, stuck in the head of his target as Ye and Xing went down and bit his throat with their fangs. Blood splatters soon depicted a bloody image while four people fell to the ground almost simultaneously, now deprived of life without having been able to say or do anything else, except for a slight start of surprise.

With the enemies settled, Hei let Xing and Ye enter inside to check if there was anyone, but apparently, there was a green light. The group, therefore, immediately entered with the crates that had fallen on the ground. They also brought along the corpses of those they had just killed.

Inside, they could see that the building was nothing more than a warehouse for weapons, armor, and other miscellaneous items.

Of course, they weren’t objects of enormous value since it was unthinkable to leave things like that available to anyone, but, on the whole, they still represented a significant sum.

While they were searching among the objects, Kang proposed to his companions to make a change of weapon and armor.

Their weapons and leather armors were nothing but second-hand objects; excluding Kang's stick, the others showed signs of wear. Considering that there were still other guards, it was better to take advantage of this warehouse to equip themselves better.

While the others were switching their gear, Hei was hesitant about changing his spear or not. With the silk protection under his clothes, it was useless to wear leather or metal protections. They would only slow him down while resulting at the same time, less effective than Bao Bei’s silk. However, it was also true that the sharpness of his wooden lance wasn’t at the same level as one with a metal spearhead.

So, he decided to change his spear with one of the same length. The new spear had a wooden handle but with a metallic head. He avoided taking one entirely of metal, because he had no way to get used to the weight quickly right now, not to mention that he wanted some flexibility in his spear. Bao Bei kept her son's old spear since it was one of her gifts for him.

When they finished arming themselves, the group left and looked at the house where the fat merchant was staying. It was the only place left to search, and therefore it was very likely that the prisoners were kept there somewhere.

Without further delay, they proceeded cautiously towards this building.