How much did I wish to bathe in one of these hot springs and enjoy the beautiful night?

After a few seconds of indulging myself with happy thoughts, I remembered the reason for coming here. It was not worth it to have my bones cracked just to take a hot bath. Rene was super clear with directions, but not the exact locations of the cards.

The hot spring was decent sized, and it had lots of piles of smooth rocks with moss and shrubs. How was I supposed to figure out which pile it was?

There was no other option but to carefully search each spot, and that took quite some time. I tried not to make too many sounds, for demons have sensitive ears.

After quite some time, I finally felt something familiar under one of the crevices. It was a wooden card!

And then another, and another, and eventually all eight of them!

Oh, I felt proud of myself for at last accomplishing something so magnificent. Eight cards will get us going for another week while I sharpen my skills at collecting coins. I tugged all those cards in my pockets with a grin, and started to head back.

Of course, right at the same moment when I felt full of myself, when there were heavy footsteps behind.

Great……what a timing of bad luck!

In such a short amount of time, it wasn’t like I could hide anywhere else except for that low bush close by. I was glad my body was small enough to get covered. Peeking through the bush gap, I vaguely saw two full grown demons walking toward the hot spring. They were laughing and making low grade jokes. Under the moonlight, there was someone looking quite familiar. After a click in the head, I realized that it was Dax who was in the riots along with Leo and Rene the other day. It wasn’t that difficult to recognize that fierce look and arrogant way of speaking. I couldn’t recall the other guy though.

As they were joking around, they suddenly freaking started to take off their clothing!

That was when I stopped peeking through the gap.

Of course, they were here for the hot spring. Who the chicken nuggets would take a bath in the middle of the night, especially when they were freaking dudes!?

Those guys were weirdos.

“Yeah, I haven't liked Zen ever since day one! He’s too full of himself, and never tries to join in with the rest of us. I am not sure why Headman Daoba likes him that much. He just fights well, but that’s all.” One guy said.

“Maybe he’s hiding something.” Dax said with disdain.

“None of the bros had seen him use any magic arts. He looks like an earth element, just like most of us, nothing special about growing vegetables even if he could. Dax, all the bros are counting on you. That new dude is plainly an outsider to us. If one day the Headman makes it out of here, we are all rooting for you to become the new successor! No matter how strong he is, he can’t possibly win against all the bros.”

Dax sneered. “I heard that his followers are growing though.”

“No way that is true! It must be a rumor spreading in the gang. Who would trust that dude that speaks no words, and not even showing his face! Dax, you are different from him, we have been through the toughest times together. No way we would betray you! ”

“Of course I trust you and the bros, but Headman Daoba…..” Dax quit talking for a moment, and then picked up the conversation again. “If it’s his order to name him as the new successor, then it could be a bit problematic.”

The other guy was silent.

Dax jeered in a horse voice. “But before that happens, there is something we can do now to prevent such headaches in the future.”

“What is it?”

Dax lowered his voice. “In a couple days, it’s the Headman’s birthday feast. During such times of alcohol and busy traffic, it will be a great chance to put some poison in a drink without noticing. It can be a slow poison that takes his life a few days later. That way no one will correlate his death to the feast and us.”

“But Headman Daoba doesn’t like it when we act without his orders, what if he finds out, then what should we do?” The other guy sounded startled.

“If the headman is suspicious of me, he has no proof. Without proof, then he can’t punish anyone. Even if he truly believes it’s my doing, he won’t do anything because by that time, I will be the only successor. He probably won’t waste his time searching for a new person.”

“Dax, we will do whatever you say! The feast will surely be his last day!”

They lowered their voices so much that I found it hard to hear clearly. No wonder they took a hot bath in the middle of the night, because they were planning some evilness. Those two guys were quite something to have such a conversation next to the target’s tent. They were not dumb enough though, at least they lowered their voices to avoid waking up the sleeping tiger.

Life in the gang wasn’t that peaceful either. You never knew if your so-called-bro would hand you a cup of poison or not.

My legs were getting sore because I was squatting for a long time. After their secret conversation, they were back to all the ugly joking again. I tried to be patient, but as the time ticked away, I was worried the sky would light up. Also, what if Bobbi woke up before I made it back?

I kept my eyes closely on the pocket watch, then took a peek through the gap at the bush. Those dudes were still relaxing in the hot spring with their backs facing me while leaning on the rocks.

All of a sudden, I had this crazy idea.

What if I just sneaked backward and out of their sight?

If I didn’t make a sound, they wouldn’t turn their backs anyways right?

Once I passed the first few tents, then I would be completely out of their sight into the darkness. If they kept on talking for another 30 minutes, it wouldn’t be enough time to make it back before dawn. Plus the longer it took, the greater the chance Bobbi would wake up, if so I would have to wait for him to fall back to sleep again in order to exit the place.

I got to do this……got to do this…….

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath to slowly let it out. Finally, I stood up, and steadily backed away from the hot spring without making any noises.

I was like a little mouse sneaking through the kitchen, backing away bit by bit. Now I was completely behind the sleeping tiger’s tent. Everything was going according to my plan, and I felt relieved for a brief second.

Just as I put down my vigilance a bit………..

SNAP!!!

I froze in place, and looked down.

Under the faint moonlight, there was a freaking twig right under my foot, broken into two pieces. There weren’t that many twigs around here, and the only one that so coincidentally got under my footstep! If I made a wider or smaller step, I would have completely missed that damn twig!

“Who is there!!” It was Dax’s voice.

Heavy footsteps were getting closer, and closer!

Right now the tent was still blocking their sight, but if they got any closer I would sure be discovered.

As I was frozen on the spot, countless thoughts went through my head. There wasn’t anywhere I could go, and definitely not enough time to reach another tent to hide. If I ran away with these frozen legs, no way I could beat two full grown demons. They were strong and well fed too!

There were only two choices here.

One would be to let those two guys catch me and throw me in front of Headman Daoba to have my bones broken. Considering how weak my human body was, and there was no hospital anywhere to fix broken bones, it would be very likely to lose my life.

The other choice would be to enter the sleeping tiger’s tent, and risk having my neck slit open. Still, the tiger was sleeping right? Maybe there was a chance that he would not wake up if I tried to be quiet?

The footsteps and voices were getting closer and closer. My heart couldn’t help but keep on pounding like a rabbit. The instinct of not wanting to be caught forced me to choose the latter.

I lifted the white curtain and silently slipped in. It was so dark inside that I could barely see anything. I kept myself close to the curtain to hear the footsteps just a few feet away. Those footsteps were back and forth, not wanting to leave.

“What was that sound!? There must be someone eavesdropping close by!” The other guy said.