Rivers of the Night

The courtyard elder looked as though he was about to burst a blood vessel. However, the moment he saw the bruise on Zhou's face, his expression sharpened into something more lethal.

"What happened to you two?" he asked coldly. "What is on your face?"

The question was directed toward Zhou, but Huwen hurried to rub her palms over her face in an incredibly flustered manner. It was only after she realized that she wasn't the one being spoken to that her face completely flushed red.

Where was the hole for her to crawl into when she needed it?

A few snickers and rounds of laughter cut through the disciples before—

"Silence."

The cold words stifled the entire courtyard. These disciples just thought they were chasing after normal prey; they didn't truly understand the magnitude of what was happening.

On the one hand, this would stop news from spreading too far or alerting the wrong parties, but on the other hand… well, they were taking this far too casually.

The courtyard elder didn't agree with this approach at all. Some of these kids would die simply because the council of elders preferred to keep these matters under wraps for as long as they could.

The best he could do was use their fear of him to try and straighten them up a bit.

"Answer," he said to Zhou.

"I… uh…" Zhou cleared his throat.

"I'm sorry, Elder Lotus. It was my elbow that hit him in the face," Huwen hurried to explain, her head lowered as much as she could without slamming it into the stone beneath them.

When they had woken up, having been startled by a disciple and realizing she was actually naked, Huwen hurried to get up. But because of the way Theron positioned their bodies, her elbow slammed right into Zhou's chin…

In the very same location Theron had punched him.

Then there was the not-so-inconspicuous scarf around Huwen's neck where she hid her own bruises—bruises she happened to think were hickeys but were actually the result of Theron pressing his fingers into her arteries and cutting off blood flow to her brain.

Theron had seen many disciples he could have targeted before he ran into these two, and he chose them specifically because he knew that he could easily cover up any interaction he had with them.

Elder Lotus slowly shook his head inwardly.

"You two go and clean yourselves up. You'll be with Team 031, and you've delayed them enough. Everyone else, move out. Now."

"Yes!"

A chorus of shouts rang and they dashed away, every one of them leaving streaks of Dark Mana in their wake. Like flickering shadows, they all vanished.

…

'Trouble.'

Theron stopped high in a tree. Taking a breath, he slowly entered Veinsong, his heartbeat steady and his presence practically non-existent.

Just below him, a group of disciples dashed out, their speed making his heart skip a beat.

They were moving in a group of five, and clearly not going all out, and yet their speeds were faster than any cultivators Theron had ever come across before.

This wasn't the "trouble," though. The real problem was that they were moving in a group.

This was the first one of the kind Theron had seen, but he had a feeling that they were all like this. If he was the only straggler moving around alone, all of a sudden he would be back to square one: standing out like a sore thumb.

There was no way he could kill someone and join a group. Not only did he still not know the Soul Lamp situation of the Sect, he didn't know enough about the Sect in general to impersonate anyone. He also didn't have any disguise methods on hand.

To make matters worse, these disciples were so fast while he had to be cautious with how he moved and how he used his Third Eye.

Back on the continent, he could use his Third Eye almost wantonly by the end because everyone he came across had a weaker one than his own, so much so that they couldn't even detect it properly.

But he was in a situation now where every cultivator he came across would have practically been a god in the world he knew. Sweeping his Third Eye around casually was a recipe for disaster.

Theron stood high in the trees, breathing evenly. His expression didn't change despite the fact the situation was growing worse. But he knew that he needed a better plan now than just sneaking out.

The map of the Sect reflected in his mind and then he decided to follow after the group beneath him. By getting an understanding of their patrol patterns and the area they were responsible for, he could get a gauge for how the other groups would be spread out.

—

The council hall was deathly silent. But it only had been for a few seconds, the eruption of flaring tempers from moments ago still echoing across the walls.

Grand Elder Macie was absolutely fuming. She should be out there personally, hunting for the bastard herself. But the Patriarch had rejected her suggestion.

They had no idea how powerful the Demon Soldier that had come this time was. Just because they had sneaked in and out didn't mean that they were afraid of a direct confrontation. They had already lost Sadie; losing Macie because of her fury would be a cost they couldn't bear.

It was far smarter to wait for the representatives of the Resonate Eye and the Bronzed Earth Sect to arrive. For now, the disciples casting a net would be enough bait.

They were separated into teams with very well-designated patrol routes. If any one of them died, their Soul Lamps would go out, and they would know exactly where the Demon Soldier was instantly.

If that happened, then they would move out as a full-force unit.

Of course, the Patriarch didn't want to use their disciples as bait like this. But against such demonic enemies, if you let morality dictate all of your actions… you would only be played to death.

"They are here." The Third Elder suddenly got an alert, and teleportation channels began to flash.