Chapter 87 - Consequences (Part I) (Patreon)

Near the shore from which Lucian and Little Crab had departed, long after the boat had vanished into the darkness, a shadow of an inconspicuous rock suddenly moved, stretching upward until it took a humanoid form.

With a shirt that covered only her chest and abdomen, leaving her muscular arms exposed, and dark trousers tucked into sturdy boots, the short-haired blonde woman stared at the sea with a rough expression.

She was Venomous Shadow Mei Huo, the right hand of Madame Ching from the Deep Shadow Fleet.

Inwardly, she pondered if Lucian had failed to notice her or if he was using a trick to lure her into the sea. Then, with narrowed eyes, she turned toward the ruined warehouse in the distance. She couldn't understand why the Feathered Serpent Castle, the City Council, or the City Lord would approve such a massacre.

Ever since Lucian had disappeared like the wind for the first time a few days ago, forcing Lady Caihong to return begging for help, Mei Huo had prepared countermeasures in case he slipped through their net again. She had ordered people to closely monitor his known associates, getting reports on the merchant Wang Chen, the cook Bai Xiaomeng, and the smuggler Little Crab.

Then, two days earlier, while personally reviewing the reports, she noticed something strange about Little Crab’s movements. The smuggler appeared to be visiting the same stores repeatedly and using the same smuggling routes repeatedly.

Mei Huo, deeply involved with the Shadow Alliance, knew it was impossible to do so. No smuggler operating in Three Feathers City would repeat routes so blatantly without eventually drawing the guards’ attention. Following her suspicions, she investigated personally. Much to her surprise, she indeed discovered a flaw. Her spies were following the wind, not Little Crab!

No matter how thoroughly she interrogated them or what methods she used, every single spy swore with absolute certainty that they had watched the smuggler and never let their eyes off him. Because none were cultivators, she was sure they wouldn't lie to her. So, Mei Huo suspected they had fallen under the effects of some bizarre technique, but instead of trying to break it immediately at that time, she had allowed them to continue their routine uninterrupted.

Meanwhile, she secretly searched for the real Little Crab.

With help from the Shadow Alliance, she found him after nearly a full day of searching. What confused her even more was that he was neither hidden nor protected by any noticeable Qi technique. Instead, he was doing a bunch of odd quests. It was as though nobody cared enough to notice him anymore. Besides, as spies assigned to watch him continued filing reports, why would anyone suspect something was wrong?

Because of the weirdness surrounding it all, Mei Huo used a special concealment technique to erase her Qi fluctuations before following Little Crab throughout the city. She did not know what exactly he had been doing the previous day, but today the smuggler had paid a handful of people before waiting near the recently burned warehouse.

Then the slaughter began.

Mei Huo never approached the warehouse directly, but as a peak Qi Condensation cultivator, her senses were good enough to perceive the waves of Qi from techniques being unleashed. She also wasn't deaf, so she heard the abrupt screams. Used to staying hidden, she chose to observe. It took some time until she saw their most important target emerge from the warehouse, completely devoid of Qi.

As soon as she saw Lucian, she thought he looked like a monster.

Earlier reports from her spies claimed he suffered from severe Qi deviation injuries, which allowed them to track him easily at first. However, every few days, the situation changed completely. Sometimes his injuries seemed to worsen, and other times they recovered. She had never grasped what the reports meant, but looking at Lucian, her imagination ran wild.

If not for those reports, she would believe that a beast from the underworld had come to feast on cultivators’ blood. There was no other explanation for a skeletal demon reeking of blood to walk in the darkness, in her view.

Unable to grasp what was happening, she had decided to remain near the shore and investigate the warehouse first. She would never confess the fear she felt.

Now, circulating Qi through her single Dantian, located near the center of her chest close to the heart, Mei Huo melted into the shadows and swiftly made her way toward the warehouse. Once she inspected the ruined building, she was deeply alarmed.

As a member of a major force, Mei Huo recognized the sacrificial arrangement formed by the corpses almost instantly. Adding to the fact that a Tidal Church believer was in the middle of all that, she couldn't help but think that Lucian was tied to the Tidal Church!

More and more questions flooded her mind as she retreated into the distance to observe the situation. Then, another realization suddenly struck her. She finally noticed that no guards or members of the Shadow Alliance had come to investigate!

Quickly, she found an answer.

Just as Lucian had messed with the spies' perception, she theorized he had done the same with the mortal beggars that served the Alliance. Meanwhile, the guards could have either been affected or received orders from the City Council to stay out of the mess!

She trembled, hiding in the rock's shadows. For her, this meant that she couldn't believe any of her spies' reports. Lady Caihong herself should be investigated! 

As Mei Huo struggled to comprehend how large the invisible web around her truly was, she suddenly sensed a powerful Qi fluctuation rapidly approaching from the nearby streets.

“Oh shit!” she cursed aloud. Abandoning stealth entirely, she tried to flee as she recognized who was coming.

Her concealment techniques relied heavily upon Water Qi, and the moment she saw the purple glow illuminating the sky above the screaming crowd, Mei Huo understood she could not risk using water techniques against the approaching cultivator.

Empowering herself with Qi, she conjured a movement technique that allowed her to travel through nearby stone and shadow. However, before she could get far, a torrent of purple water erupted from behind her and crashed across the shore, cutting off her escape route.

The sand instantly melted into glass beneath the water’s heat, revealing that the liquid carried fire properties.

Floating above the purple waves, Elder Black Scale glared down at her with fury twisting his face beneath the hood.

“What is the meaning of this, Shadow Alliance?!” he roared loudly enough for the panicked crowd nearby to hear. “Do you truly believe the Tidal Church is so easy to bully? How dare you kidnap one of our believers!”

Mei Huo’s expression darkened immediately.

Empowering her Throat Chakra at her neck, she shouted back just as loudly, “What nonsense are you spewing, Elder Black Scale? Your Tidal Church is the one committing mass murder and offering cultivators as sacrifices!”

She had no idea why the elder suddenly attempted to pin the blame upon the Shadow Alliance, but Mei Huo didn’t want to carry this black pot!

Hearing her accusation, Elder Black Scale froze. He rapidly cast several investigative techniques toward the warehouse. He had come because Hei Yu had sent people to him, saying she was the traitor responsible for Elder Blue Scale’s death, and would pay back by giving great sacrifices to the church.

But never in his wildest dreams had he expected those sacrifices to be cultivators.

Remembering the Grand Elder’s strict orders, Elder Black Scale immediately enhanced his voice with Purple Qi and shouted even louder.

“You shameless whore!” Elder Black Scale bellowed furiously. “Does the Shadow Alliance truly believe it can deceive the people? You slaughtered those innocent cultivators and now seek to frame our Tidal Church!”

At the same moment he spoke, he waved his hand and directed a massive quantity of Qi into his Dantian, located in his upper abdomen.

Mei Huo immediately reinforced her body, cloaking herself in a defensive technique that fused Earth Qi with Shadow Qi.

It was far from her strongest defense, but most of her usual moves carried Water Qi, making them dangerously ineffective against the incoming purple water.

While she thought about how to deal with the mess, she was quickly surprised as the enormous wave did not fall toward her.

Instead, it crashed directly into the warehouse. The purple water flooded the ruins, burning through the remains and dissolving the corpses within like corrosive acid. Inside the warehouse, Hei Yi died before she could register what had happened, still smiling amidst the destruction.

When nothing more remained, Elder Black Scale snorted coldly. He could argue with Venomous Shadow Mei until sunrise if necessary, but directly attacking her would mean provoking Madame Ching, inviting the wrath of a major force. The moment he did so, the Grand Elder would kill him on the spot and offer his head to the City Council, calling Madame Ching for a peace talk.

So instead of spilling more words, he chose to destroy the evidence.

With another wave of his hand, the purple water flowed back into his body before he turned toward the sea, floating above the waves without hesitation.

He did not wish to remain near the warehouse for even a single moment longer.

The final word and move had been his, and more importantly, he had to prepare for the troublesome matters ahead! He needed to return to the Tidal Church main branch and dispatch mortal acolytes throughout the city to spread the proper narrative of a traitor before anyone else could seize control of the story.

There was absolutely no way so many cultivators dying at once would fail to attract the City Lord or the City Council's attention.

And Elder Black Scale was pretty sure the Shadow Alliance would never accept the blame. They controlled the beggars, smugglers, and brothels, after all. They were the ones who usually shifted the narrative!

As he sped across the sea, Elder Black Scale was considering how many gifts he would need to present to Madame Ching, how he should apologize to Venomous Shadow Mei, and which force would serve as the best scapegoat.

About discovering the true culprits? Not his problem, as long as he could give this blessing to another!

No matter what happened, he could not allow the City Lord’s wrath to descend upon the Tidal Church. 

Meanwhile, Mei Huo had already vanished into the shadows, rapidly making her way toward Madame Ching. 

The entire situation had become far too chaotic for her.

She still could not understand how the mysterious man who was previously followed by the Feathered Serpent Castle was connected to the Tidal Church, nor whether tonight’s massacre had been part of some greater scheme far beyond her sight.

But she understood that if she didn’t hurry, the problems would pile up until they became impossible to deal with!

What none of them knew was that the dead cultivators were allied with the Azure Royal Fleet and the East Merchant Chamber.

With a single move, Lucian had involved almost all major powers of Three Feathers City. Meanwhile, he was on his way to grow stronger and disappear for a while