113 Death and killing were inevitable (2/2)

Liu Sumeng and Yuan Xuelan moved at the same time. With their light step technique, they scaled the wall in silence, leaping over the ledge with minute timing.

The two guards had not even the time to process or understand the descent of darkness before hands reached from behind them to smother their voices.

Yuan Xuelan suppressed the urge to break the man's neck, ”Resist and you'll regret it.”

Above them, one of the guards shouted, ”What happened!?”

The gray raven fluttered down and found its perch on the Ivory Sword Saint's shoulder. The voice that came out of its beak was identical to the voice of the woman locked under Liu Sumeng's hold, ”I'm not sure, but there doesn't seem to be a problem!”

Liu Sumeng made quick work, tying his prisoner with rope and talismans that suppressed her power before tossing her over the wall's ledge. He was not so cruel though, and left her a lifeline, tied to a crevice within the wall. She dangled off the wall, struggling and crying behind a gagged mouth.

Yuan Xuelan was supposed to do the same to his prisoner. But the man, though shorter, was burlier than him and unexpectedly nimble for his size. He elbowed Xuelan in the gut, and unsheathed a dagger.

He moved, unthinking, and simply snapped the man's neck.

The fire along the wall was returning one by one, light licking up the side.

And thus he tossed the corpse over the edge. It landed below with a thud.

”What was that?” Their supposed senior's voice called, a head peering over from the watchtower's balcony. Luckily he was still too far to discern much of the people below and with night obscuring his vision further, he could not see what was wrong right away.

The raven responded again, ”Ah, no nothing, Shixiong just fell on his ass because he got scared of the lights going off.”

”...”

”...”

But eventually the man retreated and the three on the wall let out a sigh of relief.

”How long do you think till they notice?” The raven on Liu Sumeng's shoulder asked, this time with Hui Moxiang's masculine voice.

”Not long. They will see that there is no one on the wall. We will move before they come find us.”

When there was no one looking directly downward from the watchtower above, Yuan Xuelan and Liu Sumeng promptly jumped off the wall, making way into Hengsheng town.

The sight that greeted them was gray and deathly quiet. Weed had already begun to grow between cobblestone. Some of the doors were left unhinged as well and peoples' belongings littered about the street unattended.

There was a laundry basket, upturned and caught under a pillar from a fallen food stall. A cart still parked along the side of the road, with wares left out on a table next to it. An eerie wind blew past them but without a single whisper that came from the town.

There wasn't even a single drop of blood to tell of violence or massacre.

But they had no time to marvel and unravel the horrors that happened at Hengsheng.

The main road that cut through the town led them to the watchtower, but soon there were the voices of footsteps rushing about, their enemies alerted that something was not quite right.

Liu Sumeng and Yuan Xuelan ducked into a narrow alley, waiting for the Seven Moons cultivators to clear out from the streets.

”What happened? Shit! Where did Shijie and Shixiong go?”

”Are there intruders? Master Yang is going to kill us!”

Luckily, there was not much organization among the Seven Moons ranks, which made it easy for Liu Sumeng and Yuan Xuelan to quietly wait until everything simmered down and an opening was given.

In the narrow alley they waited, face-to-face.

It was dark, with only a flicker of light that came down from the main street, the glow of torches that followed their enemies as they floundered around.

Liu Sumeng could barely make out the curve of Xuelan's face, the edge of his jaw just catching a stray glimmer.

His voice, a whisper, asked, ”Why did you kill that man?”

It was hard to make out his expression. But he could hear the way Xuelan's breath drew in sharp.

”I...didn't mean to. He was struggling and was going to kill me so...”

”I see.”

Of course, he understood. Death and killing were inevitable. But he couldn't help but be unnerved and fearful. That Yuan Xuelan might travel down the same path of violence and insanity once more, all because Liu Sumeng could not stop him.

Because he couldn't be the one to quell the chaos, the unbalance that flared in Yuan Xuelan's core.

...But maybe he was overthinking. His heart, after all, was too attached to this man, in this life and the last. Liu Sumeng let out a sigh. He turned his gaze to the streets, failing to catch Xuelan's dark and frozen expression.

”Let's go.”

”...Okay.”

Hui Moxiang, still perched on Liu Sumeng's shoulder, could not understand what it was that he saw. Was this…a lover's spat? For some reason, his trash heart thought that this also had a certain degree of sweetness.

After all, those trashy books he often purchased from peddling merchants would also feature scenarios as such, where the couple would eventually make up with sweet, sweet love-making!