Chapter 404 - The Heist (1/2)
The emerald-green flint gleamed in Xiao Chen’s grasp as he twirled it between his fingers. There was something else in his finger. A map that contained perfunctory information about the Ridge of the Fallen Drake. He had no idea how Su Lianyue managed to procure this vital piece of information. Only that she had left him this during the night they hatched the plan for this heist.
She had said little during then, but Xiao Chen knew enough to guess that there was more to this than just a simple flint for starting a fire. He studied it that night and found the map embedded inside.
But the map was hardly the only thing hidden in the flint when Xiao Chen pried it open; there was also a tiny little pill. Xiao Chen made himself a small light with the flint and studied the map, following it as he made his way to the Chamber of Teeming Woes, the abode of Elder Long, the guardian of this waycastle. On his way, he managed to slip by unnoticed by a few patrolling squads without raising any alarm.
It took hardly long for Xiao Chen to find himself facing a great cave yawning at him. Four concave vessels were blazing with fire, lighting up the entrance of the cave that led to the Chamber of Teeming Woes inside, and there were each two sentries standing just below the hanging vessels of flame. The positioning of the guards allowed for no opening that Xiao Chen could exploit and a stealthy infiltration seemed impossible.
Realizing that he has only three-quarters of an hour left, he decided that he had to act fast. With the brushes and thickets to mask his foray, he pressed on as quietly as possible until he was about several dozens of yards away from the gaping mouth of the cave and he picked up a little pebble and shot it like an arrow at a large tree standing almost a hundred yards just opposite the cave.
The pebble struck on the tree with so great a force that it shook so violently as if a storm had rattled it and that was enough to distract the eight guards at the entrance. Just as soon as their heads turned, Xiao Chen put his mastery of the Immortal-override Steps to the test and zipped like a shadow before he faded into the entrance with no one noticing.
Once inside, he found himself traveling down a winding passage that occurred to him as if he was walking inside a snake. Flaming brands lighted every twenty yards of the passage, preventing him from succumbing to the staggering presence of darkness looming all around him as he held his breath and suppressed his aura to prevent detection. He had to be extremely careful; there were not only guards in the Chamber that towered just ahead, but also a powerful foe with powers of the Nirvana Realm.
Xiao Chen was wary not to step out of the passage immediately when he realized that he was nearing its end. The stone tunnel opened up to a huge empty and barren expanse, save for a large building, a hall that stood lonesomely forlorn. Two disinterested sentries stood at the ashen stone doors, yawning and muttering to themselves. An oculus opened at the top of the hall, just under a hole at the top of the ceiling where a shaft of moonlight would pour into the hall at midnight.
It would be the time when Elder Long emerges from the inner cloisters to bath himself in the pale glow to hone his magic using the moonlight. It would be a process that would take tens of minutes.
Xiao Chen needed only a moment’s patience and Elder Long would appear. The granite doors of the hall, a portcullis slab, would be raised to open like a monster opening its mouth and the distraction would prompt the guards to divert their attention inwards to receive their superior. This would provide Xiao Chen with the diversion he needs to slip into the hall and remain hidden in the shadowed corners inside or fly to the ceiling so long as he remained unnoticed.
It was a risky plan and everything must be clockwork for this plan to succeed. He could not summon Guifeng in here and any alarm raised would rattle the entire beehive. Every enemy from top to bottom would be swarming for him, chasing after him like hounds on a scent and not even Su Lianyue who was moving towards the Rock would be spared.
She entrusted to him the task of stealing the pass to deactivate the traps of the Rock of the Fallen Drake, which, in one way or another, she was also entrusting her life to him.
Xiao Chen waited with bated breath for the stone portcullis to open. He rubbed his sleeve against his forehead now glistening with sweat. His patience bore fruit at last when he saw a ray of moonlight slanting down the hole, the oculus and on the polished floors of the hall where an old man, dressed fully in black, was sitting cross-legged.
Strands of beards and hairs of white flowed down his gnarly and wrinkled face to his shoulders. His eyes were tightly shut but the eight little balls of ghostly-green flames hovering and circling around him like bees indicated that he was neither sleeping nor resting. Suddenly, the orbs of ghost fire puffed into eight wispy fumes that intertwined together and entered his brain. The old man’s eyes blink opened at once as if he was feeling invigorated and thrilled. Slowly he got up and he began sneaking towards the doors.
A cascade of rock grounding against rock groaned as the granite hatch climbed up slowly. The two guards swiveled immediately to greet the Elder and Xiao Chen sped as quickly and covertness as he could muster into the shadows on the left side of the hall and quickly suppressed his aura.
The stone portcullis completely yawned open and Elder Long strolled out quietly, heading straight towards the passageway leading out of this expansive cavern. Xiao Chen waited until the Elder was far and his aura no longer lingered and he leaped up to the roof of the hall without hardly a squeak coming from him.
Xiao Chen crept to the top of the roof and found the oculus no more larger than a dinner plate. Xiao Chen looked down at it and then at the little green pill he found hidden in the flint. It was a pill to magically reduce his size, a concoction of the apothecaries of Fort Raksasa, no doubt and its effects would last for a quarter of an hour.
There was scarcely any need to guess why had Su Lianyue left him this pill; it was intended for him to shrink himself so that he could pass through the oculus. He peered at the little green pill rolling harmlessly in his palm, wondering with the faintest trepidation if it could be poisonous as his brows creased into a frown. Still, he swallowed it readily with a gulp.
Mages of Fort Raksasa were known to be immensely skilled in employing poison and voodoo curses which could not only be potentially destructive, but also terribly untraceable that they would escape even the notice of Xiao Chen’s Divine Sense. But Xiao Chen knew better than to doubt Su Lianyue; the latter had entrusted her life to him and there was no reason he should suspect her.
With magical bounded fields holding up the defenses of this hall, shrinking himself was the only way Xiao Chen could go in. The effect of the pill was almost instantaneous; he felt himself constricting and he allowed himself to fall through the hole. Once he felt the hard floors of the hall under his feet, he turned himself back to his original size and projected his Divine Sense to search for the pass.
Dangers abounded every inch of the floor and walls of this hall, Xiao Chen knew. Any ordinary person sneaking in could have just as easily triggered one of the hundreds of traps lurking about and die a most terrible death. But with the Divine Sense, Xiao Chen was no ordinary man.
It did not take long for Xiao Chen to find where the pass was hidden. He expertly avoided the tiles that could trigger anything untoward and slowly made his way to his quarry. He needed to be calm and precise; the loose tile that housed the hiding spot of the pass was also guarded by a flurry of trap mechanisms. One wrong move and the alarm would be raised. The entire stronghold would be completely locked down and not even a formidable mage with powers of the Nirvana Realm could extricate himself in one piece then.