Book 9: Chapter 45: Infiltration (5)
Sen swiftly discovered that his salacious rumor theory was more than true. Even hidden as he was during the daylight hours, it was all anyone could talk about. There was endless speculating about what had happened and why with a morbidly gleeful undercurrent to it all. While he was happy that his little subterfuge had seemingly worked, he was a little disappointed in the people of this sect for being so happy about it. Still, the one thing he didn’t hear anyone speculating about was some mysterious third party being the actual culprit. The only time someone even broached the possibility, they were immediately taken to task for being stupid. In short, no one believed it was even possible that someone could have infiltrated their sect, let alone killed a couple of people and gotten away with it. That was good for him, even if it wasn’t good for their security.
Not that everything had been going smoothly for him. The dwellings for the inner disciples and core members were better protected than the buildings for the outer disciples. There were some basic measures that had obviously been put in place by the sect. He could tell by how shoddy they were. The individuals living in those homes, on the other hand, routinely added their own security measures. Those were often of better quality. While he could shadow walk past many of them, once he stepped back into normal reality, he was subject to any security measures they put in place.
His hiding ability let him simply ignore many of them but not all of them. It slowed him down a lot more than he’d like because every dwelling required him to come up with unique countermeasures and solutions. It was educational, but he didn’t come into this sect to be educated. He’d entered to set up an enormous trap. The longer it took him, the more likely it would be that he’d get caught. It didn’t even need to be something big. It could just be a matter of inattention. The previous night, he’d very nearly stepped on a sleeping cultivator when he shadow walked through the wall of their home. The only reason he hadn’t woken her was that she seemed to be drunk. That was something he could only attribute to dumb luck.
Of course, he didn’t need to get seen inside any of the homes either. He’d assumed that the pair of cultivators he’d killed were an aberration. It turned out that those copses of trees he’d been relying on to provide him some cover were popular meeting places for cultivators with a mind to engage in some carnal pleasures. He’d gotten more than one eyeful while skirting around couples in the throes of passion. It might have even been vaguely amusing if he wasn’t so worried about getting caught by someone. He’d thought it happened when one man looked right at him. He’d frozen in place, checking and rechecking that he was still wrapped in shadow.
“I don’t like it when you ignore me,” a woman complained to the man. “What could you possibly be looking at that’s more interesting than me?”
“What?” asked the startled man, an edge of panic in his voice. “Nothing. Just a shadow.”
Sen could only be thankful that the woman proceeded to pout and refused to continue until she was certain that the man was giving her his entire attention again. When he’d managed to creep away, he was confident that the man had forgotten all about that odd shadow that had caught his attention ever so briefly. Those close calls drove home to him the true precariousness of his situation. Even if his plan failed and Uncle Kho was waiting to reduce this entire place to smoldering ruins, that wouldn’t mean much if Sen got himself seen. At that point, escaping would be a distant possibility. Even if he managed to get away initially, there were so many people here that fighting his way out successfully was questionably possible at best. It would only take one cultivator in the sect getting lucky one time, and he’d be done.
If that happened, he’d leave Ai an orphan again. Well, no, he admitted to himself, she’d never be an orphan like she had been when he took her in. Auntie Caihong, Uncle Kho, Master Feng, Falling Leaf, and the entire damned academy would close ranks around her like a fortress of death. Hells, even Fu Ruolan would probably step into the role of the very strange, moderately unhinged, but unrelentingly vengeful aunt. No, Ai would not be alone. She would be loved. But she would be absent another father, and it wouldn’t be like the last time. She was old enough now that she would remember him. She would feel that loss. It would mark her in ways Sen did not want her marked. If he’d needed any additional incentive to be wary, there it was.