In the Bai Clan, at its west gate, Xi Shen’s puppet was disguised as a member of the Bai Clan while secretly observing the heavily guarded gate with frustration.
‘All the exits have experts up to the Nascent Soul Realm guarding them. I really dug a huge hole for myself this time. This is the last exit and I still can’t find a way to slip past them. The Grand Formation around the Bai Clan increased in power as well, and even Tai and Little Snow find it hard to create stable pocket spaces.’
As Xi Shen thought that, he felt the Divine Will of a familiar person swiping over his body.
For a Soul Transformation Realm expert, their Divine Will’s can stretch for several hundred or even a thousand kilometers, so for the Soul Transformation Realm expert from before it was easy for him to scan the entire Bai Clan at once.
He had been doing it periodically, but Xi Shen wasn’t worried he would find him like this. The old man was only doing this to search for traces of fluctuations in space. Because he was spreading out his Divine Will this much, it was harder for him to see through Xi Shen’s disguise.
Xi Shen looked away from the West Gate and headed for a tavern nearby to get some information about the current state of the Bai Clan.
Xi Shen sat in a corner of the tavern and order something randomly. He wanted to blend in and it would look suspicious if he just sat there doing nothing.
After getting a mug filled with wine, Xi Shen pretended to drink from the mug while listening to the conversation around him.
Some were filled with worry about what was going on, while some were angry at the fact that there was an intruder in their clan.
This type of situation didn’t happen much, or rather not at all, so these people who were mostly servants and attendants were filled with a mix of emotions, making the tavern quite loud and lively.
But as Xi Shen was trying to gather as much information about his current situation as he can, someone from across the tavern suddenly yelled and pointed at him, “Bai Shu, what the hell are you doing here?!! Aren’t you suppose to be at the meeting with young master Shen?!! A bastard of the Bai Clan dares ignore a Bai Clan member’s orders?!!”
While yelling those sentences, that youth was barraging through the crowded tavern and then glaring at him before dragging him up by his arm and leading him out of the tavern.
They caught quite the amount of attention from those in the tavern and most of them were whispering things like, ‘so that’s Bai Shu?’ and ‘he’s Bai Shu, the kid born from the servant, side branch elder Duhong slept with when he was drunk on spirit wine.’
Xi Shen overheard these people's words as he was dragged by his arm into the open and led away from the tavern.
He was frowning at this sudden situation he had gotten himself in. He had just asked Tai and Little Snow to randomly disguise him as someone from the Bai Clan, but he didn’t think he would meet someone who knew the original person, this was a problem.
Xi Shen had stolen a storage bag and was keeping both his pets inside to hide the Chaos Qi fluctuations of the pill furnace. Luckily, his two God Beast didn’t disappoint him and was able to keep the Chaos Qi fluctuations contained relatively easy.
But he guessed that if they couldn't, it would have been impossible for it to enter any storage device due to the chaotic nature of Chaos Qi, it would destroy that storage device.
Xi Shen used the connection he still had with them and said, “I want you guys to change my appearance, I don’t want to have to deal with this.”
Just as Xi Shen said that and was about to pull out of this youth’s hold, he heard him say, “Bai Shu, you're in big trouble with the young master. Your tunnel to the Bai Clan's underground labyrinth was found as well as the martial arts techniques you were hiding in there. Who do you think you are secretly cultivating when the young master specifically told you not to?!!”
The youth tugged on Xi Shen's arm forcefully and shot him a cold glare.
The youth that was about fifteen or sixteen then turned around and said again, “Look, Bai Shu, it’s not that servants like us hate you or anything, but we work for the young master, so we can’t disobey him. You…”
The youth went on talking, but Xi Shen wasn’t listening at all, his thoughts were on his previous words about there being a Labyrinth under the Bai Clan. Maybe there was a way for him to exit the Bai Clan using that method?
He wasn’t sure if it was safe, but he decided to go along with this situation to find out more about it.
As the youth reached a fancy-looking courtyard, he finally stop chattering to Xi Shen’s relief.
They entered the courtyard and then walked through and past several luxurious buildings until they came upon a slightly large hall.
About a dozen youths of different ages were seen kneeling in front of a small twelve-year-old youth in a throne-like chair.
This twelve-year-old youth had on a rather arrogant expression as he stepped on the head of one of the youth.
“You dogs actually tried and cultivate behind my back! I thought I told you no servant of mine is allowed to cultivate!!”
“But young master, the Clan rules said it was okay for us to cultivate. We…”
One of the youths off to the side didn’t get to finish his sentence as the youth got up from his chair and slapped him hard across the face.
The youth stumbled back and clutched his cheek but he neither said nor did anything further.
Xi Shen could see a deep-seated hatred behind that youth’s downcast demeanor. Given the chance, Xi Shen swear that the youth would have killed the arrogant youth without hesitation.
“Young master Shen, I found Bai Shu hiding away in a tavern, so I brought him here.”
The youth pushed Xi Shen forward to his annoyance.
The small youth turned his arrogant gaze towards Xi Shen and seeing who it was, his face morphed into anger. He then bellowed out furiously, spit flittering everywhere, “Bastard Shu, how dare you make my servants secretly practice martial arts?!!”
Xi Shen stared blankly at this little kid, almost amused at the sight of him acting like this.
Xi Shen was in the disguise of a young boy around seventeen years old, so he was quite taller than the youth when he stomp towards him and began yelling in his face.
Seeing that Xi Shen wasn’t reacting to him and was even staring at him with an amused expression, the youth became even more enraged and raised his hand to smack Xi Shen across his face.
Xi Shen's eyes narrowed and he was just about to teach this kid some manners, but before he or the youth could do anything, a frantic and pleading voice came from the entrance.
“Bai Shen, don’t hurt my friends!! I’m the one who persuaded them to start cultivating, punish me instead!!”
The figure of a youth came rushing into the hall, only to have everyone there except Xi Shen stare at him in shock and confusion.
The youth ignored the weird looks towards him and after glancing around the room he saw the youth with a bruised cheek which caused his heart to drop.
While rushing towards the youth on the floor, he said with concern, “Brother Min! Are you alright?!”
The youth name Min flinched back and stared at the youth terrified.
“Brother Min, what’s wrong?”
“Wh-who the hell are you?!!”
The youth that had just come, turned to Bai Shen that had just yelled with confusion on his face, not understanding the weird atmosphere in the hall.
“Bai Shen you… !!!?”
The youth began to say but suddenly saw the youth, who was standing in front of Bai Shen, face.
His mouth dropped open in shock when he saw how similar this youth’s appearance was to him.
“Hu-huh? Who is that?”
That question from Bai Shu hung in the air as everyone in the room looked between Xi Shen and Bai Shu utterly freaked out by what was going on. They were wondering if they were seeing doubles or if they had gone crazy.
Xi Shen having met the person he wanted, smiled before waving his hands towards Bai Shen and everyone else in the room. His eyes glowed with red runes before several formed in the air and shot out to land on everyone’s forehead except Bai Shu.
With several thuds, Bai Shu watched everyone drop to the ground unconscious. Scared by what was happening Bai Shu stumbled back from Xi Shen.
Turning to him, Xi Shen said flatly, “Tell me what I want to know and I won't have to kill you.”
Bai Shu was frightened but, he quickly nodded his head.
Xi Shen admired this youth's quick wits in understanding the situation he was in.
Xi Shen then asked, “What is the Bai Clan’s Labyrinth?”
*******
Word Count: 1565
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