Refining the Heavens 2 (炼天二)

Chapter 56: Start of the chase

The knock on the door was the most dreadful sound that could happen for the two that are hiding within the house. On the guard's records, this place houses a single male above 40 years of age, and works at the local baker. The patrol did not find the person in the bakery, and came to this house instead.

"Is anyone in there? Open the door or we will break it!" The guard shouted

*Knock Knock*

"Looks like no one's in. Okay, open the lock guys"

"Yessir!" the underlings replied and they started plying open the door.

The wooden door swung open with a loud creak, revealing an unlit interior. One of the guards stepped forward after striking a torch. They walked through the house quickly, shouting in case the resident is asleep, but soon they smell something rotting in the upper rooms. Following their noses, they went up the stairs, searching room after room.

"Found him" someone called out after a while, and the rest came over realising that the owner to the house had been dead for a week at least.

"Well, let's go then" the leader said, and they started walking out of the house. There would be someone else to bury the corpse and clean up this place.

When Silvers and Sasha heard them leaving, their pounding hearts began to calm down and their breathing less ragged.

"Don't Think We Don't Know You Are Here!" The guard captain suddenly halted his steps and roared, he turned towards the underground cellar the two are hiding. Both of them prepared for battle, but before they could do anything, they felt a great pressure above them, and then a monstrous quake.

"A....are we exposed?" Sasha asked quietly, but Silvers merely gestured for her to wait a while longer.

After that tremendous shake, silence continued all around them, then the captain said, "I just wanted to try our luck here. Haha. Well, it seems that the criminals aren't here either, let's go"

Above the two, the entire house has been blown apart, shredded to dust by a great hurricane created from the captain's martial art. The sun shone in the now-broken roof but revealed nothing.

The other guards watched their leader disapprovingly and he replied, "What? At least I took care of his burial"

As they were about to turn and leave, one of them suddenly spotted something odd on the floor and pointed, "Hey, look. The floor seemed to be uneven.... Do you think?"

She did not complete her sentence that there might be a hidden cellar underground, and she did not need to. The guard leader quickly traverse across the room towards the uneven part of the 'house' as indicated by his underling.

He stopped just above the two, and when he was about to check the flooring, a loud shout from outside halted him.

"We've found tracks of the boy, quickly follow me!"

The two exhaled a breath of relief when the patrols finally disappeared. All they needed to do now is to wait for a good opportunity to escape, and meet up with the rest.

They stood up, ready to leave their hiding place, when Sasha suddenly spotted a few individuals around the house with her soul perception.

After waiting half an hour, those presences shown no signs of leaving.

.....

By now, the imperial troops would have found out that Jones has already been extracted out of the city. It is merely a matter of time, that the shadow hounds picked up on their scent and followed them. They bided the land wyrm forward, the first part of their plan is the crucial bit, and it determines what would follow later. They know that by now, the troops must've exited Aurolia and are on their way chasing them.