Once back to their room Shi ZhenXian took out the rope again, inspected it carefully and then turned to Lin JingYu who was already sitting on the window meditating.
"Ahem"
Shi ZhenXian tried to get his attention, but failed. Then without further warning he used the rope to tie his hands again. Lin JingYu's meditation was quickly interrupted.
This time the Taoist tied his wrists by passing the rope around a column.
Lin JingYu had already noticed this but did not resist or complain.
After all, he had expected it.
Satisfied with his work and without any further worries, Shi ZhenXian was finally able to sit down for a moment.
He poured himself a cup of tea and offered one to the prisoner, who accepted it meekly.
Shi ZhenXian still found it very difficult to get anything concrete out of him. A flash of the previous run appeared before his eyes and he had to shake it off.
He tried to speak to distract himself.
"Did you manage to get an idea of who they were and what they were talking about?"
Lin JingYu looked up, which until that moment he had kept fixed on that rope, finally no longer out of control.
"The rope is no longer causing problems."
"No." Shi ZhenXian replied with a breaking tone "Answer my question"
Lin JingYu swallowed loudly, suddenly feeling questioned.
"Sect Leader... Are there other cultivators around here other than the ones we saw earlier?"
Shi ZhenXian didn't answer, giving him time to think. Lin JingYu thought for a moment longer.
"Is it them?!"
"Yes, it's them."
"How can you say for sure?" Lin JingYu replied.
"The bone field was very muddy, if you remember correctly. When they entered the inn earlier, I noticed that their boots were already dirty."
"Also…" Shi ZhenXian stood up and opened the door to the room slightly, bringing a lamp closer to the floor.
Lin JingYu stood up to try to see better.
Fresh mud footprints stained the floor.
Shi ZhenXian closed the door silently.
"They weren't there when we went out to go into the woods."
"They came back before us," Lin JingYu finished.
"Like those two cultivators who preceded us in the forest." Shi ZhenXian concluded his search.
"So they are clearly disciples of the Jilin Yang sect. If they were involved with that strange beast and it got out, they would be in a lot of trouble," Shi ZhenXian continued, as he sat back down.
"Every sect has its secrets."
HA! Things could get interesting.
"Mmm and yours?" Shi ZhenXian was trembling as he approached the other.
"My sect… has no others."
"Mmm… so what you told us was really everything?" Shi ZhenXian crouched down in front of him, to have their eyes at the same height.
"Yes!" Lin JingYu replied nervously.
"Such a powerful sect, such an unstoppable Sect Leader and you want me to believe that there is really nothing?" The other said theatrically.
Lin JingYu nodded, his big eyes widening. It was unclear whether that attitude was truly sincere or was all an act.
"Okay." Shi ZhenXian was already bored. He rolled his eyes and walked towards the bed.
He picked up a pillow and threw it at Lin JingYu, who caught it in mid-air.
"Sleep."
Shi ZhenXian turned off the last lamp and laid down. The other settled down as best he could, still having his wrists tied to the column.
He couldn't even meditate instead of sleeping because his powers were sealed. So he had no choice but to put his head on the pillow and try to rest too.
Morning came earlier than expected.
"Hey wake up."
Shi ZhenXian lightly shook Lin JingYu's shoulder, who had spent the night lying on the wooden floor.
"I heard the room next door open. We have to follow them" He said softly.
Lin JingYu perhaps for the first time, still sleepy, let out his most sincere thoughts.
"Why should we care?" He said, yawning.
Shi ZhenXian hit him on the back of the head.
"Perhaps someone like you doesn't care, but there are human lives at stake…"
Lin JingYu quickly came to his senses as he rubbed his eyes.
Someone like you, who is part of a Demonic sect, really can't care.
"And then finding out about something rotten about the Yang sect doesn't seem like a bad thing to me."
Trying not to be noticed by the two cultivators who preceded them, they hurried out of the inn.
Like the previous evening, they headed towards the woods, but this time, Shi ZhenXian had the foresight to untie Lin JingYu and put the rope back in its container, before entering the forest.
Being careful not to be discovered, they followed for a while. In the sunlight, the paths were more visible, but the same heavy air permeated the entire environment. They followed them until they suddenly saw them disappear behind a rock.
Shi ZhenXian, who had been moving silently through the trees with Lin JingYu, came down to the ground to get a better look.
They were back in the bone field.
But this time in the daylight they could make out at the foot of a rocky hill, a tunnel dug into the ground. As they got closer, Shi ZhenXian could barely see anything inside due to the lack of lighting.
Lin JingYu had also come down and remained behind Shi ZhenXian without saying a word.
"It's as I told you, now he'll rest at least until tomorrow." A voice came from the tunnel.
Shi ZhenXian quickly turned around, grabbed Lin JingYu by the arm and went back to hiding as before.
"Did the Sect Leader really say that we can get rid of him? He's his only brother anyway-"The two had just resurfaced.
"It was," the one who seemed to be in charge of the two replied coldly, "It's not an easy choice for the sect leader but he knows well that the situation is no longer sustainable."
"ShiXiong, but letting him starve was the worst idea," the younger one replied.
"No one expected him to hunt his prey alone. We couldn't have predicted it. Anyway, enough, let's go and get the others." The older one finished.
"We could finally say goodbye to this story. I couldn't take this shit anymore."
He kicked one of the many hands that were sticking out of the ground.
"What macabre tastes."
With that, the two young cultivators walked away from there.