The Blade of Earth - 4 (Patreon)

I said nothing even as she checked my expression carefully, trying to find something. Exactly what, I had no idea, but I was doing my best to identify that. 

I watched her while she maintained her silence. It was easy to see she was trying to use the interrogation room and the silence to intimidate me. Unfortunately, it didn’t have any chance of working in the first place. 

But, the way her coworker undermined her would have ruined any chance she might had in the first place. It was hard to be scared of someone not respected by their allies, whether it was justified or not. 

“Tell me, why are you here?” was her first question. 

“I’m here to visit my hometown—” I started, but she interrupted. 

“Don’t lie to me. I know you’re one of them. I’m not going to allow you to do however you want,” she said. I couldn’t help but smile as she exploded. She was really beautiful when angry. Her beautiful green eyes were wide, burning with anger and passion, her dangerous expression enough to give me a sense of danger despite everything. 

That change was supported by her aura, her sense of justice burning brightly as she declared it. Whatever she was trying to question, she was genuine. 

“Look, officer. I’m always happy to help a beautiful woman such as you. Why don’t you tell me exactly what are you looking for, and we can see if I can help you?” I said as I put on my most innocent and friendly smile.

Ultimately, it was more friendly than innocent, but I wasn’t an innocent man. A strong one, maybe even a good one. But definitely not an innocent one in any measure. 

“You think you can trick me. You’re one of them,” she said. Seeing that she reached into her pocket, I said nothing, waiting for her to show me exactly who I was. She pulled a small stack of photos and put them on the table. I couldn’t help but growl in anger as I noticed exactly what the photos were showing. “Are they your friends?” she said. 

“No, they are not,” I said, my voice sharp. She flinched, no doubt surprised by the sudden declaration. I took a deep breath, trying to suppress my anger, but it was difficult. 

I had trouble containing my anger when looking at demonic cultivators. A glimpse of the pictures was enough to see that. They weren’t strong, merely earlier parts of the Essence Gathering stage — or they would have been hiding their features better — but even with that, their presence was enough to give me a crawling sensation. 

They needed to be destroyed.   

The sect always treated it as a weakness. After all, there was peace going on, and no one wanted to break it, not willing to throw away the lives of the cultivators. Who cared if a few, or several mortal planets had been drained of life. 

My teachers claimed that it was a weakness, a remnant of my mortality that I had yet to abandon. 

I disagreed, especially since the first time I had seen the aftermath of a demonic disciple’s ascension ritual. I took a deep breath, trying to suppress my anger, but it was difficult. 

The fact that they were somehow at my home made me furious. And, when I said home, I wasn’t thinking about just Earth. Some of those photos were from bigger cities — I might not identify which city it was easily, but the skyscrapers in the background were distinct enough — but three of them, I recognized. 

They were at Little Oak … my hometown. 

“Really, they are not your friends? But you recognized them immediately,” she said. 

“Immaterial,” I said, suddenly not in the mood to tease her. Maybe I would deal with her once I found exactly where they were. I picked the lock of the handcuffs, and put it in place. “Do you have any valid reason to arrest me, or am I free to go.” 

“A valid reason. How about recognizing more than two dozen serial killers and mass kidnappers at a glance —” she started, only to freeze. 

It was likely about the footsteps approaching rapidly. She barely stuffed the pictures back into her pocket, her hurry enough to show the importance of her speed.  

A second later, the cracked door was pushed open, and a man in his fifties stepped inside. He was a tall man, with a large belly, strong for a mortal, with a sharp gaze, which was currently pointed at my arresting officer. “What’s this about, Sophie,” he said. “Don’t tell me that it’s about your crackpot theories. EAM already went through it and confirmed that your methodology was nonsense,” he said, barely paying me a glance. 

“Captain,” she said coldly, too angry to actually give a proper answer, which didn’t surprise me much. Earlier, I had seen just how terrible of a liar she was, and that was when she was looking away from her target, and prepared to lie. With her anger flared, there was no way she could even think of one. 

I decided to help her. After all, she was kind enough to me to alert the presence of demonic cultivators. “I’m sorry, sir. But when I can leave. I had told her that I had no idea who took the wallet, but it wasn’t me.” 

“Wallet, really?” the captain said. “What wallet?” he added as he looked at Sophie, no doubt aware just how poor of a liar she was. 

“The one that she has in her side bag,” I said as I pointed at it. Hopefully, it would help the situation. 

Her eyes widened when she opened the bag, only to find the wallet in question inside. The money was already in my pocket of course, but everything else was there, including the ID. “I had just found a discarded wallet, and I was planning to bring it to the station,” I continued to explain, holding the attention of her captain on me, giving her the time to suppress her shock. 

“I see,” he said, looking convinced. He turned back to her, his expression gleeful. “Really, Sophie. You had evidence in your bag. Where’s your precious chain of custody that you’re always blabbering about,” he said, his tone enough to show just how happy he was to finally have an opportunity to put her down. Then, he continued to chew her right in front of me. 

A calculated disrespect. 

It reminded me of the attitudes of some of my trainers back in the sect, always happier when I failed. After all, it was not right for a disciple to show off their precious pure ones. I looked at her, wondering if she was angry at me for the excuse. 

But, when I caught her gaze, she actually gave me a small nod of appreciation — one that her captain missed, too enthusiastic about his opportunity to make her pay — confirming that she preferred the wrongful chewing over the real reason she dragged me here. 

“Do I need to stay here? Or may I leave?” I interrupted, feeling bored. 

“My apologies, sir,” the captain said, then looked at her. “Have you processed him?” 

“No, sir,” she said. 

“Another sign of your incompetence, but at least this time it’s helpful,” he said before he turned to me. “You are free to leave, sir. And, once again, I apologize for the incompetence of one of my officers. Normally, we run a tighter ship here, but we all have a few bad apples,” he explained. “And, she had been in a spiral since EIM took her precious case.” 

I had a feeling that it was not the kind of information that should have been divulged to a random citizen, but he didn’t seem to mind that part. 

“Excellent,” I said as I walked away, though I could still able to hear the chewing she was receiving. To my surprise, before I could even leave the station, she started retaliating, with some select insults about his weight, his professionalism, and his general attitude about life. 

I wondered what brought that sudden shift. When I left, she looked determined to accept her chewing and use the wallet thing as an excuse. I shrugged and left the situation. It wasn’t really important. I needed a rat infestation to clear. 

I had no idea how demonic cultivators could be on Earth, but there was no mistaking the subtle signs of damage left by the demonic essence. Though, once I was on the street, I started looking around for something sharp. 

My cultivation wasn’t enough to reach the point of treating everything as a sword, but I wouldn’t need a proper one against a bunch of early-stage Essence Gathering cultivators either. A discarded knife would be enough. 

Once I found that, I had my next challenge. Finding the demonic cultivators. Unfortunately, for that, I had no plan but to walk around until I could sense their presence. 

A formation would have been better, but I was always terrible at building them. Apparently, I lacked the patience required, and the amount of calculations that went into even the simplest of the formations didn’t help. 

However, before I could pick a direction, a familiar voice called for me. “Wait for me!” 

It was my sexy officer … but without her badge and gun. Also, her aura was wavering a bit, which made me feel a sense of loss. Her aura was too fascinating to be left floundering like this. 

I waited for her.