The Blade of Earth 13 (Patreon)

As I followed Sophie inside, I couldn’t help but pay attention to her choice of clothing. A tall t-shirt that managed to cover her hips … and panties. Add in the way her hips were swaying more than necessary, and I had a feeling that she wasn’t regretting our little adventure. 

Good, because I was looking forward to a proper one. 

“It’s rude to look stare,” she said, without even looking. And, I knew for a fact there was no mirror she could use to check my expression, meaning it was a guess. 

Considering the size and the nature of her panties, and the tendency of her shirt to ride up, not a bad guess, still just a guess. I could have claimed that I wasn’t looking, and I might have even convinced her if I worked hard. 

“I might be a cultivator, but even for me, impossible exists,” I said, happy to see the sudden blush creeping to her neck. 

“Jerk,” she muttered. “So, should we be worried about suddenly being cut in half,” she said, however, her tone implied she was more interested in changing the subject than actually looking for an answer. It was cute that she was confident enough to put on a show — not to mention everything that happened a few hours ago — but an honest compliment suddenly triggered her shyness. 

“Not particularly, no,” I said. “Anything useful from the phones,” I said. 

“Quite a bit, though mostly bad,” she said as we arrived at the basement entrance. 

“Let’s start with the good,” I said as I followed her downstairs. Lana was there, in her usual seat, typing, however, unlike the previous time, she wasn’t exuding a sense of control and authority. It was probably because, instead of focusing on a difficult challenge, she was busy sending fleeting glances our way, blushing furiously as she did so.  

At first, I thought she was reacting to the spectacular way Sophie was dressed, but I soon realized her gaze was locked on me … particularly the middle part of my body. It clicked. 

It seemed Sophie decided to have some girl talk about our bedroom adventure. I was tempted to tease Sophie about it, but I held back. We needed Lana awake, and I doubted she could handle any more stimulation. 

“The only good thing is that EIM is not corrupt,” Sophie explained. “Well, whatever that’s going on, they are trying to keep it hidden from the headquarters,” she explained. “His work phone has nothing but fake reports, and they are too carefully crafted just to be placeholders. Officially they are searching for some kind of statue that drives the holder mad.” 

“A good way to explain the occasional murderous demonic cultivator,” I said. “I’m guessing that there’s nothing in those reports about draining life force.” She shook her head. “It’s good that the organization is not filled with demonic cultivators,” I said, shivering at the idea. 

“We don’t have concrete evidence of that, it might be still the case,” she said. 

I shivered at the thought, not just about what it would mean, but also how the sect might react. They never favored a light touch when it came to leaked cultivation manuals, and things got even worse when it came to demonic cultivation. 

I would have called in a few favors to get some assistance, but with my communication crystal confiscated, that was not an option. 

“Let’s move to the bad news,” I said. 

Sophie sighed even as she pulled a map of the town, several points marked, three with red. “We have a lot of bad news,” she said. “First, it looks like every single agent assigned to the case is a part of the conspiracy,” she said. 

“Makes sense. Otherwise, they couldn’t have falsified the official reports,” I said, agreeing with her conclusion. 

“We also realized that they have only a few people they are in contact with, but those people have their underlings. We don’t have a concrete number, but our guess is between twenty and fifty. It looks like those contracts are using the warehouse as their gathering place.” 

“How about the forest base,” I said. 

“That’s a bit more complicated,” she said. “From what we could piece together, there’s something valuable there, but they can’t excavate it without some kind of distraction.” 

“And, they want their associates to create that distraction,” I said. 

“Yes, but the thing I don’t understand is why?” Sophie continued. “Even if what they want to extract is in the middle of the city, and it’s too big to be hidden, there are far better excuses. A gas leak, construction, some kind of historical site.” 

“Y-yeah, and since it’s in the forest, there’s a lot more options than disguising as a part of the clean-up crew,” she followed. 

I sighed. “It makes sense —” I started, only to freeze as another possibility hit me. I jumped up to my feet and looked at the screen. “Show me the messages that talk about the clean-up crew,” I said. She did so, and I started reading them. 

There were a lot of messages about the clean-up crew, but as I read them, the sense of fear and reverence at the mention was getting clear. 

“Damn,” I said as I took a deep breath as the lengths they had been planning to go finally clicked. 

“What’s wrong?” Sophie asked. 

I took a deep breath, trying to contain the sudden flash of anger. “The clean-up crew is one of the unofficial names for a type of sect mission,” I said, unable to hide my shiver. 

“That bad?” Sophie asked. 

“Worse,” I replied. “It’s one of the last resorts against the areas that are assumed to be too far gone to be saved,” I said. “That kind of mission is usually led by three Golden Core elders, and only used when there’s absolute devastation is required.” 

“And, when you say absolute devastation,” Sophie said. “Are we talking about tanks or—” 

“After they had their time to set up their formations,” I said, pausing for a moment to find a nice equivalent. Then, one clicked. “Enough to rival a nuclear bomb, and not a small one,” I said, my tone grave. 

“W-we have to stop them,” Sophie suddenly gasped, her aura flaring. Even Lana’s aura was not different. “No matter the cost.” 

She looked at me challengingly, but I just sighed. “It’s not that simple,” I said. 

“What do you mean it’s not simple,” she started. “We’re talking about the destruction of a whole town. Hundreds of thousands of innocent people. Even if I have to kill them with my bare hands —” she started, her aura flaring and changing even more. 

I wished I was in a mood to appreciate it. Instead, I silenced her with a gesture. “Believe me, I’m not worried about killing a bunch of demonic cultivators,” I said. “But killing them is not the problem.”  

“Their agent in the clean-up crew,” Lana completed. 

“Exactly,” I said. “It’s clear that there is someone high-up in the sect that’s manipulating the issue. We can’t just go and kill their agents, hoping that everything will be alright. We need to draw out whoever that’s behind the issue first.” 

“I still don’t understand,” Sophie interrupted. “What can be down there to go such lengths.” 

Another sigh escaped my mouth. “That, I don’t have the slightest idea,” I said. “There’s too many options. Some kind of secret realm. A clue about an ancient cultivation manual. A treasury. Cultivators are a greedy bunch.” 

“You’re talking like you’re not one of them,” Sophie cut in, angry. 

“You’re acting like I ever had a choice. I was twelve when the sect took me. Without asking my opinion,” I countered, which cut her short, her expression turning into shame. She opened her mouth for an apology, but I raised my hand, silencing her. I wouldn’t have acted curt, but the situation was too complicated to focus on that. 

“O-okay, calm down. It looks like we have two options,” Lana said. “Either we can somehow try to discover who’s behind the issue, or we contact this … sect directly and see if we can prevent the issue first.” 

I responded. “Unfortunately. Contacting the sect is not an option. I don’t have my communication crystal. And, even if I did, I don’t have the pull necessary to reveal anything. I have no idea who’s daring enough to subvert an extermination mission, but anyone strong enough to do that is also strong enough to get rid of me before I could reveal too much,” I said. “Especially if I go without evidence.” 

“What do you mean you can’t contact them? Don’t they have a phone number?” Sophie cut in. “Even if they are as reclusive as you claim, they are still living somewhere on this damned planet. We can take a plane or something?” 

As she said that, I remembered that I had yet to explain to them the dissection was not exactly on Earth. I let her rant angrily for a moment, waiting for her to calm down before dropping another bomb.

But that changed once I felt several auras, approaching the house, too organized to be accidental.  

“We have guests,” I interrupted her tirade.