Chapter 202: One Hour: First half
The Wolfe Family Manor was alive with so much sound and light, that one could assume almost everyone that could be anyone important was attending.
Of course, such loud revelery had tendency to help hide more…nefarious comings and goings.
It’s one thing to force someone to submit by sheer brute force, it’s another to make use of…leverage.
________________________________________________
On the outskirts of the Zhen Clan compound, a small gathering of twenty warriors dressed in black were hiding away from the watchful eyes of the guardsmen on duty.
Composing this motley crew were eighteen Aether Acolytes at various rings, with the leaders being a pair of Aether Masters at mid ring allotment. If one were to look through the thick layers of clothing, they would see the emblem of the Wolfe Family plainly tattooed on their bodies. One of the masters was armed with a heavy iron ball attached to a chain, he went by the name of Gregory while the other had a fancy looking rapier at the hip, who went by Sieger.
These two were the “enforcement” elders of the Wolfe Family. Despite the fancy sounding titles, the two of them were no better than thugs under the the Patriach’s, and by a extension the Grand Elder’s, command. For all intents and purposes, they were the ones who did the dirty work that the “upright” Wolfe Family would never sully their hands for.
“And you’re positive that there are no other Aether Masters at the piss drinkers’ estate?,” the iron ball wielding Master asked his compatriot. Earlier in the day, the Wolfe Clan had sent a spy to watch the comings and goings of the Zhen Clan. Normally they had a man on the inside to provide such information, but they were…recently disposed of. However, they did still have some other internal parasites, the kind that set up things with no one asking too many questions.
“Positive. Aside from that stablemaster guy, nobody left except women, children and guards no stronger than peak Acolyte at least. All of their major powers are at the party,” Sieger repeated for the third time tonight, “you act like this is the first we’ve used someone’s family as a bargaining tool, my old friend. Lighten up.”
“Sieger, we’ve only done this sort of thing on small to medium sized families before and they had, at most, two to three Aether Masters at their retinue. We’re trying to ‘leverage’ another faction altogether,” Gregory pointed out.
“Which is why we’re also using the ‘assurance’ our tentative friend has provided. Now come on and get the men ready. The smoke will start flowing at any minute. We only have an hour once it starts burning.”
“Aye.”
Gregory and Sieger proceeded to readjust their clothes as to better hide their faces, signalling for their warriors to do the same as well.
As if the universe was sensing their readiness, a strange smelling white smoke began emitting from the torches and braziers of the Zhen Clan compound, slowly flowing out and blanketing the ground.
“The smoke will burn for about five minutes. After it’s done, move in fast, secure anyone unconcious, kill anyone who is conscious and make sure to finish within the hour. Wolves, move out!”
“Yes, sir!”
________________________________________________
The Zhen Clan compound wasn’t exactly unsecured at the moment, they were in fact ready to flee from the city at a moment’s notice/if the Wolfe family decided to invade them, however, none of them expected the Wolfe family to do something underhanded.
“Hey…are you feeling sleepy too? Or is it just me?”
“No… something’s…weird…”
Plonk!
Plonk!
Plonk!
One by one, the Zhen clansmen began to pass out. Like candles being blown out, their loss of consciousness was less a gradual sleep and more of a sudden loss.
This particular smoke was the result of an incense made from the essence of Dream Poppies and the bark of Moon Drop Acacia.
Normally, this incense could only be used on a one person basis, but the effect can become significantly more widespread when mixed with the petals of an Effervescent Lotus.
Granted, this mixture is only effective on those below the Aether Master level…and those of this world in a natural manner.
________________________________________________
[Hmmm. Looks like somebody is trying to do something uncouth to our lord’s family members.]
[Invaders to our home? What do we do?]
“Playtime?”
[Yes…that would be accurate. Let’s call it…hide and go kill…]
________________________________________________
“I…I did it…I did it!,” Zhen Yue exclaimed excitedly.
Underneath the Zhen Clan estate, Zhen Yue was making use of the cultivation caverns to try and breakthrough to the Aether Master state.
Tonight was the full moon, meaning that any Lunar aether formula had an increased efficiency in terms of cultivation, additionally, Zhen Yue had finally fulfilled a certain condition of the [Totemic Maiden] formula: learning an art representing each of the five lunar beasts.
“I really must thank Zhen Liu’s master if I get the chance. Hopefully he can…wait a minute, what’s this feeling?”
Now that Zhen Yue was a higher stage of cultivation, all of senses and abilities saw a sharp and pointed increase, to the point that she could detect that something very very wrong was occuring in the estate above her head.
She could feel bloodthirsty intent, and the footsteps of unfamiliar people.
“Someone is trying to invade, now? But nobody should be here…unless…”
Feeling that she should be a tad more armed than normal at this moment, Zhen Yue proceeded to grab a sword from the cavern’s hidden weapons hole and proceeded to slowly and cautiously make her way up to the estate.
“Whoever decided to invade now has chosen a very very bad time to do so. Time for me to flex my new skills on some bastards…I have got to stop hanging around Zhen Liu when he practices his forms.
________________________________________________
“Come on you two, we just have to sweep a few more rooms.”
“Aye aye.”
In the span of thirteen minutes, the invaders had secured at least twenty seven people and had tied them all up in the courtyard. By headcount alone, this was about a third of the people on the Zhen Clan estate.
For the sake of efficiency, Gregory and Sieger had the rest of the warriors split up into six groups of three in order to sweep the estate and secure anyone they come across.
“Alright, last room in this hall. Then we can-huh?” “What the hell is that thing?”
The three Acolytes had expected to find another sleeping mother and child by lamplight in this last room. They did not expect what they could only describe as a demented ballerina.
“Wait…ain’t that one of the Fourth Young Master’s puppets?”
“I think so…let’s secure it.”
The three of them causally entered the room, thinking that nothing could hurt them now that everyone on the estate was asleep…but then the door behind them suddenly closed shut.
