Chapter 554: The Hunt: Participants.
Zhen Ba Yin and Zhen Ren Fa were silent as the two of them walked through the gates leading into the Zhen Clan’s estate.
The two of them had not travelled back to this place out of mutual camaraderie, but simply because they both happened to live there. As such, the two of them didn’t really turn to look into each other’s direction, trying their best to ignore the other’s presence.
Of course, if these two had been a bit more friendly with each other and actually converse with one another, they would’ve noticed multiple little somethings following them inside as they passed through the gate and went their separate ways.
*Skitter, skitter.*
The first little things to pass through were these strange looking spider-like figures.
One could honestly mistake them for being 1st tier aether beast spiders, but if they stared long enough, they would realize that these spider figures weren’t actually spiders, but more like their reanimated chitin of those spiders.
These little guys were the Chitin(Spider) Zakos that Zhen Liu made while he was in Insect Hell.
While they weren’t exactly the sturdiest of zakos, they made up for it by being fast, tricky, having multiple eyes that allowed them to see more details as well as having multiple legs that allowed them to move on walls and ceilings with minimum effort. On a side note, they were a favorite type of zako of a certain spider kaijin.
Once they had crossed the threshold, they immediately clung to the walls and climbed upwards to hide in the shadows casted by the construction of the halls and the torchlight.
*Clack, clatter.*
Following the spiders were tiny figures that looked a bit like toy soldiers made of bone.
It should be noted that these bone figurines were not made of multiple components of bones, but appeared to be as if a single solid piece of bone, like a femur, was carved into that shape of a person, and that resulting figurine was given life like a stop-motion puppet.
They were arguably the “sister” zakos of the Chitin Zakos, due to coming from the same Insect Hell, the Undead(Skeleton) zakos.
Considered the most unsettling of the zakos, due to being technically made of dead people and looking like it, the skeletal zakos were supposedly considered the type of zakos with the most “potential to grow”, or so Logos and Pathos implied, while also being considered the most “balanced” when it came to fighting.
No fancy tricks, just pure brute force and undead stamina.
*Clatter, clack.*
There is a profound irony that the undead, keyword: dead, type of zakos had the most growth potential, but whatever.
Once they cleared the door, the boney zako proceeded to try and hide behind the pillars that supported the hall and the various alcoves that served as decoration spots. The idea for them were to try and blend in as random decorative pieces.
People taxidermized animal heads, so figurines carved from bones shouldn’t be that weird of a sight…probably.
*Cling, clang*
*Creak…thoom*
The last group of tiny zakos to enter, just before the door closed behind them, were surprisingly, not related to the previous groups to pass through the door.
Taking on the appearance of little soldiers carved from previous metals, this particular group was actually recently minted by Zhen Liu prior to showing up to Willow Scale City, the Coin Zakos. Technically their full name was Zako: Metal (Money), but Coin Zakos rolled off the tongue better.
Zhen Liu had created this particular group of zakos out of the copper, silver and gold coins he had on hand, his logic being, to quote: “If I ever get my ass put in jail, obvious marbles made of weird materials will probably get confiscated for being aether tools and shoved into special vaults. Coins would just get tossed into a normal, mundane one…probably.”
Either way, this particular group of zako were known to be the sturdiest among the zakos due to their metallic bodies. However, they were also slow as hell.
*Skitter*
*Clatter*
*Clang*
Once the Coin Zakos crossed the threshold, the three groups of zakos, Chitin, Bone and Coin, proceeded to split up their groups into two main forces and follow after Zhen Ren Fa and Zhen Ba Yin.
The only directives they were given were to stalk these two people of interest and scout out the complex if possible.
Unfortunately for these zakos, they wouldn’t be able to do either of those things.
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“One, two, three…five…seven…huh. I don’t know if I should be impressed or pissed off that so many intruders managed to sneak pass the gate without me noticing until now…no matter. I’m pretty sure I just need to spare only one to figure out who sent them…man I hate talking with the Torture elder,” Zhen Bao said to himself as he ran his aether armor covered hand through his beard.
After sensing the intrusion of multiple spies upon his senses, Zhen Bao had decided to activate his aether armor as a means to speed up the process of cleaning them up.
He had a bottle of wine to get back to after all, and he didn’t like being interrupted like this.
Zhen Bao was just about to go down there and wipe out all of the intruders all at once with one of his AoE aether arts, when he sensed that the intruders had split off into two different directions. This was a development that greatly annoyed the Gate Elder.
“Aish, why did the lot of them split off in two different directions,” Zhen Bao grumbled, “I hate having to chase after…wait a minute…”
Zhen Bao reached for his dimension pouch, a gift for years of service to the Zhen Clan and the Royal Bai Family, and pulled from it a silver statuette in the shape of a cat with ruby eyes, covered in intricate markings.
This little statuette happened to be a Silver grade aether puppet, a happy coincidence given that materials that composed it.
Zhen Bao looked over the statuette in his hands, noting that it was rather dense despite its small size.
“Never thought I’d actually use this thing…but there’s a first time for everything I suppose. Now if I remember correctly, I need to do…this.”
Zhen Bao began circulate his aether, infusing it into the silver cat statuette until the decorative markings began to glow with power.
Once some invisible threshold was reached, Zhen Bao tossed the statuette to the ground, causing it to explode in a cloud of purple smoke. When the smoke cleared though, a silver puppet in the shape of a large jungle cat with literal ruby eyes appeared before him.
This was the first time he had ever used an aether puppet, so he was rather impressed with how it looked.
“Huh. Not a bad looking cat and the aether its giving off is no joke either…now wonder the Puppet Elder is so damn fond of these things.”
“Mrrow.”
“Oh. Looks like this is one of those fancy aether puppets with an echo stone built in. Wholly unnecessary, but I supposed it makes it more lively than a normal puppet…”
Zhen Bao admired the aether puppet he had been neglecting for years a little while longer before finally stopping and focusing back to the task at hand.
Right now, about a dozen or so intruders were running around in his turf and he had to take care of it, ASAP.
Otherwise the higher-ups were going to takeaway his drinking privileges again.
“Alright, cat puppet. I want you to go that way and deal with any intruders that you come across. They got this energy signature. Understand?”
“Mrow.”
“Hmmm. Not sure if that’s a yes or a no, but whatever. Once you’re done, come back here.”
“Mrow.”
“Good.”
With the orders given, Zhen Bao proceeded to go off in one direction, the same way that Zhen Ren Fa went, while the cat puppet went off into the same direction as Zhen Ba Yin.
As they did, both man and cat turned invisible, both to the naked eye and to aether senses.
‘I have no idea whether or not these intruders can detect me, but I’d rather take care of this before any of the clansmen find out. I’d be a shitty Gate Elder otherwise.’
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“Stupid uncle, ruining my fun. I could’ve easily taken down those fake ‘Shen’ bastards easily,” Zhen Ren Fa grumbled as she walked down the halls of the estate.
This evening had been rather miserable for her, even though her day didn’t start that badly.
She had woken up early, enjoyed some morning festivities, got in a bit of shopping and secured some rare aether treasures she had her eyes on for quite some time and eventually managed to meet up with her “friends” for a lovely evening dinner.
But then it had ruined because of some brackborn yokels not understanding the etiquette of slave-owning.
It was Lei Zhong’s right to treat his property as he saw fit, why did they think they knew better?
And to top it all off, she couldn’t even get revenge on those brackborns properly because of her “outstanding” uncle.
At this point, she was furious.
“If I ever see those lousy ‘Shen” guys again, I’m going to-” *clatter” “-huh?”
Before she could finish her violent thought, a noise grabbed her attention.
It sounded a bit like bones scrapping across the floor, but she was nowhere near any areas where such a sound would make sense.
“What was that?,” she muttered to herself.
As she did, she swore she saw something flash in the corner of her eyes.
