Chapter 616: As the Ghosts say
*Bing-Bong*
The following chapter will be consisting of three short stories, that are going to be told…weird.
The reason being is that zakos aren’t exactly sentient, so their ability to convey information is a bit strange.
On the plus side, they can comprehend all languages so they auto-translate any information given…more or less.
We now return to your regularly scheduled chapter.
*Bing-Bong*
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Sabotaging the Saboteurs
Setting: Afternoon, lounge area of the arena.
Scenario: Around this time, Zhen Liu was resting up for his third match and had coincidentally met up with Zhen Hai, who was also waiting for his match to begin. The two of them had decided to grab some refreshments and a waiting table, one that had a lazy susan on it. It was in this moment, a pair of outer disciples thought to themselves they could do something that would elevate their status within the clan…
…
“Are you sure this is a good idea? Like, you’re sure this medicine won’t kill them? What if this end up killing them? What if we get caught?!”
“One, we won’t get caught, and two, this ain’t gonna kill them, but…they will wish they had once this rips through their digestive tracts.”
“Gross…”
Eyeing the branch clan scions from a safe distance was a pair of brothers named Ba Jin and Ba Yin.
These two were outer disciples of the Zhen Clan, and were a pair of brown-nosing youngsters who did everything they could to curry with their inner disciple superiors and elders. It was actually due to this mindset that, when they saw how these so-called “branch” members showed up out of nowhere and besmirched the clan name, they had both figured out that this was a golden opportunity to rise up the ranks and become inner disciples.
All they had to do, was sabotage the branch clan’s tournament run.
Simple, right?
Well…as they would soon find out, it was anything but.
“Look, Xiao Yin, all you need to do is replace that guy’s cup with this one. We’ve done it before and they even have a turntable present, it’s easy. What, you don’t think this medicine will work on them?”
“Big bro, it’s not that I don’t think the medicine won’t work, I just don’t want to get caught and anger them. One of them literally back-hand slapped their opponent and won his match by doing so. They had just brought that other gig back into the waking world and-”
“Ba Yin, just trust me! Okay?”
“I…fine…”
“Good.”
With the matter now settled in the worst way possible, Ba Yin got to work.
The plan was simple, all he had to do was place the tainted cup onto the turntable, quickly rotate in a moment of weakness to swap the beverage with either one of the branch members, and then sit back as chaos ensues.
Unfortunately for him, that’s not what had happened in the slightest.
Ba Yin had actually managed to do all that he and his brother had planned, but something weird happened in that last step.
When Ba Yin had spun the turntable to switch the drinks, he had to look away in order to lessen suspicion. If he hadn’t, he would’ve noticed a pair of spectral hands poking out of the turntable and switching the drinks back with one another.
This then lead to…well…let’s just say Ba Jin had a taste of his own medicine…and that he had locked down one of the arena’s many restrooms
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‘On the one hand, completely saw it coming that someone was going to try and poison us. On the other…yeah, okay, the usage of what sounds to be a hyper laxative is somewhat clever for tournament removal. It’s embarrassing and you get to keep your hands clean if any blood… mostly. Speaking of cheating though, you. Any reports?’
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Somebody’s getting paid
Setting: Arena floor, at about the third and fourth set of matches for the day.
The tournament raged on as young warriors clashed with one another, kicking up debris, producing smoke and generally exercising a level of power that would threaten the lives of dozens if not hundreds of people.
However not all of these young warriors were participating in this tournament with good intentions.
In one of the arenas, a warrior named Gou Huong had just won their match via forcing their opponent to surrender.
But there was a funny thing about that particular victory, the battle was rather…tame.
The two sides exchanged a few blows, Gou Huong managed to get in close enough to throw a punch, but at that moment, his opponent immediately surrendered.
This sort of scene wasn’t uncommon in a tournament as big as this, but the speed at which it occured was…suspicious.
At least to those who were paying attention.
“Good match.”
“Thanks, you too.”
In this moment, both Gou Huong and his opponent had pleasantly respectful looks on their faces. But as they parted ways, the latter’s expression almost dropped to a viciously indifferent one.
It wasn’t until Gou Huong had entered into a more secluded hallway that the reason for this shift was made known.
From the darkness of the hallway, a man dressed in shape obscuring clothes had himself known.
“How much did it cost to bribe this one?,” Gou Huang asked.
“Not much. A bottle of second tier aether pills.”
“Really? I thought we were saving those for the more dangerous opponents. Not rookies like him.”
“The boy had actually mastered an aether treasure that gave him the spiritual fire of a powerful aether beast. He was keeping it hidden until a more dire match, but I didn’t want to risk the chance.”
“Ah.”
“Congratulations on your third win by the way, I know losing the first round was a pain, but-”
“I know, we had to establish some level of doubt so nobody scrutinizes, this isn’t the first time we done this. Now, have you managed to get any idea on whether or not tomorrow is truly the lady day? We’re running out of time here.”
“Well…”
The two conspirators continued to discuss their plans in open seclusion, unaware that just beneath their feet, blending with the earth below, a spectral being was taking a lot of notes.
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‘Alright, so there’s a chance the elders aren’t being bribed but I don’t know for certain… damnit, I can already tell I won’t know until shit hits the fan that’s…fun…said no one ever. Gah, whatever! Last report, anything you can tell me on the missing zako?’
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Somewhere, out there, someone can set her free…
Setting: Blessed Willow Manor’s inner halls, around where the family prisons were.
“Huh, no interrogations today?”
“Family competition, nobody wants to be here while that’s going on. That and nobody wants to interrogate this particular prisoner, not anymore at least…”
“Is…is she actually that dangerous?”
“Well…”
*Crack!*
“That was the third pair of bronze grade aether treasure manacles she broke through.”
“Holy-wait, third?!”
“Yeah, we kind of gave up on the usage of normal manacles after she broke through the tenth set of those.”
“By the scales…”
In the confines of the main Zhen Clan’s prison, a peculiar looking prisoner was raging against her confines.
The prisoner in question looked strange to say the least, because nobody would ever think to use the term “sexy skeleton” until seeing them in person.
This was due to the fact that as far as anyone could tell, the prisoner in question didn’t have any flesh, but had a weird black energy substance serving as its body, while protrusion made of bone hugged at it to form an armor of some kind.
Regardless of the way she looked though, the prisoner in question had proven themselves to be a massive headache.
In the span of a day, she had managed to breakthrough a dozen or so restraints, managed to break a barrier once by literally punching at it over a dozen or so times and had sent two out of three anima wielding interrogators to the healers.
The third one had developed this strange look on their face after doing his job, and the last anyone heard from the guy was that he had ran off to the red light district to finally pay off the debt of his favorite prostitute in order to marry her.
This wasn’t a bad thing, but he kept muttering something about realizing life was too short so people didn’t know whether or not he was in the right state of mind during this period.
Regardless, the skeletal woman had once again broke through her restraints and was pacing her cell, hoping to find some way out of it, until suddenly stopping and staring into a corner.
“Huh? Why she stopped?”
The guardsmen were too slow to react to this sudden change in behavior, but if they had moved quick enough, they would’ve noticed a little metallic bug and a spectral hand suddenly disappearing in opposite directions.
The guardsmen tried to follow the prisoner’s gaze, but stopped when they realized there was nothing there.
“Hmmn. I guess they’re just staring out of boredom…hey wait, if nobody else is here because of the competition, why are we here?”
“Do you really want to risk this bitch suddenly getting loose?”
“Well-”
*BOOM!*
*CRACK!*
As if to prove a point, the skeletal woman punched at the barrier holding her in the cell, causing it to subtly crack.
The questioning guardsmen realized in this moment the correct answer to his companion’s question.
“Good point.”
“No shit.”
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‘Wonder if it’s just mandatory for guards to be conversational…anyways, good job guys, feel free to -‘
<
‘Huh?’
