The Blade of Earth 11

“I still don’t think that this is the best idea. I don’t want to involve Lana anymore. Not to such a dangerous situation,” Sophie said. 

“And, I’m telling you once again; it’s too late. Since I don’t know how they discovered your location, staying away might be a bigger risk,” I said. “Now, stop talking, and enjoy your trip,” I said. 

“Shut up, what’s there to enjoy? Don’t be arrogant,” she retaliated, but her blush disagreed. It was understandable, considering I was carrying her in the bridal hold as I sneaked through the street, avoiding both cameras and any potential observers. 

“Oh, really,” I chuckled. “I must have another blonde suspended cop that had declared she wanted to test my supernatural abilities,” I said. She didn’t answer, but just pinched me painfully. 

Even as I sneaked into Lana’s garden, this time over the garden, and through an open window. I might have blamed her for not being careful, but considering it was the second-floor window, I decided against it. 

Anyone who could reach here wouldn’t be stopped by a glass window. 

“I think I’m going to take a shower,” she said. 

“Call me if you need any help,” I said with a chuckle and received a slap to my chest in return, but her blush was too cute not to trigger it. She might have handled such open seduction if it wasn’t for her very open declaration of desire earlier. 

I was also playing it heavy-handed intentionally. She might have been healed from her wounds, not even leaving a scar behind, but that didn’t change the fact that she had almost died, and I gave her a chance to make a calm decision  while still making my interest clear. 

And, if she still had that idea when I returned from visiting those three places … well, it would be fun. 

Before I left, I checked the basement. Lana was in front of her computer, lost in her work, not noticing our approach, or the fact that her shower was working. I didn’t bother her, leaving it to Sophie to explain the situation.  

I wanted to check the three locations to understand the exact situation. I wanted to see if I could sense the presence of the others. 

My first destination: the warehouse. 

It wasn’t too far away, and since it was on the outskirts of the town, I didn’t need to worry about the cameras much. Yet, as  I looked at the broken walls of the depreciated building, I couldn’t help but frown. Even from a distance, I could see about twenty people walking around the building, attending various tasks.

It was subtle, but every single one of them showed signs of demonic cultivation, likely beginners. It was already enough to conclude that whatever was going on was more organized than someone getting their hands on a rogue cultivation manual. 

Then, there was an even bigger evidence. There was a formation around the warehouse. It wasn’t a good formation. While it was quite a bit stronger than the first formation I had dealt with back in the motel, but not as strong as the one that had been established by the EIM agents. 

Which might be important. It suggested that the cooperation between the agents and the demonic cultivators wasn’t as direct as I would have feared. However, it was too early to conclude whether it was just a few agents suborned by the temptation, or something bigger. 

I was tempted to go and deal with them directly and get the answer, but I stayed back. The events at the forest had already revealed my hand more than I preferred. I needed to understand the exact relationship first before acting.

With a sigh, I moved on to the second location. It was deep in the forest, without a road.  

At the destination, I wasn’t able to discover much, just a partially covered entrance leading underground. However, what I discovered, even from a distance, was enough to raise my sense of alarm to a new level. This time, there was a far more intricate formation over the place, one that had reminded me of EIM’s work back in the motel, but many times better. 

It was intricate. At a glance, I could see the work of several experts with clashing styles, overlapping significantly, and I could see the signs that establishing the formations took weeks, maybe months. Moreover, the formation was strong. Not enough to resist me if I decided to break it, but with my seal on, it would still take a while. 

 “I should have studied more,” I sighed. For most missions, I had been assigned an expert in formations handling traps and defenses, so I was familiar with their capabilities. For any decent formations expert, bypassing them would take an hour at most. 

I could break them in less than a minute, but not without alerting whoever put them on, making it a last resort. 

Still, as I moved away to my last destination, I found myself wondering just how much power EIM had. 

I had interacted with many mortal organizations during missions, and I knew it was rare to have more than a few cultivators for each country. Mostly because, without an essence-rich environment, they needed essence stones and other materials to cultivate, and those were not exactly easy to procure. Our sect had a treasury full of it, but along with it, many places to spend such a fortune. Fringe organizations on mortal planets hardly cut. 

However seeing the number of demonic cultivators I discovered accidentally, I was ready to question whether it was the right call in the first place.  

EIM was problematic. Not just because of the number of cultivators they seemed to have, but also the skills they displayed. While not exactly impressive in sect standards, their formation capabilities were far higher than what should be possible.

I didn’t know what was more unsettling. Their higher than expected capabilities, or their dubious alliance with demonic cultivators. 

Helpless, I returned. Well, helpless was an exaggeration. I could have cut through the formation easily before dealing with anything that might be in, even with my sealed cultivation. There was a reason that the Path of the Sword was one of the scariest paths. Unfortunately, that would mean alerting their backer — and I wasn’t stupid enough to think that they didn’t have any. 

I needed more information. 

My third destination was the house, which was the least alarming of the three destinations. With the number of agents going in and out openly, with several cars carrying the EIM logo, it looked like EIM had turned the house into a temporary base. 

They still had a formation around. It might be about the number of people coming in and out, but the formation around the place was much weaker, making the location a good target to infiltrate after midnight.

I moved away, but I couldn’t help but sigh as I did so. This was supposed to be a holiday, one that might take months until the council focused their more important tasks first. 

And, merely a few hours into it, I was scouting demonic cultivator bases. 

Feeling melancholic, I found myself on a nice concealed rooftop and looked down at the town, wondering whether it was a coincidence that I had been here, or if there was something else in play. Not a conscious decision … but fate. 

Fate was a nebulous, hard to understand concept, with the perception of the cultivators varying greatly. Exactly what it was, the objective of it, its practices. The only thing that hadn’t been doubted was its existence. 

Coincidences happened around cultivators too many times for anyone to believe it. Some even thought that Fate could influence the decision of the cultivators in some minor ways. 

Minor ways, like changing my exile location back to my hometown just as the presence of Demonic cultivators started to increase. 

“I wonder…” I said, and then, let out a sigh. There was no point thinking about too much. Cultivators who had lived far longer than I did tried to solve the question of Fate, only to fail miserably. And, even if there was one that discovered it, they kept it to themselves. 

I had more immediate concerns than wondering about those. 

I decided to return to Lana’s house. As much as I wanted to act, I had been in enough missions to know acting with faulty intel could end very painfully. Lana was still in the basement, desperately typing to crack the security of the phones. 

However, I had to admit, lost in her work, she was quite attractive. Pity her mission was too important to take a little break. 

With a sigh, I went back upstairs. Sophie was still there, no doubt waiting for a report. I walked, making sure my steps were loud. After her ordeal, I didn’t want to scare her. She had been an FBI agent and police, and while I had been healing her, I noticed several wounds showing that it wasn’t her first close call with death. 

Still, startling her wouldn’t be fun.  

I knocked on the door. “Blake?” she asked, her voice strangely tense.  

“Yes, I have just finished patrolling.” 

“Anything urgent?” she asked. 

“Nothing that couldn’t wait a few hours if you don’t feel like —” I started, only for the door to open, enough to notice two things. First, Sophie was still wearing her bathrobe, which wasn’t tied particularly tight. 

Second, her expression told me it wasn’t an accident. 

She grabbed my shirt and pulled me inside violently. 

Who was I to reject the call of the law…