Tainted Blood

by Tinalynge

  Xue Wei reached a dilapidated building. It had three floors and was so worn down that it looked like it would come crashing down at any moment. The windows had been shattered, with shards of glass sprinkled over the windowsills.

  Not only were the windows shattered, there were also long cracks on the walls. It almost seemed like it would come down any moment now. The walls had sunk in and the top floor was tilting over. Were it not for a neighboring house, it would likely have toppled over already.

  Xue Wei looked doubtfully at this house. He could not decide whether or not he should actually enter. Was it not somewhat suicidal? The house could collapse at any moment, and who was to say that it would not conveniently collapse when he was inside?

  Xue Wei chuckled the more he thought about it. Even if it collapsed, he should still be okay given his physique as a Sovereign Beast.

  If he had the means to survive, what was there to hold him back?

  This worn-out house was famous within the entire city. Even those from the respectable parts of town had heard about it before, and Xue Wei had managed to get his hands on information about it rather easily.

  The man who owned this place was called ‘The Intelligencer’. No one knew his real name. He had a wide web of informants not only within Cloudsoar City or merely the Chengzi Kingdom, but he knew things from even the center of the continent and the backwater countries.

  Xue Wei knew that before reaching Lan, the phony prophet, this was his best option of getting some information.

  Having come to this conclusion, Xue Wei stepped inside. Unknown to him, many eyes were observing him, and some of them displayed surprise. It took guts to enter such a run-down house.

  As Xue Wei entered the house, he looked around curiously. The house’s interior was every bit as worn down as the exterior. The wallpaper was half ripped off, and the padding of the chairs was falling out of holes in the fabric. Some of them even lacked legs and were leaning against the wall, clearly incapable of holding anyone up.

  There were no people. The entire house seemed deserted. Xue Wei could not even sense anyone inside when he spread out his spiritual energy. It was clear that whoever was within the worn-out house was much stronger than him.

  Xue Wei was not completely sure about the procedures to follow when one wished to get information from this place. He just knew it was the go-to location.

  Was he supposed to wait at the ground floor? But there were no people. After waiting for half an hour with nothing happening, Xue Wei decided against standing still and went towards the crooked stairs leading to the upper floors.

  He had to watch his step. Every single one of the steps on the stairs was so old that they creaked violently, and some of them even sank when he put his weight on them. It was clear that he would fall through at any moment if he was not careful. He would rather not have that happen.

  When Xue Wei finally reached the second floor, his eyes landed on a person. This person, he could not sense in any way. Had he not been looking straight at her with his own eyes, he would never have guessed she was there.

  It was a woman. Her hair ran long and hung down casually. She had a pretty face, but she was not the kind of beauty that could cause the downfall of a city. Even so, there was a gracefulness to her, a confident air about her that he had never sensed from another woman—not even Wang Xiaoyun.

  The woman was dressed in a red dress. It did not seem luxurious, but neither did it seem plain. It had golden lining and seemed to be of acceptable quality.

  When Xue Wei stepped onto the floor, her head snapped up from a mountain of scrolls that were placed on a table in front of her. Her eyes were incredibly sharp and penetrating. She raised an eyebrow in surprise when she saw him there.

  “What can I do for you?” she asked. Her voice was gentle, like flowing water, her tone soft and inviting.

  “I heard about the Intelligencer in town,” Xue Wei began saying. “I have precisely a need for information, and I believe that this would be my best option.”

  The woman’s eyes narrowed and she cocked her head ever so slightly as she observed Xue Wei, clearly trying to calculate whether it was worth working with him.

  “So, what kind of information are you looking for?” the woman asked after a slight pause. She had apparently evaluated him as a customer.

  “Sovereign Beasts,” Xue Wei said. “I want any information available on Sovereign Beasts. It doesn’t matter—their variations, their behavior, their history or even just their legends, I want everything.”

  The woman was stumped when she heard this. She had expected something completely different and could not help but frown.

  “Sovereign Beasts... It’s not that we don’t have information on them,” she stated slowly. “It’s just that they are the stuff legends are made of. It will be hard to say what is false and what is true. Although we are an information hub, those legends and records are kept by the strongest factions in the continent. Getting them will require some skill.”

  The woman knew that although it sounded very easy to get the legends about the Sovereign Beasts, this customer wanted to have records and real information as well, something that would need time to gather.

  “Can you help me?” Xue Wei asked anxiously. The woman, who had been pondering deeply with a frown on her face, looked at him and nodded her head.

  “It is not that we cannot help you,” she said seriously. “It is just that this is going to be a very costly affair and it will take me a few months to gather all the information you might want. Also since it is so time-consuming and that it is likely to expose some of our moles in the main families, we cannot accept low-grade essence stones or gold coins as an exchange.”

  Xue Wei had thought he could pay with low-grade essence stones so he was quite surprised, but it made perfect sense to him after thinking it through.

  He, however, would prefer not using his formations as currency, as it would instantly compromise his identity. Instead, he searched his storage ring and found the essence stones that he had gotten from the Moon Prince. He withdrew one and handed it to the woman.

  “How many of these essence stones will this cost?” he asked in a seemingly calm way, but deep within his heart an almost unbearable ache had started spreading. Although he was rather liberal with money and wealth, these essence stones were truly valuable. From what he could see, they were top-grade essence stones.

  Essence stones were ranked from low, middle, high, to top grade. Top-grade essence stones were almost nonexistent in the modern day, as the resources on the planet had been excavated excessively to a point where even high-grade essence stones were hard to come by.

  Having to take out some of his limited supply of top-grade essence stones was enough to make his heart bleed, but he truly needed information about the Sovereign Beasts so he did not have much of a choice. He could not offer formations lest he blow his cover or reveal what the ‘real’ him was actually looking for.

  “Ten top-grade essence stones,” the woman said with a stern voice that conveyed that it was not up for discussion and brought Xue Wei back from his pain and suffering to reality.

  “We cannot do it for less than ten,” she repeated, thinking that Xue Wei was unhappy with the price.

  In fact, Xue Wei was slightly unhappy with the price. It was a lot of essence stones, especially top-grade ones, but he knew better than to argue with this woman. She was frightening, and if he declined, who knows whether or not she would just straight up kill him and take his storage ring. Flaunting one’s wealth was already a crime.

  “I can accept it,” Xue Wei said hesitatingly, though with pain clearly evident on his face, “but I will need the news within three months. I intend to leave the city after three months.”

  Chapter 9 - Cave with Cages

  The woman did not fail to notice from the look on his face that he was seemingly debating whether or not this information was worth the price in his mind.

  If he had a lot of these top-gra
de essence stones, he would not have bat an eyelid, but his behavior made it seem like he was stuck on a difficult problem, making it reportedly evident that he both needed the information and found the price punishing to his coffers.

  The truth was that he had quite a few top-grade essence stones. The storage ring he had taken from the Moon Prince’s dead body contained a pile of them, but he had learned that showcasing too much wealth invited danger.

  Although his pride told him to never back down, there was no need for him to go out of his way to invite trouble.

  Taking out five top-grade essence stones, Xue Wei reluctantly handed them over to the woman. “I will only pay half to begin with,” he said seriously. This was his best offer.

  The woman accepted the five top-grade essence stones with slightly trembling hands. Although she was used to seeing riches, five top-grade essence stones were definitely the most valuable type of currency and item she had seen.

  She had been prepared to see the man withdraw from the deal. In fact, although the top-grade essence stones were as rare as phoenix feathers and qilin horns, the price that the Intelligencer had to pay for this information was equally costly. Many spies would have to infiltrate the most secure parts of the libraries of many different high-profile sects and clans. If, or rather when, this was noticed, they would be punished severely and expelled.

  The kind of spies who could gain access to those parts of the libraries had been infiltrating their places for many years already. To have them give up their position really required a ton of treasure to make it a reasonable tradeoff.

  In fact, this deal that they were making made the hearts of all involved hurt. The woman was aching for her loss of personnel, Xue Wei for the sake of the top-grade essence stones he was spending.

  Xue Wei was unaware of whether or not this woman was the Intelligencer. From what he had heard in town, the Intelligencer was a man, but this was without a doubt a woman. This was also only the middle floor, so there was one floor left above them. Who knew what kind of expert stood behind this woman whose strength he could not determine?

  “Well, thank you for doing business with us,” the woman was the first one to get over her heartache. Her words roused Xue Wei’s attention.

  “Come back three months from today and I will get you the information you have been asking for,” she continued. Xue Wei nodded his head.

  “Oh, right!” the woman said suddenly, stopping him for a moment. “Don’t forget to wear the face mask you’re wearing right now. I will only give the information to someone who has your face.”

  Xue Wei did not question how she was so certain about him using a face mask. It was probably a common occurrence to wear a facemask when one visited the Intelligencer’s house.

  “In that case, thank you for your assistance,” Xue Wei said, bidding his farewell, and left the floor. When he was on the ground floor again, he gave the hallway a second look, but it was as deserted as it had been before.

  Although it was deserted, Xue Wei did not think that he had any privacy. The woman above would without a doubt keep observing him until he left the house. She would be a poor member of the black market if she did not.

  Xue Wei left the house with no lingering affections. He had forked out an astronomical amount of money, and he would rather not wait around to see the old, decaying house collapse onto him. Leaving it would make him feel good.

  When he left, he felt as if he could finally breathe normally again. Although he had not been scared, he had still felt suppressed inside the battered house, mostly because it was the lair of at least one extreme expert.

  When Xue Wei was out in the dim light of the street, he noticed how groups of experts were moving further and further into the darkness of the underground territory. It was as if something was happening that was summoning all the experts. Xue Wei’s curiosity had been piqued.

  Among those migrating towards the spot, there were Sky Warriors and Heavenly Warriors, and some of them were even stronger than Xue Wei by quite the margin.

  Some of them walked together in groups, others walked alone. Some brazenly walked straight towards the inner region of the district, while others constantly looked over their shoulders to make sure they were not being followed.

  Xue Wei was wondering what could have such allure that everyone would head towards a specific area, but his curiosity got the better of him even after he thought it through with ample hesitation. If even Sky Warriors had the gall to go there, it should not be too dangerous.

  He slowly followed the crowd deeper into the poverty-stricken area. The houses started looking more and more broken and worn-down; even the Intelligencer’s base looked rather neat compared to these. Some of the buildings had long since already collapsed, even.

  The throng of experts continued all the way to the outer city walls of the unregulated district. There was a small house beneath the looming shadow of the city wall at the end of the district, which was what every person entered one after the other. The house did not seem as if it could house all those people, but even so, many more continued through the door as if it was much bigger on the inside.

  When Xue Wei reached the door, he found something out of his expectations. The house was not bigger on the inside. As a matter of fact, there was nothing on the inside apart from a set of stairs leading down into the ground.

  The staircase had light orbs lighting it up, but it was still damp and slippery so Xue Wei had to be very careful not to trip when he started walking down.

  The staircase was at first straight, but it started to wind after a bit of time. It turned left, it turned right, it went one way and then another. It took half an hour before Xue Wei had managed to get out of the stairs.

  The air was humid and the first thing he encountered was a large room that was obviously carved out underneath the city. Calling it a room was actually misleading; it was at least the same size as ten football fields next to one another.

  There were five cages inside this vast space, all of which took up as much space as a quarter of a football field. And then there were a lot of people around those cages who looked to be spectating whatever was going on inside those cages. Some of them seemed to be discussing something.

  A bustling sound could be heard within the cave. At the far end, Xue Wei saw hundreds of cages containing Fierce Beasts, but unlike the Fierce Beasts of the Diviners, these were quiet and well-behaved.

  Xue Wei frowned. Not only could he hear a loud sounds of voices, he suddenly heard the sounds of loud cheering, and then moments after it was followed by the sound of fighting. The incessant sound of weapons clashing against one another.

  Xue Wei slowly walked towards the sound of the cheering and the fighting. Soon he found that every cage surrounded by the thick throng of people was currently being used for illegal fights, the sound of cheers and battle sounds drowning out his thoughts.

  A few Fierce Beast screams and roars sounded out, and some human voices could be heard inside the cages as well. Xue Wei looked at the different cages. In some of them, humans were fighting against humans. In others, they were fighting against Fierce Beasts.

  Xue Wei slowly walked through the entire cave before he understood what was going on. Once a week, this underground cage battle arena would open. Anyone with a sweet tooth for gambling and risking their neck could participate.

  One could either try their luck betting on one of the combatants, but there was a much easier way to earn some coin, and that was to sign up for the arena fights oneself.

  It was not up to the participant to decide if they were to face another human or a beast. That was up to fate and whoever was available at the time.

  But what Xue Wei found shocking was that apparently Primordial Beasts showed up from time to time as well. These Primordial Beasts usually killed their opponent easily while being in human shape, but from time to time it so happened that they were forced to take on their original shape.

  Although Primordial Beasts were pub
lic enemy number one outside of this place, here they were hailed as heroes because betting on them was an almost guaranteed win.

  When someone killed their opponent, not only were they given the prizes from winning, they could also take everything that had belonged to the opponent. This was why people still challenged the Primordial Beasts.

  Not only could they take their slain foe’s valuables and the prize money, but they would also end up owning the entire corpse of a Primordial Beast, which was something that was worth quite a lot.

  Currently, Xue Wei was unaware of who were Primordial Beasts and who were humans, but he could see that most of the humans in the cages were battling other humans. Their weapons were constantly clashing and sending sparks and energy ripples outwards.