"We won't keep you for dinner, then..." As soon as Tang De said those words, Zhang Tie could barely contain his excitement. Without even saying goodbye, he shot out of Tang De's general store like an arrow loosed from its bow.
"That little brat!" Watching Zhang Tie rush off in such a hurry, Tang De shook his head. The longer Zhang Tie had stayed in the store today, the more Tang De had felt that something was on his mind and that he seemed distracted. So he had deliberately sent Zhang Tie home early today. He hadn't expected Zhang Tie to be waiting for those words. Tang De had barely gotten the word "dinner" out when Zhang Tie dashed through the door and vanished in the blink of an eye.
Zhang Tie was terribly excited. He wished he could reach home the very next second, stand guard over that Little Tree, and watch with his own eyes as the "Flawless Fruit" ripened. His eagerness seemed to ease the aching soreness that had enveloped his body.
There was only one thought in Zhang Tie's mind now—get home!
The streets near the railway station were crowded with people coming and going. Since Black Flame City had begun enforcing a curfew after midnight over the past few days, even more people were out and about before it began. The flea market and the shops nearby were livelier than ever.
To get home faster, Zhang Tie didn't take his usual route. Instead, he took a shortcut, running through the busier streets and alleys around the railway station. These places had always been a gathering ground for every sort of person, with plenty of outsiders and some of the worst security in the city. But Zhang Tie had been coming and going around here for years, so none of it felt unfamiliar; he knew the area like the back of his hand. Still, even the most familiar route could hold a surprise. Just then, as he reached the corner where an alley met the street, the sparse streetlamps left the road dim in the darkness. Running at full speed, Zhang Tie suddenly collided with someone who had just turned out of the alley. Neither of them seemed to have expected to run into anyone at the junction.
The other man only staggered, but Zhang Tie's own momentum sent him bouncing to the ground. He crashed down so hard that the world spun around him, leaving him dizzy and dazed. He couldn't help letting out a muffled groan.
"Hey, brat, are you looking to die?"
Zhang Tie opened his eyes and saw a tall, powerfully built man standing in front of him. He looked to be in his forties, dressed like an ordinary Prospector, with yellowish-brown hair and a long, fleshy face. His eyes glared viciously at Zhang Tie as he raised one foot, about to step forward and stomp down hard on him.
Zhang Tie had already been aching all over, and after that brutal collision, his whole body felt as if it were coming apart. The man was fine, but Zhang Tie couldn't even get up, let alone react in time. He hadn't expected to run into someone so vicious. It had only been a collision, and he was still a boy, yet the man was about to stomp on him while he lay on the ground. Looking at those huge feet and the knots of muscle all over the man's body, Zhang Tie knew that if the man stomped on him, he would be lucky to escape with severe injuries.
"What's wrong, Hark?" A slightly shorter figure, dressed like a Prospector as well, darted out of the alley behind Hark like a snake. The moment he saw Zhang Tie sprawled on the ground and Hark's raised foot, he hurriedly grabbed Hark and held him back. The shorter man jerked his chin toward the distance. The man about to stomp on Zhang Tie looked over and saw a patrol of Black Flame City soldiers turning onto the street from a nearby corner. Only then did Hark lower his foot.
"Hey, young man, are you all right?" The slightly shorter man, who was still much taller than Zhang Tie, walked over and crouched down with a smile. For some reason, the pale yellow eyes in his narrow gaze made Zhang Tie feel as if a cobra had fixed its eyes on him. The hairs all over his body stood on end. And the man seemed snake-like in another way, too. As soon as he came close, Zhang Tie caught a faint, nauseating, fishy stench coming from him.
Thinking of how Hark had raised his foot, Zhang Tie hurriedly tried to get up. No matter what, lying on the ground left him far too vulnerable.
"I'm fine, I'm fine. I was running, and I didn't expect you to turn out of the alley so suddenly..."
"Heh, you have to be more careful. Did you hurt yourself? Here, let me help you up!"
"No need... no need..." Seeing the man who made him so uncomfortable reach out with both hands to help him, Zhang Tie wanted nothing of it. He struggled and sat up instead.
"You should let me. We weren't paying attention, either..." the shorter man said with a smile. Then, without waiting for an answer, he grabbed both of Zhang Tie's hands and began to pull him up. Zhang Tie had only just felt the man's grip tighten around his wrists when, before he could say a word, he felt as though a snake's tongue had darted out and quickly flicked across both hands. The man had already frisked him in an instant. From his palms to his wrists, elbows, shoulders, armpits, waist, chest, and belly, the man's hands searched Zhang Tie's whole body as he pulled him up. Then, under the pretext of brushing the dust off him, he even checked his crotch, calves, and ankles. Before Zhang Tie had even realized he was being helped to his feet, the shorter man had searched him from head to toe. Then he gave Hark a slight shake of the head.
"Be careful when you're walking after dark!" the shorter man said with a smile. Hark shot Zhang Tie a vicious look, and then the two disappeared into the crowd.
Only a few seconds had passed, yet Zhang Tie realized that his entire back was drenched in cold sweat. The night breeze blew over him, and he shivered. His instincts told him that, in those few seconds, he had narrowly escaped a huge crisis.
Get out of here, quickly. Don't run into those two frightening men again, Zhang Tie told himself. He took a couple of steps, then felt as if he had kicked something. He paused in surprise, bent down, and picked it up. Holding it up to the moonlight, he saw that it was just a small cloth pouch about the size of his palm, with something inside. It didn't feel like precious metal or money. Zhang Tie took the object out of the pouch and examined it. Strangely, it wasn't anything special, just a dark-red triangular wooden token about half the size of his palm, snapped in two. There were no images or words on it, and the wood seemed to be ordinary Red Thunder Pine, nothing particularly valuable. Zhang Tie was about to toss it away when he noticed that its grain and texture suggested it had often been held in someone's hand; it had been rubbed smooth. After thinking it over, he wondered why anyone would have taken such care to put it in a pouch if it were worthless. Then it suddenly clicked: the token had probably fallen off Hark when Zhang Tie had collided with him. Zhang Tie gave a cold chuckle, tucked the unremarkable token back into the pouch, and slipped it into his pocket before hurrying off toward home.
Half an hour after Zhang Tie left, Hark and the snake-like man returned. Unlike when they had left, their faces were pale, filled with an indescribable terror. Carrying an oil lamp, they both crouched on the ground and searched every inch of the area again and again, but still couldn't find what they were looking for.
"What do we do?" Hark's face had lost all its viciousness. Now it was filled with an apocalyptic dread. "Sneider, why don't we just go find them?"
"Are you insane?" Sneider, the snake-like man, glared fiercely at Hark. "You know the organization's rules and how those people operate. Without the token, if we go to them, they'll kill us the moment we identify ourselves. What reason do they have to believe us?"
"Then what do we do? If we fail to complete this mission..."
Thinking of how the organization's leaders punished those who made mistakes, Hark and Sneider's faces turned even paler.
"It must have been that brat. I can't believe even I was fooled this time. You checked the token when we left the railway station, and it was still in your arms. We haven't spoken to anyone since we left, so there's no way it could have just disappeared. The only thing that happened was that you collided with that kid. The token must have been taken by him!" Sneider said bitterly. "There's no other possibility!"
"But didn't you search him just now? He didn't have anything on him!"
"That kid must be a veteran. The instant he got his hands on it, he tossed it away. It was too dark here, and we didn't notice anything on the ground. After we left, the brat picked it up and slipped away!" Apart from mistaking Zhang Tie for one of the experienced pickpockets who prowled near the railway station, Sneider's deduction was almost entirely correct. "Now we can only hope the brat didn't think it was useless and throw it away. We'd better find him before he does. Otherwise..."
"Otherwise, I'll kill his whole family, then chop that brat into mincemeat and use him as a cushion!" The fleshy muscles on Hark's face twitched. "So what do we do now? Go look for him?"
"No. First we'll catch a pickpocket and make him take us to the kid. If that brat hangs around near the railway station, the other pickpockets will know him!"
"Fine..."
The area around Black Flame City's railway station had always been the most lawless part of the city. The con artists, pickpockets, and thieves who loitered there were hardly innocent. The pickpockets around the station would lie if they could, steal if they couldn't lie, and rob if they couldn't steal. They swindled people out of money and seduced them for sex; they worked hand in glove with the local constables and had done every kind of vile deed, from cheating and swindling to drugging people and braining them with bricks. In the eyes of ordinary citizens, they were one of Black Flame City's great scourges. But tonight, over one little thing, two demons finally came looking for them...