The night in Iron Furnace Town was colder than Hu Liena had imagined.
Wind poured out of the Old Mine Entrance, carrying the smell of rust and coal ash. It scraped across people's faces like a dull blade.
Hu Liena crouched behind a ruined wall, her eyes fixed on the furnace room by the Old Mine Entrance.
The furnace fire had not yet gone out.
The young blacksmith whom the old man had slapped had not gone to sleep either.
He paced back and forth through the furnace room several times.
Once, he even walked to the door and looked toward the outskirts of town for a long time, as if waiting for someone—or afraid someone might suddenly appear.
Hu Liena lowered her voice. "What's his name?"
The Agility Attack Deacon in charge of tracking immediately opened the household records he had just investigated.
"Reporting to the Holy Maiden, his name is Tie Qing. Twenty-two years old. His martial soul is Iron Pincer. His Soul Power is not high, only around Soul Grandmaster level. The townspeople say he was an orphan Old Tie picked up, and he has always worked in the furnace room at the Old Mine Entrance."
Hu Liena watched Tie Qing.
"He isn't the core."
The Agility Attack Deacon asked softly, "Should we keep watching him, then?"
"Watch him."
Hu Liena's voice was soft, but steady.
"Precisely because he isn't the core, he'll panic."
"The real core knows what it should do. It wouldn't pace around the doorway so many times."
"He's afraid now, which means he knows something, but not everything. People like that are the easiest to use to find the real lead."
The Agility Attack Deacon paused slightly.
Then he lowered his head. "Understood."
In truth, Hu Liena was not as relaxed as she