Sinister Shadow

"What... exactly is that thing above the dome of heaven?"

Staring fixedly at the massive beast-shadow on the ground, Yang Xiao's mouth went dry, and cold sweat could not help but bead across his forehead.

Though Yang Xiao very much wanted to raise his head, reason told him there was absolutely no way he could look!

Once he faced that beast-shadow above the heavens directly, some great terror would definitely appear!

Dong!

In the distance, the dull, heavy sound of the evening drum spread with the wind, resounding through the empty streets and alleys.

Strangely enough, the instant the evening drum sounded, that mysterious, enormous beast-shadow in the void actually vanished in an eerie flash as well.

That hair-raising, terrifying sensation that made Yang Xiao feel a life-and-death crisis disappeared completely at the same time.

However, Yang Xiao did not hurry to raise his head. Instead, he lowered his head and walked quickly for a long while before finally pretending to be careless and carefully lifting his gaze.

The sky was pitch-black, with nothing unusual left.

"What exactly was that thing just now?"

Yang Xiao frowned.

In this world, the martial path flourished, and blood-and-qi martial artists were everywhere.

But all along, Yang Xiao had believed that immortals were only legends.

Yet whether it was the phantom of the Void Behemoth from the blood oath, the Eerie Faceless Woman of Vermilion Bird Tower, or that mysterious beast-shadow that had flashed past during curfew...

All of it made Yang Xiao keenly realize that this seemingly peaceful world was probably not as simple as what he had seen.

"Doors close at the hour of Xu, the seventh quarter has arrived. Travel is forbidden at the hour of Hai. Passersby, withdraw!"

Clang!

In the distance, the night watchman beat his gong and drum, the sound loud and clear.

"One double-hour has eight quarters. It's already the seventh quarter of Xu?"

"Doesn't that mean there's less than one quarter left before travel is forbidden at Hai?"

Yang Xiao's heart tightened, and he hurriedly quickened his pace.

Vermilion Bird Tower was located in the western city of the Great Yan capital, in its most central and prosperous district.

But Qinghe Ward in the eastern city, where Yang Xiao lived, was located in the most remote area of the eastern city.

The distance between the two places was not exactly very far.

But with Yang Xiao's current foot speed, making it back to his small courtyard within one quarter was naturally unrealistic.

"The hour of Hai has arrived. Curfew begins! Idlers on the road shall be killed without pardon!"

Clang!

Yang Xiao had just reached an empty alley when the sound of the watchman beating his gong rang out from just beyond a wall.

Boom!

Densely packed soldiers, long halberds in hand, came rolling in from the distance.

Even without using the Spirit Cicada Transformation, Yang Xiao could still vaguely see that where the soldiers gathered in the distance, faint red radiance was soaring into the sky.

Each streak of red light represented one soldier!

Hundreds of soldiers gathered into hundreds of red lights, and the red lights filling the sky gradually condensed into a vast mass of scarlet cloud and mist.

Within that cloud and mist, there was actually the indistinct phantom of a Nine-Foot Giant Wolf crouching among the vapors, now visible, now hidden.

Seeming to sense Yang Xiao's spying gaze, the giant wolf slowly turned its head.

A terrifying crisis of death suddenly surfaced in Yang Xiao's mind.

Yang Xiao hurriedly lowered his head, not daring to look again.

Fortunately, this giant wolf had no intelligence. It seemed to be merely an enormous red glow condensed from blood and qi.

Seeing that Yang Xiao was no longer looking at it, the giant wolf also withdrew its gaze and continued crouching atop the cloud-mist of red radiance, closing its eyes to doze.

"These are only ordinary soldiers of the West City Garrison. Just the blood and qi of a mere few hundred men can gather into scarlet cloud and mist, condense into a giant wolf's beast-shadow, and make me feel a terrifying sense that I could be instantly killed."

"Rumor has it that the most elite soldiers of the Great Yan Dynasty are the hundred thousand Red Flame Army under the Marquis of Champions!"

"If the Red Flame Army marched out in full and directly formed a battle array on the battlefield, with the blood and qi of a hundred thousand soaring into the sky, what kind of terror would that be?"

The more Yang Xiao thought about it, the more his heart trembled with fear, and cold sweat could not help but appear on his forehead.

It was also from this moment on that Yang Xiao finally understood the root reason why, despite rebel armies raging everywhere, the Great Yan capital remained as prosperous as an age of splendor.

With a hundred thousand Red Flame Army garrisoned in the capital, who would dare act recklessly?

There was no need to even mention the Red Flame Army taking action.

Even if only the ordinary soldiers of the Five Cities Garrison were deployed, they could sweep across the four directions and intimidate every petty villain!

"Curfew has already begun. It's too late for me to return to Vermilion Bird Tower now."

"Once those soldiers saw me, they wouldn't listen to a word of explanation. They'd cut me down on the spot!"

Yang Xiao hid in the darkness, and at once felt the matter had become troublesome.

The dynasty was already in its final days. The Great Yan Dynasty had long since rotted away; from the imperial court to the provinces, there was nowhere that wasn't overrun with chaos.

If it had been any other hour, Yang Xiao could naturally have paved the way with silver and rested easy.

But now it was curfew!

Once curfew began, even those great figures of the imperial court, if they traveled by night within the inner city without a token or a proper reason, would likewise be—killed without question!

The strictness of the curfew had been enforced as an iron law for hundreds of years. No one could defy it!

"The curfew is this harsh probably because of that mysterious beast shadow I saw. But this curfew beast shadow and the void beast shadow I saw during the blood oath shouldn't be the same thing."

As Yang Xiao guessed inwardly, he took out the Thousand Illusion Dagger.

Whoosh~

At once, the Thousand Illusion Dagger spread like a layer of liquid membrane, covering the surface of Yang Xiao's body in an instant.

Yang Xiao's originally thin and weak figure became burly along with it.

Even Yang Xiao's originally handsome face became rough and rugged, covered in a thick beard from ear to ear.

In the blink of an eye, Yang Xiao had already transformed into Boss Zhao's appearance.

"If I travel at night here looking like Boss Zhao, then even if someone discovers me, no one will be able to trace it back to my real self."

Only then did Yang Xiao's heart ease slightly.

At this moment, the several hundred soldiers in the distance suddenly turned into dozens of small squads, scattering in all directions to patrol every part of the inner city.

Although those soldiers had spread out, the phantom of the crimson-cloud giant wolf in the void still remained condensed, extremely stable.

It seemed... as long as they were within a certain range, so long as the military formation did not break apart, the crimson-cloud beast shadow would not dissipate either?

Among them, a five-man squad of soldiers, long halberds in hand, suddenly quickened their pace and strode swiftly toward the alley where Yang Xiao was.

"They really do cling on like ghosts that won't scatter!"

Yang Xiao felt somewhat irritated. He took several quick steps, then suddenly leapt into the air, vaulted over a wall, and landed inside an unoccupied residence beside him.

"I'll stay here for tonight. Everything else can wait until daybreak tomorrow."

Listening to the squad of soldiers marching quickly past in formation on the other side of the wall, Yang Xiao secretly let out a breath of relief and began to look over the residence before him.

This residence was located in the bustling part of the western district, only three bluestone avenues away from Vermilion Bird Tower. It was a somewhat famous cloth shop.

In the capital of the Great Yan Kingdom, those who lived in the western district were all high officials and nobles. It was the large urban district closest to the imperial palace, and it was also where Vermilion Bird Tower was located.

The western district's public security and night patrol soldiers were also elites carefully selected from among the soldiers of the Five Cities Garrison.

The public order here was naturally the best as well.

The shops here were naturally worth every inch of gold.

Many merchants who did business in the western district would lock up their storefronts in advance before curfew and return to the eastern district, where rich gentry gathered, to live.

The cloth shop where Yang Xiao was hiding was exactly such a case.

Throughout the vast residence courtyard, all sorts of expensive dyed cloths were hanging everywhere.

But Yang Xiao casually swept the entire cloth shop with the Nine Cicada Auditory Arts and discovered that there was not a single person inside. It was extremely quiet.

Whoosh~

Suddenly, a gust of wild wind blew through, and a bolt of dyed cloth fell to the ground with a sound.

Only then did Yang Xiao discover that the surface of the dyed cloth was blue, but its base color was—golden yellow!

This...

Yang Xiao's heart clenched. He tried lifting quite a few dyed cloths, and a chill immediately rose in his heart.

All the dyed cloths here were actually two-sided.

The reverse side of every piece of dyed cloth was actually—golden yellow!

"Could this cloth shop belong to the Peace Sect?"

Yang Xiao's scalp instantly went numb, and his instinct was to leave this place of trouble at once.

Suddenly~

An extremely dangerous, terrifying feeling abruptly emerged in Yang Xiao's heart.

"With my current Iron Skin realm, plus my extraordinary hearing, someone got close to me and I actually didn't sense it in advance?"

Yang Xiao's scalp tingled. He whipped his head around, and his expression changed drastically.

Beneath the bleak moonlight, there was a hideous, terrifying figure standing coldly beside Yang Xiao...