The lanterns at the Fortune-Full Tower's back entrance lit the street outside the restaurant. Hardly any pedestrians remained.
Yi Yang pushed the door open, caught his foot on the stone steps, and bumped his shoulder against the doorframe, still humming an off-key little tune.
The tune had neither rhythm nor melody, lurching high and low, exactly like the singing of an old drunk who had had too much.
The smell of liquor wafted from his collar. Walking along West Street's flagstones, his left foot stepped on his right foot's shadow, and his shoulders swayed like a ship's mast on the verge of toppling. Every roadside shop had shut its wooden shutters, and the street was as quiet as ever.
Inside the seemingly drunken Yi Yang, qi-blood circulated through his internal organs.
All his organs warmed together. His Organ Refining Realm qi-blood flowed steadily along his meridians, breaking down most of the half jar of aged rice wine he had just swallowed in a single pass. What little alcohol remained was not enough to make him burp.
Yi Yang hummed as he walked, very slowly.
That was deliberate. He was waiting.
Waiting for the two tails behind him to catch up.
When he turned into the narrow alley in the west of town, Yi Yang stumbled and braced a hand against the wall, resting for two breaths.
In those two breaths, his Organ Refining Realm-enhanced senses naturally spread out. He did not turn around.
There was no need.
The reach of his enhanced senses was far greater than it had been at the fourth level of the Organ Refining Realm.
His hearing, his sense of touch, even the frequency of the vibrations coming through his soles-all told him the same thing.
Two sets of footsteps followed more than forty paces behind