The sun was starting to set as the animals on the farm were returning back to their sheds. shops were closing up while farm animals returned from herding with shepherds in tow. Almost most people were packing up for the night and were pulling carts filed with hoes, harmers and various working tools while being hauled into the shed. Everyone among the peasant workers seemed busy except for one guy who may or may not have fired himself and is now lurking down in his own basement while doing research. At this time, Jerry was recuperating in his basement while looking towards the door, his leg was fidgeting like one would do when anxious. It didn't take long for the solution to arrive in form of a knock as his only friend arrived at the door and shouted.
"Jerry, open the door. I brought your food."
Jerry then stood like an unscathed bull and charged towards the door, almost kicking it open.
"Xi Baobao, what took you so long? Do you know that I missed eating yesterday and and didn't even eat breakfast today?"
Xi Baobao replied when a grin filled with schadenfreude.
"It's your fault anyway. Who told you to get into a fight with those muscle heads. With your small figure, I'm actually surprised they didn't tear you in half. Of course I don't believe that you defeated them, seeing as they walked back with wounds incurred by themselves. I didn't know that among your resume of skills, spreading rumors was among them."
A quote appeared in his mind, 'when I speak the truth, no one believes but my lies hold a lot of credit.' or something along those lines. However once he had the food, he forgot everything else and munched on it like a hungry rabbit. Once he was full, he returned his atttention to his lab and totally ignored Xi baobao.
"Hey, what exactly are you doing here? How did you build this place in less than a month? Where did you get these beast cores and high level beast meat?"
"When you have money, you own the world. At least that's how I remember it. Of course I bought it in the black market."
"What does that even mean? What black market? Who would be willing to trade with you these cores for your meagre change."
"You wouldn't know. Anyway, how's uncle Shang? I haven't heard from him these days. Did he return back to his seclusion."
At this point, Xi pulled a stool and sat down to dig in. After a few mouthfuls, he replied with his mouth half full.
"Yeah, it seems he will spend there a few weeks before he exits to restock. Now let's get serious. I heard you convinced the princess of the manor you would gather evidence that you were innocent of the thefts. Honestly, I don't know how you ended up with that stolen merchandise but I know you wouldn't do that.Now tell me, how do you plan to convince her and avoid being locked in the fire leviathan's prison?"
"Who said I have to? Know what? Follow me."
Without waiting for his words to make sense to Baobao, he washed his hands in a bucket and wiped them off with a towel. After that, he grabbed the bucket and poured out the water. He then walked over and grabbed a jug of water and re-poured some into the bucket again. He put the in front of Bao and waited for him to come out of his stupor and wash his hands. Once that was done, he walked to a corner of the room and snapped a finger, causing Bao to jump out of his daze and hurried wash his hands to follow him. Once they both stood in front of a plain wall that was marked by a simple hairline crack that was likely formed by water leaking into the wall. The first thing he did was wipe off any marks that anything was strange about this wall like the uneven dust and scratch marks on the ground. Once that was done, he made a hand tutting motion and his arm ended up at a certain position on the wall. This had already confused the hell out of Xi Baobao until he saw part of the wall sinking in and loud rumbling noises coming out of the wall until it opened itself.
At this point, Bao gave up even being surprised and followed Jerry in. The kept going down further to the astonishment of Bao until the reached a cave at the bottom that led further but not down. Reaching this point, Jerry lit char cloth to prevent the waste of oxygen and inserted it into the ground. He then walked behind some stones and pulled out tens of scrolls and threw them on the ground. He then retrieved a quill and cup of ink in his satchel and got on his knees, starting to write on the almost filled scrolls with all kinds of symbols that were unrecognizable to Bao.
"What is all this? What are you even doing? What language is this, how come I've never heard of it?"
"Oh, it's nothing much. I'm just trying to solve whatever is that."
'That?' Is what Bao thought to himself until he looked where Jerry was pointing his finger. He looked up and then became slack jawed. Just above him was a blue pulsating membrane, like some kind filter but it not jelly like. Rather it seemed to be illusory and gave off a feeling that anyone could pass through. However that was proved wrong when Jerry suddenly grinned and threw a stone at it with all his strength, only for the stone to bounce back and almost hit Bao's head.
"Hey, be careful with that. What if you annoyed it or rather, you broke my head with that stone."
"Relax, it was a tiny pebble. Almost you would become vegetative. Hahaha, look at you. I'm just joking. I wanted to show you. Actually, you shouldn't even be able to see it. It's just that I sprayed some blue chalk on it a few days ago to make it visible."
"Ok. So what do you think it is?"
Jerry then smiled with a cunning smile settling on his lips.
"My way out."