On the opposite side of the mansion Ren and Tang Yue caught sight of the thick smoke rising up from behind the mansion.
"Nice, I was getting bored"
Tang Yue spoke excitedly while handing Ren a thick coil of rope that had a sharp looking metal hook attached to one end.
"You know the plan right."
Ren confirmed with Tang Yue, who quickly nodded in response. Once they were both on top of the wall Ren would go rescue Li Hongji who was in the courtyard below, while Tang Yue would wait taking advantage of the walls height to keep watch, ready to back him up if it was needed.
Ren eyed the top of the wall, and began swinging the grappling hook in circles, eventually he let go, sending the hook upwards where it got snagged on the wall. After tugging it a few times to make sure it was firmly lodged, Ren began to climb the wall, quickly reaching the top, where he looked down onto the courtyard.
"Huh"
Ren exclaimed in surprise. The stake Li Hongji was tied to was still present but the man himself was nowhere to be seen. Ren cursed in his mind, he should have expected this.
"What's the problem."
Tang Yue who had followed Ren up the wall asked when she saw him staring at the courtyard with a blank expression.
"We're leaving, he's not being kept here anymore."
Ren answered her and turned around but Tang Yue grabbed his shoulder and stopped him.
"Wait, they couldn't have moved him far, they might be keeping him in the mansion."
She said, but Ren moved her hand before replying.
"I know, but we have no idea who's in the mansion, it's too risky. We'll come back when we're better prepared"
Tang Yue didn't like what he had to say, so she once again grabbed his shoulder and stopped him.
"I don't know how much you know about the lion family but they don't exactly treat their prisoners kindly, by the time we come back he could be dead."
Ren wanted to refute her, he wanted to say that Li Hongji might be dead already or that he might not even be in the mansion but that irritating feeling he was working so hard to supress made him choke on his words.
"fine."
Ren grumbled, not looking the least bit happy. He didn't know why even his body wasn't listening to him but right now he could only hope for the best. Tang Yue flashed him a beautiful smile and started hauling up the rope so they could use it to make their way down the other side.
After the duo had made their way to the courtyard Ren outstretched his hand to Tang Yue who gave him a dumb look.
"Grab it."
Still confused, the princess grabbed his hand and saw tendrils of inky black shadows burst out of his body and wrap around them. The setting sun was enough to barely make them out but only if you looked closely.
"You sure are lucky, not many people can say they've held the princesses hand."
Tang Yue smirked at Ren who shrugged it off.
"Why, it feels no different to Miss Olivia's hand."
Tang Yue pouted angrily as the two made their way to the mansion, after reminding herself that the opinion of a kid didn't decide her worth as a woman and that she was a noble princess with hundreds of suitors, she calmed down.
"You and Olivia seem close."
She mentioned casually as they got to a set of double doors that led into the mansion. Ren pushed on the door lightly and it creaked open.
"You could say that. I trust her after all"
Ren said placing his eye to the gap and inspected the inside. After making sure that it was clear he pushed the door open and entered. Now that they were inside, he let go of the princess's hand and redacted the shadows which would be useless in the well-lit interior of the mansion.
"I noticed it when I first met you at the banquet, those eyes of yours. It's a look I know well. You meet a lot of people as a princess you know."
Tang Yue said while following after Ren, her words caused him to turn around.
"What are you trying to say."
Ren was getting slightly impatient, they didn't have much time, the distraction team would have to retreat at some point and then the mansion would be swarmed by the guards.
"People with that gaze think everyone's out to get them and that they can only trust themselves, so it's good you've at least found one person you can trust."
"Don't act like you know me, now let's search the place while we have the chance."
Ren said coldly, before walking off. Tang Yue simply shrugged her shoulders and followed after him. For the next ten minutes they searched in silence.
"Somethings off, how come we haven't come across anybody."
Ren mentioned with his face turning serious. Normally a mansion of this size would have at least a few guards remain inside even if they were faced with an attacker like Yang Chen. Even if the guards all went outside, the other members of the main family should still be inside.
"Worrying won't get you anywhere… but I definitely will, take a look at this."
Tang Yue smiled smugly while pointing at a large painting on the wall. Ren couldn't sense anything out of the ordinary, so he gave her a confused look making the princess giggle.
"I'm pretty familiar with the wind element, so I can sense the airflow of the room. I'm good enough to know there's a large space behind that painting."
She said while thumping her chest proudly. Ren walked over to the painting and immediately slashed it apart using Nightfall, sure enough an iron door was revealed. Ren looked at Tang Yue with shock, she was able sense the change in airflow from the thin gaps in the doorframe.
"I'm the perfect princess after all, this much is expected."
Tang Yue said somewhat cockily. Ren paid no more attention to her and placed his ear to the door, even though he didn't hear anything on the other side, there was no telling what was behind the door.
"We've come this far, might as well go all the way."
Tang Yue said after seeing that Ren was hesitating, she put her palm on the door and pushed.
CREAK.
"Wait it was unlocked."
Ren exclaimed, seeing the door swing open without much difficulty, he readied his sword and readied his sword.
"I guess so, let's take a peek."
Tang Yue said while sticking her head through the doorway.
"huh what the hell is all this."
She said while walking into the room. Ren didn't stop her and followed Tang Yue inside. In front of him was what looked to be a meeting room, there was a long table with roughly a dozen chairs around it.
The table was full off papers and articles, but Ren's eyes were drawn to two maps hanging on the wall, both of the maps where of the floating island they were on.
One of the maps was labelled "TESTS" and had four large red X's at seemingly random places on the map. And the other map was unlabelled but had seven red circles. When Tang Yue saw the test map, she froze.
"Aren't those the locations of the demonic beast attacks."
She said with wide eyes, Ren was just as shocked when he heard what Tang Yue had to say. According to the king, the attacks were caused by the demonic cult. Where the Lions working together with them or where they framing them.
Ren's attention shifted to the other map. Since the previous map was labelled tests, there must be some larger scheme at work. He tapped Tang Yue on the shoulder to get her attention.
"What about the other map, is there anything special about the locations circled."
Ren asked her, Tang Yue who snapped out of her daze, closely inspected the other map after about fifteen seconds she recoiled in horror, her face as pale as a ghost.
"What's wrong."
He asked the princess who was normally quite fearless but now looked like she faced the imminent threat of a heart attack.
"You know how this a floating island."
"Yeah…"
"If those places are attacked… it won't be a floating island no more."
"Shit"
"Agreed"
***
Outside of the mansion, Yang Chen had just dispatched two enemies, drenching the garden soil with blood, with his torn clothing dyed red, he cut quite the gruesome figure. As scary as he seemed, it didn't change the fact that he was heavily outnumbered, and if things continued like this he would soon be overrun.
The air was filled with smoke from the fire that was raging behind him, it had spread more than anticipated, with the trees nearby not being able to escape the embers thrown out from the fire. Soon the whole garden would catch ablaze and Ren should have already rescued Li Hongji, so if he was going to escape now was the time.
"It was fun while it lasted, see you pricks later."
He said while turning around and putting his legs to work, but before he could get far, A rough voice shouted from behind him, making Yang Chen freeze in his tracks.
"Wait where are you going, are you going to leave your comrades behind."
Spinning around, Yang Chen quickly found the origin of the voice. A bald muscular man with a nasty scar across his left eye stood on top of the wall, he was holding a struggling Olivia with a knife pointed dangerously at her neck and Zi Xi was laying on the ground not moving.
"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU"
Yang Chen shouted angrily, his eyes filled with rage when he saw how the other two had been treated.
"Don't you think that should be my question. This girl's surprisingly tight lipped and her other friend isn't very talkative right now, so you'll have to help me out."
The man said calmly while bringing the knife closer to Olivia's neck.
"If you hurt them, I'll kill you."
Yang Chen spat out hatefully. He still remembered that just before they left the inn, Ren had pulled him to one side and gave him instructions to make sure Olivia was safe, if something happened to her, he didn't know if he could face ren again.
"Easy there, come any closer and you will regret it. Now answer my questions, who sent you and why are you here."
Li Hongji remained quiet, if he told this man the truth and the other team hadn't finished rescuing Li Hongji then he would be putting them in danger. He could lie, but if it wasn't believable Olivia would die.
"Hurry up, this chick dies if you take any longer."
The man said, muffling her screams with his hand. Yang Chen couldn't risk it, he could only pray that the other team was finished.
"No one sent us, we're here to rescue our friend, Li Hongji."
Yang Chen said bitterly. The bald man's eyes opened wide in shock.
"You're here… to save the young master."
In his shock, his grip on Olivia loosened and she manage to jump away, standing Infront of Zi Xi's body to protect it. She couldn't run away without making sure Zi Xi was safe so she had to stall the man.
"If you know Li Hongji then we should tell you that he wasn't the one that killed the old leader, his uncle framed him."
She said, hoping that it was enough to shake him
"w-what are y-you talking about. Li Yang wouldn't d-do some-"
"I've only known Li Hongji for around a month, but I could tell you that he would never harm a fly, you must know him better than I do since he grew up here, what do you think."
Noticing that her plan was working Olivia pushed further.
"You're lying."
"Am I, or are you the one lying to yourself."
"STOP TALKING."
The bald man started swinging wildly at Olivia who could only throw up her arms in a feeble attempt to defend herself, this man was extremely strong and against him this was all she could manage. Just before his fists reached her, they froze in mid-air.
"You two still have a long way to go."
A rough female voice spoke, Olivia quickly spun around and saw a beautiful woman with flaming red hair, who seemingly appeared out of thin air.
"ROXY."
Olivia exclaimed happily while leaping into her arms. Yang Chen who could only watch from below, breathed a sigh of relief and fell on to his back in exhaustion. When Roxy had arrived, all the soldiers surrounding Yang Chen seemed to have frozen in place.
"How come you're here."
Oliva who was still hugging Roxy questioned her, Roxy didn't reply and just looked over at the mansion.
Olivia who was about to repeat the question suddenly stopped. She felt shivers run down her spine, a monstrous dark aura erupted out of the mansion, causing her clothes to be drenched in cold sweat. An instinctive fear made her body tremble uncontrollably, her mind turned blank as she was too scared to think. On the ground Yang Chen and the remaining guards were in no better shape.
"Because of that."
Roxy said while sighing.
***
A bit earlier.
Ren and Tang Yue had finally recovered from the shock of the conspiracy in front of them, upon searching the room for more clues, they discovered a hatch on the ground.
"This might be where they're keeping him."
Ren said while Tang Yue nodded.
"We have to save him quickly and then I need to report back to my father."
Tang Yue said with a worried expression, if she was right about this and they were targeting the natural formed aether veins underground, then this island would fall right out of the sky.
Something about the whole situation seemed off to her, if that explosion that occurred in the last attack was how they were going to destroy the veins, then what was the point of the beasts, to disguise the true purpose of the attacks, if so, then why would the explosion only have occurred on the last attack.
"let's go."
Ren said opening the hatch, interrupting Tang Yue's thought process and bringing her back around Whatever the point of the demonic beasts was, right now they had higher priorities.
The hatch led into a dingy looking unlit stair well, the duo looked at each other briefly before descending into darkness.