*Multiple POVs*
***
(MC POV)
As I watched tears well up in the corners of her eyes, waves of awkwardness pervaded me.
'What am I supposed to do here? Okay, okay let me think about this.
Apparently, I knew her or at least had some sort of contact with her before. I have no idea how the previous person acted, but considering how she approached me from before she either shouldn't know me well or she's only seen "me" from afar.
It doesn't seem like this Liao Mu guy was close with her, but they might of had occasional contact before from the way she spoke earlier. Could it be she was an admirer of this guy?
Whatever the case since it seems she knows "me" it'll probably be best if I could be as far away from her as possible. She might be able to see through my disguise if I stick around her too long.'
"Liao Mu, I need that report now so I'll need you to come with me. You can deal with your friend later." The leader calmly spoke dismissing the girl on the side to focus on me.
"Of Course, I'll come right away!" Giving me a way out I took it immediately and strolled over to the tents.
He turned around and started heading for the tents while being ahead of me. As I moved away from the crowd I couldn't help but glance one last time at the girl.
She had watery eyes and a tear streamed down her cheek as she watched me walk away. She caused such a scene from merely seeing me, I wonder what she'll do if she finds out that he's actually dead and I'm an imposter.
Well whenever that happens I'll hopefully be long gone. As I followed behind the leader he reached the entrance of a tent and entered. Before I go in after him I take a quick glance at eh surrounding tents.
'Chen Huang should be in one of these. Hopefully he'll be able to quickly release that man. I don't want to be in this place anymore, especially near that girl from before.'
Pulling apart the flaps the interior of the tent was simple. In the center was a table and a few chairs, the side had a few boxes and a small chest atop it, but besides that nothing else was of note. The leader had already taken a seat on the side of the table opposite me.
"Please, sit. Let's discuss what had happened to your team." He gestured toward one of the two seats on my side before folding his hands together by locking fingers.
As I sat down I immediately start to "explain" what happened using what I currently knew.
"When we went out to track the girl we found her, but she managed to escape from us. I was separated from the rest of my team for a little while soon after though. I thought I had found one of her tracks, but before I could tell the others they vanished. When I looked around for them I found two of their corpses, with no clues to what killed them or any sign of the fourth member I decided to return."
As I gave my "report" to him I tried not be too descriptive. Liars often would add unnecessary detail and reason to every action they preform. Hopefully this was enough to satisfy him, yet not too much to make him question my story.
"Before you leave, could you tell me which of the two died?" Just as I was about to leave he asked a simple yet impossible question for me to answer.
'Shiiiiittt..... well fuck me, huh?'
***
(Chen Huang POV)
-Minutes earlier-
As I left Ip Cheng's side I followed the crowd's right edge– It was close to the cliffside where there would be less likely for others to be.
Looking back I saw as he made his way around the left side. That side was a covered in people and that was also the side where the main attraction, the alter, was.
'Should've just followed me. What's the point in increasing the potential of being spotted?'
Every once in a while I looked over to Ip Cheng to see what he was doing and I even saw him doing the same thing, but when I looked this time I saw as a girl was pulling on his sleeve.
Seeing the actions of the girl made me tense as I thought of us potentially being discovered. When Ip Cheng turned around I focused most of my attention on them, only occasionally looking forward to make sure I wouldn't bump into anyone on accident.
'Brother Cheng, please be alright! If a fight breaks out I'll make sure to save you.'
In the distance the girl seemed to ask a question which froze Ip Cheng in place for a moment before he responded. It seems the girl wouldn't give up though and she raised her voice loud enough for me to hear.
Although I still couldn't tell what she was saying, she made a move on Ip Cheng. She hugged him and it took a second, but he soon became panicked. He turned his head to the cliff's ledge above me and he seemed to be even more panicked then a moment before.
'Poor Brother Cheng, Sister Yao Ya is going to kill you for this. This was an unintended move for you, but a woman's mind knows no bounds. They are mysterious creatures with logic different from ours Brother. Sister Yao Ya shouldn't be as bad as other women though. She's always really nice and polite to people so she'll probably let you off.'
Knowing that it's only a little bit of drama I stop paying as much attention. He probably wouldn't die from this drama after all. Only taking a few more steps though I heard the amplified voice of a girl:
"HEY! WHERE ARE YOU!
Don't you know who I am?!
Do you really not want to be my boyfriend?!
I just want to talk to your girlfriend that's all!"
Turning back to the scene from before I see as Ip Cheng is actively running away from a group of women. Some men around seemed envious and jealous about Ip Cheng, but didn't make any moves.
'Wait, where did these people come from?'
As he ran through the crowd he carefully avoided bumping into people.
"He's over there! Someone, stop him! I'll reward anyone who does handsomely!" Suddenly when that was said by the girl the atmosphere seemed to change and greed was seen in many people's eyes. Those who were looking at Ip Cheng moments ago with envy and jealousy before had the same greed.
I almost intervened to save him when I realized that he had skillfully and perfectly avoided the hands of others. It was almost like he knew where they were going to grab him from. At the start he dodged them, but barely. As time when on he seemed to be perfecting it or something as their distance from each other increased.
I couldn't do anything near that. At the very least I would still be grabbed multiple times.
'Hehe, That's my friend right there!' I mentally gave him a thumbs up before quickly moving along. He was distracting them and I couldn't just let this go to waste! His sacrifice as the center of attention won't be for nothing.
In just a few moments I reached the tents. One of the tents had a open entrance which I could see inside. It wasn't what I was looking for, but an interesting scene none the less.
There were around 5 guys inside surrounding a mini alter. Atop this alter was a chicken, not a live one. It was very dead, it's feathers were already plucked and head chopped off, even the internal organs were already removed. The golden brownish skin still had some steam coming off of it.
They circled the chicken 5 times before they all kowtowed towards it. After a moment, one by one they lifted their head and all reached out toward the chicken. With a swift motion they all pulled back taking a part of the chicken. A couple of them got the legs, while a couple others got the wings, the last guy only got a handful of chicken.
After a few moments or so they began to eat. I heard laughter coming from them, but after they started to eat I left. Watching them eat that whole chicken only made me hungry. Distracting myself from that I began searching the other tents around me for our sect member.
There were a few tents which were guarded by disciples, but luckily they were led away by a man. He was the head of the ritual earlier when they took out a beaten member of our sect. Following that a yell was heard near the gathering: "What's going on out here!?!"
Although I wasn't even over there, a light wave of pressure fell upon me. Quickly entering one of the tents I immediately found the man we were looking for.
Within the tent was the man beaten and bruised, tied to a pole in the very middle of the tent. Both his feet and hands were tied around the pole, and they even gagged him with a part of his own robe.
As I got near him I patted him on the shoulder. No response, shaking him a bit he gave out a groan, before once again becoming unresponsive.
"I'm getting you out of here." After saying that I began to untie him.
Once the the last rope was broken he slumped down onto the ground. Just as I was about to pick him up I heard footsteps approaching outside.