Redaloy village was another mining village, but it was smaller in size than Silvernode, most of the mining work was done in a nearby valley so the village itself was fairly normal looking, albeit a bit dusty.
It was also one of the two locations Shu He had been tasked with investigating, based on what he was told in his extended briefing, a hand over had taken place near this village between two black sects, and there had been the occasional rumour of a suspicious figure cloaked in black wandering in the vicinity coming from the villagers, especially since many work late into the night which was the ideal time to move undercover.
'He told me to investigate… but what exactly am I looking for?' Shu He wondered as he began walking the muddy path, the rain had intermittently fell for days on end and it took him two more days to reach the village as he was being cautious and checking every now and then for pursuers, but not a single person was seen heading the same direction as him.
The wet mud squelched beneath his feet as a thin layer of Qi prevented it from sticking, Shu He already had his 'Sense' activated as he began sweeping the vicinity.
He had reached an inn last night and slept his way through the night, so he was fully revitalised from the past couple weeks since he had failed to sleep at Silvernode and Bluemill.
All he could sense was a normal village, there wasn't a single cultivator to be seen, he invaded the houses he passed with his sight and swept it over, looking in each nook and cranny for suspicious items but all he found were household tools, food, and such.
It was a rather mundane job, and he felt slightly bad for invading their privacy.
'It was a good idea to do this in the morning after most of the villagers have set out to work….' He slightly nodded to himself.
If he had done so during the night he'd feel even worse for doing it, and it was likely he'd see a few scenes he could do without witnessing.
"You're it!" A child's voice yelled, followed by laughter.
"That's not fair!" Another voiced squealed as it chased after the first.
'Hm?' Shu He was focused on snooping in the buildings he wasn't fully watching the road in front of him, so in the next moment-
*Bump*
"Ah!"
The running child smacked into him, bouncing off him to heading straight for the mud.
Luckily he had great reaction speed, he lent over and caught them.
"Careful, you don't want to get your clothes dirty" He said, putting them on their feet.
"Sorry mister! But mom said it's fine because I'm only wearing rags!" The bright young boy laughed.
"Did she now?" Shu He chuckled helplessly as the other boy caught up, snot running from one of his nostrils.
"That- That's why you don't run like that!" He said, catching his breath.
"You only say that because you're slow!" The other one bit back.
Shu He looked between the two and decided he might as well use them for information.
"Say, may I ask you two a question?" Shu He spoke gently, trying to not seem suspicious.
"I don't know, can you?" The cheeky one said, tilting his head.
"…" Shu He's mind froze, not expecting such a reply from a child, it didn't seem intentional either based on his expression, so he just ignored it and moved on.
"Have you heard any rumours of suspicious figures?".
The two children looked at one another and then, in unison pointed directly at him.
"I mean other than me…"
'Kids!' He shouted in his head.
Then, the cheeky one held out his hand.
"Hm? What is it?" Shu He asked, confused.
"Mom said to never answer strangers questions for free" He stated plainly.
'This mother is teaching valuable lessons!'
Shu He picked out a big bronze coin and acted as he if was parting with a valuable item before placing it in his hand, it was almost too big for him to grasp.
"Now, can you answer my question?"
Then, the snotty nosed one held out his hand as well.
"M-me too!"
"…" Shu He reached into his pouch and pulled out another large bronze coin and gave it to him.
"Now." He asked, slightly less politely.
"Mmmmm, I don't think I've heard anything" The cheeky one said as his expression soured like it hurt to try to think.
'Why am I not surprised?' Shu He shook his head, turning to the other one.
"I-I think my dad mentioned something before" he said, stuttering.
"Oh? What was it?"
"He said that were suspicious people around the mining area so I shouldn't go there, especially after it turns dark".
"Isn't that just something he said to scare you off Tubby?" The cheeky boy laughed.
"No! And I'm not tubby! Just big boned!" the snot nosed kid vehemently denied the name with a reddening face.
"Did he say anything else?" Shu He pushed, hoping to receive more information.
"Nope, I can't remember" He shook his head.
Shu He sighed, standing up while looking at the two "Well, better than nothing I guess…" he murmured.
He glanced at the two who were gripping the coin while looking at him nervously.
"You won't take these back because we couldn't tell you anything, right?" There was a hint of fear in the boys voice.
Shu He was taken aback slightly, then he realised that while that money was nothing to him, to these kids it might be a lot.
He then shook his head and smiled "No, go ahead and run along, it's yours now".
Their smiles brightened as they ran off.
"I'm gonna show mom this! She'll be so happy!".
"Nu-uh, my dad will be even happier!".
Shu He chuckled as he watched the two run away, with a serene smile on his face.
'It's always good to see kids living normally'.
He then went back to wandering around, he had decided that once he had swept the village he would go and visit the mining area, there was no harm in being thorough after all.
…
As expected, there wasn't a single thing that Shu He found suspicious after covering the entire town, he had even visited the village chief's home used use the writ of the city lord so he could investigate the cellar there, but it was just used to store some alcohol and cheese nothing more.
And so, he headed on over to the mining valley which was a deep groove in the earth with wooden scaffolding covering the entire thing, tunnels in the side of the ravine made it look like some sort of insect hive.
The sun had just passed the midpoint of the sky, so the afternoon had arrived, and a lot of the workers were taking breaks, drinking water and simple dried meat to fill their stomachs, as Shu He walked down the large ramp into the ravine someone noticed him and yelled.
"Hey you there! This isn't a place for outsiders, leave!".
Once again he pulled out the scroll the writ was on and unfurled it, walking while holding the content filled side towards the workers.
They squinted at the scroll with confusion before the one that yelled yelped in panic and ran towards Shu He.
"I'm very sorry, I didn't realise an envoy of the City Lord had been set to visit today! I apologise for my rudeness!" He said, rubbing his clasped hands together.
"It's fine, my arrival is out of nowhere after all".
The man sighed a sigh of relief "So, what can we do for you today?".
"I came to investigate the rumours of suspicious figures that have been going around".
The man paused, his face filled with confusion "Uhm, correct me if I'm wrong… sir? Someone else visited us for the same thing a while back…" He explained, while also being unsure of how to address Shu He due to his young appearance.
"That is likely yes, but we have different specialities you see, you don't need to worry I just want to ask a few questions and I'll be off doing my own thing" Shu He explained to alleviate their worries.
"Oh, we can answer anything you need!"
And so Shu He went on to ask about the rumours, where the shadows had been seen, what exactly did they look like, what they were doing and when before he moved into a less populated zone and sat down in thought.
The rumours had started more than a year ago, though an exact estimate can't be gathered since it felt insignificant to the villagers, they assumed whoever saw it was just hallucinating or groggy.
The shadows have been seen between the village and the mining area, but there has never been one seen inside the village or deep in the ravine.
They were usually too far away to be seen, or moving too fast to get an accurate view, but one of the accounts claim it was a black ghost because it flapped in the wind.
'It could easily be a cloak' Shu He thought.
As for what they were doing… absolutely nothing.
Or rather they were always going somewhere.
'There's definitely something here, but what?' He twiddled his fingers in thought before he stood up and walked to one side of the ravine, the side that was part of the mining zone and placed his palm flat on the rocks, closing his eyes.
He steadily gathered Qi at his palm, moulding its shape and then-
*dooooooooooooooooooon*
A low pitched, resonance sound echoed in the stones, nearly impossible to hear by normal ears and then Shu He opened his eyes.
In his mind, a map appeared, it was the insides of the rock formation, about 30 meters deep in a circular pattern around his palm, he could see many small chunks, thicker parts of the rock and the tunnels that had been dug in the area.
'Quite useful' Shu He nodded.
It was the technique handed to him at Silvernode, he had taken some time to look at it when he had been resting on his bed last night and to his surprise it was rather simple, it only required a small degree of compatibility with the earth and metal elements, which Shu He barely met, and great Qi control.
Ever since he had begun to properly train his control with the golden Qi, his control with the Azure Qi had skyrocketed as well, it was like training with steel weights and then using paper weights.
With that it only took him a few hours to learn, and now he was putting it to use for the first time his opinion about it had improved.
If there was one weakness of this 'Sense' then it was that it couldn't pierce thick materials, at least not by much, yet this technique used a combination of magnetic resonance and echo location to create an image of the insides of something.
It was quite a genius technique, far more competent than he had imagined, he was also thinking of the other uses it could have such as in the medical field.
The techniques name was <
Either way, right now this technique could prove invaluable to him, he suspected that if something was going to be hidden here, it would be underground.
He walked to the middle of the ravine and used it again, mapping the underground area but not spotting any obvious caverns, only a small underground river inside a cave nowhere near big enough for a person.
Then, the other side as well, but this time he saw something.
It was at the tail end of his technique, at a depth just under 30 meters-
The rock thickened greatly.
'It could just be a layer of a thicker material but…'
It was a lead, and what made him even more suspicious was that it was between the ravine and the village, exactly where the shadows were said to appear.
Without wasting a second longer he hopped up the ravine, landing on the cliffside, at the top was a large patch of thick forest that was seemingly innocent, Shu He began to make his way inside with his sense scouring every branch and leaf, so far everything seemed to be normal.
Until he came across a tree.
By eye, it was entirely unsuspecting, its leaves fill of life and its bark glistening from the previous night's rain.
There weren't even any traces of Qi either, someone using Qi Vision wouldn't see anything off.
But nothing could fool Shu He's eyes, his golden irises glanced through the disguise like they were looking through glass.
The entire tree was internally inscribed with formation symbols, two sets, one that overlayed the other, one was active while the other was dormant.
'I wonder if this is a dampening formation' He considered looking at it, they weren't outputting Qi like normal formations, so it was natural to consider the active one a formation to hide them.
He followed the lines of the formation to one point on the tree, a natural small hollow in the trunk.
'If I'm right then all I need to do is…' He placed his finger gently in the hole, so it touched the formation and injected a small amount of Qi.
And then the earth beneath him began to shake, shifting and contorting, yet not a single sound was made.
'Sound isolating formations as well, they're very cautious'.
Soon, a pathway was revealed to him made of earth.
"Bingo".