Just as he was about to say something in return and his facial expression become quite intense, I saw his eyes glimmering again and he swallowed the words he was about to say and just nodded his head at me .
Witnessing this sudden change again made me understood that whatever was wrong was Li Fu, I currently have no ability to meddle in, that will have to wait after our work here will be done .
The location that Bu Fan gave us was ahead, that building we were going to was just a channel leading us to that place we were heading to .
Li Fu directly knocked at the door and a hole appeared from inside and a cold voice rang from inside telling us that to get in we are supposed to give a code, a password of some kind, we both looked at one another and it was evident that we didn't know this was needed .
So of course we weren't able to answer directly, so the man behind the door closed the hole and stopped talking to us, Li Fu seemed like he was about to erupt out of anger and destroy the door, but I held him up and knocked on the door again, the voice inside seemed to be bored with us and said :
What now, no code, no entry ? .
" This brother of mine is too hasty, so don't mind him, how about this for a code and this for your troubles as well .
Fetching two silver coins from the pouch and presenting them to the guy behind the metal door through the opend hole made him a bit hesitant to close the hole again, I saw his shadow in the dark turning left and right, probably checking if someone was watching him .
After he made clear that everything was fine, he hurriedly accepted the 2 taels and barely opened the door for us, he didn't open the door completely, just barely enough for us to get in without a problem .
Looking at the other side of the metal door, I was drenched with cold sweat, the door had hidden weapons attached to it from the back, the moment someone would try to barge in using force, then that person would be used as a practice target and get nailed by these weapons .
Luckily just now, I stopped Li Fu, otherwise even I wasn't certain about dealing with these weapons, my body defences was inhuman, but the feeling I was getting from those crossbows hanged on the wall and the one held in the man that opened the door for us left me certain of one thing .
Those things were design to deal with Martial Artists like us, so there was really no guarantee that if a conflict arise that we would be able to escape her unscathed, after we entered the first thing that came to our view was stairs leading to even deeper region underground .
Luckily there were lanterns hanged around and illuminating the whole place, otherwise I might get some second thought on whether should we really be going down, just as we were about to move, the guy responsible for the door told us that it was better for us to hide our identity .
At first I didn't understand the reason behind this, but I saw Li Fu nodding in understanding and thought that he might know something about this place, I got two masks out of my pouch and this move surprised Li Fu but he soon was able to cope with it and he accepted the fox mask without an issue and put it on .
Remember the rules, only one of the two tunnels can be used, the third one is off limits, those who would be caught breaking the rules, will be delt with harshly .
That was the last warning the guard at the door gave before he no longer cared about us, he was putting on a mask and hiding behind a wall, so it was quite difficult to tell how he looked like, this wasn't important currently .
We began to descend on the stairs and after a short while we finally arrived to the underground area of this weird place, I seeing the tunnel in front of me, I couldn't help but ask Li Fu if he know something about this place, surprisingly he actually did, he said :
Secret Doors, this place is called secret doors, I thought that it was just a rumor spread around and between the folks, but to think that it actually existed .
From Li Fu description of this place, I found that it was more or less a kind of a smuggling passage from in and out of the city, it was used to get out of the city without anyone noticing as long as a good price was paid .
Also it was used for all kind of shady business, exchanging items, selling treasures, information, even issuing bounties on someone's head, every shady thing that the mind can think of had a place in this place .
People who talked about this place preferred to call it the Underworld World of Howling Wolf City, with a description like that, I thought that this was a place where only the scum of people would gather in, but Li Fu corrected me saying that this place was a gathering place for all kind of people, rich, poor, young, old, everyone would come in to enjoy the fun or make a living here .
Hearing what he said, I couldn't help but wonder how big this place was, but after walking for some time, I was able to guess that the place was as wide and as big as the city above, I wasn't able to see its end with my eyes, even as we kept on walking .
Bu Fan mentioned that he dropped the girl in a place Su Niu told him about, weirdly enough the place that Bu Fan mentioned wasn't in the city, it was an abandoned building in the woods outside the city, but not very far from it .
After walking for 10 minutes straight, we finally came to see the three tunnels that the guard talked about, the left one seemed to be quite bustling, Li Fu told me that it was the Dark Market area, that place was said to be accessed through different channels around the city, but it only active at night .
I asked him about why the Yemen deal with this place, after all since the information about this place was clearly circling around the city, then it should be easy for them to deal with it and clean it up here .
Li Fu then said with a serious tone while pointing to the passage at the right :
This was the reason not a single member of the Yemen or even a high ranking official would dare to do anything about this place, that tunnel you see to the right and is quite heavy guarded was the tunnel that the guard have warned us not to try and enter .
In that place lies the heart of this place and where the rumored person who run and own almost everything around here, Shu Luo, the leader of the Blood Wolves Gang, one of the few strongmen who had reached the Marrow Cleansing Realm .
The gleaming purple eyes of Li Fu disappeared but his enthusiasm was still quite apparent, I didn't know whether he was a fan of that Shu Luo or whether he was yearning to reach the same level of strength, but either way I was beginning to understand why no one dared to interfere with how Shu Luo ran this place .
A strong person in the Marrow Cleansing stage is said to be one of the strongest people out there, so of course the official would be cautious on how to deal with a guy like that, not only that but they might even help him in keeping his work going .
After this was cleared out, I began to quicken my pace a little more wanting to hurry up and finish this rescue mission and praying in my heart that the situation wouldn't get any more complicated than it already was .
Continuing forward with the middle passage, we were able to finally see the end of the passage, crossing that door and we would be out in the woods, but as Li Fu already explained before to get anything done in this kind of place, a price must be paid .
As we reached the door, a guy that reeked with the smell of Blood and seem to have been drinking for quite sometime appeared to be sitting beside the door, that guy noticed us and with a bit of difficulty, he began to ask us about what kind of permit we will need .
We looked at each other in bewilderment, this was the first time for both of us here, we weren't able to grasp what exactly was he asking us, after he seemed to have sobered up a little, he explained what he was asking us for .
Time related permit, that piece of paper was related to how would we come back and also to when we will be coming back, without that piece of paper, we would need to enter the city through the official gate, what he was asking us, was regarding the time limit on the permit, the least was one day and the longest can go for a few months, but each had its own price .
I instantly understood what was going on and was reminded of the words that Li Fu said earlier, he had previously said something similar, but he also mentioned that they were just a bunch of rumors, now it seemed that they were quite real .
I already lost quite the sum of liquid money on our way here, if not for the fact that the building that Liu'er was taken to close to the other side of that door, I would have very much tried to leave the city through the gates, but now that would be quite time-consuming, so might as well pay up and leave it at that .
There was no knowing whether would leaving the city through the gates would be a smooth sailing, not to mention the fact that we would be bringing someone from outside with us back, so it would be much of an issue of we were suspected to be doing something shady .
Asking the guy to give us a one day permit, luckily the leader of this place was quite sensible, leaving through the door required only one permit and it wasn't required to pay more for the number of people who will be using it, I thought that this was quite strange, but a good development nonetheless .
The one day permit cost me 5 taels, it was quite irritating to part with that amount of money, but through gritted teeth I still paid up and received a yellow paper that had the word Permit and had a unique kind of seal imprinted on it .
Then the guy responsible for the door began to inspect himself searching for the key to unlock the door in front of us perhaps and that was indeed the case, but just as we were watching him going through his pockets, a few loud knocks on the door caught all of our attention .
The guard seemed to have finally recalled that the key was around his neck all along, he asked who was it and the need for whoever was behind the door to present the permit, but then a bit old voice appeared from behind the door cursing the guard and telling him that Young Master Gu Xing was with him .
The guard didn't dare to hesitate any longer and panicked after hearing this and opened the door, the moment the door was opened, a chilly wind suddenly stirred the place and soon after the wind settled down, what came into our view was the cold face of a group of people and behind there were some poor people in ropes in the rear .
In the center of these group of people was a young man with fair skin and the arrogant air around him seemed to be pushing the people away, that must be Gu Xing, my guess was indeed correct, the guard bowed in a hurry and apologized and even asked both of us to do the same as to not offend him .
We stood there looking at the scene in front and the only action we took was to pass this group of people and head outside, just as we were about to cross paths with that Gu Xing, he turned his head slightly towards us and then looked at the yellow paper in our hands and said :
Trash .
I didn't understand why that guy said this, we had changed our clothes to our normal ones earlier in the tunnel, not wanting anyone to recognize us, so we were dressed casually and it seemed that why he labeled us as such, but why and when did we ask about his opinion on us .
If not for the fact that we had other urgent matters, I wouldn't have minded teaching that guy a lesson, I also noted the weird scent of herbs coming from that guy and wanted to ask the guard about the identity of that guy but sadly this has to wait until we come back safely, Li Fu was about to lose his temper, but I pulled him up and told him that it wasn't worth making a scene .
We left the city through the door and saw that the other side of the door was in fact on top of a hill, that explain the wind earlier, after getting down from the hill, I saw how dark the woods were, I was forced to use my enhanced eyesight to identify the road ahead .
() .
Bu Fan said that we would head straight forward then after seeing a tree with a handkerchief tied to one of its branches then we will need to go left, then after following similar clues left to guide people heading into that place, we should be able to arrive safely .
I began to think that it was better for him to come with us, but with his current state, he might decide to kill himself just to harm us, not to mention that with the current place we are in, it wouldn't be that difficult for him to escape if he hid himself somewhere, so in the end, this seemed to be the best course of action .
While thinking like this, I couldn't help but recall the incident with Lu Si and that meeting he had with that man from the Evil Tiger organization, it used a similar method, thinking like this, the bad premonition in my heart increased .
Finally seeing the first clue made Li Fu almost jumped out from joy, but I soon calmed him down and motioned for him to be more quite, with my enhanced eyesight, I saw a few shadow moving just now, shadows that had red eyes full of bloodlust, so there was no need for us to alert the owner of these eyes .
He listened to me and seeing his eyes turn purple again made me feel more at ease somehow, after following the clues left on the trees and evading the looming threat of running into the Monsters here, we were finally able to reach the building where Liu'er was said to be held in .
Luckily, Li Fu didn't act recklessly, with my eyesight I was able to see that there were thin wires spread around this building, following with my eyes to where these wires were connected to, I saw that this place was filled with traps, some are meant to capture intruders and some are more focused on terminating them .
Whispering to the guy beside me to follow closely and for him to watch his steps, was enough to make him stick closely to me, but just as we were getting close to the building, I saw that his nose seemed to be twitching and a deep frown appeared on his face, I then heard him say :.
What's with this awful smell ? .
I thought nothing of it at first, thinking that we were in the woods, so all the smells here were quite pungent, but I then tried to sniff anything from what he was smelling, but wasn't able to smell anything .
Finding the situation a bit weird,I tried to circulate more Blood Qi to my nose and enhance my sense of smell and surly enough, after I did this, I was able to smell the scent that made me frown as well .
THE SMELL WAS FAMILIAR TO ME, THAT WAS THE SMELL OF BLOOD .