A Needle in a Neck

As Hong Zhao silently waited with Li Wei for her brother to either return, or hear news from Shadow, the second patrol team made their way along the forest edge in the opposite direction of Yuan City, moving towards the outskirts of Rantori Village. A line of ten cultivators opened ranks to almost a quarter mile in between. They wanted to leave nothing out of their search. The first patrol which headed towards Yuan City was nothing compared to the one which spread through their old home. Li Wen had stressed the importance of being thorough with the search. As they went through the village, they checked each and every home and estate. With the voice transmission pearls, the group leader could drop in on any of the others as they searched. If she heard a single person rummaging through a home, She would reprimand the cultivator and send him or her back to base with an escort. She didn't care if it was their own home.

Song Bao was one such group leader which stood atop the Li family estate roof, looking down on the village below. She stared intently at the shadows within certain homes she knew her team members would be in, not by sensing their qi, but by the various times she had done the same patrol, as well as the many drills she had her subordinates do even on their off time. She was used to such thoroughness being of the Song family. Though she was not a villager of Rantori Village, she had visited often enough that she may as well call it home. The Song family were known throughout the Yuan Continent as a Merchant family. Their home was Yagowa, a neighboring village only one day's ride to the north of Rantori. Trade between neighboring villages was highly lucrative within the Song family. Whether it be a specific item, or a certain piece of information, the Song family would be the ones to ask.

Song Bao was a young woman of thirty years. Her grandfather Song Feng had put her in charge of relations within Yuan. She was the one that one would talk to in order to get their foot in the door to talk to Song Feng. She was also the one in charge of maintaining relations within every village outlining Yuan City. Every first of the month, they would open their doors to their auction house to sell rare goods they had collected from their own private vendors, or from cultivators who wished to sell their wares.

At the time that Li Wen had began moving most of the villagers, he had requested aid of the Song family to cover such a large population. She had run his situation past her grandfather. When the moon was at it's waxing state, Song Feng had sent twenty horse drawn carriages to Jinmen, the village south of Rantori. He had sent word to Yuan City that he intended to hold a private auction within the village at the behest of the village elder. Since the City Lord of Yuan City received ten percent of whatever was sold by the Song Auction House, it wasn't hard to obtain the approval.

The twenty carriages arrived within Jinmen within two weeks and had their auction just as requested. It was quite a large affair, and most of the wares were sold for a solid lump sum of gold. On the way back in the dark of night, they ran through Rantori. If one were to pay attention, they might see a wagon shake a little more than an uneven road would have happen as villagers loaded in them. Since then, Song Bai had been roped into the Shadow Sect, as Li Wen had called it. As she saw the cultivation ranks of those who had joined the caravan, she couldn't help but hope that help from the Song family might garner some of that luck to her as well, as she had already hit her bottleneck and longed to break through to disciple.

Six months later and she not only made it to the second star disciple rank, but now she stood on the Li Family Estate roof, overseeing her own group. Her memories of the village layout, as well as her relations with most of the families within Rantori made her a likely candidate for a leader. She led them with an iron grip. If they so much as coughed, she'd know it.

Just as the thought brushed her mind, she heard a rasping breath coming from her voice transmission pearl. "Xiao Peng, is that you?" Song Bai touched her ear as she spoke.

The coughing continued without interruption. "Group, sound off in sequence" She opened the transmission to the entire group. Each one called back with their name and status, all except for Xiao Peng. "All converge on Xiao Peng's location." She readied a health recovery pill in her hand as she jumped off of the roof and landed on one of the lower structures. She followed the layout of the rooftops until she reached the one she knew Xiao Peng was located in.

Jumping down from the roof, she grabbed hold of the door frame and launched herself into the home, feet within the house before landing. As she did, she turned to see Xiao Peng in the fetal position, what was visible of his face was pale except for a trickle of scarlet from the corner of his mouth. "Xiao Peng, take this." She walked over and crouched beside the older man. Why he was on patrol, she didn't know. He was twice her age, if not three times as he was only a few decades younger than Huang Ji. The grey in his hair was only just starting to dissipate as he had reached the disciple rank, but the trials the body had gone through with lack of cultivation still showed. She sighed as she put the health recovery pill in the man's mouth. She could visibly see the man sag in relief.

Two of her men came through the door and stood on either side of Xiao Peng. "Take him back to camp. Make sure he's tended to."

The men placed one fist to their heart before crouching over and taking the older man.

"Song Bai, we have a problem." Another voice sounded from the voice transmission pearl.

"Go ahead."

"There's been a breach in our wall. I don't know who it was, but I can sense the qi of a ninth star student ranked cultivator headed past Rantori Village."

"Good copy, stay on it's tail. I'll catch up as soon as I'm done here." She took her hand from her ear and watched the men take the older man from the house. Within the shadows of the night, she saw a play of light on the man's throat. "Hold up a second." She said as she squinted at Xiao Peng. As she got closer, she could see the remnants of what looked like a shining pearl like needle vanishing from his curated artery. The small hole that was left closed due to the effects of the pill she had him swallow. Whoever got through their patrol must have planned this distraction in order to slip through. Her eyes grew big. "All group members converge on the target. We can't let it get to the village!"