Chapter 827: Hostage Exchange?
The Black-winged elder looked at Arkiv for a while to see any change in the expression. But there is nothing. He is as relaxed as ever.
Then he diverted his attention to grace and asked about her well-being before reassuring her about the city and left.
After they left, Grace looked at Arkiv and asked.
"How did he manage to do that?"
"Do what?" Arkiv came out of his daze and said.
"Attack the city."
"Oh, that? We all want to know that don't we? Unfortunately, we cannot figure that out unless he comes here and explains it to you."
"Do you mean what you said about the citizens being involved?"
"Of course, do you think he made these explosions just for the fun of it? This is a warning for you guys."
"How can you do that? Citizens are not involved. How is that fair? If you are men try and do something to us."
"That is rich coming from you. Do you even dare to talk about fairness in front of me? You surrounded us, even before we appeared in this world and as soon as our feet touched the ground, there is already a space lock.
You are judging us for being unfair."
"We are just following orders. Anyway, we are soldiers, fighting each other. Why do you have to bring citizens into this?" She became more and more frustrated.
Arkiv rolled his eyes and only one word.
"Naïve."
"Who are you calling naïve?" For some reason, she became a bit angrier.
"Who else is here? You attacked us first, with or without the orders doesn't matter, before you attacked you should have thought about your citizens, children, and all the other people that you have with you. Because every action of yours is bound to influence their lives too.
You cannot go and pull the tail of the vicious beast and demand that it only retaliate as you wished.
Even if only one person in the group does that, the whole group suffers, it all depends on who has the higher power and that person's mood.
There is nothing fair or unfair in this. This is how the world works. If you think it is otherwise, you are clearly naïve and you are not suitable for killing and fighting."
"How can you decide that? What right do you have?"
She bowed her head down as she asked weakly.
"I don't get to decide this. After all, what authority do I have to decide? But that is what the world taught me. That is the world where I live in."
With that, the conversation was cut off.
Arkiv looked at her dull eyes and various thoughts are running in his mind.
At this moment, Sam is sitting on a tree with the telescope as he looked at the temple and the rest of the city.
He has been doing that every day, to find out the routine.
Actually, he wanted to infiltrate the city with shadow mice as the earlier planting bombs was successful, but he has his reservations.
There is a great chance that as soon as he came out of the divine dimension within the city, he would be spotted.
If he got caught, it would be difficult to get out again.
The fact that there is only One consummate level cultivator in this place is tempting him to do this even more.
The shadow mice grew and they can now escape their vision, but the initial spatial lock he was kept in is giving him second thoughts.
A place with spatial locks couldn't be so backward and they should have known about something like the shadow transverse.
There is a possibility that the key areas might have something that could help them detect these things, that is why he is hesitating a bit.
If not for that, he would have already entered the city and get Arkiv back before leaving again.
The fact that he couldn't blend in with the rest of the feathered is not helping either.
After some thought, Sam decided to try something else.
He called for Yaksha's shadow and sent him to infiltrate the city.
Even though the techniques of the shadow are not greater than the shadow mice and can even be considered worse, it would be a great test subject.
Sam could sense the shadow moving from one spot to another.
Now it is moving past the inner circle and is going farther and farther. His target is the temple in the middle.
The shadow even managed to enter the temple, but as soon as it entered the temple Sam lost the connection with it.
The last thing Sam felt when it was disconnected is a massive pressure and he spat out a mouthful of blood.
The shadow was destroyed. As soon as he entered the temple, the shadow was destroyed, his second thoughts are not in vain.
Sam went away from the spot and drank some heavenly wine to heal the damage, even his soul was a bit damaged due to this, but it is not severe.
He has to rest.
When he reached the camp, there are new prisoners waiting for him.
After the first gift, Sam sent to them he recalled all the Orangutans back as he noticed that the Transcendent stage cultivators are sent out.
Even though they were refrained until now, it seems like the feathered are also a bit out of patience, so Sam let the specter out.
Now even the transcendent stage feathered are becoming prisoners.
After another two days, Sam felt like he caught enough. So, he focused on hiding himself and only caught them when they reached near his camp.
Meanwhile, he prepared a new gift.
He took out a silver pigeon and sent a spatial ring along with it.
This time also the target is the temple. He wants to see if the pigeon could enter the temple normally. Silver pigeon is fast, faster than the shadow, so if anything has a chance at escape, then it is this.
The silver streak of light went past the city. Not many noticed it, and the few who noticed couldn't even follow the path with their eyes.
The pigeon entered the temple yard and tried to enter the main building.
But right after the pigeon shot in, Sam lost the contract connection he could feel with the pigeon, but the pigeon managed to escape.
Sam who is watching through the telescope along with the combination of his eye technique to get a clear few, could see the pigeon bleeding.
The pigeon dropped the spatial ring and came back.
At this moment, someone came running from inside and looked at the pigeon and tried to follow it, but the speed of the pigeon shook that person off easily.
He couldn't follow, so he went back inside.
That guy has one notable difference from the rest of the feathered Sam saw.
He doesn't have any hair on the head. He is bald. He picked the spatial ring and went into the temple.
The Black-winged elder is standing in front of that goddess statue once again as the bald guy came with the ring and said.
"Sir, there was a second infiltration attempt just now. First, it was an undead shadow and now it seems to be a living creature. Looked like a pigeon.
But this time, the pigeon managed to escape with an injury and it dropped this."
He gave the spatial ring to him.
The elder took the ring and opened it only to see a recording crystal.
He injected some spiritual energy and the image appeared.
In the video, there are many feathered who sprawled on the ground in a dark place.
They are all feeling the pain that much is visible through the image.
At the end of it, Sam's voice could be heard.
"One person for all of them. You decide.
Every day you delay, I will kill a person."
With that, the video was stopped. The Black-winged elder became angry. He called for the grey-winged elder and showed the video.
"That bastard. Brother, let me go. I will take care of it immediately. Not only will I capture him, I will also rescue all of them."
"You have one day. It seems like he is nearby. He sent an undead shadow to infiltrate but failed. He would be at the borders of the city. Not too far."
"I will check. Don't worry, I will definitely catch him."
With that, he went to meet the guard commander who was in charge of the operation until now.
All this while, they thought that they are all dead but now that they knew they were alive, they cannot just let them die.
They decided to go and find them.
He assembled his best team and flew out of the city.
They searched from day to night and even till dawn and the Grey-winged elder finally saw some anomalies and found the concealing formation.
He took out his spear and shot it directly at the area.
The spear caused the formation to collapse and the dust raised.
When the dust settled, all that left in the area is a big pit that was used for the prisoners. There is nothing else. Sam or any of the feathered are nowhere to be seen.