Chapter 28: An Affair

A little after eight in the morning, Lin Huang woke up early. Though the frenzied flight for his life in the middle of the night had left him utterly exhausted, he hadn't slept well in the hotel either. The memory of those shadow crows sweeping across the sky made it impossible for him to rest easy.

Fatty, on the other hand, hadn't stirred the entire time, snoring so thunderously that Lin Huang, who had only booked a twin room, found it unbearable. He ended up getting himself another room a few doors down just to escape the racket.

After waking Fatty and giving him a brief account of what had happened during the night over breakfast, the two headed to the hotel lobby to wait for the group to assemble.

At exactly nine o'clock, Yi Yeyu appeared right on time.

The moment he saw her, Lin Huang couldn't help but ask, "Was the shadow crow swarm taken care of yesterday?"

"It's already been handled," Yi Yeyu replied, her face filled with awe as she spoke. "Last night, as soon as you left my room, I notified the association. I heard they sent over a Transcendent, who subdued the entire swarm in less than a minute."

"That massive flock of shadow crows, suppressed in under a minute?!" Lin Huang found it hard to believe. He still had no real sense of just how powerful the strongest forces in this world could be, but from what he was hearing now, Transcendents were beings who had already surpassed the limits of humanity.

"The strength of a Transcendent is beyond your imagination," Yi Yeyu said. "Don't reach for the stars just yet. Right now, you should be thinking about how to pass the assessment and advance to Blackiron rank." After a pause, she added, "And how you plan to pay me back..."

Hearing those final words, Lin Huang wisely chose to keep silent, not wanting to give her any reason to dwell on the matter.

Fatty, having listened in on their conversation, sidled up to Lin Huang with a sly look on his face and whispered, "What exactly did we do in her room last night? Don’t tell me it was..."

"Fatty, are you looking for trouble?" Of course, Yi Yeyu caught every word. She shot him an icy glare.

"Nothing, nothing at all..." Fatty quickly waved his hands. "I was just asking how he owes you money, and how much..."

"Why, do you plan on paying it back for him?" Yi Yeyu asked with a cold, mocking smile.

"In that case, I'd be happy to accept your support," Lin Huang added, twisting the knife.

"Uh... Just pretend I never said anything." Fatty stared at the ground, not daring to speak again, though he muttered inwardly, "Those two definitely have something going on—they're on the same side!"

"The shadow crow swarm has been cleared, the assessment area is safe again, so I'll send you back to where you were yesterday and you can continue your assessment," Yi Yeyu said. With that, she summoned her relic, the Verdant Gate, right there in the hotel lobby.

Lin Huang noticed that none of the people passing by seemed to see the massive door, all going about their business as usual. He glanced curiously at Yi Yeyu. "Is the door invisible to others?"

"This is Hunter Association property," Yi Yeyu explained patiently—something she rarely did for anyone else. "Everyone here is either a hunter or connected to hunters. Summoning weapons and relics in the lobby is routine; no one will pay it any mind."

"Wait! If this is Association property, then if something gets damaged, is there insurance?" Lin Huang suddenly had the feeling he'd been tricked.

Yi Yeyu, grinning wickedly, replied, "Of course there's insurance. Being a hunter isn't exactly a peaceful profession. Property gets damaged all the time. If the Association's holdings weren't insured, the maintenance costs each year would be enormous."

So Lin Huang realized he truly had been taken for a ride.

"If you even damaged the property, what exactly were you two doing in her room last night?" Fatty couldn't help but ask.

"Shut up!" Lin Huang and Yi Yeyu barked in unison.

"If there’s nothing else, I’ll send you on your way," Yi Yeyu said, looking at the two of them. Both shook their heads in silence.

She pushed open the Verdant Gate. Lin Huang and Fatty stepped through, and Yi Yeyu waved cheerfully at Lin Huang. "Do your best on the assessment and become a hunter—then make lots of money and pay me back..."

"Can she ever let that go?" Lin Huang muttered darkly as the gate slowly closed.

On the other side, they found themselves at the place where the Tyrant had carried them through the door in the early hours of the morning.

"Where are we?" Fatty glanced around, utterly bewildered. He'd been unconscious the entire time during their escape and had no idea what had happened.

Lin Huang took a look around, then made his assessment. "The shadow crow swarm came from the south last night, and the Tyrant carried us north for over half an hour. We should now be more than sixty kilometers north of our original campsite."

"So what now? Keep heading east?" Fatty asked.

"Let's go back and get our tent first, or we won’t have anywhere to sleep tonight," Lin Huang decided.

"Good idea. With Tyrant’s pace, it'll only waste half an hour. If it were just us, it would take half a day," Fatty agreed.

Summoning Tyrant once again, the two climbed onto his shoulders and set off for the return journey.

Half an hour later, Tyrant brought them back to their campsite from the previous night.

Fatty's tent stood out in the camp—not for its color, but for its bizarre shape. After a thorough check, they found everything intact. The shadow crows only hunted souls and had no interest in lifeless objects.

"You made such a long cut in my tent—can I even use this anymore?" Fatty looked askance at his misshapen creation from last night.

"Or would you rather sleep outside?" Lin Huang retorted. He had no intention of sharing a tent with Fatty and was already busy packing up his own.

Knowing Lin Huang’s words were a refusal to share, Fatty could only dismantle his own tent, grumbling as he did, "If only I’d woken up earlier, I could have bought a portable tent before meeting up with that woman..."

"By the way, what exactly happened between you and her last night? Why was there property damage? And, from what she said, I was in her room too—she didn’t do anything to me, did she?" Fatty asked again, unable to contain his curiosity.

Lin Huang had no desire to answer. He was still annoyed about having been taken advantage of by Yi Yeyu, and Fatty’s persistent questions were only making it worse.

"Hey, say something!" Fatty called, tossing a screw at him.

Lin Huang turned, scowling. "Mind your own business and get to work."

A moment later, Fatty threw another screw over. "With that sour face, maybe she really did have her way with you last night, huh?"

Lin Huang turned to Fatty, pulled out his Gray Eagle 17 from his storage space in front of him, and asked darkly, "Are you sure you want to know?"

"I don't want to know anything—I'm just taking down my tent..." Fatty ducked his head and got to work, muttering under his breath, "Judging by this, they really do have something going on!"