Page 9: Disposed
"This is a concealing array? Whoa! Such thing exists? How neat this array can be? I can't believe that brother Bai is such a capable person. Look at the wall, it looks just like an ordinary wall. At first glance, it's unsuspecting that a hole is in this place."
"He's an alchemist right? Don't tell me he's an array master too? Wait, is there someone in the six star school that teaches how to write arrays?"
"Shush! I heard that he's an honorary elder alchemist in their sect. You should address him as an elder or else you might be seen as rude."
"He's an elder at such age? What the... Isn't that too much?"
"You know nothing dude! He's their number one alchemist during their annual competition. Did you forgot the exhibition match? Second brother challenged him to the ring thinking that he was weak but was actually sent out of the ring by a slap? The only one I only know who can do such thing is 1st brother Shoushan. This means that he may be on par with 1st brother or even stronger."
"That's true... It's good that he was well acquainted with 1st brother. If not, we might have rotted in this place. We really owe him our life."
"That's why we should dig this secret tunnel so we would be able to escape this place sooner. Come on, let's continue digging. We can't waste time since we were entrusted to do this."
The members who were assigned to dig the secret tunnel continued their work until the end of their shift with industriousness. Since they were motivated to escape the cold dark place, their work output became even more productive.
On the other side, Long Bai was preoccupied giving directions to the others. Being a living fire crystal detector, the work became so efficient. So far, the red core can react to anything that's around the distance of 20 to 25 meters. With this range, working a week in the mine would be most likely the shortest time he can use to scour the easy mine area of the mountain. However, for the past 3 days, there haven't been any strong reaction that indicated a crystal vein. With another three days left based on the estimated time of completion for the tunnel, it seems like there's not much of a hopeful situation in relation to finding a crystal vein.
After giving the rest of the instruction, Long Bai decided to check things on the upper tunnels. After walking for a few minutes, he reached the junction where the tunnels splits into two, the one where he was that leads downwards while the other that leads to the upper tunnels of the mine. Just as he was about to exit the left tunnel, he heard some conversation going on coming from the other tunnel. Intrigued by the words he caught from the conversation, he silently stalked them from the shadows. Using the silent steps, no one would think that someone was tailing them.
"You've noticed it right?"
"Yeah, how come those brats can steadily cope up with the quota? The deeper regions must be more prosperous than this area."
"No kidding! They don't even look tired after a day of work and their complexion even looked better than us. Should we try checking their tunnels?"
"How about we discuss this with the rest and request a swap to the guards? As a contracted worker, we are in a higher hierarchy than those branded criminals so I think they will hear us about it."
"You're right. Those criminals should not have a more lavish life than us. It's unacceptable. Let's go and discuss with the others later."
Long Bai was listening in the shadows and was conflicted with what to do. Thinking about their discussion, there's a high possibility that the two would really go and talk with the guards. If that happens, the escape plan would be jeopardized, the escape tunnel will be discovered and everyone would be in danger. On the other hand, he can take this the lives of the two and keep it quiet as possible. The only downside to it will be the arousal of suspicions. If one would be missing, they would definitely make a search in and out of the mine. This would tighten the security alert in the area making movements more constricted.
However thinking back, there's an easy plot to cease such idea in reaching the guards. He could just make things like accident. In such line of work, it is understandable that lives can be taken at any moment and any time.
'I have killed before because they were after my life. This time, they will put everyone in trouble, this is even more than before. There's nothing I should hesitate about since they were selfish.'
Long Bai was for a while arguing with himself in his thought however after weighing the pros and cons, the decision was already made, he's going to bury these two. It was them who have first thought of giving him trouble so there's no much choice but to prevent it. If he won't do this, it will be him and the rest that would be in death's door.
Now the only problem is how to make it look like an accident. He can use the soil deposited in the pocket world as the disguise of their death but it must be on a place where it would look natural.
'Wait, I can just take them down first and keep their bodies for a while. The pocket world is just too convenient for such moment. I'm really glad I got such thing. Alright, here we go!'
Long Bai checked first the tunnel for possible eyewitnesses and after making sure that there's none, he proceeded in taking them down. With a silent dash, he approached the two clueless men from behind and gave two spinning kick on both heads. The two men that received the kick on the back of their head instantaneously lost their consciousness and fell heavily on the ground.
Thud! Thud!
Now that they became unconscious, it would be easy for Long Bai to bring them into his pocket world. Although the pocket world seems convenient, anyone with a consciousness can resist being pulled into it using their own will. Unlike inanimate objects that could be easily be transferred in it, living beings and sentient beasts would not be easy unless they allow it to happen.
Long Bai swiftly touched the body of the two and brought it in his pocket world. While the work is still going on, he decided to wait till everyone starts to return to the entrance. Since he needs to make it seem like an accident, he needed to find a suitable place.
Since there are multiple smaller tunnels, he can only choose the empty one for the plan. While choosing the right tunnel, he tried to listen which was not occupied. In each man- size tunnels, there are noises coming from it because of the men working in it. This made the choosing easier for the plan. After finding one, he entered it and started the scheme.
In the end of a small tunnel in the upper regions of the mine, Long Bai brought out the two bodies from the pocket world and laid it on the cold ground. Using his pickaxe, he gave a rising full swing on the roof of the tunnel to create a falling debris on the two bodies. Since the tunnel was not wide, he can only swing it vertically upwards and use the soil from above to make it seem like it had collapsed. After ten or more swings, the bodies were half buried. Using some of the dirt stored in the pocket world, he completely buried the bodies till nothing can be seen except the plenty amount of soil dumped.
Without wasting tine, Long Bai took advantage of the busy working hours to escape the place without a glitch. All of the workers are still inside their own tunnels which made the main large tunnels empty. Swiftly, he returned to the lower regions and resumed instructing and working as if like nothing happened.
Hours passed and the time to return back to the cells has come. Everyone started their march towards the entrance of the mine in order to give their own fire crystals in exchange for food. This time around, Long Bai's group didn't submit any crystals as to kill down the gossips of them making lots of fire crystals down there. The eyes of the watchers that were glued on them lost their interest after checking that only two of the rest gave some crystals. The contracted workers who were once jealous of the group have now rescind their covetous feelings and labeled the previous event as just the work of luck.
An hour before this, Long Bai had already talked to the group about the situation. He discussed about the on going talk about them which was about their capability to always present fire crystals. In order to kill any possible threat to their work, everyone agreed to change the scene. Of course, since there will be no exchanged food, the group ate the rations that was stored in the cosmic pouches.
After the convicts were done being checked, the contracted workers followed in line. As usual, they didn't mind the names of each individual and just checked the number count of the workers.
"Alright! Everyone from this side, return to your cells. Next, contract workers's fall in line."
The guard in charge began collecting the crystals while the other guards were busy checking any possible thieving. As the last person was checked, the guard in charge of collecting the fire stones noticed the anomaly. He was missing two counts.
"Two of the workers are missing! Check who among your companions are missing!"
Everyone in the queue and all the surrounding guards were on alert. The guards were discussing with each other while the workers were doing the same. As everyone was cooperating, they were able to identify the two missing persons.
"Sir, number 7 and number 12 are the ones missing. I asked the front guards and they said no one came out of the mine except the guards who had switched." Another guard reported
"This is not good. Go and search the upper tunnels. Report to me immediately when you locate their bodies."
The officer in charge termed it "bodies" as he highly suspected that they might have experienced an accident in the mine. There's no possible explanation for him to suspect aside from this cause.
A group of guards went in the upper regions to locate the two missing persons. After a thorough search, one guard returned to report what they saw.
"Sir, we located the site of accident. There was a cave in in one of the small tunnels in the upper regions. We found the bodies buried under the soil. The two bodies found were positively identified as the missing workers from the number in their collar."
"Dang it. Reduced man power. Alright, go bury the bodies while I go and report this. Everyone return to your places."
The crew of contracted workers went back to their den and discussed what happened. On the other hand, the officer in charge went to the commanding officer's tent to report the situation.
Inside the cell, all the members of the union island team were silently resting their bodies from the day's work. Although something happened, everyone was quiet as they have an idea what happened. Since they don't want to talk about it, each slumped back to their cold beds and focused in resting.
.
.
"Private Ryan reporting. Permission to enter sir!"
"Come in. What is it?"
The officer in charge reported the content of the case. After three minutes of thorough report, the commander didn't ask anymore questions and instead he immediately dismissed the case.
"I'll give you an assignment. Take the box of the deceased and return them to their own families. Don't forget to include the consolation token for the family."
"Yes sir!"