Chapter 429: Tsukahara

Huangfu Hui ran with his light-body technique at full power, blood spilling from the wounds he had torn open himself, but he didn't care at all.

A short while later, he arrived at a courtyard in the deepest part of the Huang residence.

Two men in tight-fitting clothes were guarding the entrance. Seeing a blood-soaked person rushing over, they were startled and hurriedly raised their blades to shout questions.

"Who!"

"It's me!"

Huangfu Hui shouted.

"Master! It's the Master!"

The two men recognized his voice and, thinking he had been injured in a fight with someone, hurriedly stepped forward to help him.

"You—gurgle!"

As they approached, Huangfu Hui took advantage of their lack of preparation and threw two punches at their throats.

The two fell to the ground with a thud, rolled around clutching their throats, and then went silent.

Huangfu Hui stepped over the corpses and walked quickly into the courtyard.

This was an extremely spacious courtyard, furnished with great luxury. The courtyard was paved with blue stone slabs, a small pond had been dug into the ground, and a circle of flowers and plants grew by the pond, swaying gently in the wind.

But if one shifted their perspective to the surrounding buildings, they would feel a chill run down their spine.

The buildings on all four sides of this courtyard had no doors or windows.

All the walls were built of blue stone, neither letting in wind nor light, and dew had condensed on them, slowly sliding down the blue stone walls.

And at the bottom of these walls, near the ground, there was an opening one foot wide and one inch high every three feet or so, with a dirty empty plate placed outside each opening, some with dried food still on them.

As Huangfu Hui's footsteps echoed in the courtyard, rustling sounds began to emerge from the sealed-off buildings on all four sides.

From the opening closest to the door, a hand suddenly reached out slowly, trembling as it groped toward the empty plate.

It was a petite hand, a woman's hand.

Yet it had lost all the delicacy of a woman's hand; the flesh was withered, the skin was covered in a thick layer of dust, the fingernails were all gone, leaving only ten bare fingers, with thick blood scabs at the wounds.

Then came a second, a third, a fourth...

More and more hands reached out from the openings at the bottom of the buildings.

All were equally withered and pale, all lacked fingernails, and all trembled involuntarily as they groped toward the empty plates on the ground.

Upon realizing there was no food on the plates, these hands were pulled back violently.

From these openings, low, weeping sounds of women emerged.

And as the women's weeping sounds emerged, another kind of crying gradually began to rise.

"Wah—wah—"

The sound of infants crying.

Huangfu Hui ignored them and walked quickly to a corner of the courtyard. After reaching it, he squatted down and pressed a button on an inconspicuous stone in the corner of the wall.

Click-clack-clack—

The sound of a mechanism turning rang out, revealing an entrance one foot square.

Huangfu Hui jumped down.

After descending ten feet, he reached the ground.

He walked along the secret passage, and a few breaths later, he arrived at a door.

A window on the door opened, revealing a pair of eyes.

"Who?"

"Yamashita-kun, it's me."

Huangfu Hui said in a deep voice.

"Huangfu-kun?"

The eyes narrowed, the window closed, and the main door opened.

A man wearing a kimono reached out to support Huangfu Hui's arm and led him inside.

"Who injured you like this! Where is Sato-kun?"

Huangfu Hui waved his hand.

"The situation is urgent, no time to explain. Sato-kun is holding off the enemy, but he can't hold for long... We cannot let Sato-kun's sacrifice go to waste; we must destroy everything before the enemy finds us, it must not fall into the enemy's hands!"

The man in the kimono frowned.

"This serious... fine, I trust Huangfu-kun's judgment, follow me."

Having said that, he led Huangfu Hui into a secret door.

As soon as he entered, Huangfu Hui couldn't help but frown, raising his hand to cover his nose and mouth.