“BORDERS CLOSED, TURN BACK.” The signs were wide and clear for the team of exorcists who were driving towards the checkpoint. Soon after the Border Guards demanded Lein to stop the car and present their IDs for verification.
“The roads are blocked because of some reconstruction issues. Please divert back to the main road and try Exit 34B and upwards. Account at least two more hours to your travelling time.” The Guard told them like it was a rehearsed response. As if Lein knew what was going to happen, he stopped as instructed and prepared himself mentally. Aside from the standard IDs that Lein had collected from the group, he had also shown their Demon Exorcist’s licenses.
“We’ve heard about the ‘matter’ and had volunteered to investigate the cause of it.” Lein lied with a straight, yet confident look on his face. The Guard took a quick glance at the Qilin Demon Cultivator before scrutinising their ID cards once again.
“I’ll get back to you. Go through the first checkpoint and turn left. Wait for further instructions.” The Border Guard stated and shouted at his comrades to lift the roadblock for their car to pass through.
“Looks like what Milk said is true.” Su Zhen scanned around the vicinity and saw that the guards were in their full battle garments despite pretending this just being a typical ‘reconstruction’ roadblock.
“Heh. This Jin is as cunning as Grandma Yuan. He must have a sixth sense knowing that there was something going on here. I’m starting to think whatever is there, it won’t just be some standard bone demons.” Rong felt elated that they were not doing some pathetic errand to catch these demons.
“That does not mean it deviates from our mission,” Lein told his companion as he thanked the Guard who removed the roadblock with a nod. “Whatever the demon, we have to grab samples of it. If possible capture it alive, otherwise kill it and hand over the corpse to Jin.”
“Assuming whatever they are afraid of is not a ghost type, grabbing samples might still be nigh impossible. You know how quickly demon bodies erode. We have, at best, two days to bring it back for cross-examination.” Lian reminded them while she stared blankly out of the window despite the constant activities of the border guards.
“In any case, we should concentrate on getting in first and meet Milk at the aforementioned location.” Lein told the rest to stay in the car while he settled with the next batch of guards.
“Man, if Ms Milk can get into the compound undetected, that means she must be quite a high-level cultivator,” Rong mentioned casually while he helped Lein turn the car into idle mode, reducing the activity of the engine further. “Just where did Jin get to know all these people?”
“Jin this, Jin that. You must be really jealous of him.” Lian commented while Su Zhen snickered believing it was more likely the other way around. He wanted to be like Jin.
“What?! No way! Who would want to be like that scammer! He could have told us that the spider was the exam!” Rong argued and tried to defend himself.
“Ookayyy. Whatever rocks your boat.” Lian shrugged her shoulders since she could not be bothered to turn her head from the front seat and quarrel with Rong.
“Captain Samsu.” The captain introduced himself as he extended his hand for a simple greeting. Lein returned the greeting but noticed that the captain’s grip was weak and he had heavy black eye bags on his face, making him look more than just haggard.
“You claim to have volunteered yourself here. Please explain.” Captain Samsu asked, but a sudden phone call interrupted the conversation. He quickly picked up and walked away for a moment to answer the call. Even without any eavesdropping, the expression on the Captain made the situation he was handling rather obvious, and Lein did not like this one bit.
“My bad. Where were we?”
“You asked for an explanation of why we’re here. I am afraid I cannot go too much into the situation, but you can regard it as a simple recon mission.” Lein tried to make up an excuse, but Captain Samsu felt more irritated than ever.
” ‘Simple’ recon mission? What the hell? Is that how they treat all of this and the reason why they only sent newly promoted exorcists to us? Ah, whatever. Those government dogs are always thinking about their face.” Anger was seeping out of the Captain’s face as if he was waiting for something more optimistic as Lein pretended to be nonchalant to the complaints.
“Regardless, four fresh able bodies is better than none. You said you wanted to see what’s inside, right? Be my guest, but know this. I’m in no way responsible for you. You come back with everyone missing, it’s none of my business.” Captain Samsu stated and shouted for one of the guards.
“Make them sign the indemnity form and record their ID cards in case they don’t come back within the next 72 hours. After which, let them pass.” Captain Samsu ordered, returned back to his office and continued to make calls for the guards.
While the rest were doing the paperwork, Lein casually asked one of the guards about Captain Samsu’s lousy mood.
“Not enough manpower and insufficient ammunition. The injured are getting more numerous, so they are being sent to various hospitals to lower the suspicions. But despite the increasing casualties, we still don’t get any reinforcements. Not to mention, none of us here had the luxury to spend any Christmas or the new year because of this fucking horde.” Guard A ranted out loud, in poor hopes that the ‘infamous exorcists’ could write that in their wretched report back to their higher ups.
“Yeah, if not for the private contractors, this wall would have already been broken through many times. And here we thought there would be more help coming in the way.” Guard B badmouthed the situation. It was clear that they had enough with all of this damned secrecy.
“Didn’t they tell us the army will come by this week?” Guard A asked, but Guard B corrected him that they wouldn’t come here before next week instead. Even though Lein knew a little from Milk’s leaked information, he decided to keep his mouth shut for now and calmly fill in the rest of the paperwork.
“Not to say you are useless or anything, but I doubt you’ll be of much help, considering your ranks. So please, do a quick recon and ask your superiors for reinforcements. We sorely need it.” The first Guard requested. But as luck would have it, their own supervisor shouted at them to hurry up with the paperwork and get back to their guard positions.
Lein took the border guard guest passes as proof of identification for the roads and subsequent checkpoints ahead. As he drove the car through the first line of inspections, the team quietly but vigilantly looked out for any damages done by the demons around the area.
To their surprise, there was not much damage to the infrastructures, but there were obvious signs of firefights at the forests right beside them. Rong also managed to sieve out the scent of gunfire smoke, and it felt recent.
Considering he could have a whiff of it from a moving car, indicated that the guards were not lying.
