Evil Samurai In Cultivation World

Chapter 101: Hide And Seek

Claude focused on his senses once again, and he was able to figure out that the spiritual energy and the aura that this person was emitting was extremely faint, which meant that this was simply an inexperienced cultivator, and not someone who would have the ability to sneak inside one of the Azure Lion Clan member's room. This meant that it was most likely the owner of the room, which also meant that this wasn't the Elizabeth that he had seen.

With a sigh, Claude turned around, and walked towards the staircase once again. As this Elizabeth wasn't the one he was looking for, this meant that he had to go through two more residential buildings.

"I guess this was to be expected. Now, onto the next building..." Massaging his temple, Claude opened the door to the staircase and used the railing to move down more quickly.

After a couple of breaths, Claude was already out of the building, swinging his head towards the rest of the numbered buildings, and began muttering to himself.

"Next one is. Building number twenty three!"

Claude snapped his fingers as he found the building with the number twenty three written in black on its side, and entered through the windows on the side once again, before going through the caretaker's office and figuring out the room and floor number of the second Elizabeth, whose full name was Elizabeth Carter. 

"On the third floor, fifth room to the left..." Claude, who read through the caretaker's logs again, figured out where the second Elizabeth was staying, he immediately placed the logbook right where he had found it and darted out of the room.

Claude went up the stairs, eventually reaching the third floor and looked for Elizabeth's room, which he found almost immediately.

"Now to check whether it's the correct room or not.." As he stood in the hallway, Claude shifted his gaze towards Elizabeth Carter's room before closing his eyes and trying to focus on the spiritual energy that was present in his surroundings.

As he began concentrating, Claude realized that there wasn't any significant amount of spiritual energy emitting from the room, except for a small amount which was already present in the atmosphere.

"So there's no one inside the room.." Claude confirmed, and began slowly walking towards the door, still cautious. He still didn't know whether this was the room of the Elizabeth that he had seen. The only confirmation that he currently had was that the room was empty. It could mean that either this was the room of the same Elizabeth that he had seen in Gryfino forest, or the owner of the room simply went outside. He had to confirm if this was the room that he was looking for.

As he stood in front of Elizabeth Carter's room, Claude realized that his supposed target's door was locked. Of course, he could simply break the lock or smash down the door, but Claude wanted to leave as little evidence as he possibly could. 

"It's fortunate that I already know how to pick locks.." Claude looked at both sides of the hallway before he knelt down in front of the door, studying the lock. Although Claude was a samurai in his previous life, unfortunate circumstances had resulted in him having to adopt the ways of the crooked and the malicious. He had to sneak into various locked rooms without anyone noticing to get sensitive information, and during this period in his life, Claude had learnt to pick several types of locks, which made him quite proficient in the artform that was picking locks.

"I was worried that the locks would be intricate and complex, but to think that it was this simple..." After looking at the locks for a few seconds, Claude came to the conclusion that it wouldn't be a difficult task to enter the room. The locks were ancient, with a mechanism that was even simpler than the easiest of locks back in his old world. 

"I guess the locksmiths in the martial world were too focused on increasing their cultivation that they forgot to innovate in the lock-making business," Claude let out a soft chuckle as he stretched out his right hand in front of the lock.

"Astral wing blade," Claude whispered softly, and in an instant, a small blue coloured blade light appeared from his right hand. Claude then brought the astral wing blade closer to the lock and inserted it into the keyhole as he began concentrating, and in less than thirty seconds, he had successfully picked the lock, and he did so without making a single noise.

ZAM!

Claude lightly pressed on the door, pushing it open as he summoned another astral wing blade in his left hand and positioned himself in a defensive stance before entering the room.

He stepped into the room and quietly pulled the door closed behind him as his eyes scanned the surroundings.

Inside the room was a tiny living area, and near one of the corners was a small table that was facing away from the door. On the table and the floor were piles of papers, books, documents and notes, all of which were spread across the area without any order or arrangement at all.

Claude turned his gaze towards the cupboard which was next to him, and noticed a painting of a young girl placed on it. Claude's eyes widened and he walked towards the cupboard, picking up the painting as he focused his gaze on the girl in it.

"Well, well It's nice to meet you, Elizabeth Carter," Claude had a grin on his face as he stared at the painting in his hands. The girl in the painting was the same girl that he had seen in the Gryfino forest, which reassured Claude that this room was in fact the room of the Elizabeth that he knew.

He carefully placed the painting back in the cupboard, and then turned towards the small table in the corner, walking towards it. 

Whoosh!

He flipped open the books and documents that were on the table, reading through it, only to realize that none of the books had had anything to do with White Dragon nor any information regarding the expedition that Elizabeth had participated in.

"I guess she would've hidden any important documents if there are any," Claude pressed his hand against his chin, trying to figure out where the information regarding the White Dragon's teeth could be if it really did exist, and walked towards the kitchen.

"Look what we have here," Claude moved towards the kitchen window and picked up one of the small medicinal bottles that were kept near the windowside. The cover on the bottle read 'Maziken', and Claude, intrigued, gripped the bottle a bit more tightly and closed his eyes as he tried to get a read on the spiritual energy that was still persisting on the bottle.

Now that he was in the sky realm, Claude could differentiate between various strands of spiritual energy that are known to be the essence of life in all living things. Spiritual energy is present in every living being, and if a cultivator was talented enough, he could clearly use the spiritual energy in various imaginative ways, and one such method was to identify the amount of times a non-living object such as a medicine bottle had been used by understanding the level and the layers of spiritual energy that was enveloping it. 

As the medicine bottle was a non-living object, it certainly couldn't emit the spiritual energy that it was being enveloped in. And therefore, it meant that the faint amount of spiritual energy had been left there because of contact with the person who was using it, which was most likely Elizabeth.

"Wow, this is interesting.." As Claude gripped the bottle, he came to the realization that Elizabeth had been ingesting the medicine almost every three hours. Claude figured this out by noticing the faintness of every layer of spiritual energy that was present on the bottle, and how much it differed from the layer directly above or beneath it. Claude turned the bottle around to read the instructions on the back, and was stunned to realize that the prescribed dosage of the medicine was actually supposed to be one tablet every day.

"I should keep this for now," Claude slipped the medicine into his sleeves, and then began looking around the room once again, trying to find any clues about the White Dragon's teeth.

After a few minutes of searching, Claude, now desperate, said to himself, "I might use up more energy than I had initially thought to conserve, but it doesn't seem like I have any other choice."

With a sigh, he closed his eyes and began concentrating, as he began studying the spiritual energy that was present in the entire room, down to the layers and faintness of it.

As time went on, small beads of sweat began to form on Claude's face, and he began to show signs of tiredness. But right at that instant, Claude suddenly opened his eyes, turned his gaze towards the small desk which was located right next to the table, and knelt down in front of it.

Claude was able to identify faint particles of spiritual energy emitting from the wall behind the desk, which meant that the wall behind it was hiding something that was either alive or was an inanimate object that had come into contact with a living being. It was extremely faint, but Claude was thorough enough to be able to detect it. 

"Well, aren't you clever?"