Evil Samurai In Cultivation World

"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?"

Claude walked towards the small desk, grabbed it and pulled it to the side, then knelt down in front of the wall and began inspecting the wall. 

"A hollow wall? How on earth did she build this?" Claude was surprised by the fact that there was a hidden compartment inside the wall, which meant that the wall had either been built with a hidden portion from the beginning itself or it was renovated afterwards to include the hidden compartment.

But Claude knew that the room was owned not by Elizabeth Carter, but by the Azure Lion Clan. Which meant that either the Azure Lion Clan had a reason to build a secret compartment for their clan members, or this was built by Elizabeth herself with or without the knowledge of the clan.

"If only I had answers to these questions..." Claude was intrigued by what he had found out during this mission, but unfortunately for him, he didn't have all the information that he needed in order to find out more. And so, he decided to focus on the matter at hand, which was to find out if there were any clues about the White Dragon's teeth that were left behind by Elizabeth.

Claude rubbed his hands across the wall, trying to get a feel of the hidden compartment and to figure out if there was a way to open it without having to destroy the wall.

"Bingo!" All of a sudden, Claude stopped moving his hand, and placed his palm on a specific point on the wall, his eyes enlarged and his face plastered with a wide grin.

BZZZ!

From Claude's hand emerged a small astral wing blade, and he began to slowly insert the blade into the specific point on the wall.

TWIP!

After a portion of the blade entered the wall without any kind of resistance, he pushed the handle of the blade sideways, and a small section of the wall flung open like a small door, inside of which was a small keyhole.

"Another lock to pick? What is this, my lucky day?" Claude let out a bitter chuckle as he inserted the astral wing blade inside the keyhole.

Although this was a bit more trickier and more complex than the one on the door, it was still miles behind the expert locks that Claude had learned to pick in his previous life.

"Aaaand… there we go!" Claude snapped his fingers in delight, as he had successfully opened the secret compartment. He pulled out the Astral Wing Blade from the keyhole, and as he did so, a section of the wall slightly pushed outwards, and Claude grabbed one of the sides and swung it open, revealing a small cabinet that was filled with documents.

"Did I hit the jackpot?" thought Claude. He stretched his hand towards the hidden compartment and grabbed the pile of documents that were present, opened up one of the documents and read through a few pages.

"Ha hah! Oh yes, I did!" Claude let out a small laughter as he flipped through the notebooks in his hand, clearly delighted by what was written in them.

Inside the books were notes that were supposedly written by Elizabeth herself that contained information about the White Dragon and also about their research on the subject.

This was exactly what Claude was looking for, and he had finally found it!

After he hurriedly went through the rest of the documents, he picked up all the books, hid them inside his clothes, closed the hidden compartment and locked it, placing the small desk in front of the wall to cover the opening, and then stood back up.

He then turned to the living area, and began to arrange all the notes, papers and documents that he had searched through before, back to their original positions, and only once he had finished recreating the room to look just like how it was before he entered the room was he satisfied.

Claude slowly walked towards the door, stepped outside to the hallway and softly pulled the door to close it without making a single noise.

One minute later, and Claude had already exited the residential building and began walking towards the entrance gates while still wearing the uniform of the guard.

As he approached the gate, Claude immediately leapt into the shadows, hiding behind a tree and narrowed his eyes, utilising his enhanced senses to watch the guards who were walking towards the gate, studying them and reading their lips.

Claude watched as the guards who were leaving stepped up to the guard who was standing in front of the gate, handed them their name tag, spoke a few pleasantries and walked off. These were the guards whose shifts were over. From what little information Claude could gather about the guards inside the Azure Lion Clan, he had come to the conclusion that there were shifts for a few of the guards. The positions of the guards who left at night were filled in by those who arrived for the second shift.

Claude then waited for the number of guards who were leaving to decrease, until he could see the last one coming from a distance, and after making sure that there were no other guards watching him, he stepped out of the shadows and walked towards the guard.

"What's up Jerry?" Claude waved his hands and approached the guard, who looked at him with confusion in his eyes. "I think you got the wrong guy, pal. My name is Joseph."

"Oh? Is that so?" Claude immediately leapt forward and stretched out his hand, and as the katana was beginning to appear in his palms, he stabbed it right under the guard's lower jaw, and the katana finished manifesting as it burst through the guard's head, immediately killing him. "Good to know!" 

Claude grabbed the dead guard's body and dragged it to the side of a tree, knelt down and took off his nametag.

"My name… my name… my name is Joseph… Joseph.." Claude stood up and then pressed his fingers lightly on his throat, and began mimicking the dead guard's voice, clearing his throat every now and then until he was sure that his voice sounded similar.

He then took the scarf from the guard's pockets and wrapped it around his mouth and neck, partially covering his face, and walked towards the front gate.

"Nametag.." The guard at the gate murmured softly as Claude approached the gate, yawning as he spoke.

Claude took out the nametag of the dead guard and showed it to the guard, who looked at it for a second before nodding his head and motioning Claude towards the gate, which was now open to him.

"Have a nice night.." the guard muttered under his breath. 

"You too.." Claude whispered softly in a voice that was similar to the dead guard's voice, and the guard in front of the gate raised his eyes at Claude's back for a brief second, before shrugging his shoulders and muttering to himself.

*********************

In an unknown location.

BOOM!

A figure descended from the sky at a rapid speed, landing in front of a wooden cottage in the middle of nowhere, causing the earth and the surroundings to shake uncontrollably.

"How many times do I have to tell you to slow down when you land, Barris?" In front of the cottage stood a short man with a twirling moustache, who had an angry expression on his face as the dust from the landing flew all over.

"Sorry Gaston..." From the dust emerged a giant with a long beard, who replied with a soft voice as he lowered his head.

"*Sigh* Forget it.…" Gaston, who looked annoyed, waved his hands and continued, "Did you tell the boss what I told you to say?"

"Yes Gaston…" the giant nodded his head in response, touching the tip of his beard every now and then. 

"Uh Huh… And what did the boss say?" Gaston asked and the giant tilted his head for a few seconds, as if he was thinking about his response, and then said, "Boss very angry..."

"Yeah no shit!" Gaston cursed out loud. "Did he say anything else?"

"Two weeks to find..." The giant muttered softly. "Or no payment…"

"Two weeks?" Gaston clicked his tongue. He wanted more time, but he knew that he couldn't argue with his boss. 

"Fine, two weeks it is!"