In an apartment, a cat-type beast was silently resting in the center hall. Its ears were twitching as if it was listening to the rain outside. It seemed that it was enjoying it. Apparently both humans and beasts slept better during the rain.

“Move slowly.” Xiang Ning signaled, even though the beast was only at tier two, three-star.  A single flying knife would be more than enough to kill it without alerting anything else to their presence.

The others nodded and, with the help of the rain, swiftly passed through without waking the beast. The five of them entered a room with a broken window. The room had been completely messed up, and the exit was a small window. 

“What kind of window is this?! It’s so small!” Long Xiaoqi softly grumbled, but her voice was already louder than the sound of rain. 

The rest of them were shocked. Xiang Ning made a quick decision and shot out his flying knife. Three seconds later, the knife flew back and everyone saw a drop of blood on its blade.

Naive as she was, Long Xiaoqi realized what she had done and covered her mouth. The beast had heard her voice. Cat-type beasts boasted incredible hearing. They had to suppress the noise of their footsteps to the point where the sound of rain stifled them before they could take the risk to walk past it. Long Xiaoqi’s voice was louder than the rain and the beast had heard her. 

Thankfully, Xiang Ning’s reaction speed was fast and before the beast could call out, his knife had already pierced through its head. “Move quickly! If we’re lucky, we’ll get out of here without much of an issue. If we’re unlucky, we have thirty minutes at most,” he speculated.

They had just started moving, so they were at the perimeter of the city without many beasts around. The blood from one slain beast should be suppressed by the rain and wouldn’t spread that fast. But if a beast with a keen sense of smell were to pick it up, they would be in trouble.

Everyone nodded. Thirty minutes wasn’t long, but that was just the worst-case scenario. They hoped that it wouldn’t come true.

They moved in the rain as they avoided being detected by the beasts. Halfway through their journey, Xiang Ning felt something was off. His Combat Instinct had detected something and he turned his head back in the direction indicated by the technique.

Gu Kun got close to Xiang Ning before whispering, “What’s wrong?” 

“I think someone’s observing us.”

“Someone’s there?” Long Xiaoqi almost turned her head in Xiang Ning’s direction before Chu Long pressed her head downward. “Are you an idiot?! If you turn around now, they’ll notice!”

Long Xiaoqi didn’t get angry, even though she had been scolded. She knew she was in the wrong. If it was only Xiang Ning, everyone would have thought that he was just communicating with his teammates. But if she were to turn around as well, their observer would know that they had been discovered. Who knew what would happen then?

“Are you sure?” Gu Kun wanted to be sure. Even if he trusted Xiang Ning, who would be sane enough to come to such a dangerous place?

Xiang Ning assured him, “Yes, there’s people watching us from that direction.” If it was a beast, they would have already been surrounded by hundreds of them. His Combat Instinct had never been wrong even once.

Gu Kun saw his resolution and thought about their next step. “If they’ve been following us and finally revealed a part of themselves, that means they’re going to make their move soon. I’m not sure who they are, but they’re our enemies.”

Long Xiaoqi was nervous. Who would be there except for them?

Xiang Ning thought about it before deciding. “There’s an underground car park ahead, let’s see what they’re trying to do.”

There was no objection from anyone.

Xiang Ning was indeed right, as the cult members were hiding in an abandoned building further back.

“You idiot! We almost got found out!’

“What do you mean?! You were looking at them too!”

“Shush! Enough! They’re already halfway through the city, it’s time to act.”

“Hehehehe... finally, time for a show!”

In the opposite direction of the Seven Deadly Sins were six puddles on the ground, but it was eerily calm. Even though the rain fell on them, there wasn’t a single ripple.

“Lan Quan, were we found out?”

“Impossible. One of the beasts passed by and didn’t even find us. How could people from the Federation find us?”

“Be careful. It seems that they aren’t some simpletons.”

“Hmph! Just a bunch of cavemen. How strong could they be?”

“Alright, let’s keep moving. But don’t get too close, we might have company.” Lan Quan’s words were puzzling.

Company?

He bent down and retrieved a metallic pouch. He opened it and over thirty mechanical spiders, each of them around the size of a rice grain, poured out. He said nothing else and the rest just followed him as he moved out.

At the same time, the blood from the beast Xiang Ning had slain had finally seeped out of the hall. Even though it was diluted by rainwater, its scent had been slowly spreading.

A nearby hound-type beast finally caught the scent and jumped from its slumber. It howled in alarm, its clear voice reverberating across the area. The other beasts howled and passed the message. Soon, one of the beasts in an underground parking lot stirred from its slumber and bellowed.

Xiang Ning’s expression turned for the worse. Time’s up. He wasn’t sure whether the other group of people or they were the ones that had been discovered.

“We need to leave the area and find a place to hide. Let’s see what happened.” Gu Kun felt that they hadn’t been discovered, since they hadn’t killed any more beasts along their path.

Before they could decide where to go, Xiang Ning turned around and shot out three flying knives. They sliced through the rain, but the droplets weren’t cut in half!

Ding! Ding! Ding!

The sound of metal meeting metal rang out three times as three people walked out of the ruins, each of them covering their face.

“Seven Deadly Sins?” Xiang Ning wasn’t sure.

The three people didn’t say anything, just menacingly stood there. Xiang Ning didn’t want to aggravate them either.

He suddenly heard the sound of something skittering. It was so faint that he thought he was hearing things. He looked down and saw a small mechanical spider floating across a puddle and his expression froze.

The three men suddenly leaped backward. Xiang Ning only had time to warn his team, “Look out!”

The sound of gunshots erupted as a fight broke out.

Welp, sneaking time over