224 Different Motivation, Different Aim
'Strange. Why don't they have a life signature? How are they hiding their Qi and life force?'
Ma Moxi was baffled when he had found the crews of another warship.
The ship crews were moving like robots, and they never talked to each other even though no superior officer was around. Moreover, most of them simply stood still at their posts with a lifeless expression.
Ma Moxi sneaked behind one of them, who had the weakest cultivation base - The early essence gathering realm. He snapped the victim's neck while he was in stealth mode.
Yet, the soldier didn't die. Ma Moxi's victim widened his eyes and looked around while his necked had rotated 270 degrees and tilted by 120 degrees.
The soldier opened its mouth, planning to warn the others about the intruder.
But a glowing golden knife stabbed into the crooked man's throat, disabling him from releasing a noise. Ma Moxi skillfully slit his victim's vocal cord as if he had done it a hundred times already. Then, the knife was pierced into the victim's skull, ensuring the kill.
Ma Moxi's gold element Qi was at work. No pseudo aura barrier or physique could defend against his enhanced weapon and his assassin technique.
The soldier collapsed on the ground, but Ma Moxi stopped him from falling.
At first, Ma Moxi had planned to store the dead body in his spatial ring to hide the dead body. However, the corpse disintegrated into dust, leaving only his clothes, weapons, and a spatial ring.
'… Yup. I totally forgot about it. Everybody here must be Liu Bian's undead soldiers. The necromancy rumor is real.'
Ma Moxi's face turned solemn. He rushed toward the storage rooms inside the ship.
Within the room, five more robotic soldiers had been standing there, staring forward in a daze. They didn't notice Ma Moxi, who had entered the cabin through the wall.
Ma Moxi had learned from the mistake earlier. This time, he shoved his golden knife into the head of every soldier like how MCs from apocalypse novels dealt with zombies.
One stab turned one soldier into dust. It took Ma Moxi five seconds to disintegrate these mindless soldiers.
Despite having several clean kills, he wasn't happy. Ma Moxi was aware that he was racing against time in this mission.
'Puppetmasters should be able to sense their subordinate's health. Liu Bian should have sensed it by now. I need to hurry and loot everything before he sends reinforcement.'
Cao Mao had ordered Ma Moxi to sabotage and destroy Liu Bian's ships from the inside. However, Ma Moxi had a better idea.
Ma Moxi was planning to steal everything and turn them into his clan asset.
Without relying on Cao Mao or anyone, this former hitman operated independently.
…
Ding
\u003cUnit Lost!\u003e
\u003cUnit Lost!\u003e
"Hmm?"
While Liu Bian was busy observing the battle between his men and Qiang Han's clansmen, the system sent him several spam messages. He felt like he was playing a C\u0026C game, and his units were killed when he wasn't looking.
'System, which unit has died?'
\u003cUnit Lost!\u003e
The system didn't give him an answer. Instead, it continued to spam the same message.
Liu Bian clicked his tongue, annoyed by the system. He closed his eyes and checked the mental connection with his undead minions.
It wasn't difficult to locate the source of trouble as all lost soldiers came from the same battleship at the far back.
Liu Bian opened his eyes. He glanced at Zhang Rang, "Someone is messing with the reserved troops on Wuwei. Can you send a core pillar and a team of foundation establishment experts to check?"
Wuwei was the name of the warship, which Ma Moxi had been onboard.
Liu Bian had assigned three warships as a reserved unit - Wuwei, Anding, and Wudu. All ship names were based on provincial capital cities of ancient China during the Three Kingdom Period, and the crown prince called this unit as Xiliang Fleet.
Ironically, this fleet was attacked by someone from the counterpart of [Xiliang Province], but Liu Bian hadn't realized it yet.
Meanwhile, Head Eunuch Rang believed that the prince was overly paranoid. He was also wary of Sun Wentai, Xu Lanying, and other nascent soul experts in the auction house. Thus, he disagreed with Liu Bian's decision, "Your Highness. We need all capable men at the front line. We can't afford to send any core pillar expert to the far back since the other clan lords haven't shown up yet."
"Dispatch them at once! Don't make me repeat my word!" Yelled Liu Bian.
As the prince was mad, Zhang Rang chose not to argue with him. He bowed and hid his distorted expression before he turned around and sent a voice transmission to his subordinates.
"Send a team to check Wuwei. The prince said that a rat is lurking in there."
Even though Liu Bian had told him to send a core pillar expert, Zhang Rang didn't order his men to send a core pillar expert there. As such, only a team of weak 5th-stage soldiers flew there.
Unbeknownst to Zhang Rang, Liu Bian didn't only rely on the eunuch. He closed his eyes and sent an order to his undead minion on all reserved warships as well.
'Find the rats and get rid of them!'
…
While being in stealth mode, Cao Mao had managed to sneak back inside the theater building. He dashed toward the back of the auction stage where he believed to be the item storage room.
As Cao Mao was inside the building, he could sense several domineering forces, pushing and shoving each other away. The domain power of several nascent soul experts overlapped and got entangled into a whirlpool of gravity and a wind storm, sucking and throwing random objects nearby.
Behind the curtain, Gong Qi was still there, glaring at the nascent soul experts on the fifth floor. Vice versa, all clan leaders on the fifth floor, except for Zhao Bao, were smiling and expanding their domain, pushing back Gong Qi's power.
The invisible struggle was confusing in the eyes of onlookers. But for Cao Mao, who had learned about domain characteristics from Jia Shan, was aware of how this domain wrestling would end.
'The guy on the stage won't last long. Well, he is kinda busy. He won't notice me, right?'
Cao Mao braced himself and sprinted through the storm wind and the chaotic gravity force. He managed to get through the invisible obstacle in one try.
However, the windstorm and the gravity weakened his stealth ability.
The Tang Merchant Guild's guardian immediately sensed a newcomer in his domain. He wanted to destroy the intruder right away, but Xu Lanying, Xia Dun, Sun Wentai, and Zhang Junyi didn't give him enough room to use another domain skill.
Gong Qi grudgingly glanced at the hallway, which connected the audience area to the back of the stage. He paused for a moment before he sneered.
Thinking that the intruder might not be able to locate the secret passage, Gong Qi ignored Cao Mao. He focused his attention on the four nascent soul experts.
Gong Qi hadn't noticed that Xu Lanying, Xia Dun, Zhang Junyi, and Sun Wentai had also detected Cao Mao in the area. Yet, nobody prevented him from entering the backstage area.
…
On the 5th-floor southern box seat, Xu Lanying and Xia Dun laughed.
"Hey Cyclops, Did you see that?"
"Ah. I would have been blinded if I didn't see that young man."
"That's an interesting technique. Too bad, he's still inexperienced. His stealth wore off at the critical moment."
"It was not like we need to see him to find him. He has always been within our domain before he had entered the building though."
Xu Lanying and Xia Dun had paid attention to Cao Mao as soon as the latter had returned into the building. At first, they were surprised by his return. But when they found out that the young man was gunning for the auction treasures, these demon lords had an inspiration.
Both Xia Dun and Xu Lanying had marked Cao Mao with their Qi strands. Now, as long as he was in a radius of 50 kilometers, they would be able to locate him.
The demon lords intentionally let Cao Mao search for the treasures. Once the latter had stolen everything, Xu Lanying and Xia Dun would pay Cao Mao a visit and claim the items.
"Now that I have a mark on him, I think I've seen him somewhere before. Oh, right. Was his name Miao Miaomiao?"
"It's Mao Miaomiao. He has introduced himself as an alchemist during the morning squabble."
"Right! That name! I know that guy!"
Fu De shimmed in, "Of course, you should know him very well. He's your daughter's foster son, yes?"
Xu Lanying remembered everything now, "Indeed. He's the guy that you had tried to make him your disciple, right?"
"Yes. Too bad there were too many annoying guys around the boy. If it weren't for them, I would have gotten myself a talented vampire with lightning element Qi!"
Xu Lanying and Xia Dun's smile widened. Since Cao Mao had proven himself to be a talented man, it would be a waste to kill him and steal his items. They would rather imprison him. Then, they could either force him to concoct pills for the rest of his life or succeed their bloodline, becoming fellow a fellow demon.
Xia Dun stopped exerting his domain power. He patted his clothes and stood up.
"Where are you going?" Xu Lanying glanced at her colleague.
"There's no point fighting for the treasure since we have OUR REPRESENTATIVE doing the job for us. I think it's time to put an end to Liu Bian and his imperial family once and for all."
Xu Lanying scoffed. She shook her head, "Nah, you go deal with him. I'll deal with that geezer."
Gong Qi and Xu Lanying hated each other due to their personal grudge. Despite having the golden opportunity to finish off Liu Bian, she had chosen to stay and fight Gong Qi for vengeance.
"Suit yourself. Well, Fu De, can I borrow your vampires?"
Fu De smiled and bowed. As he was weaker than Xia Dun, he had no choice but to comply, "Sure. I'm curious about Liu Bian's necromancy ability as well. I'm wondering if he can control my men. If he can, that necromancy skill will be very useful for us."
"That's what I want to experiment as well. Let's go."
Fu De and Xia Dun departed from the auction house and flew toward Qiang Han and Qiang clansmen. They had planned to provide support to the local force while they looked for a chance to capture the prince for the necromancy secret.
…
The demon lords were not the only ones who had detected Cao Mao. Sun Wentai had also sensed a gutsy essence gathering realm cultivator running toward the back of the stage.
Unfortunately, they reacted slower than the demons. He didn't mark Cao Mao with their Qi strands.
Still, Sun Wentai had another inspiration. He turned to his subordinates and his son, "All of you should return to our battleship. We'll leave the city and regroup with our men."
"Are we retreating?" The three elders and Sun Bofu didn't like the order.
"Nah. It's time to join in for the fun."
Everyone grinned. They rubbed their hands, looking forward to joining the skirmish.
…
Next to Sun Wentai's VIP room, Zhang Junyi rubbed his bulky chest and massaged his muscle. He grinned as he found the development interesting.
"Ara, ara. He didn't accept my invitation, but he went for the treasures. Such a bad boy needs to be punished."
Zhang Junyi licked his lips. He turned to his subordinates, who had also come to sell their pills and items.
Among them, CJ stood out from the rest of the alchemist elders because of his skin color and his appearance. He was leaning against the wall, looking disinterested in the chaos.
"Chocolate Jay, can you go and protect our little friend on the first floor. He was one of your customers, right?"
CJ frowned when Zhang Junyi called him chocolate. He didn't like that nickname since it was the same as having a white man calling him with an N-word.
Although being annoyed, CJ kept his head cool since he knew that Zhang Junyi could easily kill him any time he wanted. He simply nodded and walked out of the room, strolling toward the first floor as if he wasn't in a hurry.
However, his face didn't hide his disgust, and Zhang Junyi could see it.
After CJ had left, Zhang Junyi sighed as he didn't understand what he had done wrong.
"Hmm, such a moody boy. I should reeducate him later…"
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