Chapter 377: Logical and Illogical Decisions
At the center of Yuan Clan's volunteer camp, 200 old men from various clans and small sects attended a banquet to celebrate their victory in advance.
The party was held on a large square wooden platform, which had been built to serve as the main gathering point for the leaders of all clans and organizations.
Elderly men sat on a cotton cushion while food and alcoholic drinks had been served on short tables in front of them. Everyone sat in a horseshoe formation, leaving the center area open for the performers and musicians to do their things.
Laughter, murmur chat, the clinking sound of wine glasses, and zither music mixed together. Unless one paid attention to a specific conversation, no bystander could understand what the banquet participants had been saying.
Most of the participants were either 5th-stage or 6th-stage cultivators. As for all nascent soul experts, they had been summoned to Yuan Shaoqing's main camp 10 kilometers to the east.
Even without their top experts, these people ignored the state of the alliance camp as they thought that the management was none of their business – They were only here to plunder Siren City after the top experts dealt with the defenders of the city before them.
While most cultivators here were carefree, smart ones had been busy elsewhere at the back of their camps.
At the southeast section of the camp, far back from the potential battlefront, the fat patriarch of the merchant alliance had a private meeting with several outsiders.
Yu Shun, the father of Yu Lin, had been interrogating a local rogue cultivator, who used to buy elixir water from the beastmen.
The merchant still hadn't forgiven Miaomiao for killing his son. Now, he had been working in secret, hoping to crush Miaomiao and his family with his hands.
"Aside from the 8th-stage cultivator, who else did you see?" Yu Shun asked one of the local men while he passed a refined stone to him.
The man accepted the bribe and started talking, "Those small beasts always bragged about several nascent soul guardians and their queen. I don't know the exact number of their top fighters, but they are a lot stronger than the first-rated sects for sure."
"Have you seen those nascent soul cultivators in person?"
"No. It was just a rumor."
"Okay, you can go."
Yu Shun chased the rogue cultivator out. Then, he summoned another one and asked the same questions.
The new rogue cultivator revealed a piece of new information, "The queen of beastmen is as strong as a nascent soul expert."
The info was old. Yu Shun kicked him about and called another one.
Another traveling merchant also got new info, "That city hides stunning beauties inside the city! Many beastmen can transform into demi-humans, and they are gorgeous!"
Yu Shun took notes of that. Then, he allowed more eyewitnesses to sell their information.
"The beastmen are working with demons and demon worshipers! I saw several orcs dressing like monks!"
"I saw the wastrel Ma Moxi in that city! I think the Ma Clan is supporting the demons and the beastmen."
"When we were attacked by the unknown cultivators, I saw a giant orc lord among the defenders. The people there also used strange weapons that breathed fire."
Series of new intel continued to come in as Yu Shun continued to bribe the local cultivators and merchants. However, the more Yu Shun heard about the forces inside the city, the more he wondered if Yuan Shaoqing was making the right decision to provoke this force.
'8th-stage cultivator and several nascent soul experts… They are gathering quite a force in there. Even if they possess such priceless elixir, the first thing Yuan Shaoqing and everyone should do is to make friends with them first and assess the situation. Why did Yuan Shaoqing and other fools decide to wage war against them?'
Yu Shun hated Miaomiao with a passion, but he wasn't stupid. The merchant knew his limits, and he didn't want to provoke a potential sleeping dragon without a backup plan.
As the fat merchant was contemplating whether joining Yuan Shaoqing's bandwagon was a good idea, his men brought in another young man, who had visited Siren City and managed to slip in during the chaos. He also had taken several pictures of the city with his J-Phone.
The young man grinned, believing that the photo might fetch a lot of money.
"Sir, I have interesting information that you've never heard or seen before. I'm wondering how much will you pay for it?"
Yu Shun sighed and waved his hand, "I've heard everything. You can leave."
"B-But my information is unique! I have several pictures in here!"
The young man took out his phone and was about to show the photos. However, Yu Shun, who was mentally exhausted from the marathon Q&A, ordered his men to kick him out, "Take him away. I'm done for the night."
"WAIT!!"
The bodyguards of Yu Shun didn't listen to the young man. They threw him out of their master's tent.
The young man was infuriated. He looked back at the bodyguards and the tent of the merchant, "You'll regret this! Once I've become successful, I'll crush your puny guild and that fatass of yours!"
After venting, the young man spat and walked away.
However, a white-haired elderly man, who seemed to be wearing a skin mask, approached the young man as if he had been waiting for him.
Mike, aka Wang Yun, was still around. He approached the young man and passed him an essence core, "I'll buy whatever you wanted to sell that fatty. Will you sell it to me?"
The young man gazed at the essence core in disbelief. He jumped in joy, "SURE! Here, here! Take a look at my phone."
"Not here. There are too many people here. Come with me."
"OH! OKAY!"
The young man followed Mike to a secluded place in glee. He thought that the old man wanted secrecy, so they needed to chat in private.
As soon as they reached a dark place where no torchlight had reached them, several shadow arms and hands emerged from the ground and seized the young man's neck. Without waiting for the young man to utter a word, Mike snapped the latter's neck with his shadow element hands.
The dead body collapsed to the ground. Then, Mike's shadow absorbed the dead body as if they were quicksand.
Yet, Mike pulled the J-Phone of the young man with his shadow hand. Not bothering looking at the photo of Siren City, he crushed the phone.
Just like that, the photos of Siren City were destroyed along with the modified jade.
Mike sighed and took out his J-Phone to make a phone call. He scrolled to a registered number with the nickname [Master Ding] and pressed it.
BEEP
BEEP
It took a while before the line was answered.
[Yeah?]
The voice of the receiver belonged to Lu Fengxian!
"All rats have been eliminated. What's your next order?"
Mike and Lu Fengxian had been exchanging information and working together in secret after Liu Bian's incidents. No one, even Miaomiao, was aware of this conspiracy since it was the ex-immortal idea to limit the information circulation.
Lu Fengxian never had faith in humans, so he had planted a spy among the orthodox cultivator's side, just in case they suddenly turned their weapons at Siren City.
As the ex-immortal had predicted, Yuan Shaoqing made a move after Liu Bian had died.
Ever since then, Mike, the shadow element user, had been leaking Yuan Shaoqing's intel and assassinated potential spies from the other side.
And now, Mike had taken out another rat among many.
[Keep pretending to work for Yuan Shaoqing. I'll tell you what to do when the time comes.]
"Copy that. What about Yu Shun and his goons? Want me to take them out?"
[Leave them be. Let them sow discord among themselves.]
"Okay, I'll leave them alone."
[Good. By the way, have you received the package?]
Not only did Lu Fengxian and Mike had been exchanging information, but the former also constantly delivered supplies, cultivation resources, and elixir water to Mike in secret as a reward for his hard work.
And among the recent supply, Lu Fengxian sent him something new.
"I've got the package. Boss, how did you get your hands on those rifles?"
[You have to thank Mao Miaomiao for that. He has many weird friends and supporting dao gods.]
"I see. Please give him my regards. I like it a lot!"
[Ah, lastly, Mao Miaomiao has an ally to the north. Don't provoke those weird golems. If Yuan Shaoqing wants you to attack the north, ignore that order and provoke them to attack Xuan City instead of ours. That's all for now.]
"Copy. Over and out."
Mike ended the call, after which he sorted the collected corpses in his shadow.
As if Mike's shadow became boiling crude oil, bubbles of black liquid burst and emit the putrid smell of burnt corpses.
The bubbles lasted only a few seconds. The shadow returned to normal as it completed burying the white bone powder underground.
Just like that, Mike got rid of the dead bodies that he had been collecting after he had murdered his victims.
Once his job was done, he gazed toward the west, where he had sensed a group of water element users by the edge of the western district.
He snickered.
'Those children must have been working hard. Well, don't get caught. I can't help you if you fuck this up.'
Mike turned away from the place where he had sensed Ku'er, Chang'e, and the mermaids. He slowly sank into his shadow, leaving Yuan Shaoqing's volunteer camp, shadow-teleporting back to the main camp of elites.
After all, he was one of the nascent soul cultivators. He was obliged to stay with the big boys to bootlick Yuan Shaoqing and his goons.
…
= Yuan Shaoqing Main Camp =
Unlike the disorganized camps of ragtag volunteer forces, Yuan Shaoqing, elite clans, and top sects sorted their camp placements and defensive arrays.
The main encampment turned into multiple layers of fortresses, separating each section and district and making it easier to organize.
Secondly, the majority of 7th-stage cultivators and stronger people gathered here.
The two top 8th-stage experts of Yuan Shaoqing's forces, Wen Chou and Yan Liang, always followed their lord everywhere. Both of them took turns, using their domain power and Qi sense to scan everyone 24/7. Even the birds and crawling ants were no exception.
Currently, Yuan Shaoqing had been meditating inside his tent while his two bodyguards stood next to him, doing their job.
However, the lord recalled several internal issues that hadn't been resolved yet.
"Yan Liang," Yuan Shaoqing opened his eyes.
"Yes, my lord?"
"Is Ling Tianlong dead yet?"
The promising cultivator from the Yan Clan bit his lips and avoided eye contact, getting nervous because he hadn't completed the task yet.
"I've dispatched a 7th-stage vagabond to assassinate Ling Tianlong. I haven't heard of the vagabond ever since."
Yan Liang thought of the elderly man, who was also the guest elder of Mount Hua Sect. He went by the name "Wang Yun".
Wang Yun had taken Yan Liang's order to assassinate or cripple Ling Tianlong. However, there was no result after a week of waiting.
"What about his life brand? Have you branded him?"
"He refused to brand himself with our clan's seal."
"Force him to brand with our clan's seal when he returns. Also, send more assassins at once and get this over with," Yuan Shaoqing clicked his tongue and stared at Yan Liang's face, wanting to scold his incompetent subordinate.
Yan Liang was aware of his lord's temperament. He only sighed and gave his advice to avoid getting scolded, "Instead of sending assassins after him, why don't you order the Mount Hua Sect to lead the troops and assault Siren City first? Assign Ling Tianlong to command the vanguard unit and borrow our enemy's power to kill them in our stead. Then, Ling Cao and his sect can't blame us when that brat is dead."
Yuan Shaoqing widened his eyes, finding the suggestion ingenious.
They could kill three birds with one stone!
By sending the Mount Hua Sect's men, they could probe Siren City's current strength. They could also sabotage Mount Hua Sect's forces and kill Ling Tianlong in the battle at the same time!
"I feel stupid now, Yan Liang. I guess that's the reason why you won the quota in the last Holy Land Tournament."
"I was just lucky. That's all."
"You're humble as well. Okay, it's decided! I'll order the troops to attack Siren City tomorrow! Ling Cao and Ling Tianlong shall be the vanguards!"
…
While Yuan Shaoqing had been talking to his bodyguard, the patriarchs of various top clans, whose subordinates had been resting in the volunteer camp, started picking up distress signals from their tokens and jade-slips.
Several life brands of their subordinates sent feedback to their respective master tokens, transferring their experience during their last minute before they died to their master.
One of the wrinkle old men, who had been meditating and absorbing faint Life Essence in the air alone in his tent, snapped open his eyes. He picked up his seal token and injected his Qi, reading the memory of the dead subordinate.
The memory was fuzzy, but it was important. From the memory, the dead man had been slacking and drinking with his friends.
But then, the vision of the dead man blurred as if someone had drowned him in a river. Within a few seconds, the subordinate died without revealing the face of the assassin.
"WATER ELEMENT QI!"
Yet, the elder could learn what type of skill the assassin had used.
He wasn't the only one who received the alarming signals. Many clan leaders and sect elders also received feedback from the dead soldiers.
Over a dozen elders floated in the sky, glaring at the camp 10 kilometers away. Yet, they didn't head there to save their underlings right away, only glancing at each other.
Like many selfish cultivators in the camp, none of them wanted to become Yuan Shaoqing's guinea pig to test the water. They were aware of Zhao Bao's power, and they didn't want to risk their lives fighting the 8th-stage cultivator.
They allowed their subordinates to die one after another while they continued reading their last memory. After all, 4th-stage cultivators were expendable.
Most importantly, it wouldn't be fair if their men died alone. They wanted other people's servants and underlings to die as well!
'Once the 8th or 9th-stage monsters begin to move, you all are gonna die anyway. Let me borrow your hands to kill my rival clansmen and other annoying pests over there. Go ahead and keep killing, Siren City. Make my life easier after the war.'
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