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Chen could see it in his fellows’ eyes, but none dared to speak when the Elder was directly observing them.

The man was measuring them, he knew. Weighing them, to see if they were wanting.

Eventually, the Elder was satisfied.

“We are part of a grand undertaking here, Disciples.” The imposing Elder declared. “You all know of the upheaval in the Sect; that which consumed our Inquisitors and other Elders. The imposition on all of our lives and cultivations we have suffered.”

There was a soft murmuring at the words. The extra steps to get into the mountain were tedious, and submitting oneself to the Inquisitors stole hours that were better spent cultivating. As far as Chen knew, the veiled bastards hadn’t found anything on any disciple so far.

And they were still pushing for more restrictions, the bastards.”

“It was all in service of a lie. Someone is toying with our Shrouded Mountain Sect.”

There was a gasp at his words. Who would dare to attack the Shrouded Mountain Sect?! There had been some rumors about a scuffle in the Azure Hills, but nothing conclusive.. And those who had been there refused to talk.

“Who could fool the Elders?” one man beside Chen asked, and Elder Zang snorted.

“Shenhe has the blood of her Aunt running through her veins. The fool Wen was beguiled by a fox, and so too is Shenhe prone to being led astray. Elder Chongyun is overly cautious by nature, and he jumps at shadows.” Elder Zang stated bluntly. No one else would dare insult other Elders so, but he did it out of hand. He was, after all, part of the main Zang family.

There was more murmuring, and Chen nodded in agreement at the Elder’s words. Elder Shenhe’s deeds, while meritorious, were all done to rid the stain of her blood, and Elder Chongyun’s nature was well known. Some spoke well of his reserved nature, while others derided it. The rest of the Elders were in Closed Door Cultivation. If Elder Shenhe had truly been led astray, and Elder Chongyun had been convinced…

The muttering solidified into agreement then rage. Chen himself was furious. Somebody had actually managed to slap them in the face like this?! The Elder’s face was grimly impassive.

“Someone has insulted the heroic bloodline of the Zang Clan, and all the Shrouded Mountain Sect with their deeds. Someone, or something, is trying to orchestrate our downfall, and they shall answer for their crimes—I have chosen you to aid me in this matter for your discretion and skill. You shall aid me in obtaining justice.”

The disciples stood up straighter. “Yes, Elder Zang!” they shouted as one.

“Good. Prepare yourselves for a journey, disguise yourself to remain anonymous. There is something powerful that we are hunting, and I will not have it alerted. We shall complete our task in this forest… and then take a detour on our return. We shall be heading into the Azure Hills.”

“Yes, Elder Zang!” they roared as one.

The Azure Hills… That filthy place? How disgusting, but if they had attacked the Shrouded Mountain Sect, he would scour the place from top to bottom. The Elder had commanded and he was to be obeyed.

Chen glanced back to where the honoured Elder was standing, glaring at a map—when someone else caught his eye. A veiled woman was sitting primly on a chair in the corner, he could just make out the little smile she had on her face.

Chen shrugged and got back to work.

“I shall return as soon as I am able, Junior Brother.” Lu Ri informed Jin as he stood across from the young man at the gate to his home. “I have to report my mission’s completion, and Master Shen’s orders, but that should not take long.”

He would also have to retrieve a better scroll on warding. The rudimentary ones here were good enough to delay most things, but Master Shen had demanded the best quality for his grandson; quality the Cloudy Sword Sect would provide.

“We’ll see you soon, then, Senior Brother.” The man said, reaching forward to clasp forearms in a more informal style. Lu Ri was a bit surprised, but quite pleased his Junior thought so highly of him.

“Thank you for teaching me that spear style; I have a long way to go, but I’ll get better!” Hong Meiling said with a little grin.

Lu Ri nodded at the woman. She was an interesting student, even if she wasn’t really his disciple. She was raw and unrefined—but she had superb instincts. Lu Ri could easily imagine her, in another life, walking the path of a powerful wandering cultivator. “Oh! And I made you some maple fudge for the road!”

But naturally, her current life was the best for her. “Thank you, Hong Meiling. I shall treasure this.”

Both of them smiled as Wa Shi approached next and gifted Lu Ri with his refined tea formula. Lu Ri carefully stored both treasures and then set about his business, traveling back to the Sect.

The transition from the Qi oasis to the Qi desert got less harsh every time Lu Ri felt it. He traveled along the road and past Verdant Hill with a small, satisfied smile on his face.

Lu Ri… Lu Ri could safely say he had immensely enjoyed his time here. The Lord Magistrate especially was a treasure beyond compare, one that didn’t even have to be cultivated or guided to bring out his full potential. Already he had started classifying every house in his domain, and his work on the “postal codes” were sublime. Lu Ri had expected some pushback from the citizenry, at having to learn something new, but when they were informed about the changes even the least pleasant peasant would shrug and say, “Well, if the Lord Magistrate said so, it\'s obviously a good idea.”

The Honoured Founders were right. The Virtuous Path was the truest path to power!

“Damn the Shrouded Mountain Sect,” a voice snarled. Yulong, who had been walking through the corpses of the destroyed base, turned to his subordinate. The man’s teeth were bared in a snarl.

It was easy to see why. Yulong felt the same dull rage as his subordinate at witnessing the carnage. The bodies were blacked, and there were massive pock marks through the reinforced walls, proof of the lightning’s fury that had been sent against this base.

All of it was the work of Zang Shenhe of the Shrouded Mountain Sect. The woman was on the warpath, tearing through the mountains to find anything at all that could be considered Demonic. Several hidden bases and processing plants had been found already, their only saving grace was that she hopefully hadn’t figured the bases true nature out yet; the bases intentionally looked like they belonged to different groups. This facility had been used to craft weapons, quenching them in blood. They had done damn fine work, these men, and Yulong hadn’t been able to evacuate them northward in time.

Now they were charred corpses on the ground.

Another one of his comrades leaned down and brushed her fingers over a corpse’s eyes, closing them.

“You shall be avenged, brothers and sisters,” she whispered.

Yulong sighed at the waste, and a fresh feeling of loathing for Lu Ban settled in his chest. He had no idea how the little bastard had managed to cock everything up like this. Alerting the Shrouded Mountain Sect and letting the bloodseed of the Twilight Cuckoo’s Triumph get destroyed? Hells, he had so many plans for the division that was supposed to form around the idiot, but here they were without the refined technique.

Now, it was his job to limit the damage. A task… well, it was worse than he’d hoped, but better than his most pessimistic calculations.

Shenhe moved fast, and her Inquisitors were better than had been reported. Yulong had very little leeway left for his mission, and Shenhe was getting very close to the Tearing Tooth Base—something they couldn’t afford to lose, or have breached. To top it all off, his ‘Sister’ had managed to get her part done, so he was truly running out of time.

But… well, a man should perform best when he\'s under pressure. He walked through the facility a bit more, seeing the vice captain laid against the ground. One finger was extended, and a symbol of his own blood lay upon the floor. The man had spent the last of his breath and blood scratching the symbol into the ground—and Yulong smiled at what it meant.

He had Zang Shenhe’s next destination.

And now… well. She had left him this present. So he would leave her one of his own.

And then he’d deliver to his Master a pretty gift. He had heard Shenhe was a beauty, with hair of spun gold and stormy eyes.

He turned to his still seething subordinates.

“Hey. Beidou, Zhigong.” Both paused and turned to look at him. “Pack up. It\'s time for us to start the second stage of the plan.”

His subordinates grinned. “We gonna get her, boss?” Zhigong said, a savage grin on his face.

Yulong smiled and ran his fingers through his black hair, tinted with green. He turned his purple eyes towards the horizon.

His grin was tight, as it stretched the freckles on his nose.

“Don’t you worry. Have my plans ever failed before?” he asked.