Shadow Maze

"Lan Wuying is here."

Lu Ming's words were like a thunderclap, leaving everyone stunned.

"Where?" Wu Yong of Kaishanmen was the first to speak. He immediately went on guard, hurriedly scanning the surroundings.

The others came to their senses and looked around as well, but apart from the wind rustling through fallen leaves, there was no other movement.

They could only look back at Lu Ming in confusion, hoping he would offer an explanation.

Lu Ming had not been making wild claims. On his way here, he had already considered how Lan Wuying might carry out the theft.

Since Lan Wuying had set the date in advance, he naturally had a thorough plan.

And it was impossible for him not to know that disciples from the various sects would be coming.

So the question was, how could he successfully steal the item under the tight guard of so many sect disciples?

After much deliberation, Lu Ming felt that infiltrating in disguise was the most likely possibility.

Disguising himself as a Liu Family servant would easily expose him, and he would likely be unable to get close to the guarded item.

But posing as a sect disciple would be far easier.

For one, the Liu Family had no way of confirming whether those who came were truly sect disciples, and the disciples from different sects did not know one another anyway.

For another, as someone there to help, he would naturally be able to guard the stolen item at close range.

That would make success easy—and leave no trace, as if ghosts and gods themselves knew nothing of it.

Still, sect disciples were not so easy to impersonate. After all, every sect had its own unique identity token.

That made it highly likely that he had ambushed a sect disciple along the way and taken his place.

The reason Lu Ming had arrived late, aside from the long journey, was that he had remained vigilant the entire way.

After all, he was only in the Early True Qi Realm and looked like the weakest among them. He was very likely to become a target.

In the end, he had only encountered a band of bandits, wasting time and making him think he had been overthinking things.

However, after probing everyone upon entering, he had still discovered a clue.

The reason he had belittled Lan Wuying earlier was not merely to refute Chen Jiang and avoid losing momentum.

More importantly, he had deliberately wanted to provoke someone.

Anger was an emotion, and it could reveal many things.

With his keen senses and deliberate observation, he had indeed noticed that one person's anger was different from the others'.

And far more intense.

That was why he had said Lan Wuying was here.

Now, faced with everyone's doubts and confusion, he laid out his entire line of reasoning.

After hearing it, everyone was shocked once more. Lu Ming's deduction was well-supported and his train of thought exceptionally clear.

They could not help but believe it seven parts out of ten.

"Brilliant! It must be exactly as you said." Liu Qing, Old Patriarch Liu's son, could not help voicing his praise.

He clearly had not yet realized what kind of situation they were in.

Sure enough, no one paid him any attention. Instead, following Lu Ming's gaze, they all looked toward Wu Yong, the Kaishanmen disciple who had spoken first.

At that moment, Wu Yong's expression changed.

"It's you!"

Lu Ming immediately caught Wu Yong's slight change in expression, further confirming his deduction. Without hesitation, he curled his fingers into claws and struck at him.

Crack!

The sharp claw force cut through the air like five blades, reaching its target first.

The moment Lu Ming voiced that deduction, Wu Yong had realized that he was about to be exposed.

Yet he had still clung to a sliver of hope. But now, seeing the other man decisively claw at him—

There was no time to think. He immediately retreated.

Whoosh!

Wu Yong's body suddenly drifted backward like a fallen leaf, effortlessly evading Lu Ming's claw strike.

"Take another move from me—Heavenly Net!"

His first claw missing did not disappoint Lu Ming. He closed in again and struck out with claw after claw.

It was the third stance of the [Tiger Fiend Claw]. Back then, Li Chonghu, the Black Tiger Gang's leader, had used this very move to seal off Lu Ming's movements.

Screech! Screech! Screech! Screech!

In an instant, more than a dozen sharp claw forces descended upon Wu Yong from every direction.

They formed a net so dense that not even wind could pass through.

"Hmph, a trifling trick!"

Facing the encirclement, Wu Yong smiled disdainfully. His body suddenly twisted like a spirit snake, slipping through gaps and weaving around wave after wave of claw force to break free of the encirclement.

"Since you've discovered me today, I won't play with you any longer. I'll come back and settle the score next time!"

Wu Yong had practically admitted his identity outright—and he actually wanted to leave.

But at that moment, the others made their moves as well, each attacking him from a different direction.

"Lan Wuying, take my Blazing Fist!"

Yu Shan of the Nine Tripod Sect burst into flames, seeming like a man made of fire. Yet this was not real flame, but scorching true qi.

Wrapped in that true qi, his fist became like a fiery red meteor, trailing a long tail of flame as it blasted toward Lan Wuying.

The rest also unleashed their own ultimate techniques.

Faced with one move after another, Lan Wuying gave another light laugh. With a turn of his body, he abruptly transformed into four afterimages and broke out in four separate directions.

"That's the Demonic Cult's Shadow Maze movement technique."

Upon seeing the afterimages, Jiang Ruoshui of the Jade Luo Sect withdrew her sword stance and shouted a warning, "One of the four afterimages must be real. One for each of us!"

"I'll take this one!"

Having punched empty air and only destroyed a building, Yu Shan of the Nine Tripod Sect immediately rushed toward the nearest afterimage.

"Then I'll take this one."

Zhou Heng of the Seven Fragrance Sect also chose an afterimage.

There was no need to mention Lu Ming. Up to now, he had not even used thirty percent of his strength, and he had been somewhat interested in seeing the capabilities of the disciples from the various sects.

But this was clearly not the time to watch. He raised his strength by another measure, activated the [Hundred Mile Qi Convergence] movement technique, and instantly swept toward an afterimage before striking down with his palm.

With a soft puff, the afterimage immediately burst apart like a bubble.

"So it was fake after all."

Lu Ming was not surprised. The instant his opponent split into shadows, his sharp senses had already detected something unusual.

He simply had not been certain, and since this afterimage was closest to him, he could not risk letting it exploit an opening.

Now that it had been confirmed, he hurriedly looked in Jiang Ruoshui's direction.

Sure enough, the other two were both fakes. Only Jiang Ruoshui had encountered the real person.

"Hmph, you actually took me for the weak point. Take this—Hibiscus Soul Seal!"

Being treated as the direction of escape, Jiang Ruoshui's expression was naturally unpleasant. As her long sword danced, Sword Qi shot out in streaks, forming a funnel centered around her.

The funnel's wide mouth naturally enveloped Lan Wuying, as though it would grind him to pieces.

"What a formidable sword technique."

Lu Ming could not help but praise it. True to its name, the Sword Qi unleashed by this Hibiscus Soul Seal was so dense that it left almost no gaps.

The Heavenly Net in his Tiger Fiend Claw was ultimately still a net, leaving room for someone to evade.

But this funnel was airtight.

Lan Wuying would likely find it difficult to pass through it and could only retreat.

Sure enough, Lan Wuying's expression finally lost some of its ease. Heaven knew, he had only chosen Jiang Ruoshui's direction because the terrain there was complex and would make escape easier.

Yet he seemed to have run into the most troublesome one instead.

Faced with such a dense shroud of Sword Qi, he could not slip through the gaps either. Just as Lu Ming had guessed, he could only choose to retreat.

At this moment, Yu Shan of the Nine Tripod Sect charged in again with his flaming fist.

Lu Ming and Zhou Heng of the Seven Fragrance Sect no longer stood by idly either, both leaping forward.

Facing an encirclement once more, Lan Wuying felt immense pressure, because this time the ring around him was even smaller.

As for meeting them head-on, though his strength was not weak—and he was even confident that he was stronger than Chen Jiang of the Nine Heavens Sect—he still could not withstand the combined assault of four people.

Even if he injured one of them, he would still have to face the attacks of the other three.

Especially with Lu Ming among them, whose palm force was fierce and domineering. Lan Wuying did not possess Chen Jiang's true qi barrier.

Thus, he hesitated no longer. His figure burst apart once more, and without bothering about the afterimages, he used his superb movement technique to abruptly soar upward through the air, intending to escape the encirclement from above.

Puff.

The prepared group immediately shattered the afterimages, then continued their pursuit of Lan Wuying.

But at that moment, a loud shout rang out.

"Esteemed young heroes, move aside!"

The one shouting was Old Patriarch Liu, who had left earlier and vanished without a trace. When he returned, he held a finely woven fishing net covered in sharp fishhooks and spikes.

It turned out he had not been entirely unprepared. From his experience, when dealing with someone whose movement technique was exceptionally skilled, one had to use a net like catching birds.

Thus, he had long prepared a net woven from fine threads of refined iron and placed it near the family's inherited cultivation technique.

He had gone to retrieve it just now.

"Ha!"

Old Patriarch Liu soared into the air like an aged eagle, then cast the fine steel-wire net down over Lan Wuying.

Lan Wuying finally cracked completely, his face stricken with horror. He tried to turn and evade, but it was already too late.

Lu Ming and the others' long-range attacks had also arrived.

This time, there was no escape.

Bang!

Lan Wuying narrowly dodged the attacks again, only to be caught squarely in the spread net.

He wanted to blast it apart with his formidable true qi, but found the net astonishingly resilient—he could not break it open in one go.

Naturally, Lu Ming and the others would not give him another chance. Three punches and two kicks struck his body in quick succession.

He was killed on the spot and fell from the sky.