Infiltration

A hidden sentry post,

concealed within the undergrowth, with a pair of eyes occasionally sweeping the surroundings.

A faint breeze drifted past without drawing the slightest notice.

Jiang Ding had activated the Minor Breath Concealment Technique to its fullest, and the optical camouflage of his combat uniform was fully engaged. Like a chameleon that could change form at any moment, he would have shown faint transparent ripples and shifting colors in daylight.

Under the cover of night, all those traces were hidden away.

The Inner Qi in Jiang Ding's Lesser Celestial Circuit circulated. For a short while, it felt inexhaustible. With a tap of his toes, he dropped from the treetops and began climbing the cliff face inch by inch.

Protrusions in the sheer rock and the occasional cliff cypress became steps for his ascent. His figure rose swiftly, never touching the complicated terrain where traps might lie.

"There are capable people in the Fierce Tiger Mountain Stronghold..."

Jiang Ding murmured.

Even in a place like this, they had made arrangements. More than a dozen hidden sentry posts covered both sides of the cliff, and none of them had slackened their vigilance.

Once alerted, they would send a signal. Powerful bows and heavy crossbows would besiege him while experts blocked his path. Even someone at Inner Qi Perfection would die swiftly.

Yet beneath the drone's thermal imaging, every one of those hidden sentries was laid bare.

In an open patch of ground, a piece of soil was slightly sunken.

Jiang Ding panted faintly. Finding a spot beneath the shadow of a tree, he pressed a hand to his sword, closed his eyes, and regulated his breathing to restore the depleted inner force within him.

More than thirty minutes later, his figure flashed and vanished from the spot.

With the drone overhead and the ever-burning firelight within the stronghold, he found the Hall of Gathering Righteousness without effort.

There were more lights here, and the guards were even stricter.

The trees and weeds around the courtyard walls had all been cleared away. The firelight illuminated every blind corner, and with a single glance, the guards could take in everything nearby.

"With such precautions, these are definitely no ordinary bandits."

Jiang Ding frowned.

Bandit organizations were held together by brotherhood and the creed of eating meat in great mouthfuls and drinking wine in great gulps. It was impossible to keep them under such strict control. They would all run away. Even a powerful leader would be useless.

His gaze settled on an Inner Qi Realm martial artist standing before the doors of the Hall of Gathering Righteousness.

This one too. If an Inner Qi Realm martial artist had become a bandit, it was for wealth and indulgence. He would never stand guard at a door for someone else.

An emergency would be one thing; he could endure it for a while. But this was clearly routine.

The other party seemed to sense something and turned his eyes toward a shadow beneath the eaves.

Jiang Ding's heart tightened. He withdrew his gaze, and the Minor Breath Concealment Technique began operating at high speed. His aura became infinitely close to that of stone and deadwood, while his muscles tensed, ready to slash out with his sword at any moment.

The Inner Qi Realm martial artist at the gate withdrew his gaze with a trace of confusion and resumed inspecting the other areas.

It must have been an illusion. Everything was visible at a glance, with no blind corners where people or objects could be hidden. There could not possibly be a problem.

"I made a grave mistake!"

Jiang Ding's muscles relaxed slightly as he silently warned himself.

"I actually stared directly at him and caused him to sense something. Even the most ignorant novice would not make such a mistake."

He switched to watching the gate from the corner of his eye. Sure enough, the man could no longer detect him.

Jiang Ding was exceedingly patient. He waited in silence, and even after his inner force had fully recovered, he still had spare energy to temper and nourish the tiny branches of the Twelve Meridians.

More than an hour later, an opportunity finally appeared.

"Old Five, time to switch shifts!"

The Inner Qi Realm guard laughed and cursed toward the barracks not far away. Soon, a bearded burly man carrying a refined-steel battle axe over his shoulder stumbled sleepily out of the barracks gate.

"Who're you howling at, you turtle bastard!"

The subordinates brought by each of them also began replacing one another, rotating in an orderly fashion.

Jiang Ding's thoughts stirred, and the information he had received from Long San surfaced in his mind.

'Mountain Splitting Tiger' Zhou Kuang and 'Gold Pointing Tiger' Zhou Sheng were brothers. Both possessed Minor Accomplishment of Inner Qi cultivation and excelled at coordinating with one another. They were respectively the fifth and sixth among the Seven Tigers.

Taking advantage of the slight confusion of the shift change, Jiang Ding lightly tapped his feet, stepped onto the courtyard wall, then tapped again and moved along the rooftop toward the center of the Hall of Gathering Righteousness.

At that moment, the center was brightly lit, and the sounds of strings and pipes drifted out from time to time. 'East Mountain Flying Tiger' Lu Jingtian likely had not yet gone to sleep.

The oil lamps shone directly, and within the shadow cast beside the window, faint undulating transparent ripples appeared at some unknown moment before vanishing in an instant.

The lamps burned brightly, yet there was not the slightest trace of smoke. They also carried a faint exotic fragrance. This was whale oil worth the same weight in silver!

Beautiful maidservants in splendid robes danced gracefully, while musicians plucked their strings in accompaniment.

Though they were deep in the mountains, their luxury was scarcely inferior to that of princes and nobles.

None of it attracted the attention of the three men seated within.

"The news has returned."

'East Mountain Flying Tiger' Lu Jingtian stood seven feet tall and was powerfully built. Though his temples had gone gray, it did not diminish his imposing presence in the least. Every movement he made was like a fierce tiger sitting or lying in wait, making people hold their breath and listen carefully.

He casually released a gray carrier pigeon and said flatly, "That little brat refused our price and left no room for negotiation. He said outright that if the goods were not delivered to our door at the Four Seas Merchant Guild's price three days from now, then the deal would be void."

"So forceful?"

A middle-aged man of great authority furrowed his brow.

"Could we have guessed wrong? Perhaps this Blue Fluorescent Butterfly is not so important to him and the people of the Household behind him."

Jiang Ding's expression turned cold.

The leader of the Righteousness Gang, 'Righteousness Reaching the Heavens' Yang Dongsheng!

He was also a major figure. Within East Spirit Prefecture, only the master of Dragon Tiger Martial Hall and the head of the Zheng Family were qualified to be mentioned in the same breath as him.

"Excellent... he isn't the most troublesome one."

He murmured inwardly.

For Yang Dongsheng to have established such a vast enterprise within East Spirit Prefecture, he must have had excellent connections with the upper echelons and maintained close transfers of benefits. But after all, he was not truly one of the Tang Family of the marquis's estate.

If he died, it would not lead to the deployment of troops.

"Impossible!"

A sinister Black Robed Old Man said decisively, "You do not understand. You only need to know that any material a force capable of refining Pills for Breaking Stages goes to great lengths to gather must be extraordinarily precious, worth far more than Pills for Breaking Stages."

"Why is that?"

Yang Dongsheng and Lu Jingtian exchanged a glance. They appeared to place immense trust in the Black Robed Old Man and did not offer the slightest rebuttal.

'Don't know him. An unfamiliar martial artist at Inner Qi Perfection...'

Jiang Ding carefully searched through the intelligence in his mind but found no information.

Inner Qi Perfection martial artists were not cabbages growing in a field. No one would willingly hide in obscurity for so many years for nothing. This was certainly an outsider.

"It is nothing more than putting up a bluff."

The Black Robed Old Man sneered.

"That would be for the best... I only fear that the force capable of refining Pills for Breaking Stages is no weak one. The longer the night, the more dreams arise!" Lu Jingtian sighed. "You old fellows and I all have disappointing descendants. Once our generation is gone, our younger generations can only fade into the common crowd."

"That is still the better outcome."

The Black Robed Old Man sneered. "Considering the number of people we have offended, when we ourselves die, there is an eighty or ninety percent chance that our Lineages will be wiped out as well. Do you believe it? Shall we recall where the Lineages of the underworld bosses from our youth are now?"

"It should not come to that. We all work for those above us and have rendered great service. Brother Qiu, you also come from a great sect. Surely there is no way you have no retreat prepared?"

Yang Dongsheng frowned. Unlike those two, he possessed a vast estate in the prefectural city, with more than ten wives and concubines and dozens of children.

"Great service? What the hell is that!"

Lu Jingtian mocked, "You think yourself hardworking and meritorious, but in their eyes, you are merely a piece of toilet paper—a stain they cannot wait to throw away. What affection could there possibly be?"

"As for great sects, they are no good place either."