Night Raid, Storms Arise

Chapter 50: Night Raid, Storms Arise

"How is it? Any news?"

The woman had clearly been injured, and her face and lips were somewhat pale.

Manager Wu sighed and shook his head slightly. "I've sent people to investigate every day, but there are no Secret Marks from the Branch Master at any of the locations."

The woman clenched her teeth. "Could it be..."

"Impossible!"

Manager Wu said solemnly, "With the Branch Master's martial skills and sorcery, so long as he isn't surrounded by experts from the Tai Xuan Orthodox Sect, where in the world could he not go?"

"Besides, he has the Cockscomb Snake God protecting him. No matter how many Bandits are on the mountain, he could kill them all in a single night."

"I estimate that something must have delayed him."

"You're right."

The woman nodded, but her eyes remained full of worry. "Ever since the Divine Sect Master failed to advance, the sect has fallen apart. Several Branch Masters have developed ulterior motives. If this continues, I'm afraid the imperial court will defeat us one by one."

Manager Wu shook his head firmly. "Hmph, let them enjoy their freedom a little longer. Once the Branch Master advances successfully, he'll be able to consolidate the Divine Sect and purge the traitors!"

"Xianyang City is probably about to descend into chaos. And there's that traitor Chu Shan, sending a bunch of beggars scurrying around everywhere. He must have learned something. Stay here and don't go out under any circumstances."

The woman nodded, then asked, "Something happened in Chang'an, and Yuan Qu is coveting this place from the sidelines. Is this Branch Hall about to become impossible to preserve?"

"Don't worry."

A vicious glint flashed through Manager Wu's eyes. "I was helpless before, but now the martial world of Xianyang City is about to descend into chaos. It's the perfect chance to fish in troubled waters!"

The night deepened. Candlelight shone brightly in a side room of the Asking Dao Pavilion.

"Come on, bottoms up!"

Sha LiFei raised the bowl of wine and gulped it down in two or three swallows. Wiping his mouth, he smacked his lips. "That fellow Wu is really rich, to be willing to serve this aged Xifeng Old Wine."

Wang Dao Xuan also took a sip. Narrowing his eyes, he said, "Not bad. Sour but not harsh, sweet but not cloying, bitter but not sticky, spicy without stinging the throat, fragrant without assaulting the nose. It truly has the 'Five Absolutes.'"

Having won today's arena match, Li Yan was naturally in an even better mood. He bit into a chicken leg, then clinked bowls and drank with the other two, laughing. "Don't worry. Once the matter in Xianyang is settled, we can take jobs without a care. From now on, we'll eat the best food and drink the finest liquor. It won't be a problem!"

"That's exactly what I've been waiting to hear!"

Sha LiFei laughed heartily and lifted the wine jar to fill his bowl again. "I'm finishing mine. You two drink as you please."

All that talk was just an excuse. He was simply craving this wine and wanted to drink a little more.

"Look at you, so lacking in ambition."

Li Yan laughed helplessly, then turned to Wang Dao Xuan. "Daoist, you've been preserving your spirit for so long. You should have a chance to build the second floor by now, right? How much money would you need?"

Wang Dao Xuan froze and hurriedly shook his head. "The priority is to help you perform the ritual and build your floor first, lest your preserved spirit disperse and all your effort go to waste."

Li Yan naturally couldn't say that he possessed the Great Luo Dharma Body and had no such concern, so he said seriously, "I'm still young. There's no rush. Besides, given our current situation, the best choice is for you to advance your cultivation further."

"I'm still an outsider when it comes to many things. Even if I built a floor, mastering sorcery wouldn't happen overnight. You should go first, Daoist."

A trace of emotion flashed through Wang Dao Xuan's eyes, and he no longer refused. He said solemnly, "The items needed for the rituals to build the first two floors can all be bought with silver."

"But beginning with the third floor, Heaven's Spiritual Treasures become indispensable. During the ritual, different treasures also improve divine abilities to different degrees."

"I, this old Daoist, am skilled at surveying feng shui. Finding earth marrow would make it easier to identify feng shui terrain, while finding Cloud Moss would increase the power of incantations."

"Neither of these things is particularly rare. There are people selling them among the mystic lineages in Chang'an City. The prices are simply exorbitant. But if we can find a treasure-seeker to help us, the price can be cut in half. It'll just take time to locate one."

"Why think so far ahead?"

Sha LiFei waved a large hand. "When the time comes, we'll pull off a few big jobs and let both of you build your floors at once. Wouldn't that be wonderful?"

"Right, how much does it cost to build a floor? Is five hundred taels enough?"

Wang Dao Xuan laughed helplessly. "To build the first floor, besides purchasing the ritual implements, we also need to rent a spiritual aperture on Tai Bai Mountain. Even calculating conservatively, it'll cost at least a thousand taels."

"One... thousand taels?"

Sha LiFei instantly fell into a daze.

"That's right."

Wang Dao Xuan sighed. "To the orthodox sects and lineages of the mystic arts, these things are nothing. But some small folk traditions have to make preparations from the very beginning, lest they find a suitable disciple but be unable to pass on their methods."

"Quite a few lineages have been cut off for precisely this reason..."

At that moment, Li Yan slightly furrowed his brows and signaled for the other two to keep quiet.

Since preserving his spirit, he had gained control over his abilities. He usually used the Yin Incantation to shut them off, so he could no longer smell those special odors, but his sense of smell remained astonishing.

He could smell several foul odors outside the courtyard wall.

He remembered that smell: sweat mingled with the sour stench of spoiled food, along with the rank odor of poisonous insects.

They were members of the Beggars' gang from the Mass Burial Grounds!

He hadn't expected the Zhou family's revenge to arrive first. These fellows had beaten them to his door.

Li Yan whispered a few instructions to the other two, then slowly opened the door and went outside with Sha LiFei.

He picked up several broken bricks beside the flowerbed, while Sha LiFei planted his hands on his hips, drew in a deep breath, and cursed, "Where did these little thieves come from? Take this!"

As soon as his voice fell, Li Yan hurled the broken bricks over the courtyard wall.

Several muffled groans immediately sounded outside.

They were indeed several Evil Beggars from the Mass Burial Grounds of Xianyang.

After hearing that Li Yan had been seriously injured, they had come to launch a night raid.

These Evil Beggars had acted on a sudden impulse and hadn't informed Beggar Leader Mountain Lord. The reason was that Li Yan had killed their sworn brother that day.

Of course, they had also been exceptionally cautious.

Two of them were skilled at controlling venomous snakes and insects. They carried cloth sacks stuffed full of Black Snakes and poisonous scorpions from the Mass Burial Grounds.

They had never expected Li Yan to discover them the moment they approached.

Their heads were smashed and bloodied, but their viciousness had also been roused. Ignoring everything else, they tore open the sacks and prepared to throw the venomous snakes and insects into the courtyard.

Though there was a wall between them, Li Yan guessed what they intended from the smell. He sneered inwardly and immediately pressed down on the hilt of his saber.

As the thought of preserving his spirit arose, the Three Talents Demon Suppressing Coin Sword Tassel began to sway.

At the Mass Burial Grounds that day, he had already learned the weakness of these things. Having been contaminated by Yin Energy, they likewise feared all kinds of baleful-energy-suppressing objects.

Sure enough, the venomous insects and scorpions inside the sacks immediately went berserk.

An Evil Beggar had just untied a sack when a venomous snake shot out and bit him right on the nose.

The other man fared no better. A huge poisonous scorpion sprang out and stung his hand. The cloth sack fell to the ground, and the remaining scorpions crawled wildly in every direction.

"Ah—!"

"Run!"

Screams rang out as the Evil Beggars endured the pain and fled at full speed.

At Li Yan's signal, Sha LiFei did not chase after them. Instead, he stood in the courtyard and laughed uproariously. "A few lowly rats still dared to come cause trouble for your Grandpa Sha? Serves you right!"

With that, the three prepared to return to the room.

They knew this was only a small interlude.

Although the Beggars' gang had many people, it was a mixed bag of good and bad. The ones who truly took action were only its core members.

Moreover, they had an even greater hidden danger: the Beggar Den itself.

Among the ordinary beggars were many pitiful people. There were even young beggars who had been abducted and crippled by them, forced to beg every day and beaten at the slightest provocation, living lives worse than death.

If too many core members died, those abused beggars would probably turn on them immediately.

The only thing they needed to do now was preserve themselves as much as possible before this storm subsided.

However, before entering the room, Li Yan seemed deep in thought and turned his head.

"What is it? Has someone else come?"

"Nothing. Someone is more anxious than I imagined..."

In a dark alley, footsteps stumbled chaotically.

Several beggars staggered along as they fled, taking black, foul-looking detoxifying pills from their clothes and stuffing them into their mouths.

They continued complaining to each other.

"Weren't you the one who said Sha LiFei was just a good-for-nothing?"

"Everyone said that. I'd never fought him before..."

"Stop arguing. Find somewhere to rest first, before the poison reaches your heart..."

However, just after they left the alley, four or five men suddenly sprang out from both sides. They held long staffs, lowered their bodies, and swept them fiercely.

Thud, thud, thud!

Several crisp cracks mixed with the sound of breaking bones. The Evil Beggars immediately fell to the ground with screams, clutching their legs and wailing. "Grandpas, we won't do it again."

"Several grandpas, please stop! We're from the Beggars' gang."

"The Beggars' gang?"

A middle-aged man slowly emerged from the darkness. His skin was dark, his face covered in a full beard, and he wore a sheepskin jacket with a long whip tucked at his waist.

Looking at the beggars, he smacked his lips. "Since when did people from the Beggars' gang become the Zhou family's lackeys?"

"Talk!"

Before the beggars could make excuses, the black-clad men rushed forward and slapped their faces in a flurry.

The beggars' faces quickly turned swollen and purple. Knowing they had encountered ruthless characters, they had no choice but to recount everything that had happened at the Mass Burial Grounds.

"I see."

The Man in Sheepskin Jacket sneered. "That boy was pretending to be ill. I thought he was timid and afraid of trouble, but it turns out he's restless too."

"Take them back. Tomorrow, send a letter to the Beggars' gang and tell them that if they want to live, they'd better stay far away from Xianyang for the time being!"

"Yes, Boss."

Several black-clad men immediately stepped forward and dragged the Beggars' gang members away like dead dogs.

The voice of the Man in Sheepskin Jacket rang out in the darkness:

"Go. Tell Old Senior Zhang that the fish didn't bite..."

In this world, there were always people rejoicing while others grieved.

While Li Yan and the others drank wine and ate meat, the Zhou family was shrouded in gloom and misery.

Candlelight blazed inside a wing room of the great residence.

Zhou Bai lay on the bed, his entire body wrapped in bandages and splints. His face was flushed, his eyes tightly shut, and the sharp smell of medicine hung all around him.

At this moment, all Eight Great Vajras of the Zhou family were in the room.

Wang Yao, who was skilled in medicine, frowned as she felt his pulse. Then she slowly shook her head. "His life is safe for now, but his internal organs have been injured, and his bones, muscles, and fascia have been severed. I'm afraid he'll find it difficult to practice martial arts again in the future..."

When Zhou PeiDe heard this, his expression immediately turned ugly.

His fists clenched with a crackle. Then he suddenly turned around, lunged forward, grabbed Yuan Qu by the throat, and pinned him against the wall. He said coldly:

"Yuan, what did you do to Zhou Bai before the arena match?"

Yuan Qu's face reddened from being strangled. He was just about to speak when an aged voice sounded from outside. "Why are you roughing him up? I ordered it."

The others were startled and hurriedly turned around and bowed with clasped hands.

"Greetings, Master!"