Feeling Their Way in the Dark, They Kept Going

Inside the movie theater, the House Cultivators and the Hand and Foot Alliance had broken into a melee.

They had originally thought these people were all workers brought in by Shen Jiming. Who would have expected that once the fighting began, every last one of them proved formidable, their skills anything but shabby?

House Cultivator Hu Fangyuan was injured. As he fought, he complained to Wu Yongchao, "Look at the people you brought in! What kind of proper House Cultivators are these? They're practically a whole gang!"

Shen Jiming had entered Iron Gate Fort under the identity of a House Cultivator. Before Wu Yongchao, he had acted like an honest, dutiful movie enthusiast.

Wu Yongchao was both regretful and furious, and his attacks grew increasingly vicious. Shen Jiming's group was outnumbered and outmatched. They barely held on until the next day, then took advantage of the steam gates opening to flee Iron Gate Fort.

"Can't you see there's a war going on? Why did you open the gates?" Still seething, Wu Yongchao berated the workers a few times,

then wanted to lead people after them.

House Cultivator Yuan Zhenguang advised, "It's enough that they've been driven off. You were far too ruthless just now. I was truly afraid you'd cause some deaths."

Hu Fangyuan bandaged his own wound and looked toward the theater. "Why do I feel like someone already died? They seemed to have a lookout. He was beaten to death last night."

Someone really had been killed.

During the melee, Li Banfeng had entered to look for Smiling Thousand Hands' contingency plan. He had found nothing at first, but Lu Keyong, the Ghost Hand Gate man specifically responsible for keeping watch, suddenly leaped out.

That brat tried to use a dirty trick, intending to kill Wu Yongchao first