The Mastermind Revealed

Lu Yang withdrew his aura and followed from far behind. Half an hour later, he watched Qian Wu lead the men into the Wang Family residence.

In less than the time it took to drink a cup of tea, he walked out alone.

The group he had brought with him earlier was now nowhere to be seen.

After watching Qian Wu leave, before long, a Wang Family martial artist led that same group from before, hauling a cart of goods, and headed straight out of the city.

With the foundation of Houtian Eighth Level cultivation, this time, no one discovered him.

After all, looking across the whole of Black Mountain County, Xiantian Realm martial artists were still few in number.

Aside from the current family head, Wang Kui, being in the Xiantian Realm, Lu Yang had never heard of the Wang Family having a second Xiantian.

They were only sending a few blood offerings out of the city; naturally, Wang Kui would not personally take the field.

Ordinary Houtian Realm martial artists, even those at the seventh or eighth level of Houtian, were already utterly not worth mentioning before the present Lu Yang, let alone discovering him.

After the convoy arrived outside the city, it traveled south all the way toward the wasteland.

After they had gone roughly several dozen li, the mountain road gradually grew treacherous, and the forests on both sides of the road became increasingly deep and secluded.

At this point, some people in the convoy had already grown suspicious and kept questioning that Wang Family martial artist. Who knew what he said to them, but they were soothed back down again.

After another dozen-plus li, a dozen-odd demonic creatures suddenly charged out of the forest and surrounded the convoy in layer upon layer.

Cries of alarm and sounds of chaos instantly came from up ahead.

Lu Yang immediately quickened his steps and caught up.

"Jie jie jie!"

A Bear Demon spat out human words. "Steward Niu, you have done very well. With this batch of blood offerings, within two months, I will definitely be able to step into the second rank!"

"The blood offerings have already been given to you. Where is the thing our master wants?" Steward Niu said indifferently.

"Roar!" The Bear Demon gave a low growl, and behind it, a little demon beast at around the fifth or sixth level of the first rank immediately walked up to Steward Niu with a large blood-colored flower in its mouth.

"Hahaha, then many thanks!" Steward Niu took the large flower and said with a laugh, "If you need blood offerings in the future, just contact us."

At this moment, someone in the convoy finally reacted and cursed angrily, "Steward Niu, you actually colluded with demonic creatures, sold out your own kind—despicable!"

"Heh heh. If you stayed in Black Mountain County, you would be nothing more than the lowliest weeds," Steward Niu said coldly. "Shout, curse. Once you're done cursing, you can get on the road!"

With that said, Steward Niu prepared to leave with the Blood Spirit Flower.

"Brothers, attack together! Kill this traitor of the human race!" The man from before raised his arm and shouted. The martial artists all drew their blades and charged at Steward Niu.

"Overestimating yourselves!" Steward Niu drew the long whip at his waist and snapped it.

In the next instant, the whip lashed out like a snake's tongue, knocking everyone back in a few strokes.

Relying on the fact that he used a long whip, he even coiled it around the weapons in these martial artists' hands, flicked it, and sent them clattering to the ground.

What he revealed was shockingly Body Tempering Ninth Level cultivation!

As for that group of human martial artists in the convoy, most were only at the fourth or fifth level of Body Tempering. They were no match for him in a single exchange.

"I'll leave them to you." After knocking everyone down, Steward Niu smiled indifferently and prepared to turn and leave.

The people of the convoy could only face the bloodthirsty pack of demons in despair.

Just then, a clear, resonant howl spread through the entire mountain forest, making Steward Niu's expression change.

"Colluding with demonic creatures, selling out your own kind—you deserve execution!"

Steward Niu's heart jolted, and he looked all around, wanting to find the source of that voice.

But a smear of cold light swept past behind him. Steward Niu only felt a pain in his neck, and then his vision spun heaven and earth.

Lu Yang's tall figure entered his eyes. Immediately after, Steward Niu saw his own body without a head.

The [Blood Spirit Flower] was a main ingredient for refining many second-rank pills and was quite valuable, so Lu Yang casually put it into his own pouch.

And in that brief span, the dozen-odd Bear Demons had already surrounded him.

When the leading Bear Demon saw Steward Niu's corpse on the ground from afar, it immediately sensed that things were not good and let out another low growl.

"Retreat!"

The pack of demons, which had been ferocious and overbearing just moments ago, now turned and ran.

Clearly, they had already realized Lu Yang's strength.

Someone who could easily take care of Steward Niu at Body Tempering Ninth Level would not leave them with a result much different when they faced this human martial artist.

"You want to run? Too late!"

Lu Yang's long blade swept and rolled as he gave a low shout. "Shattering Rocks Piercing the Sky!"

Hua hua hua!

The biting blade wind whipped up flying sand and rolling stones that blotted the sky. Countless rocks lifted a curtain of blue-yellow haze, and in the blink of an eye, it swept the pack of demons into it.

Puff puff puff!

The force of those stones was extremely fierce. When the pack of demons was struck by the rocks, even with their thick fur for defense, their pelts were still pierced through, and their internal organs were injured.

"Awooo, awooo, awooo!"

The flying sand and rolling stones had yet to disperse when the mournful cries of that pack of Bear Demons already rang out.

By the time the wind and sand cleared, the pack of demons had all been annihilated.

Lu Yang looked at the ground full of bear corpses and shook his head to himself. "They really couldn't take a beating."

Just now, he had not used the Demon Subduing Saber Art, but the Mountain Splitting Saber Art, because he had wanted to leave one alive to question.

He had not expected that even so, this pack of lesser demons would still all die.

"Ding! Congratulations, host, for slaying one First-tier Ninth Level Bear Demon. Gained 9 Experience Points."

"Ding!..."

Lu Yang opened the panel.

[Host: Lu Yang]

[Realm: Houtian Eighth Level (0/799)]

[Martial Arts: Demon Subduing Saber Art (Perfection: 310/310) Mountain Splitting Saber Art (Great Perfection: (50/50)]

[Experience Points: 972]

Now, the Experience Points he gained from slaying First-tier Lesser Demons were already better than nothing for him.

He took out the dagger he carried with him and cut open the flesh of those Bear Demons. Failing to dig out even a single Demon Treasure was only to be expected.

Only now did those caravan martial artists, who had been like birds startled by the mere twang of a bowstring, finally steady their shaken souls. They all crowded forward and dropped to the ground in a bow.

"Many thanks, Senior, for saving our lives," everyone shouted in unison, as if they had discussed it beforehand.

Lu Yang waved a hand. "Tell me, then. What exactly happened?"

The leader's cultivation was at Body Tempering Sixth Level, making him the strongest among them. He immediately stepped forward.

"Replying to Senior, all of us are martial artists Lord County Lieutenant selected from the major Martial Arts Schools. Originally, it was to fill the vacancies among the County Yamen's constables."

At this point, the man hesitated slightly and said, "But two days ago, Lord County Lieutenant suddenly sent someone over, saying the yamen had no vacancies for the time being and telling us to go to Lord County Assistant Magistrate's side and await orders for now. After that..."

After listening to those few people talk over one another for a while, Lu Yang basically understood.

The County Lieutenant had sent them to the County Assistant Magistrate, and the County Assistant Magistrate had sent them to the Wang Family.

As for the Wang Family, under the pretext of escorting the caravan, they had tricked these martial artists here, intending to use them as blood food for these Bear Demons in exchange for the [Blood Spirit Flower].

As for what private dealings there were between the Wang Family and the County Assistant Magistrate, or even the County Lieutenant, Lu Yang still did not know for the time being.

But clearly, they were jackals from the same lair, and had long since colluded with one another.

"No wonder the Wang Family and the Demon Race knew everything I did so clearly. So the moles were actually the County Assistant Magistrate and the County Lieutenant!" Lu Yang could not help spitting, fury burning in his heart.

As for the group before him, they were clearly people the County Lieutenant had prepared to use as replacements for Lu Yang's batch of constables.

Unexpectedly, Lu Yang had brought Zhao Hu and Wang Fang back to Black Mountain County alive, so they could only make other arrangements and have the County Assistant Magistrate and the Wang Family deal with this group.

In recent years, the Black Mountain County Magistrate had been lingering on his sickbed. The various affairs of the County Yamen were basically controlled single-handedly by those two men.

Thinking about it now, he feared there was something fishy about Lord County Magistrate's illness as well.