Stealth

At a hidden sentry post,

concealed within the bushes, a pair of eyes occasionally swept over the surroundings.

A faint breeze passed by without drawing the slightest notice.

Jiang Ding activated the Minor Breath-Concealing Technique to its fullest, along with his camouflage uniform's optical concealment. Like a chameleon capable of changing shape 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.

The internal energy in Jiang Ding's Lesser Heavenly Cycle circulated, giving him a short-lived but seemingly inexhaustible supply of strength. With a light tap of his toes, he descended from the treetops and slowly climbed upward along the cliff face.

Protrusions on the sheer rock wall and the occasional cliff cypress became footholds for his ascent. His figure rose swiftly, never touching areas with complex terrain where traps might be hidden.

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

Jiang Ding muttered to himself.

Even a place like this had been arranged with care. More than a dozen hidden sentry posts were scattered across both sides of the cliff, and none of them were lax in the slightest.

If they were alerted and sent out a signal, powerful bows and heavy crossbows would converge on him while experts blocked his path. Even someone with perfected internal energy would die swiftly.

But beneath the drone's thermal imaging, every one of those sentries was clearly exposed.

In an open patch of ground, a clump of earth was slightly sunken.

Jiang Ding panted lightly, found a spot beneath the shadow of a tree, then pressed a hand to his sword and closed his eyes to regulate his breathing, restoring the internal energy he had expended.

More than thirty minutes later, his figure flickered and vanished from where he stood.

Using the drone overhead and the ever-burning fires within the stronghold, he effortlessly located the Hall of Brotherhood.

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

The trees and weeds around the courtyard walls had all been cleared away. The firelight illuminated every blind spot, allowing the guards to take in the entire area at a glance.

"With security like this, they definitely aren't ordinary bandits."

Jiang Ding frowned.

Bandit organizations were held together by brotherhood and the idea of stuffing themselves with meat and drinking heavily. It was impossible to manage them this strictly. People would all run away, no matter how strong their leader was.

His gaze settled on an internal energy martial artist standing before the doors of the Hall of Brotherhood.

The same applied to this man. Since an internal energy martial artist had become a bandit, he had done so for wealth and indulgence. He would never be willing to stand guard at someone's door.

It would have been understandable in an emergency, enduring it for a while, but this was clearly routine.

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

Jiang Ding's heart tightened. He withdrew his gaze, rapidly circulated the Minor Breath-Concealing Technique, and made his presence infinitely close to that of a stone or dead wood. At the same time, his muscles tensed, ready to strike with his sword at any moment.

The internal energy martial artist guarding the entrance withdrew his gaze with some confusion and resumed inspecting the other areas.

It was probably just an illusion. The place was visible at a glance, without any corners where someone or something could hide. There couldn't possibly be a problem.

"I made a grave mistake!"

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

"I actually looked directly at him and gave him some kind of sensation. Not even the most ignorant novice would make such a mistake."

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

Jiang Ding was extremely patient. He waited silently, and even after his internal energy had fully recovered, he still had spare capacity to temper and nourish the tiny branches of his twelve primary meridians.

More than an hour later, an opportunity finally appeared.

"Old Five, it's time to change shifts!"

The internal energy martial artist guarding the entrance called out jokingly toward the barracks nearby. Soon, a burly bearded man carrying a refined steel battle-axe on his shoulder stumbled out of the barracks gate, still bleary-eyed.

"Shut your damn mouth, you turtle bastard!"

The subordinates brought by the two men began replacing one another as well, rotating in an orderly fashion.

Jiang Ding's thoughts stirred as the information he had obtained from Long San surfaced in his mind.

Mountain-Splitting Tiger Zhou Kuang and Gold-Touching Tiger Zhou Sheng were brothers. Both had reached the minor accomplishment stage of internal energy and excelled at fighting together. They were respectively the fifth and sixth among the Seven Tigers.

Taking advantage of the brief disorder during the shift change, Jiang Ding lightly tapped the ground with his feet, stepped onto the courtyard wall, then tapped again and moved across the rooftops toward the center of the Hall of Brotherhood.

The central hall was brightly lit at this time, with the occasional sounds of strings and pipes drifting out. Eastern Mountain Flying Tiger Lu Jingtian was probably still awake.

Within the shadow cast beside a window by the direct light of an oil lamp, faint transparent ripples appeared at some unknown moment, then vanished in an instant.

The lamps burned brightly without the slightest trace of smoke, carrying a faint exotic fragrance. The fuel was whale oil, worth as much as an equal weight of silver!

Graceful maidservants in splendid garments danced lightly while musicians plucked their strings in accompaniment.

Though they were deep in the mountains, this place was hardly inferior to the luxury of princes and nobles.

Yet none of it drew the attention of the three men seated inside.

"The reply has arrived."

Eastern Mountain Flying Tiger Lu Jingtian stood seven feet tall and had a powerful build. Although his temples had turned gray, it did nothing to diminish his imposing presence. Every movement he made resembled a vicious tiger sitting or lying in wait, making others instinctively hold their breath and listen carefully.

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

"So uncompromising?"

A middle-aged man of great authority frowned.

"Could we have guessed wrong? Perhaps this Blueglow Butterfly isn't as important to him and his family as we thought."

Jiang Ding's expression turned cold.

The leader of the Brotherhood Gang, Yang Dongsheng, known as Righteousness Beyond the Clouds!

He was another major figure. Within Eastspirit Prefecture, only the master of the Dragon-Tiger Martial Hall and the head of the Zheng Clan were qualified to be mentioned in the same breath as him.

"How wonderful... He isn't the most troublesome one."

Jiang Ding murmured inwardly.

For Yang Dongsheng to establish such a vast enterprise in Eastspirit Prefecture, he must have had excellent relations with those at the top and maintained close exchanges of benefits. But he was not truly a member of the Tang Clan of the Marquis's Estate.

If he died, the army would not be mobilized.

"Impossible!"

An eerie-looking old man in black robes said decisively, "You don't understand. You only need to know that materials requiring a faction capable of refining realm-breaking pills to go to such lengths to collect must be immensely valuable. They are certainly worth far more than realm-breaking pills."

"Why is that?"

Yang Dongsheng and Lu Jingtian exchanged a glance. They seemed to have great faith in the black-robed elder and offered no objection.

I don't recognize him. An unfamiliar martial artist with perfected internal energy...

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

Martial artists with perfected internal energy were not cabbages growing in the field. No one would willingly remain obscure and hidden for years for no reason. This had to be an outsider.

"It is nothing more than a bluff."

The black-robed elder sneered.

"That would be for the best... I'm only afraid that the faction capable of refining realm-breaking pills is no weakling. The longer this drags on, the more trouble it may bring." Lu Jingtian let out a long sigh. "You old fellows and I all have disappointing descendants. Once our generation is gone, the younger generation will only fade into the masses."

"That would be the good outcome."

The black-robed elder sneered. "Considering how many people the lot of us have offended, when we die, there is an eighty or ninety percent chance that our clans will be wiped out as well. Do you believe that? Shall we think back on where the families of those underworld bosses from our youth are now?"

"Surely not. We all work for people above us and have rendered great service. Brother Qiu, you also come from a great sect. There's no way you don't even have a path of retreat, is there?"

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

"Great service? What the hell does that count for!"

Lu Jingtian mocked, "You think you've earned great merit through hardship, but in their eyes, you're just a piece of toilet paper—a stain they can't wait to throw away. What affection could there possibly be?"

"As for great sects, they aren't good places either."