Stranger Danger

Bat Spellcaster shook his head. “I don’t know either.”

“I wonder who they are? Stargazer and Moon-Moving Grandma went so far as to use their Fate Threads Disc and Heaven Viewing Book, but they were still unable to divine Sword Ghoul’s location. On the other hand, this person was able to report Sword Ghoul’s location again and again almost as if they were the worm in his stomach! How curious!”

Water Fairy stroked her black hair absentmindedly and caused it to ripple like water.

“There are people beyond person, and skies beyond sky. That is all,” Bat Spellcaster replied indifferently.

“That’s true.” Water Fairy smiled. “If only we can recruit this person somehow. I’m sure the Seventy Two Water Land Alliance would climb even higher as a result.”

“All extraordinary persons are supported by a skeleton of pride. Considering their skill, I doubt they will choose to serve the likes of us.” Bat Spellcaster shook his head.

“It’s not completely out of the question. The fact that they helped us repeatedly seems to suggest that they plan to garner our good will, right?”

Water Fairy giggled. “Besides, there is no such thing as an immovable heart. It is just a matter of sincerity and stakes.”

“Makes sense.” Bat Spellcaster let out a cold chuckle. “All humans have something they desire in life, and so long they have desire, they have weaknesses that we may exploit.”

“You are as wise as ever, Spellcaster.” Water Fairy smirked. “But those plans can wait. Right now, our first priority is to capture Sword Ghoul. Should we contact the others?”

“Why should we?”

Bat Spellcaster glanced at her. “Sword Ghoul is strong, but he is also seriously injured and completely out of supplies. With you and my strength, can we not capture a wounded person? Why should you or I surrender our rightful opportunity to others? What do you think, Fairy?”

Water Fairy giggled. “I obey your will, Spellcaster. Please, perform your magic.”

“No worries. From the moment I found him, his chances of escaping have dropped to near zero.” Bat Spellcaster let out another chuckle. “Speaking of which, my Baby Bat just discovered his tracks. This way, please.”

Bat Spellcaster abruptly dissolved into a cloud of bats before flying in a certain direction.

Water Fairy too leaped into the underground river and allowed a wave to carry her after Bat Spellcaster.

……

“Looks like the Seventy Two Water Land Alliance has found Chen Cang again. Their efficiency isn’t bad, all things considered.”

“Inside his room, Ye Qing put away the Annon Sutra and stretched his back a little. A delighted grin was currently etched on his face.

He was the one who leaked Chen Cang’s hideout and current location, of course, and he did it using the Annon Sutra. It took quite the effort to make sure that the Seventy Two Water Land Alliance would not lose track of Chen Cang, but not so much that Chen Cang would be captured immediately.

At first, he spread mostly genuine intel in order to earn the Seventy Two Water Land Alliance’s trust. Later, when they showed signs of following his intel blindly, he began mixing whole truths, whole lies, half truths and half lies into his leaks.

Having enjoyed the first taste, the Seventy Two Water Land Alliance would surely sift through the sea of rumors even if they knew that the large majority of it were false. After all, wasting time and effort on false leads was still better than having no leads at all.

So, why was he doing this? It was to scatter the Seventy Two Water Land Alliance’s forces and confuse them, effectively buying time for Chen Cang to escape and survive. This was the best way to keep Chen Cang from being captured too soon while ensuring that the Seventy Two Water Land Alliance would always be on his tail.

At the beginning, he had to spread both genuine and false intel on his own. In order to avoid being tracked down by the Seventy Two Water Land Alliance, he had had to disguise himself as a beggar, a gambler, and more; contact the Mud Association to spread the rumors, sell the intel to the Bird Gathering and more. It reminded him of the time where he worked like a dog to finish a group project in his previous life. He was busy as heck to say the least.

But later, as the pursuit for Chen Cang dragged on, the jianghu people began chipping in their own fake intel to fuck with the Seventy Two Water Land Alliance. It was a lifesaver. Now, he only needed to release one or two genuine intel every once in a while.

The last few days were some of the most tiring days of his life, but he had to admit that the feeling of playing everyone like puppets on strings and letting others do his dirty work for him, not knowing that the rewards were ultimately his to claim, felt pretty fantastic. It felt even better watching his nemesis tearing his hair out in a desperate attempt to survive his machinations.

After indulging in a bit of narcissism, Ye Qing’s thoughts eventually shifted to the five extraordinary items he needed to collect for Feng Qingyou.

He never forgot that the reason he was doing all this was to buy enough time to find the five extraordinary objects necessary to treat Feng Qingyou’s injuries. That was why screwing over Chen Cang and the Seventy Two Water Land Alliance weren’t the only things he did in the past few days. He had also visited every shop, trading company etc in Dragonmount City to purchase the items.

Dragonmount City was definitely the Seventy Two Water Land Alliance’s central headquarters. Traveling merchants from across four seas could be found in this city, and they boasted items from all across the world. In just a few days, he was able to collect the Lightning Struck Wood and the Thousand Frost Fire, and he heard rumors that the Finger Ring Metal would appear during tonight’s Dragonmount Meet.

What was the Dragonmount Meet? At first listen, it sounded like some sort of important meeting or conference. In reality, it was just a plain old auction. The reason it was named like this was because the auction was led by the Seventy Two Water Land Alliance and held in Dragonmount City—and because someone up there sucked at naming things.

The Dragonmount Meet was an annual, large-scale event. Countless rare items, valuable treasures, incredible martial arts and more were auctioned at the auction. Every year, countless people would attend the Dragonmount Meet in hopes of bidding the items of their desire. It was so busy and crowded that people came to describe it as, “The auction where warriors from beyond the five lakes and four seas attended.”

This was also why the Dragonmount Meet was mostly unaffected even though the matter regarding Chen Cang had brought great shame to the Seventy Two Water Land Alliance and caused quite a lot of commotion.

There was also the fact that the Dragonmount Meet was only led by the Seventy Two Water Land Alliance and held in Dragonmount City. It wasn’t held by the Seventy Two Water Land Alliance only, and all sorts of factions were involved in its coordination. Just because the Seventy Two Water Land Alliance was facing trouble did not mean that the Dragonmount Meet could be halted or even canceled for their sake.

Besides, the Seventy Two Water Land Alliance didn’t want to halt the Dragonmount Meet. If anything, they were promoting it harder than they ever did in the past probably because they were hoping to use it to shift the jianghu people’s attention away from their recent failures and shame. Because of this, the Dragonmount Meet was almost certainly going to be livelier than ever before.

The reason Ye Qing and Feng Qingyou were still staying in Dragonmount City was because of the Dragonmount Meet. But although the Dragonmount Meet attracted tens of thousands of visitors every year, not everyone possessed the right to participate in the event.

One must meet at least one requirement in order to participate in the event: they must either be famous, or they must be rich.

The requirement was as simple as it was cruel. Countless visitors were barred from participation simply because Dragonmount Meet’s standards for either requirement was extremely high.

First, fame. The Dragonmount Meet did not require its participants to be known throughout the jianghu, but at the very least, they must be well known within the wulin of Yan. To be more specific, they must be a gang leader, a sect master, or a named warrior on the Earth Champions Ranking etc.

Second, wealth. Only those who possessed at least one hundred thousand silver or items whose total value was equal to or higher than that number would be allowed to participate in the Dragonmount Meet.

One hundred thousand silver was no joke. For the large majority of people, it was an astronomical sum of money they could never earn in a lifetime.

In summary, countless people came to Dragonmount City each year, but the number of people who actually qualified to attend it was few and far between.

This was fine though. This indirectly proved that the Dragonmount Meet was a grand and high standard auction.

Ye Qing was a nobody in Yan, so he did not meet the first requirement. However, he was wealthy. Stupidly so. After all, the wealth Goddess City had accumulated for centuries had all fallen into his pockets. Forget one hundred thousand silver, he could produce even one million silver, not to mention his hoard of Strange Artifacts, pills, martial arts manuals and more. Any one of these objects would qualify him as a participant.

The power of one, the power of two, the power of money~[1]

He had already gotten the badge necessary to enter the Dragonmount Meet a few days ago. Now, all he needed to do was to attend it and win the Thousand Frost Fire.

1. Sorry, just can’t resist making that reference. XD ☜

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