Chapter 777: I Don't Know Him at All

Exposed to wind, sun, and rain, they passed more than ten days in the blink of an eye. By now, the novelty of the Tiandu Secret Realm had long worn off.

At last, they received another piece of good news.

Xu Fuhua had left word beneath one of the trail markers: Tianxing Sect had encountered people from Dale Mountain of Wei.

For safety, the various sects belonging to each of the Seven States generally acted in concert. They would first join forces to compete for a high ranking, then divide Misty Pavilion's rewards according to each sect's contribution.

Neutral sects like Tianxing Sect were another matter.

That meant wherever Dale Mountain cultivators appeared, the central gathering point of Wei's coalition could not be far away.

"What now?" Yun Huan asked.

By now, they had grown accustomed to asking Niu Youdao what he thought.

It was not that they particularly enjoyed taking his orders. Matters had simply reached the point where Niu Youdao had effectively been controlling the direction in which events developed all along. He himself ought to know better than anyone what needed to be done next.

If he had been an ordinary young man, would the three of them have trusted him so easily? No matter how reasonable his words sounded, they would first have questioned whether someone of his age was capable of handling such matters.

But Niu Youdao was no ordinary young man.

He had already achieved enough to prove himself. There was no question about his ability, and all three understood that when it came to strategy, they might well be inferior to him.

That had nothing to do with age or cultivation.

"In other words, Tianxing Sect only recently regrouped, then split up again." Niu Youdao examined the leaf bearing Xu Fuhua's message, then crushed it in his hand. "We pick up the pace. First, we find Xu Fuhua."

Find Xu Fuhua?

The three exchanged looks.

They did not understand why they suddenly needed to find him. Weren't they supposed to keep their distance and follow Tianxing Sect from behind?

Niu Youdao's judgment was correct.

Xu Fuhua had indeed learned the news from fellow disciples when Tianxing Sect regrouped. After leaving the trail marker and message, Tianxing Sect's people dispersed once more to continue searching.

By the time Niu Youdao's group followed the markers and found Xu Fuhua, three other people were with him.

More precisely, the rest of Xu Fuhua's previous group had been wiped out. He alone remained and had been assigned to another team.

The two sides encountered each other in a mountain forest.

Seeing Niu Youdao again, Xu Fuhua was startled and uncertain. His eyes instinctively swept over the three disciples beside him.

If Niu Youdao expected him to kill three men at once this time, he truly had no confidence he could do it.

Wu Zhaoxing and the Yun mother and son watched carefully as well.

They were wondering the same thing.

Was Xu Fuhua about to turn on his fellow disciples again?

The three genuinely could not understand what Niu Youdao was doing.

People differed in their ability to reason through another person's intentions. If Shao Pingbo had been here, perhaps he could already have inferred Niu Youdao's purpose.

These three simply could not.

The Tianxing Sect disciples were surprised to see Niu Youdao as well.

They might not have recognized the others, but they remembered the man who had caused such an uproar in Tiangu.

And the grudge between Tianxing Sect's Sect Leader's wife and Hongniang from the Qi capital was no secret among Tianxing Sect's disciples.

They held no personal hatred toward Niu Youdao, but out of consideration for their Sect Leader's wife, none of them could act overly friendly with him.

Besides, in an environment like this, everyone remained wary of outsiders. There was little room for friendliness in the first place.

Niu Youdao behaved as though he had never met Xu Fuhua before. Treating the encounter as a chance meeting with Tianxing Sect disciples, he greeted them politely and asked with feigned casualness, "I became separated from Yan's people. Do any of you happen to know which direction they went?"

"Separated?" One Tianxing Sect disciple looked doubtful. "According to Yan's people, they expelled you. They said whether you live or die has nothing to do with them."

Damn it!

Niu Youdao cursed inwardly.

Yan's people must have mentioned the matter when they met Tianxing Sect. Nine times out of ten, Chu Fengping had been behind it.

He was clearly spreading the news to kick Niu Youdao while he was down, effectively telling anyone who wanted to deal with him that they were free to act.

Niu Youdao naturally had an answer ready.

"They expelled me, fine. That's their business. I still need to follow them. Staying near them is safer, isn't it?"

The Tianxing Sect disciple chuckled. "We did encounter Yan's people before, but we've been apart for several days now. We don't know where they are at present."

"I see. In that case, I won't disturb you further."

Niu Youdao cupped his hands in farewell, then turned and left.

Xu Fuhua watched him go and secretly breathed easier.

At least Niu Youdao handled matters decently.

"Do you think Niu Youdao can still return alive?"

"Now even Yan has abandoned him. Leaving the Tiandu Secret Realm alive? Impossible!"

"They looked perfectly fine together when we first came in. How did they suddenly turn against each other?"

"Bah. Those people will do anything to fight over territory. Today they ally, tomorrow they turn hostile. What's strange about that?"

"When we regroup, report that we encountered Niu Youdao and see what the people above say."

The three Tianxing Sect disciples began discussing the matter.

Xu Fuhua said nothing.

He merely listened in silence, his mood heavy.

His heaviness had nothing to do with Niu Youdao's misfortune.

What troubled him was that he did not understand why the organization had ordered him to expose his identity to Niu Youdao.

He understood the organization's rules. Do not ask what you should not ask. Asking would not help anyway.

Perhaps he would never know the answer.

There were simply too many things he did not know.

From the perspective of Xiaoyue Pavilion's upper ranks, or from Yucang's perspective, Niu Youdao was far too important to Xiaoyue Pavilion.

They wanted to use every possible means to keep him alive and return him safely.

The moment Xiaoyue Pavilion handed Niu Youdao the names of its members entering the Tiandu Secret Realm, it meant every one of those people had already been exposed.

Yet even if there was only the slightest chance of preserving Niu Youdao's life, Xiaoyue Pavilion would spare no cost.

Put plainly, it was prepared to sacrifice every one of them.

...

Wu Zhaoxing and the Yun mother and son, following Niu Youdao away, were even more confused than before.

They had rushed all this way with him specifically to see Xu Fuhua.

They had assumed Niu Youdao had some important business with the man.

Who could have imagined that he truly did nothing more than see him?

How could the three endure something this strange without asking?

He could hardly drag them around aimlessly for amusement.

The moment they had put enough distance between themselves and Tianxing Sect's disciples, Wu Zhaoxing asked, "Niu Youdao, what exactly was that supposed to mean? You made a special trip here, then did nothing. If you're bored, there's no need to drag the rest of us around with you."

"Did nothing?" Niu Youdao replied. "I came specifically to notify Xu Fuhua that he should stop acting. No more messages, no more trail markers. I already signaled that to him just now."

The three looked doubtful.

Yun Ji asked suspiciously, "You made this whole trip only for that?"

"What else would I come for?" Niu Youdao said. "We no longer need him leaving secret signals. Naturally, he should stop."

"If this continues too long, sooner or later he could expose himself. Once someone discovers something is wrong with him, he'll be in trouble."

"..."

The three exchanged speechless looks.

They had not expected him to make this trip solely for that reason.

Niu Youdao was actually being this considerate toward Xu Fuhua.

Now that he had seized the moral high ground, the others found it awkward to keep accusing him of dragging them around for nothing.

Whether this was truly about loyalty and righteousness, however, was another matter.

Niu Youdao had indeed been in a hurry to find Xu Fuhua because he did not want the man exposed.

If Xu Fuhua were exposed and Tianxing Sect discovered there was something wrong with him, they would inevitably begin reexamining everything he had previously said and done.

That could expose the earlier incident in which Xu Fuhua killed two fellow disciples.

And if that was exposed, Niu Youdao's secret scheme could unravel as well.

He therefore had to terminate Xu Fuhua's activity in time.

"If we're no longer following Tianxing Sect, where are we going now?" Yun Huan asked.

"According to the direction Xu Fuhua gave us, we find Wei's cultivators."

Niu Youdao's tone was decisive.

His objective was clear.

He had already decided how he would push the situation forward.

From the first moment Chu Fengping approached him, Niu Youdao had known what sort of predicament his eventual choice might bring.

He would not sit waiting for death.

He had to adapt to circumstances.

Dragging out the matter with Chu Fengping had been about buying himself time, giving himself enough room to think everything through.

From that point onward, he had already begun secretly constructing a complete plan for surviving an apparently hopeless situation.

No matter how despairing the road ahead appeared, he would not give up easily.

He intended to carve out a path to life from the dead end before him.

No matter how small the hope, he would fight for it.

He would find ways to enlarge that hope little by little, gradually open up the situation from within adversity, and ultimately seize control of the whole board.

As for what happened after his death, he had already made his arrangements.

He had prepared for the possibility that he would not leave this place alive.

He had no worries left behind him.

All he needed to do now was concentrate on the matter in front of him.

Execute the plan.

Keep it from deviating.

Reach the final objective.

Wu Zhaoxing and the others followed him back and forth, their minds full of unanswered questions.

Niu Youdao had previously said he intended to unite with the overseas cultivators.

Yet judging from what he was doing now, that did not seem to be the case at all.

The three genuinely could not understand what he was planning, and asking brought them no answers.

Even so, they could all see that while many of Niu Youdao's actions looked somewhat erratic, his objectives seemed very precise.

That meant he was not acting randomly.

His thoughts had remained clear from beginning to end.

Everything he did was directed toward solving the problem.

The general direction Xu Fuhua had indicated proved correct.

One day later, they finally encountered cultivators from Wei.

They were not from Dale Mountain.

They were several disciples of Shouzheng Pavilion.

Seeing Niu Youdao surprised the other party as well.

The way they looked at him, however, was almost the way one looked at a dead man.

Clearly, they too knew Sha Rulai had forced Niu Youdao into a hopeless situation.

Since Sha Rulai had spoken on behalf of Misty Pavilion, his words carried absolute authority.

He would not go back on them.

He would not raise his hand high only to bring it down lightly.

Everyone believed Niu Youdao had no way to survive.

Even the combined force of an entire state's cultivators could not guarantee first place. How could Niu Youdao possibly take first?

If he was not a man already marked for death, what was he?

Even so, the Shouzheng Pavilion disciples remained cautious around him.

They were wary that, driven desperate by the need to take first place, Niu Youdao might resort to anything.

And with an expert like Wu Zhaoxing beside him, the pressure was considerable.

Niu Youdao, however, remained exceedingly polite. He cupped his hands and asked, "May I ask where Elder Yao Xianding of Shouzheng Pavilion is?"

Yao Xianding was the Elder responsible for Shouzheng Pavilion's people during this expedition into the Tiandu Secret Realm.

One man opposite them answered warily, "Don't know."

Niu Youdao lowered his hands. "Friend, there's no point speaking like that."

"Shouzheng Pavilion has strength in numbers. Elder Yao is surrounded by experts. Do you really think the few of us could do anything to him?"

"Fine. I'll speak plainly. Elder Yao and I have a good relationship in private."

"The Shangqing Sect was able to gain acceptance from Wei's female Chancellor, Xuan Wei, only because Elder Yao secretly helped make the connection."

"Since I've happened to meet all of you, both sentiment and propriety say I ought to go greet Elder Yao."

"Surely none of you can make decisions on Elder Yao's behalf?"

Hearing this, the several disciples hesitated.

After considering that there should be little danger, they eventually pointed Niu Youdao toward a direction.

Niu Youdao cupped his hands in thanks and took his leave, leading Wu Zhaoxing and the others away.

On the road, Yun Ji asked, "You and Yao Xianding are that close?"

Niu Youdao replied, "No. I don't know Yao Xianding at all."

[End of Chapter 777]