Chapter 827: The Thief Cries "Catch the Thief"

Chu Fengping felt as though he had hit Niu Youdao, but with the mist obscuring everything, he had not seen it and could not be certain.

If the attack had connected, then under the power of a Heavenly Sword Talisman, even if Niu Youdao had not died, he should at least have suffered severe injuries. But the situation inside the mist was unclear, so Chu Fengping sent two disciples in to eliminate any lingering possibility.

Niu Youdao's rejection of the marriage proposal had already left him humiliated and furious. Now, after such a large operation had still failed to stop the man, and after he had even wasted a Heavenly Sword Talisman worth ten million, if Niu Youdao escaped again, Chu Fengping would truly have difficulty accounting for himself after returning.

The two disciples accepted the order and swiftly entered the mist to search.

The others more or less understood what he intended.

Chu Fengping turned and swept his gaze around. His eyes settled on one disciple, and he beckoned him over.

The disciple approached with obvious unease and bowed.

Expressionless, Chu Fengping asked, "Were you responsible for today's outer perimeter?"

The disciple understood what he meant. If Niu Youdao had been discovered earlier, he never would have had a chance to get this close. He could have been intercepted before reaching the area, and the situation would never have developed into this.

He hurriedly explained, "Our people were deployed in a grid. Anyone approaching from outside should have been impossible to miss. He seemed to appear suddenly from somewhere nearby. This disciple truly had no way to guard against it."

Chu Fengping said, "Appeared suddenly? With no approach at all, he can simply appear from nowhere? That's your explanation?"

"I..." The disciple had no answer.

Chu Fengping's pent-up fury finally burst. His hand flashed out.

Smack!

He rewarded the disciple with a slap across the face and shouted, "Useless trash! Get lost!"

The disciple who had been slapped lowered his head and silently withdrew.

The others from Yan, Wei, and Qi came over.

Yao Xianding asked, "What happened? How did Niu Youdao make it all the way here?"

"I don't understand it either. Logically, it should've been impossible..." Chu Fengping roughly explained what had happened.

"How could that be?" Yao Xianding muttered. Then, frowning suspiciously, he said, "Four of your disciples joined forces to intercept him, yet he killed them in a single exchange. Niu Youdao's strength may not be as simple as we imagined."

Tianhuo Sect Elder Qian Fucheng said, "What did you think? His strength was never ordinary!"

His reminder made everyone remember.

Niu Youdao had once fought a Tianhuo Sect disciple, one who seemed to be an outstanding young talent in the sect. Yet before everyone's eyes, Niu Youdao had wounded him and nearly killed him. That affair had caused quite a commotion at the time.

What Yan Li cared about was whether Niu Youdao was alive or dead. He asked, "After that wild barrage from your Heavenly Sword Talisman, did you hit him or not?"

Chu Fengping frowned. "That mist is extremely strange. It can't be dispersed easily. I couldn't see."

Yan Li gave a heh. "Brother Chu, are you joking? Even if you couldn't see, you were the one who struck. Surely you could feel more or less whether you hit him?"

Chu Fengping sighed. "I truly can't be certain. It felt like I hit him, and yet it also felt like I didn't."

Everyone was speechless.

Dale Mountain Elder Cao Bing said, "What do you mean, it felt like you hit him and also like you didn't?"

Chu Fengping waved a hand. "I understand what all of you mean. But that sensation really is difficult to describe. The Heavenly Sword Talisman's attack seemed to strike the target, yet the feedback of force after impact didn't feel solid. It was as though it connected, and yet also as though it struck empty air."

The others more or less understood.

Yan Li tested the idea. "A glancing hit? You didn't land it squarely?"

Chu Fengping still did not dare be certain. "Something like that, perhaps." His gaze shifted into the depths of the mist. "I don't know whether the strange disturbance at the passage between the two realms affected my senses and created an illusion."

At those words, the others looked toward the uncanny fog as well.

That possibility did exist.

Yan Li pondered for a while, then suddenly stroked his beard and said, "Looks like we may have misunderstood Yan Baoru!"

Everyone turned toward him at once.

Shan Hai asked, "What do you mean?"

Yan Li pointed around the area. "We've cast a net around this entire place and kept it under surveillance. According to Brother Chu, Niu Youdao shouldn't have been able to approach this close before being discovered. That means it's very possible he was already nearby from the beginning!"

The others exchanged looks, none of them understanding.

Chu Fengping said, "Speak plainly. Explain yourself. What do you mean he was already nearby from the beginning?"

Yan Li replied, "Isn't it obvious? Niu Youdao had already colluded with the three neutral sects. He hid nearby in advance—underground, for example. The moment the three sects left, he immediately emerged and escaped."

Xuanbing Sect's Liu Xinggao said, "That doesn't make sense. If they were truly colluding, he could simply hide with them. When it was time to leave, he could have gone out together with the three sects. Why keep some distance and take this kind of risk?"

Yan Li said, "How could he leave together with them? The three sects arrived early. After that came Jin, Han, and Song, and then us. Could he openly show himself among the three sects? Hiding too close wouldn't work either, because Misty Pavilion's people were all around the exit. What attitude Misty Pavilion would take toward Niu Youdao was impossible to say."

"The key point is that even if the three sects were colluding with him, before they themselves got out, they would never put their own people in danger for his sake. Could they allow him to stay openly among them? The moment he was discovered, they'd be drawing fire onto themselves. If everyone had a solid excuse, and if they knew those three sects were carrying an enormous quantity of Spirit Seeds, then with temptation that great, do you really think no one would dare move against them?"

"So Niu Youdao could only hide nearby! Nor could he openly appear and leave together with them. The moment anyone saw him, everyone would stop him. That means the three sects had to leave first, with Niu Youdao following afterward!"

The reasoning made sense.

As everyone thought it over, Shan Hai slowly said, "Earlier I wondered what had gotten into Yan Baoru, that she would dare jump out and offend those three sects. Looking back now, it seems there truly was a reason behind it. Without some confidence in what she was saying, Yan Baoru probably wouldn't have made an accusation like that recklessly."

Yan Li added, "There's more! When Niu Youdao escaped, everyone saw him. There was no way he was carrying a huge quantity of Spirit Seeds. If Niu Youdao can't take first place, then even if he escapes, leaving without enough Spirit Seeds means death anyway! If he couldn't guarantee first place, why would he take such a risk and escape alone?"

"From what we learned earlier, he should have been together with that pack of demons and monsters. If the Spirit Seeds were still with the Four Seas people, then what would it mean for him to abandon them and run by himself?"

Chu Fengping ground his teeth. "There's only one possibility. Yan Baoru was telling the truth. Those three neutral sects really did secretly carry a huge quantity of Spirit Seeds out for Niu Youdao. We were all fooled by them!"

Everyone's expression grew heavy.

If that was true, then their chances of taking first place were in danger.

Yao Xianding hesitated. "Your reasoning makes sense, but I still can't understand why the three sects would help him."

Yan Li immediately asked in return, "Then allow me to ask: who here can explain why that pack of Four Seas demons and monsters helped him?"

No one had an answer.

It truly was strange. None of them knew what was going on.

From another angle, that very mystery made the possibility that the three neutral sects had helped Niu Youdao seem more plausible. There had to be some reason none of them knew.

Yan Li silently observed everyone's reactions and sighed inwardly.

He too did not know whether Niu Youdao had survived Chu Fengping's frenzied assault.

As long as he could not be certain, and as long as there remained any possibility that Niu Youdao had escaped alive, Yan Li could only continue following the original plan.

Once everyone had returned to their positions, Yan Li pulled Shan Hai aside and went to find Chu Fengping.

The moment they met, Yan Li asked, "Brother Chu, what we said in front of outsiders was for outsiders to hear. Niu Youdao suddenly appeared from your side and escaped. Did you truly fail to discover him, or did you deliberately let him through?"

At those words, Shan Hai immediately became alert, as though realizing something. He stared coldly at Chu Fengping.

Chu Fengping flew into a rage. "What do you mean?"

Yan Li, the thief himself crying "catch the thief," said, "What do you think I mean? You didn't secretly reach some agreement with Niu Youdao behind our backs, did you? You aren't putting on a show together, are you?"

Chu Fengping exploded. "Bullshit! Would I waste a Heavenly Sword Talisman worth ten million just to put on a show?"

...

The next day, the Zijin Cave disciple responsible for receiving the Four Seas group arrived quickly and leaned close to Yan Li.

"Master, they're here."

Yan Li immediately warned him in a low voice, "Watch the surroundings. Don't let the other groups discover anything."

The disciple gave a quiet acknowledgment. "We've already arranged people to stand guard."

He had no idea why his master was conducting this kind of secret maneuver behind everyone's backs. But an operation this large was not something his master alone could bear responsibility for. The sect had to be secretly planning something. That thought made him especially careful.

"There's one more thing. Once the fighting starts, kill the stragglers without mercy. Don't hold back!" Yan Li suddenly said coldly.

"What?" The disciple was badly startled. "Didn't we already agree with them that this was only an act and wouldn't be real?"

Yan Li sneered. "What we told them is one thing. How we actually handle it is for us to decide. How could no one die? If no one dies, how do we explain ourselves to the other factions?"

There were some things he and Niu Youdao had concealed from the Four Seas group.

The disciple silently nodded.

He understood.

Before long, guided by Zijin Cave disciples, several hundred Four Seas cultivators, together with the people from Myriad Caves Heavenly Mansion, Wu Zhaoxing, and the others, stealthily approached through the sector defended by Zijin Cave.

The two sides coordinated seamlessly.

Once they drew near the exit, the Four Seas group began its assault.

The performance began.

The sounds of fighting erupted.

Fuhua, Duan Wuchang, Lang Jingkong, Hong Gaitian, Situ Yao, Wu Zhaoxing, Yun Ji and her son, and the other main experts charged at the front to open a path.

Yan, Wei, and Qi had only part of their forces sealing the exit.

No one expected such a large group to suddenly appear and attack here.

Faced with a sudden assault from so many experts, the defenders simply could not stop them.

The blockade around the exit was ripped open immediately.

The crowd of demons and monsters, together with the Myriad Caves Heavenly Mansion cultivators, desperately surged through the gap.

Fuhua and the other experts took up positions with their backs to the exit, fighting desperately to hold the rear and block the experts from the three states who were arriving after hearing the commotion.

The Four Seas people quickly realized something was wrong.

Zijin Cave's side had turned the fake fight into a real one.

They were genuinely killing people.

"Yan Li, you despicable little man who goes back on his word!" Lang Jingkong roared furiously, almost as though deliberately shouting for the others to hear and making sure everyone knew Yan Li had colluded with them.

Yan Li merely snorted inwardly.

A cold, indifferent smile touched the corner of his mouth.

Once most of the group had forced their way through the exit, while more and more people from the three states rushed over, Fuhua and the other experts finally could not hold any longer.

"Withdraw!" Fuhua cried out in anguish.

The experts guarding the exit abandoned the struggle and flashed into the mist.

As for the hundred-odd people still behind them, they could no longer worry about how many would make it out.

Another twenty or thirty still fought desperately and broke through.

As for the others, with their path forward cut off and no retreat left behind them, their fate was easy to imagine.

When the sounds of battle finally died away, Yan Li planted one foot on a wounded man who was still gasping for breath.

His sword flashed.

Blood sprayed.

No survivors.

The severed head rolled away and transformed into a wolf's head.

The headless body likewise revealed its original form, becoming the body of a wolf.

"What happened?"

The presiding Elders of the three states arrived and confronted Yan Li, demanding an explanation.

[End of Chapter 827]