Just as Yu ManLou was pondering how to extricate himself from this mess, the rumors started to fly around, just like a blanket wrapping up the entire world within it. At this time, Yu ManLou made up his mind! Others might not know, but he who was looking from the outside knew exactly what the rumors indicated.
After giving out the command, he walked heavily towards his window, gazing at the clouds high up in the South, as a sense of urgency took over his heart.
Ling Tian had returned to Sky Bearing! The perpetrator behind all these schemes was definitely him!
And this news meant…
His greatest enemy had actually escaped from the death clutches of Justice!
To think that the person he was afraid to face actually could not manage to kill his greatest enemy today!
Justice, the Martial Order Medallion owner and number one expert, actually failed to kill a child less than twenty years old who hadn’t finished growing his hair. This was supposed to be a joke, but this joke actually turned into reality!
All the news items were filtered at once through Yu ManLou’s mind. They converged into an arrow whose head was pointed towards a certain direction, the south!
Ling Tian was ready to take action on Southern Zheng!
The previous command was the counter-attack from Yu ManLou!
The latter sighed. What was a good scheme? It was to be able to destroy a person without the use of any force! Just by this blanket of rumors that were spread out, Southern Zheng would already have no choice but to be pressured down! Southern Zheng probably would not last much longer, thus to prevent Ling Tian from conquering it, the Yu Family would have to first take over the Western Han to hold the advantage in their hands!
A cold ray reflected off Yu ManLou’s eyes, and the hand that was gripping his chair subconsciously exerted its strength, and with a ‘kacha’ sound the wood was ground to bits in his palm….
During that same time, within the Ling Family Courtyard, everything was proceeding in a methodical and organized manner.
The surrounding cities around Li City still continued to send in intelligence from time to time, their content virtually the same. After Ling Chen received the news, she sent down the order for them to go undercover and not send any more reports, and instead to wait for the next command. As for the Crystal Pavilion, their news still continued to flow uninterrupted into the Ling Family Courtyard. There were two news items that caught her attention.
On the nineteenth night, Xiao FengYang’s army secretly shifted around 1.5km, setting up camp near a forest. During the night, there were no movements, not even lights. The spy suspected foul play yet was unable to see anything strange and found it odd.
On the twentieth morning, while the Xiao Army started to cook their food, tens of thousands of soldiers squared up and went through their military drills, their movements extremely powerful. After that, they returned to camp and began to check their horses and supplies. However, following the practice, the Xiao Army shifted once again from the right to the left, leaving the extreme right side of theirs empty, and separating from the path and the forest.
These two bits of news seemed to have no important message or make any sense, but after filtering, the news was immediately caught by Meng LiGe and Ling Tian.
“Indeed not out of advisor’s expectations. It seems like the Xiao Family has begun to move, and it seems like we have calculated correctly.” Ling Tian smiled as he looked at Meng LiGe in admiration.
“That’s right. Making camp near or within a forest as always been a taboo for an army. One reason would be the fear of a fire, and another would be the fear of spies. Thus, Xiao FengYang only camped there for a night before quickly leaving.” Meng LiGe laughed, “However, one night’s time would be enough to allow an army of ten thousand men to break up into tiny sections, filtering out of the main force and shifting to another location by borrowing the trees as cover. When they merge together in the end, they would then be able to perform a lightning-quick attack!”
He smiled serenely. “If a person was not familiar with how Xiao FengYan acted, then they would have been blinded from the truth even with these two pieces of information. The separated group would definitely be elites, and would not consist of too many. After slipping into Sky Bearing, they would definitely have a rendezvous point. What we should do now is to uncover their meeting spot, apply direct force, and crush them. That would be the best scenario!”
Ling Chen and Ling Tian nodded. Since they were aware that these people were coming to Sky Bearing, then finding them would not be a difficult matter.
“This group should have a strength of above one thousand but below five thousand. However, if they wish to rely on this group to throw Sky Bearing into chaos, that is not enough, thus there should be an additional element inside this plan. I believe that when they act, Xiao FengYang’s army would definitely also coordinate with a feint so as to accommodate them. Maybe all three of their armed forces would actually strike! This is also why he disabled the intelligence from Li City, which is the only obstacle between him and Sky Bearing, but not the other three cities. He also wishes to use the erroneous reports from the other three cities to mislead us while he does his feint, to divert our attention, allowing the infiltrators to achieve the greatest success!”
Meng LiGe frowned as he continued, “Solving this matter is of paramount importance. After all, the Xiao Family can make a move at any time, and the initiative is not with us. We have to ferret out those infiltrators before they can activate their feint, turning from passive to the active party! There is a certain difficulty to this, but there should be indications of their tracks. Since Xiao FengYang took down Li City, then the elite troops would definitely come from the gate closest to that! Following down this route, it will not be too difficult to dig them out, since Sky Bearing is, in the end, our territory.”
Ling Tian stood up as he smirked, “It’s not just ‘not too difficult’, but rather as easy as flipping a hand! Mister has planned this meticulously this time, covering all possible loopholes. Now it’s our turn to tie up the loose ends!”
Meng LiGe only waved his hands, a twinkling laughter in his eyes, “I’m just limited as a scholar, only able to use my mouth. Young Noble is the one possessing real capabilities, and LiGe here will congratulate you beforehand on your success.”
Ling Tian chuckled merrily, but thick killing intent had already begun to gather on his expression.
Since they had the audacity to come to this noble’s territory to start a fight, then they had better be prepared to leave their lives behind!
That night, Ling Tian, Jian, and Chi gathered 500 elites without the slightest bit of notice, silently slipping out of the Ling Family Courtyard and heading east.
The galloping horses sounded like a torrential downpour, and as the Asura moved, he carried a sky full of killing intent.
“In front of us is Tai City.” Ling Jian brandished his horsewhip, as he chuckled, “If anyone from the Xiao Family wishes to enter Sky Bearing from Li City, this place cannot be avoided. While Tai City is small, it exists as a strategic fortress, with a mountain pass around 10km away from the East gates. It is flanked by two mountains, so unless the Xiao Family chooses not to enter from the direction of Li City, they will eventually end up in this place.”
Ling Tian sat straight on his horse. Even with the strong winds lashing across his face, his eyes were wide open, the steel within gleaming. “Aren’t there any guards standing by the entrance of Tai City? If a few thousand people from the Xiao Family were to pass by, how could they even hide from us?”
Ling Jian replied, “Based on the secret elites of the Xiao Family, to eliminate some soldiers would be nothing difficult.” Even if they were to control the entire fortress’s soldiers, I would not find it surprising.”
“Moron! Why can’t you think one layer deeper!” Ling Tian glared. “The Xiao Family’s objective is Sky Bearing, which includes either the Ling Residence or the Ling Family Courtyard. If they wantonly kill people here, there will be some news no matter how they do it. My side will immediately receive the news at the latest in a day, and by then, how could they perform their mission? Xiao FengYang’s plan would thus die before having the chance to surface. For him to meticulously go to great lengths to plan this expedition, how could he make a blunder at this critical juncture?”
“Young Noble is saying, that inside the fortress, there is already an undercover agent belonging to the Xiao Family?” Ling Jian’s brain clicked and he blurted out.
Ling Tian’s face was placid like water, but a trace of thick killing intent flashed through his eyes. “Not only such a person, but their rank must also be quite high. This is however within my expectations. To have drooled for Sky Bearing for such a long time, if they do not have any spies within the place, then that would be odd. However, after this matter, all those undercover personnel in the Ling Family that belong to the Xiaos will all turn into ashes and bones.”
On the side, Ling Chi chased up with his horse, running alongside the two of them with a look of excitement on his face. Before this, the kid had been assigned by Ling Chen to guard beside Shui QianHuan, causing him to be stifled badly. Now that he had the chance to go out, and to even follow alongside Ling Tian and Jian, his idol and respected senior, he became even more energetic and excited. Right now, after the long journey, even Ling Tian started to feel the itch and abrasions on his legs and butt, but Ling Chi was still bouncy and vivacious, lively beyond measure.
“Look at this, our little Chi is so energetic. Ah’Jian, compared to him, we’re like old men.” Ling Tian smiled as he looked at Ling Chi, before turning to talk to Ling Jian.
Hearing this, Ling Jian nearly fell from his horse. Old? Even if he was older than Ling Tian, he was only nineteen! How was he old?! Besides, even though Ling Chi was called young, he was already sixteen years old. It was just that Ling Tian implied that Ling Jian was older than Ling Chi by many years. How could that be? And to think that Ling Tian called him childish a few days ago, and now he turns around and says that he was old, so what exactly was he…..?
No matter what, he had to cope with the Young Noble’s words. Facing the wind, Ling Jian let out an unrestrained laugh, “That goes without saying. Right now, Little Chi is facing his springtime. Having a little beauty beside him for company every day, his days would of course be spent in bliss.”
Ling Chi’s ears immediately turned red, and he pretended to be angry, “Brother Jian, what nonsense are you spouting? Since when do I have a beauty by my side?”
On the other side, Feng Mo had silently arrived. He chortled out in laughter, before holding his nose and doing his best imitation of someone as he weirdly pouted, “…. Little Chi… I’m going to make mincemeat out of you… quickly… come here…” Then he reverted to his old voice, hoarsely laughed as he continued, “That day, I heard these two sentences and this old man’s bones went soft immediately. Young Noble, you have to reward me for this, if it wasn’t for this Old Feng taking care of him, I’m afraid our little brother Ling Chi would have gotten his flower ‘plucked’ by that Miss Die’er. Oh, wait… based off of Lady Li Xue, it should be having his ‘grass’ eaten…” 1