Chapter 422: Doubting One Another
Translator: SoupHunter Editor: TomYummy
After dealing with Yue Yao, Miao Yi went back to resting. He was not concerned with the battles of the others. After all, he held no sway over the rules of the Subjugation Crusade. Those that needed to die would still perish regardless. His sympathy and compassion wouldn't make any difference to the end result. Sometimes, it was better to just ignore some matters and save yourself from getting negative feelings about them.
As for the Geotranscendence Bangles he looted last night, Miao Yi wasn't planning on handing them over to Yue Yao for the time being. He was afraid that some kind of mishap would occur to her if he handed them over now.
That same night, after the day's battles were over, Miao Yi and the others returned to the Celestial Nation's mountain for a while. Then once they excused themselves, they snuck back to the foul smelling, blood-drenched battle arena.
They had already cleaned out all the Yao Nation participants the night before. Tonight, it was the Ghost Nation's turn, and this time, Zhao Fei and Sikong Wuwei were the ones who left to gather the victims...
The next day, the bloody battles resumed once more. Yue Yao looked to her side and saw that Miao Yi was simply resting again today. Her frustration immediately peaked, but she held it in as she thought, 'Keep it in! Let's see how he's going to fulfill his promise to me in the end!'
"What's going on here? All ten of them only had ten Geotranscendence Bangles in total?"
In the Devil Nation's camp, after sacrificing three of their members, one party managed to emerge victorious. However, they were only able to gain ten Geotranscendence Bangles from the ten Ghost Nation members that they had just killed. Rather, it was their own fallen members who had been the ones to provide them with several dozen Geotranscendence Bangles instead. Yun Feiyang immediately expressed disbelief and glared at the party members, asking, "Tell me truthfully, did you men conceal them?"
"Young Master Yang, there were so many people watching us. We wouldn't dare do such a thing!" The members explained, then took out all the storage rings that they had won for Yun Feiyang to examine.
"And they only had ten storage rings on them as well?" stressed Yun Feiyang, eyeing them with the piercing glare that he liked to scare others with. He couldn't help having doubts after all. Those that were killed by his subordinates before each carried several storage rings at least, and with plenty of loot inside to boot.
"Young Master Yang, it's true. Everyone was watching our every move. There's no way we could've done anything!"
They made a sound argument. However, when Yun Feiyang examined the contents of the storage rings, he was immediately enraged, and coldly said, "There's only one storage ring on each person, and it's almost empty inside as well. Do you take me for a three year-old brat?"
The members' expressions contorted in dismay as they tried to explain themselves, "Young Master Yang, they were already like this when we got them."
"You still deny it?!" Yun Feiyang raged and roared, "Men! Come and confiscate all their belongings."
He didn't care how they were trying to justify themselves. His first thought was to punish them and vent his frustration...
As the battles of the following day proceeded, Yun Feiyang's camp managed to barely win yet another battle. However, after tallying the rewards, Yun Feiyang could be heard exclaiming, "What IS going on here?!"
That same night, the demonic claws that had robbed the Yao Nation, Ghost Nation and Boundless Nation clean were at it again. Under the guise of darkness, Miao Yi and the others called group after group of monks out to 'settle a grievance'.
Only when it was nearing daybreak did they finally stop. They didn't have much a choice. After all, the six camps would resume their battles once the sun was up.
As he welcomed the first rays of sunlight from the distant horizon, Sikong Wuwei chuckled and said, "In another couple nights or so, we'll have almost cleaned out all those monks' belongings."
"It's dawn. Let's head back!" said Miao Yi. He turned Charcoal around, and the whole group quickly returned back to their cave.
Once again, when it was time for everyone to gather, the eight of them simply followed along like nothing happened.
As the battles continued, Yue Yao's expression slowly darkened. Even when her members emerged victorious, there wasn't much loot to be gained. Like Yun Feiyang, she had long since noticed that there was something suspicious with the current state of affairs. For some reason, the rewards were starting to become less and less. It was a different case for the other representatives, who were still able to gain some spoils from both her and Yun Feiyang's members.
Having noticed something was amiss as well, Lan Ruo said, "Lord Sixth, do you think the other representatives are behind this? Confiscating their own participants' Geotranscendence Bangles beforehand?"
"Outrageous!" Yue Yao cursed, "How dare they use such underhanded methods!"
Miao Yi quietly cast a sideways glance over.
"Young Master Yang, we've been set up. Besides the Celestial Nation's camp and ours, the other four representatives must have first taken away the belongings of their own participants."
Yun Feiyang's subordinate said to him, whose face was completely dark at the moment.
"How dare these little bastards play me for a fool!" Yun Feiyang scoffed, "I'm going to get back at them for this!"
"You mustn't, Young Master Yang! There's only one of us, but there are four of them. If we fight against them, we will surely be on the losing end. By then, not only will we fail to receive justice, we might even end up being humiliated." His subordinate warned.
Yun Feiyang furiously roared, "Then do you want me to simply take this lying down? Even if I had to suffer such injustice, I would rather it happen to me openly rather than with such underhanded methods!"
Beside him, Yan Beihong advised, "Young Master Yang, back when the Celestial Nation members challenged us and lost, I noticed that the amount of things inside their storage rings was still the same as before. Hence, I believe they are suffering the same injustice we are. Surely Fairy Yue Yao isn't pleased with this as well. You should contact her afterwards. Given Fairy Yue Yao's strength, and with the both of you working together, we might not have to fear the other four houses. It wouldn't be too late to seek justice then."
"Seek justice my ass!" Yun Feiyang cursed. "Old Yan, you don't know the situation between our six houses. This six-sided relationship between us has always been one of mutual exploitation. You're dreaming if you think you can get them to spit out the things that they have already swallowed down. Not even Yue Yao would dare to kill them so easily."
Yan Beihong was speechless, thinking, 'You were the one who said you didn't want to take this lying down and wanted to get back at the others. Here I am, offering you a suggestion, and you make it seem like I'm just poking my nose in unnecessarily.'
Yun Feiyang then ordered his subordinate, "After this, I want you to record down all the things that everyone has in their possession right now. Ask them to first hand in their belongings and tell them we'll return it back to them afterwards. Else, we're going to suffer heavy losses!"
Meanwhile, the Yao Nation's Bai Ziliang, Ghost Nation's Hei Wuya, Boundless Nation's Feng Ruxiu, as well as Kong Zhi and the others from the Buddha Nation were all beginning to notice the discrepancy in the situation as well.
They all had the same suspicions as Yue Yao and Yun Feiyang. However, they didn't think Yue Yao and Yun Feiyang had anything to do with it though, as the amount of loot gained from both the Celestial Nation and Devil Nation was still the same as before.
They never would have suspected that it was because Miao Yi couldn't rob the Celestial Nation participants, being a member of the same camp himself. And as for the Devil Nation's participants, he didn't make a move on them out of respect for Yun Feiyang.
Bai Ziliang, Hei Wuya and Feng Ruxiu were all secretly cursing one another for being despicable. They didn't cast much suspicion towards Kong Zhi however, as the Buddha Nation's members had yet to be fully cleaned out by Miao Yi and the others. Hence, there was still some loot to be gained from defeating them.
On Kong Zhi's side however, Ba Jie was cursing Bai Ziliang, Hei Wuya and Feng Ruxiu altogether. Grinding his teeth in hatred, he said, "Those three shameless sons of bitches! Kong Zhi, in the end, it looks like us monks are still too kind!"
As much as they hated the other three, there was little Ba Jie and Kong Zhi could do besides secretly cursing them. Since the other party hadn't broken any rules, there was no way Ba Jie and Kong Zhi could force them to spit out the things that they had already gobbled. It wasn't as though they could kill the other representatives. No one would be able to shoulder that kind of responsibility. After all, the ones standing behind them were the Six Sages themselves.
As the day's battles came to an end, the six representatives immediately gathered up their members' belongings.
As soon as Miao Yi and the others returned to their cave, Sikong Wuwei immediately rubbed his hands excitedly and said, "We're going to make a fortune again tonight."
"We can't continue doing this anymore!" Miao Yi shook his head and continued, "The matter is already becoming suspect. If we get too greedy, we risk digging our own graves."
Zhao Fei nodded, "It wouldn't be wise to go too far. We should quit while we're ahead."
Gu Sanzheng, Tan Lao and Ye Xin nodded as well. Even Pi Junzi and Tao Yongchun were in agreement. This dangerous game they were playing had gone on long enough. They could feel their hearts racing like mad every night. Even though it was exciting and fun, it was beginning to be a little too thrilling for them. After all, this was the Sea of Constellations Subjugation Crusade they were talking about! Not even in their wildest dreams did they ever think they would play with fire like this!
That said, Sikong Wuwei was a little disappointed. It seemed he still hadn't had his fill of the excitement. After all, they were making a significant fortune every night. Sikong Wuwei had never felt this exhilarated before!
"Seeing as the situation is starting to become suspicious, I'll go hand the Geotranscendence Bangles over to Lord Sixth right now. That way, we'll be able to sleep easy at night at least. As long as the Geotranscendence Bangles are safely delivered to Lord Sixth, having received her share of the benefits, she'll have to protect us even if we're ultimately exposed. Otherwise, it would damage the Realm Beyond Heaven's reputation." Miao Yi said to everyone.
Zhao Fei and the others nodded in agreement. Even Gu Sanzheng was feeling a little terrified from this game they were playing. There was just so much in their possession right now that it had become scary to keep holding them. Waving his hand repeatedly, he said, "Hurry on then!"
Everyone was anxious to see how Yue Yao would respond. If she threw them under the bus, the other representatives would surely have their heads.
Miao Yi immediately rushed out of the cave and made a beeline for the peak of the mountain.
Inside the main hall of the wooden house on the mountaintop, Yue Yao had just returned, and was in the middle of discussing the matter of temporarily gathering everyone's belongings together with a few of her subordinates. Suddenly, someone gave a shout from outside the door, "Yan Beihong requests an audience with Lord Sixth!"
Yue Yao frowned for a moment, then said, "Let him in."
A short while later, Miao Yi calmly walked in. Cupping his fists towards Yue Yao, he said, "I respectfully greet Lord Sixth!"
Yue Yao asked, "What business do you have?"
"I've brought you the items you wanted, Lord Sixth." Miao Yi replied, then took off a storage ring from his finger and handed it over to Lan Ruo.
There was no way that Lan Ruo would simply hand anything over to Yue Yao. Obviously, she needed to first check the storage ring herself. However, after she examined it with her transcendence energy, she was immediately stupefied where she stood, and stared at Miao Yi in shock.
Meanwhile, Miao Yi was just standing there quietly.
"Lan Ruo… LAN RUO! "
Only after Yue Yao called out her name twice did Lan Ruo finally snap out of it, letting out a yelp as she gave a start. Her body movements were still a little jittery as she hurriedly handed the storage ring over to her mistress.
'What could possibly have caused Lan Ruo to lose her composure like this?' Yue Yao thought. The moment she examined the storage ring with her transcendence energy, those captivating lips of hers immediately turned half-agape with wonder. She slowly lifted her head to look at Miao Yi with an expression of utter disbelief.
Miao Yi then calmly stated, "There are thirty-two thousand, three hundred and seventy-seven Geotranscendence Bangles. Sadly, my abilities are limited. For the time being, I can only collect this many for you, Lord Sixth."
In reality, most of the Geotranscendence Bangles were already in the hands of Yue Yao and the other five representatives. Miao Yi had worked for four consecutive nights, cleaning out nearly five thousand cultivators from the other four nations, and was only able to collect around thirty thousand of them in the end.
There was no guarantee that every surviving participant would have a large sum of Geotranscendence Bangles. On the contrary, there were quite a number of them who didn't even have a single one. It was out of pure luck that they managed to survive until now. And as for the ones who had killed many people before this, just one of them would possess over a thousand Geotranscendence Bangles. From this it could be seen that there was a great disparity in the amount of wealth owned between the participants.
In conclusion, out of nearly five thousand participants, each had about six Geotranscendence Bangles on average.
Furthermore, among these numbers in excess of thirty thousand Geotranscendence Bangles, about seven hundred of them had come personally from Miao Yi. Besides the one on his wrist, Miao Yi had given Yue Yao all the Geotranscendence Bangles he could afford to hand over.
He did this simply because of the fact that he hadn't been able to take care of his little sister all these years. It was with much difficulty that he could finally meet her again. Since his little sister had said that she wanted the Geotranscendence Bangles, he naturally wanted to do whatever he could to fulfill her wish, and ease the guilt in his heart in the process.
Yue Yao's subordinates all sucked in a breath of cold air and stared at Miao Yi as they thought, 'Did he say over thirty thousand Geotranscendence Bangles?'
" Thirty-two thousand, three hundred and seventy-seven… " repeated Yue Yao. She slowly snapped out of her daze. She couldn't help herself from standing up in shock and, furrowing her brows, asked, "Yan Beihong, how on earth did you collect so many Geotranscendence Bangles?"