“I’m, I’m just thinking about it...” Li Hao said sheepishly.
“That’s normal, you’re the only heir left of the eight families, after all. Technically speaking, all of their ruins belong to you. What’s yours is mine, so this means that Qiao Feilong is occupying our stuff, isn’t he!”
Li Hao quickly bobbed his head.
“Also, the ruins of the eight families might require your weapons or bloodlines to open,” Yuan Shuo continued. “Even if he’s accessed it, he’s just cracked it open at most. There’s no way he’s thrown the doors wide open! Therefore, he certainly has designs on you. Does this mean we have a new enemy?”
Li Hao nodded again. Everything his teacher said was right.
“He who strikes first, prevails. He who strikes late, fails!” Yuan Shuo arched a brow. “We either don’t take any action, or we hit them where it hurts and go for the kill!”
“But they’re a Yama pawn...”
Yuan Shuo brusquely interrupted his student before the young man finished. “Not to worry, he must be keeping this from Yama! I know people like Qiao Feilong all too well! Whatever he’s found will be completely taken away if he tells Yama, so he’ll never tell them!
“All we need to do is tear out the weeds by the roots—kill Qiao Feilong, kill all of his men, kill his son, and kill everyone who excavated the ruins for him. That way, Yama won’t know that they really found any ruins, even if they have an inkling of the truth.”
Li Hao opened and shut his mouth. He only held his suspicions, but his teacher spoke with surety, as if he was very familiar with Qiao Feilong!
“Stop gaping, this is normal and expected!” Yuan Shuo suddenly grinned. “I’m as well, I’ve just been compelled otherwise by circumstances. Do you think I’m a minion for the Night Watchers by choice? Their tool to explore ruins with? I have no choice! I’d take it all for myself if I could!”
He truly wasn’t a kind soul, only Li Hao found him a good person. This was what Yuan Shuo would do if he was Qiao Feilong. Such was the personality of the old guard of martial masters. Arrogant, unyielding, selfish, and greedy.
The professor possessed all of these traits; he’d just cultivated his moral character and behaved ethically over the years. Death stared at him in the face then and the way forward was severed. It was when he lost all hope that he accepted Li Hao and crafted the image of a benevolent teacher.
The truth of the matter was, Yuan Shuo was Old Demon Yuan. As someone from the same line of thinking, how would he not understand Qiao Feilong? Thus, he called for complete extermination of anyone related to Qiao Senior as soon as he formed the idea!
Not only that, but Yuan Shuo further narrowed his eyes. “We need to massacre them and we need to do so without fanfare. We can’t let too many people know that Qiao Feilong is a powerhouse! He can be a Darkmoon, but he can’t be a Sunflare or Solar! That will make people wonder why he stayed in Silver City for so many years.
“It’s fine if he’s a Darkmoon. A rich Yama tool for fleecing sheep—what’s noteworthy of him being a Darkmoon? The only thing he can’t be is a Sunflare or Solar, understood?”
“Teacher, do you mean...” Li Hao couldn’t quite keep up with his teacher’s pace. “That you’re going to go after him right now?”
That was precisely Yuan Shuo’s intention. No hesitation! He started plotting how to do away with all possible witnesses as soon as Li Hao finished talking. This efficiency, this decisiveness, this ruthlessness... No wonder he was Old Demon Yuan!
“Indecision inevitably leads to trouble!” Yuan Shuo snorted. “We know he’s the enemy, so we must pull him up by the roots! I showed mercy back in the day and didn’t kill Ying Hongyue. I let him live and it forced me to hide for the next twenty years instead. Don’t follow my lead!”
Either they did nothing at all, or they did their worst!
Yuan Shuo looked in the direction of Qiao Mining’s headquarters, falling silent for a brief moment.
“I can utilize my killing move again and take out Qiao Feilong, but those three Sunflares... won’t be easy to handle! I can’t take them on myself and we need to act fast. Are they at the mines?”
“Then we need to split up!” Yuan Shuo intoned. “I’ll go for Qiao Feilong. We need to find another for the three Sunflares. There are also other supernaturals to consider, as well as his son. We need to encompass all of them! This isn’t something that one or two people can handle.
“We either stay put, or we take them all out at once in quick battle so no one gets away. Silver City only seems peaceful and quiet on the surface. Who knows how many pairs of eyes are watching us from the shadows?
“We better make sure that not a word of this gets out, or people might suspect the mines as soon as Qiao Feilong dies. Or we kill them with the excuse that they’re communicating with Red Moon! If that, then we can borrow the Night Watchers to seize Qiao Mining by legal authority!”
Li Hao scratched his head and ran through the possibilities. “Does our branch stand a chance against a Sunflare if all of us attack at the same time?”
And that was it. Joint action from Liu Long’s old team and Wang Ming’s new fellows might be barely enough for a Sunflare. It was apparent from this just how strong this level of supernatural was.
The enemy possessed three Sunflares, more supernaturals, and also martial masters! They also had a security team in the mines. While that was mostly comprised of mundanes, they were vicious, heartless people that carried hot weapons.
Hot weapons were permitted as Qiao Mining held the appropriate gun permits and also operated a security company under their umbrella.
“Then let’s pretend we don’t know anything.” Li Hao’s head was starting to ache. “There’s nothing we can do to them in the short run. In fact, it’s more likely that we make a big mistake instead. Whether if some get away, this turns into a big deal, or it turns into a big deal after they’re all dead, or if we do kill them all... None of those outcomes are what I want to see.”
The young man leaned toward quietly eliminating his opponents and collecting the benefits with none the wiser. He didn’t want situations to turn into entanglements that everyone was aware of. It didn’t matter how precious the treasure was if everyone knew about it. He didn’t want to be hunted throughout the world!
Look at the chaos that’d engulfed the central region for the sake of one precious treasure. Solars and above were fighting for it! Li Hao didn’t want to be the next target!
“We can’t wait!” Yuan Shuo refuted solemnly. “You can, they won’t! Qiao Feilong is no fool. He knows that Silver City has become a target of note after a Red Moon Solar died here. The only reason why no powerhouses have come is because they’re all preoccupied in the central region!
“But once war slightly abates there, we’ll see heavyweights rush here. Therefore, he’s playing for time. He must be looking for an opportunity to fully open the ruins or kill you for the sword or bloodline...”
“He doesn’t know I still have the sword.”
“Then he wants your blood!” Yuan Shuo concluded dismissively. “Do you think he only wants the sword? His goal isn’t necessarily the same as Red Moon’s. What they want might have to do with the trigram in the sky, but Qiao Feilong cares more about the here and now. Thus, he’ll want to open the ruins with your blood more.”
Li Hao nodded, this was very true. Qiao Feilong might not care about the eight trigrams, and he still might not after learning about them. With Red Moon attention in the area, he probably wanted to wring all he could out of this opportunity once and for all.
“So this means that he isn’t willing to wait even if I am?” Li Hao sighed with resignation. “I met him today—he was quite enthusiastic and polite. Or was that because he thinks I’m a dead man walking?”
“Pretty much.” Yuan Shuo smiled. “Not bad, you. Did you let anything slip when you met him? Did you pee your pants when you read his strength?”
“How could I!” Li Hao grinned as well. “Could I lose face for my teacher like that? Who the hell is Qiao Feilong? My teacher’s killed Solars! Teacher will kill him all the same if he’s one!”
He hadn’t peed his pants, but it’d been a close call.
“Enough of that empty talk, there’s no point to it.” Yuan Shuo frowned. “We should think about how to handle this trouble. It’s going to be quite difficult to eliminate them all with minimum fuss.”
“The Night Watchers?” Li Hao asked lowly.
“Don’t even think about it!” Yuan Shuo shook his head. “Not unless their Solars come! It would take either Hao Lianchuan or Hou Xiaochen... or both of them to ensure the operation is carried out with none the wiser. Hou Xiaochen doesn’t leave White Moon and Hao Lianchuan...”
The professor frowned when he reached this point. “Don’t trust them too much, who knows if they have other plans in mind? I’m not too familiar with Hao Lianchuan. We know of each other, but differences in opinion easily crop up when secrets are at stake. He has a strong backer behind him—the Night Watchers!”
Those with a substantial backer did not make for easy partners. There was nothing Yuan Shuo and his student could do against the agency if Hao Lianchuan decided to renege on their agreement or break off partnership ties.
“Ai!” Teacher and disciple sighed in unison. Yuan Shuo looked at Li Hao, Li Hao looked at Yuan Shuo. Both wore gloomy expressions. They were in a pickle!
“Teacher, don’t you have a few good friends after your years in the martial world?” Li Hao asked with such an expression of exasperated disappointment that Yuan Shuo’s eyebrows quivered. “The Sunderers of your era would be Sunflares if they made the crossover at the beginning. After so many years, they might even be Solars. Are all of your old friends dead?”
“Nope, Ying Hongyue’s still alive.” Yuan Shuo’s simple response stoppered the rest of the young man’s words.
Let’s just pretend I didn’t say anything!
Ying Hongyue might be stronger than Solar—more than likely. He was one of the leaders of the three great organizations. His teacher really knew how to choose his friends.
“Of course I still have a few old friends...” Yuan Shuo chuckled, then quickly shook his head. “But it’s because we’re old friends that I don’t want to use profit and gain to test our relationship. It’s normal for brothers to turn on each other if division of spoils is uneven, not to mention friends. To put it bluntly, old friends can endure life and death together, but rarely can they share wealth!”
He had friends, and some rather strong ones. But he didn’t want to use this to test their bonds. It would be fine if it was just an ordinary ruin, but this one involved the eight great families and Li Hao. His student was at the heart of the excavation, and slaughtering him might be required to access the ruin. Then... his friends were not the ones to call upon.