"Senior Brother Wei, we've arrived. That place should be their hideout," a man in purple robes said, pointing his finger at the rocky mountain terrain in front of him.
Behind him was a group of more than two hundred men, all wearing the same purple robes. They were disciples of the Thunderclap Blade Sect. Among them, one man stood out as the leader, walking past the others from behind.
Wei Bujia stepped forward, observing the rocky mountain. It seemed devoid of all life and movement on the surface. If not for their method of detection pointing them to this place, they might have overlooked it entirely.
He smirked, imagining the look on Lan Hengsheng's face when he saw his clanmates taken hostage.
"Where are they? Can you pinpoint their location?" Wei Bujia asked his junior brother beside him, who was holding an old paper scroll — an artifact that could be used to search for things.
On the scroll paper page, there was a red blood mark that seemed to be real blood, moving across the old paper page as if it were searching for a Lan Clan member's location.
Back when Hengsheng fought the cultists within their camp, he made a lot of mistakes he wasn’t even aware of.
One of them was leaving the blood that he bled there without cutting the connection with it. This opened the opportunity for the cultists to use his blood to find others who shared the same blood with him, which were his clan members.
Wei Bujia had followed the blood connection all the way from the inner circle of the outer rim to this place. It took him only two weeks thanks to a flying artifact. If he’d traveled on foot, it would have taken him more than a month.
The reason he went through all this trouble was because of the plan he and the other two mission leaders had agreed upon — a plan to deal with Lan Hengsheng.
After witnessing Lan Hengsheng's monstrous battle power during their previous fight, it was clear he’d become a problem. No one among the cultists could fight him one-on-one, and even if all three leaders ganged up on him, victory wasn’t guaranteed.
However, Lan Hengsheng is not without weaknesses. One is that he lacks knowledge about cultist methods, as they almost got him by a Chakra ability that secretly took away his sense of self-control. Unfortunately for them, Lan Hengsheng somehow broke free from a Chakra ability at the last moment and escaped.
The second was not a clear weakness, but it was a potential one. After gathering information about Lan Hengsheng from the Thunderclap Blade Sect disciples who had confronted him in the Golden City, they found that he seemed to have some sense of duty to protect his clan members.
They didn't know if they could use this against him, but it was worth a try. Even if it only distracted him for a moment, it would be worth it.
The three leaders agreed on the plan to use a potential weakness against Lan Hengsheng, Wei Bujia volunteered to capture the Lan Clan members. Later, they would use the hostages to prevent Lan Hengsheng from acting against them. If that didn’t work, then they would use them as meat shields.
"Senior Brother Wei, they’re close — only about five li into the rocky mountain," the junior disciple said.
"Lead the way," Wei Bujia commanded. His expression turned sinister as he neared the completion of his mission.
Wei Bujia thought to himself. 'The Thunderclap Blade Sect always collects its debts.'
The group of more than two hundred people stepped into the rocky mountain terrain. Their movement was large and blatant — they didn’t even try to hide their presence.
Since they don't believe the Lan Clan would have another Lan Hengsheng-level powerhouse, there is nothing to fear for them when dealing with the second-rate forces head-on.
Their approach was soon noticed by the Lan Clan guard standing at the front gate of the Lan Clan Cave. He looked down from above at the mountain's foot.
The guard's face turned pale as he saw the group of people in purple robes stepping into their territory. He knew from their outfit that they were disciples of the Thunderclap Blade Sect.
Every one of the Lan Clan members who entered the secret land knew about the conflict between their clan and the Thunderclap Blade Sect from Lan Baixing. They were warned to be wary of them, as the Thunderclap Blade sect's disciples were most likely targeting them.
From the movement of this group of Thunderclap Blade sect disciples, it was clear they were heading straight for the Lan Clan Cave. The guard couldn't think of anything else regarding their intent except that they were coming for them!
"I have to warn everyone!" With a quick thought, he immediately ran into the cave and woke up all the Lan Clan members who were still cultivating.
"Everyone, come out now!" the guard shouted as he rang the bell. The sound echoed through the whole interior cave and quickly woke them up in the middle of the cultivation session.
"What are you doing? Why are you interrupting us like this? Answer me! you fxckxr!"
"You maggot! didn't your parents teach you manners?"
"That's right! If Big Brother Hengsheng knew what you did, he would beat you up, you piece of shit!"
"….."
"….."
He continued running through the cave in hurries as he tried to wake everyone up, while behind him, other clan members chased after and cursed at him like he had done something unforgivable.
After a while, he finally passed everyone’s cultivation cave and woke them up. He then stopped at the large cave chamber with others following him from behind, most of them still cursing at him.
"Shut up! Listen to me! Outside the cave, there is an army from the Thunderclap Blade Sect, and they’re coming for us!" He shouts with an unfair feeling, he thinks that he has already done his job well, what did he do wrong to deserve to be cursed like this?!
Hearing what the guard said most of them turned worry and asking questions.
"How do they know we are here? are someone open their mouth?"
"How many are they? could we fight them off?"
"…"
The guard answered as much as he could, and soon, with the time pressure mounting, they quickly decided to flee from this place, knowing there was no way they could fight off 200 cultivators at the same cultivation realm as them from a first-rate force.
BOOM!!!!
The thunderous sound of an explosion rang from the Lan Clan cave entrance's direction. Their faces turned pale as they could tell from that sound that the enemy had already entered the cave!
"Hurry up, go deep into the tunnel!" one of the Lan Clan members shouted, urging everyone to hurry and flee.
Leaving through the front gate was no longer an option, as the enemy had already blocked their way. But after spending two years in this place, they had discovered many routes inside the cave—some led to treasure, some to dead ends, and even one that led to another exit!
With the lead of who knows the exit route, they quickly moved the tunnel with swift movement while they still heard the sound of an explosion coming from the entrance.
They grit their teeth as they feel ashamed and frustrated, those from the first-rate sect just intruded on their place and kept destroying what they had built for years.
"I will repay this shame tenfold!" one of the Lan Clan members with an edgy personality stated.
BOOM!!
Crake!!
The impact of the explosion caused by the enemy attack at the cave entrance sent a vibration through the whole cave interior, causing the cave wall to crack and collapse.
"Fall back! This tunnel is about to collapse!" the leader noticed the cave wall above their heads beginning to show visible cracks at a rapid rate.
They quickly moved, retreating back to where they came from to avoid being buried alive by the mountain's weight.
BOOM! Rumble… Crack! Crash!
BOOM!
BOOM!
While they move the cave wall from above starts to fall one by one from their behind, if they were a normal mortal they wouldn't be fast enough to escape its falling rock.
BOOM!
BOOM!
Luckily for them, as cultivators, they could move swiftly to avoid the falling cave walls, and soon they reached a stable cave chamber. But surviving this did not bring them any joy since they had returned to where they had fled from!
BOOM!!
The sound of explosions still rang out, sending chills down their spines as if death was drawing closer.
"This is bad! Does anyone know another exit route?"
"This tunnel was only one I knew of — the others were dead ends. Besides, with the cave walls collapsing like this, even if we know another exit route, there's no guarantee it wouldn’t collapse like the earlier tunnel…"
"So we have no choice but to leave this place by the entrance…"
They had no other choice but to fight off the two hundred cultivators, ensuring at least some of them could flee.
"If any of us survive this, ensure to inform Big Brother Hengsheng about this. He will avenge our deaths."
They sobbed quietly, knowing most of them would die today. As they mourned, one of the Lan Clan members noticed something abnormal.
"Everyone, Silence!" he shouted. The others responded immediately.
…
"Do you hear that?"