"Does it match?"
"There are a few discrepancies, but it's largely the same!"
With a grim expression, Zhou Yuanli reported every detail of the intelligence he had just tortured out of the second man to Luo Chen.
"The Great River Gang!"
"The enemies besieging Crescent Moon Valley are almost entirely from the Great River Gang."
"You should recognize their leader, Hall Master."
Luo Chen raised an eyebrow. "I recognize him? It wouldn't happen to be Gao Tingyuan, would it?"
"That's right, it's him," Zhou Yuanli said, his heart heavy. "Not only that, among the invaders, there are as many as five ninth-level Qi Refinement cultivators alone. As for the rest, there are at least over a hundred mid- and late-stage Qi Refinement cultivators."
Hearing that number, even though Luo Chen had prepared himself mentally, he could not help but suck in a sharp breath.
What was the Great River Gang trying to do?
This force accounted for nearly a third of their entire strength!
All just to deal with two halls in Crescent Moon Valley?
Neither the Pill Hall nor the Medicine Hall was known for combat prowess; they were merely logistical, production-oriented branches.
"Has Gao Tingyuan been driven mad with rage and come seeking revenge, or does the Great River Gang have other designs?"
Luo Chen thought for a moment, then asked directly, "Can you get in touch with Elder Sikong?"
"I have his transmission talisman, but it's too slow to reach him right away. However, I can confirm that he is still alive."
If they could recall Sikong Shoujia, Crescent Moon Valley's combat strength would increase considerably.
An old cultivator like him might have no hope left on the Great Dao, but his combat techniques had been honed to sheer perfection.
He was someone Gu Caiyi, who had only recently advanced to the ninth level of Qi Refinement, could not hold a candle to.
"Focus on our defenses first!" Luo Chen instructed.
"Hall Master, how should we handle the two spies?"
"Kill them," Luo Chen said offhandedly, completely nonchalant.
Zhou Yuanli's expression tightened, and he bowed out.
A moment later, watching Dongfang Liang decapitate the two battered, dying cultivators with a single stroke of his blade, Zhou Yuanli felt a faint chill creep through him.
Luo Chen's performance today had truly exceeded his expectations.
Ordinarily, Luo Chen gave the impression of a genial, easygoing man blessed with superb alchemical talent who treated everyone with kindness.
Though a bit cynical at times, he generally felt entirely harmless.
Harmless to humans and beasts alike—those four words summed him up well.
Yet today...
Whether it was deciding to let the retreating cultivators inside to ease internal tensions, or identifying the spies and striking with thunderous decisiveness, his actions revealed an extraordinary ruthlessness concealed beneath his gentle exterior.
Disposing of the two spies, in particular, highlighted a cold, merciless edge.
This was practically an entirely different person from the Luo Chen everyone thought they knew.
*No wonder the Gang Leader told me to keep a close eye on Luo Chen. Who would have thought he hid himself so deeply!* Zhou Yuanli thought apprehensively. After all, he had defied Luo Chen earlier, ignoring his orders to activate the grand array first.
Recalling the glance Luo Chen had cast at him back then sent a chill straight down his spine.
Just as his thoughts were churning, a subordinate rushed in.
"Elder Sikong is back!"
"Where is he?" Zhou Yuanli asked hurriedly.
"He has already entered Crescent Moon Valley."
"Damn it, who authorized you to let him straight in!"
Zhou Yuanli's face changed slightly, and he sprinted outside.
***
The moment he reached the Pill Hall, he saw Sikong Shoujia seated opposite Luo Chen and Murong Qinglian.
The elder was in a rather wretched state, covered from head to toe in frost.
Icicles even dangled from his beard.
"It's the highwaymen from Snow Lotus Market!" Sikong Shoujia gasped, his eyes turning fierce as he glared fixedly at Luo Chen. "You brought this upon us!"
Luo Chen raised an eyebrow. "Elder Sikong, where is this coming from?"
"Gao Tingyuan has always suspected you killed his younger brother! And the Snow Lotus Market bandit pursuing me is clearly Shan Xiu—the very man who failed to rob and kill you last time and wound up on our wanted list!"
"Are you still going to claim they didn't come for you?"
Luo Chen let out a light laugh. "If they were targeting only me, they would need only to ambush me on the road back to the city. Why go to such great lengths, deploying over a hundred cultivators to assault Crescent Moon Valley?"
"Bear in mind, doing so makes them enemies of the entire Mountain Breaker Gang, and enemies of our Foundation Establishment cultivator, Gang Leader Mi!"
Sikong Shoujia froze, coming to his senses at once.
Indeed!
Such a massive mobilization rivaled the Great River Gang's previous assault on the Mountain Breaker Gang's seven halls.
If anything, it was even grander.
A force led by five ninth-level Qi Refinement cultivators was enough to sweep through most minor Qi Refinement factions.
Doing this amounted to an open declaration of war against the Mountain Breaker Gang.
One had to remember that the last conflict between the two gangs had only been settled after the blood of nine experts was spilled upon the Dao Discussion Platform.
Yet how much time had passed since then?
How dared they reignite the flames of war so soon?
Luo Chen did not dwell on the matter. He walked over to the cliffside and gazed into the distance.
Outside the earthy-yellow barrier of light, enemy silhouettes had begun to appear.
They fanned out in a wide crescent, gradually encircling Crescent Moon Valley.
Like folding a dumpling, unless the defenders abandoned Crescent Moon Valley and fled into the Howling Moon Mountain Range behind them, they would be trapped like turtles in a jar.
Yet the Mountain Breaker Gang had cultivated Crescent Moon Valley for a long time. The spirit fields, the Medicine Pavilion, and the vast stores of medicinal herbs could not be casually discarded.
Above all, there was the crucial Pill Hall!
It was fair to say that without a direct order from Mi Shuhua, no one dared to abandon Crescent Moon Valley.
Across the great distance, Luo Chen spotted a short, stout man hovering in the sky.
Without caring whether the man could see him, Luo Chen waved his hand.
Was he greeting him?
At a time like this?!
Behind him, Zhou Yuanli and Liu Qiang exchanged bewildered glances. It seemed the familiar Luo Chen was back again.
"Hall Master, about Elder Sikong..."
"Don't worry. Anyone else might betray the Mountain Breaker Gang, but he never will," Luo Chen replied without looking back.
He was the one who had made the call to let the little old man in.
His confidence stemmed from a very simple reason.
The old man's son, Sikong Yuanhong, was a son-in-law of the Mi family, his future tied entirely to Mi Shuhua.
If Sikong Shoujia still had any hope on the Great Dao, he might have been ruthless enough to abandon his family and defect to the enemy.
Yet advanced in years as he was, he had long lost all prospects on the Great Dao.
Precisely because of this, anyone else might turn traitor, but Sikong Shoujia never would!
Luo Chen lifted his hand and pointed at the streaks of flying light crisscrossing the sky outside.
With a meaningful smile, he asked, "Have you noticed that they don't seem keen on taking Crescent Moon Valley?"
Liu Qiang blinked. *If they aren't going to attack Crescent Moon Valley, why surround it?*
Zhou Yuanli hesitated, looking as if something had just dawned on him.
Murong Qinglian and Sikong Shoujia also stepped forward, peering into the distance.
"I noticed it too," Murong Qinglian said. "Their outer perimeter was clearly established earlier, but when they encountered low-level cultivators from the Pill Hall and Medicine Hall, they mainly drove them back rather than going for the kill."
"Nonsense!" Sikong Shoujia snapped, deeply displeased by Murong Qinglian's words. He said furiously, "The bastard chasing me was going for the kill with every strike! He couldn't wait to hack me to pieces!"
Murong Qinglian froze, but quickly realized the implication.
"Indeed. They didn't strike to kill against low-level cultivators, but when attacking Caiyi and me, they held nothing back. If Caiyi and I hadn't possessed defensive artifacts, one of us would have died on the spot and the other would have been crippled."
Thanks to their defensive artifacts, it had ended with one heavily injured and one unharmed.
Piecing these clues together, Luo Chen grew pensive.
"They herd and encircle low-level cultivators, but unleash deadly force against late-stage cultivators."
"In other words, their goal is merely to pin most of us here."
This conclusion caught everyone off guard.
Not killing, only encircling?
What were they trying to achieve?
Liu Qiang could not resist asking, "But our Mountain Breaker Gang isn't a soft persimmon! Once the other halls learn Crescent Moon Valley is besieged, they will surely rush to our aid. When we strike from both inside and outside, this encirclement will become a joke."
"It won't just be the other halls!" Sikong Shoujia declared firmly.
Zhou Yuanli took out a jade token. "I have already sent a voice transmission to the Gang Leader. He will definitely come save us."
A swarm of Qi Refinement cultivators might seem formidable.
Yet before a mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator wielding a magical treasure, they were nothing more than clay chickens and pottery dogs.
Compared to the others' overflowing confidence, Luo Chen was far less optimistic.
Mi Shuhua was hardly in peak condition right now; whether he would personally intervene was entirely uncertain.
Moreover, the other halls?
During the expedition into the Guyuan Mountain Range, every hall involved in the struggle for the Golden Core ruins had suffered devastating losses.
Men like Luo Wudi and Zhang Shicong were dead.
The two hall masters propped up over the past fortnight possessed adequate strength, but zero prestige.
More importantly, most of the experts from those two halls had perished within the Guyuan Mountain Range.
And above all else, if they could think of this, could the Great River Gang have failed to foresee it?
Luo Chen watched for a moment longer, then turned and entered the pill-curing chamber.
Sikong Shoujia looked hesitantly at his departing back, only to see the chamber doors shut tight.
***
Outside Crescent Moon Valley.
Five great experts of the ninth level of Qi Refinement gathered in one place.
"What are we still standing guard here for? Let's just charge in!"
"Shan Xiu, calm down."
Shan Xiu's face twisted ferociously, stripped of his usual composure.
"How can you tell me to calm down? Back then, I was only trying to squeeze a toll out of that brat, and three of my men ended up dead! If that weren't enough, the Mountain Breaker Gang slapped a bounty on my head and hunted me down!"
"I might be able to hold back, but my hand can't!"
The others glanced at his left hand. Where his palm should have been, there was now a gleaming iron claw radiating a cold glint.
A cultivator clad in golden-yellow robes could not help but chuckle. "That iron claw of yours looks to be a mid-grade artifact. Quite unique, isn't it?"
"Fu Zhang!"
"Enough, stop bickering. Our orders are to encircle and not kill. What kind of disgraceful scene are you making!" Gao Tingyuan, standing at the very front, barked in a low voice.
Shan Xiu, however, gave him no face.
"You were the one who leaked Danchenzi's information to me back then, Gao Tingyuan! You want him dead more than I do! Who are you putting on airs for?"
Gao Tingyuan was shorter than him, but his aura was not inferior in the slightest—if anything, it was even more oppressive.
A pair of icy eyes glared back.
"And when you botched the job, wasn't it I who took you into the Great River Gang?"
"What, now you want to challenge me?"
"If you have the skill, feel free to charge into the grand array alone, capture Luo Chen alive, and humiliate him however you please!"
Shan Xiu's mouth worked, but he glanced at the sole silent figure nearby and ultimately spat in frustration.
With Shan Xiu silenced, Fu Zhang, the cultivator in the golden-yellow robe, wiped the smile from his face.
He propped a massive warhammer against the ground.
"Old Gao, dragging this out isn't an option either. The Mountain Breaker Gang has plenty of experts; reinforcements will arrive sooner or later."
"Give us a timeframe for when the attack begins, so the brothers have an idea of what to expect."
Gao Tingyuan took a deep breath, doing his utmost to suppress the bloodthirsty urge surging in his chest.
He glanced around. Cultivators from the Great River Gang were constantly patrolling the area, ensuring there were no blind spots to prevent any cultivator from Crescent Moon Valley from escaping.
Even behind Crescent Moon Valley, he had stationed a squad of cultivators instructed to send a signal the moment they spotted any movement.
"Old Gao, give us a straight answer!"
"Rest assured, those Mountain Breaker Gang bastards won't be coming!"
Gao Tingyuan sneered, gave a few instructions to his brother Lan Tianyun, and turned toward the cultivator who had remained silent the entire time.
With a flick of a Soundproofing Talisman, the two began conversing as if no one else were there.
Yet the secrets they shared remained entirely hidden from the other three.
***
Within the Mi family's restricted grounds.
A series of cracking sounds rang out, and the pile of mid-grade spirit stones in the corner crumbled into a heap of gray dust.
Mi Shuhua opened his eyes and exhaled a long breath.
Inspecting his body from within, he nodded in satisfaction.
As long as the supply of mid-grade spirit stones kept up, he could use this pseudo-Tier 2 spirit vein environment to rapidly heal the injuries sustained in the Guyuan Mountain Range.
Not only that, once his injuries healed, his cultivation might even advance another step.
When that time came, making a push for the late Foundation Establishment stage would be well within reach!
Thinking back to the Guyuan Mountain Range, Mi Shuhua's expression darkened.
"Miao Wen led me astray!"
"There was no Golden Core opportunity in that place at all! Though I managed to obtain the storage ring of Ghost Spirit Valley's Supreme Elder by luck, there was nothing inside that could aid in Core Formation."
"Yet because of this, my Mountain Breaker Gang wasted massive manpower and resources, and even I ended up severely injured."
In that clash over the ruins, the various Foundation Establishment cultivators could not be said to have walked away empty-handed.
Yet compared to the Golden Core opportunity everyone had dreamed of, those gains were thoroughly insignificant.
This was completely different from the information Deacon Miao of the Jade Cauldron Sword Pavilion had divulged.
Mi Shuhua did not know where things had gone wrong; all he wanted now was to recover from his injuries as quickly as possible.
Once his wounds healed, the treasures from the Ghost Spirit Valley Supreme Elder's storage bag would allow him to walk unchecked among Foundation Establishment cultivators.
Even if he crossed paths with sect cultivators, he would fear nothing!
*Fortunately, I discovered Luo Chen's little tricks. Mending the fold after losing sheep was not too late!*
*Now that he has sworn an oath to refine pills for me with all his might, the gross monthly income will reach twenty thousand low-grade spirit stones.*
*Luo Wudi and Yang Wei, who originally would have claimed a cut, are dead. Ke Yuelin and Sikong Shoujia obey my every word. That way, I can give away an even smaller share.*
*With Luo Chen's revenue stream, my injuries will fully heal within three months at most.*
*After that, I can even purchase spirit elixirs in bulk to charge toward the late Foundation Establishment stage!*
The thought of the immense benefits Luo Chen would bring him caused his gloomy mood to brighten.
Stroking his beard, he prepared to replenish the mid-grade spirit stones in the corner and resume his healing.
Suddenly, his expression shifted.
A voice transmission jade token was glowing intensely.
"Crescent Moon Valley is under attack!"
The next instant, he shot out of the secret chamber.
Sweeping out with his spiritual sense, he summoned the Mi clan members at once.
Before long, late-stage cultivators led by Mi Junping and Mi Zifan hurried over and gathered around him.
"Father, what happened?"
"Grandfather, you're out of seclusion!"
Mi Shuhua's gaze swept over the crowd, pausing momentarily on the man beside a young woman before settling on Mi Junping.
"Trouble has struck Crescent Moon Valley."
The moment those words were spoken, everyone's expressions changed.
Mi Junping looked startled and uncertain.
Mi Zifan's face flashed with delight.
Beside Mi Junpei, the middle-aged man's face turned completely pale—his father was the Pill Hall deacon in Crescent Moon Valley.
"Five ninth-level Qi Refinement cultivators leading over a hundred men are currently besieging Crescent Moon Valley," Mi Shuhua said slowly, his face betraying no sign of panic.
Swayed by his calm demeanor, the unsettled Mi clan cultivators gradually steadied themselves.
Mi Junping spoke without hesitation: "The Pill Hall and Medicine Hall are two of our most vital branches. The Pill Hall in particular has generated immense profits from the Jade Marrow Pills refined this month. We must send reinforcements!"
"Of course we must save them, but we need a strategy for how to do so."
Mi Shuhua's eyes narrowed slightly as he issued his orders.
"Notify Wang Yuan, Zeng Wen, and Qiu Wu, who just took over the Battle Hall, to lead men to relieve Crescent Moon Valley!"
Mi Junping nodded and turned to alert the others.
After she left, someone suddenly spoke up: "Father-in-law, wouldn't it be much faster if you went personally?"
Mi Shuhua gave a faint smile. "Yuanhong, are you worried about your father?"
Sikong Yuanhong nodded frantically, anxiety etched across his features. "My father is advanced in years and not suited for combat. I fear something might happen to him."
"You need not worry about that. He has plenty of combat experience and excels at preserving his own skin. Nothing will happen to him anytime soon."
"As for me intervening?"
Mi Shuhua let out a soft laugh. "They are merely highwaymen fishing in troubled waters and taking advantage of the chaos. The gang's experts can handle them; there is no need for me to step in."
Hearing him say this, Sikong Yuanhong breathed a sigh of relief.
Since his father-in-law, a grand Foundation Establishment expert, was so confident, nothing catastrophic should happen.
During the previous conflict between the two gangs, Mi Shuhua had never once intervened from start to finish, yet hadn't the Mountain Breaker Gang still emerged victorious?
However, he failed to notice the dark shadow lingering in the corner of Mi Shuhua's eyes.
What kind of opportunistic bandits could muster a formidable force of over a hundred men?
Suddenly, hurried footsteps echoed outside the hall.
Mi Junping had rushed back!
Panic was written across her face. "Father, disaster! Our other halls are under fierce attack as well!"
Chapter 136