The Encirclement

With Shen Youran's refined auditory arts, tracking the movements of Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai with his eyes closed was hardly a difficult task. First, it was the dead of night, and there was not another soul on the street besides the three of them. Second, Shen Youran was an expert who had attained sect-leader-level mastery at an extraordinarily young age. His martial arts far outstripped Sun and Huang's. Even if Huang Donglai had been capable of circulating his internal energy normally at this moment, he would likely still be no match for Shen Youran fighting blind. Therefore, although Shen Youran had been blinded by the lime powder, he still believed the odds were heavily in his favor. However... Just as Shen Youran was pondering which of them he should kill first, Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai, having darted off in opposite directions, reached into their robes and almost simultaneously pulled out a long string of firecrackers... A touch of the fire striker, a toss of the crackers, and a ferocious crackle-pop erupted. Because he could not see what the two bastards were doing, Shen Youran—whose auditory senses were dialed to the absolute maximum—was nearly deafened by the abrupt explosions. For several seconds, his head was a buzzing, ringing void. Never mind listening for the enemies' movements; he could barely even maintain his balance. At that exact moment, two hidden weapons struck home with two sharp thwacks, burying into his shoulders. It was true that Huang Donglai could not circulate his energy, but even without the backing of internal force, someone who had practiced hidden weapons for so many years could throw darts with sheer wrist strength from a few meters away with deadly accuracy. Now blind and deaf, Shen Youran was nothing more than a living target. There was no way he could dodge. "Ahhh—!" Struck by the darts, Shen Youran let out another furious roar. He lunged blindly toward the direction the darts had come from, stabbing his fingers out in erratic strikes. Yet this was an open street, not a narrow tunnel or a mountain ravine. How could such wild flailing possibly hit anyone? Worse still, this futile exertion only accelerated the circulation of blood through his arms, speeding the onset of the poison coating the darts. Before long, Shen Youran's entire upper body was numb, and the sensation was rapidly spreading to his lower half. Just as he hesitated over whether he should leap up and flee while his legs were still functioning... *Whoosh—* Without warning, the gust of a sweeping trident surged from behind him. The sharp blade sheared across the back of Shen Youran's knees, severing the tendons in both legs and dropping him straight to his knees on the spot. And just like that, an imposing expert of sect-leader caliber was effortlessly subdued by two whelps new to the jianghu. Before the two strings of firecrackers had even finished detonating, Shen Youran was already sprawled on the ground, completely paralyzed, with a trident pressed firmly against the nape of his neck. "Don't move," Sun Yixie warned emphatically, worried that with the man's eyes closed, he might not realize there was a deadly weapon against his neck. "Twitch an inch, and your throat gets slit." Meanwhile, Huang Donglai had also walked over to Shen Youran's side, preparing to search him. Naturally, adhering to his usual caution, Huang Donglai waited a brief moment longer until Shen Youran was rendered completely motionless by the paralytic poison before laying hands on him. "That cloud-piercing arrow... you fired it, didn't you?" Shen Youran finally spoke after a long silence. By now, his tone had regained its calm, for his heart was already dead as cold ashes. Thinking back with a clear head, he realized he truly had been played right from the very beginning. "Heh... a bit late to figure that out, isn't it?" Huang Donglai replied with a chuckle as his hands patted down Shen Youran. "When I was searching your Venerable Master's storehouse, I found a chest containing dozens of cloud-piercing arrows. There wasn't a speck of dust on that chest, and the way the arrows were stacked showed they were frequently retrieved and replenished. Yet on You Jing, I didn't find a single arrow... Need I say more? The Venerable Master obviously had other scouts out there, and those arrows were prepared year-round for them." At this point, Sun Yixie chimed in to supplement in a timely manner: "Tonight, before we even went to the study to look for you, we'd already figured that besides those Justice Sect underlings, you definitely had other subordinates outside. After all... the title 'Venerable Master' sounds like the boss of some secret organization. So we took into account long ago that you might have several hidden lookouts planted inside and outside the city." "Exa~ctly," Huang Donglai picked up. "So I decided to turn your trick against you... Since I'd already guessed I would be shadowed when leaving Bugui Tower, I set a trap and poisoned the bastard tailing me. Once I dealt with him, I came here to rendezvous with our fellow jianghu comrades and told them how to cure your Bliss Gu... Just as I was finishing up, Brother Sun arrived too. The two of us put our heads together and laid a trap right here for you." Hearing this, Shen Youran could not help but be inwardly astonished: *Though these two conduct themselves like shameless scoundrels, their minds are so meticulous and their calculations so thorough that they are evidently superior to both Uncle Ying and me.* "I see..." Shen Youran pondered for a moment, then continued, "Which means, before I even got here, you and the various major sects had already arranged everything in this neighborhood, and only then did you fire the cloud-piercing arrow." "Of course," Huang Donglai said, having already produced several gu bells from Shen Youran's person. "Otherwise... setting off firecrackers in the street in the dead of night, wouldn't the local commoners have come out to watch the commotion? And this lime powder and firecrackers—did you think we conjured them out of thin air?" "What if the one who came wasn't me, but the Venerable Master?" Shen Youran asked. "Or... what if I didn't come alone, but brought a large contingent with me? What would you have done then?" "Simple," Sun Yixie said. "If the one who came wasn't you, we just wouldn't show our faces. This street is long, lined with dozens of households. No matter how formidable your Venerable Master is, when he doesn't even know what happened here, even if he suspects an ambush nearby, there's no way he could sense exactly which house the two of us were hiding in, right?" This point was something Sun Yixie had carefully confirmed with those martial arts seniors: probing whether someone possessed internal energy was generally achieved by closely observing their breathing methods and the length of their breath at short range. To discern the specific school of internal energy they practiced, one had to exchange blows or make physical contact. Even for those with unfathomably high internal energy who relied on 'sensing' rather than 'observing,' there were clear limitations. No one could detect whether someone dozens of paces away had internal energy through walls... That kind of maneuver was reserved for characters in the *Dragon Ball* universe. "So, if it had been the Venerable Master who came, as long as we stayed out of sight and left him hanging out there alone, he would soon taste the flavor of a 'luring the tiger away from the mountain' trick, and naturally leave," Sun Yixie continued. "As for what you said about 'not coming alone,' I figured that was impossible. You must have already calculated that Brother Huang might find the method to cure the gu in Sihui Dwelling. And you knew that once he shared the method with the poisoned victims, they could scatter and flee, then cure themselves. Once that happened, your conspiracy would completely fall apart... "Therefore, after seeing the cloud-piercing arrow, you were bound to rush here at top speed with the gu bells. Only then could you possibly arrive in time to control the victims before they scattered... You simply didn't have the time to wait for those slow-footed underlings. "Yet the two of you couldn't come together either—at least one of you had to stay behind to command and organize the gang members trapped in the fire. Those guys are all slaves to your Bliss Gu; they dare not betray you, dare not flee the headquarters without permission, and dare not do anything you haven't ordered... That's the difference between subordinates controlled by gu and subordinates who follow you willingly. Without your word, they dare not make a move... and you knew that full well." With things explained to this degree, Shen Youran was genuinely humbled. "I truly underestimated you..." he muttered in a lamenting tone. "If you two were truly my brothers... perhaps my grand plan would have succeeded long ago." "You're flattering yourself," Huang Donglai said. "Even if we are thorough scoundrels, when it comes to major matters of right and wrong, we still have principles and a bottom line. We could never walk the same path as someone like you." "Ha!" Shen Youran laughed, suddenly roaring at the top of his lungs, "What do you know about me? Do you think helping the so-called orthodox martial world makes you noble? Makes you right?" But having been poisoned, roaring just two lines left him winded, and his voice sank again. "In the jianghu... what right and wrong is there? There is only profit and interest. Those with power decide how the spoils are divided... What are 'jianghu rules' other than tools used by the majority to compel the minority, and the strong to force the weak into submission?... Let me tell you... the people you saved today are the real wolves, tigers, and fiends... If you truly are good men, one day they will devour you whole, bones and all." Sun Yixie possessed exceptional emotional intelligence, immediately discerning something from Shen Youran's words. He picked up, "What? Did you and the Venerable Master... get screwed over by this righteous faction?" Touched on his sore spot, Shen Youran's tone became notably sincere and earnest: "Twelve years ago, my benefactor... Gu Qizong, leader of the Tianqi Gang, was abandoned in the demonic cult's headquarters by those so-called comrades during the campaign where the thirteen sects besieged the Five Spirits Cult, and was burned alive. In life, he showed grace to every single one of them. After his death, they kicked him while he was down, carving up the Tianqi Gang's territory and business without the slightest regard for past kindness... Tell me, shouldn't someone take control of such people... of such a jianghu?" "Yes," Sun Yixie answered without hesitation. This reply caught Shen Youran somewhat off guard. Yet right after, Sun Yixie delivered the pivot: "But it shouldn't be controlled by you and your Venerable Master." "Hmph..." Shen Youran scoffed coldly. "You mean to say... we are unworthy?" "Of course you aren't worthy," Huang Donglai interjected righteously. "To put it bluntly, you two just hold grudges against certain sects, and you use that vengeance as a moral shield to escalate your actions into taking revenge on all of society... Leaving aside the sects that never had any feud with you, what about the young folks attending this Youth Heroes Assembly? What about Brother Sun and me? What beef do we have with you? Why the hell did we have to become targets for your Bliss Gu? And Daoist Bai, dammit... The man was universally acknowledged as a righteous chivalrous hero, a true badass. Speaking of chivalric spirit, he was hardly any different from that Gu Qizong of yours, right? Now you've ruined him like that, and you still think you're in the right?" Hearing this, Shen Youran was left speechless. Although there were a couple of terms in Huang Donglai's speech he did not understand, like 'society,' he understood the general gist. He had to admit that Huang Donglai's words held some truth... And when Huang Donglai compared Bai Ruhong to Gu Qizong, Shen Youran was completely shaken... He began to examine his initial motivations, the shift in his mentality, the methods he used, and the outcomes he sought... In the end, there was not a single thing that left his conscience clean. "Forget it..." After a long silence, Shen Youran forced out a bitter smile. "I am unworthy..." He gave up trying to convince himself, yet he was not completely despairing. "However, even if you defeat me and kill me, none of this will be over... The Venerable Master... Gu Qiying is not someone you can deal with using these underhanded, crooked tricks." "Huh?" Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai reacted almost simultaneously upon hearing this. "Hahahahaha..." "Hahahahaha..." The two erupted into another round of loud, roaring laughter. After laughing for a while, Huang Donglai held up the gu bells he had just confiscated from Shen Youran and said, "Brother, since we already figured out that this stuff would be brought here, and figured out that one of you would stay behind at your headquarters, what instructions do you think... we gave to those fellow comrades of the jianghu?" With this reminder from Brother Huang, Shen Youran understood—they had traded bases on him once again. ... At the same moment, the Tianqi Gang headquarters. Barring any accidents, within the time it took an incense stick to burn, these sprawling courtyards and halls of the 'former Justice Sect' would be reduced to ashes. Many commoners in the vicinity had smelled the smoke and rushed out to see what was happening. Everyone was preparing to fight the fire, and someone had already gone to report it to the yamen. Yet the Tianqi Gang members themselves hardly seemed to care about the blaze. Under Gu Qiying's coordination, they had assembled outside the headquarters' south gate and were preparing to march along the street toward the western city. Unfortunately, they would never reach it... At this moment, roughly one hundred and fifty Tianqi Gang underlings had escaped the fire, while about two hundred martial arts masters were closing in on them from both the north and south, ready to hack them down. These two hundred people had set out the instant the cloud-piercing arrow soared into the sky. To prevent the bell-bearer rushing toward the western city from ringing the gu bells on the run, they had made detours to flank from the north and south. They didn't need to detour very far—so long as they stayed outside a five-hundred-meter radius along the direct line between the Tianqi Gang headquarters and the oil and salt shop, they were safe. Huang Donglai had briefed them on all these details concerning the Bliss Gu's activation mechanism, so they felt secure in their plans. The instructions Sun and Huang gave them were simple: if they reached the headquarters and the person they saw was Shen Youran, they must end the battle swiftly, wipe out the Tianqi Gang members in the shortest possible time, and immediately scatter to the east, south, and north. Once they reached a place they deemed safe, they could purge the gu using the method Huang Donglai taught them. On the other hand, if the person they found upon arriving at the headquarters was the 'Venerable Master,' they could take their sweet time fighting. Shen Youran, carrying the gu bells, would never return. Perhaps someone might wonder: were Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai truly so confident when laying their plans, so certain that they could handle Shen Youran? Those who harbored such doubts felt that way only because they had merely seen the lime powder and firecrackers... Just because there were many tricks they hadn't used didn't mean they hadn't prepared them; it was simply that the lime powder and firecrackers had already resolved the matter, making it unnecessary for the nastier tricks that followed to take the stage. To put it bluntly, let alone a mere sect-leader-level expert, with those two's talent for underhanded ambushes, given enough time, terrain, and materials, even if Gu Qiying came in person... he would die all the same. "How could this be happening..." In the center of the street, when Gu Qiying saw those two hundred people bounding across rooftops and walls to surround and slay them from both flanks, his scalp went numb. "...Could we have been outmaneuvered by them again?" While he was still hesitating, a third of the underlings around him had already been slaughtered. The vast disparity in martial strength, combined with the disadvantage in numbers, heralded an utterly one-sided massacre. Younger generation experts like Lin Yuancheng and Song Zhixiu might not have been particularly ruthless yet, taking down enemies one by one... But seasoned veterans of the jianghu like Feng Shunfeng and Feng Shunshui, who held vice-sect-leader status and were long accustomed to killing, cut down the Tianqi Gang disciples virtually like mowing grass—a single sweeping push left a swath of corpses in its wake. Seeing this terrifying spectacle, the nearby commoners scattered like the wind; as mentioned earlier, the ordinary folks of this universe knew well enough to steer clear of jianghu vendettas to protect their own lives. In the blink of an eye, corpses littered the ground. The column of over a hundred Tianqi Gang men was reduced to Gu Qiying alone in mere moments... and he was encircled right in the center by over two hundred blood-crazed martial arts masters. Yet when it came to him, no one dared strike first. Even a hothead like Lei Buji did not charge forward. He wasn't stupid, after all. Faced with a true master, he had enough self-awareness to know that when a battle could be won with everyone walking away alive, there was no reason to throw his life away pointlessly... Everyone kept their distance, standing several zhang away from Gu Qiying. Years of bloody experience in the jianghu warned them that against the enemy before their eyes, stepping even an inch closer carried the risk of being killed in an instant.