43: Chapter 43 The Account Clearance Team Doesn't Use the Mountain Gate

Sect Master Di Kun's boot soles ground over broken tiles, splitting one in two at the edge of the stone steps. The tripwire buried under the soil gave a faint, trembling sound as the mountain wind tugged at it.

The Speedrunner followed behind, tapping the short pickaxe in his hand against his palm: "Sect Master, should we wake everyone up now? This Cleanup Squad doesn't sound like the cannon fodder from last night."

Sect Master Di Kun did not turn back; the bandage on his shoulder rubbed against his clothing, staining it with a dark circle.

"Wake them up to put on a show for them?"

The Speedrunner's footsteps faltered, and he immediately shut his mouth.

The shadows of the woods behind the abandoned pavilion swallowed the path Zhao Heng had taken, the scent of cold ink still lingering in the wind. Sect Master Di Kun raised his hand to press against the oilcloth in his sleeve, then released it, his fingertips shifting into a rhythm of light taps against his waist.

"Pass the word back to the mountain: tonight, do not ring the alarm bell, and do not seal the sect gate. The Martial Arts Arena will practice as usual, the kitchen will light its fires as usual, and the patrolling Disciples will yawn as usual."

The Speedrunner's mouth twitched: "If anyone sees this, they'll think we're just lying flat, waiting for a team wipe."

"That is exactly how I want them to see it."

Sect Master Di Kun stepped off the last stone step and into the grass path. Grass blades brushed against his boots, crushing a few remaining dew drops from the day. He looked toward the direction of the Taichu Sect's main gate, his eyes showing not a hint of wavering.

"Also, place the ledger box in the Sect Masters Hall, have Loose Cultivator Gu stay in the side courtyard, and withdraw the guards outside the Spirit Pool."

The short pickaxe in the Speedrunner's hand nearly slipped: "Sect Master, that arrangement sounds even more accommodating than surrendering."

Sect Master Di Kun finally turned his face to glance at him.

The Speedrunner tucked the pickaxe handle back under his arm and gave a dry laugh: "I understand, fishing, right? It's just that this bait looks a bit expensive."

"Only expensive bait can hook the things that dare to bite."

The shadows of the mountain gate stretched longer and longer; Sect Master Di Kun's voice fell into the wind like a formation spike driven into the soil.

Before dusk, the Taichu Sect showed no signs of activating a grand formation to seal the mountain.

The Chuunibyou Player led a dozen or so handymen, shouting thunderously in the Martial Arts Arena. Wooden swords slashed against wooden stakes, sending wood chips flying everywhere. He had even specially changed into an outer robe washed to a faded white, standing at the edge of the arena to command: "Sink your waists! Keep your Aura high! Make the enemy look at us and think that our entire sect is left with nothing but these shrimp soldiers and crab generals!"

A handyman swung his sword until his arms were sore, whispering: "Senior Brother, do we really have to practice like this?"

The Chuunibyou Player waved his sleeve: "Practice! Tonight, this seat wants them to see the final stubbornness of the Taichu Sect!"

Nearby, the Life-Skill Player walked by carrying a basin of Yao Beast blood and paused to look at him: "If you shout any louder, you'll burn the medicinal meal in the kitchen."

The Chuunibyou Player immediately lowered his voice: "Then how are things going on your logistics side?"

The Life-Skill Player didn't answer, only hugging the copper basin tighter to his chest. The stench of the Yao Beast blood was suppressed by herbal powder, but it still made one's nasal cavity sting.

In the side courtyard, "Loose Cultivator Gu" lay on the bed with a blood-stained cloth covering half his face. The rise and fall of his chest was driven by a bamboo mechanism under the bed. From afar, he looked like a living person injured to his last breath. Half a bowl of cold medicine sat by the bedside with a film forming on the surface, and two blood-stained cloth strips hung in the window crack.

The real Loose Cultivator Gu had already been moved behind the broken stele of the Founders Hall.

Moss grew on the broken edge of the stele, and beneath the base was an old hidden compartment, usually covered by incense ash and broken bricks. Before the Life-Skill Player shoved him inside, he first wiped the medicinal scent off him with warm water, then mixed Yao Beast blood into mud powder and smeared it around the outer edge of the hidden compartment.

Loose Cultivator Gu's face turned pale, his lips moving: "This smell... won't it be too strong?"

The Life-Skill Player stuffed a cloth soaked in medicinal liquid into his hand: "Endure it. You are not a person right now; you are the scraps of a Yao Beast corpse that was just dragged back. Don't cough, don't breathe too heavily; if you want to live, pretend you've logged off."

Loose Cultivator Gu gripped the cloth, his fingers trembling violently.

Outside the Founders Hall, the Tower Defense Player squatted on the ground with three rough terrain maps spread out beside him. He didn't pile all the mechanisms at the main gate; instead, he dismantled two of the most lethal repeating crossbows and scattered talisman ash at the three intersections leading to the side courtyard, the Sect Masters Hall, and the underground Spirit Pool.

"Don't aim for a one-shot kill." He pressed a thin copper wire into the brick seam, "Tonight, we need to see where they touch first, how long they stop, who is commanding, and who is leading the way."

The Sect Protection Elder stood under the corridor, his withered fingers resting on the sword hilt, the scent of old wood and rust intermingled in his sleeves. He looked at the dismantled repeating crossbows, his brow bone pulled tight.

"Letting people into the mountain carries too much risk."

Sect Master Di Kun stood in the shadow of the broken stele, his fingertips lightly tapping the notch on the stele's surface. Stone powder fell onto his knuckles, and he did not wipe it off.

"Zhao Heng gave half the story, and Han Lishan will complete the other half."

The Sect Protection Elder looked over.

Sect Master Di Kun only said: "If the Cleanup Squad is only here for the ledger box, let them die in the Sect Masters Hall tonight. If they enter the Spirit Pool first, we will watch for a while longer."

The Sect Protection Elder's hand gripping his sword tightened, and he did not try to persuade him further.

After nightfall, the mountain lamps of the Taichu Sect went out one by one.

A half-pile of uncleaned wooden swords remained in the Martial Arts Arena, the embers in the kitchen stove pressed into red dots, and the paper window of the side courtyard was slightly bulging from the wind. The two Disciples who originally patrolled outside the Spirit Pool had been withdrawn, leaving only the moss marks on the stone steps and an empty wooden bucket turned upside down.

Seven miles outside the mountain, Lin Liao stopped under a withered pine tree.

He wore no Red Snake Sect markings; over his black clothes, he wore a grayish-brown cloak with tiny bone pieces sewn into the hem. It made no sound when he walked, only emitting a faint, lingering beast stench after he stopped. A black bone ring hung from his left ear, with dried blood patterns on it. When the night wind blew, the blood patterns looked as if they were being moistened anew.

Six black-clad Cultivators dispersed behind him, and no one spoke.

Lin Liao opened his palm, and a rice-grain-sized scout insect crawled out of a bamboo tube. Its antennae twitched twice before it hugged the grass roots and burrowed into the night. He waited for a full ten breaths before raising his hand and pressing it forward.

One black-clad Cultivator whispered: "The mountain gate is to the southeast, and there are formation marks on the main road."

Lin Liao did not look at the main road.

"The Taichu Sect only fought a Yao Beast last night. Even if they repaired the main gate mechanisms in a hurry, they would still leave them for people to see." He pointed to a section of low mountain wall on the west side, "Take the breach."

Another person took fine sand from his bosom and scattered it onto the grass in front. After the sand grains landed, three spots jumped up slightly, revealing the tripwires buried under the soil. He leaned down and cut the first one, but didn't touch the other two, only sealing the rope core with black wax so the tripwires would maintain the appearance of being blown by the wind.

Lin Liao watched this action and nodded.

Han Lishan's orders remained as only four items in his mind, cold and hard like the back of a blade.

Kill Loose Cultivator Gu, seize the ledger box, burn the underground Spirit Pool of the Founders Hall, and leave behind traces of a counterattack by the remnants of the Yao Beasts.

The first two were written explicitly, while the latter two were given personally by Han Lishan. When that Vice Sect Leader spoke of the Spirit Pool, his teacup cracked, and the tea flowed into the gaps between his fingers, but he did not wipe it away.

From that moment on, Lin Liao placed the Spirit Pool first.

He raised his hand, and the six split into two teams. One team released scout insects, one team tested for formation marks, and another person circled toward the small path at the foot of the mountain, nailing shut the two wild paths that could lead out of the Taichu Sect with black vines. The black vines burrowed into the soil, their leaves curling around the stone crevices like several silently crawling snakes.

"No Red Snake flags, no Red Snake techniques," Lin Liao whispered, "Those entering the mountain tonight are the remnants of the Yao Beasts."

A black-clad Cultivator took out a cloth bag; the opening revealed a few tufts of Yao Beast fur and broken bones.

Lin Liao glanced at it: "Scatter them last. Before the living are cleared out, the earlier the traces are left, the more flaws there will be."

The Cultivator immediately put the bag away.

At the breach in the Taichu Sect's west wall, half the stones had collapsed, and the edges still bore the claw marks left by the Demon Mastiff leader. Lin Liao squatted down, his fingertips wiping the mud in the cracks, smelling a faint scent of Yao Beast blood.

"Old opening, usable."

He didn't rush to climb over the wall, first flicking a scout insect inside. After the scout insect landed, it crawled forward; after crawling three zhang, its abdomen suddenly swelled, and it spat out a dark green fluorescent dot.

Someone had walked by inside the wall.

Lin Liao raised his eyes, just in time to see the torchlight flickering in the distant Martial Arts Arena. A few Taichu Sect Disciples dragged their weary steps to pack up wooden swords, some still rubbing their shoulders, cursing and grumbling.

"Core Disciples are in the Martial Arts Arena?" a black-clad Cultivator asked in a low voice.

Lin Liao did not answer immediately. He listened for a while; the footsteps in the Martial Arts Arena were scattered, the breathing unsettled, as if they had just practiced until they were exhausted all night.

"It's either a display of exhausted troops for us to see, or they are truly exhausted." He climbed over the broken wall, "Don't chase the people, look at the pool first."

Six black shadows submerged into the wall one after another.

In the shadows inside the breach, a copper piece coated with talisman ash vibrated slightly, the vibration traveling along the copper wire pressed into the brick seam to the back of the Founders Hall.

The Tower Defense Player's fingers pressed onto the wooden board, and the three small stones on it began to roll.

He looked up at Sect Master Di Kun: "They've entered the west wall, didn't touch the main gate mechanisms. Sect Master, just as you guessed, they took the Demon Mastiff breach."

Sect Master Di Kun stood in the darkness, the night pressing down on half his face. His right knuckles tightened inside his sleeve, then relaxed.

"Watch their first move."

On the wooden board, the small stones representing the Cleanup Squad did not roll toward the side courtyard, nor did they roll toward the Sect Masters Hall. Two stones clung to the shadows of the inner wall, heading straight for the underground stone steps behind the Founders Hall.

The Speedrunner lay on the roof ridge, his face pressed against the tiles, his voice suppressed very low through the sound transmission talisman: "Sect Master, they have split people to go to the Spirit Pool, two of them, and they are walking the path very familiarly."

The Sect Protection Elder took half a step forward beside Sect Master Di Kun, his scabbard brushing against the corridor pillar, making a low sound.

Sect Master Di Kun raised his hand to stop him.

On the wooden board, those two stones passed the first abandoned well, bypassed the collapsed corridor, and went directly toward the entrance of the underground Spirit Pool. That route was not one often taken by Taichu Sect Disciples; instead, it avoided the obvious steps repaired in recent years, clinging to the edge of the old hall's ruins from a hundred years ago.

Sect Master Di Kun watched that route, his fingertips stopping.

What Han Lishan was eyeing was never just the ledger box.

"Sect Master?" the Tower Defense Player asked in a low voice.

Sect Master Di Kun did not respond, his gaze following the stones that had split into three paths on the wooden board.

One team turned toward the Sect Masters Hall.

One team crept toward the side courtyard infirmary.

Lin Liao, with the remaining men, pressed into the shadows of the old corridor outside the Spirit Pool, like a knife already pressed against a throat.

"Don't kill them yet."

Sect Master Di Kun's voice pressed into the sound transmission talisman, cold and without inflection.

"Follow them."