Scheme

The said team of Black Shadow consisted of only three members—all of whom were in the half-step Sage realm.

Teng Hu, a half-step Sage realm cultivator was said to be the leader of the trio. He had a Poison elemental affinity and was known to have an extremely dangerous skill.

The skill was known as 'Poison Haze.' When activated, it would form a cloud of tiny poison droplets suspended in the atmosphere near the earth's surface limiting one's visibility and when inhaled it could have a hallucination effect.

So when Qai heard of such skill, he couldn't care whether the skill was dangerous. He had an immediate urge to find such skill scroll for Jing. In fact, he was hoping that Teng Hu would be carrying one or some other skill scrolls for cultivators with Poison affinity.

***************

Near the foot of the mountainous region of the Desolate Wasteland, a lot of cultivators could be seen.

Qai and the rest of the team believed that many cultivators had the same goal—to reach the mountainous area which they discerned to be the Soaring Sky Sect's domain.

It became even more evident when Qai and his group started to sense other cultivators going in the same direction.

By this time they already gained a lot—but their harvest were mainly made up of cores, hides and herbs. They have yet to find a single 'treasure.'

"It won't be too long before we meet the Black Shadow," Qai noted.

Everyone simply signaled their affirmation.

"We better get ready," Mo Shui declared.

***************

As they expected, the trio of Black Shadow was indeed right on their tail.

And when the Black Shadow team caught up with them and saw the Mo Clan members, the three started to scheme a plan.

"You're from Mo Clan, aren't you?" Teng Hu asked.

The Mo Clan members of Mo Shui, Hao Ren and Lin Qiao looked at each other. They didn't know what to answer—whether to agree or not.

"I can easily recognize your familiar face 'little miss princess' of the Mo clan.." Teng Hu sarcastically added.

Upon hearing those words, the Mo Clan members sighed and obviously could no longer deny the truth.

"So what if we are?" Mo Shui replied.

"Hey hey, what's with that attitude?" Teng Hu said in jest. "We're here to team up with you, you know."

"Team up?" Mo Shui asked. "Who would want to team up with the likes of you.."

"Well.. as you can see," Teng Hu started to explain, "..if you and us joined our hands, we can be unstoppable."

He didn't let Mo Shui say another word and told them something that had previously made their other victims agree with their terms—hoping that it would also work with the likes of the Mo Clan.

"And besides we're not about to be greedy here..," he added. "How about we evenly split whatever we could find.. fifty-fifty.. what say you?"

"As you know," one of the companions of Teng Hu added, "..there are a lot of strong disciples going to the peak of the mountain."

"Surely, there'll be soon a lot of commotion up there..," the last companion followed suit, "..you'll never know when are you gonna need a helping hand."

The succession of words were quick and convincing so much so that it looked like rehearsed for a long time.

"Alright..," Mo Shui replied. "We agree.. but on one condition."

"And what that might be?" Teng Hu quickly asked.

Mo Shui took a deep breath first before she told her request.

"Mo Clan shall have the first pick from whatever treasure we could find," she said.

Teng Hu thought for a moment before agreeing with the Mo Shui's condition. For him it didn't really matter since they were going to annihilate the Mo Clan team after anyway.

"I don't see any problem with that," he vehemently replied.

***************

Meanwhile, not far away from the place where the Black Shadow and Mo Clan members met, Qai and Shu Liang together with Shandian were spying on what was transpiring.

Little did Teng Hu and his team members know that the Mo Clan's first team had other members coming from outside the clan.

It was actually Qai's idea to split the team into two and let the Black Shadow get caught off guard.

And so after Teng Hu and Mo Shui finalized their agreement, both teams decided to head towards the peak of the mountain.

"Let's go."