Chapter 33: Strike First to Gain the Upper Hand

Watching the man walk into the woods to relieve himself, Lu Yu slowly retreated.

Now that he had discovered where the Wild Wolf Gang was hiding, he could inform Han Mansion to clear them out, sparing himself further anxiety.

As the man walked, he noticed the discarded water canister left by the Little Tail, realized someone was around, and without even putting on his pants, ran back to the water source and said: "Someone has discovered us!"

Upon hearing his words, the person filling water dropped the water pouch and said: "I'll go back and inform the boss now, you keep watch here."

Without waiting for a response, he quickly dashed up the mountain.

Lu Yu took Little Tail away from the cabin, placed him in a safe spot, and immediately returned to the water source, coincidentally seeing the man leaving and followed him.

The man hadn't used his full strength yet, Lu Yu could barely keep up with his pace.

This man's strength was definitely above the sixth level of Body Refinement, possibly at the seventh level; fortunately, Lu Yu hadn't attacked.

Keeping a distance from the target, Lu Yu reached the entrance of a cave on the mountain and saw the man enter it; Lu Yu immediately left. Since he knew their hideout, the remaining issues would be handed over to Han Mansion.

He brought Little Tail back to Windmill Town and instructed the shopkeeper to watch him, then rushed back to Han Mansion to meet Steward Zhang.

From Windmill Town to Han Mansion, it was a twenty miles distance, yet Lu Yu completed it in less than five minutes.

"Discovered the hideout of the underground gang? Great! I'll call people to raid their base immediately!" Steward Zhang was very excited upon receiving the news.

As he prepared to gather everyone, Lu Yu suggested: "It would be best to call all the guards, the mastermind is hidden among the guards, if everyone goes together, he won't be able to notify them."

Steward Zhang pondered for a moment and said: "Alright."

"Someone, go notify all the guards to gather, and also call over those freeloading acolytes."

Soon, everyone gathered, yet they still didn't know why they were called together.

At the front of the crowd, Yang Xiu wore a slightly displeased expression; just before, he was planning to ask Han Yu to leave Han Mansion, claiming he wanted to take her out to enjoy the scenery and relax.

Due to the previous incident, Han Yu had been left with a shadow in her heart, often waking up in the middle of the night, so Yang Xiu used this as an excuse.

"What's Steward Zhang calling us for?"

"I don't know either, ask Zhang Lun, isn't he familiar with Steward Zhang?"

"Zhang Lun, what's happening? Why have even the acolytes been called?"

"Don't ask me, I don't know either."

When Steward Zhang arrived, everyone quieted down; following Lu Yu's suggestion, Steward Zhang didn't have him reveal himself or tell others that the information came from Lu Yu.

"I've obtained definite news that the thieves from the recent night raid on Han Mansion are now hidden in Little Soup Mountain; this gathering is to ensure none escape and to capture them completely."

"Everyone, move out!" Without saying much, after gathering everyone, Steward Zhang led the team toward Little Soup Mountain.

Lu Yu had already taken some trusted subordinates of Steward Zhang to head for the Wild Wolf Gang's base, marking their way along the route so Steward Zhang could simply follow the markers with the main forces.

In the crowd, Yang Xiu wore a somewhat gloomy expression; he didn't anticipate that before he could act, the Wild Wolf Gang would be discovered first.

With frequent problems arising from the Wild Wolf Gang, Yang Xiu began to doubt whether he'd picked the wrong partners!

Unfortunately, he couldn't leave the main forces now, otherwise, he'd inadvertently expose his identity.

He hadn't obtained the Cultivation Technique yet; for the moment, he couldn't reveal himself, and he had to look for an opportunity to let a few people escape.

At this moment, following the team on their journey, Yang Xiu was filled with mixed emotions.

Leading the way up front, Lu Yu felt particularly contented; hiding in the mountains these past few days to avoid being tracked by the Wild Wolf Gang, he'd been on tenterhooks, extremely uncomfortable!

Now, there was an opportunity to crush the Wild Wolf Gang completely, eliminating this threat forever, his mood was exceptionally bright.

...

Black Wolf picked up the water jug on the ground and examined it, concluding someone had recently used it.

"Boss, the ramshackle house ahead has been repaired, but there's no one inside now."

Black Wolf glanced around, slightly sniffed the air, and decisively said: "Leave here immediately!"

"Black Wolf, aren't you overreacting? It could just be an ordinary person; look, they didn't even pack clothes, maybe they're just in town buying supplies," said Fierce Tiger Gang Leader, shrugging.

"Ordinary person? Why would an ordinary person run when they saw us?" Black Wolf sneered.

"Then Black Wolf, where do you suggest we go?" asked the Blood Saber Association Leader.

Black Wolf remained silent; as far as conditions for hiding around Windmill Town went, this place was decent, with water, a cave for shelter from the elements, and close enough to the town to resupply food.

"You can leave or stay as you please!" leaving this sentence, Black Wolf walked away with his six subordinates.

After the last night raid, the Wild Wolf Gang had the most remaining people, vaguely showing signs of an alliance between Blood Saber Association and Fierce Tiger Gang.

"Want to leave? None of you go anywhere; stay put! The scenery here's good, perfect for making it your grave."

The sound came from not far away, and the black wolf saw Steward Zhang appearing in front of them with a few offerings.

The Fierce Tiger Gang Leader was initially shocked to hear the sound. Then, seeing only Steward Zhang with a few people, he laughed and said, "Just a few of you? Are you here to send yourselves to death?"

"Idiot!" scolded the black wolf.

The Fierce Tiger Gang Leader glared fiercely at the black wolf and said, "Who are you calling an idiot?"

Even the Blood Saber Association Leader was somewhat helpless, reminding him, "They're only drawing our attention. We've already been surrounded!"

Unbeknownst to them, Han Residence guards filled the mountain forest around them, as the Blood Saber Association Leader said, appearing in front of them was just Steward Zhang stalling for time for others to encircle them.

The black wolf whispered to his subordinates beside him, "Once the fight breaks out, scatter immediately and charge out, shake off the pursuit, and go to town to find Night Wolf."

The six men nodded, tightly gripping their knives, and kept a close watch on the increasingly smaller encirclement.

The Fierce Tiger Gang Leader looked at the closing circle, feeling threatened with death, blood vessels crawling through his eyes.

"Move!" Steward Zhang ordered, leading the charge towards the Blood Saber Association Leader, his entire Qi Blood bursting forth, Spiritual Qi surging, wisps of white frost creeping onto his fists.

Steward Zhang's fists collided with the Blood Saber Association Leader's blade, white frost spreading onto the blade, causing an icy Spiritual Qi to extend to his arm, greatly affecting the speed of his sword swings.

Spiritual Qi was infused into the Blood Shadow Blade, red blade light suddenly appeared, dispelling the frost on the blade, restoring attack speed to normal.

Although he no longer felt the icy Spiritual Qi capable of freezing him stiff, the Blood Saber Association Leader's expression worsened as coping with the chill from Steward Zhang's Frost Fist consumed his Spiritual Qi significantly.

The black wolf wielded a Short Blade Spiritual Weapon and relentlessly engaged with a devotee, ruthlessly pressing the devotee without giving him a chance to counterattack.

The Fierce Tiger Gang Leader's entire Qi Blood surged wildly, having used some secret technique, his body expanded to two meters two, his iron fists pounding two devotees, leaving them spitting blood.

The three Qi Cultivation realm gang leaders were contended with by Steward Zhang and the devotees, while the others attacked a dozen gang members, each gang member fighting three to four guards on average.

Under the encirclement, the gang members collapsed immediately, incapable of holding ground.

Seeing things going south, the black wolf disregarded the massive consumption of Spiritual Qi, furiously attacking the vital spots of the devotee he was facing.

The devotee was no match for the black wolf, and under his fierce assault had no ability to fight back, taking hits passively, shielding vital spots, accumulating many wounds.

The black wolf stabbed towards the devotee's chest, and the devotee reflexively concentrated all his Spiritual Qi at his chest to fend off the attack.

Unexpectedly, the black wolf turned his hand, plunging the short blade into the devotee's thigh fiercely, without Spiritual Qi defense, and cut deep into the devotee's thigh, causing him to scream on the spot.

After injuring the devotee, the black wolf turned and fled without hesitation, cutting through several long swords attempting to block him with ease using the infused Spiritual Qi.

A Wild Wolf Gang member saw the black wolf injure the devotee and flee, taking advantage of the chaos created by the black wolf's charge on the defenses, throwing out a package that exploded in mid-air when hit by thrown stones.

White powder splattered from the package, with some people's eyes stung by the powder, rendering them unable to look straight at anything.

"Damn, it's lime!" cursed a Fierce Tiger Gang member whose eyes were splashed with lime, turning scarlet.

Except for the Wild Wolf Gang members who had been prepared, others were caught off guard by the lime flying everywhere, allowing the Wild Wolf Gang members to rush out of the encirclement amidst the chaos.

Even for Martial Cultivators at the Body Refinement realm, eyes are still vulnerable when splashed by lime, but being merely able to vaguely see things without going blind immediately is already remarkable.

While the Wild Wolf Gang took advantage of the lime-induced chaos to break the encirclement, only four of them truly managed to escape. Besides the black wolf, the others carried numerous wounds.

Several scattered in all directions, and Lu Yu took the opportunity to chase after a critically injured gang member, having hidden in the distance and watched all along, seizing the chance to gain experience points, quickly moving to pursue.

This injured person seemed to be a Martial Cultivator at the seventh level of the Body Refinement realm. Despite severe injuries, he maintained speed comparable to a fifth-level Martial Cultivator.

Lu Yu followed him from afar without closing in.

After a while, the Martial Cultivator slowed down, possibly due to excessive blood loss, prompting Lu Yu to speed up.

"Who's there?" The Martial Cultivator halted abruptly upon hearing footsteps behind him and turned to look around, confident in stopping only upon hearing a single person's footfalls.

He knew that, given his state, if he continued to flee, he'd surely be dragged to death, rather than daring to fight back.

Seeing the adversary turn to face him, Lu Yu stamped the ground arduously, deploying Eight Steps to Overcome Cicadas for a frontal attack.

That person, startled by Lu Yu's sudden speed, hurriedly executed sword techniques to barricade all frontal attack routes.

Clang~

An unexpected blade appeared before him, blocking his blade while he was preparing to shift techniques.

Roar~ Evil Tiger Roar.

A roar unnerved his spirit, the move interrupted, deciding the outcome in an instant.

Lu Yu exploited the opponent's interrupted move with Evil Tiger Roar, smiting a fist to shatter his heart.

To avoid retaliation from the opponent with lingering strength after his heart was shattered, Lu Yu promptly followed up by decapitating him, seeing the body collapse.

[Killed a Martial Cultivator at the seventh level of Body Refinement realm, gained 623 experience points]