49. Flies buzzing about

(Some time later, Somewhere in Golden Prosperity City.)

Li Xue sat in the dimly lit chamber of her hidden base in Golden Prosperity City, her fingers drumming against the wooden table. Reports lay scattered before her, each marked with urgency. The whispers had become too loud to ignore, members of the Zheng, Bai, and Jing families had begun searching for clues regarding the disappearances. More troubling, her own beggars were being taken.

"How many?" she asked, her voice steady but cold.

The beggar before her, a wiry man with hollow eyes, swallowed hard. "Seven confirmed. Maybe more. Some of our lookouts have gone silent."

Li Xue narrowed her eyes. Seven was not an insignificant number. Though only a handful in her network knew the true nature of the disappearances, any prolonged attention from the noble families would be dangerous. If too many people started asking the right questions, the trail could lead back to her. And then, to Mo Tian.

And that was something she refused to allow.

She had fought too hard for the sliver of freedom he had granted her. If she failed here, if she let this spiral beyond her control, he would step in. She could already hear his apathetic voice, see the expression that barely shifted as he took back the control she had worked so hard to grasp. No. She had to prove she could handle this.

"Who's taking them?" she asked.

The beggar hesitated before replying. "The Bai and Jing families are the most aggressive. Zheng forces are sniffing around, but they haven't moved openly yet. Jing enforcers were seen grabbing two of our people near the western district. The Bai family is working through intermediaries, they're paying mercenaries to do the work for them."

Li Xue exhaled slowly, keeping her expression unreadable. The Bai were the strongest faction present, but the Jing were currently the most dangerous. The Bai had always preferred subtlety over direct action. If they were hiring mercenaries, it meant they wanted deniability. That made them harder to predict.

"Do we know where our people are being held?"

"We've located one of the mercenary hideouts," the beggar confirmed. "As for the Jings, we suspect they're keeping their prisoners in one of the smaller estates, but we haven't confirmed it yet."

Li Xue leaned back in her chair, tapping her fingers together in thought. She could deal with the mercenaries easily enough. A direct strike, eliminate the problem at the root, and make an example of them. But the Jings… they were doing it openly to antagonize them and force them to come out in the open. She needed a different approach there.

Her mind raced through possibilities, weighing risks and outcomes.

She could send a team to retrieve their captured members quietly, but if anything went wrong, it would escalate matters further. Killing the mercenaries would send a message, but it might also confirm to the noble families that their suspicions had merit. Manipulating the Jings to act against the Bai was an option, but a slow one. On the other hand, manipulating the Bai to act against the Jing was an easier possibility. However, this would need Mo Tian's interference.

A lesser person might have hesitated, might have looked for someone else to make the decision for them. But Li Xue had spent too much time in Mo Tian's shadow, watching how he moved, how he controlled the board while making it seem effortless.

She would do the same.

"We move carefully," she decided, her voice sharp with authority. "Gather information. I want to know the exact location of our people, every guard shift, every weakness. Once we have that, we take them back, but quietly. No unnecessary bloodshed. If we can make it look like they escaped on their own, even better."

The beggar nodded swiftly.

"And the mercenaries?"

Li Xue's lips curled into a smirk, but there was no warmth in it. "Mercenaries work for money. Find out who hired them and offer them more to turn on their employer. If that fails… then make an example of them. No one should think they can take my people without consequences."

The beggar bowed and hurried out, leaving her alone with her thoughts.

Li Xue let out a slow breath, staring at the flickering candle on her desk. There was no room for mistakes. If she failed, Mo Tian would step in. And if he did… she wasn't sure if she feared his disapproval, or the knowledge that he would take everything back into his own hands, leaving her with nothing but chains disguised as freedom.

No. She would handle this. She would prove that she deserved the power she had taken.

And when the time came, she would make sure she never had to answer to Mo Tian again.

…

(1 Month later, somewhere in a Mountain range.)

Mo Tian sat at his desk, the reports about Li Xue's growing influence and activities before him, his brow furrowed. While her cunning had served the sect well so far, it was becoming clear that her actions were starting to attract attention that could force their hand sooner than he had planned. The sect's position had to remain in the shadows for a while longer. The last thing he needed was for their rise to be hastened before they were ready.

He tapped his fingers thoughtfully on the desk. Li Xue's efforts, although impressive, had the unintended consequence of pushing their sect into the spotlight. If her actions kept drawing attention from the major families, it could lead to them being forced out of hiding. Mo Tian had always planned for a slow, calculated expansion, but now, it seemed, the walls might be closing in faster than anticipated.

Mo Tian needed to deal with this situation swiftly, but not with Li Xue's actions. He wouldn't risk having her steps be traced back to him or make her a target of suspicion. Instead, he would strike directly at the root of the problem: the Jing Family. They were tied up in a delicate balance with the Bai Family, one forged by them being the only two families in the region with an actual army left after the war in Golden Prosperity City. Both made alliances with a few influential elders within the Jian clan, who were hoping to position themselves as potential heirs now that the former patriarchs bloodline ended. These elders had been quietly building their support, including from the Zheng Family, an old power that still had a degree of sway despite their current situation.

He smiled coldly to himself. The perfect leverage.

Mo Tian stood and walked to the table where several scrolls and maps lay. He picked up one that detailed the alliances and key players in the Jian Family's internal politics, particularly the elders who were secretly working with the Bai Family. These men were ambitious, calculating, and most importantly, vulnerable. The Bai Family's hand was not hidden; their support for these Jian elders was well known to Mo Tian.

But Mo Tian's focus was on the elders who had made deals with the Bai Family to position themselves as future rulers. He had gathered enough evidence through his own spies to implicate them in a series of covert dealings with the Bai Family, with an eye on influencing the Jian succession. But what would make this truly dangerous was the involvement of the Zheng and Jing Family. These elders had used their support to secretly undermine the existing Jian leadership.

This was where Mo Tian would strike. The Bai Family had become increasingly suspicious of the Jing Family due to an uptick in their spy network activities. Spies had been sent all over, many of them in positions that allowed them to observe and infiltrate key factions within the Jian and Bai families. Mo Tian could already see the puzzle pieces falling into place.

He would target these key Jian elders, those in league with the Bai Family, and make sure the evidence of their dealings was left in such a way that it would point directly at the Zheng Family. His spies would ensure it looked like a deeper conspiracy was at work, one involving the Zheng Family's ambitions and their desire for greater influence over the Jian Family.

When the Bai Family found out, their suspicions would fall squarely on the Zheng Family, which had been quietly regaining its own foothold in the region. As the Jing Family had been sending spies in increasing numbers, it would be easy for the Bai Family to suspect them of orchestrating these plots to weaken their allies in the Jian Family. Mo Tian would let that suspicion simmer, but he would remain in the shadows, never directly involved.

Once the chaos began and suspicion grew between the major families, Mo Tian would be free to act without fear of drawing attention. He'd have no need to worry about any of them discovering his true hand until it was far too late.

Mo Tian wrote out the orders in his precise hand, outlining the immediate actions for his operatives: Target the elders aligned with the Bai Family. Leave evidence that implicates the Zheng Family, but ensure it is subtle enough to keep the Bai Family guessing about the real enemy. He sealed the letter with his personal wax stamp and called for his messenger.

When the messenger arrived, Mo Tian handed him the orders with a single command: "Make it swift, and make it clean. The pieces must fall into place tonight."

As the messenger departed, Mo Tian sat back in his chair, a dark smile crossing his face. The web was set, and soon, his enemies would be tangled in it, fighting each other while he remained in the shadows, biding his time.

"I'll let them tear each other apart," he muttered, the room growing darker as the night stretched on. "In the end, it will be me who walks away unscathed."