A Chaotic World 314 External Base

After ransacking the houses and delivering a stern warning to the residents, those men had hurried off as suddenly as they had come, leaving the residents sobbing pitifully at the scene.

Faced with such a pitiful sight, all the soldiers could do was to gather whatever information they could from the residents, though most of whom had little information to offer anyway.

But while the soldiers were embarrassed to hand in seemingly useless reports, their superior did not nearly treat these reports as lightly as the soldiers.

"The men were strong, and their actions were well-organised to the point that the townsmen could not glean any information from them whatsoever. This has to be the work of the noble families," the guard commander reported to Town Lord Dongwei. "Judging from the timing and uniformity in their actions, I would suspect that the Dongxian Family is the sole culprit."

"The Dongxian Family again…" Town Lord Dongwei felt a huge headache coming. "Summon all the noble families! I really need to have a good talk with these people!"

***

Jue and the rest of the Iron Claw Brigade stood a distance away, their eyes fixed upon a small house.

"This is the last of the affected houses," Xing remarked. "In total, twenty-three houses were targeted simultaneously. Among these twenty-three, the residents were beaten up in twenty of the cases. Many of them were non-martial artists, with two of them being elderly."

"I see," Jue answered spiritlessly.

"Are you all right, Captain?" Xing asked. "You have been acting strange ever since the escort mission."

"I'm fine," Jue waved it off. "In any case, who do you think is responsible for this?"

"Word on the streets is that it is the work of the noble families," Xing answered.

Jue sighed in response. "Xing, what do you think of the noble families?"

"Apart from the Dongran Family, all of them are trash," Xing answered honestly.

"Right?" Jue smiled bitterly. "Perhaps it is about time that we do something about it as well."

"I will follow whatever Captain decides," Xing assured.

"We are the same as well," the rest of the Iron Claw Brigade chimed in.

"Good, good…" Jue nodded. "Then let us do our best for the sake of Bog Town!"

The next few days saw the heads of the respective noble families being summoned to the town lord's residence, leaving only after staying there for a few days straight.

The townsmen had mixed feelings when they heard about this.

Some believed that the town lord had reached his limit, and was finally doing something about the atrocities of the noble families.

Others were sceptical, and believed that the town lord might even be receiving benefits from the noble families in return for condoning their atrocities.

In the Dongxian Residence, Master Dongxian sat glumly in his chair.

While he was at the town lord's residence with the heads of the other noble families, Master Dongxian had been given a stern warning by Town Lord Dongwei.

He had hoped to finally be able to rest his ears after returning home, but now messages were still coming in ceaselessly through his communication ring.

"Town Lord Dongwei might have already said it earlier, but you'd better not do that again," Master Dongran warned solemnly. "If the Divine Storm Sect ever finds out about what you did, the consequences will be unimaginable!"

"Yes, yes, I got it already," Master Dongxian answered half-heartedly. "As I already said, I was just trying to help gather information about the secret organisation. If you guys don't want me to do it this way, I just won't, it's not a big deal. Then again, even if others suspect anything, they will never be able to find any concrete evidence to tie the incident to my Dongxian Family!"

"It's not about not getting caught. The point is to not do it at all!" Master Dongran emphasised.

"Anyway, my sources are telling me that those troublesome bastards have stopped gathering after what I did. This proves that what I did was useful at least! Aren't you secretly thankful?" Master Dongxian smirked.

"Thankful? Haven't you realised that the number of people going in and out of the town has increased drastically these days?"

Master Dongxian froze.

What was Master Dongran trying to say?

"Master Dongran is saying that after I exposed their gathering houses, those bastards are now holding their gatherings outside Bog Town instead?" Master Dongxian asked.

"That's our assumption for now. If it's true, then not only have you not stopped their gatherings, you have even made it more difficult for us to observe their actions!"

"Damn it, those bastards are more persistent than we thought," Master Dongxian cursed.

"In any case, the town lord has already sent men to investigate, so please just sit still and stop making things worse!" Master Dongran reiterated.

After putting down his communication ring, Master Dongran let out a huge sigh of exasperation.

"Will he listen?" Madam Dongran asked while gently massaging his shoulders.

"I've already said all there is to be said. Whether he listens or not is out of our control now," Master Dongran shrugged. "For now, there are more important matters for us to attend to."

"Indeed there are," Madam Dongran smiled knowingly. "I can't wait for this to be over soon. After that, we can finally get back to our lives."

"Soon," Master Dongran closed his eyes. "Very soon now…"

In another corner of the Dongran Residence, Lu Tianzi was now seated cross legged in bed. The Moon Culler and Torrential Sabre were floating in the air and roaming freely around the room.

Bog Town had been in a huge uproar because of what happened a few days ago, and the townsmen seemed to act as though they were possessed, pointing fingers at anyone who looked even remotely suspicious.

Because of that, Lu Tianzi and Nanlan Qianxue had decided to heed Madam Dongran's advice, remaining in the Dongran Residence to avoid getting into any trouble.

With nothing better to do in the Dongran Residence, they could only quietly cultivate.

The reason why Lu Tianzi was not soaking in poison this time was because he was focusing on his cultivation instead.

While he was eager to master the Palm of Thousand Venoms, he understood just as well that such things take time.

In the midst of improving his mastery of the technique, he had to make sure not to neglect his cultivation.

After reaching the Origin Core realm, Lu Tianzi could no longer approach cultivation in the way that he had used to do.

The Origin Core realm was divided into the Nine Origin Cycles.

The First Origin Cycle referred to the act of condensing all Essence in a martial artist's inner world into an origin core, thereby breaking through to the Origin Core realm.

As for the remaining Second to Ninth Origin Cycles, it referred to the cultivation of the origin core, allowing it to grow before compressing it again.

Each compression was one cycle. Only after a martial artist successfully repeated the compression process for another eight times would he have reached the true peak of the Origin Core realm – the Ninth Origin Cycle.

The origin core would grow more and more compact with each passing cycle, which would in turn increase the difficulty of compressing it any further.

And this process could be made easier or more difficult, depending on the amount of impurities that the martial artist had managed to refine during his first breakthrough to the Origin Core realm.

Of course, this was a problem that usually made things more difficult rather than made easier.

This was the reason why many martial artists in the Origin Core realm would hit the peak of their current boundary, only to find it impossible to break through to the next cycle.

But Lu Tianzi was an exception.

Unlike others, Lu Tianzi had managed to refine every last bit of impurities in his inner world during his breakthrough to the Origin Core realm.

It had been about two months since then, and Lu Tianzi's origin core had already grown multiple times in size.

This was a cultivation rate that would cause anyone else to go green with envy, only made possible because his was a true origin core, and thus able to absorb energy much faster and much easier than regular origin cores.

Lu Tianzi opened his eyes, letting out a deep breath as he did.

He took a look at his communication ring, which clearly indicated that a message was coming through.

"White Griffin, this is Aged Crow. I am sure you are already aware of the incident that has happened a few days ago. Because of that, we have changed our gathering spot to outside of the town. Here are the coordinates for the new gathering spot. Blazing Dragon would like to meet you there."

Blazing Dragon would like to meet me?

Lu Tianzi rubbed his chin in contemplation.

There was no doubt in his mind that Blazing Dragon was at least an Origin Core realm martial artist. Once they met in person, his identity would be laid bare to the other party and vice versa.

For Blazing Dragon to suggest this and risk exposing his identity, perhaps Blazing Dragon's trust for Lu Tianzi had gone up after the incident with the traders?

After all, Lu Tianzi's actions had effectively crushed the Dongxian Family's reputation among the townsmen.

In fact, even Lu Tianzi had felt appalled that young girls were being smuggled out in such a manner. This immediately reminded him of the time when he was knocked out and offered as a sacrifice to the enemy.

But even after considering his disgust for the Dongxian Family, did he really want to be part of this?

No, he did not.

About this, Lu Tianzi was absolutely sure.

There was no need to put himself in danger just to stand up for mere strangers.

"Understood, but I am busy tying up a few loose ends on my side. I will let you know again when I am ready to go over," Lu Tianzi answered.

Despite his disinterest, there was no need to cut off this connection either.

Who knew whether he would change his mind in the future?

"I will be waiting eagerly for your good news then," Aged Crow's reply came swiftly.

Lu Tianzi put away his communication ring before closing his eyes once again, quickly returning to a state of deep meditation.

On the other end of the communication channel, Aged Crow put away his communication ring as well. He was currently seated by a window, and a quick glance through the window gave him a full view of the wide clearing downstairs.

This was not a location in Bog Town, but a safehouse that Blazing Dragon had arranged for them not far from the town itself.

Now, this place had become the official base for the Blazing Wings.

Hundreds of people had already gathered in the clearing, chatting casually among themselves as they patiently waited for something to begin.

Knowing that he was the one they were waiting for, Aged Crow grinned in pride.

He then turned towards the muscular Bald Falcon who was standing in front of his desk. "So, what's so urgent that you can't even wait for me to go downstairs?"

"Our lookouts have spotted suspicious men loitering around the area, they seem to be the town lord's men," Bald Falcon answered. "May I know what we should do?"

"The town lord's men? They actually managed to find this place as well?" Aged Crow revealed a look of surprise.

However, this look of surprise only lasted a mere moment before it was replaced by one of malice.

"Instead of going after the culprits who abused the townsmen in Bog Town, they chose to come after us instead? Town Lord Dongwei sure thinks highly of himself!" Aged Crow snorted in disdain. "Since the emissary from the Radiant Raven Sect has already arrived, we no longer need to fear the town lord either! Bring me their heads!"

Chapter end