Wu Chao sat slumped on the ground. "Zhou Fei, what a calculation, what a performance!"
"I thought you were just honest and cowardly, but I never expected you to have been laying this trap since the moment you arrived in Border City."
"No, you know Border City like the back of your hand. You must have thoroughly researched the situation here before you even arrived."
"That’s the only way to explain why you never showed a single flaw from start to finish—because you were acting from the very beginning."
"Besides the people around me, you must have spies in Zuo Hu's camp as well, right?"
Zhou Fei ignored him. With Gu Ningyun and the others keeping the rest at bay, Zhou Fei quickly shattered the dantians of Wu Chao’s thirty-odd confidants, bound them hand and foot, and tossed them beside Wu Chao.
Just as Zhou Fei finished tying up the last man and breathed a sigh of relief, three darts whistled through the air from a nearby rooftop, aiming straight for his back.
The pressure emanating from these darts actually carried the strength of the Foundation Establishment stage!
By the time the attack was detected, the darts were already inches away from Zhou Fei’s back.
Zhou Fei’s pupils shrank.
Gu Ningyun, who was closest to him, immediately slapped down a mysterious-rank low-grade water shield talisman.
A condensed, pure shield of water snapped open, intercepting the darts one by one.
Zhou Fei finally had a chance to react.
He instantly tore open a talisman, and a gold-and-red streak of energy shot out. The attack, equivalent to a middle-stage Foundation Establishment strike, instantly sliced the hidden assailant on the roof in half, shattering the roof tiles and the ridge as well.
The talisman likely contained a single strike stored by a Foundation Establishment senior from his clan.
Wang Che used a large tree to leap onto the roof and tossed the two halves of the corpse down.
"Zhou Yu, my second uncle's most prized dog."
Zhou Fei sneered. "Has he finally lost his patience and decided to shed all pretenses with the Main Branch? Or did he think he could kill me in one hit and pin the blame on the Spirit Snake Gang?"
The water shield shattered and dissipated after blocking the three darts.
The darts, now devoid of spirit energy, clattered to the ground with a metallic ring.
Zhou Fei looked over at the sound and saw that the bodies of the darts were pitch-black and their tips were incredibly sharp. They were coated in a lethal poison meant to kill him instantly.
He clutched his chest, still shaken. "Fellow Daoist Gu, thank you for saving me. If not for your intervention, that sneak attack would have been my end."
"Sigh!" Gu Ningyun leaned against Wen Xuan’s shoulder, her small face pale as she let out a heavy sigh.
"Is Fellow Daoist injured from the sudden use of a mysterious-rank talisman?" Zhou Fei asked, his tone laced with anxiety.
Wen Xuan gripped Gu Ningyun’s wrist to check her pulse and nodded with a grim expression.
When Gu Ningyun had delivered those ten slaps to Wu Chao earlier, she had accidentally used a bit too much spirit energy. Following that with the use of a mysterious-rank talisman above her current level had momentarily drained her, leaving her face bloodless from the exhaustion.
However... as Wen Xuan sensed through the meridians, she noticed that the spirit energy in Gu Ningyun’s body had already begun to recover slightly.
Gu Ningyun hadn't even had a chance to focus on her movement technique to restore her energy in such a short time.
Wen Xuan quietly withdrew her spirit energy and stopped investigating further.
Whatever the case, as long as Ningyun wasn't truly injured, it was fine.
Zhou Fei rummaged through his storage bag, pulled out a porcelain bottle, and handed it over. "This is a yellow-rank high-grade Return-to-Spring Pill."
Wen Xuan inspected the pill before placing it in Gu Ningyun’s palm.
Gu Ningyun tucked the pill away and let out another long sigh. "My heart is what truly aches!"
Before Zhou Fei could speak, Gu Ningyun continued, "This was a talisman our Sect Leader personally gave us before we left the sect. He told us to use it only in a life-or-death crisis, and it was the only one I had. If the Sect Leader finds out I used such a precious talisman like this, I don't know how he’ll punish me..."
This was the water shield talisman Martial Aunt Yang had given her as a reward—a symbol of affirmation and encouragement for her cultivation results. It was indeed very precious.
Zhou Fei froze for a moment, then his expression relaxed slightly.
Wen Xuan and the others also maintained solemn expressions.
This time, Zhou Fei’s words and actions were much more sincere. He pulled out an empty storage bag, filled it with two thousand six hundred low-grade spirit stones, and handed it to Gu Ningyun. "I don't have any water shield talismans on me, but you can buy one in the next city."
This storage bag was the lowest grade available on the market, costing only ten low-grade spirit stones. It had limited space, was easily damaged, and could be used without being blood-bound, making it a common choice for transporting spirit stones or goods during trades.
A mysterious-rank low-grade water shield talisman cost two thousand low-grade spirit stones, so two thousand six hundred was more than enough to buy a replacement.
Gu Ningyun didn't stand on ceremony and accepted the bag immediately.
As expected, the cunning Zhou Fei had indeed been suspicious.
Earlier, in her rush to save him, she hadn't had time to think and had simply thrown out the water shield talisman. Afterward, she immediately realized that because he had been scammed at the mass grave, he would be particularly sensitive to talisman cultivators.
To dispel his suspicions, Gu Ningyun had put on this performance, acting as if her heart was breaking.
It was perfectly reasonable for a disciple of an obscure small sect to be heartbroken over losing a water shield talisman.
Sure enough, her acting had caused Zhou Fei’s subtle facial muscles to relax.
In the world of cultivation, besides having great strength, brains were also very important.
Getting resources by using one's head was much easier than relying on brute force.
Besides, this method didn't offend anyone.
What if the person you offended turned out to be someone you could collaborate with in the future?
Take Zhou Fei, for example. The utility of his family's Shocking Thunder Platform was known throughout the Five Continents, yet it hadn't been stolen for years. This proved that the Zhou family, or the Ten Directions Sect behind them, possessed significant power.
If they had simply robbed him earlier, they would have made an enemy of Zhou Fei, making it difficult to use the Shocking Thunder Platform later.
The current situation was much more relaxed.
Gu Ningyun reflected on this experience with absolute clarity.
It wasn't that strength was unimportant. For Zhou Fei, Wu Chao, and even herself, all their plans were fundamentally based on strength.
Without sufficient strength, no matter how many good plans one had, they couldn't be implemented. Even if they were, one couldn't ensure their own safety or control the direction of events.
Despite all these thoughts, only two breaths of time had passed.
With the main issues resolved, Gu Ningyun and the others took turns standing guard while they meditated to recover their spirit energy.
According to Zhou Fei, the remaining ordinary gang members were low-grade rogue cultivators who lived nearby and had nowhere else to go.
When the Spirit Snake Gang had swallowed the Raging Fire Gang, they had absorbed their ordinary members as well.
Now that the Spirit Snake Gang was finished, these members were once again without a home. It was the perfect opportunity to recruit the reliable ones into the City Lord's office to help rebuild Border City.
The others would be given their freedom, allowed to leave or stay in Border City as they pleased.
As for Wu Chao and his confidants, whose dantians had been shattered and who were now bound, their involvement in the decades-long case of missing young boys could not be ignored.
Zhou Fei planned to gather everyone from Border City and the surrounding villages. After revealing the truth, he would have these men publicly beheaded in the city center to restore peace and justice to the city.
Rate on N.U.
