Chapter 59: Debut of the Crow and Siege
While Jian thought he had dispatched all the disciples in the area, he didn't know that the fight had been previously watched by a third party.
A third party that watched as he stole what the disciples had on them, before he went away as fast as possible.
The disciples who had been knocked down were all woken up a few minutes after that by said third party. And while the disciples wanted nothing more than to continue the fight, they couldn't anymore.
" Had this guy been wanting to kill all of you, I think you can imagine how this would've gone.....Are you mad, or do you just want to throw your life away dumbly ?" A man wearing a stealthy outfit similar with little to no protection and some dark cloak with an eagle-shaped hood said.
Qirio shook his head while his eyes met the old man's. They knew they had messed up, however this wasn't the end of it.
"Alright...Why were you even fighting ? This seemed pretty bad."
Qirio and the old man had been about to talk at the same time, but only Qirio was allowed to speak. The old man quickly had a hand on his mouth, another figure with a feminine body and who was wearing the same outfit as the first telling him to shut up.
" You've heard about what's happening with the Sea Sword Sect right ? Those bastards are one-upping us. We can't just let them take everything while we watch in silence ! We need to act, and we need to act now. I know the elders had a plan for one of us to enter the Su family, but that won't cut it. This will take too much and it ain't even guaranteed to work. I say we strike them." Qirio exclaimed as the men of his group cheered.
The man in the stealthy outfit sighed and told his colleague to let the old man speak.
" *Cough* And like I was saying, even though that dumbass preferred punching me rather than listening, if we strike the Sea Sword Sect, it's new allies will destroy us ! So while we could simply make allies of our own, we all know just how difficult this will be. The other sects all just did a 180 and started to get closer to the Sea Sword Sect, I don't really see who we could get close to." The old man said as Qirio glared at him.
" He's right, boss. They don't have any choices. They can only continue to push for random nobles and hope it somehow works. I mean we don't really have to care, they pay us but we aren't their allies so to speak. " The second hooded figure spoke. She got a thank you from the old man, but merely ignored him. Qirio just sighed, knowing this was going nowhere and they wouldn't listen to him...Or at least he thought so.
"No....I think Qirio is right. Striking the iron while it's hot is the strategy to go with. Now while we can't go for most sects.....We can go for the Poisonous Raja Sect. And yes I did say we, you dumbass. They pay us a huge amount of money, and we have been working with them for a long time....We ARE their allies." The first hooded figure declared. Everyone looked at him in shock, knowing exactly what he was talking about.
"....So....We get closer to the two disciples who showed up ? Zhao Shu from the Zhao Warrior Tribes....And.....I don't remember the other one, but yeah that other guy." Qirio asked as the man nodded.
" Indeed. Tell that to your higher-ups. Meanwhile....I think we need to get a little Crow under investigation." The man said, looking in the direction Jian went. The disciples were confused by what he said, but since he didn't say more, they just got up and parted ways.
"Boss....You sure this was that crow guy ?" The girl asked as she looked in the distance too. All the disciples had left hurriedly, so only the two hooded figures were left.
" I'm sure...One of our guys was at a certain inn on the day the crow contacted young Sun Cheng. This guy matches the description...Although I reckon I didn't see him clearly and there are a lot of people who could match that description from the distance we were at.....But it's best to investigate than just ignore this. This Crow isn't a big player yet, but I am not going to let him become one before we know everything there is to know about him and get him to join us if he is worth it. " The man said. The two hooded figures looked at each other and nodded before literally phasing out of existence, leaving behind only some small particles of light.
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( Poisonous Raja Sect's HQ )
"Get your asses back on that wall you dumbasses ! You'll have your break later !" Wei Feng yelled at the top of his lungs, a group of disciples freezing as they heard him. They were supposed to be on guard duty but had put some younger disciples instead and had been playing cards.
It wasn't that they didn't register the threat, it was just that the enemies hadn't made much of a move ever since they arrived. However they knew Wei Feng wouldn't listen to them, so they simply moved, dragging their bodies on the walls. The younger disciples came down a minute after and Wei Feng sighed.
" You guys, don't blindly listen to your elders. Those guys especially. Now go to the South Gate Elder's mansion, he should have some books for you. And you better learn the techniques in those books in less than a week ! " Wei Feng yelled once more. The disciples ran away, not wanting to face the fury of Wei Feng. Ever since he healed completely, he had been on a constant bad mood.
"Master Wei Feng, calm down for a bit. You should really watch that temper of yours, or you're going to burst at some point." Said a man wearing a green robe with the two headed flying snake symbol on the collar.
The sight of that man brought a smile to Wei Feng's face and he immediately hugged the younger man.
" It has been a while, boy." Wei Feng said.
"It has indeed been quite a long time. Now I sneaked in with a few others, but I don't think anyone else will be able to come now. Seems like our enemies finally caught on our little tricks to get inside. Also they blocked all the caves, we have no ways in or out." The younger man said as he and Wei Feng sat on a bench.
"Well, at least you are here now. And just a few days after we revealed the whole thing to the disciples too." Wei Feng, getting a sigh from the younger man.
"It's sad that you had to resort to such thing. We should've stayed in the shadows. Now we'll need to make sure no one ever speaks of us.....And we might even have to kill some of the more talkative disciples. But I understand why you did it. The morale of our dear disciples had to go up, or else we would have had a depressed army, and no one would ever want that."
They continued to discuss until night came and they had to part ways. Wei Feng didn't go to his mansion however. He went to the patriarch's mansion instead. An important meeting was about to begin.
He stepped in the mansion without any of the disciples trying to stop him. They all knew what kind of meeting was about to start. This would decide the future of the sect.
" Ah, Wei Feng. Good, we can start now." Giran exclaimed as soon as he saw the old man.
Wei Feng directly went to sit besides his daughter who looked at him worriedly. He was clearly tired, this situation was truly getting on his nerves. It pained her to see her father like this, as it had been at least a decade since the last time he showed a weak face.
"This is reminding me of the day your mother died, Lu'er" He suddenly said.
Wei Lu's entire body froze as she looked at him in shock.
" This feeling of helplessness, the feeling of being entirely too weak to do anything.....I am so tired of it. If you weren't there, I think I would have charged at the enemies as soon as they appeared." He said. Wei Lu quickly went to hug him, but he held a hand.
He needed to appear strong in that moment, for the wasn't the only one feeling weak, and most of the people in the room needed to find solace in their stronger colleagues.
" Yeah, start this thing already. I was having a killer of a nap and y'all interrupted it." Judem said, getting glares from nearly everyone.
Ever since the siege had started, Judem had quickly became one of the elite disciples everyone hated the most. Giran had recruited many like Judem, who truly had nothing to do with the sect and had little loyalty towards it...And it only became a problem when the sect was actually in trouble. Having people so strong, who could help them win and yet didn't move in the slightest....It was enough to get some blood boiling.
"Hmm....Alright. As you all know, our enemies haven't moved yet. We have received words from Uma about Zhao Shu and Jian, we have also received news from other disciples and elders who are trying their best to find us ressources and allies...Ah and sadly, we still haven't heard a thing from Huang Lei. Given how the Gorudenryuu Order's HQ was destroyed, we can assume he was killed in action, or maybe he was captured...They know how valuable he is after all." Giran said. His words got him mixed reactions. Wei Feng and his daughter were interested in hearing about Jian and Zhao Shu, while the others wanted to know if they finally found some allies. Meanwhile, Judem and Shina looked at each other and sighed. The news about the knight order had been a displeasing one...But they had an even worse one to tell everyone about.
In the end, Shina looked at Judem with pleading eyes and he decided to announce it himself.
" Let us finish this with some good news. I will start with the bad one...The Void organisation has made a sudden move on the Wukong Empire. Now this wouldn't really be a problem to us....However...I'm really sorry to even worsen the mood like this guys....But you all need to know this." Judem said. Everyone was instantly on edge. For they knew that a news about the Void was certainly something disastrous.
"We assumed they attacked us merely to retaliate because...Well ya know, you took me away from them. However this wasn't the case at all. They are trying to free something. I have no idea what it is, but it's apparently that one prisoner....You know....The one who is guarded by an entire order of knights, the Shiroryuu Knights, who are also the strongest knights ever. Whatever this thing is, we all know it's at least as big of a threat as those dragons who appeared a few decades ago. And we all know one thing....The Void WILL allow him to escape....So what do we do ?"