Chapter 508: Killing Skysoar (2)
After the two left, Su Yu exhaled in relief. They were too weak. If an attack really happened, he would be fine, but that might not be the case for them.
He knew that things would look less suspicious if he left with them. He would look completely clueless, allowing him to catch his enemies unaware. But he did not like the thought of using his own people as bait. He still remembered the question Bai Feng asked him previously. How would he feel if his father was used as bait by Xia Yuwen on the battlefield?
He had said that Xia Yuwen deserved to be killed. Thus, he naturally wouldn't do something similar now that he was in a similar position.
Earlier, Su Yu had deliberately dropped his card in the pit. Thus, he spent about half an hour in the pit before retrieving the well-hidden card. He had hidden the card very well in case someone else picked it up. It wouldn't hurt to be prudent. He wouldn't want anyone with his card even if there wasn't much money left in it.
"This is daylight robbery."
Su Yu grumbled as he calculated the amount of money he had spent for this trip.
For the two entries, he had to pay 10 merit points. To hitch his mount, he had to pay 1 merit point. His two companions would be paid 10 merit points. And he also had to pay 1 merit point to rent his mount. In total, he had spent 22 merit points for this trip.
He kept having a feeling that this was an unprofitable trip. Then again, he hadn't returned completely empty-handed. His saber character seemed to have grown slightly stronger after the encounter with Xia Longwu's saber qi.
...
When he stepped out of the Myriad Race Pit again, the sky was already dark.
This was even better!
In the dark of the night, there were fewer pedestrians on the road. Thus, the hidden enemies would be more likely to make a move on him. But he still wasn't sure if his guess about them was right.
Perhaps the entire thing was simply a misunderstanding. It was pointless to keep thinking about it so Su Yu hopped onto his earthdragon beast before setting off.
...
On the way back to the main city.
The Zhang Family had a small villa beside the main road connecting the main city and the Myriad Race Pit. The location of this villa had been very convenient for the Zhang Family when carrying out some of their past operations.
Inside the villa.
They were conversing through voice transmissions while eating. The old man said, "The two students left in advance. Has Su Yu discovered something?"
The young woman said, "I doubt so. When I met him, he showed no reaction. He didn't even have a dao protector. What can he discover?"
"Don't forget that he's a genius." The old man said, "A genius like him will have a lot of tricks up his sleeve. Perhaps he has really discovered something."
"But our Zhang Family has been in the area for decades. Even if he did find something, we have established identities here. What would he suspect?"
After a slight hesitation, the old man said, "Forget about this. Let's give up on the job. Even if we can really capture him, we still need to move away immediately. The reward of 8,000 merit points isn't small, but is it worth abandoning everything we've built here?"
"Hallmaster!" The boy said, "There is no need for that. We only need to clean up well and nobody will know it's us."
"Do not be careless." The old man said, "If we really do make a move, we must move away after that. You can hide from Cloudbreach cultivators, but can you hide from Mountainseas and Sunmoons? Su Yu is a genius. His disappearance might even cause Hong Tan to leave his seclusion early. He will search the area and immediately discover that something is off about you."
"I can just fake death. I have always pretended to be injured anyway..."
The boy was clearly unwilling to give up. The young woman said, "If it's necessary, just give up on this place. In all honesty, capturing Su Yu will save us seven or eight years of hard work. If we leave with our accumulated wealth, we won't lose that much."
They could take their valuables with them and leave everything else behind. The real estate and mines they had were not even worth 100 million dollars. And they had no way of efficiently changing all those things into merit points. They wouldn't be able to get too many merit points out of these things.
The old man looked at the group. There were five of them, and at least three were tempted to make a move. The boy was the greediest of them all. He wanted to both do the job and remain here after. As for the others, they understood the dangers and were inclined to leave after the job.
The old man placed his bowl down and started smoking his water pipe. After a while, he said, "Either we give up or flee right after capturing him. This is the suburbs. We can retreat to the wilderness quickly. There, it will be much harder for Great Xia to find us."
As for the boy's suggestion, none of them considered it. That was basically suicide. One would be naive to believe that Great Xia would not be able to discover anything after a genius was kidnapped.
"Crazy old woman, what do you think? Should we do this?"
The old woman was a late-stage Skysoar and a cultural researcher. Thus, he asked her opinion.
After a slight hesitation, the old woman said, "After coming up with his source soul acupoint theory, would Great Xia start paying close attention to him?"
This was what she was worried about. If even the Myriad Race Cult was interested in the source soul acupoint, would that not be the case for Great Xia? She was quite worried.
The old man nodded. This was also his worry. As for the existence of dao protectors, they had confirmed that Su Yu did not have any.
The young man who had remained silent all along suddenly said, "This is only a short trip to the suburbs. Would the Xia Family dispatch an expert to protect him for such a short trip? It's not like he's going far away to temper himself."
Would the Xia Family dispatch a Mountainsea to protect the kid for such a short trip?
The boy was getting irritated as he asked, "So what's the decision? If we keep waiting, the chance would be gone. After returning to the academy, when would he leave again? Perhaps he would already be a Skysoar the next time he leaves the academy. At that time, we would no longer be able to do anything."
It was simply too rare to see Su Yu leave the academy.
The boy clenched his teeth and said, "If necessary, we can get the higher ups to help with this. At worst, we only need to get a smaller reward for it."
The old man knocked on the table with his pipe and said, "I wonder if anyone else is eyeing the kid as well. After all, we are not the only ones hiding in the capital. Su Yu is a fat lamb. Are we the only ones interested in this fat lamb?"
They all sank into silence. Was that possible? Probably. That was a fat lamb worth 8,000 merit points. They were probably not the only ones interested. Would anyone else be making a move?
The boy said, "Even if they are tempted, they might not have the ability to capture the kid. We are different. The five of us have been working together for so many years. The others do not have the level of cooperation we have."
"How are you so sure of that?"
"Hallmaster, just be honest. Are you actually planning on giving up?"
The boy was getting unhappy. If they were going to worry about everything, they might as well give up on the job.
While rapping on the table, the old man said, "I am merely trying to avoid getting all of us killed. We have reached this level after decades of hard work. If we do this, we will need to abandon this base of operations, resulting in an uncertain future. Secondly, we will most definitely die if we're caught..."
The boy unhappily said, "Just give up, then."
The old man had too many excuses. Ultimately, he was simply unwilling to do it.
"Why are you so impatient?" The old man frowned and slowly said, "I am more afraid of some other parties targeting him as well and ruining our plan."
He thought for a bit and said, "If we want to do it, we need to make thorough preparations. Boy, you're good at disguise. Help disguise us as Martial Dragon Guards."
The old man's eyes flickered as he said, "We will go out openly and offer to escort Su Yu back. If there are really other parties targeting Su Yu, they will retreat after seeing the Martial Dragon Guards. Even if there is an expert protecting him in secret, the crime of pretending to be Martial Dragon Guards is not punishable by death. At worst, we will be exiled to the Allheaven Battlefield."
Yes, he was already preparing for the worst. If they were really caught, they would not admit to being members of the Myriad Race Cult. They would simply claim that they were common criminals acting out of greed.
At the very least, they could still try to survive at the Allheaven Battlefield. On the other hand, they would definitely be executed if they admitted to being a part of the Myriad Race Cult.
"If we are really caught, will they even believe our words?"
The young woman asked with worry. The old man was somewhat speechless. He said, "When I wanted to give up, you guys were unwilling. Now that I'm planning to make a move, you are saying something demoralizing before even making a move. That is only the worst case scenario. If there isn't a Mountainsea around, nobody will notice us. And if there is a Mountainsea around, we will be caught the moment we appear. If that happens, we might as well seek life in death."
They needed a lot of courage to pretend to be the soldiers of the Martial Dragon Guards. In Great Xia, very few people had the courage to do so.
"But if we end up captured, the boy will definitely be exposed. Nobody will trust our words..."
The old man said, "Just say that he has been in disguise all along and we are bandits. It's not like we haven't prepared for this eventuality. We are bandits that have been kidnapping the traveling merchants in the area. That crime is not punishable by death. This has always been our backup identities. If we are captured, just expose that we are bandits. We will only be sent to the Vanguard Regiment. There, we can still try to stay alive. Make your choice. Do you want to do this?"
It was necessary for them to have several fake identities. And they had even performed some robberies with their identities as bandits before. Great Xia would probably stop the investigation upon discovering that they were bandits. After all, they were mere nobodies and weren't worth further investigation.
Bandits who had not killed too many people would be sent to the Vanguard Regiment. This had always been Great Xia's policy. That way, they wouldn't put any manpower to waste. Even if a criminal needed to die, the criminal would have to kill a few enemies before dying.
The old man was well prepared for the possibility of getting caught. At the very least, they needed to ensure their survival when that happened.
At this point, the others nodded in agreement. They were going to do it. The reward of this one job would be the equivalent of seven to eight years of hard work. It was a risk worth taking.
...
The earthdragon beast was running rapidly.
The sky had turned completely dark.
This late, very few pedestrians could be seen on the road. Su Yu had been paying close attention to his Perception Jade. Suddenly, the jade changed color. Ahead of him, a small team of Martial Dragon Guards appeared.
"Halt! Who is this?"
One of them questioned. Su Yu hurriedly answered, "Su Yu, a new student of the Great Xia Cultural Research Academy."
Inwardly, he was astonished. Why were the Martial Dragon Guards here? Was this a regular patrol? Or were these fellows sent by Xia Huyou? But there was no need for this, right? Didn't he say that he wanted to set a trap for the attackers?
Was this a coincidence?
While Su Yu was thinking, the water elemental's voice rang out in his ear, "Be careful. This water composition...is similar to the boy we saw earlier..."
People could change their appearance, their body shape, their aura, and their outfit, but nobody would think of expelling some water from their body.
The only exception if one was one of those lunatics from the transformation faction. Those people were absolutely capable of transforming themselves into something completely alien.
Su Yu was shocked. Holy shit. These fellows were truly courageous.
Was this for real?
In truth, the first thing he felt after seeing the Martial Dragon Guards was a sense of reassurance. Even if they weren't too strong, their sheer presence was enough deterrence for many people.
In fact, any local of Great Xia would react similarly.
Martial Dragon Guards. Number one army of Great Xia.
With them standing, Great Xia would remain.
Thus, he had instinctively viewed them with trust. If it wasn't for the water elemental's reminder, he wouldn't even start suspecting them.