Chapter 571: Continuous Fishing (1)
Apart from what One-eye and Bloodmoon were doing, the exposure of Great Mountain was also part of Su Yu's plan. He had to expose his so-called trump cards to his enemies. It would be even better if he could show a bit more and tell his enemies that he had no other trump cards. His enemies would definitely be pleased to find out about that.
The existence of the shadow and the water elemental was the second set of trump cards he was prepared to reveal. Since the Mountainseas wouldn't dare to openly pry on him for now, it was likely that the two still remained unknown. And if they were revealed as well, his enemies would believe that this was the end of Su Yu's trump card and he would be helpless against them after this. Using some less important secrets, he would hide other secrets.
This was Su Yu's goal. He would lure his enemies in. If his enemies did not take the bait, how would he gain the excuse to kill them? If his enemies did not take the bait, the two experts sent by Xia Huyou would only focus on protecting him instead of killing his enemies for him.
If his enemies did not take the bait, the sky horses would not help him either even if they were truly friendly toward humanity. He would be able to take this chance to force some people to stand on his side for now. He needed to do all that. Thus, he needed to ensure that he wouldn't accidentally scare his enemies off.
Furthermore, if his enemies did not take the bait, the Zhu Family wouldn't have a good excuse to attack either. Was it a crime for the elders of the single character faction to take a stroll outside the academy? Before making a move against Su Yu, they could even shamelessly claim that they were there to protect him.
"I need to give them the opportunity to make a move against me."
He didn't care about the weaklings. He wanted the Mountainseas to attack him. He aimed to kill with a borrowed knife. Of course, to accomplish this, he had to achieve a tough act of balancing to not get himself killed.
It would be even better if the single character faction sent a Sunmoon after him, but the premise for that was for the Sunmoon to attack after reaching the Starfall Mountain. At that time, the Zhu Family would be able to openly act against that expert.
Thus, one could say that this was also a gamble on Su Yu's part. He was betting on the lack of information on his enemies' part.
Very few people knew that this was going to be a one-way trip out of Great Xia for Su Yu before going under the Zhu Family's wings. Otherwise, the Zhu Family would probably be too lazy to do anything unless the fight was brought to their capital.
If news about his defection to Great Ming were leaked, none of his plans would work anymore. Everyone in Great Xia believed that Su Yu would not defect to other prefectures. After all, Great Xia was very powerful and all his backers were in Great Xia. It wasn't like he had suffered too big of a loss in Great Xia yet. Why would he want to leave? And this was what he relied on to make this plan work.
***
The group continued traveling while Su Yu was thinking about his plan.
This was definitely a dangerous plan. But it was impossible to drag a few Mountainseas down without bracing some danger. He needed to take risks for greater rewards.
Apart from the Mountainseas, he also wanted to know if there would be any Cloudbreach cultivators making a move against him. For example, he wanted to know if Zhou Pingsheng would be there.
What must happen for these Cloudbreach cultivators to make an appearance? Their Mountainseas needed to be occupied, forcing the Cloudbreach cultivators to make a move to kill him since Skysoars wouldn't be able to kill him. And in such a situation, who would be the most likely Cloudbreach cultivator to make a move?
Zhou Pingsheng!
As Zhou Pingsheng was a seventh-stage Cloudbreach, nobody would doubt his ability to kill Su Yu. Considering how much Zhou Pingsheng hated Su Yu, he would not let go of a chance to make a move against Su Yu.
Thus, Su Yu needed to ensure that all his Mountainseas were occupied. That was the only way to lure Zhou Pingsheng and the other Cloudbreach cultivators out. That was the only chance for him to take them out.
Was Zhou Pingsheng nearby? Very likely.
After all, he was the intermediary between Xia Qing and the single character faction. With how much he hated Su Yu, he had definitely arrived. He was merely hiding somewhere unknown for now.
Su Yu continued traveling while thinking.
Slowly, the attacks on them subsided. That was mainly because the rogue cultivators had been slowly gathered up by some other people, One-eye being one of them. Of course, some idiots would still appear now and then to attack the group. But that was basically the act of throwing their lives away.
***
Spluuurt!
After killing a random assassin hiding inside a hollow tree, Su Yu indifferently gazed at the mountain ahead of him.
At this time, the sun was starting to rise again.
Over the span of one night, Su Yu's group had traveled over 500 kilometers. If they maintained this speed, they would reach Nanyuan in around ten hours. After a night of travel, most of the people in the group were greatly exhausted. And a lot of them were already soaked in blood. At this time, the blood-soaked Zhou Hao approached Su Yu and said, "There is a mountain ahead of us. That is a good ambush location. Should we take a detour?"
"We have five, no, six Mountainseas with us and we're still within Great Xia's borders. Why should we take a detour?"
Su Yu disagreed. Why should he take a detour? Those Mountainseas would ensure his safety before reaching the so-called ruin. In that case, he wouldn't mind using these Mountainseas to get rid of some cultists and earn some merit points for himself.
He wondered if there was a cult stronghold nearby. Wouldn't it be great if he could wipe out a stronghold or two with the help of these Mountainseas as well? After all, these Mountainseas wouldn't allow him to die before reaching the ruin.
Sure, those Mountainseas had been trying to test Su Yu's strength, but they definitely didn't intend to kill him so early.
Right before stepping onto the mountain path, Su Yu said, "Seniors, there is a mountain ahead of us. I believe things will get dangerous. Before that, we will be taking a short rest. Is any senior willing to scout ahead in the meantime?"
A silhouette appeared in the sky as an old man said, "I'll go."
Su Yu could sense that this person was a Mountainsea. After taking a closer look, he found out who this person was.
After all, information on these myriad race dao protectors was available for the Xia Family. And with Xia Huyou's help, Su Yu had been given the basic information regarding these dao protectors as well.
The dao protector from the sky horse race.
Su Yu's expression remained the same. It was unlikely that the sky horses were his enemies, but he still couldn't be sure.
"Which race are you from, Senior?"
"The sky horse race."
After a short thought, Su Yu said, "I see. Please be careful, Senior. All Mountainseas can fly, but mountainous terrain is still a difficult terrain for those from the sky horse race. That blood devourer from earlier could very well be hiding somewhere ahead of us. It would be better if you go with someone good with this terrain."
A different voice laughed and said, "Don't worry, Young Friend. With all of us here, would that person dare to show up? In the event of an attack, we can cover this short distance and provide backup immediately."
With a helpless tone, Su Yu said, "I'm just worried that any attack would be a ruse to lure all of you away..."
The old man had nothing else to say.
The expert from the sky horse laughed and said, "Sure. Fellow Daoist from the iron-winged bird race, why don't you go with me? You are good at flying so you might be able to detect any hidden enemies in advance. It would be embarrassing if we do end up falling into some ambush."
"Sure."
The iron-winged bird dao protector was only a ninth-stage Cloudbreach so there was no need to worry about him. In any case, they had agreed to not send any real experts out before reaching the ruin. As far as the iron-winged bird was concerned, they were only scouting ahead to put Su Yu's heart at ease.
The air warped as two experts flew toward the mountain ahead of them. Su Yu said nothing else and sat down before taking some food from one of the bundles hanging on the suanni's body. He started eating alone.
"Why are you eating something like this?" The sky horse youth asked curiously, "Can't you afford better food?"
"..."
Su Yu said nothing. It wasn't like he would enjoy the food these horses enjoy.
"Su Yu, what's the point of opening so many acupoints? With your talent, you could have reached the Skysoar Realm long ago."
Su Yu smiled, "What about the Skysoar Realm? I've killed plenty of Skysoars."
The sky horse youth found himself completely speechless.
At this time, Xia Qing walked over and offered some food to Su Yu. He waved his hand and said, "Just eat your own food. It is not a good idea to eat the food of others while traveling in the wilderness. This is a basic rule of survival out here."
At that, the sky horse youth turned stiff. He was just about to accept the food offered.
Xia Qing smiled and stopped offering them food. After pushing some hair from her face aside, she asked, "Brother Su, are we near Nanyuan?"
"If everything proceeds smoothly, we should be able to arrive by tonight."
At the same time, Su Yu used voice transmission, "Remind the seniors to be careful. All our Mountainseas have been exposed. After seeing the number of Mountainseas we have, our enemies might have figured out something."
Xia Qing nodded. She said, "Brother Su, we're still in Great Xia's borders so our safety is still somewhat guaranteed. But that will no longer be the case after leaving Great Xia. We won't be required to leave Great Xia for this mission, right? I heard that Nanyuan is located near the border. Things will get troublesome if we have to go outside Great Xia."
"It depends." Seeing that everyone was listening to the conversation, Su Yu smiled and said, "Nanyuan is not too far from Great Ming. We probably won't need to leave Great Xia, but if the beast disturbance originates from Great Ming, we might need to cross the border for a bit. Of course, you are all free to stay in Nanyuan if you feel unsafe."