Reaching the canopy of the tree, I perched on a particularly thick branch that was nestled behind a dense bush of leaves, and got to work. Adjusting my gla.s.ses, I magnified the image and scanned through the base camp belonging to Black Venom Cult.

My lenses projected a 3D holographic image with scrolling reams of data and irrelevant numbers. Honestly, I don"t need to know the internal temperature of the base camp, the wind speed, humidity, or whatever. The qi flunctuations piqued a little of my interest, but in the end they were just white noise. If the enemy was stronger, they were stronger. Whether they had 100 units more qi or 50 units more qi made no difference.

On the other hand, my gla.s.ses did provide essential data, such as the disposition of forces the enemy had available to them. In addition to the dozen of them we almost encountered back in the outskirts of the Toxic Marshes, there was easily another twenty of them. If I wasn"t mistaken, there were about thirty-five members of the Black Venom Cult present in the base camp right now, including the sentries and excluding members who had gone out on patrol or other missions. But those outliers could easily be tracked down later, especially with Tong Xue"s skills.

As for the abducted, there were about fifteen of them still alive. Thrice that number had already expired, their corpses ruthlessly abandoned and dumped into a ditch not far from the Black Venom Cult"s campsite.

b.a.s.t.a.r.ds…

Watching the hut where they held their victims, I checked to see if there were avenues or routes that would lead me straight into them. As I did so, I caught sight of Zi Sha.

He was wailing and gnashing his teeth violently as the Black Venom Cult members in white laboratory or medical coats (making them look like doctors or mad scientists) strapped him down into a gurney, writhing and struggling against his restraints. However, the leather harness held him tightly, the rough fabric biting into his skin and drawing some blood.

Zi Sha refused to give up, however, and continued to thrash about.

"Let me go!" he shouted. "Let me go!"

The Black Venom Cult member ignored him, and instead took a syringe from nearby. He tapped it to check if the needle was working, and a droplet of yellowish liquid dripped out. Satisfied, he turned back to Zi Sha.

"Hold him down," he instructed his a.s.sistants. They nodded and grabbed hold of Zi Sha"s arms and shoulders, forcing him down into the gurney. After tightening the straps so hard that Zi Sha was practically bleeding from chaffing against the rough material, they stepped back. Despite still trying to resist, Zi Sha was no longer able to move. His arms and legs had been bounded to the gurney pretty tightly, his body lashed onto the surface.

Only his head and neck continued to twist and move as he glared at his kidnappers.

"You"ll regret this! I"m not alone here! My team will be here soon! They will rescue me and wipe each and every one of you out!"

f.u.c.king b.a.s.t.a.r.d. Could you just keep your mouth shut?! You just cost us the element of surprise. Now the enemy knew we were coming, which made the job of rescuing the kidnapped victims and defeating them a million times harder.

This loser was really dragging down anyone who followed him on a mission. Furthermore, he and Jiu Bu Liao were so arrogant and condescending that they told us to get lost and insisted on carrying out the mission on their own, using their own ways. And now when they screwed up and got themselves captured, they expected us to save them?!

Holy heavens…their skin must be meters thick.

Shaking my head, I continued to watch helplessly. There was nothing I could do from this distance. Even if I tried to charge over, they would be done with the injection before I could reach the perimeter, never mind the hut where they were experimenting on him.

As if to prove my point, the main Black Venom Cult member jabbed Zi Sha"s arm with the syringe and depressed it.

Zi Sha howled in agony, his eyes bulging. I winced at the shrill scream of pain. It was almost as if he had molten lava flowing through his veins. He shrieked and screamed and jerked about, only to be held down by the restraints. More blood flowed freely as the straps bit eagerly on his skin, nullifying all his attempts and suppressing his flailing.

"Looks like it works," the first Black Venom Cult member said in satisfaction.

After a moment, Zi Sha fell back motionlessly, his mouth foaming. The mad scientist who injected him nodded to his a.s.sistants, and they released him. Dragging Zi Sha"s limp body, they threw him into a padded cell and left him there. Then they locked the door and proceeded to a series of monitors that displayed the interior of the cell.

Zi Sha stirred after a few moments, recovering in a surprisingly short amount of time. I was glad to see that he was all right. Perhaps the Black Venom Cult wasn"t experimenting with poison on him? Once we get him out, we could get Teacher Yi Liao to check on him, to ensure they didn"t inject him with anything funny…

However, his next movements were completely out of expectation. With a roar, Zi Sha clutched his head and curled into a fetal position. Foam bubbled from his mouth and his eyes rolled up in his sockets as he rolled about, groaning in indescribable agony.

Then he suddenly stood up and dashed toward the wall. Before I could say anything, Zi Sha smashed his head into the wall.

His skull cracked and blood gushed out. Still, Zi Sha ignored his injuries and continued hammering his head against the reinforced wall.

"What the f.u.c.k?" I murmured in disbelief.

Zi Sha continued to howl in agony – apparently the pain he was suffering surpa.s.sed the pain from the injuries he sustained from slamming his head against the wall.

The Black Venom Cultists watched impa.s.sively, as if this was perfectly normal, or within their expectations. They did nothing to stop him, only watching in great interest and recording the results of their experiment.

After a hundred or so times of banging his head against the wall, Zi Sha finally expired. His skull literally cracked open, and his brains spilling out with a significant amount of blood, he collapsed motionlessly. My lenses detected the cessation of his life-signs and the abrupt termination of his qi.

Zi Sha had literally committed suicide.

"Shall we mark this as a success then?" the main doctor asked as he turned toward his a.s.sistants. The both of them nodded, but I didn"t know if it was because they sincerely agreed or because they didn"t dare to contradict him.

They disposed of Zi Sha"s body in the ditch outside and proceeded to the next victim. This time it was Jiu Bu Liao. She was screaming and shrieking, trying to break free of her captors" grip, but to no avail. Despite having artificial qi, she was inferior to them in strength.

Looked like amount of qi wasn"t everything.

"Relax," the mad scientist told her as he brought another syringe. His a.s.sistants strapped her to a chair instead of a gurney, and I was surprised they didn"t restrain her as much as they did for Zi Sha. Perhaps they had something else planned?

"W…what do you intend to do?" Jiu Bu Liao stammered.

"This." the Black Venom Cultist stabbed her with the syringe and injected her with its contents. Unlike Zi Sha, Jiu Bu Liao didn"t go into a violent seizure. That explained why they didn"t bind her as securely as they did for Zi Sha.

Jiu Bu Liao winced as the needle slid under her skin, drawing a tiny amount of blood, but she otherwise didn"t seem to feel any ill effects.

For anything more than a few seconds, anyway.

"Ah…AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

To my horror, Jiu Bu Liao"s skin began to blacken and then liquefy, bubbling and melting off her bones. Whatever the Black Venom Cultist injected into her, it was definitely a fast-acting, potent poison. There was nothing I could do except see Jiu Bu Liao melt into a puddle before my very eyes, leaving nothing but a smoking skeleton.

"Ugh!"

Gagging, I covered my mouth and tried to swallow my nausea. Unlike me, the Black Venom Cultists didn"t seem perturbed by the grisly death. They merely took notes, and the a.s.sistants then started to clean up the puddle and dispose of the skeleton.

To my surprise, they didn"t even bother with protective gear. Clearly the Black Venom Cultists were immune to their own poisons. To be fair, I probably would want to ensure I was resistant to the dangerous stuff I was playing around with.

"That should be it for today."

The main Black Venom Cultist clapped his hands in delight before washing up. His a.s.sistants also cleaned up after themselves, and they left the laboratory, leaving the imprisoned victims in the adjoining pen. With Zi Sha and Jiu Bu Liao"s demise, there were only about a dozen left.

"d.a.m.n it…"

My throat was dry as I replayed the memory in my head. I couldn"t save Jiu Bu Liao. There was no way Jiu Bu Liao could be saved. Our position from the Black Venom Cult"s base camp was too far away. Even with my footwork techniques, it would take me a while to reach their fence. And even then I would need time to sneak in undetected, or risk fighting through the thirty or so cultists before barging into the laboratory where the mad scientist and his a.s.sistant resided. And they appeared to have quite the array of weapons at their disposal.

Worse, while I was fighting my way through, they could just take the abductees hostage and thus putting them at danger – which defeated my purpose of rescuing them in the first place.

"The f.u.c.ker reminds me of Ba Yun," I muttered angrily, still bearing a grudge against that b.a.s.t.a.r.d from the Chinese Parasol Tree Sect. Good thing I had already killed that guy, but it p.i.s.sed me off to see there existed s.a.d.i.s.tic people like him, who treated other humans as experimental fodder to toy or play around with.

Sighing, I shook my head and forced myself back to the present. Right now I had to focus on mapping out the enemy"s base camp and then formulate a rescue strategy. The prisoners" lives were the priority, then I could begin the gruesome work of exterminating this evil sect.

I recorded the images and drew up a holographic map, double-checked to see if the overlay was as accurate to reality as possible, and then dropped down lightly from the tree. I landed near its gnarled roots without a sound, and snuck back to where Tong Xue, Lian Rou and Yi Ding Si were hiding. Tong Xue glanced up when I joined them.

"How was it?" he asked.

"Bad." I shook my head wearily. "Zi Sha committed suicide and we won"t be able to save Jiu Bu Liao."

I filled them in on the disposition of the enemies, displayed a 3d rendering of a map of the base camp, and then played the recordings that my gla.s.ses had captured, projecting a holographic video for my three teammates to watch.
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"How did you record this?" Tong Xue asked skeptically as he watched the grisly video, looking a little green. "Didn"t this all take place inside an enclosed house? How were you able to record what was going on inside?"

"A combination of plot convenience and X-ray imaging technology," I replied.

"Huh? Buut X-ray imaging shouldn"t be able to record such images in high detail…"

"Let"s just use the "everything is because of magic" explanation and roll with it, okay?" I dismissed him impatiently. "That"s not important right now. The important thing is finding a way to rescue all the victims and getting them to safety before the Black Venom Cultists realize we"re in there. And then exterminating the Black Venom Cult."

"Can we really pull it off with our numbers? There"s thirty-five of them." Yi Ding Si had paid attention to my briefing, and noted the enemy"s strength. He looked at the three of us nervously. "And they seem to be at a higher level of cultivation, given how they subdued Zi Sha and Jiu Bu Liao so easily."

"That"s why we"re going to ask for help." Rising to my feet, I turned toward the direction of where our stalkers had concealed themselves. "I hope you don"t mind offering your a.s.sistance, Miss Song Ting Yu?"

"You know we are here?"

Song Ting Yu stepped out of the forest, a little surprised. Her bodyguards also followed, forming a protective semicircle behind her. They knew me well enough to not suspect me of treachery or any sort of aggression.

Their mistress, on the other hand, was more concerned with other matters.

"Since when did you realize?"

"From the very beginning. You dn"t have cloaking technology for your helicopters or Flowing Cloud Rainbow b.u.t.terfly."

"Ah…" Song Ting Yu looked a little embarra.s.sed, but she returned to her usual confident self, smiling. "I apologize for that. I hope we didn"t…startle you."

"Why are you stalking us?" Tong Xue asked bluntly. To the point as always, eh? I should learn from his example.

Song Ting Yu giggled. "We weren"t stalking you. It"s just that…" she turned to stare at me. "My mission this time is to negotiate with you and procure some Sunburst bombs. I will fail if you get yourself killed undertaking a dangerous mission." She jerked her head in the direction of the Black Venom Cult"s base camp. "So we are actually trying to protect you and provide some support…to ensure your safety. We can"t allow you to die until we get the Sunburst bombs."

"They want the Spirit Bombs you used to nuke the invading sects last time?" Lian Rou asked, her mouth growing dry.

"I don"t intend to sell my Sunbursts to them," I a.s.sured her. Then I glanced at Song Ting Yu. "Go home. I won"t die from something like this."

"Oh, confident, aren"t you? But the Black Venom Cult isn"t something you can destroy on your own, is it? You have seen their numbers and strength. Are you sure they are an enemy you can defeat with just the four of you?"

"I have my ways," I replied. While the ideal scenario was getting help from the Martial Arts Alliance, I had several alternative strategies in place for when Song Ting Yu decided to pack up and leave my team to fend for ourselves.

"I"m sure you do, but we can make it easier for you."

"Why should you care?" Tong Xue blurted, his brow furrowing. "This has nothing to do with you. And Fei Wu is correct. We can take care of this on our own. Otherwise they wouldn"t have posted this mission request."

"You can keep all the rewards of that mission request. We"e not in it for those." Song Ting Yu seemed to realize what his concerns might be. "And as I said, we have a huge stake in ensuring that Mr. Fei Wu remains alive. Besides…" she gestured toward the Black Venom Cult"s base camp again. "It"s not as if we are totally unrelated. The Martial Arts Alliance can"t just leave a demonic sect to grow and develop on its own. As one of the more highly ranked members of the Alliance, it is my duty to stamp out the malign influences of demonic sects before they take root, and also to rescue the citizens of the Great Zhou Empire."

Tong Xue looked as if he didn"t buy the bulls.h.i.t she was spouting, but he didn"t attempt to refute it. There was no point. He was not a mind-reader and he had no evidence that she was lying.

Lian Rou and Yi Ding Si, on the other hand, seemed convinced. More like they were daunted by the prospect of facing such a deadly demonic sect on their own that the a.s.sistance Song Ting Yu offered was like a G.o.dsend.

"We would appreciate it if you can help us rescue the abductees," Lian Rou said eagerly. "We didn"t expect the Black Venom Sect to have taken hostages."

"I don"t think they count as hostages. The Black Venom Cult just kidnapped them to serve as guinea pigs for their horrifying experiments." I shook my head with a sigh. Song Ting Yu nodded.

"You"re most likely correct. All the more we can"t just sit around and let them get away with this. I intend to call my father and get reinforcements from the Alliance after I get out of the forest." She stared at me. "But you probably won"t leave the forest until you"ve rescued the abductees and destroyed Black Venom Cult."

"Well, it"s our mission, after all." I shrugged. Song Ting Yu nodded again, conceding the point.

"Then, to ensure that you remain safe until we return to the negotiating table, I would like to offer my a.s.sistance."

Her bodyguards didn"t utter a word, merely standing there rigidly like statues. Their eyes remained hidden behind sungla.s.ses, but their expressions remained unchanged. I had the feeling they would charge through the gates of h.e.l.l itself if their mistress ordered them to do so. They were indoctrinated like Militarum Tempestus Scions.

My teammates and I exchanged glances, and then Tong Xue and Lian Rou nodded in union, buying into her proposal.

"We would be much obliged if you can help us, Miss Song." Lian Rou bowed politely.

"Do you have a plan?" Tong Xue asked.

"No." Song Ting Yu giggled again. "That"s your job. It"s your mission, after all, not mine. Since you"re the ones who will earn the credits and rewards, you need to put in the effort."

Tong Xue, Lian Rou and Yi Ding Si looked a little disappointed, which was only natural. You would think professionals such as those bodyguards in suits and sungla.s.ses (why the h.e.l.l were they wearing sungla.s.ses in the middle of a forest, anyway?) would be more suited for this kind of missions. Additionally, Song Ting Yu"s wealth of experience meant that she would bbe able to offer some advice on how to proceed.

But she was keeping her lips sealed. So much for ensuring my safety. Then again, Song Ting Yu and her entourage must be extremely confident that this enemy was someone they could defeat, so they didn"t have to worry about us s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g up. If our strategy failed, they could pick up the slack and rescue us, and in doing so put us in their debt.

Basically they viewed this as training for my group. They would stick around as supervisors, but they wouldn"t interfere for as long as possible so that we could learn from this valuable experience and grow as martial artists.

However, they didn"t realize that the majority of the group had already gained enough experience and was merely taking this mission as an extra task rather than mandatory training. Only Yi Ding Si needed the experience.

"What should we do?" Tong Xue muttered as he scratched his head.

"That"s for you guys to figure out," Song Ting Yu repeated with a smile. With a nod, she silently instructed her bodyguards to fall back and they melted back into the trees, hiding horribly. b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l, if you were going to stick your head and part of your body out from behind the trees, then don"t bother concealing yourself behind it in the first place.

On the other hand, that was perfectly fine by me. I could use this to my advantage, especially if I was in control of all the planning, strategizing and deployment. Running a few possibilities through my mind, I glanced at Song Ting Yu.

"Am I to understand that you and your bodyguards will not act at all? You guys will just keep your distance and watch us? You will only be taking a supervisory role, in other words?"

What kind of "a.s.sistance" was that? You might as well not talk big and claim to offer a.s.sistance and pretend to be magnanimous by giving us all the credit and mission rewards if you were just going to stand around and watch.

"Oh, no. you misunderstand." Song Ting Yu"s smile spread wider. "We"re not here to just watch. I"m not going to offer you our a.s.sistance and then refuse to help. What I mean is that my forces are at your disposal. Feel free to command us and a.s.sign us tasks."

"Really?" I stared at her incredulously. Wow, she was being extremely generous with her help and men.

"Yes." Song Ting Yu nodded seriously. "We understand the difficulties and near impossibility of the four of you attempting to exterminate a thirty-plus demonic sect and rescue a group of hostages by yourselves. You are not even professional martial artists yet. You still haven"t graduated from Wu Ling Academy."

Wow, she was really underestimating us. But I didn"t complain, not when there was a chance to make our job so much easier.

"We"ll indulge in your offer then," I said.

"Yeah," Tong Xue agreed. "You"ll be a great help. We"re going to need every help we can get."

Lian Rou frowned. "Are we to understand that your bodyguards will do anything we ask them to do? Even if we ask them to fight the Black Venom Cultists?"

Song Ting Yu puffed out her well endowed chest proudly. "I don"t mean to boast, but my escorts are the best battleline units you can find in the Alliance. Use them as frontline troops, or shock troops if you want to. They will clean out the Black Venom Cult in no time at all, if you so command them."

"…huh? Really?" I was scratching my head in puzzlement, caught off guard by her contradictory statements. "I thought you said this is our mission, and that we have to put in the effort ourselves to earn our credits and rewards."

"And I still stand by what I said." Song Ting Yu smiled mysteriously. "The only condition is that you partic.i.p.ate in the mission actively. We won"t go in by ourselves while the four of you remain out here and just watch. You have to fight as well."

Oh. So that was what she meant. She didn"t mind having her guards fight alongside us, as long as we put our own lives on the line and partic.i.p.ate as well, instead of taking advantage of them and hiding in relative safety while her guards risked their lives and did all the heavy lifting. In other words, we weren"t going to be let off for claiming credit when we didn"t even lift a finger.

That was fine by me. I never intended to hide back while everyone was fighting. And this was actually perfect for me.

"If that"s the case, then I will have to trouble you guys."

"You have a plan?" Tong Xue asked eagerly. I nodded.

"Yeah." I took a deep breath and solidified the plan taking shape in my mind. "The priority is the abductees. We want to ensure their safety first." I turned to Song Ting Yu. "I hope you don"t mind if I request your guards to launch an attack on the front gates. It"ll be a diversionary attack, to pull all their attention to the front."

"The…front?" Song Ting Yu raised an eyebrow.

"You said I can use them as frontline troops, didn"t you?" I responded.

"I did, but…I also said that you will have to partic.i.p.ate as well."

"I intend to." I turned to the rest of my group. "The four of us will proceed to sneak in through the back." I projected a holographic image from my gla.s.ses and highlighted a route from the back gate toward the house where they were holding the prisoners. "We"ll free the abductees and take them away from there, leading them to safety." I grinned at Song Ting Yu. "You"re welcome to join us."

Song Ting Yu tilted her head to the side for a moment, and then she shook her head. "I"ll join the frontal a.s.sault." She smiled in a sinister manner. "That way, we"ll stand a higher chance of wiping out the Black Venom Sect altogether."

"Once we"ve secured the prisoners…" I turned to Yi Ding Si and Lian Rou. "Half of our team will take care of them, treat their injuries, and watch out for enemies. Tong Xue and I will then return to reinforce Song Ting Yu and her guards from the back, and if possible, destroy Black Venom Sect once and for all."

"No need," Song Ting Yu declared confidently. "As you said, prioritize the prisoners first. Take them out of the Toxic Marshes, and out of Sen Lin Forest. We can handle Black Venom Sect by ourselves."

"Are you sure?" I inquired incredulously. Song Ting Yu nodded.

"Yes. We should be more than enough for the likes of the Black Venom Sect. A small demonic sect like them won"t be able to stand before the might of the Martial Arts Alliance."

"If you say so."

"Works for me," Tong Xue muttered, probably glad that he didn"t have to fight the poison users head-on.

"It"s a good plan." Song Ting Yu"s smile widened in approval. "Let"s go with it then."

I studied her for a moment. "There"s…something different about you."

"Disappointed?" Song Ting Yu giggled. "I already got rid of the charm technique that rebounded upon me. You don"t have to worry about my feelings getting in the way."

"Hah!" I scoffed. "I was never worried about that." Turning away from her, I consulted the map. "All right, let"s start preparing. We will commence the mission in thirty minutes!"