Tribulation of Myriad Races

Su Yu indifferently said, “I actually prefer working alone. To speak the truth, I have to constantly worry about betrayal when working with all of you. Working in a team is annoying. Trust requires time. I have zero trust in any of you. I don’t even know if there is a human among you.”

He looked at Rainbow One and said, “Lord, do I have the authority to check the information of these subordinates of mine?”

“That won’t do.” Rainbow One said, “Only their direct superiors can do that. Since their direct superiors have not objected to their participation, it is unlikely for any of them to be problematic.”

“I hope so.”

Su Yu was doing this to remove all suspicion from himself right at the start. He believed that this mission would end in failure. And he was not interested in taking the blame for it. Thus, he made it clear that he did not agree with accepting this mission. He was only here because they insisted on taking it. If it failed, they could only blame themselves, not him.

Su Yu said, “In that case, I’ll be following your orders. Lord, you’re strong enough to take the target down alone. You don’t even need our help. We can only help with the cleanup after the main task is completed.”

“Not at all. You have a very important task.” Rainbow One said, “I won’t show up right away. The moment the target senses danger, he might flee or ask for reinforcements. You need to keep him occupied for a bit and buy time for me to appear. I’ll stay further away in the beginning to avoid his detection.”

“…”

Silence descended.

Su Yu furiously said, “Lord, you’re telling us to keep a Sunmoon who is also an Invincible descendant occupied?”

“Profound Nine, this is something you’re capable of. You need to know that the Martial Dragon Guard commander you fought previously was no weakling. Since you can put up a fight against that commander, you are definitely capable of keeping Yuan Qingdong busy.”

Su Yu inhaled deeply, looking like he was trying hard to control his anger as he said, “Is this an order or a suggestion?”

“A suggestion.”

Rainbow One said, “You’re an ancient city resident. After completing this mission, you can receive an additional 100 heavenly hunt points as the reward. With that, you can purchase some heavenly source qi to deal with the death qi in your body.”

With a hundred heavenly hunt points, he could purchase ten portions of heavenly source qi. That was actually a decently large amount.

Su Yu sank into thought. From what he had done so far, he had earned eighty heavenly hunt points. And that was only after the reward was multiplied ten times since they were operating in the Human Realm.

Su Yu said, “Apart from that, I want one-tenth of the payment offered by Wu Yuehua for this mission. That is my minimum requirement to accept this mission.”

“That is acceptable.”

For assassination missions, the executor had always been allowed to take half the payment while the pavilion would take the other half. But since Rainbow One was the main executor for this mission, a tenth of the payment was actually a lot to ask for. After all, Su Yu would only be assisting in the mission.

Rainbow One added, “The rest of you will also receive a tenth of the payment. I’ll take half the payment while the remaining ten percent will be allocated to the Great Xia branch. It will be under your control.”

This was a very generous offer. The pavilion would not take anything from the payment. The white masks looked at each other before nodding. This was acceptable. РÁNΟβƐŞ

They only needed to keep the target busy for a short while. Profound Nine was someone capable of contending against Sunmoons. None of them could see his actual cultivation level, but that did not matter. They only needed to know that he was capable of fighting such an opponent.

With a fifth-stage Sunmoon like Rainbow One around, they wouldn’t have any issue killing Yuan Qingdong.

With things finalized, Su Yu looked at the old man and said, “Sunmoons are all mistrustful in nature. When the target arrives, he will definitely look for you before rashly going after us. He might even summon you to his place. When that happens, there is a risk of exposure.”

The old man’s expression changed.

Rainbow One remained silent. He seemed to have neglected this possibility.

Su Yu continued, “Also, this village is located halfway up a mountain. The landscape is too open. It is highly unlikely for a white mask to appear here even if the white mask is a fool.”

Rainbow One remained silent. It felt as though someone was indirectly calling him a fool.

Su Yu said, “Tell me. Are there any villages deeper into the forest? We need a villager who is greedy and disliked by many in one of these villages. This villager also needs to be someone relatively well-informed about recent events. The village also needs to be somewhere near a good hiding place.”

The old man looked impressed as he said, “You’re wise, Lord. Yes, there is such a place. But I need some time to properly scout the area. Please give me some time. I’ll give you an accurate answer shortly.”

Su Yu nodded, “Profound Seventeen, go with him. Stay safe and report to us promptly.”

“Yes.”

Profound Seventeen was very impressed as well. None of them had noted anything wrong with Rainbow One’s plan. But now, that was indeed a plan filled with holes. It wouldn’t be too hard for someone to see through the original plan. What were they supposed to do if the target decided to summon the old man over first?

Also, this village was indeed not a good hiding place. But this was a proper place to deploy an undercover agent. It would be much harder for a spy to gather information in a village that was too remote.

***

Rainbow One proceeded to report everything to the higher-ups through his mask.

Before long, he received a reply from an elder.

“Pay more attention to Profound Nine. His quick thinking is important in increasing the survival rate of our people. Take note of his strength as well. When things get dangerous, prioritize escaping safely with him.”

“Yes.”

Rainbow One continued recording the conversation happening around him. This was one of his tasks as an enforcer. He was not offended when Su Yu pointed out the holes in his plan. After all, that wasn’t what he specialized in.

In terms of assassinations, those from the two chambers were better. The Profound Department was only in charge of trades while he was in charge of enforcement. Shortly after, the old man and Profound Seventeen returned.

Profound Seventeen reported, “He did nothing suspicious. He only asked the locals some simple questions after leaving…”

Su Yu and the others listened silently.

Next, it was the old man’s turn to make his report.

There were indeed more villages deeper into the forest.

One of them had a village chief known to be miserly and greedy. His son was serving in the military, so that would be the connection he could use to report his discovery without attracting too much attention. Due to his identity, he was also relatively well-informed of recent events.

And thus, they decided that the village chief would be the one discovering and reporting them to the authorities. As for whether that would be successful in luring their target over…that was something for them to worry about later.

Su Yu felt like the target would definitely arrive. But probably not alone. Yuan Qingdong was not the kind of person who would courageously risk himself capturing potential Heavenly Hunt Pavilion members.

They shouldn’t overestimate him too much.

Then again, Su Yu wasn’t too concerned about the mission. It did not matter to him if Yuan Qingdong was dead or alive. His main goal was still showcasing the great ability of Profound Nine.

At that thought, he spoke again.

“These Invincible descendants might be arrogant, but they are also greedy and cowardly. As someone who had fought a Sunmoon without suffering a loss, I might not be an opponent he dares to face alone. He might secretly ask for the help of other Sunmoons. Or maybe he will simply report his findings to his higher-ups instead of coming himself.

“Lord Rainbow One, think carefully. If something goes wrong, we should retreat speedily. There is no need to sacrifice four white masks for a mere Yuan Qingdong.”

“I agree.” Rainbow One nodded, “Profound Nine, you will take charge of this mission and make the arrangements. I’ll only be in charge of killing.”

Su Yu had successfully formed the image of a competent member. In the eyes of others, he was a prudent and dependable companion when it came to preserving lives. Thus, they were also more inclined to follow his arrangements.

Su Yu did not refuse the offer. He said, “We have already agreed on the general outline of the plan. As for the smaller details, we will make adjustments when required. The village chief must discover me, but it can’t be too obvious. It doesn’t make sense for a white mask to be so careless. With my cultivation level, it is not possible for the village chief to actually escape my detection. It’s better to let him suspect my presence nearby through some clues instead of actually seeing me with his own eyes. We also need some people to provide us with the information and whereabouts of the other Sunmoons of Great Xia.”

After saying all he had to say, Su Yu concluded, “Finally, all of you should stay with me from this moment until the conclusion of this mission. Do not attempt to communicate with anyone out of the group during this time.”

“Follow Profound Nine’s arrangements.”

With Rainbow One’s backing, nobody had anything to say.

Inwardly, Su Yu was curling his lips. He was tempted to sell them off. But he decided that they weren’t worth it. There was only one fifth-stage Sunmoon and three Mountainseas. These people weren’t worth risking his disguise.

If these were elders instead, he might actually do it.

***

Before long, they set their plan in motion.

Inside a certain mountain village, a chubby village chief suddenly sensed some minute source qi undulations. These undulations seemed to be a product of a cultivating expert. Of course, that was not enough to arouse any suspicion.

But shortly after, when the village chief noted the presence of some source qi in the spring water he gathered, the wise village chief suddenly realized something. The traces of source qi in the water were extremely weak. A regular person would not notice anything.

It was likely that an expert was cultivating somewhere near the source of the spring water. The ambient source qi of this mountain was rather low in density. Generally speaking, no expert would bother cultivating here.

In Great Xia, even a normal villager in a remote region would possess a keen sense of danger. The village chief immediately concluded that this hidden expert would either be a cultist or a member of the recently famous Heavenly Hunt Pavilion. In short, that was most definitely a criminal.

Why would a normal person choose such a place to cultivate? Even if he was wrong, he wouldn’t be faulted for making a false report. Great Xia had a policy of encouraging the reporting of suspected cultists. And each accurate report would be rewarded. In the event of an error, nothing would happen. Thus, this was an act with no risk and high reward.

Therefore, the village chief did not even bother to investigate himself. Rather, he left the village to look for his son who was serving in the army.

***

Deep in the woods.

Yellow Nine returned and exclaimed with admiration, “Amazing, Profound Nine. How did you know that he would report you to his son directly instead of investigating the matter himself?”

Su Yu rolled his eyes inwardly. Why? Because he came from Great Xia as well. He naturally understood the people here well.

When the locals detected something suspicious, they would first judge if they stood a chance at winning the fight. If the answer was yes, they would fight. After all, they would be rewarded for every cultist killed. Thanks to this policy, the people of Great Xia were very willing to fight when they stood a chance at winning. That was also how the people of Great Xia became known as a bunch of bloodthirsty lunatics by the other prefectures.

And if they judged that they couldn’t win the fight, they would naturally look for someone who could actually win to fight. It was completely unsurprising that the village chief would look for his son instead of entering the woods himself.

Of course, Su Yu couldn’t tell them all that. Thus, he nonchalantly said, “You’re so surprised because you lack understanding of the Human Realm. You need to learn more about the Human Realm. That will be very helpful in making your disguise in the Human Realm more believable.”

The white masks had no response to that. What could they say when his words made so much sense?