ALL NOVEL 153: Staring Into the Sun
Several days had passed. Liu Xueli, Xiao Feng, and a plethora of other masters had arrived in the city. The wave after wave of masters arriving marked the ending of the most volatile part of the current predicament.
The situation as a whole though, was far from over. None of their outlined goals had been achieved yet. Well, none except one.
Having concentrated all their efforts into scouting for the past few days, their investigation had paid off: the disciples were found!
As expected, they weren’t being held in some official jail. Instead, the disciples were all clumped together, sitting in a few unmarked, makeshift prisons thrown together in Pride’s territory. As far as Lin Songmei could tell, the prisons were warehouses, repurposed for more... nefarious means.
With the sun setting though, everyone was getting ready to enact their operation. Well, when Songmei said everyone, she meant all the direct disciples. She, Yan Mingqing, Han Youhong, Wang Taigang, Zhao Liying, Lu Qiang, Cai Yufei, and Liu Liping were all gearing up.
“Okay, so how are we going to leave undetected in full combat gear?” Youhong leaned against the wall. All eight of them were gathered in Songmei and Mingqing’s apartment, chilling out as they waited for the sun to set. They had instructed the other disciples, the inner disciples from Starlight Lake, to standby.
Though not able to help too much combat-wise, the disciples would be good manpower in case there were incapacitated people who needed physical aid in escaping. After all, they were all stronger than the average person already.
“I just texted the Starlight Lake inner disciples from both years, they’ll be trailing us. Once we... Well, no guarantees, but once we hopefully break them out, we’ll signal for them to come and pick up as many people as they can.” Songmei looked up from her terminal, collapsing it back into a bracelet to wear on her wrist. “Also, I have no idea, Youhong.”
“Are they even watching us?” Lu Qiang leaned his head back while lazing on the couch. “I haven’t seen signs of being watched yet.”
“They should be. It would be unwise if they weren’t.” Cai Yufei pressed his lips together, crossing his arms as he stared out the window into the setting sun.
“First of all, how are you not torching your eyes right now,” Liying raised an eyebrow, looking at Cai Yufei from across the room. “Second of all, I’m pretty sure they don’t have the manpower. Most of the cultivators working under Avarice and Pride are in a lower realm than us, so they’d be easily found out if they were spying on us. The few that are in a similar realm to us, on the other hand, are all being preoccupied by the other higher realm cultivators under the underworld bosses on our side.”
Nodding along to Liying’s points, Taigang crossed his arms. “It still wouldn’t hurt though, to try and figure something out... A little more caution wouldn’t hurt. Also, yeah, how are you not going blind, my guy.”
Another fifteen minutes of planning allowed Songmei and the others to come up with a new plan. It was simple. With an even number of people in the room, they’d split off into pairs and act like they were going out for a late dinner, walk in the park, or whatever else people did at night. By keeping a keen eye on their surroundings, they’d check for people tailing them. After confirming there was nobody or losing the tail, they’d all meet up on the agreed rooftop overlooking the target warehouse.
Being part of the first—and most innocent looking—pair, Songmei left the apartment first, hand-in-hand with Mingqing.
Because they left the apartment in this exact manner pretty much everyday—with the other days being arm in arm—Songmei and Mingqing’s objective consisted of scouting the area for everyone else and also making a quick trip to the supermarket to pick up some snacks for the others.
Who knew? Maybe a quick refuel pre-battle or mid-battle could be the difference maker! That’s what Youhong said at least, and he was the snacking expert...
That did imply though that he had snacked mid-battle before and it had made a difference...
All Songmei could hope for was that the battle Youhong took a mini-snack break in wasn’t a duel. If so, the disrespect to the opponent to take a break and snack must’ve been palpable. Songmei knew, even if she was a spectator, she would’ve wanted to run onto the field and give Youhong a beating.
Buying a mix of chips, sweets, cookies, jellies, and more, Songmei and Mingqing exited the convenience store without a hitch. With the snacks procured, Songmei scanned the area like she was looking for motivation in life.
No one. It was deserted. It was what Liying had predicted, but still annoying nonetheless. It meant one of two things, either there was actually no one, or there was someone, but they were just not heaven-defying-young-master enough to detect them.
Messaging the others it was safe, Songmei and Mingqing disappeared into the darkness, taking a long route towards the designated meeting place. They had time anyway, the planned start time was midnight, over three hours away.
It’d take a while though, for everyone to leave without arousing suspicion. To give the enemy minimal time to react, they decided on spreading it out while also going in order of ascending suspicion.
Therefore, after Songmei and Mingqing, the order was as follows: Cai Yufei and Lu Qiang, Youhong and Taigang, and last of all, Liying and Liu Liping.
With their job done though, Songmei and Mingqing turned off their notifications, ignoring the group chat as they enjoyed a nighttime stroll. While on their stroll, Songmei and Mingqing had even run into a few brave people. These people, to Songmei’s surprise, had begun disregarding the mayor’s imposed quarantine.
It couldn’t be denied either that the police just standing around and not enforcing anything didn’t help. At first, Songmei and Mingqing would take routes through alleyways, dark corners, or even on top of rooftops to avoid the police. After a while though, Songmei and Mingqing noticed the police only nodded and said “stay safe” to the passers by.
Without much else to do, Songmei and Mingqing decided to take a chance.
With a police officer standing at the street corner just up ahead, Songmei and Mingqing had looked at each other before shrugging.
Walking by a police officer with some groceries in their hand instead of in their spatial storage rings, Songmei and Mingqing had both given the officer a nod to which he nodded back and tipped his hat. “Have a nice night ladies. Stay safe out here.”
Resisting the urge to snort and bust out laughing, the two had paused for a moment. Songmei, apologizing for the irony of her question, asked why the police officer wasn’t enforcing the quarantine. Shrugging, the police officer leaned against the light pole. “I’m not paid enough to care. None of us are. The police department is not funded well. Why do you think we have seven underworld bosses? SEVEN! They’re treated like royalty too!”
Speechless, Songmei nodded as she and Mingqing bade the police officer a goodnight, walking off without much trouble. The police officer did have a good point though, Pride and Avarice had sauntered up and stood as the next two most important figures during the mayor’s most recent address...
That wasn’t very underworld-ly of them...
