The Sect Leader System-Chapter 320 - Bait

Yang Xiu was as happy as happy could be, walking around the tournament grounds with her brother trying to find people who wanted to attack her. So far though, the worst that had happened was a bunch of Jade Chameleon Sect members in their gray robes giving her evil looks.

More promising was that some of them had dashed off after catching sight of her, hopefully to report to their superiors.

The blue and white robed members of the Swift Blizzard Sect had been more circumspect in their disdain for her and her brother, but she could tell they loathed her to the core of their very beings.

It was glorious. She couldn’t wait until the tournament started.

Luckily, there was a market set up for the participants with hundreds of stalls and plenty of stuff to look at. Otherwise, the two of them just walking at random for hours would have been much more suspicious. As it was, though, she thought they did a good job of pretending to shop. Yang Ru even bought a pretty necklace, probably for Kang Lin—not that the gift would do him any good.

Yang Xiu was pretty sure that he’d let the girl get away. It wasn’t really his fault, of course. The idiotic girl somehow thought that he was too good for her. Yang Ru. Too good. For Kang Lin.

That thinking made no sense to Yang Xiu. She loved her brother fiercely, and anyone talking bad about him would have to deal with her. But he wasn’t anything special compared to the girl she’d hoped would become her sister.

Yang Xiu gave a mental shrug. If someone wanted to be that stupid, there was nothing anyone really could do about it. She’d already tried to talk sense into Kang Lin.

The current mission demanded Yang Xiu’s attention as she was supposed to be keeping watch for enemy cultivators, so she dropped that line of thought.

If you do it long enough, even shopping and acting as bait can become boring. She seriously thought about calling it a day. Master hadn’t been sure that anyone would react immediately or at all.

Finally, though, it happened and in the best possible way.

That jerk Golden Core that had accosted them at the auction house arrived. He flew toward the twins on his sword, his expression enraged.

“You!” he shouted. “I told you what would happen if I ever saw your faces again.”

“You did,” Yang Xiu said. “But, just for the record, can you please re-iterate that you, a Golden Core from the Jade Chameleon Sect, intend to do bodily harm to us, two Foundation Establishment cultivators from the Rising Tide Sect?”

After all, Master had instructed her to pop her ring if she was accosted by a higher ream cultivator. She took that to mean an attack, not just being yelled at.

“Girl, what are you talking about? You know what, it doesn’t matter. Soon, you’ll never talk about anything ever again.”

Her sense detected him charging up qi for an attack, and she quickly popped her contingency ring. She’d been hoping to hold it up in the air and do it more dramatically, but Master would have chastised her severely for putting her and her brother in unnecessary danger if whatever attack Big Ugly sent didn’t kill them first.

In less than the time it took Big Ugly to finish charging his attack and launch it, Master appeared in the air directly between the twins and the Golden Core cultivator. The man attacked, but it was far too late. The qi struck Master.

Since his back was to Yang Xiu and he was between the man and them, she couldn’t tell what effect the attack had, but she guessed that it was very little. At most, the man had triggered a brief flare of Master’s shield. Master might have even decided to, as he called it, tank the hit just to make a point.

“It appears to me that the Jade Chameleon Sect has declared that attacking juniors is acceptable,” Master said. “Note that you’re my junior.”

“I warned these two what would happen if I ever saw them again!”

“And that makes attacking them somehow okay?” Master shrugged. “You know what? I’m fine with that. I’ve warned the Jade Chameleon Sect multiple times about what will happen if they attack my juniors, which you have just done. Time to suffer the consequences.”

The Golden Core, wisely, decided to retreat, attempting to flee on his flying sword. Attempting being the operative word. Master’s Gravity and some other energy that Yang Xiu couldn’t identify held the man in place.

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Master Teleported to right next to the Jade Chameleon, sword in hand ready to strike. He hesitated, though, and instead turned back toward the twins. “Disciple, leave now. I don’t want you to see this.”

More than anything, Yang Xiu desperately wanted to see exactly what happened next. Well, almost more than anything. Her desire not to disobey Master was stronger by a lot.

As ordered, she and Yang Ru retreated from sight.

Teng Wuying was incensed. Everyone he worked with were idiots. That was the only explanation.

The Jade Chameleon Sect couldn’t afford to lose any more face. Their entire sect knew that fact. Why, then, did Fang Changming insist on attacking juniors? Even worse, why did he walk into such an obvious trap?

There was no hope for it but for Teng Wuying to do as much damage control as he could. Which meant meeting with Mao Biya. Again.

The last time hadn’t turned out particularly well as he was still convinced that someone had been spying on him. Though, admittedly, he couldn’t figure out how the person could have escaped. Unless the spy were a Nascent Soul, but one of those should have better things to do than listen in on a conversation between two Golden Cores.

Regardless, he had to meet her again. She’d surely want to react to the provocation from Chao Su. Her actions would have to be mitigated as much as possible.

They met in a different tea house in a different back room, and he was much more cautious, sweeping every room he walked through for invisible occupants multiple times and finding none.

“I’m sending a Golden Core after those twins, and nothing you say will stop me,” were the first words out of her mouth. She didn’t even bother sitting first.

He sighed. “Whoever you send will end up the same as Fang Changming, minus their arms and legs. Did you know that one of his arms won’t regenerate. The best pills and the finest healers couldn’t regrow it. It’s Soul damage, they say. Soul damage.”

Mao Biya scoffed as if Teng Wuying were lying or mistaken somehow.

“At least, send someone you don’t like because they’ll probably end up dead. Chao Su specifically said the only reason he was sparing Fang Changming’s life was to carry a message back to us. Chao Su said, and I quote, ‘Any further attacks on my juniors will result in the perpetrator’s death. Period.’ I don’t see why you would expect any other result.”

“For one thing, we’re going to block the signal from that ring. And even if that doesn’t work, we are the Swift Blizzard Sect, and we still have all our Golden Core and Nascent Souls. He will give us face.”

Teng Wuying metaphorically threw up his hands. Chao Su was a Formations Master. The chances of Mao Biya coming up with something to block one of his arrays absent paying an enormous sum that she didn’t have to Lei Bohai seemed unlikely at best. And if Chao Su’s primary disciples gave no face to a Golden Core, what made her think their Master would give face to anyone or any organization?

They were destined to head into the tournament with both sects having lost so much face that they’d be laughing stocks. The damage might be so great that the City Lord would be forced from his neutrality to take up opposition to them.

The ambush had to succeed. Everything was riding on it.

Yang Ru and his sister were once again acting as bait, as they had every day for the last several. Since the Jade Chameleon Golden Core had been literally quartered, no one had even dared looking at them askance. Which was fine with him. Not having to concentrate on being attacked gave him more time to consider how he could fix things with Kang Lin.

He grimaced. Not that he was having any luck in that regard.

A figure flying on a sword drew his attention, one wearing the blue and white robe of the Swift Blizzard Sect. Surely, the woman wasn’t heading toward him and his sister.

No, she definitely was.

Surely, she didn’t intend to attack them. No sooner had that thought passed through his mind than he sensed a build up of qi.

No, she definitely did.

Yang Xiu had already popped her ring, and Master appeared in the air between the attacker and them.

“What are you doing?” Master was as incredulous as Yang Ru.

“You aren’t supposed to be here,” the woman said, looking quite upset.

Master looked at each of the twins. The twins looked back at him.

“Why wouldn’t he be here?” Yang Xiu said.

Master stared intently at the woman. “Ah. I see. She thought that trinket she’s carrying would block the signal from your ring.”

“That’s stupid, Master. Doesn’t she know how good your arrays are?”

Kang Lin always said that Yang Xiu’s lips were way too loose around higher realmed cultivators. Yang Ru thought that they were too loose in general.

“Apparently not. Time to go, kids.”

“We know what happened with the last one, Master. We’ve killed before. Remember the warehouse? Watching won’t scar us.”

As Master and his sister chatted, the woman grew even more agitated. “You cannot kill me. I’m an elder of the Swift Blizzard Sect. Harm me in any way, and my sect will strike you down.”

Master shook his head ruefully. “Your sect is already trying to strike me down. What’s adding one more reason?” He glanced back and Yang Xiu. “Fine. I wish I could protect you from seeing stuff like this, but that’s unrealistic, isn’t it? Watch if you want.”

Yang Xiu made no attempt to leave, and Yang Ru wouldn’t leave her there alone. So they both ended up staying.

The woman tried to pull away, but Master effortlessly held her in place just like he had with the man several days earlier.

“I take no pleasure in this,” Master said, “but I gave my word.” 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

He Teleported, blinking out of existence and reappearing instantly next to the woman with his sword drawn. The metal had a black edge to it, Void qi. Moving faster than Yang Ru’s enhanced eyes could follow, he made four slashes. After each, a limb separated from the woman’s body.

Master sighed. “The only mercy I can give you is a choice—I can simply kill you by taking your head or I can damage your Soul so that none of your limbs can ever be healed. Choose.”

“Kill me, scum. My sect will avenge me!”

Master sighed again. “Crazy cultivators.”

He sounded sad and exasperated as the same time.

One final slash, again made faster that the eye could see, separated her head from her shoulders. He let go of her with his qi, and her torso fell to the ground.