All Tang Jie sought was to hold down Ye Tianshang. Without Ye Tianshang interfering with him, the other students wouldn’t have an easy time dealing with Tang Jie.
As Shi Meng ran, he didn’t forget to form a few spells to throw at Ye Tianshang. Although they couldn’t do anything to harm him, they could at least delay him.
Ye Tianshang grew angrier and angrier when he saw how stubborn Shi Meng was being. Anxious to capture him, he pushed his Windcloud Step to the maximum, the clouds howling as he accelerated. A few moments later, he drew alongside Shi Meng and snatched at him.
Shi Meng threw his head back, dodging this snatch, and then he threw something out. “Essence Seal Needle!”
The Essence Seal Needle was an extremely insidious low-level spell art of the Basking Moon Sect, and Ye Tianshang was given a fright by this needle and instinctively drew back. But then he realized that what had been thrown was a cloth bag, not some Essence Seal Needle.
Enraged, Ye Tianshang shot off in pursuit again, upon which Shi Meng threw something else out. “Watch out for my Extinction Flying Dagger!”
“I’ll make you extinct, you fool!” Ye Tianshang shot back, thrusting out his hand. But he felt a sharp pain as a dagger brushed past his hand, leaving behind a long and bloody streak.
“You…” Ye Tianshang was so furious that he could vomit blood.
“I told you to watch out!” Shi Meng shouted. He slapped his horse to go even faster, and when he saw that Ye Tianshang was still chasing, he shouted, “You’re still chasing me? Isn’t that enough? I really don’t have any clues! What you want is on Tang Jie!”
“Let me search you first!” Ye Tianshang rudely shot back.
Shi Meng didn’t dare to let himself be captured.
It was true that Ye Tianshang didn’t dare to kill him, but that didn’t mean that he couldn’t be tied up and tortured.
So long as the students of Basking Moon Academy didn’t kill, they could fight as much as they wanted while they were outside. Most importantly, if Ye Tianshang really captured him, then he would be essentially removed from the mission until he was brought back to the academy.
Although Tang Jie had already found a clue, Shi Meng didn’t want to go back without accomplishing anything. What would he do when someone asked what he had done on this mission?
Would he tell them, “I was responsible for being bait”?
Seeing that Ye Tianshang was still dogged in his pursuit, Shi Meng gritted his teeth and said, “I said that I don’t have anything, but you won’t believe. Will you believe if I strip myself so you can look?”
He tore off his school uniform and threw it at Ye Tianshang.
Ye Tianshang slashed the uniform to pieces with his sword. Meanwhile, Shi Meng stood up on his horse, tore off his pants, and threw them at Ye Tianshang.
Ye Tianshang instantly dodged to the side, and what he saw was a naked Shi Meng, wearing only his underpants, atop the horse. Shi Meng shouted, “You see it? You see it? You see that I have nothing, right? I already said that I have nothing! Are you still going to chase me?”
“Shit!” Ye Tianshang knew that he wasn’t lying, so he could only wave his sword and bellow, “Tell me where you agreed to meet up and I’ll let you go.”
“Pingchong County City,” Shi Meng shouted.
“Are you trying to trick me?”
“No way! We agreed to head to Yan Province once we found clues, and you have to pass through there to get to Yan Province!” Shi Meng was a long-time servant, but he was actually very sharp. At least when he lied, he did so without hesitation.
“I’ll teach you a good lesson if you dare to deceive me.” He wanted to take Shi Meng as a hostage, but on second thought, he realized that since he couldn’t kill him, even if he was lying, there wouldn’t be much he could do to him. Since he had already missed out on the chance of getting a clue and dragging Shi Meng along would just add to his burdens, he decided to leave him be.
Once he saw that Ye Tianshang was leaving, Shi Meng exhaled and had the horse slow down.
When he looked at the horse, he saw that it was so tired that it was frothing at the mouth.
Ye Tianshang hadn’t had a problem with this chase, but the horse was almost done for. That man’s speed and endurance had Shi Meng clicking his tongue in wonder.
After treating the horse, he led the horse back to get back the things he had thrown away.
As he searched, he suddenly paled and began to curse, “Ye Tianshang, you motherfucker! What did you destroy my clothes for? What am I supposed to wear?!”
Ye Tianshang hastily went back and saw his schoolmates standing in the distance.
His face darkened. “You let Tang Jie escape?”
They shamefully dropped their heads, one of them replying, “He used the Violet Lightning Lunge. He was too fast.”
“A fifth-year can’t catch up to a first-year…” Ye Tianshang snorted.
The others were too ashamed to speak. Although it was true that Tang Jie had used a spell from the Divine Firmament Sword Classic, it was truly shameful for fifth-year students to lose a first-year.
One of them asked Ye Tianshang, “Senior Brother Ye, what about your end?”
Ye Tianshang replied, “It wasn’t on that kid.”
“Then what do we do?”
Ye Tianshang turned his head and walked away. “We’re going back to Cloudflow Academy. Tang Jie took away the clue, believing that we wouldn’t be able to find it, but the people in the academy must know. We’ll go and ask Sun Baoran. We should be able to find out what Tang Jie took.”
He didn’t believe a word of what Shi Meng had said.
Not long after they had gone, Tang Jie reappeared. He looked in the direction that Ye Tianshang had gone and laughed. He took out those papers, threw them into the air, and let them fall.
Wanxin Village.
Wei Tianchong arrived here alone, and when he saw this shabby village, he was momentarily left speechless.
Unlike in Shangquan City, the villagers here couldn’t tell who he was from his clothes, nor did they know that they should greet him. They just stood at the entrances of their homes, watching Wei Tianchong as he walked by like he was some bizarre creature.
Wei Tianchong initially didn’t know what to do. After some thought, he decided to go and find the village chief.
…Just like how Tang Jie had gone to find Chang Xinkuan first.
The village chief’s home wasn’t hard to find. It was the home located on the very easternmost edge of the village. When Wei Tianchong knocked on the door, a white-haired old man tottered out, holding a cane in one hand.
When he saw Wei Tianchong, the old man said in a quavering voice, “Who might you be looking for?”
“This one is Basking Moon Student Wei Tianchong. Hearing that Wanxin was plagued by a fox, I came here to exterminate this catastrophe,” Wei Tianchong elegantly said.
“What did you say?” the old man shouted. “I’m a simple man, and I don’t understand a thing you’re saying.”
It seemed like it wasn’t solely a problem of understanding. He was also somewhat deaf.
“…Village chief, I’m from the Basking Moon Sect, an Immortal! You know what an Immortal is, right? I’ve come to kill the fox!” Wei Tianchong shouted.
“Oh, an Immortal!” The old man finally understood. But when he saw Wei Tianchong’s white and chubby face that lacked any sort of Immortal aura whatsoever, he didn’t feel very awed. He loudly said, “Then just go already. That damn fox has eaten a lot of our chickens!”
“Uh… Am I not here to ask about where it is?”
The old man rolled his eyes. “How the hell would I know? It comes out when it’s dark and disappears before daybreak. It’s quite the speedy scoundrel, so you’ll have to look for it! Two Immortal masters came here before, but they looked around and then left, saying that this fox was crafty and couldn’t be found, so they weren’t going to catch it. The village loses chickens every day!”
“…” Wei Tianchong immediately erupted with sweat. After some thought, he asked, “Wasn’t it a fox disaster? But you’ve only lost chickens? Are there any injuries?”
“Injuries? How could there not be? Everyone that tried to capture it got injured! Quite a few people have been hurt!” the old man shouted.
“Has anyone died?”
“You want people to die?” the old man furiously said.
Wei Tianchong nodded and backed up a few steps, after which he went on his way.
It was no wonder that Shangquan City hadn’t taken this fox disaster seriously and had left it to the academy. Since no one had died, it naturally wasn’t a big deal.
Wei Tianchong had no other option than to ask around. All he managed to find out was that the fiend fox came from the east.
Wei Tianchong felt helpless.
Suddenly, he discovered that when he was separated from Tang Jie, from Shi Meng, from the academy, he had no idea what to do.
The mission had been stated very clearly: resolve the fox disaster in Wanxin Village.
But how it was resolved was all up to the student. He had to think of a way and make his own choice!
Without someone to direct him, Wei Tianchong really didn’t know what to do.
It was a realization that left Wei Tianchong very uncomfortable.
Even though he knew that he wasn’t a particularly capable person, knowing this and knowing that he was actually so incompetent that he couldn’t do anything on his own were two completely different matters.
Wei Tianchong had never truly understood his incompetence. Actually, when he had been winning victory after victory on the battleground, even managing to get into the top one hundred, he thought that he was pretty good.
But today, when he stood in this shabby village in the middle of nowhere and looked around at all these dull gazes, he felt helplessness well up within him. Only now did Wei Tianchong realize that he was good for nothing.
In this mission, he didn’t even know where to start.
What did being in the top one hundred matter?
He was the scion of a wealthy clan who got money sent to him every month, so he was born to be in the top 1500 students. But it was only with Tang Jie making a puppet for him and making him spirit coins by renting it, and then even giving him medicine and a plan designed for him, that he was able to get into the top one hundred.
What did that show about him?
It didn’t show anything.
The day he was without a servant was the day he became nothing!
And this day had finally come.
Wei Tianchong looked around in confusion. Those villagers saw him standing around like an idiot and then left, shaking their heads.
Perhaps they didn’t intend to mock him, but Wei Tianchong felt his heart ache all the same.
He began to somewhat resent himself.
Wei Tianchong was actually a rather stubborn person.
Or perhaps it could be said that anyone with some self-esteem would have a little stubbornness and pride in their bones.
Although Tang Jie had only asked him to gather information and not take action, since he couldn’t find any information, how was he going to explain himself to Tang Jie?
Yes, Tang Jie was his servant student, so it was fine even if he did a poor job.
But Wei Tianchong was a man! He had his dignity!
If he couldn’t even do something like this, wasn’t he just too useless?
“It’s just a little fiend fox, a lower-grade at most. I’m sure I can deal with it. You like to steal chickens at night? Then I’ll stand guard tonight. If you dare to steal a chicken, I’ll catch you!” Wei Tianchong viciously said.
He had decided to use the stupidest and simplest method to deal with this fiend fox!
He had to catch this fox before Tang Jie and Shi Meng arrived so that they could all see that he could succeed in life without the help of others!
Wei Tianchong felt a heroic passion rising up in his heart.