Chapter 162: Acting

As night just began to fall, one of the five individuals acted as if nothing was amiss, strolling leisurely out of the large courtyard.

Just as Ye Feng had anticipated, when the full moon hung in the sky, a brilliant firework lit up once more.

This time, even Xiao Chong, who previously loved to bicker with Ye Feng the most, fiercely gave him a thumbs-up.

"Brilliant... truly brilliant... if you don't set up a stall to tell fortunes, you're damn well being wronged, motherfucker."

Xiao Ying returned, stating that the Sacred Land had indeed learned of the Heavenly King Alliance's movements, instructing her not to take action for now and to wait for the next summon.

..........

Rumble...

In the quiet night, accompanied by a heaven-shaking roar, everyone in the courtyard was startled out of their dreams.

"All hands engage! Slaughter these little bastards from the Sacred Land!"

Just as Ye Feng stepped out of his room, he heard Kong Kong's angry roar.

The next moment, bursts of spiritual light streaked across the void as figures of Heavenly King Alliance experts quickly converged.

Seeing this, Ye Feng, who had already taken a step forward, pulled his foot back. He turned and sprinted toward the direction of the courtyard's water well.

To his relief, the two brothers assigned to guard the well had not rushed out, but instead kept their figures hidden in the shadows.

........

Outside, the sounds of battle were deafening, and fierce spiritual energy frequently surged out, blasting the newly built perimeter wall into collapse.

"Damn it, it looks like we need to speed up the city's construction progress. If things keep going like this, won't we have to build perimeter walls every single day?"

Quickly heading toward the next water well, Ye Feng looked helplessly at the collapsed wall in the distance and muttered to himself.

Just like that, in less time than it takes to brew a cup of tea, Ye Feng had inspected all the water wells in the courtyard. Fortunately, the guards stationed at each had not left, obviously because Jialuo and the others had made prior arrangements.

However, just as he approached the fifth water well, a ghostly figure rapidly rushed out from the shadows and sprinkled some white powder into the well. Judging by the physique, it was undoubtedly one of the five individuals who had tried to approach the wells during the day.

Quietly stopping the two guards who were about to charge out, Ye Feng appreciatively licked his lips and nodded repeatedly. "Truly a magnificent strategy. This diversion tactic—damn it, it's brilliant!"

The chaos came quickly and went even faster. Just as some members of the Heavenly King Alliance rushed over, the dozen or so agitators on the other side quickly withdrew and vanished into the dark night.

Unfortunately, tonight it happened to be the brute Killing Demon guarding the gate. When the dozen or so opponents made their move, Killing Demon instantly exploded into action, smashing the foremost Sacred Land assassin into a pulp of flesh and meat with a single swing of his hammer... Along with two brand-new gates, which turned into flying wood splinters under that hammer.

During the melee, the Sacred Land side left behind five or six corpses, while on the Heavenly King Alliance's side, a newly joined brother unfortunately fell in battle, and over ten others were injured, two of them critically, leaving them barely able to care for themselves.

"Look at this little fellow, putting up quite the act, rushing to the front of the gate first. Damn it, he was even faster than Big Brother Jialuo. Wasn't he just asking for death?" In private, Kong Kong pointed at the fallen corpse and kept chattering.

As for the identity of the fallen brother, it was now as clear as day. Indeed, he was one of the five Sacred Land spies.

Having already known there would be a disturbance tonight, that person had tried to clear himself of suspicion by acting cleverly and rushing to the front gate first, only to have his skull shattered by an unknown fist during the melee.

"Don't you think this is going a bit too far? Knocking off one and crippling two in a single night, won't the Sacred Land start getting suspicious?!" He Tao frowned, speaking in a low voice to the still-unappeased Kong Kong.

"Damn it, we've only sorted out three. There are still two cowards who didn't show up."

Amidst a low grumble and curse from Xiao Chong, He Tao wisely shut his mouth.

"Damn it, the Xiao family just keeps churning out monsters," He Tao thought to himself. He had seen very clearly during the melee that all three Sacred Land spies had been dealt with single-handedly by Xiao Ye, who usually presented himself as gentle and mild.

................

Amidst a patch of ruins, Ye Feng made a belated arrival. First, with a 'heartbroken and devastated' expression, he squatted in front of the headless corpse and wailed loudly, cursing the ancestors of the Sacred Land down to the eighteenth generation.

Then, Second Brother Ye assumed an air of carrying the weight of the world's safety on his shoulders, instructing everyone to stay within their respective living areas for the next few days and forbidding anyone from leaving the courtyard. Furthermore, meals and other activities would be conducted collectively, ostensibly for the personal safety of the brothers, out of fear that someone eating alone might be ambushed by the Sacred Land.

Seeing the righteous and awe-inspiring Ye Feng, Xiao Chong could not help but give him another fierce thumbs-up, silently cursing inwardly: "What a talent! Not only can he tell fortunes, but he doesn't even need to paint his face to put on a play!"

Amidst curses and angry rebukes directed at the Sacred Land, hundreds of people gripped their weapons and eventually returned to their respective quarters.

At this moment, the young man who had successfully poisoned the water, believing his actions were completely undetected, once again quietly slipped away from the Heavenly King Alliance courtyard.

The night passed without incident. The next day, the Heavenly King Alliance courtyard underwent major construction for the second time in three months, briefly becoming the laughingstock of many during their post-meal chats.

"Today's lunch will have a small amount of potion added to the water. We need to put on a show for the Sacred Land to see, but remember, you must control the dosage. Make sure we don't end up with the embarrassment of people who can't be woken up!" Lounging in a grand armchair in the courtyard, Ye Feng swayed back and forth as he instructed He Tao.

Thanks to Ye Feng's prior alertness, their battle of wits and courage with the Sacred Land had allowed the Heavenly King Alliance to stay one step ahead at every turn.

Of course, strategy could only secure the initiative; when the time came, victory or defeat would ultimately depend on raw strength.

After lunch, a group of people once again flocked to the 'construction site', busily and enthusiastically repairing the perimeter wall.

However, soon enough, working youths began to quietly collapse one by one, their conditions unknown—whether dead or alive.

At this, the entire Heavenly King Alliance exploded into uproar. Those who hadn't collapsed scrambled to lift the fallen into the courtyard. Yet, as they carried others, even more people collapsed just like the former, falling unconscious with their fates unknown.

In less than a quarter of an hour, half of the four or five hundred youths in the Heavenly King Alliance had fallen into this exact condition.

With such a massive commotion, the cultivators of Loulan Ancient City quickly caught wind of it. In just a few hours, the incident of a large number of Heavenly King Alliance experts suddenly falling into a coma spread far and wide across the entire East China Sea coast.

At this moment, nearly a hundred members with frosty expressions and murderous auras completely surrounded the Heavenly King Alliance courtyard, declaring that anyone who approached within ten paces would be executed on the spot.

As night fell, various versions of the Heavenly King Alliance incident continued to circulate outside. Countless theories abounded, but every single one of them claimed that the water wells had been heavily poisoned, and that those experts who had inexplicably fallen unconscious could only last a few hours at most.

While the outside world buzzed with discussion, inside the courtyard, hundreds of experts stood in a daze upon the open ground, whispering to one another in confusion. Many of them simply could not understand why they had suddenly passed out.

An even greater number of people were debating who the accursed bastard was that had played such a malicious prank on them, slipping sleeping potions into their meals.