Chapter 548

After hearing Xu Jie's words, Hong Zun immediately sought out Lin Potian, Qin Shan Hai, and the other ghost kings including Yin Xiaoshan.

Having explained his idea to everyone, upon hearing it Lin Potian and Qin Shan Hai immediately expressed agreement, while Yin Xiaoshan and the other ghost kings wore strange expressions.

They didn't think the plan was bad; they just had an indescribable feeling in their hearts.

Isn't the Dao Yi Sect a righteous orthodox sect? Where did they come up with all these underhanded tactics day after day?

Just hearing it, even these ghost kings felt it was excessively deceitful.

Facing the silence of the ghost kings, Hong Zun turned his head, furrowed his brows, and said.

"What, do you have any problems?"

"No, none, we just obey orders."

Upon hearing that, Hong Zun nodded and immediately decided.

"Then let's act according to the plan."

Xu Jie merely proposed an idea, but Hong Zun quickly refined it.

First, throughout Le Yun City, traps must be set everywhere; all usable talisman seals and formation disks brought from the sect are to be employed.

Let those bald donkeys of the Fomen, once they enter Le Yun City, even if they don't die they'll have to shed a layer of skin.

Furthermore, regarding the myriad evils of Guigu, Hong Zun meant that when the battle erupts, they should not show themselves first.

Wait until those Fomen bald donkeys are completely fooled and flee in defeat, then the Guigu evils will surge out from the rear to join the Dao Yi Sect disciples in hunting down those Fomen bald donkeys.

The plan sounds not difficult, but the two most crucial points are.

The first is the laying of traps; however, for the Dao Yi Sect disciples this is obviously no difficulty, each being a veteran.

The second is the most important, namely acting.

How can we make the Fomen believe the Dao Yi Sect has truly been defeated, so they enter Le Yun City without any guard?

This point is also key to success or failure; otherwise, once those Fomen bald donkeys notice something amiss beforehand, it will be hard to trick them again.

To this end, Hong Zun specifically had the disciples, while setting traps, wholeheartedly hone their acting skills.

"Third senior brother, the Peak Master wants us to practice acting—does this thing really need special practice?"

Some junior brothers didn't understand and specially asked Xu Jie; hearing this, Xu Jie looked at them speechlessly, curled his lip, and said.

"Just think of it as eating a meal."

"Do we still need to practice? When you eat, you're all gods of deception; now it's just deceiving the Fomen—what's there to be nervous about?"

Perhaps some disciples, being too nervous, ended up losing their usual composure.

This made Hong Zun secretly anxious; in the end, Xu Jie came up with a solution.

He let the disciples freely deceive their fellow brothers over rations; whatever they managed to swindle became theirs, with no later accountability.

Upon hearing this, many disciples, while laying traps, turned into acting emperors and empresses.

For example, a disciple laying talisman seals suddenly collapsed; his nearby fellow brothers saw the sight and rushed forward to inquire.

"What's wrong with you............."

"Senior.......... senior brother, I....... I accidentally took the Five Poisons Powder."

"Ah? How could you be so careless? Where's the antitoxin pill?"

"I.......... didn't bring............"

"Wait, I'll get it for you."

"Don't, senior brother, it's too late—quick, give me the rations, the detoxifying rations."

"Rations?"

The rations prepared by Ye Zhangqing indeed had detoxifying effects; hearing this, that senior brother, in his panic, had no suspicion and quickly fetched a bag of detoxifying rations.

Just as he was about to open it, he inadvertently saw a fleeting smile in his junior brother's eyes and instantly realized.

"Senior brother, hurry—what are you waiting for?"

"Waiting for you to go die."

Upon hearing that, the senior brother unhurriedly gathered the rations, turned without looking back, and left.

"You damn thing, trying to swindle my rations—I only allow myself one bag a day, I haven't even given any to my dao partner."

Some feigned illness, some used sexual enticement, the most outrageous even involved pretending to adopt a foster father.

In any case, within Le Yun City, for the sake of rations the disciples went all out.

Various methods kept emerging; Hong Zun watched agape, while Xu Jie beside him laughed and said.

"How about it, Master—anything left to worry about now?"

"I dare not say anything else, but if you're talking about acting, Xu Jie has absolute confidence in his own senior brothers."

"With this acting skill, who do you say could see through it?"

Upon hearing this, Hong Zun silently nodded, admitting he had previously overthought things.

However, the completely carried-away disciples are now no longer satisfied with deceiving just their senior brothers; some have even turned their attention to the Steward and Elder.

Moreover, an elder was actually deceived, and the matter escalated to Hong Zun.

"Peak Master, if you don't rein in this bunch of little turtles, they'll truly run amok."

"What's wrong?"

"That Chen Mu, he............ he said yesterday you ordered everyone to hand over their rations for you to keep uniformly, I............ I..............."

Listening to that elder's lament, Hong Zun's mouth twitched as he spoke.

"So you just handed over all the rations on your person to him?"

"I didn't know at the time, Peak Master you have to decide for me—this is all my worldly possessions."

"As an elder, to be duped out of everything by a disciple, and with no recourse, I can only come here to complain to Hong Zun."

"But what can Hong Zun do? The words were his own; now could he really go cause trouble for those little brats?"

No choice, in the end Hong Zun could only take out ten sacks of dry rations himself and give them to this elder.

As a Peak Master, Hong Zun's treatment was naturally different, or rather, every Peak Master and presiding Elder of the Dao Yi Sect, before setting out, had received an extra hundred sacks of dry rations from Ye Zhangqing.

But even so, Hong Zun's heart was still bleeding.

He said helplessly to this elder.

"From now on, be careful yourself; you're already this old, yet you're still being fooled by disciples—if it gets out, it'll be embarrassing."

This wasn't an isolated case; other elders and stewards were also deceived, and the disciples' tricks were myriad, impossible to guard against.

The stewards and elders who had suffered a great loss could not swallow this resentment in their hearts.

Later, they also launched a counterattack.

For a time, throughout Le Yun City, a grand competition of deception was stirred up.

Putting it that way, nowadays in Le Yun City, no matter who you are or what you say, as long as you believe it, the outcome is absolutely bad.

That person who spouts nonsense nonstop has already hit rock bottom.

At the same time the disciples were making preparations, within the Dao Yi Sect, Qi Xiong also received news sent from Shadow Peak.

"Senior Brother."

"Have you arrived?"

"Mm, the five armies of the Fomen have all nearly reached Dongzhou; the fastest should be Le Yun City."

Wu Shou hurried into the main hall and spoke; hearing this, Qi Xiong turned, looked at the map, and fixed his gaze on Le Yun City.

Putting it that way, this first battle should have broken out in Le Yun City; it's just unknown whether Hong Zun and his group can withstand the pressure—if they win a big victory in the opening battle, the pressure will undoubtedly be much less.