Chapter 342: Not an Inch Lost

Luo Zhengnan and Qiu Zhiheng reached an agreement, returned to the hall, and immediately issued orders: the entire Yaowang Tang was to mobilize fully to capture the Sangxiu.

Capturing Sangxiu was considered bad luck, and many were unwilling to lend a hand.

Not wanting to help didn't matter—Luo Zhengnan had a solution.

Any white lamb in the hall who spotted a Sangxiu 's trail, if the tip proved true, would be rewarded with fifty silver dollars; if they reported promptly and participated in the capture, they'd receive an elixir that accumulated Dao affinity.

Cultivators among the hall's disciples who captured a Sangxiu alive would be rewarded with Sheban Dan—twenty pills for the main captor, ten for any auxiliary participant!

Luo Zhengnan wasn't Xiao Zhenggong—his promised rewards were paid out on the spot!

Under such heavy rewards, brave men emerged: by the afternoon of the next day, Jiangxiang Bang captured another Sangxiu.

Sangxiu still needed to cultivate; no matter how deeply they hid, they'd eventually seek opportunities to torment others. With experience, Jiangxiang Bang's operations grew faster—by that night, they captured another.

With Jiangxiang Bang moving, San Ying Men moved too: Zhang Liuze, newly promoted to Bronze Seal, captured a Sangxiu in Ligou; two other Bronze Seals teamed up to capture two more in Waigou.

Qingyun Hui captured two.

Baihua Men captured one.

Yuhua Bang lacked sufficient strength, and most of its disciples had no cultivation base; they located two Sangxiu 's trails, and Li Ban seized the opportunity to capture them both.

Qiu Zhiheng, using tips provided by Feng Shopkeeper and Yu Nan, also captured two.

Originally, besides Yu Heshun, fifteen Sangxiu had come to Yaowang Gou; now that Yu Heshun was dead, one had died, thirteen were captured, and only one remained at large.

Qiu Zhiheng feared more Sangxiu might infiltrate Yaowang Gou; all major factions had pledged to guard the train station, docks, and borderlines, ordering disciples to detain anyone suspicious or prone to causing bad luck.

Qiu Zhiheng no longer cared about bad luck—he kept all the Sangxiu at the pharmacy and interrogated them one by one.

Yu Heshun had come to Yaowang Gou because he'd driven everyone around him away with his antics and had nowhere left to cultivate.

But the other Sangxiu had come for different reasons.

Some had angered powerful people and fled their homeland fearing retaliation.

Some had grown too slow in cultivation and sought a new place to practice.

Others were simply destitute and wanted a new place to make a living.

But why had all of them chosen Yaowang Gou?

Qiu Zhiheng used a technique, and finally they spoke the truth.

They had all dreamed—the same dream, from their Ancestor Master.

The Ancestor Master told them: come to Yaowang Gou, and you'll find a way out.

Could dreams be trusted so easily?

Even if it truly was the Ancestor's call, Dao disciples weren't bound to obey—cultivation ultimately depended on one's own will.

At first they ignored it, but the Ancestor Master had warned them in the dream: those who disobeyed would suffer calamity.

Within two days, each of them indeed suffered misfortune—some fell ill, some were beaten, some nearly lost their lives; they dared not defy the Ancestor Master again and all came to Yaowang Gou.

Li Ban was astonished: so even Sangxiu feared bad luck.

But how could the bad luck in dreams become real?

Qiu Zhiheng felt something was off—he went with Li Ban to visit Yao Lao.

Yao Lao, covered in wounds, held his three-pronged two-edged blade and drank wine in the courtyard.

Yesterday he slipped, lost his grip on the handle, and cut himself twice.

The day before, the wine cellar caught fire, and Yao Lao was burned.

The day before that was worst—he'd prepared an entire room full of traps and mechanisms to guard against the Sorrow Star.

At dawn, the ceiling collapsed, triggering every trap in the room—he nearly died from the injuries.

All sounded like accidents, but Yao Lao knew: this was the Sorrow Star's covert attacks.

He'd been hurt, but his banner still stood—he stood in the courtyard, fierce and unyielding: "I'm not afraid of him. If he dares show his face once, I'll take his life!"

Qiu Zhiheng asked: "Is the Sorrow Star the Sangxiu 's Ancestor Master?"

"He's not even worth the name of Ancestor Master—when the real Sangxiu Ancestor Master was alive, he hadn't even entered the Dao!"

"Does the Sorrow Star have Dream Cultivation base?"

"No! That old dog's lucky to have reached Clouds Above—he has no talent for dual cultivation!"

If he wasn't the Ancestor Master and not a Dream Cultivator, where did those nightmares come from? These weren't ordinary nightmares—they brought real bad luck.

Qiu Zhiheng couldn't figure it out, but Yao Lao remembered another connection.

"Could this be tied to Neizhou?"

Li Ban recalled something: the insect king responsible for the Haichiling infestation had carried Neizhou's power.

Yao Lao couldn't confirm it—if Neizhou's power had indeed intervened, holding Yaowang Gou would become nearly impossible.

A Sorrow Star altered by Neizhou might not even be on the same level as Yao Lao.

Back at Qiu's Pharmacy, Qiu Zhiheng continued interrogating the Sangxiu: "Since you've come to Yaowang Gou, why hide and avoid showing yourselves?"

They exchanged glances; finally, an old man named Ge Tugen spoke: "I've been in the Dao a long time. After Yu Heshun died, I sensed something was wrong.

Later, near Yuxiang Village, I saw bloodstains. After heavy rain, the blood didn't wash away—I suspected it was a Sorrow Array.

This array is built on the lives of fellow Daoists—I told them to flee while they still could."

"But you didn't flee."

Ge Tugen said: "Master, we wanted to flee, but we couldn't find a travel permit. The permit we used to come here was given to us in the Ancestor Master's dream—we're strangers here, so how do we find the way back?"

Even permits could be given in dreams.

If the Sorrow Star truly had Dream Cultivation base, what level had he reached?

Interrogations were nearly complete; Qiu Zhiheng waited for news of the last Sangxiu 's capture.

The next day, news came: the last Sangxiu hadn't been captured. A clue was found in Mazhucun, outside Waigou; Jiangxiang Bang disciples went to apprehend him—but found his corpse instead.

Mazhucun—Li Ban had been there. It was You Tao's hometown, on the border between Yaowang Gou and Lüshui City.

Qiu Zhiheng asked: "When did this happen?"

Luo Zhengnan replied: "We found the body this morning."

"Mazhucun is far from Ligou," Qiu Zhiheng doubted—logically, Luo Zhengnan shouldn't have received the news so quickly.

Luo Zhengnan said: "I have my methods. You don't need to ask."

"Did he die trying to cross illegally?"

Luo Zhengnan shook his head: "He had a travel permit. We don't know its origin, but he had no reason to cross illegally."

Li Ban heard every word clearly from the back hall.

At the border, carrying a permit, no need to cross illegally—and yet he died suddenly.

The first two Sangxiu had died at the train station.

Aside from the Sorrow Star sending someone to kill them, there was another possibility.

The Sorrow Array had mutated—these Sangxiu couldn't leave Ligou at all; anyone who tried to go out would die suddenly.

Could such a mutated array even exist?

If it did, it meant they could never send the Sangxiu out—they'd all die in Yaowang Gou no matter what.

Luo Zhengnan and Qiu Zhiheng fell silent, thinking long and hard. Finally, Luo Zhengnan decided to gamble: "Tomorrow there's a freight train to Huangtu Bridge—I'll find a way to put one Sangxiu on it.

If he dies at the station, it proves they can't leave—we'll think of another plan.

If he makes it to Huangtu Bridge, it proves our plan works—I'll arrange another freight train to send them all back!"

The method was sound, but the cost would be high.

Qiu Zhiheng had often dealt with Border Guards—he knew their nature.

"Master Luo, if we take someone there tomorrow and he dies at the station, will the Border Guards spare you? At this moment, they'll turn on you completely."

Luo Zhengnan sighed—he shared that concern.

And the cost wasn't just that.

As they sipped tea, suddenly a gale howled past, and roof tiles clattered violently.

They stepped to the door and saw it: countless white beans, the size of a thumb's nail, falling from the sky.

Hail?

Yaowang Gou's climate hadn't seen hail in decades.

Qiu Zhiheng had chosen premium tiles—they barely held up; other homes' ordinary tiles shattered within minutes.

Hhh~

A whiff of wine drifted through the wind; the scent spread, and the temperature rose sharply.

The hail melted before hitting the ground, dissolving into a torrential downpour within the wine mist.

The rain poured for three full hours—if it had been hail for three hours, Yaowang Gou might have been destroyed.

But this was only the beginning—at midnight, hail returned.

Yao Lao, wine jug in hand, three-pronged blade in grip, stood in the courtyard and roared: "Whatever tricks you've got, come at me! Hurting the people is no skill!"

He spat a cloud of wine mist—the hail melted again into rain.

Yao Lao fought the Sorrow Array head-on for a full day and night.

This was what Hong Ying meant by the Three Arrays.

If Luo Zhengnan tried again, what disaster might follow? Li Ban couldn't bear to imagine.

But what now?

Guard these Sangxiu and make sure they don't die?

Not only was the task itself bad luck, but even ignoring that, they couldn't guard them—if the Sorrow Star came himself and killed them, what then?

Even if all these people attacked together, they couldn't stop a Clouds Above Level Three cultivator.

Yao Lao could have seized the chance to ambush and kill the Death Star, but the idea was good while the execution was far too difficult.

You can't be a thief for a thousand days, but can you guard against thieves for a thousand days? Should the Earth God and all the people from Medicine King Gully keep watch on these Death Cultivators every single day?

The only viable solution seemed to be destroying the Death Gate Array.

Li Banfeng and Qiu Zhiheng brought the old Death Cultivator Ge Tugen to Yuxiang Village and found the bloodstain he had mentioned.

It was a dark red stain the size of a palm—hard to believe the old man's eyesight was still sharp enough to spot it.

Li Banfeng asked: "If we dig up this bloodstain, can we break the Death Gate Array?"

The old man shook his head: "Digging up one piece won't help. I can't even say how much you'd need to dig up to make it work."

Qiu Zhiheng frowned tightly.

The old man wasn't lying—Yao Lao had said the same thing.

The key question was: where were the other bloodstains?

Li Banfeng pulled out an iron shovel and dug up the bloodstain on the ground.

Qiu Zhiheng stepped forward to stop him: "Brother, don't touch it—watch out for bad luck. Let me do it."

Li Banfeng waved him off—he had already dug it up.

After dealing with Death Cultivators for so many days, he no longer cared about bad luck.

The bloodstain ran deep; he dug over five feet down and removed nearly half a sack of soil before cleaning it all away.

Back at the medicine shop, Li Banfeng brought some of the soil back to his Personal Dwelling. Hong Ying sniffed the odor and shouted: "Did you bring back a Death Cultivator? This place reeks of bad luck!"

Li Banfeng exclaimed in delight: "Your nose is so sharp—come with me to Medicine King Gully. I'll hold your hand, and you sniff out every bloodstain. We'll break the Death Gate Array."

Hong Ying snapped: "I won't do anything so unlucky. Besides, this won't work."

"Why won't it work?"

"I don't know how big Medicine King Gully is, but it's at least a hundred li across."

"A hundred li squared, with a small bucket of blood scattered across it—you'd have to dig up at least half of it to break the Death Gate Array."

Li Banfeng actually thought this might work: "What shape is the Death Gate Array? How many blood-spreading points are there? I'll search for them one by one!"

Hong Ying scoffed: "You're really stubborn. When I was still in the army, I vaguely remembered the Death Gate Array had over sixty variations—each with a different shape, and blood points ranging from a hundred to three hundred. Do you really think you can find them all?"

The string of numbers left Li Banfeng speechless for a long while.

Changji scolded Hong Ying: "Stop talking!"

Hong Ying retorted: "Why can't I speak? I'm trying to save him from wasting his effort!"

"Worthless woman, still yapping—go get twenty strokes of the cudgel!"

"I'll take the strokes and still say it! The Death Gate Array can't be broken! Someone let such a massive array be set up in their own home—good riddance to that drunkard. Why are you even bothering with him?"

Before she finished speaking, the house suddenly emitted a low hum.

Wum~

Hong Ying donned her full armor and stood beside Changji.

Changji and Hong Ying heard only a series of low hums, like the noise of mechanical friction.

Only Li Banfeng heard the voice of his Personal Dwelling: "I can help you, but I need at least two more iron rails."

"How will you help me?"

"Search every inch of Medicine King Gully—leave no ground untouched!"

PS: Dear readers, give Banfeng a like—his like count is about to hit ten thousand.

(End of Chapter)