Chapter 423: 398 Decision

The sun finally rose.

The thin morning mist was scattered by the night, and the sunlight scattered the morning mist in turn.

The thick, durable winch cableway turned once more, reconnecting the path up and down the mountain, ending the isolation of Jingzhe Villa on the cliff.

The "Stormy Villa" had been opened up.

The survivors came to the winch, waiting for the basket to be loaded while still chatting and laughing.

Meng Huazhou had originally intended to invite Black Widow to rest at the villa and depart together the next day, but Black Widow used the excuse of worrying about the safety of her disciples below to take her companions down the mountain to rest; Xu Siyao, also desperate to escape this godforsaken place, naturally wanted to follow.

Meng Huazhou figured that Black Widow would certainly not give up on the Manor Master's future and the dream of Xiancheng, so she definitely wouldn't be able to run away, and he did not want to alert the enemy, thinking that if she left, he could take the opportunity to make some arrangements, so he agreed and personally escorted them to the winch, ordering people to start the basket and send them down.

The disciples were installing the basket when they saw the cableway sliding upward on its own, and then a basket rose up by itself.

This meant that someone below had taken the initiative to come up.

Meng Huazhou felt a slight surprise; although communication was smooth throughout Jingzhe Villa, it was clearly centered on the top. Below, apart from the disciples who reported information from various parties on time every morning, one could only come up after waiting for a summons from the villa.

And it was not yet the time for reporting information, so no one should have come up.

Could something have happened below?

Meng Huazhou felt a wave of tension and a headache; at a time like this, he naturally hoped for as few unexpected events as possible.

However, things did not develop as he had imagined; the basket quickly came up, carrying a disciple with a panicked expression, a disheveled appearance, and bloodstains all over his clothes, who shouted as soon as he came up: "Emergency, emergency! I need to see the Protector..."

Just after shouting a few times at the top of his lungs, he froze, as several pairs of cold, gleaming eyes had swished over to look at him.

"Uh..." They were all big shots.

The disciple stammered, but still looked for the person of the highest status he recognized, saying respectfully: "Young Villa Master..."

Meng Huazhou did not recognize him and could not be bothered with nonsense, saying directly: "What are you shouting about? Even if the sky falls, it's not your turn to make such a racket. Speak, what is it?"

The disciple remembered his mission and organized his words: "Something big happened down the mountain last night, everyone is dead. That group of little ones in the bug fight... caused a huge mess. They are simply..."

Black Widow frowned and looked at Tang Zhao. Tang Zhao was also frowning.

Meng Huazhou had no idea there was an impromptu bug fight down the mountain, and said: "Dead? Who is dead? Why was there another bug fight? Tell me from the beginning, carefully. With you being so incoherent, why would the people below send you to report?"

The disciple swallowed his saliva and had no choice but to follow his instructions and start from the beginning: "The bug fight... it was the bug fight held down the mountain last night. Those who participated were the little disciples brought by those leaders. According to the Manor Master's orders, these little ones were stuffed into Duanlong Cave for a bug fight, not for screening, but just to dampen the spirit of the outsiders. We drove them into the cave for a blind bug fight, and only those who were alive when the time came could come out..."

Black Widow sneered. Meng Huazhou was a bit surprised, but didn't take it to heart; it was perfectly normal for Jingzhe Villa to hold bug fights, whether there was a reason or not, they would just find people to kill each other, and there were quite a few battlefields built specifically for bug fights both above and below the mountain. Even he had participated in several unfair bug fights when he was young.

Let alone the little disciples, several leaders had died yesterday, so who would care about the life or death of those juniors? The only thing he worried about was if they were Black Widow's disciples; if too many died and provoked her, it might cause complications.

He asked: "Who survived? How many died?"

The disciple said: "We don't know either. When we opened the cave door at night, we found the cave full of blood, we don't know how many died..."

Meng Huazhou said impatiently: "And after you counted them?"

This disciple was truly trash; could he not even count after a bug fight? Surely he wouldn't have come up to report just because a few young disciples died?

The disciple looked disheveled and said: "I... didn't have time to count. We had just gone in when we were attacked. Old Zhao was killed by a sneak attack at the time. Du Ge and I were thrown into the cave and locked up. Someone outside was shouting loudly, telling us to have a bug fight for them to watch. We naturally refused, and they just locked us up and left."

Meng Huazhou said in astonishment: "You pieces of trash were counter-killed by the little disciples? How many of them were there? How many of you were there?"

The disciple said shamefully: "I... don't know how many there were. At first there were three of us, but later... later people were thrown in one after another, there should have been more than ten. Probably all the brothers down the mountain were caught. I don't know how they did it. They sealed the main gate and just kept shouting for us to have a bug fight; we tried to break the door several times but couldn't..."

Meng Huazhou looked back at Black Widow and said: "Senior Sister, you really have hidden talents among your subordinates."

In fact, the disciple did not say it was Black Widow's people who did it, but Meng Huazhou assumed it was her people. Because Black Widow had performed brilliantly in the bug fight, sweeping away others for half the night; a strong general has no weak soldiers, so if anyone could pull off a counter-kill, it was most likely her people.

Conversely, if those dead ghosts had such capable subordinates while they themselves were utterly defeated, it would be a bit discordant.

Black Widow smiled and did not refute, her peripheral vision sweeping over Tang Zhao.

She also knew the methods of her own people; it was good enough that some could survive and win the bug fight, how could they have the capacity to methodically plan a counter-kill? It was most likely Tang Zhao's people who did it.

This is what is called a strong general having no weak soldiers.

The disciple continued: "This morning, I found the cave door was unlocked, so I opened it, and all those little thieves had run away, not a single one was left. That's why I came up to report..."

Meng Huazhou suddenly said: "Wait... this morning? You opened the door this morning, so what did you do last night?" He stared at the bloodstains and wounds on the disciple's body, already guessing the answer.

The disciple paused and said: "Last night... I... bug fight..."

Meng Huazhou almost laughed, but in the end, he only said: "So you are the winner of this bug fight? You are really obedient. They told you to have a bug fight and you had a bug fight. What about the others? How many survived?"

The disciple hesitated and finally said: "When I came out, Du Ge was still alive. I couldn't bear to..."

Meng Huazhou said indifferently: "How affectionate and righteous."

He wasn't actually that angry; as disciples of Jingzhe Villa, who hadn't experienced a bug fight? Who didn't know the danger of a bug fight? Once you are in the game of a bug fight, regardless of how you got in, trying to survive is the most important thing; even if you don't want to, others will make the decision for you. That the disciple could survive a night of bug fighting showed he was inferior to the little disciples outside, but superior to the other trash, that was all.

Meng Huazhou gathered his breath, barely accepting the fact that he had lost another batch of trash, and kept his composure in front of Black Widow. He didn't lash out at the disciple; there was no need to rush to deal with him, there were many people he wanted to deal with, and he had no interest in this person, only saying: "Lead the way, let's go take a look."

The disciple led them down the mountain. Meng Huazhou, Black Widow, and others from the other courtyards went down together, filling two large baskets, and were sent down the mountain in one go.

Arriving at the foot of the mountain and stepping onto the purple soil, they smelled a burnt odor in the air. Meng Huazhou was familiar with the foot of the mountain and didn't need to ask where the Duanlong Cave for the bug fight was, walking directly toward the cave.

The group walked through a forest and could see the shadow of the cave from afar.

These people walked very quickly, and no one noticed that the light in the forest was a bit strange.

When Tang Zhao walked here, he had already fallen to the back, avoiding the sight of others, and turned slightly to the side; his figure immediately disappeared from the sunlight. At this moment, he was in another area where the arc of the light was shifted as a whole, creating an invisible blind spot that could only be discovered from a specific angle, revealing that someone was hiding here.

A plain-looking young man, exactly the same as "Tang Zhao," stood opposite him, as if looking in a mirror.

The "Tang Zhao" who had taken the initiative to walk into the illusion said: "Sir."

Tang Zhao, hiding in the illusion, nodded and said: "Hard work, Weise. To rush through two rounds last night, only you could do it."

Weise shook his head and said: "It wasn't a rush. A child's play like a bug fight doesn't waste time. Sir, actually I wanted to preserve the young people of other forces as much as possible, but some people wouldn't listen to my coordination and instead really wanted to participate in the bug fight seriously, so I had to..."

Tang Zhao said directly: "We're already here, don't say anything else. Everyone's choices are different, and their fates are naturally different. Are Jiao Feng and the others alright?"

Weise said: "Jiao Feng is fine, and the girl from Black Spider Villa is also fine. There was one who was not very obedient, so I had to control him and let him suffer some injuries. Now they have left; I let Jiao Feng lead the team to find a place to hide far away from Jingzhe Villa."

Tang Zhao said: "That's good. Let's switch back."

Having confirmed that Jiao Feng and the others were safe, he didn't ask about the others. In Jingzhe Villa, asking about these things was truly meaningless.

Weise nodded and wiped his face directly; although he didn't completely change into a new face, it instantly looked different from Tang Zhao's face.

Tang Zhao instructed: "You hide here first. This illusion was made by me using a Refraction Mirror, and it can be actively dispelled. Take the Refraction Mirror with you when you leave. Don't go to Cloud City this time; just stay here and clean up. Last night was too rushed, and I don't know if there was anything left unattended. Help me clean up so people don't follow the trail to find us. Otherwise, I don't really care, but it wouldn't be good to implicate Manor Master Yin; she didn't know about it anyway."

Wei Se agreed with a sound and said, "On this trip to Cloud City, you must be extremely careful. There are people on the same road as you who harbor ulterior motives. One is Meng Huazhou, and the other is Yue Lai; both of these people have murderous intent. Meng Huazhou is targeting everyone, especially Yue Lai and Black Widow, while I couldn't tell who Yue Lai is targeting."

Tang Zhao did not Ask how Wei Se could tell; identifying murderous intent was Wei Se's old profession, and Tang Zhao had no reason not to believe him. He said, "Meng Huazhou is targeting Black Widow? He really listens to his father. It's a pity that all the effort Manor Master Yin put into Jingzhe Villa has gone to waste. There's nothing to be done about it now; from this point on, the enemy and I are clearly defined."

He shook his head and added, "As for his desire to kill Yue Lai, that is only natural. After all, Yue Lai is his father's murderer."