Chapter 136: Framing and Interception

Gu Xiaopang surveyed the crowd before him, feeling immensely satisfied.

At the very front stood Puyang De and Gongyang Tai, two veteran cultivators at the early stage of the Deity Transformation realm. Following them were fifteen Nascent Soul Great Perfection experts, then forty-five at the late Nascent Soul stage, one hundred at the mid-stage, and one hundred and forty at the early stage. Even Fu Yi from the Central Region, the first to be subdued, had arrived that very night, standing in the ranks with a look of utter shock.

"Most of you present are old friends, and as for those who have newly joined, there is no need for resentment," Gu Xiaopang stated calmly. "I will repeat what I have said before: I am not a ruthless, power-hungry overlord. If you are my enemy, I will show no mercy, but to my own people, I am very generous. As for the thousands of Golden Core and tens of thousands of Foundation Establishment and Qi Refining subordinates you oversee, I will not concern myself with them. Continue to manage them as you always have. Now, here is your first task..."

The mission was simple. Gu Xiaopang would send orders to the subordinates he had conquered within the Asura Manor to use the Manor’s name to offer massive bounties, inviting various branches of the Absolute Kill Tower to carry out large-scale assassinations of the Puppet Sect’s reinforcements. The assassins of the Southern Region branch were merely to shadow the others and expand the slaughter as much as possible.

Gu Xiaopang did not care about the exact casualty count; the more, the better. Though he was kind-hearted, he harbored no pity for those who sought his life or the lives of his family and friends. He believed in striking the snake at its seven inches, ensuring that when the enemy was down, they stayed down.

Back at the Asura Manor, Xiu Ji, Xiu Sihai, and the others, who had been hiding in their rooms in terror for days, trembled as they retrieved their vibrating transmission jades. Upon reading the mission details, they exhaled a long sigh of relief, muttering to themselves that their young master had finally changed his ways. They were so broken by fear that their concentration was scattered; otherwise, they would have realized that they were only seeing the surface benefits to the Asura Manor while ignoring the deeper consequences that would inevitably follow.

Once Xiu Ji retrieved the storage bags Gu Xiaopang had left in a hidden location, the group held a brief meeting, coordinated their supplies, and scattered toward the various regions to begin their operations.

For the already incredibly wealthy Gu Xiaopang, this was a massive expenditure. Over five million spirit stones were distributed into four separate storage bags and handed to Xiu Ji. Aside from the Central Region, which he left undisturbed, he placed a bounty of over a million spirit stones on each of the remaining four regional branches of the Absolute Kill Tower. Of course, that was an average; in reality, the Southern Region received the smallest bounty because it was already the Asura Manor’s territory. After the previous show of force by the Manor, the Puppet Sect had few remaining affiliated forces there, so there were fewer targets to assassinate.

Typically, a mission to assassinate a Nascent Soul cultivator cost only thirty to forty thousand spirit stones, while a Golden Core cultivator cost roughly ten thousand. Gu Xiaopang had unilaterally doubled these rates, with one sole condition: the assassinations had to commence the moment the gold was accepted.

...

"Everyone, the boss has just sent down a mission," announced Sun Tian, the Vice-Master of the Heaven Manor, after gathering his core team. "We are to produce at least one million copies of what the boss calls 'flyers' within three days. After that, once the boss gives the word, we are to scatter across the Southern Region and distribute them in every prosperous area."

"Brother Tian, looking at the content of these flyers, is the boss trying to help the Asura Manor?" one member asked.

"We don't need to guess the boss's intentions; we only need to follow orders," Sun Tian replied. "Let's start the mass production now. Remember to stay hidden."

...

At the border between the Central and Southern Regions, several days of skirmishes had seen both sides commit their first wave of reinforcements, each numbering no less than thirty thousand. While there were few Nascent Soul experts, the number of Golden Core and Foundation Establishment cultivators was vast. The scale of the battlefield had expanded several times over.

The bloody slaughter continued to spread. Within a few days, the reinforcements sent by some affiliated sects were nearly wiped out, and most others were at least half-destroyed. The situation was harrowing and gruesome.

Fortunately, both sides tacitly agreed to clear the battlefield, retrieving their own fallen and wounded for treatment. Otherwise, as the battle intensified, there would be few bodies left intact. For the Puppet Sect in particular, corpses were weapons; they were tasked not only with retrieving their own but also with seizing the enemy's.

"Where is the next wave of reinforcements?" asked the Puppet Sect Master, Tai Shizheng, his face grim as he questioned an elder.

"Reporting to the Sect Master, they are about a day and a half away," the elder replied.

"Good," Tai Shizheng grunted.

"Hmph, 'Dog-Shi' Tai, you think you're the only one with reinforcements?" a voice mocked. "My reinforcements are even more numerous!"

"Oh? Brother Xiu, you, the master of the great Southern Region's Asura Manor, have fought my second-rate Puppet Sect to a stalemate, and you still have the face to laugh? How amusing, how very amusing," Tai Shizheng retorted.

"You! Hmph! Just wait and weep!"

"Fine, my Puppet Sect will wait. Let's see what other tricks you can pull."

Xiu Binggan, the Master of the Asura Manor, was left with a face so dark it could drip ink. Tai Shizheng was right; the fact that the prestigious Asura Manor had been stalled for so long by a second-rate force had become a thorn in Xiu’s side. Yet, he was helpless; the Puppet Sect’s strength far exceeded what he and his high-level officials had anticipated.

...

Across all regions, many of the Puppet Sect's affiliated forces were currently marching toward the battlefield in groups of hundreds or thousands. Whether old or young, they all wore heavy, dim expressions. Having heard the fate of the Puppet Sect’s main force and the first wave of reinforcements, they knew they were merely cannon fodder. But they had no choice; if they were late, the Puppet Sect would slaughter them and turn them into puppets before they ever reached the front lines.

When they were about half a day’s journey away, disaster struck.

Countless Nascent Soul and Golden Core assassins from all four regions emerged simultaneously, launching strikes against the reinforcement parties. As for the Foundation Establishment cultivators? The assassins didn't even glance at them. The Golden Core early, mid, and late-stage cultivators were deemed unworthy of the bounty. Only Golden Core Great Perfection experts barely caught their eyes. As for Nascent Soul early and mid-stage targets, they were like succulent meat, fought over by the assassins. Even the late-stage and Great Perfection Nascent Soul cultivators, though tougher to crack, were considered piles of spirit stones that had to be taken down.

For the assassins, it was a rare bounty of opportunities. Having gone without work for so long, they were eager, especially with the doubled rewards. Even the typically solitary assassins formed rare, temporary alliances to take down high-level targets.

Sometimes, the assassins were puzzled: they had moved as fast as possible, yet when they arrived at their targets, they found they had been beaten to the punch by other assassins. They didn't dwell on it, however, and simply rushed to the next target.

The unfortunate second wave of Puppet Sect reinforcements was decimated before they even reached the battlefield. Every victim was among the highest-cultivation members of their respective units, while the lower-level cultivators unexpectedly escaped. The various branches of the Absolute Kill Tower acted independently, unaware that other regions were striking at the same time.

The Southern Region’s Absolute Kill Tower recorded the highest number of kills. Because there were very few Puppet Sect reinforcements in the Southern Region, Gu Xiaopang had sent most of the Nascent Soul assassins he had recruited to the other three regions to help conduct even larger-scale assassinations under the cover of secrecy.

...

On the battlefield, the elder responsible for coordinating the reinforcements felt his storage bag vibrate with dozens of jade slips. He pulled one out, checked the message, and his face darkened. After checking a dozen more, his face turned ash-white, and his lips went purple.

"Ninth Elder, are the reinforcements arriving? Why do you look so terrible?" Tai Shizheng asked.

"S-Sect Master, the reinforcements... there's a problem," the Ninth Elder stammered.

"Bold! If they dare to retreat, I will annihilate them all!"

"No, Sect Master, they are all heading here, but... all the messages report the same thing: countless assassins have emerged..."

Upon hearing the report, Tai Shizheng’s lungs felt as if they were about to explode with rage. He soared into the air, his Tribulation Transcending stage aura erupting, and he roared, "Asura Manor! Xiu, you old dog! You have gone too far!"

"Dog-Shi Tai, what madness is this now?! Do you think your grandfather Xiu is afraid of you?!"

"You claim to be a prestigious power of the Southern Region, yet you resort to such cowardly, underhanded tactics!"

"Keep your mouth clean, Dog-Shi! Insult my Asura Manor again and I will destroy you!"

"You dare do it but not admit it?! Furious because you've been exposed?! Fine! Very well!" Tai Shizheng bellowed. "Puppet Sect members, listen to my command! Burn your potential and vitality, and fight the Asura Manor to the death! Any losses you suffer, the Puppet Sect will repay you many times over!"

"Dog-Shi! You..."

"Hmph!"

With a cold snort, the enraged Tai Shizheng ignored the Manor Master and turned back to his own camp. Although the Master of the Asura Manor didn't know what had happened, he was equally hot-tempered and, refusing to be humiliated, turned his gaze back to the battlefield where the situation was once again shifting.