Author: 木尺素 / Mu Chisu

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 169

Beneath the gray-blue sky, Xu Yang stumbled back to the territory of the purple faction.

Two of his three trusted subordinates were dead. Only one remained. When that man saw Xu Yang’s expression, his heart sank hard. “Boss… don’t tell me… Zhou Qian tricked you? The others…?”

“They’re all dead. I barely made it out.” Xu Yang spat out the words bitterly. “Damn it… how many of us are left?”

The subordinate replied, “If those five brothers are all gone… we only have 26 people left in the purple-orange alliance. We brought 16 men in, and now just 11 of our own are left. The other 15 are outsiders.”

“Those outsiders include Hidden Blade and He Xiaowei? Where are they?” Xu Yang’s expression sharpened, concern in his eyes. “Feiyu’s with them?”

“They’re at the manor. I’ll take you there.”

The subordinate led Xu Yang toward the manor and added, “I heard that place is haunted. The deputy commander didn’t go inside, just waited outside with two of our men. They should be fine. But… what do we do now?”

“I let Zhou Qian trick me… and it’s my own greed to blame. I actually thought I could beat the Peach Blossom Legion here. But I forgot. Even if I beat them in this instance, what happens after we get out?”

Xu Yang nearly coughed up blood in regret. “Liuguang Street has both our people and theirs posted. It’s our dividing line. Go negotiate with them. Tell them… tell them we’re willing to cooperate.”

The subordinate hesitated. “But there’s that ‘maximum value’, right? What if they make us change wristbands and then kill us later? They probably still have spare green ones.”

“Zhou Qian said the ‘maximum value’ would be large. That part was probably true. We won’t necessarily die. Besides, if we keep our original wristbands hidden, we’ll have a fallback.”

Xu Yang thought for a moment and added, “They’ll probably use scan tools to check if we’ve hidden wristbands, so… I’ll hide all the spares. Weapons too. The manor is our base. We’ll stash everything behind it.

“I remember the manor’s surrounded by trees. With this kind of sky, you can’t see anything clearly from the building. We can use the trees and dim light for cover to sneak around back.”

“Let’s stash everything first. You memorize the location. If we need them later, you’ll know where to get them. After that, you go negotiate with Peach Blossom.”

“Wow… you really think of everything for us!”

The subordinate was moved by Xu Yang’s care, unaware that just earlier, Xu Yang had used two other loyal subordinates as human shields.

Right now, he was only too happy to help Xu Yang hide the wristbands.

As soon as the Feidu Legion entered the game, they seized 25 violet wristbands and some weapons.

Because they had intel on the orange wristbands’ location, they quickly moved with weapons into the orange area, killed some players wearing orange wristbands, and forced others to join the violet faction.

They then found eight more orange wristbands. One member switched to orange to build up that faction, but he had died shielding Xu Yang.

The remaining orange wristbands were split between Xu Yang, Xu Feiyu, and three others.

These were reserved for a “rebellion” at the end.

If they switched to Peach Blossom, the orange wristbands could become a backup for betraying them later.

Xu Yang still had five orange wristbands, now potential tools for betraying Peach Blossom.

As they walked to the manor, his subordinate thought through the plan but was still uneasy.

He voiced his concern. “Commander, we did kill some of Peach Blossom’s people. Will they even believe us now? I mean, if I go negotiate…”

Hearing this, Xu Yang felt even more stifled, but he swallowed it.

“Survival is everything. As long as the green mountain remains, there will always be firewood*.

*Idiom referring to as long as the fundamental thing is still there, you don’t have to worry about not achieving anything in the future.

“If it comes to it… we’ll spend big money to buy ‘Switch Legion’ cards. We’ll tell Peach Blossom we want to join them. We’re the fastest-growing faction right now. They’ll want to absorb us. Everything else, we’ll deal with later.

“For now, just test the waters. We still have leverage.

“Peach Blossom has always wanted Zhou Qian dead. I thought he really wanted to work with us, but now I see, he just wanted to watch us fight each other.

“We have to work with Peach Blossom now.

“This manor and the surrounding zones… They haven’t been explored by Peach Blossom. They’ll want our intel.”

While planning their next steps, Xu Yang and his subordinate quickly reached the manor.

Seeing Xu Feiyu standing guard with two Feidu soldiers, Xu Yang finally relaxed a little.

He walked up to her and asked, “What’s the situation inside?”

Xu Feiyu said, “It’s haunted. Something to do with Bloody Mary. I had Hidden Blade and He Xiaowei investigate. I checked in earlier. They’re still exploring. Nothing else suspicious.”

“Alright. Come with me.”

Xu Yang dismissed Xu Feiyu, taking her and the subordinate to the back of the manor.

They found a strangely shaped tree to use as a landmark, dug a hole next to it, and Xu Yang personally buried the wristbands.

Then he looked at his sister and said, “Letting Hidden Blade and He Xiaowei explore is fine. Once they’re done, tie them up and use them as bargaining chips. No need to send them anywhere else. They’ll just cause trouble.”

“What? But that’s such a waste! We risked contacting god-level players so they could help us—”

Xu Feiyu’s protest was cut off sharply. “Do as I say!”

“I… Got it.” Realizing something must’ve gone very wrong, she didn’t ask further and just followed orders.

Exhaling his frustration, Xu Yang turned to his subordinate again and reminded him, “Go now. Make contact and negotiate. Tell Peach Blossom: If they ally with us, we’ll hand over Hidden Blade and He Xiaowei.

“They want Zhou Qian dead. Those two can be the bait. They won’t refuse.”

Xu Yang thought himself a brilliant tactician.

What he didn’t know was that everything he was doing had already been seen by Hidden Blade’s group.

Moments earlier, after Xu Feiyu entered the house to check on things, Hidden Blade and He Xiaowei had moved from the control hub back to the main hall, pretending to investigate like nothing was wrong.

After seeing her off, they began planning how to use the manor to deceive Peach Blossom.

That’s when Hidden Blade remembered a special item Zhou Qian had given him:

[You Start With a Picture, Everything Else You Make Up].

After some thinking, Hidden Blade and He Xiaowei received a new system announcement:

[Orange – 7; Yellow – 21; Green – 24; Blue – 10; Indigo – 9; Violet – 21]

Hmm?

Green and violet had never dropped before, and now they had.

What did that mean?

Just as Hidden Blade was about to discuss it with his disciples, his sharp hearing caught the sound of footsteps.

Xu Yang, being a god-level player, had deliberately masked his movements.

But his sister and subordinate were ordinary players so they couldn’t hide their tracks.

So Hidden Blade heard one set of steps come near, followed by two others heading toward the back of the manor.

He immediately sent everyone back to the control hub.

Using a special device there, Hidden Blade saw a group moving into the forest behind the building.

Xu Yang had carefully avoided visible areas from the windows, but never imagined a hidden camera was still operational, placed there long ago by the magician who once lived here to monitor girls who might escape.

Because of that, Hidden Blade saw everything, clearly watching them bury something.

After Xu Yang and his men left and Xu Feiyu returned to the gate, Hidden Blade sent his fastest disciple, who also had a talent for finding objects, to investigate.

Soon after, the disciple returned with five orange wristbands.

Staring at the wristbands, Hidden Blade and his disciples had one question:

Why bury these five?

Back in the control hub, Hidden Blade kept monitoring the gate while summoning his four disciples for a brainstorming session.

He said, “Green and violet hadn’t decreased before. This means they’re Peach Blossom and Feidu’s factions.

“Now that we know Feidu is violet, then Peach Blossom must be green.

“If both dropped in number… Zhou Qian probably made a move.

“They found weapons early; Zhou Qian didn’t. So Peach Blossom and Feidu likely fought due to his manipulation. That would explain the losses.”

“So here’s the real question: Why is Feidu burying extra wristbands? What exactly is going on outside?

“Everyone, brainstorm. Think logically. The system’s severed contact between players. There were no private messages at this distance.

“We can’t talk to Zhou Qian. We can only try to reconstruct his thinking. That way, we can coordinate and win.

“Hey… He Xiaowei?”

Hidden Blade frowned, noticing He Xiaowei sitting cross-legged, palms together as if he had suddenly converted to Buddhism and was chanting prayers.

Hidden Blade couldn’t help but asked, “What the hell are you doing?”

He Xiaowei: “Don’t disturb me, Master. I’m attempting long-distance brainwave resonance with Qian’er, to guess what he’s done.”

Hidden Blade: “……”

He Xiaowei closed his eyes and continued, “Qian’er! My wise, flawless, all-seeing Qian’er! Let me read your mind just this once!”

Hidden Blade: “So… is it working?”

He Xiaowei: “Still trying, Master. You all continue brainstorming.”

Hidden Blade muttered, “This is so weird. I’m telling Qian’er you’re cursing him. Who even can protect you? When I need blessings, I go visit our ancestors’ graves.”

He Xiaowei’s eyes widened immediately. “Fuck! I didn’t mean it that way, Master! I swear I didn’t!”

Hidden Blade raised a brow. “Then think seriously. Out of all of us, you understand him best.”

……

Meanwhile.

After a period of rest, Gao Shan regained some strength.

Zhou Qian sent him to meet with Shan Sheng in the Peach Blossom Legion to gather intel.

When Gao Shan brought the information back, Zhou Qian confirmed: His plan had succeeded.

Though Xu Yang, being a god-level player, had narrowly escaped death.

Currently, Zhou Qian, Bai Zhou, Gao Shan, and Yin Jiujiu were all midway up the mountain.

Yin Jiujiu asked Zhou Qian,

“But… we’ve basically provoked Xu Yang, right? He’ll… he’ll probably try to work with Peach Blossom now!”

“True,” Zhou Qian said calmly.

“But… Xu Yang killed Peach Blossom members. Whether they’ll trust him is uncertain. Unless he convinces them, he has no way to betray them—meaning, no spare wristbands.

“But a guy like Xu Yang… would he really destroy all his wristbands? Of course not. Peach Blossom won’t trust him, and he won’t trust them.

“If I were him, I’d stash them and leave myself a way out.”

Hearing this, Gao Shan immediately said, “I’ll go look with the little dragon!”

Zhou Qian smiled. “Good. After getting played by me, Xu Yang will definitely worry about his sister, whether she’s in Hidden Blade’s hands.

“That kind of psychological pattern is common. Once he’s safely back at base, he’ll likely check on her first.

“Chances are, he stashed the wristbands right after seeing her. That way she knows where they are too and can go back to doing her own thing after.

“So, Shan Ge, when you get to Feidu, start your search with that logic. You might find them faster that way.”

“You really are sharp.” Gao Shan admired Zhou Qian for thinking of such details.

Zhou Qian looked at him and said, “While you’re there, try to get an accurate headcount of Feidu. Also, see if you can meet Hidden Blade and learn how they’re doing.

“Xu Yang’s lost five men. We’ve basically succeeded. Ideally, we’ll coordinate with Hidden Blade from within and completely turn the tables!”

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