Yinlan City, Part 14

Go undercover in the Yan family army?

Wouldn’t that be a waste of effort?

Su Qing and Jiang Xiaocao both thought about it and immediately felt something was wrong.

Su Qing was the first to speak, “No!”

Jiang Xiaocao also said, “No!”

The leader’s ordinary, square-jawed face broke into a smile, but it revealed a hint of sinister malice.

“Why not? You two are the most loyal disciples of my Abyssal Void. How can you be unwilling to do even this small thing? This makes me doubt whether your Dao Heart Vows are true or false.”

Su Qing wasn’t intimidated. Instead, she said with fervent urgency, “Right now, the entire Abyssal Void relies on you, Leader. At such a critical time, how can we casually leave your side? Your safety is paramount.”

Jiang Xiaocao also said, “That’s right, Leader, you are paramount.”

Su Qing said, “We swear to follow the Leader to the death and protect you!”

Jiang Xiaocao said, “Swear to follow you to the death!”

The leader was deeply moved.

He never expected that the Abyssal Void, despite its mediocre benefits, could produce two such dedicated and loyal subordinates who loved their leader. Couldn’t they see how they were competing to protect him?

It was truly foolish, to a moving degree.

The leader couldn’t help but let slip a hint, patting both their shoulders reassuringly.

“Don’t worry, even if I’m not good, I’m still at the Golden Core stage. It’s not yet your turn to worry about me. Your success in the Yan family army task will be my greatest help.”

Golden Core stage cultivation?

Su Qing thought, ‘The demonic cult truly hides its strength. Just from his aura, it was impossible to tell he was at the Golden Core stage.’

However, the leader had already spoken to this extent. To refuse again would easily arouse suspicion. Su Qing decided to rephrase, “Leader, you are right!”

“But the Yan family garrison has strict rules, and our strength is meager. How can we easily infiltrate them? Moreover, the ritual is only ten days away; there might not be enough time.”

The leader waved his hand, “Don’t worry about that. I have already arranged suitable positions for you. Just go!”

A flicker of thought crossed his eyes, then he said, “You two, take off your hoods and let me see if your temperament is suitable.”

Su Qing and Jiang Xiaocao had already used the Face-Shaping Art, so they took off their hoods as he instructed.

The two faces revealed were utterly ordinary, plain, and would be impossible to find in a crowd.

Not only their appearance, but their temperament was also remarkably common, like a cup of tasteless plain water.

The leader looked at the two featureless, common faces before him and clapped his hands.

“Suitable, very suitable. Go with confidence.”

Su Qing inexplicably had a bad premonition.

After the leader finished giving instructions, the three prepared to leave before daybreak.

However, as soon as Su Qing stepped out of the old locust tree, she saw several divine senses sweep over them simultaneously. Even more, some directly imprinted their divine sense.

Someone was tracking them.

The leader’s expression changed slightly, and he said urgently, “Retreat first!”

He waved his sleeve, transforming into a dark bat, intending to leave on the spot. But a projectile struck directly, and a thick cloud of smoke instantly billowed out.

Using this smoke, the leader dissipated into a black mist on the spot, and Su Qing also pulled Jiang Xiaocao, flashing out and flying away, while wiping off the divine sense imprints on her body as they ran.

The two quickly vanished around the street corner, using Jiang Xiaocao’s concealment skill.

They lost them.

Ye Mingshi, who had been giving chase, cursed inwardly, ‘These demonic cult members are even more slippery than rabbits.’

She felt an unwelcome aura and looked up, seeing a black figure standing on the rooftop.

She couldn’t see the face clearly, but Ye Mingshi instinctively felt she was very dangerous. She didn’t get entangled further and vanished from the spot.

Blood Thorns stood on the rooftop, a half-smile on her face. Countless ants fell from her fingertips, chasing after the target.

The smoke she had just released was called Sweet Dream Incense, extracted from the Sweet Dream Fruit, a favorite of the Black Ant tribe.

As long as one was tainted with the scent of Sweet Dream Incense, it was only a matter of time before they were found.

The dawn in Yinlan City was very cold, and the wind was fierce, like it was mixed with ice shards.

Before long, it tightened people’s skin. Therefore, normal people wouldn’t sit by the roadside in a daze.

But Su Qing wasn’t a normal person; she was Su Qing, the double undercover agent.

For her noble status, sitting by the roadside in a daze was perfectly normal.

Jiang Xiaocao, beside her, sighed.

He let out a long sigh, “Alas.”

It was fine when he didn’t sigh, but his sigh made Su Qing also want to let out a long sigh.

Su Qing suppressed this urge and asked him, “Why are you sighing for no reason? Is something bothering you? Don’t you know children get old faster when they sigh?!”

Xiaocao blinked and said, “I’m sighing for you.”

He pointed to her brow, “Your brows are practically tied in a knot.”

Only then did Su Qing realize that she had been unconsciously frowning.

She couldn’t help but complain, “I was wondering if this Abyssal Void leader is an idiot. If he’s not an idiot, how could the two of us, who only joined today, become the most loyal disciples? Does the Abyssal Void have no one left?”

“But if he’s truly an idiot, this plan of his, sending us right back where we came from, completely wasted these few days.”

Jiang Xiaocao thought for a moment, “Could this be what the books call great wisdom disguised as folly?”

“Hard to say.” Su Qing couldn’t figure it out, “It could be great wisdom disguised as folly, or great folly disguised as wisdom, in short, a great imbecile.”

Jiang Xiaocao rested his chin on his hand and carefully observed her expression. He said blandly, “If he made you unhappy, I’ll go kill him. That way, you won’t have to worry.”

Su Qing didn’t take his words seriously. “Killing him won’t solve the problem. One dies, and countless others wanting promotion will follow.”

She stood up, rubbed her face, wiping away the sudden exhaustion and weariness of the night, and asked, “Come on, want to eat wontons?”

Worry she must, but eat she still would.

Xiaocao responded, “Eat.”

He sniffed his sleeve and said, “Our scent has completely dispersed. We can go now.”

“Hey,” Su Qing said, “Actually, we don’t have to eat. We’ll be able to scrounge a meal soon anyway.”

Because the damned Abyssal Void had arranged for them to be kitchen staff in the Yan family army.

She never expected that after coming to Yinlan City, she would be back to her old profession of dishing out food.

Ridiculous, truly ridiculous.

And the most absurd thing was that the other party didn’t provide any connections; they had to apply for the cook positions themselves.

After Su Qing finished reporting the matter to Yan Yan, he didn’t say a word, just laughed for two minutes straight.

Su Qing was a little embarrassed, “I didn’t expect this result either.”

“That’s nothing,” Yan Yan forced back his laughter, “Gaining trust is a good thing. Later, I’ll send someone to disclose some harmless intelligence to you, for you to use to stabilize the Abyssal Void leader. When he trusts you even more, that’s when we’ll act.”

“Understood.” Su Qing nodded. She hesitated, “So, do we still need to be kitchen staff?”

“Just pretend for a few days,” Yan Yan said. “Don’t be so gloomy. Getting paid double to dish out meals isn’t so bad, when you think about it.”

“No…” Su Qing said indignantly, “The Abyssal Void didn’t pay us.”

They were purely treating them as beasts of burden.

Yan Yan looked at her frowning face and couldn’t help but reveal a row of teeth in a smile.

That being said, what needed to be done still had to be done. Su Qing, being a skilled worker, quickly took up her post.

In fact, other than the head chef being a bit fussy and talkative, the job was quite easy, and reportedly, an iron rice bowl.

“The Abyssal Void people are all idiots,” Blood Thorns asserted. “Not a single normal one among them, especially the leader, who is exceptionally stupid. As a demonic cult, they actually have to rely on throwing money into charity to survive here, living so miserably. What kind of demonic cult is this?”

‘They have the name of a demonic cult, but they do no evil deeds and miss no opportunities for good deeds. What kind of demonic cult is that?’

“How do you think they survived in Yinlan City?” Granny Alan said indifferently, “If they weren’t a little foolish, they would have died long ago.”

Even though this place was remote, it was still under the Sword School’s jurisdiction, and the Sword School’s nature was to utilize everything it could.

Otherwise, it wouldn’t have sold off half of itself.

Yinlan City was the same.

Various forces came to seek the demonic bone with ill intentions, so Yinlan City also treated them without courtesy, bleeding them dry and eating their flesh.

The Abyssal Void, using the name of the Old Temple, donated countless resources to establish roots here, and their Heavenly Secret Alliance did the same.

They leveraged the Ci’an Herb Hall, providing both medicine and healers, to gain a foothold in the city.

If one said the Yan family didn’t know about the underlying roots, Granny Alan herself couldn’t convince herself.

They were clearly using all the various forces to revitalize this cold and remote town.

Her actions of weighing herbs didn’t stop. “I advise you not to underestimate them too much. Among the external forces in the city, we and the Abyssal Void are the largest. It’s hard to say that the poison fog in the Inner Subsidiary City wasn’t their doing.”

She said this not out of concern for her, but to warn her.

Blood Thorns also knew this. She curved her lips, “Although I am an evil cultivator, since I work under the Alliance Leader, I have my limits.”

Granny Alan clearly didn’t believe her. She looked up and said, “But little Bayin still hasn’t returned. Do you know where she went?”

Blood Thorns, for once, experienced the difficulty of speaking. “This really wasn’t my doing.”

Granny Alan didn’t say whether she believed her or not, only asked again, “The Alliance Leader is benevolent and surely wouldn’t want to see corpses strewn everywhere. How do you plan to proceed?”

Wanting the demonic bone, yet also wanting to solve it with gentle methods. Blood Thorns couldn’t help but feel annoyed; these demands were too many.

But she showed no expression on her face, still smiling gently, “Why worry? Just leave it to me.”

When she reached a deserted place, Blood Thorns pulled out a plump, white creature from her storage ring—the queen ant of the Black Ant tribe.

She directly flicked out a ball of spiritual energy, enveloping the queen ant and continuously applying pressure.

The queen ant had no self-preservation ability and trembled in pain.

It could only transmit this painful, agitated feeling to the ant tribe, making them find the target at all costs.

Before long, several black ants appeared at Blood Thorns’ feet, twitching their antennae to lead her.

She tossed the queen ant into her storage bag, then sneered sarcastically, “Isn’t this faster?”

But after she followed the black ants, winding and turning, and arrived at a building, she felt something was off.

“This… how can this be the Yan family army’s territory?”

She narrowed her eyes, her mind filled with various thoughts: ‘Could it be that the Yan family army is behind the Abyssal Void, and they’ve been completely played?’

‘What a clever Abyssal Void, what a clever Yan family army!’