Chapter 828: Night Kill

Gu Changhuai, slightly angry, said with a cold expression: "Are you not afraid that these people from the Xiao family, who have outwardly pledged allegiance to the Xia family, are secretly colluding with the Gui Shui Men and will ruin this plan?"

Xia Diansi shook her head and said indifferently, "This matter is not decided by me. Uncle Father has it under control."

"Uncle Father?" Gu Changhuai's gaze narrowed. "Are you saying... Xia Jiancha?"

"Yes," Xia Diansi nodded. "This time, the Xia family has come to the Qian Xue state border, and all matters are entirely under the full responsibility of Uncle Father."

Gu Changhuai closed his mouth and did not speak.

With a Dao Ting Jiancha involved, he, as a Diansi, could only remain silent.

Gu Changhuai turned his head, no longer looking at Xia Diansi, but fixed his gaze on the dark, murky river water, his eyebrows slightly furrowed, lost in thought.

Xia Diansi also no longer looked at Gu Changhuai.

Her expression was calm, her eyes looking forward, her gaze resolute.

The two seemed to have quarreled, neither looking at the other.

Mo Hua sighed slightly, but at the same time, he was silently pondering in his heart.

Xia Jiancha... who is this person?

Jiancha...

By the looks of it, his status should be higher than a Diansi. To be able to suppress Uncle Gu, his cultivation must at least be at the Yu Hua stage. And judging by appearances, his authority is also very significant.

"This Xia Jiancha, after receiving information from the Xiao family, used the exposure of the Wan Yao Valley incident and the weak cultivation atmosphere at the Qian Xue state border as an excuse to extend his reach into the Qian Xue state border's Dao Ting Si..."

The first step was to investigate the Gui Shui Men.

But, why investigate the Gui Shui Men?

To be loyal to the Dao Ting and uphold Dao Lv?

Mo Hua shook his head.

Moreover, after investigating the Gui Shui Men, what next?

What else will the Xia family, or rather this "Xia Jiancha," do?

Mo Hua furrowed his brow, feeling the situation becoming more and more chaotic.

Everyone wanted to get involved, and the Qian Xue state border was quickly turning into a mess.

"Let's think about it slowly later..."

The urgent matter at hand was still catching Shui Yan Luo.

Originally, Mo Hua was quite confident, but at this time, with the Xiao family involved, his heart felt slightly uneasy again.

Things were becoming more and more complex.

Also, did Xia Jiancha truly trust the Xiao family? This important matter of exterminating the water bandits and catching Shui Yan Luo, would he really let the Xiao family get involved?

Mo Hua couldn't quite believe it.

He couldn't figure it out, but just then, he recalled what Elder Xun had taught him before:

"When encountering matters, one cannot only consider from one's own perspective, otherwise one will inevitably have a short-sighted vision, narrow cognition, and will unknowingly fall into a dead end."

"One needs to learn to stand on a high place and look down from above."

"Put yourself in others' shoes, make yourself into an 'ancestor,' and think about how they look at problems..."

"Make oneself as an ancestor..."

Even if Xia Jiancha wasn't an ancestor, he was in a high position. When he looked at problems, he naturally looked down from above.

Mo Hua put himself in his shoes and thought for a moment.

Shui Yan Luo was important to him.

But to a cultivator at Xia Jiancha's level, she probably wasn't given much thought.

Shui Yan Luo was just one of his chess pieces.

Even the Xiao family and the Gui Shui Men were all his chess pieces.

This time, he was driving a tiger to swallow a wolf, letting the Xiao family eat this chess piece, Shui Yan Luo. This was both a way to seize control of the Gui Shui Men and also to...

Test the Xiao family?

If the Xiao family was honest, killed the water bandits, and caught Shui Yan Luo, it would indicate that the Xiao family's surrender was sincere.

If the Xiao family caused trouble behind the scenes, it would indicate that the Xiao family had ulterior motives.

Once the Xiao family truly had ulterior motives, seemingly obedient but inwardly rebellious, this Xia Jiancha might turn around and deal with the Xiao family after finishing with the Gui Shui Men...

Drive the tiger to swallow the wolf, then kill both the tiger and the wolf.

The more Mo Hua thought about it, the more reasonable it seemed. He couldn't help but mutter in his heart: "These people have many thoughts and dirty hearts..."

In the night, the river water was dim, and the boat team was still advancing.

Mo Hua sat at the bow of the boat, pointing the direction.

And at the bow of the boat, there was a silver light line, swimming freely in the water, which was exactly the small silver fish.

It happily led the way for Mo Hua.

Only others couldn't see it.

Passing through the vast river domain, they arrived at that natural marsh "maze." The waterway gradually narrowed, and silt piled up, making it difficult for the boats to advance.

Xia Diansi then ordered all the boats to connect their tails, like a straight snake, moving forward in the "maze." This way, they wouldn't get lost or fall into a mud pit.

After an unknown amount of time, the crowd arrived at the island.

Mo Hua looked up. The moon was cool and the wind was high, the night was deep. The small island was still the same as that day, quietly crouching in the Yan Shui River, like a crouching fierce beast.

Xia Diansi waved her hand, "Conceal."

All the spirit boats trembled, making a slight buzzing sound. A layer of light curtain rose, lightly covering the boat bodies, concealing them.

Mo Hua was startled by the sight.

Concealed spirit boats!

These more than thirty boats were all surprisingly spirit boats with a concealment effect!

Concealment spirit tools were always expensive, not to mention spirit boats of this size.

The Xia family was indeed rich and powerful.

Mo Hua silently sighed in his heart.

After all the boats were concealed, they hid among the water grasses surrounding the small island.

Xia Diansi summoned some of the leading Zhi Si and informed them of the more detailed encirclement plan:

"This is the island's array map. It was..."

Xia Diansi glanced at Mo Hua and said silently, "...personally surveyed and designed by a highly skilled array master..."

"On the array map, the island's internal array patterns are drawn, and the positions of the eight trigrams and eight gates are marked..."

"Around Hai time, we will make our move. At this time, the water bandits will go out to rob, and the stronghold gate will be wide open. We will take advantage of the moment they go out, intercept them halfway, kill a batch first, then break open the gate, and rush in to kill."

"After rushing in, that is the key."

"The water bandits' stronghold gate is the Kan gate. If the plan goes smoothly, the time we rush into the Kan gate will be Zi time."

"After Zi time, we rush into the island. The water bandits will certainly activate the array, and after this, the eight gates within the array will probably circulate once every half shi chen."

"Here, this is the situation of the eight gates circulating. You leading the people must remember it well."

"Other gates don't need to be managed. You only need to block the Du gate and Jing gate, these two flat gates, and the Kai gate, Xiu gate, and Sheng gate, these three auspicious gates, especially the Sheng gate, to prevent the water bandits from escaping."

"Of course, relying on manpower to block will definitely not work."

"Around the small island, except for the initial Kan gate, the entrances of the other seven gates need to be set up with trap arrays to capture, surround, or even seal and kill these water bandits."

"These arrays should also be prepared in advance."

"Later, I and Gu Diansi will be responsible for removing the dark sentries on the four sides of the island. The other people must set up these arrays properly before the battle..."

After Xia Diansi finished instructing, the crowd of Zhi Si had stern expressions, all cupping their hands and saying in a deep voice:

"Yes!"

But at the same time, they also sighed in their hearts.

Especially Xiao Tianquan, he opened his mouth in praise and said:

"The Xia family is indeed a great family with deep foundations. In a short time, they could invite such a highly skilled array master to see through the array on this island."

"I wonder..." Xiao Tianquan asked curiously, "What is this mister's surname and name, and what is his origin? May this subordinate have the honor of seeing him?"

Xiao Tianquan was next to Mo Hua, and Mo Hua couldn't help but blink.

"This 'mister' is standing right beside you now..." Xia Diansi said silently in her heart.

But she couldn't reveal Mo Hua's identity, only saying: "This matter is confidential and inconvenient to reveal."

Xiao Tianquan also said: "This subordinate was rude."

"Good," Xia Diansi was decisive, no longer delaying, and ordered:

"Time is short, let's move now, don't give the water bandits a chance to escape, and use thunderous means to encircle and exterminate them all!"

The crowd of Zhi Si cupped their hands and bowed their heads, solemnly saying:

"Obey the order!"

After this, in the dark night, one after another concealed spirit boats scattered in an orderly manner, weaving a large net on the Yan Shui River, gradually enveloping the small island where the water bandits were perched.

The first step was to remove the dark sentries first.

This matter required silence and no mistakes, so it was handed over to Gu Changhuai and Xia Diansi, two Golden Core cultivators, to handle.

The night grew gradually thicker. A water bandit watching near the small island was yawning, feeling somewhat sleepy.

The small island was desolate, and outsiders never came. As time passed, these water bandits were more or less slack, and their vigilance was far less than before.

Just as he was yawning, a fair hand suddenly covered his mouth.

The water bandit's pupils constricted, and just as he was about to shout, a sword tip pierced through his chest. Wind-attribute spirit power spread along the wound stabbed by the sword tip towards his meridians, cutting his internal organs into a bloody mess.

The water bandit struggled a few times. A moment later, his gaze dimmed, his breath extinguished, and his life ended.

Gu Changhuai killed one person, turned his head to look, and saw that Xia Diansi had already held a short sword and cut another water bandit's throat.

A layer of frost covered the short sword.

The moment it cut open the water bandit's throat, this layer of frost sealed the water bandit's mouth and nose, preventing him from making a sound. Even the water bandit's blood was gradually frozen by the frost.

In just a moment, the water bandit's face turned purple, his whole body was frozen, and he died on the spot.

Gu Changhuai's eyebrows rose.

This was the first time he had seen Xia Diansi make a move.

Ice seal, assassination, one sword kill.

It quite conformed to this woman's usual cold nature.

Mo Hua, who was secretly observing from afar, was also somewhat surprised.

"Ice spirit root..."

This was the first time he had seen an ice spirit root cultivator.

The common spirit root attributes in the cultivation world are divided into five elements and three strange.

The five elements are gold, wood, water, fire, and earth. The three strange are "wind, ice, thunder."

Among them, wind spirit root is not too common but can be occasionally seen, such as Gu Changhuai.

Ice spirit root is very rare. Mo Hua has only seen Xia Diansi so far.

As for innate thunder spirit root, which can cultivate powerful thunder path laws, this is even rarer.

After removing the dark sentries, Mo Hua led the people to approach, then began to set up trap arrays near the water island's edge to trap the enemy.

He placed fishing nets in the water.

These fishing nets were specially made. The nets had arrays, barbs, and were also poisoned.

After setting them up, the crowd began to move to another location.

It was still the old rule. Gu Changhuai and Xia Diansi, the two Golden Core cultivators, were responsible for assassinating the sentries. After confirming safety, Mo Hua led the people to set up the drawn arrays and some trap spirit tools.

However, the range of the water island was larger than Mo Hua had predicted, and time was also tight. The hastily refined array charcoal was still not enough.

So after continuously setting up six gates, all of the more than one hundred array charcoals and spirit tools were used up.

But there were still two gates remaining.

One was the Kan gate, which was used by the water bandits to leave the island and by the Dao Ting Si to kill into the island. It could be left alone.

But the other Li gate, which was directly opposite the Kan gate, could not be ignored.

"I'll arrange people to guard this position," Xia Diansi said.

Mo Hua pondered for a moment, shook his head, "Manpower cannot be dispersed, otherwise it will mess up the previous plan."

"Then this gate..."

"I have a way," Mo Hua said.

He took out several bottles of ugly-looking, pungent-smelling blood pills and some fishy-smelling water algae from his storage bag.

These were all things he had prepared beforehand.

"This pill is refined from demon beast offal, so the smell is very strong. Cultivators avoid it like the plague, but demon beasts like it very much."

"These water algae, the fishermen in the small fishing village call them fishy algae, and they are also used to attract water demons."

"If traps aren't enough, then use water demons to make up for it."

"Throw these blood pills and fishy algae at the Li gate to 'make a nest' and attract nearby water demons."

"This way, this Li gate also becomes a man-made 'dead end'."

"If the water bandits escape from the island and enter the water from here, they will discover that there is a group of water demons waiting for them in the water."

"Even if they are good in water, they cannot be opponents of a group of water demons. As long as they enter the water, they will undoubtedly die."

This group of water bandits could die, but they could not escape.

Xia Diansi was slightly stunned, then looked at Mo Hua deeply again, nodded and said: "Okay."

She couldn't help but sigh in her heart.

This little teenager might really be clever.

In such a short time, he could come up with a method. Although it was a bit sinister, it was just right to deal with this group of evil water bandits.

On the other hand, Gu Changhuai was somewhat unsurprised.

He knew this must have been Mo Hua's plan all along.

Even borrowing demon beasts to kill others, Mo Hua must not have done it for the first time.

Before, there must have also been people who fell into his hands...

After discussing, Mo Hua began to "make a nest."

He threw the fishy algae and the blood pills refined from demon beast offal into the water.

The blood pills smelled very foul.

Xia Diansi couldn't help but cover her mouth and nose, and then asked somewhat curiously:

"Are these blood pills originally in this shape? Why are they so ugly, like crooked gourds and cracked dates?"

"No," Mo Hua said silently, "Because I refined them..."

His level of refining pills was too poor.

This pill was not a proper medicinal pill either. He just felt that whatever demon beasts liked to eat, he just mixed it all together in a furnace and refined it haphazardly. The result was this ugly appearance.

Mo Hua was somewhat helpless.

He drew arrays very beautifully, but the pills he refined were very ugly. He couldn't help it either.

Xia Diansi looked at the clear, handsome, and elegant Mo Hua, then looked at the ugly pills in his hand, and remained silent.

After making the nest, everything was ready.

The crowd then began to lurk in the water grasses, waiting for Hai time to arrive.

The night grew deeper and deeper. A string of crescent moons on the horizon, like a sharp sickle, revealed a cold edge.

The atmosphere was oppressive, filled with murderous intent.

After an unknown amount of time, Gu Changhuai, who had just closed his eyes to rest, opened them.

There was a sound coming from the water island.

A "zhi ya" sound rang out.

It seemed that a door had opened, followed by the sound of boats breaking the water surface, mixed with rough and noisy human voices.

"Going hunting..."

"Don't know what we can kill today."

"Kill the men quickly, it doesn't matter, but keep the women alive. Don't cut off their heads with one knife, it spoils the appetite too much."

"You motherfucker, you kill men but not women, aren't you favoring women over men?"

"Nonsense, aren't you too?"

More and more boats, and the voices became more and more noisy.

When a small group of water bandits, probably fifty or sixty people, came out of the island in boats and floated on the water surface, they couldn't advance or retreat.

A wind blade suddenly arrived.

A water bandit with a scar on his head, who was just talking and laughing, was immediately decapitated. Blood spurted out, and his body, like a wooden stake, fell into the river.

The noisy voices stopped abruptly.

The surroundings instantly fell silent.

Then a water bandit said in fear: "What is it?"

"His head is gone?"

"Did a water demon cut off his head?"

The surrounding night was deep and dark, the water mist was hazy, and a thread of killing intent seeped out from the mist.

Soon, a water bandit sensed something was wrong and exclaimed: "Someone... kill..."

A short sword carrying ice-cold spirit power cut open his throat, sealing his voice, freezing his blood, and also depriving him of his life.

Behind the water bandit, Xia Diansi put away her short sword, her face as sinking as water, and said solemnly:

"Kill!"

After that, the sound of killing suddenly rose.

The originally empty and dim water surface suddenly showed dense figures of boats.

On each boat, there were more than ten Zhi Si with excellent spirit tools and stern expressions.

At this time, with Xia Diansi's order, the Zhi Si all drew out their long swords and leaped into the water bandits' boats. They raised their swords and slashed, spirit power intertwined, and blood splashed in all directions.

In the blink of an eye, more than ten water bandits were killed.

Either their heads were chopped off, or their arms were cut off, or their heart veins were pierced. Blood gushed like springs, staining a section of the river surface red.

The water bandits' expressions were fearful.

"Enemy attack!"

"Motherfucker!"

"Where did these bastards come from?!"

"Standard spirit swords, they're the Dao Ting Si lackeys!"

The water bandits all cursed.

The Dao Ting Si and the smell of blood stimulated their ferocity. They were all desperate outlaws, naturally not lacking in desperate bandit spirit.

The water bandits also all drew out their knives and swords, took out their blood-colored evil tools, and fought with the Dao Ting Si.

But their numbers were few, and they were suddenly ambushed on the water surface. Naturally, they were no match for the prepared Dao Ting Si cultivators.

What's more, there were still Gu Changhuai and Xia Diansi, two Golden Core cultivators, leading the team.

The water bandits retreated step by step.

One after another was chopped down.

Finally, some water bandits were afraid and turned to escape towards the water island, but they were blocked by the water bandits behind them. In the back and forth, they couldn't advance or retreat, only chaos into a group, and were harvested one by one by the Dao Ting Si Zhi Si.

At the "Kan gate" of the water island, there was a door.

The door was built of wood and stone, with an array circulating above it.

Behind the door was the stronghold where the water bandits were perched.

The Dao Ting Si killed towards the island, taking a few lives with every step forward.

At this time, some water bandits shouted: "Quick! Quick, close the door! These bastards want to kill in."

The door was closed halfway, blocked by the water bandits outside.

The water bandits who were suffering the extermination by the Dao Ting Si outside shouted angrily: "Close your motherfucking door, I haven't gone in yet!"

While they were pushing and shoving, Gu Changhuai had already killed his way to the door.

He took out a feather fan, condensed spirit power, waved his hand, and fanned out several extremely sharp wind-attribute feather blades, instantly twisting and killing several water bandits.

After that, Gu Changhuai leaped up, his body like a fierce wind, and directly rushed into the stronghold gate.

The water bandits inside the door surrounded and killed Gu Changhuai.

But they were only ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivators. Although they killed people like flies, when it came to frontal combat, they were fundamentally no match for Gu Changhuai, who had deep family learning and thick foundations.

Xia Diansi also took the opportunity to kill in. The cold light on her sword sparkled, ice light bloomed, and her paths sealed throats.

In just a moment, a group of water bandits at the Eight Trigrams "Kan" gate were killed.

Gu Changhuai urged his spirit power and forcibly broke several arrays within the Kan gate according to Mo Hua's instructions.

Without the array maintaining it, the door, made of ordinary earth and stone, collapsed instantly.

From then on, the water bandits' lair was wide open.

More than four hundred Dao Ting Si Zhi Si, with sharp gazes, held knives and swords, like a group of fierce wolves, covering and killing in.

At this time, it was just Zi time.

In the middle of the stronghold, the eight gates began to circulate.

The Dao Ting Si began to cover and kill, the water bandits began to struggle, and then followed the eight gates to escape...

Everything was the same as Mo Hua's plan.

But Mo Hua did not go in.

Cultivators' melee was still somewhat dangerous after all.

He sat alone on the concealed small boat, poured himself a cup of sweet lychee wine, narrowed his eyes, and drank leisurely.

In the middle of the stronghold, the fierce battle became more intense, and the smell of blood also became stronger and stronger...