by D cat
"In addition to losing fifteen martial cultivators, we've been robbed of a total of 500,000 gold coins and countless other precious resources!"
CHAPTER 73 - PRICE TO PAY
With Ye Lin acting in such a manner, Ye Feizhang could not refuse to accept reality any longer.
"Someone actually dared to rob my Ye Family's shop?!"
Fuming with rising anger, Ye Feizhang's eyes were completely bloodshot as his entire body emitted terrifying killing intent. "Did you catch those three thieves?"
"N-No... Not yet!"
Not daring to raise his head to look a Ye Feizhang, Ye Lin continued speaking with a trembling voice, "The main force of the Ye Family had been sent to hunt down Su Lang."
"The law enforcers from the Union had all arrived late at the crime scenes. The culprits had already run away by the time they arrived."
"Damn it! Who is it!?"
Ye Feizhang's eyes almost split open from his undying rage as he gnashed his teeth in anger.
With three of their most important shops robbed, not only had the Ye Family suffered great economic losses, but their reputation had also been severely damaged.
The dignified Ye Family was robbed of three important shops in broad daylight and under the watchful eyes of everyone. Furthermore, they had yet to catch any of the culprits.
This was simply a great humiliation!
The Ye Family had never ever suffered such great losses and humiliation throughout their entire history.
"Investigate the matter at once! We must catch the culprits and torture him to death!"
At this moment, Ye Feizhang was like a volcano that was about erupt.
"But Family Head, our main force is currently outside of the city!"
Ye Lin swallowed hard and uttered, "Do you want to allow the League of Martial Cultivators to investigate this matter?"
"The League of Martial Cultivators?"
Suddenly thinking of something, Ye Feizhang forcefully suppressed his rage and said, "All of you, withdraw first. Let me think about this."
"Yes, sir!"
Both Ye Lin and the messenger kowtowed as if they were carrying heavy weights before carefully taking their leave.
"The white-cloaked man suddenly appeared before vanishing into thin air...."
Deep in thought, Ye Feizhang suddenly opened his eyes and muttered, "Such a strange method... Su Lang!"
"Yes, this is definitely Su Lang's doing!"
"The same thing happened in the Dark Snake Stronghold. That black robed figure also suddenly disappeared in an inexplicable manner!"
"Furthermore, Su Lang is the only person capable of such actions!"
"I originally thought he was just a nobody. However, it's clear to me now that he's an extremely difficult enemy to deal with."
Pondering of this exact thought, Ye Feizhang's complexion turned gloomy as if water was going to drip out from his mouth.
Suddenly, his expression changed drastically as he shouted in a fit of rage, "Damn it! Since that brat dared to attack our shops and headquarters in the city stronghold, he must be planning to do the same for the ones outside!"
"Men!"
Without a moment of hesitation, Ye Feizhang immediately ordered, "Inform all strongholds inside and outside the city to fortify their security!"
By the time he thought of this possibility, however, it was already far too late.
Outside the city, in the E-class Crimson Bear Stronghold of the Ye Family.
In order to hunt down Su Lang, this particular stronghold had already sent out quite a number of martial cultivators. Thus, their defense was currently extremely lax.
Fully aware of that fact, the white-cloaked man sneaked into the stronghold and rushed straight into the remaining stationed guards. Ransacking anything in his path, he would also slice apart any of the guards he came across.
By the time everyone in the stronghold realized they were being attacked, a large number of the guards had already been killed as they screamed and fled for their lives.
The same exact incidents took place in the other strongholds owned by the Ye Family.
Although the strongest martial cultivators in these strongholds were all the in Advanced Mortal Realm, none of them could withstand even a single blow from Su Lang's clones.
By the time Ye Feizhang's order arrived, three of their strongholds had already been raided by Su Lang.
"Humph! This is the price you have to pay for provoking me!"
Within a certain cave, Su Lang revealed a cunning grin as he laid down leisurely.
At that moment, he began counted his gains and profits with bursting excitement.
At this time, the Storage Space had already been filled with all kinds of items.
Weapons, medicinal pills, heavenly materials, earthly treasure, materials of Vicious Beasts... all these items had piled up into a small mountain within the Storage Space.
The mountain of glittering gold coins and vibrant Spirit Stones were especially dazzling sights to one's eyes!
"Hahaha, the Ye Family truly deserves its reputation. The spoils I gained certainly doesn't disappoint!"
As the corners of his lips curled up into a smile, Su Lang said excitedly, "System, deposit all the gold coins into my balance!"
With that single order, the balance of his gold coins soared greatly!
100,000... 300,000... 600,000!
In the end, the total amount of gold coins reached an unprecedented amount of 623,547 gold coins!
In addition to the gold coins, his clones had also looted a large number of pills and weapons.
Among the weapons, the best one was that middle-grade artifact, the Violet Spirit Sword!
"The black Tang Blade is already unable to keep up with my attacks."
"Since I've also grasped more sword techniques now, I believe it's about time to change weapons!"
The corners of Su Lang's lips curled up as he lifted out the Violet Spirit Sword from his Storage Space.
The blade of the Violet Spirit Sword stretched out magnificently as the design of its scabbard matched the hilt of the sword perfectly. Furthermore, the engravings on the blade were like stars in the night sky, a rather creative concept for a sword.
*Swoosh!*
As Su Lang's thumb twitched slightly, the longsword was immediately unsheathed from its scabbard.
At that moment, a loud shockwave suddenly burst from the cave like a clap of thunder!
"It's a well-crafted sword."
Su Lang stroked the blade of the sword with a satisfied smile on his face.
After playing around with the Violet Spirit Sword for a while, Su Lang sheathed it back into its scabbard before shifting his attention to the medicinal pills in the Storage Space.
CHAPTER 74 - RAIDING THE YE FAMILY'S STRONGHOLD!
The medicinal pills from the Ye Family's pill store had all be stolen by Su Lang's clone.
The medicinal pills were not only of excellent quality, but it was even rich in variety as there were ones for healing, detoxifaction, cultivation, etc.
"Holy sh*t! There's even Tier 5 medicinal pills capable of assisting cutivators in the Martial Expert Realm with their cultivation!"
"With these medicinal pills, my cultivation speed will only skyrocket once again. How wonderful!"
As his eyes lit up in elation, Su Lang immediately took out the pills of the best qualities among the ones from his Storage Space and immediately swallowed them like candy.
In that instant, a strong force suddenly began gathering within Su Lang's body.
That force appeared from thin air like a giant beast tearing apart and devouring all the spiritual energy it came around in the atmosphere.
As the effect calmed down, Su Lang's cultivation speed had almost tripled.
"At this pace, I will only need two more hours to break through to the Advanced Mortal Realm!"
Unable to contain his excitement, Su Lang burst into gales of laughter. "Moreover, it will only be a matter of t
ime before I break through to the Peak Mortal Realm. When that time comes, the hunter will inevitably become the hunted!"
"But before that, why don't I cause you to shriek in agony first? Hahaha!"
As the feeling of his rising cultivation refreshed his mind, Su Lang gave the order to continue looting the strongholds of the Ye Family.
Under those orders, his clones continue to raid the rest of their strongholds.
Despite receiving Ye Feizhang's order to fortify the defenses within the stronghold, they were nevertheless slaughtered merciless and plundered of their precious resources.
No matter what the guards in the strongholds did, Su Lang's clones would simply slay everyone in their paths and loot everything they see.
As time passed, more and more strongholds of the Ye Family were raided. Out of the five E-class strongholds, four of them had already been wiped clean by Su Lang's clones.
Furthermore, seven or eight of the F-class strongholds had also been attacked.
If not for the time needed for the clones to travel between each stronghold, the number would have been much greater.
With so many strongholds raided, news of such incidents spread like wildfire throughout the entire city and could no longer be controlled.
At this point, almost everyone knew that the Ye Family had provoked an incredible force.
As heated discussions regarding the raided strongholds emerged within the city, more than a dozen versions of the rumors had already been created to satisfy the citizen's curiosity.
In addition to the prevous incidents, there were even rumors going around that the Ye Family was going to perish from this world.
"That son of a b*tch! I will definitely kill him!"
Due to huge amount of losses that the Ye Family suffered, Ye Feizhang's rage finally erupted as he smashed everything in his sights to vent his undying rage.
At the same time, the Ye Family had fallen into a state of panic.
[Ding! The Sea of Cultivation had been filled. Does the Host want to break through?]
"Break through immediately!"
Su Lang's eyes shone brightly as he gave the order.
In the next instant, a fountain of spiritual energy gushed out from his body as the refined energy from pills spun fiercely like a vortex in his body.
As the vortex continued to condense, it turned into a dense ball that supplied spiritual energy throughout his body.
"The Advanced Mortal Realm!"
Stretching his arms and legs, Su Lang could feel the drastic change in his strength.
Without even needing to look at his Property Panel, he already knew that his attributes had all increased by an entire level.
With such strength, coupled with his three elusive clones, he could finally compete with the Ye Family's entire army.
However, Su Lang did not aim for an all-out war against the Ye Family. Instead, he sought after a one-sided massacre.
"Just you wait, for my gift to you will soon be delivered right to your doorsteps!"
Throwing another Tier 5 medicinal pill into his mouth, the corners of his lips waned up into a wicked smile.
......
Meanwhile, Ye Lingfeng and the others currently on the hunt for Su Lang had just learned of the terrible news that the strongholds of the Ye Family had been raided one after another.
At that instant, everyone was petrified as if they had looked straight into Medusa's eyes.
Dumbfounded, they stood in place like a bunch of sculptures.
Only after a long time did everyone regain their senses and sucked in a breath of cold air in shock.
"We can't keep chasing after Su Lang without any leads. All the strongholds of the Ye Family will have been completely uprooted before we even find him!"
Ye Xiangming's face turned bleach pale as he thought of the consequences. Thus, he decided to return to his base and protect his family's stronghold.
"Father! We can't let our efforts be in vain!"
After weighing the pros and cons, Ye Lingfeng attempted to persuade him, "If we give up on chasing him and go back to defend the rest of strongholds, Su Lang will definitely vanish from our radar forever."
"But other than the D-class Vicious Beast territories, we have already searched every single other location!"
Ye Xiangming said anxiously, "Although we have searched for such a long time, we have yet to discover a single lead of his whereabouts! Do you think we should risk our lives and search for him in the D-class Vicious Beast territories instead?!"
CHAPTER 75 - THE LONG-AWAITED COUNTERATTACK
"Of course!"
Ye Lingfeng said seriously, "If Su Lang, a mere cultivator of the Mortal Realm, dares to enter the D-class Vicious Beasts area, why wouldn't we?"
"That's true. Even if Su Lang did enter the territory of the D-class Vicious Beasts, he certainly wouldn't be able to go very far."
Ye Tian also stepped forward and added, "For all we know, he could simply be hiding in the nearest D-class Vicious Beast territory. We can't just give up like this."
"But... our stronghold!"
Clutching his chest in pain, Ye Xiangming fumed with so much anger that he almost spat out a mouthful of blood.
"Father, my heart is conflicted too. However, we can't be so short-sighted!"
Not seeing a need to be polite at this point, Ye Lingfeng said directly, "Just think about it, as long as Grandfather is still there, our Ye Family will still remain as one of the four major powerhouses in Red Maple City."
"Our strongholds will recover their previous strength sooner or later. Furthermore, we can just earn more gold coins when we go back, so these losses certainly aren't a fatal blow to our family!"
"Once we capture Su Lang and force him to reveal his secret, we will be able to soar into the heavens. Who knows? We might even be qualified to enter the Azure Star Capital!"
Upon the mention of Azure Star Capital, Ye Lingfeng's eyes gleamed with irrepressible yearning and excitement.
After all, the Azure Star Capital was the largest city where all the elites in the Azure Star gathered!
Compared to the Azure Star Capital, the Red Maple Stronghold was merely an insignificant village in the countryside.
"Alright, I understand!"
Ye Xiangming suddenly came to a decision and said bitterly, "I have to admit... my son is quite the smart one indeed. This stupid head of mine almost caused me to lose a great opportunity!"
"There's no time to lose!"
Ye Lingfeng said with a smile, "Father, we must search through every single corner of the D-class Vicious Beast territories at once!"
"Alright!"
Ye Xiangming gave a firm nod and immediately passed the order to his other troops.
After receiving the order, the martial cultivators formed nearly thirty squads with Martial Experts as their squad leaders and began to search the D-class Vicious Beast territories frantically.
On the other hand, the martial cultivators who was not confident enough to enter those territories remained in the periphery to prevent Su Lang from escaping.
......
In the blink of an eye, a night had already passed.
At this time, five E-class strongholds and more than thirty F-class strongholds of the Ye Family had already been raided by Su Lang.
Also, one E-class stronghold and five other F-class ones of the Yang Family had collapsed due to the overwhelming strength of the clones.
The balance of the gold coins in Su Lang's Storage Space had also risen to a total of 785846 gold coins.
With so many gold coins in his possession, it was only a matter of time before Su Lang upgraded his Clone Dispatch Function to Level 5. Furthermore, he would soon be able to unlock the right to activate the new function.
However, this was not what excited Su Lang the most.
At this moment, he was completely focused on the small figure cultivating in the mysterious black space within his mind.
"Hurry, hurry, hurry! Why i
sn't it enough just yet?"
Staring impatiently at the small figure that flickered with a layer of gold, Su Lang turned into a cat scratching at his body.
Soon, the tiny figure had been completely encompassed by the golden light.
"Stop being so pesky and break through already!"
Without waiting for the system's notification, Su Lang shouted excitedly.
"Whoosh!"
As if a black hole had formed in his body, the spiritual energy around him was all absorbed into his core.
Once again, the vortex of spiritual energy expanded and nearly filled up his entire Sea of Cultivation.
"Property Panel!"
[Name]: Su Lang
[Race]: Human
[Qualification Level]: Turbid Body
[Realm Level]: Peak Mortal Realm
[Attack Level]: Advanced Mortal Realm +
[Defense Level]: Advanced Mortal Realm
[Movement Level]: Advanced Mortal Realm +
[Endurance Level]: Advanced Mortal Realm
[Skill Mastery]: Infinite Heart Sutra, True Lightning (Low-rank, Entry-state), Thunder Filament Arts (Low-rank, Entry-state), Nine Elephants Mountain Treading Technique (Intermediate-rank, Entry-state), Soaring Flower Sword Arts (Low-rank, Entry-state), Nimble Feather Footwork (Low-rank, Entry-state), Floating Willow Sword Arts (Low-rank, Entry-state), Sky Splitting Sword Arts (Low-rank, Entry-state), (Parts of the cultivation techniques has been omitted)]
[Activated System Functions]: One-Click Cultivation Function (Level 5), One-Click Martial Arts Function (Level 5), Clone Dispatch Function (Level 4)
"Advanced Mortal Realm (+)! Yeah!"
At that moment, Su Lang revealed a sinister smile as he muttered, "The long-awaited counterattack will now commence!"
Although he had only been staring at the tiny figure the entire night, he certainly did not remain idle, for he had already sent his clones to scout the surrounding area.
Now, he could dispatch his clones anywhere in this area with a single thought in his mind.
