Molting the Mortal Coil

Chapter 913: Intelligence

The assault upon the Yi Yang Groups hidden bases was very much dependent on the Lang Clan having gathered a prodigious amount of intelligence upon them beforehand. For the Yi Yang Group, their bad relationship with the Lang Clan had formed a few decades ago and after being caught they had made sure to stay far away. Unfortunately for them, the Lang Clan didnt feel the same way. Jiao, one of the two Matriarchs of their clan have a deep disdain for them and the time the Yi Yang Group had tried to target the Lang Clan had turned into a grudge. A grudge that had festered for hundreds of years as the Lang Clan grew on the Inner World.

Since its return, the Lang Clans only major move was to assist the Chong Clan in defeating the Fu Clan. They had otherwise been quite calm and stable, giving others the illusion that they were content with the status quo. The Yi Yang Group had no idea that they were being so heavily targeted and so many of their secrets were pried out by the Lang Clans agents. Their hidden bases as well as their communications were the perfect target to strike at the Yi Yang Group to drive them into a corner. They would lose their backup plan and not even be aware that its gone until its too late. Of course, there was still one more key part to this plan in order to completely destroy the Yi Yang Group.

They had to demonstrate to the world that the Yi Yang Group was weak. Once they showed others how weak they were, the mountain of enemies they had would be eager to take advantage. The Yi Yang Group would suffer for a while, but there was little chance these groups would commit enough resources to destroy them completely. As a dark force, the Yi Yang Group would not be so easy to wipe out. Unlike a more upright group with a single public home, the Yi Yang Group was used to sneaking around and operating behind in secret. Unless one of their enemies was completely sure of wiping them out entirely, no one would want to provoke them so deeply.

It was one thing to act like vultures, picking at the Yi Yang Group to scavenge some benefits. They could damage their enemy and make off with the spoils. On the other hand, if they tried to wipe out the Yi Yang Group, they would need to be completely sure of wiping them out to the last man. If not, they might fall victim to that terrible mistake: not pulling a weed out by the roots. It was a saying to refer to the phenomenon of a lone survivor growing up and returning someday in the future to seek vengeance. It was the same move that the Fu Clan had long ago tried to perform upon the Lang Clan. The Fu Clan hadnt initiated the destruction of the Lang Clan, but when they saw most of the Lang Clan get wiped out, they didnt hesitate to hunt down every last member of the Lang Clan that were scattered over the Kingdom, trying to finish the job. Sage had escaped the Kingdom and now the Fu Clan was gone.

The Lang Clan didnt wish to become the next victim of the same cycle so they struck hard and fast, choosing their targets carefully. The forces committed so far were only a fraction of their strength. Most of the locations had only been struck by one of Sages children along with a few hundred Dragoons. Theyd also brought along other Core Formation Clan members as backup, but they stayed on containment duty instead of rushing onto the battlefield. The Lang Clan had large enough forces to do the same thing to every Yi Yang Group base, but they chose to err on the side of caution. Instead of trying to completely wipe out the Yi Yang Group, they would just maim them and let others finish them off.

In Sages opinion they were sort of cheating. Sages children each had a Nascent Soul secretly tailing them in the dark, and since they knew this they had taken the most dangerous jobs upon themselves. If anything were to go wrong and the Yi Yang Group secretly had their own Nascent Souls then these guards would give them a good chance to escape. So far it turns out their worries were unfounded. None of these hidden guards had to make a move and the five backup locations of the Yi Yang Group were obliterated.

The last attack was on one of the Yi Yang Groups largest public locations. One of the places where they pretended to be an upright group with legitimate activities. Unlike the other attacks, this one was not made in secret. A group of Cultivators surrounded in a glowing aura stopped in front of a business and kicked over the stall outside. Then they barged through the doors and started smashing all the displays. A pair of guards rushed to intercept them, but they received a pair of kicks that sent them flying into the pile of partially destroyed goods. Then without staying too long in the building, they stepped out and walked through an open archway to approach the Yi Yang Groups compound in the center of a busy city.

The disturbance theyd already caused at their main business had already put them on alert, but before the Yi Yang Group could send their men to deal with the troublemakers, those troublemakers were already kicking in their door and begging to be dealt with. It was just too bad that the troublemakers in question didnt agree. The Yi Yang Groups guards were furious, but not murderous. So far these people had only broken goods and roughed up their security team. Since this was in the middle of a city and was one of their public operations, the Yi Yang Group here was mostly hired employees and had to act with restraint. Only a handful of the people in the building wore the wide brimmed spiked caps.

This all seemed like a bunch of gangsters or hoodlums that needed punishment. The group of glowing Cultivators charged forward and plowed into the Yi Yang Groups defenders like someone had just hiked a ball. They crashed into each other and the Yi Yang Groups men were blown backwards by the much smaller group of offenders. They pushed their way through and charged through the front doors of the Yi Yang Groups compound. More powerful defenders rushed to stop them, thinking this was some sort of gate crashing event. Did these idiots think that this was a Martial Arts Dojo and they were here to break their name plate?

Once through the gates, the glowing Cultivators suddenly changed in demeanor. These gangsters suddenly gained a bloodthirsty light in their eyes. Their movements that seemed to be like roughhousing suddenly switched to a fierce and violent advance. The glowing auras around their bodies changed shape, forming many sharp spikes along their limbs and two large curved blades on their forearms. They spread out and with just a few waves of their hands stole the lives of the Yi Yang Groups defenders. The guards theyd knocked down in the yard rushed in after them, but when they looked through the doors to see the interior of the building and the charnel house it had become, they froze in fear. The majority of them instantly turned around and fled for their lives, tearing off their jackets that bore the emblem of the Yi Yang Group and throwing them on the ground.