USAW Book 1 Chapter 18
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Book 1 Chapter 18: Bai Yunfei’s plan
In the hall of the stronghold, Han Xiao was sitting in a chair with a solemn expression. Under the illumination of the lights in the hall, his face looked somewhat ferocious and terrifying. A group of bandits guarding outside the entrance hall all held their breath for fear that they would annoy their chieftain and become a target for him to vent his anger on.
This battle tonight had resulted in the death of the only remaining hallmaster and ordinary bandit casualties of nearly one hundred! However, when Han Xiao had arrived, he could not even see clearly what the enemy looked like.
“Damn it! Damn it! Who are they actually?! That man who killed Xiao Chen, the spear in his hands is definitely a soul item! And not low-level at that! High human-tier… or is it an earth-tier soul item? Destroying my Blackwood Stronghold in three days from now?… Such insolence!” In his fury, Han Xiao smacked his palm down and the newly changed chair under him was gloriously relieved of its duties once again.
Soul items, made from the cores of soul beasts or special materials which contained the force of natural elements, were powerful weapons.
Soul items were divided into three tiers, heaven, earth and human. Each tier was in turn divided into three classes, high, middle and low. Even low human-tier soul items, the lowliest soul items, were godlike things in the eyes of the common people. Despite being the chieftain of the Blackwood Stronghold, Han Xiao had only one low human-tier soul item called ‘Goldsilk Soul Armor’, which had been awarded to him by his school. He really could not imagine the class and tier of the crimson spear used by the killer of Han Xiao.
Vice-Chieftain Yang Tian also had a rather unsightly expression, but he was much calmer. Only after Han Xiao’s fury had subsided somewhat did he say: “Chieftain, please calm down quickly. I’d like to repeat myself: We must not throw ourselves into disarray, otherwise we’ll fall for the enemy’s trickery…”
“Oh? What are your opinions?” Han Xiao knew that he was indeed less resourceful than this vice-chieftain. There had been many times when Yang Tian had played the role of counselor in the stronghold.
“Firstly, I can confirm one thing, that is, the enemy are definitely not very strong, or else they would have already gone up and attacked us directly. I guess it’s very likely they don’t have someone more powerful than a Soul Warrior among them.
“Besides, the intention of the two men on the mountain tonight was very obvious too. It was a scare tactic! Not us, they wanted to frighten those ordinary people under us. To these people, soul cultivators are extremely powerful beings. Seeing with their own eyes a normally lofty hallmaster killed like that was an unexpected shock to them. Plus, that man said those words in the end. I think… within the next several days, there will most probably be some unforeseen events happening in the stronghold.”
“You mean… some will flee from the stronghold?”
“Very likely.”
“Are they stupid? Those men are waiting at the foot of the mountain. How can they come out without getting killed?”
“If they think that they’ll definitely die by staying here, some will be willing to give it a try. After all, what that man said in the end was ‘anyone who stays on the mountain will die’, in other words, ‘anyone who leaves the stronghold can live’. This should be what they think…”
“Humph! If someone dares to defect from the stronghold, we won’t need to wait for the enemy to go up the mountain, ‘cause I will snap his neck before that!”
“The ‘execute one to warn a hundred’ method is best used when only a small part have made up their minds to run away and the majority are still hesitating about whether to run away or not. For the next several days, let’s tell our trusted men to pay more attention to what those subordinates will do…” Yang Tian’s expression was rather frustrated. This plan of the enemy was really too wicked. They had yet to officially go up the mountain to attack, but they had already caused disunity in the stronghold.
“That man said they will definitely destroy the stronghold in three days from now. Can we believe his words?” Han Xiao asked in a hurry after remembering a problem.