Chapter 716: The Families of Hu and Sun
Hui Yue did not get offended at being called a beggar; he had personally picked these clothes for the sake of blending in and being underestimated; they wanted to be looked down upon and not taken seriously.
But Ling Fang’s words did worry him greatly. The three were missing?
Lan Feng's face turned deadly pale, his body shook, and anger flashed in his eyes, but he kept his mouth shut. Hui Yue also felt his anger rising. Sha Yun was his wife. She held a very special place in his heart, and he knew that the place that Sha Yun held in Hui Yue's heart, Xiao She held in Lan Feng's heart.
While Wan Qiao was also a special person to them both, she was their teacher and nanny. She was a person they trusted completely and knew they could confide in whenever they were weary or felt burdened by something.
So to see these three women go missing, both Lan Feng and Hui Yue were filled with emotions.
Hui Yue closed his eyes. He did not even care that he was impolite towards Ling Fang and instantly spread out his soulforce to cover as much of the city as he could.
He searched high and low, in houses and cellars, in mansions and their halls. Even in the homes of the poor, he swept past everything with his soulforce, yet no matter where he looked, he didn’t find them.
The more he searched, the uglier his expression turned, and he finally understood that whoever was behind this had already known their agenda beforehand.
They had taken the initiative to get their hands on these three women, and it was as if they had been specifically picked out. Everyone had been on missions, but only three had gone missing. Those three did not have missions close to one another, so it was clear that they were targeted by someone directly.
Hui Yue pondered. They had known the purpose of their trip, they had known where he was going, and even worse they had struck right after their arrival, so his group was completely oblivious to the danger.
It was also obvious that the ones who had taken the three women seemed to know of Hui Yue's soulforce since they had fled the city before he could locate them.
"I made a mistake," Hui Yue admitted. "I never thought that someone would leak our mission," he continued confused. Who could have told others about their plans? Not many knew about it, and those who did were people he trusted.
Suddenly the face of his uncle appeared in his mind. This uncle had made him feel uncomfortable and unsure of where to put him, could it be that his uncle had gone against the Celestial Sword Sect and sided with the Blood Demons?
Hui Yue did not wish to believe such a thing. He knew how much this uncle meant to the patriarch and his father; they were the only members remaining from their generation.
Hui Yue was not happy when his thoughts came to this point, but he could not see who else it could be.
"Well, I can't change anything for now," Hui Yue sighed as his eyes turned cold. "Since the demons already know about our presence and have decided to strike first, then I think it is about time for us to let go of all restraints and turn everything to chaos."
Hui Yue turned towards the Ling family, and Old Man Ling shuddered when he saw the cold, blue eyes of Hui Yue. It was as if he was enshrouded in a frozen lake unable to move and frozen all the way through to his bones.
"We will need to use the Ling family to seek out the many Blood Demon’s hideouts. I do not care how many Blood Demons are present at the locations; I just want to know where they are," he said honestly as a murderous killing intent rolled out from within his body.
"Understood," Old Man Ling quickly sensed that this was a very important order given from Hui Yue, and he knew better than to argue over it.
"Does anyone know of anyone in this world who is in collusion with the Blood Demons? I need their location as soon as possible, and if we cannot find them in this world we will continue through every single world in the entire galaxy until we find them!"
"They will not have taken them far," Hui Yue said with a voice so emotionless that everyone, especially those who knew him well, shuddered. When Hui Yue was like this, he was a true incarnation of what nightmares were made of.
"They will be using them to exchange for something, but what they want we still do not know. There is a chance that they will trade the three of them for me," he continued, his voice so bland as if he were talking about the weather, but beneath his emotionless voice laid a rising anger.
"We will not let them do whatever they please," he continued, and one of the men from the Ling family stepped forward.
"We in the Ling family pride ourselves about our knowledge," he said nervously. "There are two families outside of the city. They both live off harvesting herbs, but both of them have assisted the Blood Demons in secret. The first is the Sun family, and the other is named the Hu family."
"They have great connections with the Blood Demons. I had planned on dealing with them myself, but seeing that you are looking for someone who is working with the Blood Demons, I would say they are the most likely to have the three women held captive."
"The only problem is that we do not know which one of the families they are with. If we attack the wrong family, then they will flee."
"My suggestion would be that we of the Ling family participate in this mission. We will split into two groups and attack at the same time."
"I can lead you to the families and allow you to scout the area, if you can you might even be able to sense your friends and wife inside their family compounds."
Hui Yue nodded his head. Although he had planned to do this without the direct help of the Ling family, he would not say no if they, themselves, offered to help.
"The reason that quite a few Blood Demons had managed to escape was especially because of the Hu and Sun families."
"They helped the fleeing demons with shelter while pretending that they were neutral in the fight and no one attacked them. The Blood Demons came solely for our city and everyone surrounding it decided to stay neutral."
"It took me a full three hours to investigate who were the ones who had helped the Blood Demons and who had not."
Hui Yue gave an approving nod towards the man who had been speaking and stood up.
"Well then let’s go," he said seriously, and everyone nodded their heads.
Orders went through the Ling family within moments, and after ten minutes every expert of the family had been gathered in the courtyard.
Hui Yue looked at them. He and his friends had all changed back to their regular clothes. There was simply no reason to pretend to be a beggar if the Blood Demons were already ready for them.
"Our best chance is now," Hui Yue muttered to Lan Feng who was standing by his side. "They have just managed to capture them, and then they are not likely endangered yet. They know we are new to the city, and they don't know we have the assistance of the Ling family. Let’s use this opportunity and get rid of them as soon as possible."
Lan Feng nodded his head, seemingly calm and collected, but since their souls were connected, Hui Yue could feel his pain, worry, and discomfort. Lan Feng had never been this worried before in all the time that Hui Yue had known him, and from this, it was clear just how important Xiao She was to him.
Hui Yue was equally nervous. He remembered how he had lost Wang Ju Long before, and he had sworn to become so strong that none of his loved ones would be harmed. However, he had failed, and Sha Yun had been taken prisoner.
"They knew that there was a chance they could get hurt when they decided to set out on this journey with you," Huli said as she placed a hand on Hui Yue's shoulder.
"I know it is hard to accept, but I am sure that right now those three women are more than relieved that they were the ones captured instead of you. They are willing to give their lives to protect their loved ones just like you are, so do not look down on them or their sacrifice."
Hui Yue nodded his head, "I know they are aware of the dangers, but I will never accept it if they get hurt because of me. The enmity with the Blood Demons is at a point of no return because of us and An He, to have them kidnapped to be used against us is something that leaves a bad taste in my mouth."
"Do not be surprised," Lan Feng said with a sour face. "This is An He we are talking about, he will do anything if it proves to be beneficial. Even if that means using women as meat shields."
"We are ready!" Old Man Ling called out while the group of friends had been chatting amongst themselves, and Hui Yue and Lan Feng were suddenly dragged from the conversation as they glanced at the many experts that had been gathered.
There were around three hundred experts, and Old Man Ling had split them into two groups. All of them were Immortals of Creation, but they had all comprehended at most one major dao.
They were considered elite within the western region, but when compared with the major sects they were really not too strong.
Hui Yue, Pei Ziqi, Lan Feng, and Old Man Ling were the strongest experts in the group. Pei Ziqi and Old Man Ling would be traveling together with half of Hue Yue’s group of friends and half of the Ling family while Hui Yue would have both Huli and Cai Jie with him as his next in command.
The group exited the Ling family compound and split up into two groups. One left through the northern side of the city while the other left through the eastern side.
Hui Yue was going through the eastern side, and he had taken Ling Fang and the other man who had spoken about the Sun and Hu families. Those two were the ones that were officially leading the mission, but everyone knew that the one in charge was Hui Yue. He just didn’t know the way to their destination.