Chapter 277 What are you doing here?

"My lord, how did you know that Taoist priest wouldn't make things difficult for us?" Back in their inn room, Lei Huang asked, puzzled.

"I didn't. It was a judgment call. That Taoist priest's status in the Dao Ming Sect isn't low. To be able to bring us into the Bamboo Gentleman Hall at a time like this, without anyone even questioning or searching us, that guy has a lot of influence. But, at the beginning, when he struck up a conversation with us, his attitude was always quite good. And after learning that I was a craftsman, he didn't try to preach any doctrines to us? What does that mean? It means that this guy isn't a missionary at all, but someone in the Dao Ming Sect who's responsible for some practical matters... Such a person isn't fanatically loyal to the dogma itself, so when he finally spoke to me, he spoke from the perspective of whether it would be beneficial to my personal development. If he were that kind of fanatic, he would have talked about how great it would be to serve the Holy Church, and not just said that it would be a good deed. In that situation, I had to gamble on what kind of person he was. Maybe I was lucky, and this gamble really paid off," Ye Tao said frankly.

As long as Ye Tao was safe and sound, Bi Xiaoqing and the others didn't care about anything else. Bi Xiaoqing hadn't discovered that the Dao Ming Sect had sent anyone to tail them, and Zhou Rui came to the same conclusion after scouting around.

However, those words sank deeply into Lei Huang's ears. He could appreciate how deeply Ye Tao's last words had stuck in the hearts of those believers. Perhaps, in the short term, such psychological imprints wouldn't have any impact on these people's belief in the Dao Ming Sect, but when another choice appeared, when the more proactive Lei Yin Demon Sect could become a choice that rivaled the Dao Ming Sect, this thorn might subtly come into play.

Lei Huang had always been very respectful of Ye Tao, but after this accidental event today, his heart was filled with even more fear. He knew that everything Ye Tao had said today, from beginning to end, was in line with the role of Guo Fen he was playing, but he had never revealed any flaws, not only in his words but even in his emotions. Lei Huang knew that the established background of Guo Fen and Ye Tao had some similarities, but to be able to control the emotional expression so precisely, to perfectly integrate influencing them and displaying himself, this kind of ability was simply too extraordinary. If this was acting ability, then it was truly terrifying. Lei Huang also thought about why Ye Tao wasn't worried about the Lei Yin Demon Sect becoming too powerful in the future. He was able to build up the Lei Yin Demon Sect with one hand, and he would naturally be able to crush it again with the other, but there was no need for him to consider such distant problems yet.

In the midst of Lei Huang's wild thoughts, a figure suddenly landed gracefully in the courtyard of the small building they had rented.

"Who is it?" Along with the question, Bi Xiaoqing had already drawn her sword and stabbed out.

There was a series of clanging sounds, and Bi Xiaoqing's continuous offensive moves were all blocked. The person's movements were smooth and effortless, indicating that their kung fu was much higher than Bi Xiaoqing's.

"Hey, hey, we're on the same side, be polite, okay?" The person used the back of their saber to deflect Bi Xiaoqing's sword, pushing her back three feet, and then turned to Ye Tao and said, "What are you doing here?"

The person was Guan Huan.

Guan Huan was an old friend of Ye Tao's, and a relative of Ye Tao's eldest brother, Guan Haishan, now Qi Zhentao's shipyard supervisor on Crescent Island, Guan Haitian's son. Back then, it was Guan Huan who had sold Ye Tao's wood carvings for money when he was extremely bored, which had allowed Ye Tao to leave an extremely good impression on Situ Huang Xuping before he even arrived in Danyang. And although Guan Huan had often returned to Danyang or Yicheng in recent years, relying on his good relationship with the Ye Clan Workshop, he had customized some fun little things in the workshop to make his travels in the martial world easier, but he had never had the opportunity to meet Ye Tao. It was truly unexpected that the two of them would suddenly meet in Shunyi City, thousands of miles away from Yicheng.

"Guan Huan, I should be asking you that, what are you doing here?"

Since they were acquaintances, Bi Xiaoqing put away her sword and went to question the subordinates who were guarding the perimeter of the courtyard. She had lost a lot of face this time. Although it couldn't be helped if her skills were inferior to others, it was too much that so many people around her hadn't even noticed anything.

Guan Huan didn't care about Bi Xiaoqing and the others' strange gazes. He chatted with Ye Tao in a very familiar manner. Guan Huan was completely one of their own, and Ye Tao didn't plan to hide things like the Lei Yin Demon Sect's preparations and goals from him. When he learned that they had come here to see the Dao Ming Sect's Grand Assembly, to observe the Dao Ming Sect's organizational form and management of its followers, Guan Huan frowned. He was already used to Ye Tao's endless stream of strange ideas, but he was even more surprised that Ye Tao dared to go deep into the tiger's den. Fortunately, the Dao Ming Sect's assassination target list only had his name on it, and not a portrait, otherwise, he would have had no chance to escape unscathed today. He sighed and said, "You're really too bold. Two of the Eagle Hall's top experts are currently in the Bamboo Gentleman Hall. Luckily, they don't usually come out to patrol, or you would have been in trouble."

"Why is that?" Ye Tao was a little confused. It seemed strange to not use the experts when they were available.

"Ah," Guan Huan sighed and said, "The Eagle Hall is directly responsible to the top few people in the Dao Ming Sect. There are indeed many fanatics in the Eagle Hall, but overall, the Eagle Hall is a very Jianghu-like (martial world) organization. Many people inside aren't even followers but bought martial artists. Among them are some notorious figures. What would the followers think if they knew?"

Ye Tao nodded and continued to ask, "It is indeed a little strange that I came here, but what about you? Eldest Brother mentioned you in his letter, saying that Master Qi wanted you to help with things in the south."

Guan Huan smiled and said, "Master Qi's work isn't easy. And if I were to sit in charge of the Yu Hang Seven Seas Trading Company, although there would definitely still be fights, I wouldn't be free. I've already recommended two people to Master Qi to go over there. As for me, my goal is similar to yours, also the Bamboo Gentleman Hall."

Guan Huan's expression became somewhat sinister for a moment: "Of the two experts in the Bamboo Gentleman Hall, there's one I don't want to see live to next year."

Guan Huan had come to seek revenge. The guy hiding in the Bamboo Gentleman Hall was named Pan Jue. A few months ago, when the Dao Ming Sect failed to subdue a small, independent sect in the southern part of Xi Ling, he led a large number of Eagle Hall members to completely exterminate the sect. Although that small sect was weak, there were many interesting people in it. They had to farm to feed themselves, and their martial arts practice time was limited. They were more like a farm established under the name of a sect, but they took good care of the surrounding villagers. They always treated people like Guan Huan who came to spar and connect with them very well. Among martial artists, this small sect had a very good reputation. Perhaps precisely because of their good reputation, the Eagle Hall wanted to take them for their own use to win over more martial artists. Since there was no force in the Xi Ling martial world that could openly compete with the Eagle Hall, the martial world's public opinion was silent. However, many righteous martial artists, especially the younger generation, had begun to take action, and even some neutral organizations that usually only took money and had nothing to do with the government had begun to attack the Eagle Hall. Although Guan Huan was from Dongping, he had always traveled to various countries and had friends everywhere, and he had always been the kind of guy with a strong sense of justice. Someone had him participate in the big plan against the Dao Ming Sect.

Originally, Guan Huan didn't really want to participate in this matter. After all, this was a matter for the Xi Ling martial world, and it would be difficult to explain no matter which side he was on if he, a Dongping native, got involved. But his good friend, "Qingxin Sword" Gu Xi, ambushed an Eagle Hall team on the official road last month, killing nine people and seriously injuring himself. He had to hide temporarily to recover. When Guan Huan went to Gu Xi's house to deliver the news and tell them not to worry too much, he ran into a group of Eagle Hall members looking for trouble with Gu Xi's family. If Guan Huan hadn't arrived early, Gu Xi's sister would have been raped by those people, and the leader of that group was none other than Pan Jue. The occurrence of this kind of thing made Guan Huan lose his last bit of hope for the Eagle Hall, which was at least a religious armed force under the Dao Ming Sect. He killed those people without mercy, and Pan Jue was the only one who took two of his attacks, but still used the lives of his companions as a shield and ran away.

Guan Huan was terrifying when he was enraged. He no longer cared what others said. In the past month, he had continuously attacked four Eagle Hall contact points and one branch hall, terrifying the Eagle Hall. However, the Xi Ling martial world was still silent, and no one even jumped out to accuse Guan Huan, a Dongping native, of taking the opportunity to stir up trouble. Coincidentally, the experts of the Eagle Hall couldn't spare many people to encircle and suppress Guan Huan at this time.

On the one hand, taking advantage of the Eagle Hall's unpopularity and everyone's desire for revenge, some people in Xi Ling came up with the idea of the year-end Dharma Assembly, determined to ruin the Dao Ming Sect's grand event, especially those sects and organizations that had been constantly suppressed over the years due to the rise of the Dao Ming Sect and the Eagle Hall. They enthusiastically invested in this great work. The Eagle Hall had to distribute a large number of experts everywhere to prevent any unexpected events. On the other hand, the Dongping Internal Affairs Guard, which had done nothing in intelligence work in the past few years and had been leaking information frequently, began to stir up trouble, not only providing cover and convenience for those Xi Ling martial artists in various ways, but also releasing news that they would cause trouble when the Xi Ling ruler visited the Dao Ming Sect's main altar, the Hunyuan Hall... Because it happened suddenly, the information might not have been transmitted back to Danyang yet, and it would take longer for the news to reach Ye Tao. If he knew that the apparent stability of Xi Ling was actually such an undercurrent, Ye Tao would probably reconsider his trip to Xi Ling.

"Since... Ye Tao, you're my brother, I won't say anything else. Since you brought so many experts, I'm asking you to do me this favor and kill Pan Jue," Guan Huan requested through gritted teeth. In all the years he had known Ye Tao, this was the first time.

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This chapter was sent incorrectly just now, so I'll just send it out together, sorry again.