After splitting up, Liang Chen changed his appearance once again, turning into an old woman with a hunched back. This was to make sure that no one who saw him rummaging through the ruins of his old house also saw him heading towards the house of the Qing clan member that was a spy for the Bai clan.
Yan Ling had already sent Liang Chen the location of the Bai clan spy, so it only took Liang Chen half an hour to reach the house of the spy, a small two-room house. This spy didn't have a high position in the Qing clan, he was practically only a step above a servant, so his house was located rather close to the northern exit of the city, a good distance away from the actual branch of the Qing clan in this city.
Liang Chen knocked on the door of the house, the sound of footsteps swiftly coming from within the house. A tanned man who seemed to be in his fifties, with graying hair and a few wrinkles in his face, opened the door and greeted Liang Chen.
"Good morning, how may I help you?"
Liang Chen swept the man with a quick glance, making sure that he fit the description that Yan Ling had sent him. Once he ascertained that he was talking to the right man, he gave a slight nod of his head and answered.
"It's a lovely day for cooking, isn't it? Would you mind letting me cook a bit for you?"
The words were a code Yan Ying had come up with after Yan Ling sent him a message telling him to have the Bai clan inform their spy that Liang Chen was coming to take over his spot. Yan Ying informed the Bai clan and then sent Yan Ling the keyword, who promptly sent it to Liang Chen. There was no change in the expression of the man, he simply gave a calm nod of his head and stepped aside, beckoning for the disguised Liang Chen to enter his house.
"It really is a wonderful day for cooking, please come in and show me your spicy cooking."
Liang Chen nodded his head and entered the house, the man closing the door behind him. Two hours after Liang Chen entered the house, he left the house again, now disguised as the man and carrying a leather bag slung over his shoulder. The reason he had waited for two hours was just in case anyone happened to be looking at the house, it would seem suspicious if the man left right after receiving a visitor.
After leaving the house of the man, Liang Chen left Green Rivers city using the northern exit, following the curved road that went around Sky Piercer Forest and would take him to Mountain's Gate city. While moving, he also made sure to keep in contact with Yan Ling, so he knew that she was currently walking through the city and questioning people about the place where Liang Chen's parents were buried.
Liang Chen purposefully walked at a slower pace than normal, making sure that he spent a little over two days reaching the city. Although the city was called Mountain's Gate, it was actually located a short distance away from the mountain, mostly because the entire mountain was surrounded by a large forest that housed quite a few Demonic beasts.
Most of the buildings in the city were built using solid stone, almost all of them completely square in shape. At the center of the city stood a circular wooden mansion that almost resembled a deep green pagoda, a large and blooming garden surrounding the entire mansion.
After arriving in the city, Liang Chen walked up to one of the houses located close to the mansion. This house was owned by the Qing clan, and it was where the cooking and wait staff for the upcoming gathering had to report. Liang Chen reported that he had arrived, and a somewhat gruff older woman immediately brought him to the circular mansion, leading him down into the basement of the mansion.
While the woman was leading him, Liang Chen made sure to memorize the path they were walking, at the same time he also scanned the areas where they walked, checking out the various people he saw. Most of the people in the mansion were only servants that were hurriedly trying to prepare for the upcoming party, but Liang Chen also spotted one man in his thirties who had reached the early stage of the Heaven's Gate realm.
The man matched the description of one of the targets that Liang Chen was looking for, so Liang Chen had a tiny amount of poison seep out from his finger and fly through the air, landing on the neck of the man. This amount of poison wasn't enough to infect the man, but it would let Liang Chen track the movements of the man, which was enough.
The basement of the mansion was a large kitchen which currently held nine other chefs that were doing their best to prepare the food for the party. They knew the purpose of the party, so each of them was filled with nervousness, afraid that they might be punished if they made any mistakes. The gruff woman directed the disguised Liang Chen to one of the workbenches, telling him to start working.
There was a list of things that had to be done on the workbench, so Liang Chen gave it a quick read over and then got to work. His mother had taught him some cooking, so he was rather good at cooking, enough to make Yan Ling and Yan Ying exclaim that his food was good.
With Liang Chen joining them, the now 10 chefs cooked as if their lives depended on it, preparing so much food that Liang Chen guessed they might be able to feed at least a thousand people. They barely even slept or took breaks, the five days leading up to the party being filled with nothing but cooking and checking over the food that they had made.
Liang Chen made sure that there was constantly poison seeping out from his body, allowing it to sink into all the food and drinks that were made. Now, everyone who ate or drank would have his poison inside them, allowing him to activate it whenever he wanted to. One could even say that the lives of everyone at the party were held in the palm of Liang Chen's hand.
If they were to know about this, there would certainly be quite a few who would be rather fearful, even if they didn't have a grudge with Liang Chen. After all, who was insane enough to want someone with the title of Scourge King to hold control over their lives?
Five days quickly passed, the eve of the gathering arriving. Liang Chen and the remaining cooks were forced to put on a type of clothing that Liang Chen had never worn before, a type of black suit that was common for butlers and waiters. They then carried all the prepared food and drink up from the basement and into the hall where the party would be held, a large circular hall that had a crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling.
There were only a few couches and chairs where people could sit, so it seemed like most of the party participants were supposed to stand while they mingled. Liang Chen placed the food on the various tables that were prepared and then returned to the kitchen. He took out the waterskin he had filled with the water Yan Ling gave him, using the water to brew one of the finer tea's that had been prepared by the Qing clan. He then brought the prepared tea and placed it on the VIP table, making sure that it was clearly visible.
The participants started to quickly enter the hall, Liang Chen and the rest of the wait staff respectfully standing along the wall and waiting for the party to officially start. Thanks to the piece of jade that had fused with his chest and allowed him to sense the presence of other Storm Wolf disciples, Liang Chen instantly knew when the Bai clan members arrived.
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His eyes landed on Yan Ling, who had disguised herself as a woman in her early twenties with raven black hair and deep green eyes. She was clad in an extravagant blue robe decorated with golden threads, so it seemed like the person she had disguised herself as had a rather high standing in the Bai clan.
Yan Ling's eyes landed on Liang Chen, and although her expression didn't change much, he was able to notice that she was snickering at him and his appearance. Liang Chen could only do his best to keep a straight face, making a mental note to whack her on the head later on when he got the chance.
The hall was quickly filled up with people, the cultivators with equal strength gathering together to chat. Liang Chen did his 'job' as a waiter, carrying a tray of food and drinks, handing them to various people. At the same time, he also scanned the people in the hall, quickly locating the targets that the mission specified. He did his best to ignore the blatant smirk Yan Ling wore as he served her a glass of wine, quickly moving away to continue his 'duty'.
They didn't intend to enter the final stages of the plan just yet, they wanted to wait a bit longer and give the people present a chance to drink and eat as much as possible. Only like that could they ensure that everyone was truly seeped with Liang Chen's poison.
A few hours after the party started, two disciples, one from the Zhao clan and one from the Huang clan, decided to have a little spar to compare their strengths. An opening was quickly created in the hall and the spar was conducted, the girl from the Huang clan winning over the girl from the Zhao clan. With these two taking the leads, more and more people started to spar, kicking off the true purpose of the meeting, comparing the strengths of the younger generation.
The sparring went on for a few more hours, Liang Chen and Yan Ling keeping up their disguises. After one of their targets, one of the two people at the late stage of the Heaven's Gate realm had completed a sparring match, Liang Chen and Yan Ling locked gazes, giving each other a nod.
Liang Chen activated the poison that had been present in the food and drinks, the poison quickly taking effect in everyone who wasn't a member of the Qing clan. The weaker people almost instantly coughed up blood, while the stronger ones only grew pale, blood slowly starting to seep out from the corners of their mouths. The poisoned people swiftly figured out what was going on, glaring at the members of the Qing clan as they shouted out.
"You poisoned us!"
"Do you wish for our clans to go to war?!"
With everyone but the people from the Qing clan suffering the effects of Liang Chen's poison, which he made sure to keep at a level where they wouldn't die, how could they think anything other than that the Qing clan was trying to kill them? The people of the Qing clan had no idea what was going on, so they did their best to calm down the others.
"Please calm down! There must have been some sort of accident, there is no way we would poison you!"
None of the poisoned people believed the Qing clan members, partly because the evidence was against the Qing clan and partly because they feared for their own lives, wanting to force the Qing clan to hand over the antidotes.
"Give us the antidote and we might believe you!"
"Yeah, hand us the antidotes, prove your innocence!"
The other clan disciples pushed closer to the people of the Qing clan, the atmosphere turning volatile. It was at this time that Liang Chen locked eyes with Yan Ling, who was only faking being poisoned, and indicated towards two of the Qing clan members, the weakest of their targets for this mission.
At first, Yan Ling didn't understand what Liang Chen wanted her to do, but after giving the two Qing clan people a closer examination, her eyes lit up with realization. She cast a glance at Liang Chen, her gaze containing a mixture of awe and horror. Liang Chen could only shrug his shoulder, once again indicating at the two people.
Yan Ling nodded her head and turned back towards the two, giving a slight flick of her finger. After she flicked her finger, the two Qing clan disciples suddenly bent forward and groaned in pain, swiftly falling to the floor, dead. Another Qing clan disciple quickly turned them over, allowing everyone to see that they had holes in their abdomens and chest, spikes of water sticking out of the holes.
This was why Liang Chen wanted Yan Ling to create some water for him. She was too weak to control the water that other people had in their bodies, but if she got them to drink the water she created, she could still control it even if it was inside their bodies.
With two of their disciples dying like this, the remaining Qing clan disciples immediately grew furious, blaming the disciples of the other clans. At the same time, they even thought that they were all just faking being poisoned so that they could use it as an excuse to kill the Qing clan disciples.
The atmosphere turned from volatile to hostile, the Qing clan disciples and the disciples from the other clans glaring daggers at each other. It didn't take long for one of the Qing clan disciples that was friendly with one of the two dead ones to launch an attack against the poisoned disciples, seeking vengeance for his dead friend.
That attack became the straw that broke the camels back, a violent battle breaking out between the Qing clan disciples and the poisoned disciples. Liang Chen and Yan Ling locked eyes once again, nodding their heads and turning towards the targets of their mission. Now their plan had entered the endgame.