Chương 25: New plan

Bai Yun looked at the pair happily. This had gone exactly as he wished.

"What are your names?" He asked.

"I am Bai Ling-er. This is Bai Shi." the woman replied. She seemed to be the leader of the duo.

"Before we begin I want to tell you something. If you were to betray me I would definitely be able to find out. And you would definitely not enjoy it." Bai Yun said coldly.

The moment he said that he exuded his killing intent. The couple both paled, and they felt as if they were being watched by the grim reaper. They felt as if they could lose their lives if they made a single bad choice.

Bai Yun retracted his killing intent. He watched as the looked at him in horror. He smiled

"Take me to the cave. I want to reach there first and refine the plan I have. I will tell you about it on the way." Bai Yun said.

The couple had recovered by then. They started to walk towards the cave, with Bai Yun following. A sthey walked he explained his plan to them. When they heard the complete plan, they were horrified.

"No way! If we do this we would be in a lot of danger. We can handle that. But we would be the biggest suspects. We would be in trouble with prince Qing for the rest of our lives." Bai Shi said in a panicked voice.

"Sometimes the most dangerous place is also the safest place. They would suspect you they moment they saw something going wrong. Unless you took the initiative to be slightly suspicious, and also not fight when you are captured, it will not end well for you. Do not worry, I will make sure that they don't do anything to you. They wont act until Bai Qinq is free, and by then a commotion would definitely be made, and people would gather." Bai Yun explained.

"But the risk is too much. There are too many variables. Anything can go wrong."

"There are variables in every plan. What we need to do is to handle them appropriately and make sure that things don't deviate from our plan."

"But-" Bai Shi started.

"We will do it." Bai Ling-er replied. "We are in trouble from the very existence of the plan. But if we see this through we have a slight hope."

Bai Shi opened his mouth to say something but closed it again when he realized that Bai Ling-er was right. He was dejected. He wasn't one to take unnecessary risk, and the entire plan seemed dangerous to him.

They spend the entire afternoon perfecting the plan, as well as laying preparations for it. As dusk arrived Bai Ling-er took him to the cave and showed him its location. It was in a very difficult location, and the entrance was also too narrow. Unless someone knew that there was a cave at that exact position, it was impossible to find it.

Bai Yun had decided to split from them early on and wait for Bai Qiing. He handed them some items that they would need for their part of the plan. "Don't lose even a single hair on the items I have left with you. Or else."

The two of them nodded in acceptance.

"We wont get a chance to talk after this. Where should we meet up after all of this is over?" Bai Yun asked.

"Let us meet up in the clan three days from today. In the clan there is going to be places we can meet up without raising any suspicion." Bai Shi replied.

"We can't meet up in public. After this Bai Qing is sure to put the two of you on surveillance. If he sees me meeting up with you, then that will not end well for any of us, trust me. And if the two of you were to escape his surveillance, it would make him shift his suspension on you completely." Bai Yun replied.

"Then what should we do. Are we not going to meet up at all. If we were to wait too long for the suspicion to be lifted, then it would not be good. All the effort we put in this would be wasted." Bai Ling-er replied.

Bai Yun smiled. "There is no need to wait for so long. I can easily slip past the surveillance of Bai Qing. After this is over, go to your homes. Then three days should be enough for them to think that you are getting annoyed by the surveillance. Make them believe it too. They will not do anything too excessive in the clan to protect Bai Qing's image. Then one of you should go to the others house, and I will slip in somehow. Just give me a map to your house."

Bai Shi took out a piece of paper and quickly drew a map to his house. Bai Yun took a look at it and frowned. The place that they lived at was quite far from the beast garden. It was towards the end of the Bai clan area.

"It will take a long time to get there. When should we meet up." Bai Yun asked.

"Depending on the bus and its availability, it could take anywhere from one day to three to reach there. Why don't we meet up in the fternoon exactly one week from tomorrow. Huh, is something wrong." Bai Shi asked, when he saw Bai Yun frown.

"Nothing." Bai Yun replied. Bai Yun was frowning when he thought of the bus. Due to the large size of the clan, for people at lower cultivation, it would be difficult to get around by themselves. Thus the clan operated buses inside the clan at regular intervals. When Bai Yun was send to the clan library, his parents didn't mention one word about it to him, making him spend four days walking. He only learned about the bus when he was spying on the people in the weed valley. Everytime he thought of how he wasted all these days, his face would start to twitch.

After confirming with them on when to meet up Bai Yun sped up inside the cave. He had only seen the location of the cave, and not actually gone in. Bai Yun crept inside at a snails pace, making sure not to leave any traces or make any noise.

The cave was narrow, but not too long. But after a while, it suddenly expanded into a wide circular area. It was most likely a crack naturally formed in the cliff, but was later excavated into a cave by a demonic beast.

Bai Yun stood at the edge of the cave and looked towards the center. The cave did not have any weeds in it. He saw the bodies of quite a few demonic beasts littered around the cave. In the centre of the cave stood three red spiders. The three of them was standing around a small, single stalk of grass. The grass had three bright red fruits hanging on them.

Bai Yun sneaked a peek at them from the weeds in the crack. The three lava spiders completely did not notice him. There were many scratches on the three spiders body. It was obvious that they had been through a very tough fight from the bodies of the various demonic beasts that covered the cave. The demonic beasts had a much better sense for things like the supreme weed fruit, and many had found it. But it was obvious that none of them could breakthrough the lava spiders terrifying defense.

The cave was much larger than the clearing Bai Yun had fought the grey rock python in. It was much deeper, and tall too. At the peak of the cave, it tapered into a conical shape, and had a small opening at the top through which light could peek through.

Bai Yun frowned. The cave was in a state of near dankness. The opening at the top was barely large enough for enough light to pass through, and the crack was filled with weeds. The near darkness was okay for demonic beasts, who specialized in it, but fatal for humans who could not see properly. It would be alright if it was something large and clumsy like the lava spider, he could still manage with his perception. But if something small and agile like the grey rock python were to attack at a critical point, he would not be bale to react in time.

As he thought of this Bai Yun's frown deepened. There was no way for the slow lava spiders to kill all of these beasts. When he took a closer look at them , his suspicion was confirmed. It seemed as if only some of the beats were killed by the lava spiders, and most of them were killed by each other. Also with the lava spiders fighting in its slow manner there would definitely be beasts that have escaped. They too would be coming at midnight to fight for the supreme weed fruit.

Bai Yun had initially expected that not many beast could find this place, but it seemed as if he had underestimated their senses. The couple had also not mentioned seeming so many corpses. The addition of the beasts along with Bai Qing, would only make this more dangerous. He had to act accordingly, and only at the right moment. If he chose a wrong moment then he might even die. In the coming battle, the most important thing was timing. He had to slip in past all the challengers during the ruckus, steal the fruits and then run away.

Bai Yun spend the next hour wandering around the cave. It would have been extremely difficult normally, but the carcasses of various demonic beasts gave him excellent cover. He also checked them to see if any of the beasts were still alive, or if anyone was hiding behind them too. But he didn't go near the lava spiders in the off chance that they discovered him. Even with the skills he had, it would be dangerous if he underestimated his foes. He was also looking for some places to hide in, away from the crowd. After looking at the situation, Bai Yun moved to the side of the cave and hid in a crack there. There, not only was there a few demonic beast corpses to hide behind, his position was also hidden in the darkness.

As he waited he carefully observed the lava spiders. They seemed to be focused on the cave, especially the entrance, and not too tired. Having insane defense and high stamina, they were terrifying tanks in battle. In a situation like this, when they are defending a stationary target, it makes them very hard to get through.

Bai Yun was extremely focused on the lava spiders. He spend hours watching them. In that time, two more demonic beasts had found the cave. One of them, who rushed in, was easily killed by the lava spider, while the other, after sparring for a while, immediately ran away when it found out that he was no match for the lava spiders. This made the frown on Bia Yun's forehead deeper.

Finally less than an hour before midnight, he heard voices coming from the cave entrance.

"Prince Qing, please come this way. The supreme weed fruit is just ahead." He heard a sleazy voice say.

A cold light passed through Bai Yun's eye.

Bai Qing had arrived.