Chapter 267: The honeytrap

"Prepare a team of top peak Qi Kings who have connected with Heavenly laws. He is someone who is an unpredictable variable. The only person in my knowledge to have connected with three Heavenly laws."

"You will carry a proposal for me. Ask him to join me and record the benefits he is going to obtain from supporting me to rise through the ranks. He should agree with the proposal. You are allowed to use force in case of a disagreement. Your leader will be in charge of fending off the lunatic."

"The rest of you need to catch up to Li Meng. Try your best to bring him alive to a secluded location. He must have some protective artifacts and talismans. You will also be provided with your own sets Prepare a barrier before taking any kind of action. In an impossible scenario, I hope you do know what to do."

"Finish him off." The informer replied. Thunder child smiled and nodded. He couldn't let another variable come into play on his path to succession. Either Li Meng is on his side, or he dies. 

After the group left Thunder-child took out a device from his storage ring which recorded the names of the group members. This was an artifact which bounded a soul connection with them. He was a very cautious man, and wouldn't let his men be captured by the enemy. The artifact was a safeguard in case his men were captured and enabled him to instantly decimate them.

"You need to focus on your preparation. Each of them has a soul created which was personally set by me for cases like these. I will take care of the matter in case of some mishappenings."

"I couldn't help but get the feeling that this boy is going to become my greatest enemy if left alive. We can't let another lunatic grow up in the enemy camp. Especially when his theoretical talent is higher than mine."

"The old man is not a fool. If I am right about the matter, the lunatic's job this time is to keep the boy safe. Most of the spies are not going to return alive, including their leader. We could just leave it to fate and hope that they take care of li Meng before dying."

"Are you recommending an assassination? Shouldn't we try to bring this guy to our camp?"

"The old man is probably the oddest personality I have ever seen in this world. If someone chose to be his disciple, they are not going to be someone with a common taste. I think the matter is well proven by the four disciples he has undertaken. It is useless to try and attract him to our side. Even if he pretends to join us, he will betray us and run back the first chance he gets."

"It is better to take care of such a person." The grand elder's words were cold like ice. Li Meng didn't even expect that the murder plan was being hatched behind his back, and a group of peak Qi Kings were rushing in to kill him.

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In a secluded corner of the Taiwan mountains-

"Sir the mole has sent his report. The group of cultivators will be passing by the marked area by tomorrow."

"I didn't expect for the independent association to be so impatient that they sent a group of intermediate kings to search the area. I guess I haven't made my stance clear enough yet." The Bandit leader spoke up.

"They don't even know what is going to hit them in the valley of the seventh mountain." Laughter raged through the bandit den. Unaware of the group of practitioners, this trip was already known to the bandit groups and a trap had been laid out to massacre the whole regiment.

"Alert every scout within the area and start to layout the trip. The teams have been divided into smaller groups of two. Prepare five forces with four hunters in each group and directly ambush the groups and gang upon them. No need to confront them in a fair match-up. It is time to make them aware that the Taiwan mountain is ruled buy use black-dragon stronghold."

"Also prepare back-up troops in various strongholds, prepared to launch a surprise attack in case the teams manage to alert the rest of the regiments. Leave the intermediate Qi Kings to me. As per the initial Qi Kings, take the vice leader with you to take care of them."

"We will try our best to wipe the whole force out." The second-in-command reported.

"No need to go after such a lofty goal. It is good enough if we can take care of half-of people. Another quarter should be taken care of by our spies within the party." The last quarter should be comprised of our spies and the rest of the hunters." The bandit leader replied.

"The informer did stand true to his promise and delivered us with the right set of information regarding this excursion."

"This was just a movie made by the bigger sects to reduce the strength of the independent martial association. They are using us as their swords, and we in return use them to gain resources and information." The whole conspiracy ran way deep within the region. The friction within the various forces seems to have given rise to an internal flame, which was soon going to eat out the power of each force present here.

................

In the interior regions of Taiwan mountains-

Li Meng was busy inspecting the region around the allotted area. He wanted to move deeper within the mountain range, with smaller groups were on his way. He thought of disarming them and sneaking out after staging a surprise attack by the enemy, but something surprising took place.

"I feel the aura of multiple Qi Kings in that location. There are at lead two Qi Kings and about ten Qi generals moving in sneaking toward the group up front." The keeper reported.

"Are you sure that it wasn't the members of our group?"

"I am positive about my ability to sense the differences with Qi nature. The way this group is moving, they seem to be familiar with the terrain.". Li Meng followed the group, just to find them moving in sneakily. The way the group was moving confirmed Li Meng's suspicion that this must be a group which was inherent to this region. There was only one explanation in such a situation.

"It must be the bandit. But how did they know about the search areas." The paths which led here had been properly cleared up by the excursion team, and hence might have alerted the bandit stronghold. Yet such a small group of people were moving out.

There seemed to be something amiss in this situation and hence Li Meng decided to sneakily follow the group into the woods. The group slowly moved on to a group of two Qi generals and stayed close to them, until they separated from the rest of the groups. The situations lowly turned into an extremely precise trap designed by the bandits.

All ten Qi generals attacked together and killed the two practitioners instantly. The scene was instantly cleaned up and the group once again went into hiding.

"Bandits for sure. They must have realized the plans during this excursion. The only possible theory is that someone gave them the information about the arrangements followed. That person is probably a part of this excursion. They have planned well to take care of most of the practitioners in here." There must be a mole in the excursion team, and he must be a high ranking one at that to be able to provide such accurate intel.

"This is the best opportunity for you to sneak out. Just report it as a fight with a Qi King level bandit. We will hunt some high ranked bandits while we return to the city. You will gain both merit points and rewards for your bravery."

"Following this group might be the best idea. Although you could sense fire energy, and we might eventually be able to find a Qi vein, it is best to follow these people to a bandit stronghold and directly extract the information from them." Li Meng simply followed the group as they continued to massacre more and more groups in the nearby areas.

None of the groups even stood a chance with such a domineering ambush. The numerical advantage was double in this case and hence none of the excursion members even got a chance to alert their teammates. It wasn't until late noon that a group finally managed to fire in the danger signal, and the groups of bandits began to retreat from the scene. 

The damage incurred by the independent association was quite huge this time. An initial Qi King was already dead, and two were severely injured in the last confrontation. Even if the group tries to retreat to the city, most of them are fated to die in this location. A serious honeytrap had been set in the mountain regions and the party fell for it.