98 Completing the mission and returning to the clan. (1/2)

After receiving their orders, the other disciples started moving into position. Bai Wei, the disciple among them who was most proficient with the law of earth, brought Zi Shiwu and Chen Liguo with her, digging another hole in the ground and heading for the distant mountain. While she was doing so, Xing Xhong was bringing the two disciples he had been assigned, Ma Xuefeng and Xuan Lei, showing them all the entrances that they had to collapse. Li Yang turned to Elder Su and Elder Mujin, pointing at the air above the mountain.

”Could you bring us closer? It's easier to give out orders if I am close enough to properly observe everything that's going on.”

The two elders nodded their heads, bringing the flying carriage that everyone was sitting on to the spot that Li Yang had pointed at. From this spot right above the mountain, Li Yang would be able to see everything that went on around the mountain. It would be a bit of a strain on his eyes to closely observe such a large area, but it would be manageable.

Other than the six disciples that had already been sent out to deal with their assigned tasks, the remaining 11 disciples were eagerly awaiting their turn to take part in the mission. This was the last mission in the rank-up test, so everyone was eager to use their full strength and show their best sides.

Four hours after he sent out Bai Wei and the two other disciples to rescue the hostages, they returned with 17 people who had wounds of varying degrees. Most of the hostages were young and beautiful women so Li Yang and the others knew what they had gone through before Bai Wei had even delivered the report. Li Yang swept the hostages with a quick glance, turning to Bai Wei.

”The mission summary stated that around 30 people had been kidnapped, are the rest dead?”

The mission was to kill the bandits and rescue all the living hostages, so he wanted to make doubly sure that there were no more hostages left within the mountain before he started the second part of the plan. Bai Wei nodded her head with a grim expression, casting a disgusted sideways glance at the mountain.

”No one else remains. Junior Brother Yang, I want everyone within that mountain dead, don't you dare fail this mission.”

Bai Wei was a woman herself, so seeing what these female hostages had been put through filled her with nothing but endless disgust and rage. Of course, the male disciples were also filled with similar emotions, wondering how they would feel if their friends, family, or lovers had been among these female hostages. Li Yang nodded his head, his expression still as calm as it had always been, not a single one of his thoughts visible in his expression.

”You don't have to worry about that, their deaths were already set in stone when I received this mission.”

Li Yang had no intentions of allowing this mission to fail, as the odds of him becoming an inner disciple would fall drastically if he were to do so. So from the moment the scroll that contained the summary of this mission landed in his hands, the fates of all the bandits within this mountain were sealed.

Li Yang handed all the hostages to Elder Su and Elder Mujin, directing Bai Wei and the remaining disciples to head out and meet up with Xing Zhong and the two other disciples that had finished sealing up all but two of the entrances. He had already decided on the groups earlier, so all the disciples split up into their designated groups and lined up in front of the two entrances, which were located only a very short distance away from each other.

Elder Mujin and Elder Su brought the flying carriage closer to the two entrances so that Li Yang could give orders from only a few meters away, allowing him to quickly change his orders should it be necessary. Li Yang looked at the two groups that were eagerly waiting, nodding his head and giving the orders.

”Senior Sister Fen, please fill both the caves with a plethora of plants.”

The brown-haired Han Fen didn't specialize in the law of plants, but she had studied it a bit, enough to almost reach the Ascending Heaven realm with it. She nodded her head and took out a leather pouch from her interspatial ring, opening the pouch and revealing that it was filled with small seeds. She threw the seeds into the two caves that led into the mountain, using her law of plants to drastically increase the speed at which the plants grew.

Before long, both caves were filled with colorful and slightly poisonous plants, so many of them that they made it nearly impossible to see further into the caves. The plants only filled the 500 meters of the caves, but it was more than enough. Li Yang turned to two other disciples, nodding his head at them.

”Senior Brother Min and Senior Brother Cai, your turn.”

The blue-haired Xie Min and the black-haired Lie Cai nodded their heads, stepping forward and waving their hands at the caves. Deep crimson flames roared into existence inside the caves, the plants quickly starting to burn and filling the caves with noxious smoke. The two disciples then took a step back, Li Yang nodding his head at Bai Wei and another disciple by the name of Yan Hu.

Bai Wei and Yan Hu nodded their heads, clapping their hands and causing the earth around the cave entrances to crumble and twist, forming a thick wall in front of the caves. They only left tiny holes that allowed the air to enter the caves, Li Yang stationing two disciples in front of the holes and having them use their law of wind to funnel air into the tunnels, blowing the smoke deeper into the mountain.

With the smoke starting to fill the maze of caves that filled the mountain, Li Yang and the other disciples simply had to wait, occasionally throwing more flames into the caves through the small holes in the blockade. Sounds of shouting and coughing started to slowly echo throughout the caves, the sound of people running around barely audible.

It seemed like the bandits within the mountain were looking for an exit they could use, but Xing Zhong and the others had made all the other exits completely unusable. The only exits that still looked like they might be usable were the ones where Li Yang and the others were currently waiting.

It didn't take long for the bandits to notice this fact as well, quickly flooding into the two caves that led to these exits. They saw the flames and the blocked exits, but they could only rush through the flames and do their best to smash down the blockades, the closed cave entrances starting to vibrate as more and more attacks landed on them.

Li Yang continued to calmly look on as the blocked cave entrances were attacked, but it seemed like some of the other disciples weren't able to be as calm as him. A few of them seemed to get a bit antsy, a middle-aged disciple with long brown hair, Kang Xia, turning to Li Yang.