676 Giving You Room To Play (2/2)

”Yutang shall capture and execute any violator without mercy.”

…

The government had officially stated their stance, expressing the attitude of Yutang's imperial court clearly.

'Fight as you wish – we know that we won't be able to stop you. We've set the boundary for all of you instead, you can play just within the east of the city.

Since we've set the rules and allowed all of you to play, we've given you enough face. With such a condition, if you still want to break the rules, then we will let it all go; no one gets to play!

'We respect all of you, so we have given you space. If you respect us as well, we will take care of matters after death, no matter who dies – we will send your belongings to your home after your death as well.'

'If you don't respect us… well…'

Once the dictum was announced, the martial artists who entered Tiantang City looked disdainful and could not care less about it as they entered the battle. However, all of them had followed it, intentionally or otherwise.

Even those who had always prized mystery had chosen to wear items that could specify their identity.

Everyone was well aware of the situation. All of them thought highly of themselves, assuming they were lucky, thinking that heaven's blessings were exclusively upon them. They would be the one who would ultimately acquire the dragon hide treasure! It was only their own assumption after all. With so many pinnacle experts gathered here, it was too easy to be met with a mishap. Even if their cultivation base was higher, it was hard to guarantee that there would be no accidents.

As the host of the land, the Yutang government had agreed to pick up the pieces after them – they would definitely do it. This was much more reliable than a martial world promise; after all, no one dared be certain that they would leave here alive.

Since the governing administration had made such a promise, they would definitely fulfill it. If they were to break their promise or did not accomplish it fully, it would rouse critics. It would be tantamount to failing the promise made to the world's warriors. That would be substantially damaging to Yutang's reputation.

The assassins were disgruntled, of course. 'Isn't doing this pushing us to the edge of the cliff?'

'What will happen to us when you move all the civilians away?'

Therefore, they went to great lengths to spoil Yutang's migration.

All the martial artists seized the opportunity. 'You'll have to present yourselves if you want to stop the move. Then we'll follow the moving troops and we can plan an ambush when all of you step out to stop the operation!'

There were several thousand of Yutang's official experts led by Yun Xiaoyao who were watching over the move as well. The appearance of the assassins to stop the move would be repulsed by both Yutang officials and the martial world experts.

After dozens of violent conflicts, the assassins suffered from a great loss and finally gave up on the plan.

Yutang obeyed their rule as well; they ceased attacking when the assassins ceased their attempts to stop the move.

This way, the assassins felt the mounting pressure diminish significantly. After all, the Yutang government was the local; they were all too familiar with the geography of their city.

The assassins refrained from making a move, thus the martial world artists halted their actions. As the killers conserved their energy for the ultimate act of retaliation, the martial world practitioners waited for backup to arrive as well.

Discreetly, a substantial amount of talk was guiding the actions of the practitioners. Everyone thought them to be utterly reasonable as well.

”The dragon hide treasure map must fall into the hands of the assassins. They're too powerful. Once they break free, we won't be able to find them again.”

”So we need to work together and annihilate the assassins first, to snatch the treasure map. That'd be the best way to go.”

”We'll fight based on our skills after that.”

All of them thought that to be a perfectly reasonable plan.

Subsequently, Yun Xiaoyao would send some men to collect the corpses every once in a while. All the collectors were ordinary soldiers; they were sent into the area by the thousands each time they searched for dead bodies along the way. Countless ace cultivators in the entire east district let them be as if they had not seen them – no one would lay a finger on these ordinary soldiers.

Occasionally when they greeted the soldiers, it was with friendly gestures. Some of the practitioners who were more well-to-do would even give the troops some money to express their gratitude. The subtext was likely, ”Brother, if you find me lying here one day, please make more effort, seeing that I have rewarded you today. My broken arms or legs… do finish collecting them for me…”