The Nascent Souls of the Artful Life Alliance set the Memory Spheres down. The rest of that event was purely a massacre. Most of those trapped at the center of the miasma fell to the ground and never rose again. Most of them died without any external wounds. None of the Mammoth Club survived, and the scout’s memory ended with a provocation.

The original figure in a black cloak escaped from the cage of ropes without a scratch and walked to the edge of the miasma. Then they used a toe to draw a line upon the ground and looked up directly at the scout. A ferocious set of eyes looked right at them and that cloaked figure raised a hand and beckoned them to cross the line. Just like the Mammoth Club could not enter the city, the scout would meet the same end if they tried to leave.

Given that they were all viewing this Memory Sphere, they knew that the scout had returned back to them. They were also concerned about who these black cloaked fellows were.

“Isn’t Lang Sheng supposed to be alone? Aren’t his allies supposed to be sheltering at the Mount Song Sword Sect?”

“Are they from the Jade Horde? Didn’t they betray him?”

“Those don’t seem anything like the Jade Horde, his allies at the Mount Song Sword Sect, or even the friends he has from the Shihu Kingdom. There are at least five of them directly visible in this encounter. We also don’t know much about those streaks of light, but we did see Lang Sheng use a similar technique in our past battle.”

Lady Diyin was still in charge of organizing all the intelligence so she answered their questions, or tried to at least. The Swordsman nodded his head, “She’s right. He had some sort of silvery polearms that released the streaks of light. As we’ve already seen, they’re very fast and have immense penetrating power.”

The serious Lady Diyin grit her teeth at his words. She was of course the victim of those weapons, which Lang Sheng had used to poison her.

“We’ve received news that at least five groups have tried to fulfill our bounty, but none of them made it to the city. Combined with Lang Sheng’s declaration, it doesn’t look like any others are coming to help.”

The man with the salt and pepper temples laughed and straightened his collar. Then he smiled and spoke with an easy grace, “Is that all you’re worried about? We just need to raise the bounty. Lang Sheng can’t block the Messaging Jade and I refuse to believe this little force of his is very large. That was probably him providing support in the distance. They’re just ambushing the mercenaries one by one. If we set a big bounty with a specific arrival time, there’s no way he can stop them all at the same time.”

The old man, the Shou Clan Ancestor, waved his hand to agree with the plan. The Shou Clan Leader nodded and took a Messaging Jade from the old man and left to put the plan into motion. After accomplishing this task, she returned to the ancestral hall where the five of them sat in meditation.

A few days later, they opened their eyes again and Lady Diyin checked her own Messaging Jade with a frown on her face.

“Three Elders have been killed.”

“Did they disobey the order?”

“They did not. They were within buildings with obscuring formations. When they walked past a window, a streak of light struck them and they succumbed to the poison.”

“What of the bounty?”

“A pair of thousand man mercenary groups responded to the call, but they were destroyed outside of the city. Only a tenth of them survived and they’ve already spread the news. At least one of those black cloaked fellows is also a Nascent Soul.”

The Yincha Sect Leader looked a little embarrassed, but he still maintained a pleasant smile, “How extravagant. It seems Lang Sheng truly has some means.”

The Swordsman started to flex his fingers, “It is time for us to act. Let’s go out there and take his head!”

“We’re supposed to be fearful of him and fighting off his siege. He only knows two of us, and suspects a third. We thought he was arrogant enough to try and take us on three against one, but it seems he’s prepared and brought helpers. Since we don’t know how many assistants he has, it is all the more important that we draw him into our trap.”

The old man took charge of the situation yet again, trying to temper the overeager swordsman. The swordsman sighed and placed his hand back upon the arm rest, so the old man seemed to be successful. At least until the Shou Clan Leader riled them back up with her words, “Ancestor, you are being too conservative. If we allow this siege to continue we’ll slowly burn away all our reserves, lose many important Elders, or maybe even both. Do you think after he kills enough of us, he’ll finally make a frontal assault and then we’ll catch him in the trapping array? What if he just keeps doing what he’s doing. Won’t he just slowly kill everyone in our alliance one by one?”

Lady Diyin along with the Yincha Sect Leader and Shou Clan Ancestor all frowned. The swordsman on the other hand picked up his sword and nearly shot to his feet. They realized that this Lang Sheng might not ever decide to attack.

“Didn’t he trap us in an array when we attacked Lionheart Town? He must be on guard against the same tactic.”

The swordsman pointed out this detail and the other’s faces twisted further. The Shou Clan Ancestor let out a loud sigh, “Little Miss is right. We will need to change our plan. This fellow will just let us burn all our Spirit Stones to maintain the Clan defending array, or slowly pick us off one by one. That must be why he’s always been attacking from so far away.”

The old man thought of the dead elders and wasted Spirit Stones from before, releasing a loud sigh. Then he closed his eyes for a few moments to think. The others allowed him to take his time, waiting in silence. Then the old man opened his eyes again, “Since he is wary of the trapping array, we have only two choices: make him think we have expended all our resources, or bring the fight to him. For the first, we would need to maintain the defensive array for a few weeks and waste most of our resources. We can spread the news to our double agents that we have run out and then let the array sputter out. He will likely probe us and force us to waste ‘the last of what we have left’ before attacking for real. Then we would spring our trap and capture him.”

Then the old man paused to look around the room, “The problem is that we may still end up in our current situation. If we are unable to convince him our resources are exhausted, or he simply doesn’t care, there’s nothing we can do. He might simply stay out there and slowly kill our entire alliance. We will have wasted all our resources without anything to show for it. We may as well commit them all to hiring Nascent Souls to assist us. Just as the Little Miss said, we cannot let him continue.”

The ‘Little Miss’, the Shou Clan Leader, smiled at the ancestor. Her face would be quite lovely if it weren’t for the many piercings covering almost every square inch of her head. She bowed her head to the old man, “I will notify the rest of the city. Everyone will act together.”

“Good. Yincha Leader, you will do as I suggested. Use half of the Alliance’s resources, hire Nascent Soul mercenaries. It is time for a decisive battle. We can’t spend our riches in the afterlife and if we win, Lang Sheng is said to be quite wealthy, we can use that to make up for our loss.”

Lastly, he turned to Lady Diyin, “What of the Fu Clan? Have you been able to contact them?”

“They have not replied to my messages.”

“Bastards.”