Chapter 204.1: I’m Afraid the New Year Firecrackers Will Be Too Loud Part 1

Why did they have to face the Heretic Cult head-on? Why did they have to play by the board and rules their opponent had chosen?

Since they were already as good as dead, then why not be a little more aggressive and drag a few more enemies down with them? Maybe they could even carve out a way to survive!

When you couldn’t tell friend from foe, the first thing to do was identify the enemy. If there was no way out, then they would go to the Heretic Cult and force one out of them.

They had all grown too used to acting like regular forces, too used to fighting life-or-death battles in the usual way. So when the situation flipped and they found themselves standing in their old opponent’s shoes, they failed to think of the very tactics that had once made them suffer so much. They also hadn’t accounted for just how wild Ji Jue, a repeat offender of the Ember Path, could be.

In other words, wasn’t it time to let the Heretic Cult experience the pain the Security Bureau had once suffered? Let them deal with moles that could never all be beaten down, wanted criminals that could never all be caught, and villains that could never be wiped out completely.

Ji Jue looked up. “Do you think we have a shot, Mr. Shan?”

Tong Shan pondered for a moment, then nodded solemnly. “We do.”

“With an operation this large, the Heretic Cult might even have a Celestial Being holding the fort right now,” Xu Guan said, dismissing the idea. “If anything goes wrong, we’ll be delivering ourselves right into their trap.”

Ji Jue smiled. “But with an operation this big, how much can one Celestial Being really oversee? Even Mr. Tao, with Heaven’s Eye hanging high above and overlooking the entire area, still has places his power can’t reach, doesn’t he?”

Otherwise, how could the mole have passed information right under Mr. Tao’s nose?

“The operation is spread too wide, and they have too many people involved. Even if the Heretic Cult and the Dragonrite Society are so close they’re practically joined at the hip, they still can’t all huddle in one place and leave everything else unattended, right?” Ji Jue looked toward Tong Shan.

Tong Shan nodded decisively.

This wasn’t speculation or guesswork. It was a simple question of management. Once an operation had been spread out on such a large scale, it meant manpower had to be distributed across Spring City.

For ease of deployment and to avoid friction, or simply because they wanted to keep a few private schemes and secrets of their own, the Dragonrite Society couldn’t possibly set itself up right under the Heretic Cult’s nose. Divided management was the simplest approach.

Even the Security Bureau, which represented Origin, still had to divide itself into the First, Second, and Third Divisions in Cliff City, separating its jurisdiction into so many different districts. Wouldn’t it be lovely if everyone could gather in one place, see each other every day, spend all their time together, and build some teamwork and camaraderie? Did they not want that? Of course they did.

But if you expected your subordinates to show initiative and be proactive, you couldn’t also expect them to be puppets who asked for instructions on everything, held meetings every day, and waited obediently for orders. Knowing how to play the game, how to get things done, how to take responsibility, and how to create trouble were traits that almost always came as a set.

To occasionally have an assistant like Tong Shan, who was reliable, steady, and capable of balancing the Security Bureau with Cliff City’s local powers, was already a rare blessing that one would have to burn a lifetime’s worth of incense for. More often, you got people like Yu Hanguang, who liked lining his pockets; Lu Shenzhou, who liked coasting along; Zhao Chengping, who craved power; or even someone like Wen Wen, who liked rolling up her sleeves and flipping the table.

Reality wasn’t a mobile game. If you tossed a bunch of R-ranks, N-ranks, and SSR-ranks into the same warehouse, they would be beating each other’s brains out in less than three days. Wen Wen could even walk away with the MVP end screen for most damage dealt to allies. Not to mention, they were of the Origin Path. Origin, of all the Supreme Benevolences, placed the greatest emphasis on order, integration, and rules.

Did anyone really think those gutter flies from the Heretic Cult could be united from top to bottom, standing shoulder to shoulder against a common enemy? That sounded more like fantasy than reality. Just looking at how decisively Yan Chong sold out his teammate was enough to know what kind of assholes those people were like in daily life.

It was easy to imagine that power struggles, infighting, and life-or-death rivalries were simply the norm within their ranks. Even if the Dragonrite Society and the Heretic Cult were working closely together, they could very well have fought each other over who got the final say. There would also be no shortage of powerful figures like Yan Chong, each holding their own troops and refusing to answer to anyone else.

If we’re all filling the line, why does my precious group have to send one more person? If we’re all getting the same supplies, why does the group next door get one extra crate?

Thinking about it that way, Ji Jue actually began to sympathize with their management. To be able to hold such a rabble together at all, they had most likely gone through plenty of stomach medicine and blood pressure pills.

“After suffering one loss, the Heretic Cult is bound to have learned its lesson. This time, they’ll send more people, not fewer. On top of that, they still have to keep watch over every route.” Ji Jue said. “As long as we seize the chance while the other sections are hollowed out, it may not be impossible to catch one or two mid- to high-level members and use the Heretic Cult’s own routes to escape Spring City.”

The routes through Spring City were confidential to begin with. It was impossible for every person to have a copy. Spring City’s maze-like layout had sheltered the Heretic Cult, but it had also trapped them inside. With such an amateur operation, the lower-ranking members probably only knew one or two internal routes at most, just to keep some fool from slipping up and leaking information.

If they wanted to truly find a passage out of Spring City, catching small fry would be useless. It had to be someone who could actually manage things, someone who had a voice in decision-making meetings.

The key to this entire plan was timing.

Before the Heretic Cult could react, they would launch a raid on one of its branches. Then, before the news had time to fully spread, they would leave Spring City.

Among all the escape routes Ji Jue could find, this was the one with the highest chance of actually being carried out. If this route failed, then they would have no choice but to hole up and wait for rescue, which was no different from dying slowly. Or they could gamble on their luck and search for a Time Ruin that was still forming, then hide inside it and drift out of Spring City, just as the Heretic Cult had once done.

But that plan was far too difficult to execute, and its chance of success was way too low. It was practically a fool’s dream. Even if they chose to raid the Heretic Cult, one crucial problem still stood before everyone. Spring City was huge. Where the hell was the Heretic Cult?

“Mr. Shan, do you have any leads?” Ji Jue asked.

Mr. No-Fun smiled, deep in thought. The two understood each other perfectly without having to exchange a word.

Ji Jue let out a breath of relief. “As expected.”

Victory was already halfway secured. After killing Ling Zhi and forcing Yan Chong back, Tong Shan had not just been hovering in the sky to look impressive. Even with their internal and external troubles worse than ever, he was still strong enough to casually crush a few unlucky bastards. The reason he had not stopped those surviving small fry from fleeing was...

You were baiting the nest, weren’t you?! No, wait. You planned this from the very beginning, didn’t you?!

“Are you really of the Origin Path?” Ji Jue asked suspiciously.

Tong Shan shrugged. “Of course. Precisely because I’m of the Origin Path, I know the difference between working hours, off hours, and overtime.”

A knowing smile spread across his face. “When I’m not Mr. No-Fun, I’m actually pretty flexible.”