…

Yes, Xu Jingming released Yang Liao alive because he believed that the latter was a pushover and had chosen his team as his target.

The Yang family doesn’t trust these guards. They even temporarily locked down the guards in the Yang residence because they were afraid that these guards would leak the secret. Once they move out… Even if the guards are separated, they should be divided into teams with a few dozen in each. It’s easy for them to lose control of such small teams. Xu Jingming had rented a room on the second floor of a building nearby, and the room’s window happened to oversee the intersection.

Xu Jingming waited silently.

There was no need to pay attention to the few pedestrians. He only needed to take a look at slightly larger convoys.

Xu Jingming locked onto the list of 80 people! He had videos of everyone.

Surveillance was very boring! The hired players received a fixed salary, and Xu Jingming couldn’t guarantee that they would do their best. Therefore, he sought the help of Liu Hai, Tu Ling, and Zhang Qing.

As for not using autoplay, it was because the AI didn’t know about the recordings taken in the virtual world. The AI could accept orders and knew everything it had experienced in Blood Rain World, but it didn’t know about the experiences in the virtual world. Thus, it couldn’t identify the 80 people.

It was dark.

“Brother Xu.” Tu Ling arrived with some delicacies. “I’ll take over.”

“Thank you.” Xu Jingming also packed up some of the food he had eaten during the day and walked out with his basket.

…

Xu Jingming and Tu Ling did their surveillance in one spot, while Liu Hai and Zhang Qing did it in another spot.

The Yang residence team had to pass through one of the junctions to leave.

Recently, convoys are occasionally seen leaving the Yang residence. In the early morning, Liu Hai ate his flatbread and watched patiently. But we haven’t noticed any of the 80 people under surveillance.

At this moment—

A team of 80 to 90 people passed by the intersection.

Huh? Liu Hai suddenly jolted. Having reached cellular control, his eyesight was astonishing. He immediately discovered that more than 30 people in this team were people in the projection Xu Jingming had given him.

He might’ve missed out on them if there were only one or two, but Liu Hai discovered 30-plus people at a glance.

Here they are. Liu Hai was a little excited.

Liu Hai immediately left Blood Rain World with his consciousness and instantly sent a message to Xu Jingming. “Jingming, I’ve discovered a convoy. I estimate 89 people, and 35 of them are on your list.”

“Master, follow them carefully. Don’t let them discover you.” Xu Jingming replied online.

“Don’t worry.” Liu Hai was still quite confident as he immediately left the residence and followed carefully.

******

Xu Jingming, Tu Ling, and Zhang Qing arrived on a public road at the capital’s south city gate.

“The Yang family’s teams are all heading to the eastern region! To go to the eastern region, they have to head south. There’s a high chance that they will pass through this official road,” Xu Jingming said. “But this place is too close to the city gates, so it’s not suitable for the attack. Once we do, it will attract the capital’s city guards.”

“Sister Tu Ling, Sister Zhang, the two of you wait here. You’ll be in charge of working with my master,” Xu Jingming said.

“Don’t worry.”

“We will definitely keep a close eye on them.”

Zhang Qing and Tu Ling were very confident.

Xu Jingming nodded slightly and headed south alone along the main road; he needed to rendezvous with his team! Before his surveillance of the Yang residence, he had already gotten the hired cosmic players to leave the capital and arranged for them to be located 50 kilometers south of the capital. He got the players to collectively log off and await his summons!

…

A caravan of nearly 300 people exited the capital’s south city gate. There were carriages, wagons, and a large number of caravan guards riding horses. However, most of these horses were short and were clearly ordinary horses.

Although they had good stamina, their speed was average.

I’m out of the capital. Yang Liao sat in the carriage with his wife and concubine.

Yang Liao was nervous and expectant.

According to Father’s arrangements, my team’s destination is Qulan City in the eastern region. In the future, my team… will be the Qulan Yang family. Yang Liao looked forward to his future life. I will also be the head of the Qulan Yang family. I call the shots!

“I heard that it’s very chaotic outside and that bandits are rampant,” Yang Liao’s wife said worriedly. She was also from a large family, so she had to follow her husband to the eastern region.

“Don’t worry. On the surface, we perfectly disguised ourselves as ordinary merchant caravans. Even our carriages and horses are bought from them,” Yang Liao said. “Thieves have their rules; we can still safely reach the eastern region by paying them some fees! Even if we really fall out… Hmph, we’re more than ten times stronger than ordinary caravans.”

These guards were all qualified experts.

The caravan advanced.

Whoosh.

Across the vast land, Liu Hai followed from afar.

The short horses weren’t fast, but the speed of qualified experts was astonishing—they could easily keep up! It was just that qualified experts consumed a lot of energy when moving quickly. Thankfully, he only needed to tail them for less than four hours.

Liu Hai would die of exhaustion if he had to follow for a day or two.

Before leaving the city, this convoy made multiple turns in the capital. They even changed their clothes and disguised themselves as a merchant caravan. Thankfully, I clearly remember all 80 of them. Liu Hai followed carefully, and Tu Ling and Zhang Qing followed from further away.

******

In a forest more than 50 kilometers away from the capital’s south city gate.

Xu Jingming also gathered all the cosmic citizen players.

“Everyone.” Xu Jingming looked at the three Lv. 8 experts, 60 first-rate experts, and 100 second-rate experts and smiled. “Today is the last day of employment. After completing today’s mission, the mission will officially end.”

These cosmic citizen players revealed looks of delight.

The mission was quite easy. Although it was said to be a month’s employment, it actually didn’t use them for the full month. Moreover, the key operations were to plunder Emerald Pavilion, attack Cheng Yanran, and deal with the Yang family team! There weren’t many requirements for the players.

“In about five minutes, the target team will pass by the main road in front of us,” Xu Jingming stated. “I’ll briefly explain the plan.”

All the players listened. They had to do a good job on the last mission.

“Alright, that’s it.” After Xu Jingming finished explaining the plan, he said, “Split up and set up an ambush.”

The team immediately took action and hid in the forest beside the main road.

Xu Jingming was with the three Lv. 8 experts as he patiently waited for the Yang family team to arrive.

“I see them.” Xu Jingming saw the team from afar.

The Yang family team was riding horses, and even though they had short horses, they arrived in just a minute.

“Move out!” Xu Jingming sent a message to the hired players through the virtual world.

It was silent!

All the players received the order and moved at the same time.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! 

All of them turned into afterimages and charged out.

…

Nearly 300 people from the Yang family marched forward.

Suddenly—

A group of people rushed down from the forest beside them. They stood in front of the team, behind the team, and on the other side of the forest.

“Bandits!” The Yang family team was also surprised.

“May I ask who you are?” A Yang family elder in the convoy said loudly, “Our caravan doesn’t have it easy doing business. We are willing to give you some money. Please let us go.”

“What’s going on?” In the carriage, Yang Liao’s wife and concubine were alarmed.

“It’s fine. It’s normal to encounter bandits outside the city,” Yang Liao said. “Those bandits will also think twice before fighting.”

But at this moment, three terrifying psychic forces spread out.

“Neigh~” Many horses cowered in fear.

The Yang family team immediately dismounted and tried their best to hold the reins. If they didn’t, the horses would probably flee in fright.

“Not good.” The Yang family members also felt that something was amiss.

Four figures walked out of the forest; leading the way was Xu Jingming wearing a human skin mask. He held a spear, and beside him were three Lv. 8 experts.

Although the psychic forces of the three Lv. 8 experts Xu Jingming had hired were strong, enveloping nearly 300 people at the same time only terrified the horses. It had a much weaker effect on qualified experts!

If it was only targeted at a few people, the threat of the psychic forces was much greater.

The so-called psychic impact was also a form of a mental clash. The weak needed to resist the strong! If a large number of weak people resisted together… the effects would be much better.

“Second Young Master Yang, it has only been a few days. How are you?” Xu Jingming’s voice sounded in the surroundings.

Second Young Master Yang? The Yang family team couldn’t help but panic. These bandits knew that they were from the Yang family and that their leader was Yang Liao?

“This voice sounds familiar?” Yang Liao carefully lifted the carriage curtain and saw four familiar people walking over.

“It’s you guys?” Yang Liao jolted.