Now that they had taken care of the hardest part of their plan , they just had to convince their targets to take the bait.
That night, almost everyone except Liu Ying and Yang Changtian didn't fall asleep , despite knowing that the miasma is fake , they would sometimes get panicked when they see the fog seeping all throughout the village. As for Liu Ying and Yang Changtian , they were out cold as usual.
So it was also not surprising that they were the only ones up early before daybreak the next morning . Yang Changtian stepped outside to wash his face , when he spotted Liu Ying also exiting her tent , only difference was that he was still in his nightwear about to wash off the sleepiness , while Liu Ying had already changed into a fresh pair of clothes , but thankfully this time , she was repeating one of her previous outfits .
" Guess she finally ran out of clothes." Yang Changtian muttered to himself, smirking. He was starting to think that Liu Ying had a magical inventory or something.
" Ms. Liu , good morning ! If you don't mind me asking , what is on our itinerary for today ? Yang Changtian asked her after she walked over .
" A performance, Mr. Yang , that's what's on our itinerary for today , then we just have to lie low till they come here. Then we will ambush them as planned. " Liu Ying replied.
Yang Changtian just nodded at her before turning to finish washing his face . When he was done , he discovered that Liu Ying had wandered off somewhere. So he just returned to his tent to change out of his nightwear. When he came back outside , she had returned. Yang Changtian just walked over to her , and the both of them headed over to the geysers to check the current situation. The geysers were doing their job wonderfully. And the constant supply of fog just kept coming. After making sure nothing was wrong , the two of them returned back to camp , by now the camp was starting to awaken.
Li Cheng and the others were awake and waiting for Yang Changtian and Liu Ying.
" You two sure wake up early , " Li Cheng said a bit annoyed, Mo Ling refused to return back to his own tent, even though Zhou Zilong was done with his work now. So Li Cheng allowed Mo Ling to stay with him. But this little turd just kept freaking out over the fog multiple times throughout last night , so Li Cheng couldn't get much sleep.
Liu Ying and Yang Changtian sat down with them , and Da Xiong passed over some vegetables to Liu Ying , " Senior , here are your vegetables."
" Thank you Da Xiong. " Liu Ying thanked him before starting to eat her vegetables.
Li Cheng looked at her weirdly , " Ms. Liu , I must say that I haven't seen you eat anything else except vegetables since we came here."
Everyone all paused eating and they turned to Liu , now that Li Cheng mentioned , they really had not seen Liu Ying eating anything else , even last night , when they caught some rabbits to make stew , she hadn't even touched it , instead opting to just eat some boiled vegetables.
Da Xiong just looked at Liu Ying who clearly wasn't interested in answering , so he answered on her behalf. " Actually Senior , can't eat any other meat except chicken or some fish. So she usually just eats some vegetables whenever she's out on a mission. Senior Lu , clearly instructed me to include wild vegetables in our meals for Senior to eat. He also asked me to bring along things like honey for her , that's why our supply carriage was huge."
Senior Lu , Lu Lin , was the most senior member of the detective department , he is considered the leader amongst the founding members. And he is the person who is the closest to Liu Ying. He values her a lot , according to rumours, she was the first member he ever met , and also the person who inspired him to start the Detective department. But nothing , except the fact that he values her a lot has been confirmed.
Yang Changtian and Li Cheng just nodded and resumed their eating , after a while , Li Cheng nudged Yang Changtian , " Brother Yang , look over there " he said discreetly, nudging his head in a particular direction . Yang Changtian turned and spotted Zhang Anying , Zhang Anying saw him turning around so he immediately turned to avoid his gaze.
" Don't you think it's too harsh to ask him not to do anything ?" Li Cheng asked.
" I admit it's harsh , but I don't have any suitable tasks for him. And I really can't give him any important tasks." Yang Changtian admitted.
Liu Ying's ears perked up at this , " Pardon me for intruding gentleman , Mr. Yang , if you don't mind, I have the perfect job for your junior brother."
Yang Changtian lifted his head at this , " Ms. Liu Ying I can't really guarantee that he won't mess up so it would be better to leave him alone."
Liu Ying shook her head , " I disagree Mr. Yang , that's precisely why we should give him a task , since he has a tendency to make mistakes , leaving him alone will only worsen that tendency and it wont do anything to address the issue , instead the ideal solution would be to assign a collaborative task that requires multiple people working together at once. So let's assign him to assist Da Xiong , almost all of his tasks require some degree of collaboration . " Liu Ying suggested.
Yang Changtian thought for a while before agreeing , Liu Ying's point was valid and Da Xiong could be trusted to make sure Zhang Anying doesn't make any mistakes. He stood and walked over to Zhang Anying.
When Zhang Anying saw Yang Changtian approaching him , he got excited , Yang Changtian stopped in front of him , " Zhang Anying, I have a task for you," he said.
" Oldest senior brother I wont disappoint you again." Zhang Anying sprang to his feet.
" You will lend a hand to Da Xiong until ordered otherwise," Yang Changtian instructed.
At first Zhang Anying wanted to refuse , but he chose to remain silent as speaking out would be like digging his own grave.
Instead he replied, " I will do my best to help Brother Da , oldest senior brother ! "
Yang Changtian just nodded , " Meet up with him after you finish eating ," he stated before going back to his table.
While they were eating , Liu Ying briefed them with the plan. " Da Xiong take some people along and place those dummies Tao Su made around the village ,and make sure that they were visible to our targets."
" Yes, Senior . " Da Xiong answered standing up , he signaled Zhang Anying to follow along , and the both of them left to finish their task .
Next Liu Ying turned to Mo Ling and Zhou Zilong, " You two will be responsible for the geysers. When it hits noon , block all but 2 geysers , corpse miasma usually gets thinner around noon ," Liu Ying explained.
Mo Ling And Zhou Zilong also took their leave to prepare for their task.
Liu Ying then turned to Yang Changtian, JIn Wei and Li Cheng , " Let's go put up a performance. Jin Wei bring your painting supplies along."
Li Cheng and Yang Changtian just looked at each other before nodding. Jin Wei already left to collect his makeup box.
It was hard to navigate through the fog , but the trio soon arrived at the east part of the village. Tao Su was waiting for them, he spotted them and approached. " Master , I am ready."
Liu Ying patted his head and nodded.
Tao Su first did some hand gestures and a small lump of clay floated towards him , as the gestures changed , invisible hands sculpted the clay into a small whistle like object. After he finished , Tao Su handed the whistle to Liu Ying .
Liu Yng lifted it to her lips and blew on it , an animalistic growl accompanied by a inhumane screech , similar to the ones made by Crazies echoed through the village , Yang Changtian and Li Cheng were startled at this but soon relaxed when they figured out that the noise came from the thing in Liu Ying's hands.
Nodding , Liu Ying wiped the whistle clean before handing it to Li Cheng . " In a while, I will run out like I'm trying to escape something- ." She was interrupted by Jin Wei. " Just in time , Jin Wei make Mr. Yang's hands look like those of a Crazy." Liu Ying instructed.
Jin Wei immediately approached Yang Changtian who looked bewildered.
" As I said , in a while , Mr. Li will blow the whistle again , and I will run out the village looking frantic. Then I will make a big scene about trying hard to escape , but just when I'm about to succeed , I'll trip and, Mr. Yang , who will be disguised as a Crazy, just up to his hands , will grab me by the leg and drag me back. " Liu Ying explained.
Yang Changtian just stared for a while before sighing , he just resigned to his fate and let Jin Wei paint his hands. In record time , Jin Wei had finished painting the decaying flesh onto his hands. Jin Wei stepped back to check his masterpiece , but he felt that something was missing. After thinking for a while a light bulb went off in his brain , all the Crazies had crazy long black claw-like nails , " Senior , what should we do about his nails , all the Crazies had crazy nails," Jin Wei asked, turning to Liu Ying.
Tao Su suddenly interrupted them , " I can help with that , I can use the clay to make fake nails." Doing some new hand gestures , he asked Yang Changtian to hold his hands still while he manipulated the clay to form fake claw-like nails on top of Yang Changtian's original nails. After he was done , Jin Wei took up the task of painting them and soon , Yang Changtian was left with very realistic Crazy-looking arms.
" Okay Tao Su , you can go back. " Liu Ying instructed. Tao Su bowed and left
" Okay now , that's taken care of , let's put the plan into action , Mr. Li you can go ahead and blow the whistler to start and then you should continue to blow it as you see fit. " Liu Ying explained.
Li Cheng nodded before stopping , " Ms. Liu , won't our own people be scared of this whistle ? I'm worried they might mistake it for a real Crazy and crash the plan." Li Cheng voiced his concerns. '
Liu Ying shook her head , " Do not worry Mr. Li I already instructed Da Xiong to let them know beforehand that we will be mimicking Crazies, and that there will be some screams . And just to be extra safe I've stationed some juniors to mitigate any unfavorable situations that can occur. So you can put your mind at ease Mr. Li."
Li Cheng nodded, before blowing on the whistle , the growl and screech sounded out throughout the whole village , and Li Cheng waited for half a minute before blowing it louder , Liu Ying nodded and then took off running , Yang Changtian followed closely behind.
They all looked in wonder and Liu Ying put on a wonderful show , she screamed , a blood curdling scream that sent shivers down all their spines , she stumbled out of the fog.Liu Ying likely forgot that the east entrance has a big raised threshold , her leg likely got caught in it since she stumbled for real and fell down directly on her face. Thinking quickly , she made a show of trying to get up by clawing around." Now ! " she growled softly , and Yang Changtian nodded at Li Cheng , who blew on the whistle again. Yang Changtian made sure only his hands were visible , extending his hand he grabbed onto Liu Ying's leg , and Liu Ying made another big scene about trying to fight his grip off , she even almost kicked him in the face. Liu Ying made a low 'Now ! ' again and Yang Changtian used all his strength to pull Liu Ying back inside, just as she was being pulled inside , Liu Ying did her final grand performance , she let out another spine chilling screech , and she continued letting out multiple screams before finally going silent.
When Yang Changtian pulled her back , he completely forgot about the threshold , and Liu Ying almost collided with it again , but she was quick enough to use her hands to pull herself over the threshold, avoiding any harm.
She stood up and rubbed her chin sourly , Yang Changtian , Li Cheng and Jin Wei rushed to check up on her , " Senior are you okay ? " Jin Wei asked panicked , Senior Lu and Senior Hua would kill him and Da Xiong if anything were to happen to Liu Ying.
Liu Ying just shook her head , " I'm fine , I forgot about that damned threshold and I tripped hitting my chin , it'll be fine after I rub some slave on it."
The three of them breathed out in relief . Then Li Cheng burst out in laughter , " Ms. Liu , I never thought you were such a good actress ," he teased.
Jin Wei also joined in , " Senior , if you ever decide to leave this line of work , you can become the best actor in our country , your performance totally sent chills down my spine."
Yang Changtian was also laughing silently , he never expected the silent Liu Ying to be such a good actress.
Liu Ying made a loud " Mmpphh" before stuttering off back towards the village center , the others followed behind , still laughing. Da Xiong and Zhang Anyimg were waiting in the village center with some other juniors.
Da Xiong spotted Liu Ying first , and he inadvertently noticed that her chin seemed off. " Senior, did something happen to your chin ? " he asked, forgetting all his other questions.
Hearing his question Liu Ying glared at him , while the other three burst out laughing.
Liu Ying somehow continued glaring at him till she entered the medic tent to get some slave for her rapidly bruising chin.
Da Xiong just looked back at Yang Changtian , Li Cheng and Jin Wei confused , " What happened to her ?" he asked scratching his head.
" She completely forgot about the threshold over at the east entrance , and she tumbled hitting her chin on the floor," Jin Wei explained, wiping his tears.
Da Xiong's mouth fell open , he couldn't believe that their almighty Senior was defeated by a mere threshold. Then his shock wore off , " Is she fine ? You know Senior Lu and Senior Hua will have our heads if something happens to her."
Jin Wei waved him off , " She's fine , she'll be alright after rubbing some slave on it."
Da Xiong breathed out in relief , " By the way I heard some very convincing screams, it sounded exactly like a woman being ripped apart , just how in the world did you make it that convincing ? " he asked innocently.
By now Liu Ying had come back out , so when she heard his question she shot him another nasty look.
This prompted Li Cheng , and Jin Wei to laugh even louder. Yang Changtian had disappeared off somewhere, not that they noticed , they were too busy laughing at Liu Ying and Da Xiong.
Da Xiong spotted Liu Ying's nasty look and he only got more confused , ' Just what did I do wrong this time ?' he muttered to himself.
Jin Wei approached him and narrated what happened perfectly. By the end of the story , all the disciples , Zhang Anying and Da Xiong included were looking at Liu Ying , bewildered.
" It was Senior ?! I thought you used a death whistle Tao Su made or something." Da Xiong hissed at Jin Wei , " Why didn't you tell me that before , I pissed her off more."
Jin Wei just shrugged. But after his shock wore off , Da Xiong found it funny too , he along with all the others quietly tried to control their laughter.
Soon they didn't have to try hard , a cold voice cut through the air , " I'm glad you all find it funny , but save your laughs for later . Let's move our things over to the western area , and set up camp so we can hide from those people. Don't dismantle the tents in this area , they'll notice it" Liu Ying ordered them.
Everyone froze before scattering off like ants to fulfil Liu Ying's orders. Li Cheng just shook his head and approached Liu Ying who was clearly still sulking. " Ms. Liu , you did a wonderful job-" he began to pacify her.
" Don't even try, " Liu Ying warned him and Li Cheng immediately abandoned all thoughts of comforting her .
" Then Ms. Liu I'll take my leave , I have to go see how that child from my sect is doing , " he replied before speeding off to see what Mo Ling was up to.
Liu Ying returned to her tent , to see if she had any slave left , she had used up all the slave in the medic tent , she was disheartened to find that she didn't have any slave with her either. She sat down on her bed sulking. Just then Yang Changtian's voice rang out from outside , " Ms. Liu, are you there ? "
Liu Ying didn't bother to sit up she just answered , " Mr. Yang you can come in . " When he entered , he found her sprawled out on her bed sulking. She asked him , " Do you need anything Mr. Yang ? "
Yang Changtian shook his head and threw something over to her. Liu Ying caught it and examined it . It was a slave !
" How did you - ? " she asked.
" I had a feeling that you might not have any left , especially since we used it a lot. "
Liu Ying started at him for a while before thanking him , " Thank you Mr. Yang , when we get back I'll personally make and send you some medicinal slave."
Usually Yang Changtian would've refused , but he could use some of her slave just in case , the past few days he'd seen how effective it was. So it was normal for him to want it. " Then I'll be looking forward to it Ms. Liu ." he replied, stepping outside.
Liu Ying carefully applied the slave onto her bruising chin, washed her hands and took a short rest to recover her energy , then she stepped outside to see Yang Changtian waiting for her. "Mr. Yang I was wondering what time it is ?"
" It seems to be quiet close to noon now Ms. Liu , " Yang Changtian replied .
Liu Ying nodded , " How's the move coming along ? " she asked.
" Relatively difficult due to the fog . but we're almost done, just your tent left, we didn't want to disturb you while you were resting ."
Liu Ying nodded again, " We better tell Zhou Zilong and Mo Ling to get ready to seal the geysers now ."
Yang Changtian nodded at her and turned around , he spotted a disciple waiting nearby , he waved him over , " Go and tell Zhou Zilong and Mo Ling to proceed with their task, they're over by the geysers." The disciple immediately rushed to deliver Yang Changtian's message.
Just then another disciple ran over to them . " Senior Yang, Ms. Liu , we're almost done moving all of Ms. Liu's things over ."
Liu Ying was surprised at how fast they were , she had a lot of things yet they managed to clear it out within minutes. " Mr. Yang , before going over our new camp , I would like to see if the dummies were set up correctly."
Yang Changtian agreed and the two of them scoured the area , Da Xiong and Zhang Anying had done a wonderful job . Liu Ying didn't find any issues with the placement of the dummies so they decided to go to their new camp now. The fog began to get thinner so it was best for them to go back.
Back at camp , everyone was waiting for them , the 8 of them stepped inside a newly erected tent to discuss their further actions.
" Now we have to wait till the bait , if my guess is right , they won't wait for long, so they are likely to take action tomorrow. " Liu Ying began . " Mr. Mo , you are in charge of spying on the group , you will take some people and you will hide around the village strategically to get a bird's eye view ." Mo Ling agreed. " Next up Jin Wei and Mr. Zhou , you two will be in charge of the geysers , you just have to seal it and unseal the geysers in accordance with my instructions. " They agreed too. " Next Mr. Zhang , you're with Da Xiong , as I said you two are in charge of the sedative smoke. " She pointed to a corner where multiple paper packages were piled up . "You have to feed one package to the fire every 3 minutes , and then use those fans to fan it out evenly. You will only stop when I ask you to." Da Xiong and Zhang Anying also nodded in agreement.
" Mr. Yang and Mr, Li , we three will make sure they faint, " She said, finally turning to Yang Changtian and Li Cheng.
" We will also overlook everything , if anything goes wrong , report to one of us immediately," everyone nodded back.
" That is how we will proceed , when they enter the village let them look around for a while , if they discover that the dummies are fake , immediately start the smoke." Liu Ying continued to instruct them . It was almost sundown when they finished their discussion .
Liu Ying quickly turned to Jin Wei and Zhou Zilong , " Jin Wei , Mr. Zhou, you should go ahead and unseal the geysers now , Miasma regathers when the sun begins to set , so unseal the geysers one by one , to make it seem like the miasma is creeping in gradually."
Jin Wei and Zhou Zilong immediately left to finish this task , and soon , the fog began to gradually thicken , soon covering the village completely.
Liu Ying walked out and stared into the fog. Li Cheng and Yang Changtian joined her . They could see the sky , so they too just stared at the fog just like Liu Ying. . After a while of silence Liu Ying finally spoke up. " The trap has been set , now we just wait for the target to take the bait."
Li Cheng and Yang Changtian nodded in agreement and the three of them turned back to go grab some dinner.