Celestial Refining Divine Scripture-Chapter 288 - 286: A Basketful of Troubles

"Hahaha."

Vulture laughed, patting Xu Yang's shoulder. "You got lucky today. That bastard War Tiger definitely wasn't plotting anything good!"

"Guhua City is a damn mess right now. You've got some balls, coming here alone and trying your luck!"

Xu Yang could only force a wry smile.

In the others' eyes, they all thought he was scared.

"Relax, our squad's not that unreasonable."

"The resources we get from outside—Boss and Yun each get twenty percent, and the rest, we split up among us."

"Including you, there are seven of us now!"

Seven people?

Xu Yang scanned the group. Aside from himself, only one young man was at Yang Realm Perfection; the others were all Early Stage of Myriad Phenomena.

Five Early Stage of Myriad Phenomena. Not a weak lineup.

"Enough talk. Let's go back, get ready—it's about time we set out."

Vulture waved his hand as he spoke.

Xu Yang followed the others toward their base.

The reason he agreed to join was after much consideration.

He was new here, completely in the dark. Better to tag along with a squad that had been around a while.

When it came to all kinds of information, they definitely knew their stuff!

Besides, coming to Guhua City, this had always been part of his plan.

With the squad, he could better hide his identity.

That bastard Huangfu Qing was still lurking somewhere, after all.

He probably hated Xu Yang even more than Song Yuanhao did!

Cutting off those ancient arts, destroying all those priceless treasures, and on top of that Huangfu Shaoyao's death—any single one would be a deep grudge!

A short while later, the group entered a courtyard.

Inside stood a woman in her thirties, looking cold; she was clearly the Yun they'd mentioned earlier.

"Yun."

The group greeted her one after another.

Li Yun just gave a cold, slight nod.

Xu Yang noticed, the others all seemed wary of this Yun.

Even so, her cultivation was only at Early Stage of Myriad Phenomena—still not as strong as Vulture. Judging by her aura, at most just a bit stronger than the other Early Stage folks!

"Why are you back so late?" Li Yun looked at Vulture with suspicion.

Vulture spread his hands. "Ran into War Tiger on the way, nearly came to blows!"

"War Tiger..."

Li Yun nodded knowingly; only then did she notice Xu Yang, frowning. "Why is there another Yang Realm here? Is this the newbie you picked?"

As soon as she spoke, except for Xu Yang, the other Yang Realm Perfection, Meng Han, twitched and kept his head down, tight-lipped.

"This kid's got guts. Yang Realm Perfection's good enough," Vulture said bluntly.

Li Yun retorted coldly, "Good enough? Yang Realm Perfection is still Yang Realm. We've already got one burden in the team, and now there's another..."

"What's he gonna do if we're in danger? Just wait to die?"

"Are you going to save him or not? If you save him, will you die too?"

Everyone's faces turned ugly hearing that.

Vulture frowned. "Li Yun, I know after last time you might—"

"Enough!" Li Yun's face was stone, cutting him off without any courtesy.

She gave Xu Yang a pitying glance, then walked straight out of the courtyard.

"I'll wait for you outside the city!"

Only after Li Yun left did anyone finally sigh.

Xu Yang's expression was complicated—the Vulture Squad's atmosphere was definitely... weird!

"Don't take it to heart, brother. Her husband used to be on our squad too. He died unexpectedly, killed by War Tiger."

"Since then, she's been... like that."

Vulture shook his head, sighing.

"But she's been a bit much lately—even rude to you, Boss," another woman in the team couldn't help saying.

"Enough." Vulture shot her a glare.

"I'm quitting."

Suddenly, Meng Han spoke up.

"What?"

"Quitting?"

Everyone looked at Meng Han in surprise.

"Yun didn't mean anything by that, you're overthinking it," someone tried to console him.

Everyone knew, honestly, Li Yun's words were harsh.

Meng Han scoffed, "Didn't mean anything? Hmph, haven't you figured it out after all this time? She resents us—thinks we didn't get her husband out alive."

The group fell silent immediately.

Meng Han went on, "How is that our fault? If we hadn't risked our lives, she'd be dead too. But she doesn't appreciate a thing!"

"If she's so tough, let her go deal with War Tiger herself."

"Always bossing us around in the squad, damn it!"

"Screw it!"

Meng Han spat on the ground, took a deep breath, and gave Vulture a formal bow. "Boss, thanks for everything."

With that, he leapt away, gone in a flash.

Vulture opened his mouth, but in the end could only smile bitterly.

The rest were silent as well.

Xu Yang couldn't help rubbing his brow. What was all this mess?

I just wanted to join a team to get some intel and make things easier.

Why are there so many damn problems?

But after Meng Han's outburst, he pretty much had the whole picture now.

What a headache.

"Let's go."

Vulture waved his hand and strode out with a chilly face.

The rest exchanged glances, then silently followed.

No one spoke as they walked out of the city. Li Yun was already there, waiting.

Seeing Meng Han wasn't around, she didn't ask a thing, acting as if he'd never existed.

Witnessing this, Xu Yang secretly sighed. Li Yun was either always like this, or losing her husband had messed her up for good.

If she stayed in the team, she'd keep challenging Vulture's authority and endanger the whole squad!

Unless Vulture found some resolve.

Thinking this, Xu Yang shook his head, not wanting to dwell on it.

When the time was right, he'd just leave.

What did any of this have to do with him?

Everyone chooses their own path.

As they set off, Vulture glanced at Xu Yang and said grimly, "The area we're heading for is one we've already scouted."

"Mo Feng Mountain—there's a secret realm there. A squad of Barbarian Race soldiers is stationed there, led by a warlord ranked eighty-ninth on the Warlord List, Middle Stage of Myriad Phenomena Realm!"

"Our objective: kill that Barbarian warlord and get the treasures in the secret realm!"

"If we pull it off, it'll be a massive haul!"

As Vulture revealed the goal, the tension faded a little; the group all looked more energized, even excited.

"Middle Stage of Myriad Phenomena... that's going to be tough, right?" Xu Yang hesitated before speaking.

"Of course it's tough!"

Li Yun sneered, "If we had another Myriad Phenomena expert, our odds would be way better. Instead, we get another worthless Yang Realm!"

"Li Yun, that's enough!" Vulture finally couldn't hold it back and barked angrily.

Xu Yang stayed unfazed, just smiling blandly, as if nothing happened.

With Vulture rebuking her, Li Yun snorted coldly and said no more.

Vulture took a deep breath. "We've prepared well. Even with just us, it'll do."

"We bought Red Feather Poison from the black market. When the time comes, everyone gets a share. With five of us at Early Stage of Myriad Phenomena working together, we should have plenty of chances to smear that Barbarian scum with the Red Feather Poison. Once it hits him, it'll disrupt his barbarian tattoos for a short while—he'll lose much of his strength!"

Vulture paused, his tone turning solemn. "Once this mission's done, there'll be enough resources for us all to get by for a while. After that, you're all free to stay or go."

As he finished, everyone fell silent—no one said a word.

Xu Yang pondered for a moment. "Captain, are any top Barbarian geniuses active near the border?"

He wasn't bothered about whether this mission would succeed at all!

With him around, it couldn't possibly fail! 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

What he cared about were those 'old friends'!