"More than last time, one hundred and fifty-four pieces!"

After counting the harvested Insect Extreme Crystals, someone shouted out loud.

Shi Chun also yelled, "Brother Chu, come collect the goods."

"Coming, coming."

Chu Jingtang, with his beard, squeezed over with several junior monks, cheerily. After counting on the spot, he announced loudly to everyone, "We've collected one hundred and fifty-four pieces, making a total of two thousand and ninety-four pieces."

Everyone was cheerful. Having a harvest was naturally a reason to be happy, but the additional two or three hundred pieces still didn't mean much.

However, it did have its benefits; they could prove afterwards that they had indeed been working, just not very well.

They tallied the casualties, no one had died, though six people were slightly injured, two of them more seriously, but it wasn't a big issue.

After visiting the injured, Shi Chun then said to Master Mai, "Brother Mai, you take charge of the merit book, make sure to record clearly who deserves credit for each battle."

It was a task that could offend people, but given their situation of just getting through the days, they couldn't offend much; he accepted with a smile, "Alright, as the Master commands."

Who knew Shi Chun would turn around, take out a mother-and-child talisman, jump up high, mount it, and loudly declare to everyone with the talisman raised, "Scouts report a new target, let's strive for the championship of Xuan State, gather and depart!"

As usual, after shouting, he ran off without a care.

"Master."

"Master..."

Many people exclaimed, wanting to have a serious talk with him, but the Master was in a hurry to strive for the championship of Xuan State and didn't even bother to look back, showing a clear 'follow if you want' attitude.

Shi Chun wasn't worried they wouldn't follow. If they dared not to, he could later make those people anxious. If nothing else, he could go to Mulan Qingqing and label these people as those unwilling to work on even the most minor tasks; wasn't that just slacking off?

In any case, he had plenty of ways to deal with them.

This Master's intention to find an excuse seemed a bit too obvious, prompting the group to hurriedly catch up.

Fortunately, the Master's cultivation wasn't high, so they didn't find it hard to catch up.

After catching up, Master Mai asked, "Master, isn't this incessantly marching a bit too rushed?"

He was hinting, do we need to take it so seriously?

Shi Chun questioned, "Don't you want to make an effort to win the championship for Xuan State?"

Master Mai hurriedly denied, "No, no. I mean, everyone has been running back and forth continuously without stopping; shouldn't we take a break?"

"Yes, yes," several others who followed along agreed.

Shi Chun stated, "We can rest, but the target won't stop for us. Scouts have gone to great lengths to find this opportunity for us, and we can't miss it. Let's push a bit harder, finish this job, and then rest."

Someone wanted to reason with him, but the Master neither listened nor stopped; he just kept running, leaving it up to them whether to follow.

Far away, on a mountaintop, Xiang Laner watched the departing group and took out his Wind Scale to ascend into the sky.

Throughout the journey, thousands of people traveled long distances to near the target area.

The same process, first clarify the exact location of the target, demanding an absolutely precise encirclement time.

Then came Shi Chun's tightly focused point, which he emphasized loudly every time about battle discipline: "If the target runs in a particular direction, the team from that direction must hand over three sects' members to die, choose who should die among yourselves. If the encirclement is not timely, kill the team leader first. Follow me on Route Two!"

These words, heard by thousands, were almost memorizable.

From another perspective, these phrases indeed gradually sank into their hearts.

The people of Route Two, whether willing or not, rushed out again following him.

Other routes, also with a slightly weary mindset, charged out to execute; it was nerve-wracking since fighting and killing were no child's play.

However, when they again surrounded the target location, they found that fighting and killing indeed seemed rather trivial. Thousands of people had surrounded only a few dozen, those few dozen exceedingly frightened people almost felt like throwing down their weapons to surrender.

Indeed, who wouldn't be scared being surrounded by thousands?

The group finally realized that despite the Master making a big fuss, in actuality, he only dared to take on minor tasks; their previous nervousness and various worries were completely unnecessary.

After three consecutive strikes, they only managed to catch a few dozen people to bite each time. To call all three times a coincidence, no one would believe that. The Master's dispatched scouts clearly picked easy targets.

The surrounded few dozen people again shouted out, declaring they did not possess any Insect Extreme Crystals.

This statement, rather than calming, nearly made the encircling group charge without orders to overthrow them.

"Route Two, kill!"

Following Shi Chun's command, the people of Route Two hesitated not at all and rushed into the crowd to fight.

The fight ended without suspense, the process was quick, and a few more were injured due to the enemy's desperate resistance.

This time, without waiting for the signal, after the fight ended, the group eagerly searched the scene.

Soon, an exclamation rang out, "We've got something, here, there are Insect Extreme Crystals."

Someone waved a black cloth bag.

Then, the nearby group quickly gathered together to count, and soon an outburst of shouting followed.

"Two hundred and ninety-three!"

"Almost three hundred now, more than the last two times combined."

This number caused a slight stir among the onlookers, it really wasn't a small amount this time.

Shi Chun still didn't touch the Insect Extreme Crystals and shouted again, "Brother Chu, come over and collect the goods."

"Coming right up." Chu Jingtang, cheerful with his sect members, squeezed through.

This time, Shi Chun didn't dally and cast a spell shouting, "This place is not safe for long, fearing reinforcements might attack, let's gather everyone and move to a place to rest."

Finally, the master decided to stop, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Shortly after, thousands of people who rushed in quickly departed, coming hurriedly and leaving in the same manner, quite like the wind in their motion.

Some injured people were carried or shouldered.

After the group stopped in a mountainous area, the afternoon had already worn on, though the actual fighting had been brief, most of their time had been spent on the move.

After choosing a spot on the spot, Shi Chun stood before everyone and said, "Brother Chu, count all the Insect Extreme Crystals again in front of everyone."

Chu Jingtang came forward and said with a strained smile, "Master, we've counted them several times already. If you don't trust us, perhaps switch someone else to guard these Insect Extreme Crystals."

Shi Chun reassured, "Count them again, just one more time, everybody's first harvest, the last time."

For this, everyone actually didn't care much.

Chu Jingtang also vaguely guessed there was some deeper meaning, and seeing Shi Chun making eye gestures at him, he immediately called his sect members to count in public.

The numbers were substantial and counting really took some time, finally, Chu Jingtang announced loudly in public, "A total of two thousand three hundred and eighty-seven, from today's three raids we've gathered five hundred and fifty Insect Extreme Crystals."

"Five hundred fifty..."

"That's a lot."

"See, without those major sects involved, relying on ourselves we're not inferior."

A noisy discussion arose among the crowd, as so many people in Xuan State had spent so much time only managing around three thousand, while they, in one day's work, managed to collect five or six hundred crystals, one couldn't grasp the importance without comparison.

After Bilan Sect secured the Insect Extreme Crystals, Shi Chun asked everyone to rest there.

The group then arranged guard shifts, and most began digging caves, not a difficult task for monks who naturally cherished a sense of privacy.

After Wu Jinliang dug his cave, Shi Chun gave him the Wind Scale and sent him out to patrol.

By the time he returned, it was deep into the night.

Wu Jinliang came back and nodded to Shi Chun, taking a cloth-wrapped object out of the Qiankun Bracelet, which he then returned to Shi Chun.

Seated with crossed legs, Shi Chun put on the Qiankun Bracelet, crossed through the transverse passage, made an eye gesture to Chu Jingtang in the other room, and gestured toward the cave entrance.

The caves of the two were adjacent, connected in between.

Chu Jingtang understood and immediately had two sect members stationed at the door.

Wu Jinliang followed Shi Chun into the next cave, his cloth-wrapped package placed onto the earthen platform inside, Shi Chun gestured for Chu Jingtang to take a look.

Chu Jingtang unwrapped the cloth and found several black cloth bags filled with items. He felt a blocky sensation through the bags and, surprised, said, "Are these all Insect Extreme Crystals?"

Shi Chun nodded slightly, "Open it and see."

Chu Jingtang instantly untied the bags, careful in his movements as he readied to prevent the Insect Extreme Crystals from escaping, but after only peeking through the opening, he froze, then quickly unwrapped the entire mouth of the bag. Under the light of Sandal Gold Flame Energy, it was a bag of stones.

The stones were quite regular in size, similar to the shape and size of the Insect Extreme Crystals, though of course, not as regular.

What's going on? He didn't understand and immediately opened all the other black cloth bags, all without exception containing similar stones.

He unconsciously glanced outside the cave and whispered softly, "Master, what does this mean?"

Shi Chun replied, "Exchange these for the Insect Extreme Crystals you're guarding."

"..." Chu Jingtang was stunned for a while, thoughts racing through his mind feeling them all implausible, hesitantly said, "Master, this isn't proper, everyone trusts me so much, what do you really want these Insect Extreme Crystals for?"

His two sect members also looked visibly puzzled.

Shi Chun said, "This isn't something I can explain quickly, rest assured, I'm just borrowing them temporarily, they will be returned to you tomorrow."

"That..." Chu Jingtang was still hesitant.

Wu Jinliang interjected, "What's this hesitance about, you're not the one to be responsible, for these crappy stones, I squeezed them for almost an hour, trying to find ones of similar weight, was it easy for me?"

Shi Chun reassured, "No worries, you'll understand later."

Thinking it over, Chu Jingtang saw it made sense; after all, it wasn't his responsibility if something went wrong, so he pointed at the pile of stones to confirm, "So tomorrow I'll just display a bunch of fakes?"

Shi Chun affirmed, "What needs to be done has been done today, they won't suspect."

"Ah," sighed Chu Jingtang, since he was already on the 'thieves' ship', turned back and gestured to the monk guarding the Insect Extreme Crystals to bring over those bags.

Wu Jinliang took several bags of Insect Extreme Crystals and turned to leave, but before Shi Chun left, he smiled and patted Chu Jingtang on the shoulder, "Rest assured, nothing bad will happen."

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