Chapter 216: Disguise
Yang Zhou said, “I later realized this class suited me better, so I started playing it. Besides, every big shot here is a damage dealer. They’re either berserkers, super-heavy damage dealers, assassins, or something along those lines. Our guild is short on support and healers. There was no helping it—you’re a damage dealer too, so I could only take on both roles myself. But you know what? It’s actually pretty fun.”
Nan Yu said, “As long as you’re having fun.”
While Nan Yu and Yang Zhou were having fun in the game, Yu Lanfeng also began carrying out his plan.
After an extensive disguise, he stood in front of the mirror and looked at the Jiang Youjian reflected inside. He really couldn’t see any difference at all.
Before this, he had also had a thorough conversation with Jiang Youjian about his contacts with the Bai family, along with many of the finer details.
If someone happened to mention something Jiang Youjian hadn’t told him about, he could simply say he didn’t remember. Yu Lanfeng was quite experienced with this kind of thing. After all, when he had first joined the military, he had carried out quite a few missions like this.
Yu Lanfeng turned to look at the “Zhou Baichuan” behind him. This was a soldier from their legion who resembled Zhou Baichuan the most. After some alterations to his appearance, he looked completely indistinguishable from the real Zhou Baichuan.
Moreover, they were professionals. There would be no mishaps when it came to impersonation.
Yu Lanfeng asked, “Is everything ready? It’s about time. Let’s head out and pay the Bai family a visit first today.”
Although they had been invited back to attend the wedding, considering their relationship, it was only natural for them to make a visit and chat for a while after returning.
And when they went there, the other side would definitely ask for information related to the military base. When that happened, Yu Lanfeng would have to answer according to the situation so as not to arouse their suspicions.
The hovercraft traveled all the way to the entrance of the estate where Bai Shanzhou lived. The gates were soon opened, and the hovercraft slowly moved inside before stopping in an empty space.
Yu Lanfeng and his companion got out and were led inside by the butler. Before long, they saw Bai Shanzhou sitting on the sofa in the living room, completely alone.
However, Yu Lanfeng had already discovered no fewer than three extremely well-hidden surveillance devices. He showed no reaction and simply walked over as though everything were perfectly normal, greeting Bai Shanzhou.
To be fair, Bai Shanzhou could be considered one of the more beautiful members of the entire Bai family. This naturally meant she had greater value when it came to a marriage alliance, so Bai Shanzhou was still treated quite well within the Bai family.
Even though the Bai family was now far from what it had once been, that did not affect her.
When Bai Shanzhou saw the two of them, she gave them an extremely gentle smile. “You’re finally here. Come and sit down. I haven’t seen either of you in such a long time. I really missed you.”
Yu Lanfeng said, “We’ve been doing very well. But Teacher Bai, you’ve gotten even prettier since we last saw you. We also took a look at the person you’re going to marry. He really is a very good match for you. Congratulations to both of you.”
Bai Shanzhou covered her mouth and laughed. “How are we as well matched as you make us sound? We simply found each other pleasing enough. By the way, you came here in such a hurry that you probably haven’t eaten much, right? I had the kitchen prepare plenty of delicious food, all things you like. Why don’t we talk after we’ve eaten?”
A smile remained on Yu Lanfeng’s lips. “Sure, Teacher Bai. But we can’t stay too long. We still need to go to Legion Headquarters later and register. Originally, we were thinking of registering first and then coming here, but since registration shouldn’t take much time, we decided to come here first.”
“Zhou Baichuan” said, “And even if we don’t have time to go today, we can always go tomorrow. It’s just that we already agreed on today, and if we don’t show up, we might get beaten up.”
That was how simple communication within the legion was.
You agreed to meet and now you dare stand me up?
I’ll beat you up and hopefully you’ll remember better next time.
Bai Shanzhou’s expression didn’t change, but her eyes flickered slightly. She concealed it almost immediately, leaving no trace behind.
She calmly stood up and said, “Oh my, then hurry to the dining room. The kitchen should almost be finished preparing everything. I’ll go urge them along. You two go sit in the dining room first.”
What Bai Shanzhou was going to do was self-evident. She was obviously going to tell the people in the kitchen not to add anything extra to the food.
Though even if they had added something, it wouldn’t have mattered.
As members of the legion, they had undergone extremely rigorous drug-resistance training. Yu Lanfeng in particular had achieved exceptional results during that training. There was absolutely no need for him to worry about being affected by drugs.
Yu Lanfeng and his companion had only been sitting in the dining room for about two minutes when they saw Bai Shanzhou return from the kitchen. She sat down in the main seat and looked at the two of them with a smile in her eyes.
“Xiao Jiang, are you especially impressive in the legion? I heard you were recently promoted. You’re really outstanding! Your teacher is proud of you.”
Yu Lanfeng said, “Not really. I just didn’t want to live an ordinary, mediocre life, so I worked a little harder. It’s not quite as impressive as you make it sound. But life in the legion is very good. Everyone is easy to get along with, and I’ve developed quite well over the past few years.”
Bai Shanzhou said, “Oh my, the legion you joined is Marshal Yu’s legion. I’ve heard the discipline there is extremely strict, though I don’t know whether that’s true. After all, I don’t have many acquaintances there, and even fewer of my former students managed to enter that legion. Even among those who did, almost none stayed in contact with me afterward. You’re the only one left now. Whenever I think about that, it really makes me feel rather sad.”
Yu Lanfeng said, “Don’t worry, Teacher Bai. If there’s anything you want to know, you can just ask me. As long as it doesn’t involve classified legion information, I can tell you.”
A smile appeared on Bai Shanzhou’s face. “Thank you, Xiao Jiang. All right, the food is coming. Eat plenty. You probably can’t eat delicacies that are only available on the Capital Star while you’re in the legion, right? Eat more, eat more.”
Yu Lanfeng and his companion ate quite a lot.
Naturally, while eating, they detected no trace of any drugs in the food. It seemed Bai Shanzhou’s instructions during her trip to the kitchen had been very thorough—absolutely nothing unnecessary was to be added.
And now, there truly was nothing extra in the food.
Still, the taste could only be called ordinary.
After all, what delicacy could Yu Lanfeng possibly want and not get?
He didn’t know about other legions, but the chefs in his legion’s cafeteria were all exceptionally skilled! Even the ingredients were shipped in from all over the Empire at his orders, and the food there tasted better than this.
Not to mention that Yu Lanfeng himself was an excellent cook.
“Zhou Baichuan” couldn’t help sighing. “Ah, sure enough, an outstanding student gets special treatment in front of his teacher. Someone like me who just lazes around at home can only serve as a backdrop!”
Bai Shanzhou shook her head in amusement. “You really are something. You graduated so many years ago, yet you’re still acting like a child and fighting for your teacher’s attention?”
“Of course, you’re very capable too. Your strengths simply lie elsewhere. You two shouldn’t compare yourselves with each other. You’re obviously the best of brothers.”
Yu Lanfeng said, “Don’t worry, Teacher. The two of us have always had a very good relationship.”
After they finished eating, Bai Shanzhou finally got to the main subject.
“By the way, Xiao Jiang, I heard there was a major operation in your legion some time ago. Is that true?”
Yu Lanfeng pretended to think for a moment before finally saying, “There really was a major operation, but this isn’t something that can casually be spread outside the legion. Teacher...”
Bai Shanzhou said, “Oh, come on. Your teacher isn’t an outsider. Just tell me a little. I’m not asking you for details. Besides, I’ve actually already heard about it. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be asking you this question, would I?”
“When the time comes, I’ll just say the person who originally told me about it was the one who gave me this information too. You don’t need to worry too much. After all, this is Marshal Yu’s legion. Everyone pays very close attention to anything involving it.”
Yu Lanfeng said, “That matter? It really was quite serious. There was a huge commotion at the time, and the Marshal personally handled it. Everyone was terrified back then, but fortunately, the Marshal dealt with everything perfectly. The aftermath was handled very quickly too. The entire legion is much cleaner now.”
Bai Shanzhou understood what he meant.
Although he hadn’t explicitly said it, he had still revealed one thing—the problems inside Yu Lanfeng’s legion had already been dealt with, and the legion was back on track!
“I see? That’s good, that’s good. If even Marshal Yu’s legion had serious problems, that really would be terrifying. All right, all right, hurry along now. You need to go to Legion Headquarters to register your information, right? Don’t be late.”
Only then did Yu Lanfeng leave with his companion.
Before leaving, “Zhou Baichuan” even waved at Bai Shanzhou. “Goodbye, Teacher Bai. The next time we come, it’ll be for your wedding. We’ll prepare a huge gift for you!”
Bai Shanzhou looked gratified. “All right. Then I’ll be waiting for your big gift.”
They boarded the hovercraft and soon left Bai Shanzhou’s estate.
Only after Bai Shanzhou confirmed that they were gone did every expression disappear from her face, replaced by irritation and anger.
“Hmph! They really did move quickly. We didn’t obtain a shred of evidence. Even if we spread rumors, no one would believe them... I still need to think of a way...”
But she also knew this wasn’t a good time to say too much. She could only hope that during the wedding, she would be able to coax more intelligence out of Jiang Youjian.
Bai Shanzhou returned to the living room and immediately contacted someone.
Bai Shanzhou said, “You guessed correctly. What should we do now?”
No one knew what the person on the other end said, but a bashful expression appeared on Bai Shanzhou’s face.
“All right, I understand. But is it really okay to do this? I think I still need to contact Grandpa Bai first.”
“...”
Bai Shanzhou said, “Yes, yes, everything you said is right. I’ll do it that way. All right, I understand. I won’t contact Grandpa Bai either. Anyway, as far as he’s concerned, all that matters is achieving the objective. There’s no need to tell him anything else. If I simply give him a perfect result when the time comes, he’ll be even happier.”
Bai Shanzhou quickly ended the call, a faint blush still lingering on her face.
Yu Lanfeng was determined to see the act through to the end. After leaving Bai Shanzhou’s estate, he really did go to Legion Headquarters alone while still disguised as Jiang Youjian and completed the registration.
Only after he came back out did he take his companion through a secret passage to his office, where he finally removed his disguise.
Qin Wenxing had already been waiting there for quite some time.
“Marshal, you’re back? Did everything go smoothly?”
Yu Lanfeng said, “Of course it did. That woman was completely focused on trying to pry information out of us. She never suspected our identities were fake.”
He waved at the soldier who had already returned to his original appearance.
“You can go rest first. Wait for my instructions.”
“Yes, Marshal!”
Now only Yu Lanfeng and Qin Wenxing remained in the office.
Yu Lanfeng casually asked, “Where’s Xiaoyu?”
Qin Wenxing said, “Mr. Nan is currently at Yang Zhou’s residence in the family housing building beside Headquarters. Marshal, do you want to go see him?”
Yu Lanfeng shook his head. “No. Just tell him to come find me here when he’s finished playing.”
Qin Wenxing hesitated. “This... Do you want me to notify him?”
Yu Lanfeng said, “No need. I’ll contact him myself. Is there something else?”
Only then did Qin Wenxing place what he was holding onto the desk.
“These are the things that need to be dealt with today, Marshal. Please finish them as soon as possible. Contact me afterward. I’ll be leaving first.”
Yu Lanfeng could tell that he was in quite a hurry, but what was he so eager to leave for?
In reality, Qin Wenxing simply didn’t want to stay here and experience the interactions between his direct superior and his lover. Escaping as quickly as possible was clearly the best choice.
Qin Wenxing thought for a moment.
Should he contact Luo Anwei later and maintain their relationship a little?
After all, they were going to be separated for quite a long time this time.
But...
Qin Wenxing suddenly remembered how cold he always acted in front of Luo Anwei. From Luo Anwei’s perspective, Qin Wenxing voluntarily contacting him probably seemed completely impossible, right?
Maybe Luo Anwei would even think he was an impostor?
Forget it. He could wait until he was done with work. There wasn’t much point agonizing over it anyway.
Yu Lanfeng finished everything on the desk in only an hour.
Thinking about Nan Yu’s current location, Yu Lanfeng realized they had been apart for quite a while, yet that little guy hadn’t even thought about contacting him?
So he was having so much fun playing with a friend he hadn’t seen in a long time that he’d completely forgotten about him, was that it?
Yu Lanfeng calmed himself and continued dealing with the work in his inbox. He soon became completely immersed in it.
More than three hours later, he finally finished everything he needed to do today.
He looked at the sky outside. It was already very late, and darkness was about to fall. He should hurry over and bring—
Wait!
He seemed to have told Nan Yu before that the two of them shouldn’t casually meet while they were on the Capital Star.
After all, in everyone else’s eyes, Yu Lanfeng was still at the Border Region One Military Base and hadn’t returned to the Capital Star at all.
If someone saw him appearing together with Nan Yu, wouldn’t that completely disrupt their plans here?
Meanwhile, Nan Yu was watching the ten-versus-ten guild challenge between Heaven on Earth and his own guild.
The battle was obviously completely one-sided!
What kind of joke was this?
Their guild was an elite guild. To put it plainly, every member was an incredibly powerful lone wolf. But after several months of working together, they had developed excellent coordination and teamwork.
The opponents really weren’t bad either. They were also rare elite players.
But these elite players from a large guild were usually either commanding battles or charging straight ahead while other people covered them.
In a battle like this between top-tier players, they naturally looked like nothing more than a pile of loose sand.
Less than five minutes after the challenge began, two of them had already been killed.
One of them was even their healer.
That alone showed just how disastrous the situation had become for their ten-person team.
“What the hell are you doing? Didn’t I tell you to protect the healer? Every single one of you ran so far away from the healer just now! Don’t you know healers are squishy?!”
The two people on the team who were responsible for protecting the healer and guarding against attacks from the sides and rear were furious too.
Earlier, they had been told that someone was sneaking around behind them and preparing to attack the healer, so both of them had been ordered to check the rear.
They had even thrown down an Eye of Truth, a skill capable of seeing through an assassin’s stealth.
But they hadn’t seen a damn thing.
And that skill had a fairly long cooldown.
At the same time, the healer in the middle of the formation was attacked.
By the time they rushed back to defend them, it was already far too late.
It wasn’t as though they had wanted this to happen.
They had originally suggested sending only one person to check behind them, but the commander had refused.
What, are you refusing to obey me?
If I tell both of you to go, then both of you go!
He apparently thought they were fighting a massive battle involving hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands of people.
Had he forgotten that they only had ten people right now?!
Of course, the commander also realized he had made a mistake.
But there was no way he would admit it.
Since he hadn’t done anything wrong, then naturally the people who had failed to protect the healer were the ones at fault, weren’t they?
“All right, the healer is already dead, so forget about them. Protect the other support first. If he dies too, we might as well wait for death!”
This support had a healing skill, but its healing output was only half that of a genuine healer. He didn’t have many healing skills either—only one.
Fortunately, its cooldown was short.
If he wasn’t interrupted or disturbed, he could barely keep up with the healing.
But that also meant they effectively lost one of their supports. Since this support now had to focus entirely on healing, he no longer had time to apply buffs to the others.
There was nothing they could do about it now.
Originally, they had included another support with a healing skill merely as insurance.
They hadn’t expected to actually need it.
Perhaps they still hadn’t realized that their defeat was already inevitable, because every single one of them was still fighting with everything they had.
After all, this challenge was being livestreamed across the entire server.
Anyone logged into this server could choose to watch the livestream.
The number of viewers had already exceeded six million.
If they really lost, their humiliation would be complete.
However, some experienced players had already seen how things were going.
Tall discussion threads rapidly began appearing beneath the livestream.
“Shocking! Heaven on Earth’s ten-person team is about to lose! What do you guys think?”
“Whoa, this little guild I’ve never even heard of is actually this strong!”
“I wonder if I could join this guild. But I heard it’s an elite guild. Even after reaching Level Ten, it can only have twenty guild members in total. If they want to add more slots, they need special items.”
So these people were merely talking.
None of them seriously thought they could get in.
“Wasn’t it obvious from the beginning that this little guild would win? The moment betting opened, I put my money on them. I’ll go collect my winnings in a bit! Friends, I bet a hundred thousand gold coins. I’m about to get five hundred thousand back! Hehehehehe...”
“Holy shit, the guy above is way too sneaky! You didn’t even bring me along! I want some too! But you’re right. This little guild doesn’t look famous, but didn’t you guys recognize them? Those seven brother big shots are here, along with the big shot Changfeng Futian, and there are several other familiar names too. Has it really been so long that you’ve all forgotten them?”
“Whoa! I suddenly remembered! That’s Nightwalker! It’s the great Nightwalker!! But... hasn’t Nightwalker always been a lone wolf? Why would he join a guild?”
“Oh, you didn’t know? Nightwalker clearly said before that if there was a guild with relatively few restrictions, he’d be willing to join. This guild definitely doesn’t place many restrictions on his usual activities.”
The chat beneath the livestream was extremely lively.
Everyone already knew Heaven on Earth had lost.
The challenge wasn’t over yet, but no one believed Heaven on Earth’s team could win.
And because this incident had caused quite a stir, Heaven on Earth’s guild leader happened to be online.
When he saw the notification for his guild’s challenge livestream, he casually opened it.
Unfortunately, what he saw was this pile of shit.
He immediately pointed at the people in the livestream and demanded, “Who recruited these people?”
“When the hell did we recruit this bunch of trash? Who’s responsible for them? Investigate everything! I want to see who the hell brought garbage like this into our guild. It would be one thing if they were the most ordinary guild members, but every single one of them even has some minor position. Are you all fucking blind?”
The entire hall fell silent.
But someone had to face their guild leader’s fury head-on.
At a time like this, there was only one person who could do it...
The vice guild leader.
The vice guild leader said, “All right, don’t be angry. I’ll have someone investigate immediately. They only needed to look at those game names to know these were people they couldn’t afford to provoke, yet somehow they all charged in as though they’d collectively lost their memories. They really are ignorant.”
The guild leader felt a little better.
“Exactly! When these people were receiving guild training, did nobody tell them which people in this server absolutely couldn’t be provoked?”
“Why does every single one of them act like they doesn’t have a brain? And I want to know exactly how this challenge happened as soon as possible. Hurry up and investigate. Our guild has completely humiliated itself this time!!”
If the guild was humiliated, then he, as the guild leader, was even more humiliated.
The other guild members were equally embarrassed.
After all, once they lost this guild challenge, no one would say which specific members had lost.
They would only say that people from Heaven on Earth issued a guild challenge and ended up losing!
It was a massive slap in the face!
By the time Heaven on Earth’s ten-person team had been completely wiped out in the livestream, the vice guild leader had already investigated the entire sequence of events and figured out exactly what had happened.
“Guild Leader, I found out.”
By now, the guild leader had already reached a state of resigned calm.
They had lost so thoroughly.
Especially when it came to raw strength—they had been completely crushed.
These fucking idiots had truly done everything in their power to drag their guild’s reputation through the mud.
After losing the match, they had actually brought more than a hundred people behind them to directly cause trouble for the dozen or so people on the other side.
If a general patrolling around the Imperial City hadn’t happened to pass by, they might really have attacked them on the spot!
The guild leader said, “Tell me.”
Even now, his mind was filled with those people’s disgusting, twisted expressions.
Did they not know guild challenges were livestreamed?
Wait...
All right!
These idiots might genuinely not have known.
That would explain why they had displayed such completely genuine emotions.
Mm-hmm.
Excellent.
He’d show them exactly how he planned to deal with them later.
“It started because of an ordinary member who only recently joined our guild. His game name is Shui Zhongyou. A few months ago, Shui Zhongyou had a bounty placed on him by From South to North, the guild leader of Fengyu Guild.”
The guild leader vaguely remembered it.
“You mean that bounty issued by From South to North that caused such a huge sensation a few months ago? This Shui Zhongyou was one of the bounty targets?”
The vice guild leader said, “That’s right, Guild Leader. He was one of them. Out of the five people, three quit the game. Of the remaining two, one is still hiding somewhere, while the other is Shui Zhongyou. Somehow, he managed to join our guild. I haven’t found out the exact details yet, but I’ve more or less figured out what happened. Shui Zhongyou hooked up with the player who was commanding our team during the challenge just now, so...”
The guild leader was so furious that he laughed.
“So he used the people from our guild to vent his little lover’s anger for him, right? I’m understanding this correctly, aren’t I?”