Like a Ray in My Night (Part 4)

662 How to Dispose of Them?

Baili Chao didn't have much trouble finding Tan Xin but Song Mu and Da Hei had joined the stronger disciples in patrolling the town and its surroundings so it took a bit to find where they currently were. When he finally returned, Elder Xing and Xi Ju Hai had already filled in Tan Xin while Elder Baili had roughly retold their findings to Song Mu and Da Hei, allowing the six of them to start discussing straight away.

"It should theoretically be possible." As she was the only one knowledgeable about alchemy, Tan Xin gave her opinion on the general plan first. "I do agree that getting the required materials first would be difficult though. If we wanted to knock out a regular person, I wouldn't see an issue but cultivators have a higher resistance against such substances since the spiritual energy in our bodies helps us to combat their effect. So the amount we'd need ... we definitely can't find that much here in the border region."

Honestly, even finding even for a single person might be stretching it but they were talking about dozens of cultivators and even the best the demonic faction had to offer. Wanting to knock them out with some wine and a single pill or potion was a pipe dream.

Song Mu narrowed his eyes when he heard that. "We definitely can't find it here but ... how uncommon would these materials be in general? Is there a chance a herbalist or even a mortal physician might have them in stock?"

Tan Xin hesitated. "I don't know for sure. It's not like I have a tried and proven recipe to refine this. I can only go by the general attributes of the plants and how I know some of them interact with each other. Based on that, I can make a rough guess but that is it."

Song Mu nodded. "I know, you're doing your best. It's just that I've been thinking: What if we send somebody in the other direction to check any herbalist's shop or physician's store they can find? Aren't we bound to at least procure something? Even if it can't knock them out for long, just a few minutes would give us a big advantage. In fact, even if we can't render them unconscious, having them dizzy or disoriented would also be a chance for us, wouldn't it?"

Elder Baili nodded. "Yes, we only went with the idea of knocking them out because we know that my second disciple came up with something with that effect. Anything else would work as well though. Anyway, we can't be picky." He turned to look at Tan Xin, a little concerned. "Do you think this would be feasible?"

Tan Xin gave a hum, feeling slightly more confident. "Yes, that should work. But I would definitely need to go there myself to check which ingredients they have and see what might work. I can't write all of that down for somebody else. With my level though ..." As an alchemist, her progress on general cultivation was slower than that of her peers. While she wasn't like Yun Bei Fen who had only just learned to fly on a sword, she couldn't be described as fast.

"How about I take her?" Song Mu looked at the two Elders, not sure if this was the right decision. They needed to hurry and this was likely the best shot they had at solving as many of the demonic practitioners as possible but ... this would also mean they'd be two disciples down and his level was among the higher ones. Could they really do without in case something else happened first?

The two Elders exchanged a glance and finally inclined their heads.

"Well, we don't have much of a choice. You go then. Make sure to hurry but don't compromise on what you can bring back. We still have at least another day before we have to act. It's better to be prepared well instead of rushing and failing due to that."

The two of them nodded and didn't stay around any longer. Instead, they directly left. Now, they couldn't tarry.

Back inside the study, Da Hei raised a brow at the two Elders. "If this works out, you'll still need a place to put those disciples, unless you want to directly kill them." Which, considering that they were part of the demonic faction, might not be the worst choice in his opinion but he also knew that many people of the righteous sects were held back by their morals. They likely wouldn't allow themselves to kill a bunch of disciples who were incapacitated at the time and thus couldn't fight back. Thus, it was likely the Elders really only wanted to get them out of the way for the fight.

Elder Baili and Elder Xing exchanged another glance. Of course, they knew that Da Hei was right, and killing them outright would be for the best. Not only would it spare them some effort, but it would also ensure that no future problems could crop up.

For all intents and purposes, this was the choice they should make. Especially with the overall situation already this complicated. But just as Da Hei had thought, the two of them had some scruples. The people this plan was targeting were the disciples of those sects and even though they were demonic practitioners and stood on the opposite side in this war, those were still all lives and some of the people in question were even as young as their own smallest disciples.

To imagine killing them ... they weren't sure if they could give that kind of command. If they did, would they be any better than the demonic faction they were fighting against? And if they didn't kill them, then yes, what should they do with them? Trial them and come up with a punishment? But it wasn't like they'd have the time or manpower to do so after the final battle. Even if they did ... the outcome might be no different.

In the end, Baili Chao gulped. "I don't like to suggest it but unless we find another convenient method, we might have no choice but to kill them."