The Speedrun Begins with Choosing Hunter

「Huanglong Prefecture.」

"Brother Bai, Shanshan’s my actual sister... That’ll cost you extra."

Lu Yu looked at Bai Yuan with a dead-serious expression.

Lu Shanshan, standing to the side, wished she could strangle her last living brother.

Watching Lu Yu earnestly discuss selling her to Bai Yuan made her grind her teeth in frustration.

Bai Yuan replied, "The price is negotiable."

After some back-and-forth haggling, Lu Yu quickly sold Lu Shanshan to Bai Yuan for thirty Blood Refining Pills a month.

To be precise, it wasn’t Lu Shanshan that Bai Yuan wanted, but the intelligence network she had built.

After spending some time with them, he had discovered that the Lu Family’s last two surviving siblings were both exceptionally talented.

Lu Yu was a given, but even the seemingly quiet and gentle Lu Shanshan was not only a Blood Refining Martial Master but also possessed an immense talent for intelligence work.

The Lu Family’s intelligence network was so impressive that even Yu Hui had to admit defeat, so naturally, Bai Yuan was eager to get his hands on it.

Intelligence is the most crucial asset for any sect.

A single piece of intel can sometimes avert a sect’s complete annihilation, but building an intelligence network is an incredibly complex undertaking. It’s full of so many tricks and secrets that even veteran assassins from the Soul-Chasing Tower might not be able to master them.

That’s why he was using thirty Blood Refining Pills per month to gain access to the Lu Family’s intelligence. In return, he could also help Lu Shanshan strengthen her network.

An intelligence network is an extremely expensive venture. No matter how talented Lu Shanshan was, it required immense wealth to sustain.

The Lu Family’s current resources were naturally insufficient, but the Divine Mansion Sect’s were more than enough.

"By the way, Sister Lu, do you know the whereabouts of Liang Ziheng?"

Bai Yuan suddenly asked.

Jiang Yan had already come to him; Prefect Jiang hoped the Divine Mansion Sect would assist in the search for Liang Ziheng.

Though Bai Yuan had never crossed blades with the Northern Plains Blood Saber, he was well aware of how formidable the man was.

The night he killed Ji Chang, Liang Ziheng had single-handedly held his own against three Sensing Powerhouses. Such a level of power was frankly terrifying.

Now that Liang Ziheng had recovered, he was bound to go on a bloody rampage through Ling Province.

Lu Shanshan shook her head.

Her spies were of little use against a Martial Artist of such transcendent strength, especially a Sensing Powerhouse.

The perceptive abilities of a Sensing Powerhouse who had mastered ’Sensing’ were terrifying—they could hear a conversation from miles away.

Thus, there was an unwritten rule in the world of intelligence: when you encountered a Sensing Powerhouse, the wisest thing to do was to run as far and as fast as you could. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

Otherwise, you would expose yourself long before you gathered any information on your target.

Of course, it wasn’t impossible to deal with a Sensing Grandmaster.

It just required sending a sufficient number of Entering Martial Artists who specialized in tracking to investigate. The problem was, such talent was exceedingly rare. Only factions with deep foundations like the Longevity Palace, the Prefecture Magistrate’s Office, and the former Divine Mansion Sect possessed such resources.

Bai Yuan said, "I’ll have the Divine Mansion Army assist you. Just tell me whatever other resources you need."

Lu Shanshan’s eyes lit up.

She had long heard of the Divine Mansion Army’s prowess; they had several Entering Martial Artists who were experts in tracking.

Her long-suppressed talents finally had a chance to shine.

...

Lu Shanshan was indeed gifted when it came to intelligence.

Her intuition, in particular, was terrifying. She could point to a location for no logical reason, yet her accuracy rate was staggeringly high.

Yu Hui knew this from personal experience.

Even when the Lingzhou Prefecture Magistrate’s Office was completely stumped, Lu Shanshan’s intuition allowed Yu Hui to uncover faint clues about Liang Ziheng’s whereabouts.

Yu Hui had even come close to running right into the Northern Plains Blood Saber himself.

Using this information, Lu Shanshan quickly pinpointed Liang Ziheng’s location.

Bai Yuan immediately set out for Jingshan Prefecture.

...

"Sect Leader Bai, is Liang Ziheng really here?"

Jiang Yan frowned as she surveyed the small town before them.

This was a small town in Jingshan Prefecture known as Luoying Slope.

Bai Yuan replied, "According to Miss Lu’s deductions, Liang Ziheng will arrive here in two days."

Jiang Yan nodded, saying no more.

Although Jiang Changping’s secret letter had only asked her to request Bai Yuan’s assistance, she had insisted on coming along.

Jiang Yan had fought on the front lines with the Northern Garrison Army; she was no sheltered young lady. When she heard about Liang Ziheng’s inhuman atrocity—the slaughter of an entire city—she knew she had to do her part.

"Sister Jiang, you have to trust Shanshan’s abilities,"

Lu Yu said with a cheeky grin.

That’s right—Lu Yu had tagged along as well.

Aside from the title of Marquis Yongzhuang, the Lu Family was practically starting over from scratch.

Lu Yu and Lu Shanshan were all that was left of the Lu Family.

To rebuild their strength quickly, the best way was to latch onto a powerful backer. Lu Yu had two of the most powerful backers imaginable right beside him; there was no reason not to cling to them for dear life.

In the current Ling Province, aside from the Longevity Palace and the Seven Star Sect, there were no factions more powerful than the ones represented by the two people right in front of him.

Besides the three of them, the Prefecture Magistrate’s Office had naturally made its own arrangements.

Vice Governor Yuan Dingcai had already received the message and was rushing to Luoying Slope, and Jiang Changping’s Vice General was also on his way.

Since the previous Prefect of Lingzhou was demoted, Ling Province had lost two of its top-ten experts on the Heavenly Chart in one fell swoop.

As a result, Bai Yuan had broken into the top ten.

Excluding the reclusive Dong Wanjun, who was firmly ranked first, the Lingzhou Prefecture Magistrate’s Office occupied three of the top ten spots on the Heavenly Chart. Longevity Palace held two, the Seven Star Sect had one, and the remaining two belonged to the Soul Chasing Tower Lord of Ling Province and the branch Sect Leader of the Celestial Heart Sect, respectively.

Even among this crowd of powerhouses, Bai Yuan wasn’t at the bottom of the list; he was ranked ninth.

The man he had pushed down to tenth place was none other than the Vice Governor of Lingzhou, Yuan Dingcai, who was now on his way to help him deal with Liang Ziheng.

In three days, this ordinary little town would be host to three of Ling Province’s top-ten experts, plus a blademaster famous throughout the Northern Territory. It was bound to be quite a scene.

「The next day.」

Yu Hui arrived at Luoying Slope with eighty soldiers of the Divine Mansion Army.

"Sect Leader Bai, what are these?"

Jiang Yan asked, her curiosity piqued by the wooden staves with iron fittings held by the Divine Mansion Army soldiers.

Bai Yuan replied, "Hand cannons."

In truth, the firearms in the hands of the Divine Mansion Army, which he had personally improved, had already surpassed the category of hand cannons. They could now be called rifles.

With eighty men firing in rotation, not even an Entering Martial Artist could withstand the barrage.

Lu Yu had seen Bai Yuan use these weapons before, so he wasn’t particularly surprised.

However, he never imagined that Bai Yuan would actually mass-produce them to equip his troops.

’He had studied the hand cannons before. While their killing power wasn’t top-tier, their greatest advantage was that even an ordinary person could use them.’

’If the Divine Mansion Sect’s several thousand members were all equipped with these, firing in rotation, even a Sensing Grandmaster would have no choice but to turn tail and run,’ he thought.

However, the manufacturing process for the hand cannons seemed to be extremely complex. Only Bai Yuan himself could produce them; the skilled artisans of the Divine Mansion Sect were completely incapable of replicating his work.

The reason Bai Yuan could create hand cannons was twofold. First, he had diligently practiced the Divine Art of a Hundred Transformations to the legendary level. Second, the art itself showed signs of naturally evolving toward the creation of firearms.

’I have no idea where Old Dong got his hands on such a miraculous book,’ Bai Yuan mused.

He suspected that hand cannons must exist elsewhere in Xuan Yang. It was just that Xuan Yang was too vast, and his reach wasn’t long enough to have encountered them yet.