Earlier that day, two dour old men overlooked a map of the city in a spacious room lit up by lanterns, their arms crossed behind their backs. Soon, another bearded man entered the room. They all wore identical uniforms of yellow and red, the number six on their shoulders.
"This entire affair was your idea." The man with the grayest beard rebuked the new arrival. "How come we had to wait for you, Zhou Zhu?"
"Apologies, elders." Zhou Zhu bowed his head a little, a smile on his face. "It took some effort to dissuade the second prince from joining us tonight."
The other two regarded him in silence. Though they wanted to criticize him some more, his excuse was worthy.
"That precious second prince of ours," The gray haired elder began, sarcastically, "Is always eager for a chance to prove himself. But his unique combination of status and martial arts ability make it quite the challenge to find him suitable opportunities..."
"A hair off his body means a head off our shoulders." Zhou Zhu shook his head. "And his fifth rank makes him very uninclined to take lip from those below him regardless of how their martial arts compare to his."
Nobody present wanted to be burdened with babysitting during such a perilous operation.
They all turned their eyes to the map, countless buildings upon it speckled with red little flag posts.
"As you all know," Zhou Zhu began, "Our target is the Invincible Blood Sea. I have it on good authority that he will be gambling tonight, though where exactly, I do not know. Therefore, we will have the disciples raid all of these establishments. Once they find Tao Geming, the three of us will put an end to him."
"You've mentioned your plan before, but here's what I don't understand," The man with the shortest beard spoke, "Once the disciples begin causing a ruckus, how do you aim to prevent the Invincible Blood Sea from fleeing before he is discovered?"
"We will coordinate with fireworks." Zhou Zhu explained. "Once we have given the disciples enough time to reach their designated positions, we will shoot one off into the sky to herald the start of the operation. The raids will begin simultaneously, and he will be caught no matter where he is."
The other man nodded.
The gray bearded one shook his head. "Your plan is full of flaws. Even if they find him, the lower rank disciples can't possibly hold him off, so he would get away all the same."
"Each team will be issued a signaling rocket of their own. Once they find Tao Geming, they will fire them into the air to alert us to his position. We will then converge on that location and show him no mercy. There will be no escape."
"Even so," The elder persisted, "Those lower rank disciples unfortunate enough to find him will certainly die before we get there."
"Naturally." Zhou Zhu replied. "But this man's presence here is tantamount to war, and in war, sacrifices must be made. The integrity of our entire Qin Kingdom is at risk while he remains here."
The elder pursed his lips, but presented no rebuke.
"Will his majesty be making an appearance tonight?" The elder with the short beard asked.
"There is no need to inconvenience his highness. If us three elders can't handle it on our own, we'll lose all face." Zhou Zhu replied. "Speed is of the essence in this plan. Make sure you tell your disciples to go through every house quickly and thoroughly. If any civilians are foolish enough to get in their way, don't hesitate to cut them down. Any other questions?"
The other two remained silent.
"Excellent. The operation shall commence tonight."
Once the sun set, hundreds of Royal School disciples split into teams of five to ten warriors each and sprawled out across the streets under the cover of darkness. Those few residents participating in the capital's night life had immediately recognized that something was afoot and made themselves scarce.
The three sixth rank elders formed a triangle over the city and observed the streets from the tops of tall buildings. When Zhou Zhu figured that enough time had passed, he gave the order to light the fireworks. His order was met with acknowledgment, but no matter how long he waited, the firework had not been fired.
"I told you to shoot!" Losing his patience, he yelled.
"I'm sorry, master..." His squatting disciple replied apologetically as he loomed over the fuse with a lit torch. "But I can't seem to get it to... Aha!"
The fuse had finally ignited. With a soft hiss, the lick of flame began to slowly climb up the rope.
Zhou Zhu turned away, contented. But then his keen ears picked up a violent commotion further down the street.
"What is the meaning of this?" He asked. "The signal hasn't been sent yet!"
But none of the surrounding disciples had an answer for him. Zhou Zhu snorted and let the matter be, figuring that if it was truly important, they would have sent a signal.
Finally, once the rocket launched into the sky and erupted into a cacophony of noise and colors, their operation truly began. The city erupted into chaos as the hundreds of disciples stormed the various inns, tea houses, betting parlors, and restaurants. They busted through doors, smashed up furniture, broke even the walls and the floors, and interrogated the people at swordpoint.
The resting place of the Golden Witch and her entourage was one of the scant few places spared the treatment; one of the three elders was a frequent customer and had vouched for its integrity.
Zhou Zhu was unable to tell from his position, but his plan had not been flowing as smoothly as he was expecting. The group of disciples that he had heard causing a disturbance before the operation commenced had sprung into action prematurely upon noticing a man that fit Tao Geming's description. It turned out that he was not the Invincible Blood Sea, but he was, in fact, an independent martial artist, who, upon getting treated with hostility, decided to fight back. And they were not the only group that had experienced a similar situation.
The capital was so large that some of the disciples who were positioned on the far outskirts of the city had missed the signal entirely, and only had the citywide commotion to use as their cue, starting with considerable delay.
And, of course, even in the dark, the movements of the countless Royal School disciples had not gone unnoticed to those citizens that were still awake. Especially not to their target.
...And especially not to a certain masked, golden haired individual lurking in the dark alleys, who had been observing a particular squad of yellow robed warriors taking up position beside a certain restaurant, inside of which she had sensed a certain man.
Upon receiving the signal, they barged into the building. Half a minute later, one of them came flying out through the half-broken door, sent tumbling unceremoniously across the street like a ragdoll. The first rank disciple's life had been ended.
Even outside the restaurant, the thick stench of blood became palpable. The inside had been painted a vibrant red.
A lone disciple ran out, tears streaming down his face. He tripped over the restaurant's porch and had to crawl away.
"He's here! He's here! The Invincible Blood Sea! At the Chicken Soup Lobby!" He screamed. Though the nearby teams had heard him, they hadn't been taught the names of any of the restaurants they were raiding other than the one they were tasked with, and neither had any of them frequented these parts of the city. His words had done nothing to guide them. With only the sound of his voice to go on, they needed some time to figure out where it was coming from.
"You pieces of shit! I was winning!" Tao Geming bellowed as he followed the young man out. He lifted the Royal School disciple with a single hand. "Where is Qin Yan?"
"H-H-His highness resides in t-t-the palace." He stammered, pointing in a direction.
"You mean he didn't come out for this?! Did none of you listen to what I said?!"
"I don't know! I'm sorry!"
"I told you that none of you... None of you will be spared!" Tao Geming raged.
From around the corner, another squad of disciples had finally arrived.
"It's really him! Light the firework!" One of them exclaimed, and a young woman planted the rocket into the ground, trying to light the fuse. As the flame made its way up, her and the firework both were slammed into by the poor unfortunate that had been in Tao Geming's grasp just a moment ago. The rocket broke, its fuse went out. It was the only one that their team had had.
As the Invincible Blood Sea descended upon them, the blonde woman hiding behind him hopped onto the roof to better follow his trail of slaughter. As time went on and the bodies began to pile up, she realized that he was not killing at complete random, but instead had been cutting a steady path towards the city's center.
Finally, after far too long, one of the disciples had managed to send off the rocket. The masked woman tilted her neck up to watch its rapid ascent even as it flew nearly directly over her head. When it exploded, she was startled by the eruption of noise and color. Once the cover of darkness had been stripped away from her, she was spotted in an instant.
In the distance, someone exclaimed. "Who goes there? Identify yourself!" A higher ranking disciple had been making his way along the rooftops and spotted her remarkable figure from well beyond the range of her sensory ability.
Though she leaped out to assume a different hiding spot, now that the firework had gone off, the disciples from all over the city began to converge on her location, quickly leaving her with less and less places to be.
That included the three elders, of which Zhou Zhu had happened to be the closest to the conflict zone. By the time he had arrived, he found the Royal School forces in disarray, and called onto a fourth rank disciple to explain the situation. "Qian Chen, where is Tao Geming?"
Qian Chen replied, "We have briefly lost sight of him, but as far as we could surmise, he seemed quite intent on heading in that direction."
"If you know where he's headed, then why am I seeing disciples roaming all over?" Zhou Zhu asked sternly.
"They are keeping an eye out for the yellow fox."
"What in the world are you babbling about?" The elder's voice was tinged with budding fury.
Qian Chen quickly chattered out a response to alleviate the master's temper. "A martial artist with yellow hair and a fox mask has been spotted multiple times by our disciples. He seems to be shadowing the Invincible Blood Sea. We suspect that it's an ally of his. His martial arts are quite proficient; he killed a rank two disciple, and was even able to escape from me at one point."
Zhou Zhu gave him with a steely look before eventually nodding, his doubts dispersed. "Immediately notify me when either Tao Geming or this "yellow fox" has been spotted."
Qian Chen bowed and continued the search. As Zhou Zhu stared in the direction Tao Geming was purported to be heading towards, his eyebrows flew up as a realization had suddenly struck him.
"Fools!" He exclaimed. "The royal palace is in that direction! Quick, notify the other elders, tell them to head over there at once!"
After Zhou Zhu had heard some replies to the affirmative, he began to dash towards the palace. His swiftness was astonishing. He jumped along the rooftops as easily as a man treads solid ground.
The Royal School disciples scattered to carry out his orders, but had found it extremely challenging to find the other elders in the dark and chaotic streets.