Chapter 62

Chapter 62: Rallying Hits a Snag

Lin Zhao withdrew Thousand Spirit Blossom. Under the stunned and admiring stares around her, she finally let out a breath.

Then she turned to Qu Shu and Ming Yue. “Since I proposed the counterattack, you two don’t need to be the lead representatives. I’ll take the position—if you’ll allow it.”

After seeing her force an Enlightenment seventh-level cultivator to concede with one move, no one near Qu Shu and Ming Yue doubted Lin Zhao again. The looks they cast the two leaders were no longer pleading. They were hopeful.

Ming Yue nodded without hesitation. “I’ll follow Sister.”

Qu Shu’s System immediately screamed in delight. “Yes! YES!”

Qu Shu shut it out and spoke instead, practical as ever. “Ming Yue and I should have needed at least two months to recover. Even with your Perfect Grade Returning Spirit Pill, we still need one.”

That was agreement, wrapped in a warning.

“It won’t be a problem,” Lin Zhao said. “We’ll post on Heavenlink Mirror to gather the others. They’ll watch and wait. While they hesitate, another batch will be eliminated anyway. It’ll take time to gather enough people for a counterattack. So we set one month for preparation. In that month, we don’t clash with them head-on.”

Zhao Ji Xing’s terrifying strength remained a thorn in her mind. Lin Zhao had assumed Qu Shu and Ming Yue wouldn’t be much weaker than him, but Ming Yue’s words made the gap sound like a chasm.

After a moment, Lin Zhao continued, voice steady. “Since I’m taking the role, I won’t hide anything. One month from now, Zhao Ji Xing is mine.”

Not only the others—Ming Yue even hesitated. “Isn’t that too risky?”

Lin Zhao shook her head. “You two have fought him. That creates blind spots. I’m the most suitable.”

Qu Shu understood. He and Ming Yue had both lost to Zhao Ji Xing. Even putting everything else aside, the mental shadow couldn’t be shaken off overnight. Lin Zhao hadn’t faced him yet.

If anyone could meet him without that weight, it was her.

“Then it’s settled,” Lin Zhao said, making the final call. “We find a place to rest first, then post on Heavenlink Mirror.”

The blue-dressed maiden directed everything with sharp, clean efficiency: tending the wounded, choosing the site, arranging the layout. Every move appeared on the spirit crystal in the South Sea office.

Mo Ya clicked her tongue. “Old Man Xiao, your Han Yan doesn’t have as good an eye as she does.”

Xiao Yuan Tian’s mouth twitched. For once, he couldn’t say Lin Zhao was acting on impulse.

The white-browed elder, Xue Yin, stroked his beard and chuckled. “After this tournament, I’ll personally go to Yun Ding Peak and give Yun Ding a warning. Lin Zhao—he can’t lay a finger on her!”

Xiao Yuan Tian finally couldn’t hold back. “The counterattack hasn’t even started. They’re sick and injured, a handful of weaklings. How are they supposed to fight Zhao Ji Xing’s group? Newcomers aren’t fools. Even if they post a message, no one will agree.”

Xue Yin’s smile faded into a sigh.

He was right. Lin Zhao’s strength was impressive, but against Zhao Ji Xing and the others… she was still short by one step.

And that step was a chasm.

—

Back at their temporary base, Lu Yuan stared at the sparse replies on Heavenlink Mirror and let out a long breath.

“How is it?” Lin Zhao asked.

Lu Yuan looked troubled. “So far, only two or three people are willing to join.”

Lin Zhao wasn’t surprised. “Jia Lan and the others interfered.”

“Yes. After we posted the rally message, they posted one too. If anyone dares join us, they’ll be targeted and eliminated first. If they don’t join, Jia Lan’s side will ‘show mercy.’” Lu Yuan’s jaw tightened. “They’re forcing the remaining people to either join them or stay neutral.”

Lin Zhao’s lips curved without warmth. “So they think we’re easy prey.”

Qu Shu said evenly, “On the surface, our strength is weaker. It’s normal they don’t dare.”

Lin Zhao’s gaze sharpened. “On Jia Lan’s side, besides the three Newcomer Kings, who else can hold their own?”

“There’s someone named Xu Hao,” Lu Yuan said. “Enlightenment ninth level. Only below those three. You could call him their number four.”

Yao Nian’s voice trembled. “A lot of our people were eliminated by him.”

Lin Zhao smiled. It didn’t reach her eyes. “Then we’ll use him as our first target.”

She arranged everyone in a strip of woods in the middle ring, set up an array as Granny had instructed, and warned them to move only within the marked area.

Then she left alone.

“Sister Zhao Zhao going alone will be okay?” Yao Nian asked Ming Yue, anxious.

Ming Yue, who usually didn’t let anyone close, pinched the child’s cheek gently and answered with certainty. “Sister will be fine.”

Qu Shu lifted a brow. Inside his Sea of Consciousness, the System’s voice softened into a persistent whisper. “Host… host…”

Qu Shu brushed hair from his forehead. Something flickered in his silver eyes, then dimmed. His gaze fell to the blue Spatial Ring on his finger.

He closed his eyes.

His voice, usually pleasant and elegant, dropped heavy with exhaustion. “I’m badly injured. I can’t go.”

The System went silent.

Qu Shu leaned against the towering ancient tree behind him. In the darkness of his mind, he saw the first time the blue-dressed maiden had met him.

“I’m Qu Shu. Qu as in ‘high and few,’ Shu as in ‘the world changes.’”

“Lin Zhao.”

“I’m Qu Shu. Qu as in ‘high and few,’ Shu as in ‘the world changes.’”

“I’m Lin Zhao. I’m glad to meet you.”

He pressed his brow, refusing to open his eyes. He turned his head away, shutting out the sounds around him, spending every scrap of strength suppressing the strange burning ache in his chest.

—

On the forest’s outer edge, Lin Zhao drew a slender azure sword from her Spatial Ring. She moved like a shadow through the lush woods, hiding her presence, gaze icy as she watched a young man lead a team hunting low-level Spirit Beasts for Spirit Cores.

Based on Heavenlink Mirror’s descriptions, she found Xu Hao—Jia Lan’s errand dog, sent out on a mission.

She didn’t attack immediately.

She observed him for a full day.

“One Enlightenment eighth level, and two Enlightenment seventh levels,” Lin Zhao calculated under her breath, her plan settling into place.

“Charging in head-on would be very bad for you, little girl,” Granny said, hovering beside her. “But after being nurtured by the Spirit Sparrow Pond’s qi, your cultivation is stuck at Enlightenment sixth level. You’re missing one trigger to step into late-stage Enlightenment. Xu Hao is a good whetstone.”

Lin Zhao agreed. This fight had to do more than kill.

She needed Xu Hao’s defeat to establish her name among the newcomers. Only then could she gather enough strength to face Jia Lan’s trio.

And she needed the battle itself to force a breakthrough.

With mid-stage Enlightenment cultivation, even with her physical strength and the toughness of her Divine Sense, Lin Zhao didn’t have the confidence to wrestle with a monster like Zhao Ji Xing.

She rested her hand on the Bone Sword.

“Xu Hao,” she murmured, eyes flashing green. “Don’t disappoint me.”

A sword qi slashed out.