Chapter 150

Chapter 150: Grand Bloodfiend Body-Refining Grand Array

The group had finished planning and had just left the underground chamber when they got a notice from Wu Yong.

Wu Yong smiled and said: “Young Master Huang, tonight the Lords have important work. The whole city is under curfew. No one may leave their homes, including us.”

Sui Jin paused and asked: “No one may leave? We can’t even go out for a casual walk?”

Wu Yong kept smiling and said: “During the day, you can stroll however you like. At night, going out is forbidden. Not only tonight, but for the next two nights too.”

Sui Jin frowned and asked: “What if we insist on going out?”

Wu Yong’s smile turned deep as he said: “After dark, anyone wandering outside will be treated as an enemy. You know Lord Copper’s cultivation. If he makes a move, there will be no survivors.”

Sui Jin seemed shocked. He shivered and hurried to agree.

Wu Yong spoke gently and said: “At night the streets are empty anyway, nothing worth seeing. In three days, once we head to headquarters, Young Master Huang can roam as he pleases.”

Sui Jin nodded and said: “Don’t worry, I understand.”

Wu Yong’s gaze swept over the others, then he chuckled, turned, and left.

When Wu Yong was far away, Sui Jin took out several small wooden figures and handed one to each person.

He lowered his voice and said: “This is a simple mechanical construct. Drip a bit of blood essence on it, and it will take on our appearance and stay in the room. Then we can slip away and find out the truth.”

He added softly and said: “As long as the construct doesn’t trade blows with someone, it can pass for the real person. If attacked, it will show its true form at once. These wooden figures are reusable. I’ll teach you a spell verse so you can put them away or release them.”

Sui Jin taught the verse, and everyone answered that they understood.

He ended the briefing and said: “Then return to your rooms. Wait for my signal to act.”

Everyone took a wooden puppet and went back to their rooms.

Li Shuang held the wooden figure and felt a little curious.

She remembered the bird that had brought them a message.

Even though that bird was a construct and very weak, it had its own personality.

Just that alone put it far above most mechanists’ work.

Li Shuang had a faint feeling: [Sui Jin could fool the heavens and make Huang Yue’s name show on the yellow paper. That must be tied to his identity as a mechanist.]

She thought of her third Senior Brother and sighed in her heart: [He really is not simple.]

The thought flashed through her mind, and she pressed it down.

Sui Jin carried many secrets. Luo Ming Yue and the others clearly knew some of them, but Li Shuang would not pry.

She told herself: [My Senior Brother and Senior Sister are not guarding anything from me. If they are not saying it, then it is not yet time for me to know.]

Li Shuang looked up at the sky.

Dusk deepened, though a dim band of yellow still hung at the horizon. It was not the right time to move.

She left a thread of spiritual sense outside, then entered the Jade Slip Space.

Lately she had found a new Way of the Sword. Her insight into the Way of the Sword was surging forth, so whenever she had free time, she went into the Sword Dao Space to temper her arts.

As soon as she entered the Jade Slip Space, Li Shuang sank fully into her Way of the Sword.

She wondered: [Is it my imagination? When I practice inside this jade slip, it is easier to lose myself.]

Su Mu stood by with smiling eyes, watching Li Shuang run through her sword forms.

A Sword Cultivator’s path is hard.

Day after day, year after year, you polish your sword arts. Most people cannot endure that.

Every Sword Cultivator who reaches the peak has shed countless drops of sweat and walked through countless trials.

But Li Shuang was different.

When she practiced, her eyes shone bright.

To her, this was not bitter training. It was a reward.

[She was born for the sword.]

Even though she had started from the beginning to open a new Way of the Sword, her progress was still amazing.

Watching her, Su Mu could not help falling into deep thought: [Could it be that these two paths were meant to support each other all along?]

Before he could figure it out, Li Shuang felt a tug at her heart. She sheathed her sword, bowed to Su Mu, and said: “Senior, see you tomorrow.”

Sui Jin had sent the signal.

It was time to act.

Su Mu nodded and said: “Go.”

In the next instant Li Shuang returned to her room. She dripped blood onto the wooden figure, and soon a person who looked exactly like her sat in the room.

Li Shuang had the puppet sit cross-legged on the bed to “cultivate,” then masked her aura and slipped out of the courtyard.

Following Sui Jin’s plan, the group split up.

Li Shuang had the hardest task: tail the Copper Devil Guard. Except for Luo Ming Yue, her soul force was the strongest among them, and together with her techniques, no one was better suited for the job.

Peacehaven Town was not large. Hiding in the night, Li Shuang was about to search carefully.

Suddenly, her pupils tightened.

She did not even have to look.

The Copper Devil Guard was swaggering right down Central Avenue.

Li Shuang drew her aura even tighter and waited to see his next move.

He looked rough in action, yet his body stayed tense, ready to strike at any time.

He examined the area with care. Only after he found nothing wrong did he pull out a bright red compass.

He dug a pit in Central Avenue and placed the compass inside.

Then he restored the ground.

He took out several blood red crystals and set them around the compass.

Working swiftly, he formed a small formation on the spot.

Li Shuang focused and memorized the pattern at once.

In a blink, the finished formation vanished completely, as if it had never been there.

The Copper Devil Guard lingered a moment, then left, satisfied.

Li Shuang frowned.

[That formation and compass are not good things.]

She followed him while carving the formation into her memory.

She took out a Fourth Tier treasure and traded with the Heaven and Earth Furnace for the formation’s purpose.

The result was disappointing at first.

A Fourth Tier treasure was not enough.

Li Shuang raised the stake, added a Fifth Tier treasure, and only then did the Furnace answer.

“Bloodfiend Body-Refining Array, simplified version: This array can draw out the blood energy of living beings within a radius of one hundred li. (Because it is simplified, it works only on beings without spiritual power that meet certain conditions.)”

Li Shuang’s pupils shrank sharply.

[Bloodfiend Body-Refining Array?]

She thought of the Copper Devil Guard’s powerful body energy. On the surface, he was only a Golden Core Stage Cultivator, but with that overwhelming physical force, his true strength far exceeded what he showed.

And the formation’s name was “body-refining.”

[So his strength comes from this Formation?]

This version was simplified and only worked on Mortals.

Then what about the full version?

[Would the complete Bloodfiend Body-Refining Array work on Cultivators too? Is this why the Heavenly Sovereign Society insists on taking us to headquarters? Does the so-called Heavenly Sovereign plan to use a Grand Bloodfiend Body-Refining Grand Array to refine us all?]