Qi Link Talisman
Cheng Zhuo eventually spilt the beans. He was the Heaven Stage disciple who was on the team with Ji Wenkai and Luo Feilong at last year’s tournament against Talisman Sect. He went into the tournament with his confidence level topped up because he went out of his way to learn an attack formation exclusive to him for his match. When it was finally time to lock horns, though, his opponent knew all of the weaknesses and flaws in his formation, resulting in an instant defeat.
Nobody could instantly pinpoint a formation’s flaws and dismantle it. It should’ve taken several exchanges to identify a formation’s flaw, let alone devising a method of defusing it unless…
Cheng Zhuo analysed his defeat, but something else stood out to him even more. Prior to the tournament, Luo Feilong offered to help him refine the formation for the tournament. Cheng Zhuo took Luo Feilong up on the offer, revealing all the details. Luo Feilong provided extra pointers to help his junior. Suspicious, Cheng Zhuo decided to question Luo Feilong, and that was when he inadvertently learnt Luo Feilong was Talisman Sect’s spy.
“How did you find out the two are Talisman Sect’s spies?”
“When I went to question Luo Feilong, I saw him holding a talisman. I recognised the talisman belonged to Talisman Sect. After he read the talisman, he changed into a black robe and sneaked out. I decided to follow him since he was fishy. He went to a desolate mountain… I didn’t want to risk going too close. From where I was, nonetheless, I saw him kneel before Talisman Sect’s Zhou Jinglin and called him ‘Shifu’. I couldn’t hear what they were talking about clearly, but I could hear Ji Wenkai’s voice. I’m dead certain I didn’t mishear Ji Wenkai also refer to Zhou Jinglin as ‘Shifu’.”
“Luo Feilong headed to the mountain after he read a talisman, correct?”
“Yes. I researched Talisman Sect’s talisman arts after the discovery. If I’m correct, the talisman Luo Feilong had is their sect’s qi link talisman. In case you don’t know, their sect imbues formations in talismans. Anyway, qi link talisman is a technique for sending messages via talismans; we have information on them in Formation Hall. They have a master talisman that connects to other qi link talismans. Once a message is written onto the master talisman using spiritual energy, it will show up on the other connected qi link talismans. Only their disciples are in possession of qi link talismans due to their value.”
“They’re better than us with small-scale formations. I’ll give them that.”
“How do you plan to deal with them?”
“It’ll be easy to smoke them out now that I know their communication means. Pretend you never told me any of this and try to stay low. I’ll handle this. If they do anything suspicious, come see me.”
***
“He wants a list of Heaven Stage disciples and formation casters’ names?” Luo Feilong wrinkled his nose.
Duan Yang worriedly asked, “Do you think he’ll find out we’re Talisman Sect’s…”
“What would a new disciple know? Stop scaring yourself. He’s just trying to figure things out to compete with us,” reproached Wu Wenxing.
Luo Feilong analysed Mu Yu’s request.
“How about we leave out our people? We can just tell him we didn’t find out anything about them,” proposed Duan Yang.
“That’d leave us more susceptible to suspicion if anyone notices. Give him a simplified version of the data we have. We’ll have more room to manoeuvre if you can earn his trust now,” rectified Luo Feilong.
Duan Yang: “Tch, if we have a chance to kill him, can I personally finish him? I have a lot of pent up anger over the last few days.”
“Sure. It’s just a question of when now.”
***
Mu Yu was confident the name list he was given was taken from Luo Feilong or Ji Wenkai. He expected the two to hand it to him in exchange for his trust. Mu Yu wasn’t hoping to identify the spies from the name list since the spies wouldn’t hand him a name list with clues. Its purpose was solely to assist with planning.
Mu Yu didn’t have a chance to look further into the names as Greater Heaven Caster Lu summoned him.
Greater Heaven Caster Lu resided in a serene wood with an illusion formation set up to prevent people disturbing him.
From outside the woods, Mu Yu called, “Greater Heaven Caster Lu, Feng Mu seeks an audience.”
“Come on in.”
The formation rippled, and trees woke as Mu Yu entered. The paths in the woods criss-crossed, cleverly concealing which path led to Greater Heaven Caster Lu’s place. He didn’t speak another word again after telling Mu Yu to come in as he wanted Mu Yu to find his own way in – he didn’t usually try to confuse visitors. Greater Heaven Caster Lu wanted to see how Mu Yu solved the tests because nobody besides Mu Yu knew what took place inside the formation tablets.
The formation tablets suggested Mu Yu was talented. Howbeit, he solved them too easily. Greater Heaven Caster Lu, consequently, worried Mu Yu would let his success get to his head. This test’s aims were to keep Mu Yu’s ego in check and demonstrate the prowess of a Greater Heaven Stage formation caster.
“More illusion formations? This is getting repetitive.” After wandering for some time, Mu Yu hollered, “Greater Heaven Caster Lu, must we go through this just to meet?”
“Hahaha, dismantle my seven layer illusion formation if you can. Situ Yangtian took two hours to dismantle it. I’ll give you four hours; don’t disappoint me.”
“Do not blame me for ‘dismantling’ it, then.” Mu Yu placed his hand on a tree trunk and grinned.
“Feel free. I used eighty-one formation foundations to cast it. There are forty-nine formations installed. The paths are constantly shifting, sometimes even giving me trouble. I’d like to see if you c-“
Rumble! The woods shook as if an earthquake struck.
Mu Yu opened. the door and giggled. “Greetings, Greater Heaven Caster Lu.”
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