Qi Yuan stared at Li Changshou, who was sitting cross-legged with his eyes closed, and froze for a moment. Then he turned to glare at Ling’e.
“Didn’t you say your senior brother was unconscious?
He looks perfectly fine to me!”
Ling’e blinked innocently, then suddenly pointed behind Qi Yuan and said,
“Master, look! My senior brother’s soul just left his body!”
“Huh?”
The old Daoist turned around—only to see his eldest disciple looking at him with an apologetic smile.
A gentle, fragrant aroma wafted into Qi Yuan’s nose. Before he could react, the medicinal effect had already hit his soul.
Already a muddled immortal with a weak foundation, Qi Yuan’s eyes rolled back, and he slowly collapsed backward.
Li Changshou moved quickly. In a flash, he pulled out a beast-hide sack and covered his master with it.
With a low command—“Shrink!”—the sack, custom-made from over a dozen different spirit beast hides just for his master, instantly shrank to the size of a coin pouch. Li Changshou handed it to Ling’e.
She sealed the porcelain bottle in her hand and muttered nervously,
“Senior brother, aren’t we going too far? What if Master wakes up and… yells at us to death?”
Standing with his hands behind his back, Li Changshou replied telepathically,
“You know Master’s temperament. If a strong enemy shows up, he’ll be the first to charge in. I’ll explain everything to him later.
Just follow the plan from our previous drills. Wait here. Once the bell rings and the disciples rush toward Potiantian Peak, use earth-escape to bring Master and me half a step into the earth meridian.
I’ll be busy helping with a paper clone in the upcoming battle, so I won’t be present here in spirit.”
Ling’e nodded seriously. “Don’t worry, Senior Brother. I’ll take care of you and Master.”
“No need to worry too much,” Li Changshou’s voice echoed gently. “I’ll be right beside both of you.
Even if we lose Du’xian Sect this time… I’ll make sure you two survive.”
Ling’e bit her lip and whispered,
“But Senior Brother… I still feel uneasy… What realm are you really in now?”
Li Changshou curled his lips. “Late stage Nascent Soul—Eighth Layer.”
“Oh,” Ling’e pursed her lips but didn’t press further.
Li Changshou gave a light chuckle and withdrew his focus—there would be plenty of places needing his attention soon.
The paper clone seated by the alchemy furnace slowly closed its eyes.
Ling’e knelt quietly beside her senior brother, tying the pouch containing her unconscious master to her waist, and waited for the bell to ring.
She didn’t know who the “strong enemy” was, but if Senior Brother said there was one, then there probably was…
And if not…
Then maybe this was just another of her Senior Brother’s little tests!
At that same moment, three thousand miles away in two separate directions, two enemy forces had already charged into the densest parts of the poison formation.
From the sky, one could witness a bizarre sight.
Two swarms of figures, black as locusts, flew close to the ground, moving in jerky, disorganized patterns. Now and then, the terrain around them would erupt with clouds of thick fog or scatter dust into the air.
Even though the attackers were on guard, with every burst of the formation, someone still collapsed.
Li Changshou, observing this through his paper clones, couldn’t help but nod in appreciation.
“They still haven’t realized what’s going on…”
Logically, once they encountered the first poison trap, they should have known they’d been exposed.
What Li Changshou feared most was that these puppets would take to the skies and bypass the formations entirely, rendering them useless.
But just as he predicted, once they became “puppets,” these demons, humans, and spirits lost most of their cognitive ability. They only followed orders—perfect for triggering traps.
The two enemy groups were now just 2,500 li away from the mountain gate.
Li Changshou sighed inwardly and used his paper clones to activate the remaining poison traps in both directions.
If he’d known how stubborn these guys were, he would’ve set up ten times more traps on each path—might’ve even resolved most of the sect’s crisis right there…
But alas, the elders didn’t give him enough poison pills. Wishful thinking wouldn’t help now.
Two paper clones—one hidden in a tree trunk, the other beneath a pond—silently faded away after completing the first half of their mission.
Li Changshou’s consciousness instantly shifted to Paper Dolls No. 3 and No. 5, codenamed “Boom.”
Within moments, from a dense forest and a stream just a few miles from the sect’s mountain-guarding formation, two cold-faced old Daoists soared into the air.
They hovered above, one to the southwest, the other to the northwest—directly aligned with the paths of the two incoming enemy groups.
Their auras flickered wildly, filled with unstable immortal energy.
Inside the sect, countless divine senses reached out and locked onto the two figures. A wrinkled elder muttered, echoing everyone’s confusion:
“Who are these two? They look… unfamiliar.”
Snap!
In the dark, Li Changshou snapped his fingers, instantly pulling his consciousness back from the two clones.
The two old Daoists suddenly shouted in unison,
“Open your eyes and see clearly!”
With a blinding burst of immortal light, they each self-destructed in midair, right outside the protective formation.
BOOM!
The explosion rumbled like thunder. Immortal energy surged outward, shaking the sect’s protective barrier violently!
Every cultivator within Du’xian Sect witnessed the explosion, and none could make sense of it.
What just happened?
Two random Daoists popped up, yelled something, then self-destructed—just to… shake the gate a bit?
Just for the drama?
Even the sect leader was jolted awake from his meditation.
His divine sense scanned the two directions and immediately spotted the black swarms racing toward the sect.
“Not good!”
This middle-aged Daoist stepped out of seclusion and appeared atop Potian Peak. He glanced southwest, then northwest, and shouted, his voice echoing for miles—
“Who dares trespass on our Du’xian Sect?!
All elders and disciples, heed my command—
Prepare for battle! Defend the mountain!”
The massive bronze bell by the main hall was immediately struck by two panicked True Immortal stewards, its toll shaking the very air.
Within the sect, those who had been meditating, cultivating, playing chess, chatting, or even enjoying romantic cultivation… were all jolted to action!
From each peak, silhouettes burst forth like arrows—
Meanwhile, over two thousand li away, the insect-like puppet armies finally realized… they had been exposed.
Old Daoist Yuanzé, wearing a withered wood mask, gave simultaneous orders with two other “false” Golden Immortals from two different directions.
The shadowy figures that had previously been flying low to the ground suddenly surged upward in formation, forming two thick, black clouds racing toward Du Xian Sect.
The three Golden Immortals from Jin’ao Island, who had hidden their auras until now, unleashed their full power.
Inside Du Xian Sect, the Sect Master and another Golden Immortal aura rose into the sky in response.
Li Changshou, observing from the shadows, noted that the second Golden Immortal aura came from the Dao Repository Hall…
Sam Williams On TYMIMA Chapter 152