MSBITRS Chapter 87 V1

They’re here…

Or rather, they finally showed up.

In the darkness, Li Changshou let out a quiet breath of relief.

It’s not the thief who steals that you fear, but the one who keeps eyeing your house.

These enemies had been lurking unseen for so long, even Li Changshou had started to feel the pressure.

Ever since he received that ring from Elder Wan Linjun half a year ago, he had begun laying the groundwork for the third stage of his war preparations.

Now, it was time to see the results.

If the enemy wanted to launch a sneak attack, they would have to approach Du Xian Sect rapidly from the ground or underground, then strike suddenly.

That gave Li Changshou plenty of room to maneuver.

The direction they chose, the path they took…

Just as he expected!

Of course, to be safe, Li Changshou had also stationed his “Earth”-rank paper figures along the five other possible routes.

Turns out the enemy was very cooperative — the path they picked was one of the three he had focused his efforts on.

The only thing Li Changshou found less than ideal was their timing. Their attack came two or three months later than he’d predicted.

At one point, he had even speculated that Elder Wan Linjun and he tricking the enemy together might’ve made the mastermind give up on the idea of destroying Du Xian Sect altogether…

But alas—

The enemy came late, but they came all the same.

At that moment, the seven “Heaven”-rank paper figures remained motionless, lying in wait outside the mountain gate.

Their role was still the same: once the main battle began, they would encircle from the rear — a tactic that hadn’t changed.

Meanwhile, the six “Earth”-rank paper figures were stationed along the six potential routes Li Changshou had identified ahead of time, and over two or three months, he had them set up numerous rudimentary poison arrays.

So what’s a poison array?

An array formation combined with poison pills — simple.

The key difference in Li Changshou’s setup was an emphasis on concealment rather than confusion or entrapment. The goal was not to be noticed.

Once someone entered the array, the poison mist and powder would detonate instantly, wasting not a single wisp of toxin!

That, in Li Changshou’s mind, was the true essence of a poison array.

Of course, he had no illusions that these arrays would single-handedly wipe out the intruders.

The logic was simple: if the enemy dared to attack a sect guarded by a Golden Immortal, they must have Golden Immortals themselves—possibly even more than one.

Li Changshou even considered the extremely unlikely possibility that they had a Great Luo Golden Immortal, and made contingency plans for that too.

So these poison arrays, no matter how tricky, were just landmines — meant for sudden strikes, nothing more.

Because the enemy had at least two Golden Immortals, Li Changshou decided to use only his paper figures for the ambush and not to involve Elder Wan Linjun.

—Just in case the old man, waving his bronze cane, suddenly shouted “For the sake of the Human Sect!” and went to fight the Golden Immortals head-on.

The purpose of the six Earth-rank paper figures was clear:
Disrupt the enemy. Delay them. Expose their location. Warn the sect. Weaken their forces.

Simple as that.

Hidden within the trunk of a tree, Earth-Rank Paper Figure No. 3 began to shimmer and expand. In an instant, it transformed into a handsome, robed young cultivator — completely different in appearance and aura from Li Changshou himself.

Half of Li Changshou’s mind was now focused on this paper’s figure. Through a network of “Triple-Eyed Spiders” planted ahead of time, he was monitoring the group of dark shadows flying close to the ground over 200 miles away…

It didn’t take long for him to notice that dozens of figures were moving underground as well.

They followed behind several giant beasts that were capable of digging. Though these figures tried to suppress their auras, their stealth couldn’t match true earth-digging techniques.

Real-life molemen?

No matter — Li Changshou had accounted for this possibility too.

Some of his poison arrays had deeply buried formation bases, even tilted to catch subterranean movement.

“Hmm? Something’s off.”

In the darkness, Li Changshou furrowed his brows. His mind quickly pieced together overlapping images and sorted them.

There was another group of attackers coming from the southwest!

The enemy had split into two forces!

Still…

That’s fine.

Li Changshou split his consciousness, multitasking with ease, and activated Earth-Rank Paper Figure No. 5.

Through it, he triggered layer upon layer of poison arrays in the southwest direction, then had the paper figure hide itself in a nearby pool of water.

After a few moments of careful observation, Li Changshou even chuckled a little to himself — a rare occurrence.

The situation had taken an unexpected but favorable turn. He had to admit: luck played a part here.

Out of the three primary paths he had heavily fortified with poison arrays, two of them had been used by the enemy.

How thoughtful of them — wouldn’t want his hard work to go to waste, right?

Before long, both of his paper figures sensed a powerful Golden Immortal pressure bearing down on them.

Two from the southwest. One from the northwest.

Three Golden Immortals?

Li Changshou immediately noticed something strange about the aura of these three — their Dao presence felt off — but the pressure of true Golden Immortals was undeniable.

Three Golden Immortals…

Now things were getting tricky. This wasn’t going to be easy.

In the dark, Li Changshou closed his eyes again and silently recited:

“Human”-Rank Paper Figure No. 3 — activate.

Back on Little Qiong Peak, the “Li Changshou” sitting dazed in front of a pill furnace suddenly twitched. His eyes lit up with spiritual light.

He quickly deactivated the protective formation around the peak and sent a voice transmission to Ling’e.

Out on the lake, Ling’e was practicing the switch between water and earth movement techniques when she froze mid-action. Then, in two steps, she leapt into the air and bolted toward the small cottage on the shore.

“Master!
Senior Brother fainted in the alchemy room!
You have to come quickly!”

As Ling’e’s anxious voice rang out, Li Changshou’s full attention remained locked on the group of enemies three thousand miles to the northwest.

That group of strong enemies had just entered one of the poison arrays…

They had been flying low, tightly concealing their presence, but had failed to scout ahead.

The dozen or so figures at the front crashed right into the first poison array in the northwest.

The poisonous mist erupted — two of them immediately collapsed!

But the others showed no change in expression. They reacted swiftly, igniting protective light and demonic energy, popping antidotes into their mouths, and retreating quickly.

Their charge formation immediately fell apart.

“There’s a formation!”

“It’s a simple trap made with poison pills. As expected, they were prepared—use your magic to blow it apart!”