Book 3: Chapter 17: Think Out Of The Box
After sorting out the information in the mountain village of Nanling Kingdom, Bai Qiuran and others dispersed.
Some disciples of Saint Buddha Sect stayed in place to guard the mountain village. The rest of the disciples followed Weichen to Sky-Forging Castle. Other representatives also went back to their sect. As for Bai Qiuran, he walked around at random to see if he could gather any information.
However, Nine Provinces and Ten Lands were extremely vast. Bai Qiuran walked around several times yet failed to see the ancient city appear. However, after a period of observation and summarization, Righteous Alliance and Evil Alliance also came up with some rules of the ancient city’s movement.
First, according to the traces of the ancient city, combined with the time when Bai Qiuran and Huangfu Feng witnessed the activation of the stele, the interval between the disappearance and appearance of the ancient city was generally about three days.
Second, every time the ancient city appeared and disappeared, it’s always accompanied by a thick fog.
Third, the place where the ancient city disappeared would leave an aura vortex that would not dissipate for a long time.
Fourth, the scope of action of the ancient city was not limited to Qing Province, as there were traces of it in all places in Nine Provinces and Ten Lands. However, with Qing Province as the center, the farther the distance, the less the frequency of actions.
Fifth, the ancient city abducted people by a bell sound. If the number of people nearby reached a certain number, the ancient city would be activated and tried to abduct these people. If the bell sound was not enough to capture the spirit of the target, the ancient city will dispatch a wonderful dark monster to take the target by force attack. The dark monsters seem to have been transformed with the body of the captives inside the ancient city, but at present, they neither knew the specific details nor encountered a living sample. Everything was speculated from Elder Liu’s video.
At present, the people of Mystery Academy have begun to try to see if they can predict the next location of the ancient city according to these rules, and Bai Qiuran, who has failed to search, has returned to the Forging Dock.
He could help speculate, and in case the people of Mystery Academy really predicted the next location, Bai Qiuran’s speed and strength were the highest among all the people present, thus it’s most appropriate to let him test the city first.
However, when Bai Qiuran returned to Sky-Forging Castle, looking for the disciples of Mystery Academy came out, he was found by his apprentice Tang Ruowei shortly after, along with a young girl he didn’t know.
After looking at the pretty little girl, and at the disciples who had some guilty conscience, Bai Qiuran wondered:
“Hey, Ruowei, I found that after the two of us haven’t seen each other for a while, when we meet again, you can always bring a beautiful little girl with you… You really were born into the wrong gender.”
“What nonsense are you saying?”
Tang Ruowei’s eyes widened. She understood what her master was referring to. After pretending to carelessly support her “chest,” she gritted her teeth and said:
“This is senior sister Li Jinyao from Heavenly Demon Sect. She told me she wanted to see you.”
“Huh? Li Jinyao?”
Hearing the name, Bai Qiuran gave her a surprised look.
“Are you the one with the Heavenly Demon Physique that the Evil Alliance recently tried their best to hide?”
“Are you the Qingming Sword Patriarch?”
Li Jinyao did not deny it but looked up and down Bai Qiuran carefully.
“Well, your look isn’t bad”
“Master.”
At this time, Tang Ruowei who heard the conversation between the two asked:
“What is Heavenly Demon Physique?”
“That is a legendary physique recorded in the divine narrative classics of the Evil Sects. For demonic cultivators, it’s even considered superior to the Heavenly-level Spiritual Root. It’s equivalent to the full attribute of the Heavenly-level Spiritual Root. No matter what kind of demonic technique, the one with Heavenly Demon Physique could learn it quickly without any side effect… This physique has only appeared in the classics, and it is rumored to disappear after the end of the last era.”
Bai Qiuran looked at Li Jinyao and said:
“And she is the only Heavenly Demon Physique that was born in the last three thousand years. It was understandable that the Evil Alliance want to hide her from the Righteous Alliance.”
“Uh, then how do you know?”
Tang Ruowei spit her tougue out.
“Su Xiangxue told me.”
Bai Qiuran replied:
“I drank with her, boasted a bit, and she happily told me this.”
B… Betrayer!
At this moment, even if she was very fond of Su Xiangxue, Tang Ruowei couldn’t help shouting in her heart.
“I have long heard that sect leader Su has a great relationship with Sword Patriarch. I didn’t expect her to even tell you this kind of news. It seems that she is basically undefended against you in her heart.”
Li Jinyao said with a smile.
“That’s because she knows I won’t hurt her.”
Bai Qiuran looked up and down at Li Jinyao.
“However, since you are a Heavenly Demon Physique, you should have learned her Phantom Charm, right? How can I not see the effect?”
“Because I changed a bit, so I was able to turn it off at will.”
Li Jinyao said, suddenly blinking at Bai Qiuran with one eye.
“Look.”
At this moment, her body suddenly released an endless charm, and Tang Ruowei’s unguarded face turned red when she brushed her face, but Bai Qiuran was still expressionless.
“Well, that’s what it is.”
After watching for two seconds, he commented:
“You changed the method I changed, and the charm effect can be closed, but the power of the charm is reduced by a few points. Moreover, this trick can be pulled off completely because of your physique. This is a change that only suits you.”
Li Jinyao froze for a moment, then smiled bitterly:
“You are indeed Sword Patriarch. I had to think for two years before I succeeded. Even my master took a long time to figure out, but you see through it with a glance.”
“I just live longer than Ji Lingyun.”
Bai Qiuran said lightly.
“I do not understand.”
After Li Jinyao put away the charm, Tang Ruowei, who finally recovered, shook her head and asked:
“Is this terrifying charm effect also a side effect?”
“You can’t put it away, of course, it is a side effect.”
Bai Qiuran glanced at his disciples.
“You think, if Su Xiangxue finds a person with low charm resistance in the future, then just look at her every day, this man will die in two years, do you say this is a negative effect?”
Tang Ruowei blushed and nodded.
“Okay, I have watched it, so go back to work.”
Bai Qiuran waved his hand:
“Now hurry up and try to predict the movement trajectory of the ancient city, I have to think of a method.”
“Speaking of this, in fact, I have an idea.”
Li Jinyao suddenly said.
“Huh? Any ideas, though, now is the time to think out of the box.”
Bai Qiuran sat down at the table and said:
“Please sit down, Miss Li Jinyao. Ruowei, don’t just stand there.”
“Thank you.”
Li Jinyao and Tang Ruowei sat down next to each other, and then Li Jinyao continued:
“I used to help Elder Xu from Mystery Academy. Although he was cautious, I still saw some clues. He speculated that it seemed that the ancient city relied on the power of the earth’s vein to move so quickly and operated. It is also some kind of escape technique that we don’t know, which can be perfectly integrated into the earth’s vein.”
“Well, there’s nothing wrong with this idea.”
Bai Qiuran nodded and said:
“To support such a big ancient city moving back and forth, it really depends on the power of the earth’s veins.”
“But I don’t think so. Some places in the ancient city are not on the nodes of the earth.”
Li Jinyao continued:
“So I was wondering if the ancient city used other powers. After all, in this world, the earth’s vein is not the only natural power that can be drawn from… For example, the power of the celestial phenomenon, which is the opposite to the earth’s veins. What do you think? “