Three Moves to Destroy the Chen Family!

Ah, youth was wonderful. You could fall asleep the moment your head hit the pillow.

In the end, Su Enxi was carried away by her two teammates.

After Jiu De Mayi and Zero came out of the room where they had been spacing out and discovered the mission was complete, the tall one and the short one, one in front and one behind, each hoisted an end of the homebody aunt over a shoulder and carried her off like a corpse.

Zero remained expressionless.

Jiu De Mayi, meanwhile, put on a hypocritical display of grief. She brushed Su Enxi's face with a mournful expression and whispered, "Chips, I'm sorry. I misunderstood you. So you really weren't giving up and slacking off—you were playing the fool to outsmart everyone. What a pity. This was clearly a mission for all three of us... yet in the end, you carried everything alone."

"..." Fortunately for Jiu De Mayi, Su Enxi's consciousness had already descended into chaos and she could not refute her. Otherwise, she would have sprung up in fury and fought Jiu De Mayi for three hundred rounds.

Before leaving, The Trio arranged contact methods and the location of their next meeting with the Zhou Family. Both sides divided the work and began making preliminary preparations for the operation.

"Preliminary preparations?"

"Contacting those aristocratic families and getting them to act. Sigh, we still have several days of verbal battles ahead of us."

On the way back, Wa Lord discussed the matter with Emiya. She shook her head with a slight headache. The Zhou Family was the inheritor of Nuwa's lineage in Chu and was known as the sect master among the aristocratic families of Jingchu, but the other families were no pushovers either.

When there was usually some minor matter, everyone acknowledged the Zhou Family as the leading clan and naturally showed it some respect. And when there were profitable ventures, such as developing large ruins like the Tomb of the Three Kings, everyone would also recognize the Zhou Family's lead in distributing the benefits...

But asking them to provide people and manpower to deal with a troublesome Chen Family?

Well, sorry, but without a perfectly legitimate reason and some real stuff as compensation, those aristocratic families would at most paddle along, fish in troubled waters, and wave flags from the sidelines. Charge into battle? You could do that yourselves.

Wa Lord pondered, There's no harm in offering them the Magic Circuit system. After all, opening circuits depends heavily on talent. As for what comes after... the Thought Plate Shirou mentioned sounded far from simple. Perhaps I can use it to keep them on the hook.

In the days that followed, the Zhou Family began secretly contacting the other aristocratic families one after another, holding detailed discussions about cooperating in a joint operation against the Chen Family. Wa Lord had truly regained her former splendor, arguing fiercely with the heads of the various clans until heaven and earth seemed to darken.

Back then, she had debated the mysterious dragon soul inside the Dragon Severing Platform for two full days and nights before defeating it. Why would she be worried about dealing with a bunch of insignificant mixed-bloods like you?

While Wa Lord went all out in her arguments with the heads of the other great clans, she also found time to urge the three wet nurses about the progress of their operation.

According to the wet nurse group, their preparation involved dispatching a heavyweight infiltration expert—Jiu De Mayi—to contact the insider they had found within the Chen Family...

The Trio's intelligence sources were indeed rather mysterious. Wa Lord truly had not expected that the Chen Family, which was so prickly to deal with that it was practically a hedgehog, could still have a high-level insider exposed within it.

Thus, the various parties settled on a strategy: three moves to destroy the Chen Family—

First, the wet nurse group would work with the insider to obtain evidence of the Chen Family's shameful research, as well as further detailed intelligence about the base;

Second, the Zhou Family would strive to contact more aristocratic families. From cutting off exchanges and cooperation to launching an assault on the Chen Family Manor on the day of action, they would completely seal off the research base.

Finally, the Zhou Family would deploy an elite strike force to attack and destroy the resistance within the base, as well as any possible Death Servant products...

Wa Lord tactfully declined the enthusiastic proposals from the various aristocratic families to join the base assault. They were also coveting the Chen Family's research results—if everyone were crammed into a temporary team with such complicated interests, it would be ridiculous once they started dragging each other down and scrambling for the spoils.

As for Emiya, he remained in his room making preparations before the battle—

"Projection, begin. Trace on."

A much more powerful Alchemy Domain unfolded through the empty air, and two bronze swords almost identical to Ganzhiang and Moxie slowly took shape.

—If Jiu De Mayi had seen this scene, she probably would have been startled by the sense of familiarity. Her boss, Lu Mingze, had once directly fashioned two Divine Artifacts out of thin air—Ame no Habakiri and Futsunomitama—and given them to her for use in battle.

In terms of this world's alchemical system, this was the profound field behind the legendary outstanding achievement known as the Seven Great Kingdoms.

At present, Emiya had only touched upon a corner of it in essence, and not very deeply. The reason was—

"Buzz—!" Emiya tried infusing magical power into a projected weapon to activate its Noble Phantasm effect. The light of mana tempering spread across the blade, but the response was mediocre. Not the slightest hint of anything miraculous appeared.

"At this level... it can only count as a counterfeit Noble Phantasm."

A counterfeit was not the Noble Phantasm itself, but a degraded version whose rank had fallen. It could not be used for True Name Release.

Emiya suppressed the disappointment in his heart.

Looking on the bright side, projecting counterfeits consumed little, could be made quickly, and also gave him a powerful long-range option.

Red Archer's usual tactics involved projecting counterfeit Noble Phantasms, such as the Pseudo-Spiral Sword, and using them as tactical missiles for long-range bombardment.

At that moment, Old Tang pushed open the door. He had two enormous dark circles under his eyes and a thoroughly miserable expression. One look was enough to tell that he had not slept well.

"Hey, brother, I tried that dual-personality thing you told me about. But the brother inside me just refuses to acknowledge me, no matter what! Sigh, Old Tang here is now a young, rich, handsome fellow. Don't tell me I'm being rejected by 'myself'?"

He had once been a poor bastard living on welfare in Brooklyn. His greatest ambition had been to ride a Greyhound bus, admire beautiful women, travel across North America, and become Indiana Jones.

But now, following behind his brother, he had transformed and landed an iron rice bowl with a top aristocratic family in China. He had even entered the inner world and gained genius-level magical talent...

Yet that dragon had ignored him.

Old Tang therefore beat his chest in sorrow. Anyone unaware that he was single would have thought some woman had dumped him.

"Huh? I only mentioned yesterday that it might be dual personalities. Old Tang, did you spend the entire night trying?"

"Of course! How could I not believe something you said yourself, brother?"

Old Tang considered Emiya the guide who had led him through the gates of the "inner world." Whenever it came to supernatural knowledge, he followed Emiya's advice and treated Emiya's words as gospel.

He even felt that Emiya understood more than this Mixed-Blood Family of the Zhou Family.

Did the Zhou Family understand Magic Circuits? No!

They had even gotten themselves completely confused and needed to ask his good brother Emiya for advice.

"Ahem, it's only a guess on my part. There are indeed methods in this world for deliberately creating multiple personalities, and they may help you uncover the secrets on you, Old Tang."

Old Tang scratched his head. "I may not know much, but I know this stuff is just multiple personality disorder, right? Could there be some benefit to it?"

"Old Tang, do you know alchemy?"

"Oh, oh, I do. I haven't spent all these days at the Zhou Family for nothing. It's that Western thing about Turn Stone into Gold and the Philosopher's Stone, along with China's artifact forging and pill refining—"

"No. That isn't what I mean. I'm talking about an ancient alchemy from the Atlas Institute. Their cultivation method is the 'Thought Partition' that creates multiple personalities."

Thanks to @Ling Xun, @Reading Webnovels Since Middle School, @A Fleeting Dream of Joyful Indulgence, and @Phantom Aria for the monthly votes!