Three Steps, Guaranteed to Destroy the Chen Family!

Ah, to be young and just crash.

Su Enxi was ultimately carried away by her two teammates.

After spacing out in the room and realizing the mission was complete, Jiu De Mayi and Ling, one tall, one short, walked one in front and one behind, each with an arm of the old shut-in aunt draped over their shoulder, carrying her like a corpse.

Ling remained expressionless.

Jiu De Mayi, on the other hand, shed crocodile tears, stroking Su Enxi's face with a sorrowful look and whispering:

Oh, potato chips, I'm sorry, I misunderstood you. Turns out you really weren't slacking off and giving up, but rather possessed great wisdom disguised as foolishness. It's a shame this was a mission for the three of us... yet you ended up shouldering everything alone.

"..." Only because Su Enxi's consciousness was in a state of chaos could she not retort. Otherwise, she would surely have grit her teeth and bounced up to fight Jiu De Mayi for three hundred rounds.

Before leaving, the trio also arranged contact methods and the next meeting place with the Zhou Family. Both sides agreed to divide the work and make preliminary preparations for the operation.

"Preliminary preparations?"

"That means contacting those noble families to get them involved. Sigh, there are still several days of arguing ahead."

On the way back, Wa Lord and Emiya discussed the matter. She shook her head, feeling a slight headache. The Zhou Family, as the inheritors of the Nuwa lineage in Chu, were known as the patriarchs of the noble families in the Jingchu region, but the other families weren't pushovers either.

Normally, for small matters, everyone recognized the Zhou Family as the main clan and would give them some face. And for profitable ventures, like the development of large ruins such as the Tomb of the Three Kings, everyone also recognized the Zhou Family's leadership in allocating benefits...

But to send people and resources to deal with a difficult Chen Family?

Well, sorry, if there wasn't a proper, justifiable reason and some genuine, high-value compensation, the other families would at most just slack off, wave flags, and cheer. As for charging into battle? You'll have to go yourself.

Wa Lord mused, It wouldn't be a problem to reveal the Magic Circuit system to them, after all, the opening of circuits depends heavily on talent. As for what comes after, the thought partitioning Shiro mentioned sounds complicated, perhaps I can try dangling that in front of them.

In the following days, the Zhou Family began secretly contacting other noble families to discuss cooperation for a joint operation against the Chen Family. Wa Lord truly showcased her brilliance once again, dominating the discussions and arguing fiercely with the patriarchs of various families, creating a scene of utter chaos.

She had once debated the mysterious dragon soul within the Dragon Severing Platform for two whole days and nights before emerging victorious. Was she really worried about dealing with these little Hybrid nobodies?

While going all out arguing with the patriarchs of the other great clans, Wa Lord also found time to urge the healer trio about the progress of their operation.

According to the healer group, their preparation for the operation involved sending a heavy-hitting infiltration expert—Jiu De Mayi—to meet and contact the insider they had found within the Chen Family...

Speaking of which, the intelligence sources of this trio were quite mysterious. Wa Lord truly hadn't expected that the Chen Family, who were as prickly and difficult to deal with as a hedgehog, could actually have a high-level insider dug out from within.

Thus, the various parties formulated a strategy, a three-step plan to bring the Chen Family to its demise—

Step one, the healer group, in conjunction with the insider, would gather evidence of the Chen Family's illicit research and further detailed intelligence about the base;

Step two, the Zhou Family would strive to contact more noble families, from severing all ties and cooperation to the day of the operation, to completely blockade the Chen Family manor and research base.

Finally, the Zhou Family would deploy its elite force to attack and destroy the resistance within the base and any potential Death Servant products...

Wa Lord politely declined the eager and enthusiastic suggestions from various families who wanted to get involved in the base attack, because they were also coveting the Chen Family's research results—if they were all crammed in to form a complex temporary team, it would be laughable if they ended up tripping over each other and fighting over the spoils.

As for Emiya, he was also holed up in his room making pre-battle preparations—

"Trace on."

A much stronger Alchemy domain unfolded in the void, and two bronze swords almost identical to Ganzhiang and Moxie slowly took shape.

—If Jiu De Mayi had seen this scene, she would likely have been surprised and felt a sense of déjà vu. Her boss, Lu Mingze, had also once conjured two divine weapons, Amenomurakumo and Futsu-no-Mitama, out of thin air and given them to her to use in battle.

From the perspective of this world's Alchemy system, this was the profound domain of the legendary outstanding achievement, the "Seven Great Kingdoms."

At this moment, Emiya had essentially touched upon a corner of it, but not very deeply. The reason was—

"Buzz—!" Emiya attempted to inject Mana into the Projected weapons to activate the Noble Phantasm effect. The light of Mana refinement covered the sword bodies, but the reaction was lackluster, showing no sign of anything extraordinary.

"This level... can only be considered a Pseudo-Noble Phantasm."

A Pseudo-Noble Phantasm refers to a degraded version of a Noble Phantasm, not the original body, and cannot be used for True Name Release.

Emiya suppressed the frustration in his heart.

Looking on the bright side, projecting Pseudo-Noble Phantasms cost less and were quicker to produce, and they could also give him powerful ranged capabilities.

Red Archer's usual combat method was to project Pseudo-Noble Phantasms, such as the Pseudo-Spiral Sword, and use it as a tactical missile for long-range bombardment.

Just then, Old Tang pushed the door open, sporting two large dark circles under his eyes and a dejected look, clearly having not slept well.

"Hey, brother, that thing you told me about, the split personality, I tried it, and you know what? The brother inside me absolutely refuses to talk to me! Sigh, I'm a handsome young man with money now, am I going to be disliked by 'myself'?"

He used to be a poor Oni living on social welfare in Brooklyn. If he had any aspirations, it was at most to travel around North America by Greyhound bus, seeing beautiful women and becoming Indiana Jones.

But now, following behind his brother, he had transformed and landed a stable job with a top Shenzhou Mixed-Blood Family, and entered the hidden world with a genius-level Mana talent...

But a certain dragon ignored him.

So Old Tang beat his chest in great sorrow, making anyone who didn't know he was single think he'd been dumped by some woman.

"Huh? I only mentioned the possibility of a split personality to you yesterday. Did you try it all night, Old Tang?"

"Of course! You said it yourself, brother, how could I not believe you!"

Old Tang considered Emiya the one who had led him through the "door to the hidden world." He consulted Emiya's advice on all matters related to the supernatural and treated Emiya's words as gospel.

He even felt that Emiya knew more than this bunch of Mixed-Blood Families in the Zhou Family.

Did the Zhou Family understand Magic Circuits? No!

They were even confused themselves and had to ask his good brother Emiya for guidance.

"Ahem, I'm just guessing, because there really are ways to actively create other personalities in a person. It could help you unravel the secrets about yourself, Old Tang."

Old Tang scratched his head. "I don't know much, but I do know that's just split personality disorder, right? Is there some kind of benefit to it?"

"Old Tang, you know about Alchemy, right?"

"Oh, oh, I get it. I haven't been idle during my time with the Zhou Family. It's that Western Philosopher's Stone thing that turns lead into gold, and also the Shenzhou methods of refining artifacts and elixirs..."

"No, I'm not talking about those. I'm talking about an ancient form of Alchemy from the Atlas Institute. Creating multiple personalities through 'Thought Partition' is their method of cultivation."

Thanks to @凌荀, @从初中开始看网文, @浮生若梦贪欢半响, and @幻之咏叹调 for the monthly votes!