The figure seated on the bluestone was Nong Zhiwei, who had come down the mountain on her master's orders to carry out an assignment. Her standing within her master's sect was quite high, so she was naturally the leader of this mission. Sixteen disciples had come down the mountain this time, all of them Travelers.
These sixteen Travelers had received three shared assignments. First, pressure Cao Shouyi into revealing who was secretly setting the trap, then probe whether he still held any incriminating evidence unfavorable to the Third Seat. If he did, they could try to bring it back. Second, kill Cao Shouyi. Third, collect and seal Cao Shouyi's intact yin soul so that the Third Seat could search it and confirm his suspicions.
For Nong Zhiwei, tonight's plan had originally been proceeding smoothly, with events unfolding much as she had expected. She had long since learned from the Third Seat that someone at court wanted to use Cao Shouyi to set a trap, and that it was most likely the Military Faction.
Thus, Li Mao was the bait she had placed in the open. If his group could successfully force the truth out of Cao Shouyi, seal his divine soul, and then kill him, that would naturally be ideal. But if they could not, that did not really matter either. They only needed to draw out the Military Faction's lurking lackeys.
In fact, Li Mao's group of four had come within a hair of succeeding. Following the plan, they had used the might of Dao Transformation to force Cao Shouyi to flee to the Imperial Mausoleum's Ancestral Land. Barring any surprises, once the three fellow disciples following from the city arrived to help, Cao Shouyi would definitely have been driven into a corner. Then the Military Faction members hiding