"Hahahaha, don't rush, don't rush."
Just as Li Xingkong was preparing to "clean house," the system suddenly made a sound.
This was the first time Li Xingkong had ever seen the system laugh like this. It seemed to have found some incredible amusement, and it couldn't help but laugh even when talking to Li Xingkong.
"Is this... a system malfunction?"
Li Xingkong was also startled by its sudden appearance; it was too abnormal.
"Hahaha, that's really funny. Your reaction just makes it even funnier."
The system laughed even louder.
"What exactly happened? Tell me!"
Li Xingkong knew that its appearance at this time meant that he had misjudged Ji Nanzhi and his two companions, but he still couldn't find anything special when he used his Divine Sense to investigate further.
No matter which direction you look at them from, all three of them look the same.
"Hey, do you remember what the first cultivation technique you submitted to the cultivation technique pool was?"
The system didn't say it directly, but instead kept it a secret for now.
"The first cultivation technique..." Li Xingkong thought carefully. Too much time had passed; even he would have to search through his memory bank several times.
"Is it... the Scarlet Heart Art?"
Li Xingkong retrieved from his hazy memories the cultivation technique he had almost forgotten.
"Yes, yes, it's the Scarlet Heart Art. Do you remember why we included it in the first place?"
"It's because it allows multiple people to connect and practice together, with each person focusing on their area of expertise..."
"Hiss... so you mean..."
Li Xingkong's eyes widened.
Seriously? The Scarlet Heart Art can even bypass his Divine Sense?
"That's right. If it were really that simple a connection, why would it be worth putting into the cultivation pool?"
The system laughed a little more unrestrainedly.
"You wouldn't believe it, would you? A rudimentary cultivation technique, devised by a fledgling civilization through trial and error, has such an effect."
Li Xingkong touched his chin and gave a wry smile.
He hadn't really paid attention to it; he hadn't looked at it since submitting the Scarlet Heart Art. He never expected that such a technique would have such effects.
"So, those people actually cultivated the Scarlet Heart Art? That's why their communication couldn't be detected?"
Li Xingkong was certain that this was probably the case; no wonder the system laughed at him.
It's quite laughable that someone who taught someone Golden Core Great Perfection can't even recognize the skills they taught themselves.
"Not only that, not only that! These guys did more than that. You should see for yourself, hahahahaha."
The system chuckled a few more times before disappearing from Li Xingkong's sight.
"No, what's going on? Riddler, get out of Gotham!"
Li Xingkong made a sarcastic remark, and then began to search his mind for the ancient Scarlet Heart Art Technique.
The technique itself is indeed very simple, but the connections it establishes are quite ingenious. Even with Li Xingkong's current knowledge, he still finds the connections established by the Scarlet Heart Art somewhat confusing.
Fortunately, the technique was indeed easy to learn, and Li Xingkong quickly mastered it.
Unfortunately, the Scarlet Heart Art in Li Xingkong's possession was an ancient version, while the manual in the hands of Ji Nanzhi and the others was a version that had been deduced and revised countless times. Since the two versions were different, it was naturally unlikely that they could establish contact with them through the Scarlet Heart Art.
Fortunately, there are divination methods based on Hexagram, as well as sample examples of the Scarlet Heart Art.
It's still possible for Li Xingkong to witness the interaction between the group from only one perspective.
After slightly adjusting the Mana Circuit within his body and activating the Scarlet Heart Art, Li Xingkong indeed saw the connection between the individuals.
Like the red thread of the Old Man Under the Yue Lao, before the Scarlet Heart Art was activated, no matter how hard Divine Sense could not see the thread on their bodies. But once the Scarlet Heart Art was activated, Li Xingkong discovered that several tightly intertwined threads were wrapped around the three of them.
There were even a few wires extending beyond Venus, leading somewhere unknown.
As expected, what Li Xingkong saw before was only the surface; their true connection lay within the Scarlet Heart Art.
Using the Hexagram to reverse-engineer the connections he saw, after two days of research, Li Xingkong finally cracked a part of it, gaining insight into the true connection between the group.
"Hey, Ji Nanzhi, how's your progress going? I'm about to have another attack."
Li Xingkong deciphered the message and was immediately met with Ge Baoqi's sarcastic remarks.
"What's the rush? There's no need to rush. Don't you know what we're doing? It's a gamble; we can't be that confident."
"Alright, then I'll just have to borrow Ji Qiu's evil body again. Tsk, this guy, if he weren't so stupid, I wouldn't have bothered sending him out like this."
"No way, you're using someone else's body to do bad things and then criticizing them? You're practically cursing them while holding the bowl in your hand."
As they were talking, a person who looked exactly like Ji Qiu walked in from outside the palace where they were.
Li Xingkong could clearly see that a section of the red line was also connected to the evil body, however, this line was one-way.
" In Ji Qiu, go to the slaughterhouse and fetch a batch of food."
"Promise!"
Ji Qiu's evil body seemed to be mindless, doing whatever he said, but Li Xingkong saw that, through communication, a part of Ge Baoqi's Divine Sense, along with his evil thoughts, had been transferred to the evil body, using the matter of cutting knives in the slaughterhouse to help him deal with his distracting thoughts.
"Oh right, I need to borrow Desire for a few days. That Succubus has been testing me a bit lately, so I need to borrow her for a few more days."
"It's only because it's you; anyone else would have given up long ago."
Ge Baoqi remained expressionless, but within the connection made by the red thread, he was incredibly active.
"The number of souls accumulated in the cycle of Samsara has reached 72%, it will be soon."
Just as the group was making contact, a message arrived from a red line pointing to an outer planet.
"Good, very good!"
Upon hearing this news, the three of them were visibly delighted, and even their outward cheerfulness increased.
"You've really worked hard, Huhu. Only you could handle this."
"What's so dangerous about me? Staying in the Samsara node is relatively safe. Those three won't cause any trouble here for the time being. If we're talking about danger, it's you guys. Serving a king is like serving a tiger."
"Don't say that, girl. We're a lot of experienced people. We're veterans at this."
When Ge Baoqi talked about this, he still had that same ghastly look on his face.
" Nanzhi, what are the odds now? Can we start taking action?"
"The probability is about 3%, but... if the three of us work together, the chances of all of us succeeding are too slim."
"There's no way around it. Those three old fogies are getting more and more difficult to deal with. If we let their cultivation advance further, the chances of success will be even lower."
"If even one person succeeds, we'll have a chance. These are things we can only gamble on."