A Foolproof Plan
Daoist Lu stroked his beard and nodded. Though nothing showed on his face, the pleasure in his eyes was impossible to hide.
Guo Xun had not been entirely flattering him, either. He truly deserved such praise.
The True Explanation of Blood Sha Chain Form he cultivated was an orthodox devil-path Cultivation Method that led straight to Foundation Establishment. As long as he did not encounter a cultivator of the Thunder Method, he had few rivals at his level.
But cultivators with Thunder Spirit Roots were as rare as phoenix feathers and qilin horns, and Thunder Method inheritances were rarer still. Apart from that pack of harbingers of doom on Listening to Thunder Island, how many people in the Shattered Star Sea could master the Thunder Method?
The island that was the Ning Kingdom lay in an exceedingly remote corner. Even if a sea patrol envoy from Listening to Thunder Island got lost, he could never wander all the way here.
Besides, the soul banner he kept in reserve was no pushover either. It was a genuine first-tier, mid-grade Law Artifact!
After all these years of absorbing and refining the souls of deceased grandmasters, its power had long since surpassed what ordinary Law Artifacts of the same grade could withstand.
Daoist Lu was pleased, but he still gave the same old warning:
"Even so, we cannot let our guard down. The cultivators passing through from outside the Shattered Star Sea are not the only ones we must guard against. I have always felt that things may not be peaceful within the Ning Kingdom itself."
He spoke with such seriousness that Guo Xun put away his smile and said in a low voice:
"Master, do you mean those Spiritual Qi fluctuations from a while ago?"
Daoist Lu nodded and said:
"That's right. There have been several Spiritual Qi fluctuations in and around the capital recently. The Void-Observing Mirror detected them all, so they should not be false alarms. But the strange thing is, whenever I followed the trail, the presence vanished completely, as if it had never existed. It has happened more than once or twice."
He had paid a great price to acquire the Void-Observing Mirror from the Flowing Cloud Market years ago. It specialized in countering presence-concealing techniques and could also detect spiritual things.
Whenever a cultivator passed beneath the mirror, their cultivation and true appearance would be revealed no matter how they disguised themselves. The mirror had given several warnings, and they could not have come from nowhere.
Guo Xun fell silent for a moment, weighing his words before speaking:
"Master, the earth veins of the Shattered Star Sea are unstable to begin with. Occasionally, spiritual things emerge, earth Qi surges, or even certain Demon Beasts in the sea shed their skin and renew their bones. Any of those could disturb the spiritual fluctuations and trigger a warning from the Void-Observing Mirror. Besides, your treasured mirror is unusually sensitive. It might even pick up the ordinary ebb and flow of Spiritual Qi tides. Since several investigations have turned up nothing, perhaps it was only a false alarm?"
Daoist Lu was still uneasy. It was largely thanks to this very caution that he had lived to see this day.
"Very well. Go and see how the place the disciples are setting up for pill refining is coming along, and take stock of the supplementary materials. Also, take this Void-Observing Mirror and set it up at the palace gate. On the day of the palace examination, at the slightest rustle of wind or stir of grass, seize everyone nearby at once. There is no need to report to me first."
Guo Xun accepted the Void-Observing Mirror with both hands. He said nothing more than a word of assent, then backed away several steps, turned, and left the hall.
Daoist Lu was left alone in the great hall. He stood in a daze before the dragon throne for a while.
He thought of Subdued Yin Mountain, of the days he had spent cultivating cautiously under his master, of the sword light that had filled the sky when his master's sect was destroyed, of the difficult struggle to establish his own sect, and of the bone-searing pain inflicted on him by a sea patrol envoy from Listening to Thunder Island.
He had escaped too many times over the years. Each time he survived, it was because he had planned one step further and harbored one more layer of suspicion than others.
Suddenly, he shuddered violently.
"No, I must still be careful. The cultivators who passed by a few days ago may truly have been passing through by chance, but they may also have slipped in and hidden themselves here already."
Daoist Lu had spent eighteen years putting down roots in the Ning Kingdom and was only one step away from Qi Refining Great Perfection. Any enemy who came to attack him must be killed without exception!
With that thought, he checked the Spirit Artifacts and talismans on his person and remained on guard at all times, so that if cultivators really had slipped in and hidden themselves, he could react at once.
Outside the hall.
Guo Xun withdrew after receiving his orders. His knees were a little numb from kneeling, making him grimace, but he did not take Daoist Lu's words much to heart.
"Strengthen the patrols, too? It's been more than ten years. When has anything ever gone wrong at a palace examination? Master is far too careful."
In the first few years, he had made the arrangements in earnest. But as the years passed peacefully, the patrols had gradually become a mere formality. He might as well spend that spare time cultivating.
Besides, to avoid patrol duty and watch Master refine pills in the hall, the disciples would all pay their respects to him, their eldest senior brother, with gifts.
That made Guo Xun even more perfunctory in his handling of the matter.
"The little island where the Ning Kingdom lies is remote. Hardly any cultivators have passed by in more than ten years. How could they be so coincidentally passing by just when Master is refining pills? Take those cultivators from a few days ago. Their cultivation may not have been low, but how many decent things did they have on them? Forget it. I'd better go study my Cultivation Method."
He was already at the Qi Refinement Seventh Layer, having just broken through to Late Qi Refining, and needed to consolidate his cultivation.
With that in mind, Guo Xun merely made his customary round of the palace, confirmed that every part of the palace examination had been properly arranged, and made a point of stopping at the palace gate for a moment.
With a wave of his hand, he set the Void-Observing Mirror in place. Its surface glimmered faintly with spiritual light, and it was operating as usual.
Guo Xun had several of his junior brothers use the Qi-Concealing Instruction and walk past it. The Void-Observing Mirror reacted normally each time. Only then did he nod in satisfaction, turn, and return to his cave abode for secluded cultivation.
Before they knew it,
the day of the palace examination had arrived.
The heavens did not favor them. Rain had begun falling in the latter half of the night, and by daybreak, rather than letting up, it had grown even denser.
Fine strands of rain fell like woven silk, soaking the colorful streamers and lanterns hung throughout the city. Yet the rain did nothing to dampen the capital's fervor.
Before it was fully light, dense crowds had already packed both sides of the capital's main street.
Red and green decorations hung everywhere. The sounds of firecrackers, gongs, and drums pierced the curtain of rain, rising and falling through the streets and alleys. It was livelier than the New Year by who knew how many times.
People craned their necks in anticipation, hoping for just one glimpse of the grandmaster lords who were about to become immortals.
In the square before the imperial palace, dozens of martial grandmasters selected from the various commanderies and counties had lined up in the rain to wait.
Every one of them was thrilled beyond measure, imagining that they might earn the immortals' favor and enter the immortal sect to cultivate.
Even if they were not chosen, staying in the palace as a guard or being sent to the frontier to protect their homes and defend the kingdom would be excellent outcomes.
Fang Yuan and his younger sister Fang Qing were among them. They looked around carefully before finally settling their gazes on one man.
The man appeared upright, with ordinary brows and features. Even his physique was unremarkable among the grandmasters; no one would have given him a second glance.
However, anyone who studied him closely would notice five or six gazes drifting, almost imperceptibly, around the gaunt man.
All seven were unfamiliar faces whom the Fang siblings had never seen before.
"The immortals' disguise techniques really are incredible! Not just their appearance, but even their build, physique, and the bearing in their every movement can be completely changed. What kind of Immortal Method is this?"
Those people were Li Zhengjun and the Li Household disciples from Subduing Tiger Pass.
Li Yuankai and Li Chenxuan had originally been adamantly unwilling to let Li Zhengjun risk his life in person.
But Li Zhengjun produced a recorded image of True Person Yuhong's verbal instructions and explained the hurdle of "slaying those in power to nurture one's fate" in the Double Radiance Bright Yang Wheel-Nurturing Scripture. Only then did the two set their minds at ease and agree to cooperate.
Of course, this undoubtedly made things more difficult. Li Yuankai instructed Li Dongping to disregard everything else and stay at Li Zhengjun's side to protect him.
Li Yuankai and the other three formation masters quietly prepared to set up a formation outside the imperial palace. The moment fighting broke out inside, they would activate it.
The palace gates had not yet opened. Li Dongping had already learned that although the grandmasters who entered the capital appeared to come from various commanderies, they had actually been marked by the Devil Cultivators long ago. In other words, every grandmaster was accounted for.
If someone slipped in among them and entered the imperial palace, the Devil Cultivators would very likely discover them from the very start.
Thus, over the past few days, Li Dongping had sent people to abduct several unaccompanied grandmasters in secret and confine them in a cave abode outside the city. Then, with the help of a Law Artifact brought down from the clan, they had disguised themselves as those men, one by one.
Together with the Law Artifacts on their persons that concealed their presences, they were now indistinguishable from those grandmasters.
After they had waited a while, the palace gates swung open with a rumble, and the grandmasters filed in.
Li Zhengjun noticed that several people at the gate were all cultivators, and one of them was secretly checking the information of those entering the city. If anything was even slightly amiss, he would stop them for questioning.
"Just as I thought, these Devil Cultivators are very cautious."