38: Chapter 38 Facing Mr. Mo

In the quiet room of the tomb, the air seemed to solidify.

Boss Qian's voice continued to come through the spiritual communication talisman, carrying suppressed anxiety: "Brother Lin, is your current location safe? The efficiency of the 'Tianji Pavilion' is higher than expected. They have a set of 'Causality Retrospective Deduction System' that can reverse-engineer some characteristics and behavioral patterns of the caster from energy residues. Although you did a disguise, the order characteristics of your 'Optimization' divine profession are too unique, just like dripping a drop of pure gold into a pile of variegated pigments—they have locked onto you."

"What about Old Ghost Mo?" Lin Yuan's voice was unusually calm.

"Worse. His 'Black Fiend' subordinates have been fully mobilized, coordinating with the remnants of the 'Crimson Feast', and are secretly checking the whole city for people who fit the characteristics of 'Order Disruptor'. The soul seal is your fatal weakness; as long as you are within a certain range, they can sense it. In addition..." Boss Qian paused, "One of my informants planted on the periphery of Old Ghost Mo just lost contact. The last message received before losing contact was 'Abnormal movement at the Summer Palace, large amounts of yin energy leaking, suspected... container is unstable'."

Summer Palace, the core of the vein-locking nail, the refining site of the ten thousand infant banner.

"Container?" Lin Yuan frowned.

"For an evil weapon like the ten thousand infant banner, when refined to a certain stage, it requires a 'core container' capable of carrying massive amounts of resentful souls and evil power, usually a person with a special fate or a powerful spiritual object. If the container is unstable, it either means the refining has reached a critical stage, or... the backlash has begun." Boss Qian spoke very fast, "Old Ghost Mo has been frantically accelerating the ritual recently, very likely to race against time to suppress the backlash and complete the final step. Your repeated interference has probably made him even more anxious. He definitely views you as a thorn in his side now, wishing to get rid of you as soon as possible."

Double lock, double chase. Time was on the enemy's side.

"What about the reactions of Zhao Wuyong and 'Lingxiao Capital'?" Lin Yuan asked.

"This is the strangest part." Boss Qian's voice carried doubt, "The 'Tianji Pavilion' has obtained your evidence. Logically, a loan shark like Zhao Wuyong should have come to collect the debt immediately or directly initiated the mandatory liquidation procedure. But over there... there is no movement for now. The news I heard is that Zhao Wuyong has reported your information to a higher level, seemingly waiting for some kind of 'evaluation' or 'instruction'. Capital pursues profit, but it is also good at calculation. They might think you have greater 'value', or... they are waiting for you and Old Ghost Mo to both be injured, and then come out to harvest."

When the snipe and the clam fight, the fisherman gains. Very much in line with the style of "Lingxiao Capital".

"I understand." Lin Yuan closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, all emotions had faded, leaving only cold calculation, "Boss Qian, help me do a few things."

"You say."

"First, I want a detailed layout map of the 'Crimson Feast' in all known and speculated nodes, as well as predictions for their possible ritual times in the near future. The more detailed, the better."

"Second, help me keep an eye on whether 'Lingxiao Capital' has any 'mandatory liquidation' cases against small deities or abnormal targets recently, as well as their standard procedures and response times."

"Third, prepare a list of substitutes for 'ning-shen jade', or a list of items that can briefly isolate or interfere with the sensing of the soul seal. Price is no object, but be quick."

"Fourth, continue to pay attention to the movements of the Summer Palace, especially the patterns of yin energy leakage and changes in guard forces."

"Brother, are you trying to..." Boss Qian heard the subtext.

"Passive hiding will only lead to being defeated one by one. The debt must be repaid, and Old Ghost Mo must be dealt with, but the order and method must be decided by me." Lin Yuan's voice had no ups and downs, but it carried a determination to burn bridges, "In addition, I may need a short-term loan, using my future earnings rights from 'Cross-border Selection' and subsequent consulting projects as collateral. The interest will be according to industry rules. As soon as possible."

Boss Qian was silent for a few seconds, obviously weighing the risks, and finally gritted his teeth and said: "Okay! I trust you! The items and money will be delivered to the old place by tomorrow night at the latest. You yourself... be extremely careful!"

Ending the communication, Lin Yuan sat in the dark, with only the faint light of the system interface reflecting on his face.

[faith reserve: 3.812]

[Debt: 30 faith points divine breath, countdown: 18 days 7 hours 22 minutes]

[Negative status: Curse Soul Seal (activity about 35%, suppressed)]

18 days. The deadline for the divine debt.

The soul seal is like a bomb constantly counting down.

Mr. Mo's killing trap is tightening.

Lingxiao Capital is lurking in the dark.

It seems like a dead end.

But Lin Yuan's "Optimization" thinking was looking for a "Pareto improvement" in the dead end—making himself better without making anyone else worse off. Now, he was looking for the breaking point of the "Nash equilibrium", a fulcrum that would allow him to find the optimal action strategy in a multi-party game.

He called up the "Crimson Feast" node map he had drawn before, combined with the new information sent by Boss Qian and the data he had collected from his own reconnaissance, and began to deduce frantically.

"Seven-pointed star" prototype... leyline node... blood sacrifice acceleration... ning-shen jade pollution... container unstable...

A vague clue emerged.

Mr. Mo's core goal is to complete the "ten thousand infant banner" to suppress the backlash. To this end, he needs to accelerate the blood sacrifice ritual, gather energy, and stabilize or replace the "container". Stealing the ning-shen jade was likely to stabilize the container, or to perform some dangerous "soul transfer" or "possession" operation.

His own interference disrupted his rhythm, destroyed some nodes and precious ning-shen jade fragments, making him more anxious and more vulnerable.

"Anxious" means he might reveal flaws or adopt more aggressive and higher-risk plans.

"Vulnerable" means his core area (at the Summer Palace vein-locking nail) might have gaps in defense, or his ability to withstand interference might have decreased.

So, what is his optimal strategy?

1. Continue to interfere with the "Crimson Feast" nodes, but change the method: no longer pursue complete destruction, but conduct "polluting interference" or "information misleading". For example, leave disguised energy traces pointing in the wrong direction at the nodes; or, use the resentful energy in the containment field to create "pseudo-rituals" or "energy traps", inducing cultists to trigger them, causing internal chaos and consumption.

2. Take the initiative to investigate the core area of the Summer Palace: at the time when Mr. Mo is most vulnerable and most likely to reveal flaws, take the risk to approach the core and obtain first-hand intelligence about the "vein-locking nail", "ten thousand infant banner", and "container". This is extremely dangerous, but it may be the only chance to break the deadlock and find the real weakness. It requires a perfect disguise and evacuation plan.

3. Utilize the "wait-and-see" period of "Lingxiao Capital": before Zhao Wuyong takes action, improve his own "value" and "irreplaceability" as soon as possible. Completing the "Cross-border Selection" case and obtaining high-quality faith breakthroughs might make "Lingxiao Capital" re-evaluate, or even have the idea of "investment" rather than "liquidation". At the same time, be prepared with a contingency plan for "mandatory liquidation".

4. Accelerate his own growth and soul seal cracking: continue "hedging tempering", while finding the root-cause cracking method for the soul seal. Dr. Li might know more.

The train of thought gradually became clear. This is a dance on the tip of a knife; one wrong step, and the whole game is lost.

Lin Yuan did not hesitate and immediately began to act.

He first contacted Hu Wei and the General Manager Zhao of "Cross-border Selection" to adjust the pace of the plan, demanding to see the preliminary verification data of the "cross-cultural agreement" within a week, and hinted that this was related to subsequent more important cooperation. Pressure and motivation were given at the same time.

Then, he devoted himself to the strengthening of the Luoxia Mountain stronghold and the production of "polluting interference" props.

He used the resentful energy that had initially been "ordered" in the containment field, combined with the vitality of the Earth Spirit gathered by the Land Nourishing Array, and made bold modifications and experiments based on the runes taught by Dr. Li. He produced several types of new "talismans":

· Pseudo-trace Talisman: After activation, it can simulate energy fluctuations similar to the "Crimson Feast" ritual or some neutral chaotic spirit, with a short duration, but enough to mislead pursuers.

· Resentment Trap Talisman: Seal a wisp of constrained resentment into a special talisman paper, set trigger conditions (such as specific evil energy frequency approaching). After triggering, the resentment will erupt, attacking the triggerer, and simultaneously releasing chaotic signals to interfere with the ritual.

· Leyline Resonance Interferer (Simple Version): Using the weak connection between Luoxia Mountain and the city's leylines, create a simple device. When activated at specific nodes, it can send a piece of disordered "noise" to the leylines, which may cause unpredictable interference to rituals that rely on leyline energy.

These "products" all carried Lin Yuan's strong "Optimization" and "Order" imprint, but he deliberately mixed in the chaotic attributes of the containment field's resentment and the natural fluctuations of the leylines, carrying out multi-layered camouflage. Even if captured by the "Tianji Pavilion", the residue would be more complex and difficult to analyze.

At the same time, he increased the intensity of "hedging tempering". Every time, he pushed himself to the limit of control, and his soul and body grew rapidly in pain. The activity of the soul seal was suppressed to below 30%, the Void God Spark became more solid, and the stability of the godhood continued to improve. The faith reserve also slowly and firmly grew to 4.5 points with the advancement of commercial cases.

Three days later, Boss Qian delivered the supplies, loans, and intelligence as promised.

The borrowed amount wasn't large, but it was enough for Lin Yuan to purchase several urgently needed survival and reconnaissance items on the black market: a "huiying cloak" that could briefly distort light and weak energy perception (short duration, and ineffective against high-intensity detection), a bottle of "Soul-Suppressing Pill" that could temporarily suppress the soul seal's activity for 3 hours (the side effect being that the soul seal would be more active for the following 12 hours), and a relatively detailed sketch of the patrol times for the guards on the perimeter of the Summer Palace.

Intelligence indicated: The ritual at the two nodes of the "Crimson Feast" in the west and south of the city had been forced to be postponed, seemingly for inspections and reinforcement.

The leakage of yin energy towards the Summer Palace showed periodic fluctuations, weakest daily at midnight and noon.

The "Black Fiend" under Mr. Mo had a tendency to shift towards the north and west of the city, seemingly focusing their search on that area.

"Now is the time." Lin Yuan looked at the intelligence, his gaze locked onto the information that "yin energy is weakest at midnight."

Late at night, before midnight.

Lin Yuan changed into dark casual clothes, covered himself with the "huiying cloak," and took the "Soul-Suppressing Pill."

As the pill entered his stomach, a cool sensation spread out, and the cold soul seal deep in his soul seemed to be frozen, its activity dropping almost to zero.

But he knew this was only temporary.

He quietly left the ruins, not heading to any known "Crimson Feast" node, but instead straight toward the northwest of the city, to that strictly controlled royal garden that ordinary people could not easily approach—the Summer Palace.

He did not attempt to enter through the main gate or any conventional entrance.

Relying on "Leyline Affinity" and the rudimentary feng shui geomancy he had learned from Dr. Li, he circled to the west side of Kunming Lake, to a relatively remote spot outside the wall near the foot of the mountain.

The forest was dense here, far from the main buildings and paths.

With his perception fully open, confirming there were no obvious energy sentry posts or modern surveillance nearby (the surveillance coverage in some areas of the classical garden was limited), Lin Yuan, like an agile gecko, climbed over the high wall and dropped into the garden.

The interior of the garden was terrifyingly silent.

The swarms of tourists from the day had long since dispersed, leaving only the antique palace lanterns emitting a dim, yellow glow, illuminating the carved beams, painted pillars, and the deep, dark lake water.

But beneath this tranquility, Lin Yuan perceived something completely different—a heavy, venomous, bone-chilling yin energy of the leyline, like a massive tumor lurking at the bottom of the lake and within the mountain's belly, slowly pulsating.

The location of the vein-locking nail!

He suppressed his palpitations, utilizing the shadows and the faint effect of the "huiying cloak," and crept toward the direction where the yin energy was thickest—a remote cluster of abandoned palace buildings behind Wan Shou Mountain.

The closer he got, the stronger the coldness in the air became, and faint, shrill weeping and whispering began to appear in his ears—the unconscious wails of the trapped and refined resentful spirits.

The ground faintly vibrated, as if something was struggling underground.

Lin Yuan pushed his "Leyline Affinity" to the limit, perceiving the flow and anomalies of the earth energy.

He avoided several areas with obvious energy fluctuations (possibly guards or arrays) and finally crept near a ruin overgrown with weeds, where the palace buildings were dilapidated.

This was the source of the yin energy!

He hid behind a huge piece of artificial rock and cautiously extended his spiritual sense.

In the center of the ruins, there was a half-collapsed pavilion, and on the ground beneath the pavilion, a dark, bottomless hole about two meters in diameter was exposed!

Thick, ink-like black yin energy continuously poured out of the hole, and countless painfully twisted soul shadows were entangled within the yin energy.

On the edge of the hole, seven black iron nails, as thick as a bowl, rusted but engraved with evil runes, were inserted, arranged in the shape of the Big Dipper, deeply driven into the leyline!

vein-locking nails! Seven of them! More than Dr. Li had said!

Every iron nail was trembling slightly, emitting a teeth-aching creaking sound, as if unable to bear the burden.

The runes on the nails flickered unsteadily, now bright, now dim, clearly enduring tremendous internal pressure.

And in the center surrounded by the seven vein-locking nails, directly above the hole, floated a... tattered, blood-colored banner that seemed to be pieced together from countless infant faces!

ten thousand infant banner (prototype)!

The small banner was only the size of a palm, dull in color, with damaged edges, and countless tiny infant faces appeared, struggled, cried, and then faded away on it, repeating in a cycle.

It was like a bottomless pit, crazily absorbing the leyline vitality extracted from the vein-locking nails and the yin energy of the resentful spirits pouring out of the hole, but it was extremely unstable, bulging and contracting from time to time, as if it would explode at any moment.

A thin, withered figure wearing a black Taoist robe, back to Lin Yuan, was sitting cross-legged under the ten thousand infant banner, his hands constantly forming seals, casting streaks of black-red magic power into the small banner and the seven vein-locking nails, seemingly trying his best to maintain balance and suppress the backlash.

Mr. Mo!

Although it was only his back, that chillingly evil aura that made one's soul tremble could not be mistaken!

Moreover, deep in Lin Yuan's soul, the soul seal that had been temporarily suppressed by the pill began to heat up slightly under the stimulation of this person's aura, as if it were about to revive!

Lin Yuan held his breath, restraining his own aura to the limit, and even the Void God Spark seemed to have fallen into a deep sleep.

He knew that at this moment, any tiny fluctuation of spiritual energy could be detected by this old devil.

He observed carefully.

Mr. Mo's spellcasting seemed very strenuous; his body was trembling slightly, and the back of his Taoist robe was soaked with sweat.

The swaying of the ten thousand infant banner had not completely stopped, and the trembling of the vein-locking nails still existed.

Beside the hole, there were two other figures standing.

One was tall, shrouded in black mist, revealing only a pair of blood-red eyes, with a fierce aura—this should be the "Black Fiend" leader.

The other was a middle-aged man in a white lab coat, wearing glasses, holding a tablet computer and constantly recording data, looking like a scientist or engineer, completely out of place in this evil scene.

"Doctor, how much longer can the stabilizer last?" Mr. Mo's voice was hoarse and dry, like rusted iron rubbing together.

The man in the white lab coat known as the "Doctor" pushed up his glasses, looked at the data on the tablet, and replied calmly: "According to the current backlash rate, the imbalance rate between the leyline vitality and resentful spirit energy extracted by the vein-locking nails and the capacity conversion efficiency of the 'container' (he pointed to the ten thousand infant banner) is 17.3%.

The magic power you inject can maintain it temporarily, but the structural cracks in the 'container' itself are continuing to expand.

The existing pollution energy from the 'ning-shen jade fragments' can only bond it temporarily; it cannot repair it.

Unless..."

"Unless what?" Mr. Mo's tone was impatient.

"Unless you can find a more stable, higher-quality 'soul-calming' origin spiritual object, or..." The Doctor paused, "or, find a 'living container' with a sufficiently special destiny and a sufficiently resilient soul, and perform the 'banner transfer' operation to move the core of the ten thousand infant banner over to share the pressure.

But the risk is extremely high; if it fails, all previous efforts will be wasted."

Living container... banner transfer...

Lin Yuan felt a shiver in his heart.

This might be one of the purposes of Mr. Mo's various actions before! Finding a suitable "container"!

"Keep looking!" Mr. Mo roared, "Speed up the progress on the 'Crimson Feast' side! Those useless trash can't even handle a few simple rituals, and they even had key nodes destroyed by someone!

Investigate! Find out who it is for me! I will extract his soul and refine his spirit, filling it into this ten thousand infant banner!"

"Yes." The Black Fiend leader bowed and accepted the order.

"Also, is there any movement from 'Lingxiao Capital'?" Mr. Mo asked again.

"They seem to be observing, not intervening directly.

But 'Tianji Pavilion' has captured the energy signature of the disruptor, suspected to be a newly ascended, weak deity possessing an 'Order' or 'Optimization' type divinity.

Zhao Wuyong is following up." The Black Fiend replied.

"A weak deity? Order? Optimization?" Mr. Mo sneered, "No matter who he is, if he dares to ruin my big plan, he must die! Tell the people below to hurry up; even if they have to dig three feet into the ground, they must find him!

Has the soul seal sensing range narrowed down?"

"Still investigating; the opponent seems to have means to suppress the soul seal, but the range has already been narrowed down to three urban districts. At most, in another two or three days, we will definitely be able to lock onto him."

"Good! Once found, there is no need to report back; deal with him directly and bring his divine soul back to me! It will serve perfectly as a backup fuel for the 'container'!"

The conversation continued, but Lin Yuan had already obtained the most critical information: he might only have two or three days left.

Mr. Mo's backlash was severe, the ten thousand infant banner was unstable, and he was looking for alternative solutions.

And he himself had been listed as a must-kill target and "backup fuel."

He couldn't stay any longer.

The effect of the Soul-Suppressing Pill was weakening, and the soul seal was beginning to show signs of reviving.

Once the soul seal was sensed by Mr. Mo at close range, death was certain.

Lin Yuan began to move backward cautiously, preparing to withdraw.

However, just as he was about to retreat into deeper shadows, he accidentally stepped on a dead branch under his feet.

"Snap."

The sound in the dead-silent ruins was slight, yet clearly audible.

The three people under the pavilion turned their heads instantly!

Six gazes, like cold searchlights, instantly locked onto the direction of the artificial rock where Lin Yuan was hiding!

"Who?!" Mr. Mo's voice was like a freezing wind from the Nine Netherworlds, sweeping over with tangible killing intent!

The Black Fiend leader even transformed into a streak of black smoke and lunged straight toward him!

Exposed!