58: Chapter 58 Dark Chess

There were three days left until the Martial Arts Tournament.

I had finished handling all the potion matters and had originally planned to take a day off to catch up on some sleep.

However, there was suddenly some movement from the tracking powder.

The tracking powder I had previously sprinkled on Senior Brother Liu Qing had been quiet and showed no reaction.

For the past three days, Senior Brother Liu Qing had acted just like normal; attending classes when he should and training when he should, appearing completely normal.

But this afternoon, the tracking powder suddenly sent out a warning signal—Senior Brother Liu Qing had left the Sword Pavilion and headed towards the outskirts of Tianqi City.

And he wasn't alone; he brought two others with him. They were both disciples of the Sword Pavilion's outer sect, and their levels weren't low—one was level 23, and the other was level 22.

Running off to the outskirts in the middle of the afternoon definitely meant trouble.

I quickly logged in, mounted my beat-up little horse, and gave chase.

The tracking powder displayed the target's location and movement trajectory on the mini-map, so I trailed far behind, keeping a safe distance.

Senior Brother Liu Qing and the other two walked for about twenty minutes before arriving at a patch of wasteland on the outskirts of Tianqi City.

This place used to be a mining area, but it was abandoned after the mines were exhausted; practically no one ever came here.

They entered a mine shaft.

Holy crap, an abandoned mine shaft? Why does this scene look so much like the standard setup for a villain's lair?

I observed outside the mine shaft for a while, and after confirming no one else was lying in ambush nearby, I cautiously approached the entrance.

The entrance was pitch black, and faint sounds of talking and metal clashing drifted out from inside.

It was time to use that.

I pulled the Invisibility Spell scroll from my backpack—the one I had previously exchanged for with fragments at the Myriad Worlds Mall.

The scroll emitted a faint silver glow and was covered in dense, intricate runes.

[Invisibility Spell Scroll (One-time use): Enter stealth mode upon use, lasting 30 minutes. Movement speed is reduced by 30% while in stealth, and any attack action will immediately break stealth. Cooldown: 24 hours.]

30 minutes, that was enough.

I tore open the scroll, and a cool force enveloped my entire body. My body gradually became transparent, and finally, it completely vanished into the air.

Stealth mode confirmed. I took a deep breath, bent over, and slipped into the mine shaft.

The inside of the mine shaft was much larger than I had imagined.

The main passage was about three meters wide, with branch tunnels on both sides, intricate and complex like a spider web.

There were clear footprints and wheel tracks on the ground, indicating that people frequently came and went.

I followed the guidance of the tracking powder and walked deep into the mine shaft.

After walking for about five minutes, the passage suddenly widened, and a huge underground space appeared before me.

It had clearly been artificially modified—glowing ores were embedded in the cave walls for illumination, the ground was paved with stone slabs, and simple sheds and racks were set up all around.

I hid at the corner of the passage and peeked out to observe.

Then I saw a scene that made my scalp tingle.

In the clearing, over a dozen people were training.

They were wearing uniform black battle armor, with a golden dragon emblem embroidered on their chests—the mark of the Dragon God Temple.

These people were all high-level; the lowest was at least level 23, and the highest one even reached level 25.

They were sparring in pairs, their moves sharp and their coordination tacit, clearly an elite squad that had undergone professional training.

On one side of the clearing, a large amount of weapons and potions were piled up—longswords, shields, bows and arrows, and crates of red and blue potion bottles.

The number of potions was, at the very least, several hundred bottles.

I made a rough estimate; the value of these supplies was at least over 50,000 gold coins.

That grandson Long Aotian, he built a secret stronghold here?

But this wasn't what shocked me the most.

In the very center of the clearing, Senior Brother Liu Qing was instructing a few people on how to set up a formation.

He held a baton in his hand, drawing complex patterns on the ground while muttering something.

"...Remember, the core of the Heavenly Net Array lies in the coordination of the eight positions. Everyone must stand on their corresponding formation eye and release skills in the order I specify. Once the formation is activated, the movement speed of all enemies within the range will be reduced by 70%, skill casting time will be doubled, and they will suffer a mental shock every 10 seconds, with a chance to cause dizziness."

I gasped.

Heavenly Net Array!

I had heard of this thing; it was a very high-level formation skill in the game that required at least eight people to coordinate simultaneously to execute.

Once the formation took shape, enemies within the range were basically sitting ducks—they couldn't run fast, couldn't cast skills, and were stunned from time to time; how was this any different from a lamb waiting to be slaughtered?

If Long Aotian used this formation at the Martial Arts Tournament, the people from the Dawn Guild would be trapped inside, ready to be slaughtered!

No wonder Long Aotian allied with three medium-sized guilds; he wasn't relying on having more people to win at all. He intended to use the formation to directly cripple our combat power!

I quickly opened the system's analysis function and carefully observed the process of Senior Brother Liu Qing teaching the formation.

The system analysis interface popped up a series of data—

[Analyzing Heavenly Net Array...][Formation Level: Advanced][Number of Formation Eyes: 8][Effective Range: 50-meter radius][Duration: 5 minutes (Requires eight formation eye members to continuously output spiritual power to maintain)][Analyzing Weaknesses...][Analysis Complete! 3 potential weaknesses detected:]

[Weakness 1: The formation requires a 15-second channeling time to activate, during which the formation eye members cannot move.]

[Weakness 2: Among the eight formation eyes, there is a "Central Formation Eye" responsible for coordinating the other seven. Once the Central Formation Eye is destroyed, the entire formation will immediately collapse.]

[Weakness 3: The formation is extremely sensitive to spiritual power fluctuations. If a large amount of spiritual power bursts occur within the range (such as using multiple high-level potions simultaneously), it will interfere with the stability of the formation.]

Three weaknesses!

I quickly memorized this information. Especially the second weakness—the Central Formation Eye. As long as I could find and destroy the Central Formation Eye, the entire Heavenly Net Array would crumble. This was simply the key to breaking the formation!

But the problem was, the eight formation eyes looked exactly the same; how could I tell which one was the center?

I continued to observe for a while and found that when Senior Brother Liu Qing was instructing, he was exceptionally strict with the person in one of the positions. That person was a level 24 mage standing in the due north of the formation, and Senior Brother Liu Qing repeatedly emphasized that his position could not have the slightest deviation.

"You are the center; if you are in disarray, the whole formation will be in disarray!" Senior Brother Liu Qing's voice echoed in the mine shaft.

Sure enough, that position due north was the Central Formation Eye!

Information collection was about done, and I prepared to retreat.

But just at the moment I turned around, a loose stone under my foot was kicked away, and the "click" sound was exceptionally jarring in the quiet mine shaft.

My heart tightened, and I quickly held my breath.

Senior Brother Liu Qing turned his head abruptly, his gaze scanning sharply toward the direction where I was hiding.

"Who?!"

He drew his longsword and took two steps toward my side.

My heart jumped to my throat. Although the Invisibility Spell could keep me hidden, if the distance was too close, high-level players could still detect abnormalities through their perception abilities. Senior Brother Liu Qing was level 25, his perception wasn't low, and I had to get away as soon as possible.

I quietly fished out a "smoke bomb" from my backpack—this was something I had bought on a whim when stocking up at the street stall, and I had never been willing to use it. Now I couldn't care less; saving my life was the priority.

Senior Brother Liu Qing took another step forward, and he was less than five meters away from me. His brows were furrowed tightly; he had clearly sensed that something was wrong.

"Come out! I know someone is here!"

I gritted my teeth and threw the smoke bomb onto the ground.

"Bang!"

Dense white smoke instantly filled the entire passage, and Senior Brother Liu Qing was choked by the smoke, causing him to retreat a few steps and cough repeatedly.

Taking advantage of this gap, I turned and ran. My movement speed was reduced by 30% while in stealth, but I still rushed toward the outside of the mine shaft with all my might. From behind came Senior Brother Liu Qing's roar and footsteps, as well as the noisy sounds of other Dragon God Temple members being alerted.

"Chase! Someone has infiltrated!"

I ran until my heart felt like it was about to jump out of my throat. The mine shaft's passages were winding, and I almost bumped into the walls several times. The effect of the smoke bomb could only last 10 seconds; once the smoke dissipated, even though my Invisibility Spell was still active, my movement trajectory would be deduced by them.

Fortunately, I had memorized the route when I came in, and after twists and turns, I finally saw the faint light at the entrance.

The moment I rushed out of the mine shaft, I performed a roll and hid behind a large rock, simultaneously pulling out another item—a "Teleportation Scroll." This thing was a rare item from the Myriad Worlds street stall; I had spent a lot of money on it and had always used it as a trump card for saving my life.

The scroll was torn open, a flash of white light appeared, and my figure vanished from the spot.

The next second, I had already appeared in the safe zone of Tianqi City.

I leaned against the city wall, panting heavily, my back soaked in cold sweat.

That was fucking intense.

After calming down for a while, I took out my communicator and sent messages to Ye Liuli and Mo Wentian at the same time.

Ten minutes later, at the Dawn Guild's base.

Ye Liuli, Elder Mo Wentian, and I were sitting around the table.

I recounted everything I had seen in the mine shaft exactly as it was—the secret stronghold, the Dragon God Temple elite squad, the large stock of supplies, and most importantly, the Heavenly Net Array.

Ye Liuli's expression grew increasingly grim.

"Heavenly Net Array..." she repeated in a low voice, "If Long Aotian really uses this formation at the Martial Arts Tournament, we truly won't have any power to fight back."

Elder Mo Wentian stroked his beard, his expression grave: "That child, Senior Brother Liu Qing—I have always felt that his intentions were not upright, but I never expected him to go this far. Colluding with external enemies and establishing a stronghold near the sect—this crime is unforgivable."

"Elder Mo, now is not the time to assign blame," I said. "There are three days left until the Martial Arts Tournament; we must come up with a countermeasure within these three days."

"Do you have a way?" Ye Liuli looked at me.

I pulled a piece of paper from my bosom—on it was the formation diagram of the Heavenly Net Array that I had drawn from memory, as well as the three weaknesses analyzed by the system.

"The formation has three weaknesses." I pointed at the diagram and explained them one by one. "First, it requires a 15-second channeling time to activate; we can use this time to interrupt it preemptively. Second, and most importantly—the formation has a Central Formation Eye, located due north. As long as the Central Formation Eye is destroyed, the entire formation will collapse. Third, a large burst of spiritual power will interfere with the formation's stability."

Ye Liuli and Mo Wentian both looked at the diagram at the same time, a flash of surprise in their eyes.

"How do you know it in such detail?" Ye Liuli asked.

"When I infiltrated the mine shaft, I used the system's analysis function to scan the formation," I didn't hide it. "The system gave me detailed data."

Elder Mo Wentian nodded: "With this information on the weaknesses, breaking the formation is not impossible. But the problem is, how to accurately find and destroy the Central Formation Eye on a chaotic battlefield?"

"I'll think of a way for that," I said.

I stood up, walked to the window, and watched the starlight in the night sky of Tianqi City.

"I have a bold idea."

"Speak." Ye Liuli and Elder Mo Wentian spoke almost simultaneously.

I turned around, a smile curling at the corners of my lips.

"The third weakness of the Heavenly Net Array—it is sensitive to spiritual power fluctuations. If I can have the members of the Dawn Guild simultaneously use my special potions during the match to create a massive burst of spiritual power, we can interfere with the formation's stability. Once the formation is unstable, the position of the Central Formation Eye will be exposed—because the center needs to output more spiritual power to maintain the formation, its spiritual power fluctuation will be much stronger than the other formation eyes."

"At that time, I only need to send someone fast—for example, an assassin who has drunk a swift wind potion—straight to the Central Formation Eye; one slash, and the formation is broken."

Ye Liuli's eyes lit up.

Elder Mo Wentian also showed an expression of approval: "Good strategy. Using a spiritual power burst to interfere with the formation, and then using a speed advantage to take the center directly—this plan is feasible."

"However—" I shifted the topic, "this requires a large amount of special potions. Not ordinary potions, but an enhanced version with a stronger spiritual power burst effect. I need to develop a new potion."

"Is there enough time?" Ye Liuli asked.

"Three days." I held up three fingers. "Give me three days, and I guarantee I'll make it."

Ye Liuli looked at me for a while, then gently nodded.

"Okay. I believe you."

Simple three words, but they carried a lot of weight.

I took a deep breath and turned to walk out of the room.

Three days. Three days later, the Martial Arts Tournament.

Long Aotian, just you wait. You can set up your Heavenly Net Array; I've prepared a Heavenly Net for you—only, it's you who will be caught in it.