17: Chapter 17 The Safest Route

The shadow of the spirit bird swept over the collapsed wall and landed on the face of a Red Snake Sect corpse.

The Sect Protection Elder had dragged the corpse to the base of the wall but hadn't had time to cover it yet. A detection talisman slid across the ground, tracing the bloodstains, and paused at the edge of a shallow pit; the edges of the talisman were charred black by residual beast oil, emitting a wisp of blue smoke.

The Tower Defense Youth gripped the rope, the veins on the back of his hand bulging: "Sect Master, if we let them in any further, our front courtyard will be completely scouted out."

"Let them scout."

Sect Master Di Kun stood behind the Inner Courtyard gate, watching the mountain path through the gaps in the broken wall. The bronze spirit bird did not land, maintaining an altitude of over two zhang to avoid all the tripwires and crossbow mechanisms. The detection talisman slid along the outermost edge, bypassing corpses and stopping to ignite a circle of talisman fire whenever it encountered a collapsed beam.

The Inner Sect Disciple opposite was clearing the hazards.

And doing it very slowly.

The Speedrun Youth crouched on the ground, his charcoal pencil having turned the outer courtyard into a map resembling a tangled mess. Every time he glanced at the spirit bird's position, he crossed off an old trap on the map.

"He fears obvious dangers." The Speedrun Youth pointed his charcoal pencil at the front of the valley entrance, "There is the most blood and the most traces of mechanisms here; he definitely won't go this way. There are collapsed beams here, so he will have people dismantle them. The pile of corpses here is too neat, so he will suspect something is hidden."

Sect Master Di Kun tapped his fingertips against the door frame.

The broken edge of the frame was rough, and wood splinters pricked his fingertips, but he didn't pull his hand away, only watching the paths on the map that had been crossed out.

"Then give him the path that looks the cleanest."

The Tower Defense Youth looked up: "The side path of the Inner Courtyard?"

"Yes."

The Sect Protection Elder's expression changed: "Sect Master, behind the side path of the Inner Courtyard is the ruined wall of the Ancestral Hall. If we blow that up too, the Taichu Sect will have no dignity left."

Sect Master Di Kun turned his face. The Sect Protection Elder was covered in dust, still clutching that token from the Sect Affairs Bureau, his knuckles white. The mountain wind blew an old Formation Flag onto his shoulder, the tattered fabric flapping twice before sliding off.

"Elder," Sect Master Di Kun said, "Talk about dignity after you survive."

The Sect Protection Elder's mouth twitched.

He stuffed the token into his robes, bent down to hoist a Red Snake Sect corpse, and walked toward the side path of the Inner Courtyard. The blood on the corpse's legs dragged out a long line; when it crossed the threshold, the line of blood broke into several segments.

"Get moving!" the Sect Protection Elder roared, "Arrange the corpses messily, do not arrange them neatly! Make it look like you were dragging them halfway and didn't have time to finish!"

The Life-Skill Player had already mixed Demon Mastiff bone spurs, Split-Tooth Wolf tendons, and the copper buckles and broken armor plates from the Red Snake Sect Cultivators together. The beast tendons were stretched between two broken pillars and covered with rags and blood-stained mud; bone nails were inserted diagonally into the bottom of a hidden pit, tips pointing upward, with a layer of broken tiles spread beside them. Several servants brought over broken door panels, and the Life-Skill Player hollowed out the center of the panels, using broken armor plates as load-bearing fasteners.

"It's fine if they step lightly, but it will collapse if they step heavily." The Life-Skill Player wiped the sweat from his brow, his hands covered in oil, "It's just too crude; it won't fool them a second time."

"That's enough." Sect Master Di Kun took out two rope talismans and handed them to the Tower Defense Youth, "Leave the obvious mechanisms for him to see. Place the real killing blow in the spot he most wants to take after he finishes clearing the hazards."

The Tower Defense Youth stared at the map, his eyes lighting up bit by bit: "I understand. We make the danger look like danger, and we make the safety even safer."

The Chuunibyou Youth ran over carrying a pile of broken Formation Plates, his sleeves blackened by corpse oil: "Sect Master, what can I do?"

Sect Master Di Kun glanced at him: "Take some people and start an argument."

"Huh?"

"Go behind the ruined wall and be loud. Spirit Pool, Sect Protection Formation core, Formation Plate fragments—shout these words in turns. Don't shout too smoothly; act like you're genuinely anxious."

The confusion on the Chuunibyou Youth's face quickly turned to excitement. He cleared his throat and turned to call the servants: "Come, come, come, Drama Group assemble! If anyone dares to break character and laugh later, I'll hang them on the Sect's Pillar of Shame!"

A moment later, his irrepressible shouting came from behind the ruined wall.

"I said the Spirit Pool cannot be moved! The Formation Plate is shattered like this; if we move it again, we're done for!"

Another servant followed the words Sect Master Di Kun had just taught: "What do we do if we don't move it? If the Red Snake Sect comes up again, the Inner Courtyard will be breached!"

"What about the core of the Sect Protection Formation? How much longer can the core hold out?"

The shouts were intermittent, carried by the mountain wind toward the mountainside.

On the platform of the mountain path, the Inner Sect Disciple of the Red Snake Sect raised his hand to stop the people behind him. The snake-bone wrist beads turned slowly.

"The Inner Courtyard."

A Cultivator beside him whispered: "Senior Brother, could they be luring us?"

The Inner Sect Disciple watched the faint images transmitted back by the spirit bird. In the images, Taichu Sect servants were frantically moving broken Formation Plates; one plate slipped from a hand, rolled into the blood-stained mud, and was hurriedly picked up. In the distance, there were piles of corpses, arranged in a disorderly fashion, and several old mechanisms were exposed, as if they had been used up in the previous battle.

"They could be," he said, "So we won't take the front."

He took out another detection talisman from his sleeve; the paper was thicker than the previous two, and the edges were branded with a red snake pattern.

Behind the Inner Courtyard gate of the Taichu Sect, Sect Master Di Kun rummaged through the sleeve pocket of a Red Snake Sect corpse and found an unactivated communication talisman.

A corner of the talisman surface was cracked, and the spiritual light was unstable.

"Can this be used?" the Tower Defense Youth asked.

Sect Master Di Kun used a short blade to cut the fingertip of the Red Snake Sect Deacon, squeezing out residual blood and smearing it onto the talisman runes. The communication talisman trembled, a red light flared up and then dimmed, as if it could break at any moment.

"Just right."

Sect Master Di Kun held the talisman to his lips, his voice suppressed and scattered, sending the words intermittently into the talisman.

"The Inner Courtyard... can be breached... the Formation Plate is damaged... don't take the valley entrance... there are..."

Before the last word could form, he crushed it with his fingertips, and the talisman paper burned into two halves.

On the mountainside, another talisman at the Inner Sect Disciple's waist suddenly lit up.

A hoarse, broken voice squeezed out from the talisman, mixed with the crackling of flames and chaotic shouting. All seven people stopped, and even the Cultivator holding the shield at the very front turned to look back.

The Inner Sect Disciple didn't move immediately after listening.

He rubbed the talisman ash between his fingertips and looked down at the ground. The snake-bone wrist beads began to turn again, at a slower speed than before.

"We won't take the valley entrance," he said, "Cut in from the side path of the Inner Courtyard. Three people probe ahead, two cover the rear, and don't step on any corpses."

The team began to move.

Inside the Taichu Sect, Sect Master Di Kun's eyes saw pale silver text appear once again.

Corpse recycling in progress. Spoils processing in progress. Temporary worker fact reconstruction in progress. Sect warfare adaptability increased.

"Warfare adaptability?" Sect Master Di Kun stared at the line of text, his eyebrows twitching slightly.

Behind the text, there was also a gray progress bar, like a sleeping beast bone, which was lighting up bit by bit amidst the blood and smoke. It gave no rewards and no explanations, only adding a blurry outline below the Sect's Luck.

The Tower Defense Youth poked his head over from the side: "Sect Master, what are you spacing out for? Where should we bury the Explosive Fire Bead?"

Sect Master Di Kun withdrew his gaze and opened the red copper box.

Two Explosive Fire Beads lay inside, their fire patterns reflecting the surrounding blood color like two opened red eyes. He took out the first one, wrapped it in a rag, and stuffed it under the broken Formation Plate next to the fake Formation Plate; the second one was buried at the base of the broken wall, with corpse oil, medicinal herb scraps, and a few broken armor pieces from the Red Snake Sect Cultivators piled beside it.

"Don't aim the explosion point directly at people," Sect Master Di Kun said, "The fire needs to burn the corpse oil, and the smoke needs to block their line of sight. Once people panic, the path becomes chaotic."

The Tower Defense Youth grinned: "Other Sects collect corpses after a battle, but we use corpses to modify mechanisms after a battle. Sect Master, I feel like we'll be blacklisted by the cultivation world sooner or later."

"Let them have a list to write on first."

Sect Master Di Kun tossed the empty copper box aside and gripped his old sword again. The hilt was stained with sticky blood and slipped when he tightened his grip, so he wrapped his palm with a rough cloth, tightening it around the hilt circle by circle.

The Sect Protection Elder returned from the side path, and seeing the setup near the fake Formation Plate, his face tightened even further.

Several Red Snake Sect corpses were strewn across the side of the road, and an old set of clothes belonging to a Taichu Sect servant was draped over a wooden stake, half-collapsed beside the broken Formation Plate. Behind the ruined wall, the Chuunibyou Youth was still arguing, his voice raspy from shouting.

"Sect Master," the Sect Protection Elder said, "If they really pass by the wall of the Ancestral Hall..."

"Then the Ancestral Master can count as participating in the battle."

The Sect Protection Elder raised his hand to press his forehead, his fingers full of dust.

In front of the outer courtyard, the spirit bird suddenly rose, bypassing the front of the valley entrance and turning toward the side path of the Inner Courtyard. Three Red Snake Sect Cultivators followed behind, shields held diagonally, their footsteps falling extremely lightly. The Inner Sect Disciple was in the middle, the snake-bone wrist beads against his cuff, occasionally emitting one or two faint sounds.

The Speedrun Youth lay behind a broken window, his charcoal pencil pressed against the stone surface: "They're here. They've abandoned the front."

Sect Master Di Kun stood in the shadows of the side hall, not making a sound.

Sunlight leaked down from the half-collapsed roof, shining on the pile of broken Formation Plates at the fake Formation Plate. The edges of the fragments shimmered with a faint light, the blood-stained mud beside them not yet dry, and the traces pressed out by the corpses dragged all the way to the ruined wall of the Ancestral Hall, like an escape route that had been hurriedly abandoned.

The second team of the Red Snake Sect stepped onto that path.