231: Chapter 231 Counter-Reconnaissance Game

Mirage Water Market, edge alley.

Thick mist flowed slowly between the crisscrossing trestles.

Three scouts from the Wanxiang Merchant Alliance, cloaked in gray and suppressing their aura to the extreme, stood at a junction of thick chains. Each held a bronze Formation Plate engraved with a Qi-seeking Formation pattern. At this moment, the pointers on the plates were spinning wildly without purpose, like headless flies that had lost their direction.

"The target's Qi signature has vanished into thin air. This is absolutely impossible." The lead scout frowned, his telepathic voice heavy with gravity. "Even a Foundation Establishment Late Stage Cultivator, with the three of us locking onto the target together, shouldn't be able to erase all traces silently at this distance."

At this moment, Gu Shen was hiding in the abandoned hold directly beneath the three.

He wore a dark gold Asura mask and a deep purple robe with dark patterns, his entire being blending into the surrounding gloom. The Cold Jade Bone tightly locked the spiritual energy fluctuations he emitted within his body.

"You want to find my Qi signature? Then I shall give you a clear path."

Gu Shen's eyes were deep and profound. He extended two fingers and tapped lightly on his glabella.

Deep within his Sea of Consciousness, the AI Crystal was instantly pushed to its limit. Massive multi-threaded computing power, like a surging river, spread out in an instant within Gu Shen's mind, forming a three-dimensional stereoscopic map of the surrounding hundred-mile water area.

"Crab, initiate full-area microwave interference. Cut into the frequency of the opponent's Formation Plate magnetic field."

"Understood, Master. Electromagnetic induction module is online, currently rewriting the surrounding spirit particle resonance bands." Inside the black iron buckle, the mechanical spider's electronic voice was cold and efficient.

The tracking Formation Plates of the Cultivation World had an underlying logic that amounted to nothing more than capturing the target's residual aura and mana fluctuations. Such detection methods based on the Laws of the Cultivation World appeared extremely fragile when encountering the microwave directional deception of Wasteland technology.

Gu Shen's fingertips moved slightly. As his True Essence circulated, he extracted three wisps of residual aura from a standard Magical Artifact he had previously seized from a Beast Taming Sect Disciple from his Storage Ring.

"Go."

Under the microwave directional projection of the Crab, these three wisps of aura were forcibly amplified hundreds of times. Supplemented by extremely realistic infrasonic waves of a heartbeat, they transformed into three highly solid spiritual energy afterimages, shooting out rapidly in three different directions toward the depths of the Yunmeng Great Swamp.

Meanwhile, Gu Shen's divine sense connected to his Dantian Qi Sea.

The phantom of the ancient, heavy [Heaven and Earth Furnace] flashed and disappeared within the hold. Pale white fire of Law instantly swept across Gu Shen's body, burning the true Karma lines and even spatial footprints of his stay here into nothingness.

At the chains above.

The Qi-seeking Formation Plates in the hands of the three scouts suddenly emitted a clear hum. The pointers, which had been spinning wildly, suddenly froze.

"It appeared!"

The lead scout was overjoyed. He looked down, but in the next breath, his expression became extremely strange.

He saw that on the Qi-seeking Formation Plate, three light spots had lit up simultaneously. These three light spots all emitted the same aura and mana fluctuations as the previous target, and their movement speed was astonishingly fast, fleeing toward the depths of the Great Swamp outside the water market along extremely exaggerated trajectories.

"This person must have detected us and is deliberately using a Clone technique to escape, attempting to interfere with our tracking!" another scout said in a deep voice.

"Grand Deacon has ordered us to find out the background of this person. We will split up and pursue; we must not let this big fish get off the hook!"

The lead scout made a prompt decision. The three figures suddenly turned into three gray shadows, following the direction indicated by the Formation Plates, and plunged into the vast, dangerous waters of the Yunmeng Great Swamp without looking back.

In the hold, Gu Shen stood with his hands behind his back. Through the slits of the mask, he coldly watched the escape lights of the three people as they moved away.

He did not leave, but sat quietly on a dilapidated wooden box in the hold, waiting for the curtain to fall on this good show.

The destination coordinates of the three spiritual energy afterimages projected by the microwaves were all death zones in the Great Swamp, carefully selected by Gu Shen using the AI Crystal.

One hour later.

The scout tracking toward the south-southeast plunged into a poisonous miasma restricted area called "Bone-Eating Swamp." The spiritual energy afterimage there dissipated strangely in mid-air, and replacing it were dozens of startled second-tier poison water pythons. The scout didn't even have time to send a distress message before he was turned into a pool of foul-smelling pus amidst the spraying of poisonous liquid.

The scout tracking toward the northwest followed the signal to the outside of a sunken ancient Cultivator's Immortal Cave ruin. The residual killing Formation was easily triggered by the microwave frequency, and thousands of Geng Metal Sword Qi broke through the water. The scout used all his strength to deploy three defensive Magical Artifacts, and in the end, at the cost of losing one arm and vomiting blood from heavy injuries, he escaped from that water area in an extremely disheveled state.

As for the lead scout tracking toward the east, he experienced a nightmare.

The afterimage he was tracking headed straight into the edge of the territory of the Great Swamp overlord, the Overturning Sea Black Flood Dragon. Sensing a strange Foundation Establishment Cultivator carrying [something] as he broke into the territory, a second-tier Peak turtle Yao Beast patrolling the periphery burst out of the waves. After a life-and-death struggle, the lead scout exhausted all his life-saving trump cards and fled back to the edge of the Formation light curtain of the Mirage Water Market with a pale face.

Water Market, top floor of the Wanxiang Pavilion.

Grand Deacon Shang Buhuan stood with his hands behind his back in front of the carved wooden window, overlooking the bustling streets below, his brows filled with gloom.

The door was pushed open in panic. The two remaining scouts helped each other, stumbling and kneeling behind Shang Buhuan. Both were weak in aura, their Dharma robes in ruins, and one of them was missing an arm.

"Subordinate is incompetent, we lost the target." The lead scout kowtowed to the ground, his voice carrying uncontrollable trembling.

Shang Buhuan turned around abruptly, and a cold Golden Core pressure instantly filled the entire room.

"The three of you are all tracking experts that my Merchant Alliance has spent a lot of money to cultivate. Holding Qi-seeking Formation Plates, tracking a Loose Cultivator at the Foundation Establishment Initial Stage, and yet one dies and two are severely injured?" Shang Buhuan laughed in extreme anger, his tone icy. "Could it be that the person hid his cultivation and killed you?"

"Reporting to Grand Deacon. The target... the target did not attack us."

The lead scout swallowed his saliva, suppressing the fear in his heart, and reported, "This person's methods are ghost-like and unpredictable. He was able to split into three afterimages with completely identical auras that were indistinguishable from the real one. This caused the Qi-seeking Formation Plate to lead us into the Yao Beast lairs and killing Formations in the depths of the Great Swamp."

The armless scout endured the severe pain and added: "Grand Deacon, this person is definitely not an ordinary Loose Cultivator. His methods of borrowing a knife to kill and manipulating the heavenly secrets in the palm of his hand are difficult for even an ordinary Golden Core Stage Senior to achieve. The subordinate suspects that this person is very likely a descendant walking outside from some hidden Sect that has been avoiding the world for thousands of years and has a terrifying foundation."

Upon hearing this, Shang Buhuan's brows twisted tightly together.

He recalled the ten flawless Cloud Pattern Pills that had no trace of pill poison or Karma. Being able to refine such divine objects and acting so domineering and unpredictable, the forces behind him were definitely not comparable to those Sects on the surface of the Great Yu Cultivation World.

"Hidden Sect..."

Shang Buhuan whispered, the probing intent in his eyes gradually fading, replaced by deep dread. Although the Wanxiang Merchant Alliance is large, it is most afraid of provoking such invisible giants with unknown backgrounds and ruthless methods.

Edge of the Water Market, hold in the dark alley.

Gu Shen slowly stood up and smoothed out the wrinkles on his deep purple robe. The dark gold Asura mask shone with a cold and mysterious luster in the dark hold.

"The bait has been laid. Next, it is time to collect the fruits openly and honestly in the identity of this Xuanji Tower master."

Gu Shen tapped his toes lightly, and with a shift in his movement, he left this hiding place.