Chapter 307 - Secrets of the Lake (IV)

Long Tao nearly stumbled and fell when he heard the ringing laughter--he'd barely left the room for the hallway before they immediately gave in, causing him to grind his teeth. They couldn't have even waited for him to return to his room!

... letting go of the breath, he shook his head and smiled faintly.

Nonetheless, he still was quite curious as to why his Master insisted they do something that seemed so pointless. If the city lord had spent centuries looking for the Guardian and failed, it simply meant that the Guardian either didn't exist, or was so strong that it could never be located unless it wanted to be.

In either case, kids intervening in the entire thing wouldn't really do much of anything outside of putting themselves at risk of being discovered.

Master wasn't stupid and likely knew all that, and yet, he still insisted. Why?

Long Tao couldn't even begin to fathom.

... though, a certain thought appeared: was it possible that the Guardian itself asked Master to intervene? Perhaps as a test or a trial, or perhaps even out of necessity?

It was, he presumed.

Long Tao himself had experienced something like it dozens of times before in his life, where he'd arrive at a new place where a Spirit would ask for his help as, each time he would help, a trace of that Spirit would remain on him, signaling others that he was an 'ally'.

Sometimes he'd help, sometimes he wouldn't, but circumstances like that weren't all that uncommon. The question was whether that was what happened, but if his Master didn't divulge it, not even in their say-it-but-not-really way, then the truth was likely far deeper than that.

Ultimately, though, it didn't matter; while the kids would participate, Long Tao himself had other plans--city lord himself.

One way or another, especially with Xi Zhao's little show, that man would have to die--otherwise, they were never leaving this city. Not alive, at least.

Issue was, among many others, that the man was at the peak stage of True God Realm. No matter how talented Long Tao was, in a direct duel, he'd be killed before he understood what happened. Rather, in any combat scenario, they could not win.

There was one saving grace, however--the fact that the city lord was scarred. Though to most the fact he had likely reached Nirvana Realm once before would be an even greater hurdle to overcome, to Long Tao it indicated something that could be exploited: he likely had his Nirvana Spirit either heavily damaged or outright destroyed.

Even if he somehow survived the ordeal, likely with the intervention of some divine medicine, that sort of a wound doesn't simply become a past shame--it remains an eternal hinderance, forever part of one's soul.

It didn't mean he could somehow use it in combat, of course, that was still well beyond the realm of reasonable; but with the correct approach, and just a bit of luck... it was possible to exploit the weakness just enough to depower him further, within the range where, if he went all out, he could potentially kill him.

That would require careful planning, however, as depending on what kind of wound he received, Long Tao would have to prepare a different kind of array.

As the night fell, he meditated himself into peak condition and left the house. For the past few months, rather than cultivating as he wasn't willing to break through just yet, he instead focused on improving the cloaking art Master gave him.

While Tethers of Neverwhere was a heaven-defying art in its concept, it was still rudimentary made, with very limited ability to hide from anyone with higher level of Divine Sense.

Which was why he took the base concept of it and started rewriting it with the higher Laws of Dao--it came to the point where the limitation was no longer the art itself, but his own body. It was impossible for the puny mortal body to contain Dao Laws, not even in the most miniscule trace amounts, but in order to hide from someone who once underwent Nirvana, that was precisely what he had to do: imbue the art with a trace of Dao Law of Space, and contain it within his body for the duration.

As he traced the still-busy streets late at night, passing by people without them ever spotting him, he wondered what the ramifications of killing the Sage would be. It was one thing to kill a heap of children they expected to die as they were merely Life Qi sources, but anyone who reached Nirvana Realm would have had endless resources poured into them. Dying meant that all those resources were entirely in vain.

Because of that, he had to ensure the killer could not be traced, no matter what.

So many things hung over his head, yet... he found it ever so slightly exciting. It was rather nostalgic, reminiscent of his earliest days as a cultivator, where seemingly every encounter was one of life and death.

Cultivators, as they aged and advanced through the realms, became... cautious. At a certain point, there would never be a battle that would happen just because--everything was planned out, down to the last possible detail, and nobody ever took any risks.

Had it been his past self, he would have never even entertained his current idea--rather, he would have simply abandoned Master and everyone else, running away until he was strong enough to face the Sage directly.

This life, however, was different; he wasn't alone, flanked by other monsters that had the chance of eventually reaching the zenith, and more importantly, a man who defied all known Laws of Heaven: mediocrity, in any capacity, wasn't allowed.

He had to challenge himself, for that was the only way to break down the wall he couldn't in his past life, and avenge centuries of piled up grievances against the Court and its shameless cohorts.

And the first step was here, within the tall, sandstone-made building.

Unsurprisingly, there weren't many formations--just two, in fact, and both were rather simple individually, though, combined, they created a simple but effective net that would work on anyone below Sovereign Realm.

He sensed the man, at the very top, and, with a fading trace of anxiety, took a step forward and entered the tower. All preparations for the formation had to be done here, and so he began.

At the same time, he slowly felt his body coming undone--though the trace of Dao Law was so minute that only an Emperor could even detect it, it was threatening to annihilate his body from within. Anything Heavenly Laws deemed unworthy would be obliterated out of existence if the two intersected and, right now, he was unworthy.

He endured, however, even as his blood began to boil and his muscles began to contort and twist; he endured as he placed one flag after another, invisible to the realm of a True God, finishing just twenty yards directly underneath the man.

Without further ado, he immediately rushed out, as though carried by the wind, undoing the art only when he came back to the house. Before he could even yelp out for help, he collapsed, his entire body convulsing as blood began to pour out of his eyes. Black and red took over his vision as he wondered whether he would even wake up.