Having finished everything, the three of them were completely exhausted.
Gu Li and Li Guanqi could finally catch their breath, but the fusion between the clone's divine soul and the soul contract was not yet fully stabilized. Tang Ru's task was therefore even more demanding. Seeing this, Gu Li immediately tossed out several inscribed talismans to replenish divine sense.
Only then did the ghastly pallor on Tang Ru's face ease slightly, and Li Guanqi let out a sigh of relief.
Yet as soon as he turned his head, he met Ye Feng's anxious gaze. The fellow looked as though he had just fought a desperate battle, his palms slick with sweat.
Li Guanqi patted his shoulder and teased, "Look how worked up you are. Relax, her lingering worries have been completely taken care of now."
Li Guanqi's gaze casually drifted toward Li Qingchan, who was still asleep. He had noticed that the cultivation technique she practiced was anything but ordinary—perhaps it was also connected to that man named Gu Xici she had spoken of.
Ye Feng gave a slight nod. This time... it was fortunate that he had sensed something amiss early on. Having such a formidable enemy lurking by their side could have led to unthinkable consequences had she not been discovered in time. Given Li Qingchan's strength, not a single one of the brothers would have stood a chance against her alone. Only Li Guanqi would have been able to put up a fight.
While Li Guanqi and Gu Li quietly restored their strength, Gu Li was still mostly in the dark about what had happened. Even so, he had managed to piece together bits and pieces from Ye Feng and Li Guanqi's exchange. For a time, shock raged in his heart. Looking at Li Qingchan, he never could have imagined that an expert of her caliber could be reduced to someone else's pawn. Still, he asked no unnecessary questions.
After a while, the clone's divine soul was entirely enveloped by the soul contract, and only then did Tang Ru withdraw his concealing power.
Yet right at that moment, to everyone's utter surprise, the other side actually contacted Li Qingchan!
Li Qingchan's clone shuddered faintly, its body slightly stiff as its eyes opened. Then, mimicking Li Qingchan's exact tone, it spoke calmly.
"Nothing is wrong. It was only an old hidden injury flaring up from an earlier battle."
After that, silence fell.
Perhaps that fleeting change just a moment ago had caused the other party to detect something abnormal!
Li Guanqi's expression instantly darkened. By all rights, with the sword spirit's assistance and Tang Ru masking the heavenly secrets, the entire plan should have been seamless. The only possible slipup was the exact instant the soul imprint fully merged into the clone's divine soul! Yet even that minute fluctuation had been captured by the other side.
In other words... Li Qingchan had to be an extremely important pawn in Gu Xici's hands!
Li Guanqi's eyes narrowed thoughtfully, his brow furrowing. He was currently inside the Immortal Burial Realm and rarely showed himself in the outside world. He had already left ample contingency measures with the Great Xia Sword Sect and Guanyun Pavilion, both of which had close ties to him. Furthermore, after the matter with Duan Xian, the deterrence of Li Guanqi's renown had reached its absolute zenith in the outside world! Under these circumstances, the pawns Gu Xici had placed in the Immortal Burial Realm became extraordinarily vital.
Moreover... who could guarantee that Li Qingchan was the only pawn in the Immortal Burial Realm? If other pawns existed here, wouldn't their group's movements already be compromised? On top of that, the fluctuation from the soul contract had been detected at this precise moment. He even suspected their group's whereabouts were under the watchful eyes of the enemy's intelligence network. Only that would explain why the other side monitored Li Qingchan so closely, questioning her the very moment the soul contract wavered to confirm whether it was still intact!
The more Li Guanqi thought about it, the more uneasy he felt.
He turned abruptly toward Gu Li and asked in a low voice, "Have you been secretly crafting clones to play around with these past few days?"
Gu Li blinked, scratching his head in slight embarrassment before nodding. "Made a few... I figured drawing talismans all by myself was too slow, so..."
Li Guanqi asked gravely, "None of those clones have shown their faces in front of outsiders, right?"
Gu Li nodded with absolute confidence. "Of course not! Even you guys didn't know about them, so how could any outsider? All my clones are staying inside the Nirvana Pagoda."
Li Guanqi spoke rapidly: "Pick a clone of ordinary strength and have it immediately scout around the wine shop to see if anyone is acting suspiciously. Make note of every single one!"
Gu Li clearly realized the gravity of the situation as well. With a single thought, a black-robed youth stepped slowly out of the Nirvana Pagoda and vanished into the void.
Watching Li Guanqi frown in deep thought, Ye Feng was overcome with guilt. If Li Guanqi had not taken his feelings into account, he could easily have captured Li Qingchan simply by secretly contacting the Dragon King. When that time came, whether she was killed, spared, or subjected to torture would have been entirely out of Ye Feng's hands. Yet Li Guanqi had chosen this path out of consideration and empathy for him, placing himself in danger instead.
Li Guanqi closed his eyes, his hands shifting faintly in midair. Gradually, he began analyzing the only two moves Gu Xici had made so far.
The first was Lu Wuhen, where he had been willing to wager a fragment of the sword spirit's true blade tip just to probe. That move had been an astonishingly lavish gamble. That was a fragment of the sword spirit's true body! Lu Wuhen had been even more pitiable, never realizing from start to finish that he was merely a puppet on strings.
And this time...
Li Guanqi opened his eyes and glanced at Li Qingchan, who was on the verge of waking, a faint smile curling at the corner of his mouth.
"She is quite the clever one."
Seeing Li Guanqi's expression and hearing his words, Ye Feng froze. "Big Brother, what do you mean? Qingchan did this intentionally?"
Ye Feng was far from stupid. On the contrary, he and Gu Li were openly the sharpest thinkers among them. Tang Ru went without saying; he was a man of few words who rarely spoke, yet every decision he made based on the current situation was invariably the right one. Cao Yan and Xiao Chen, on the other hand, were a pair of simpletons—Cao Yan was too lazy to use his head, while Xiao Chen was just an outright fool.
Li Guanqi took a long look at Ye Feng and said softly, "Otherwise, do you think the killing intent of a mid-stage Mahayana cultivator could have been caught by you back when you hadn't even reached the half-step Tribulation Transcendence realm? If I'm not mistaken, Dragon King Wen Guyan was present at the time, and even he didn't sense a thing. That means that trace of aura was shown only to you."
Ye Feng frowned tightly, his voice dropping low. "Then why did she poison me?"
Li Guanqi pointed at the clone and answered softly, "The soul contract."
He then added, "Besides... who serves poison in plain view of their target? With her strength and methods, blending poison seamlessly into the wine would have been child's play. The quantity of heavenly herbs in Red Dust Brew far exceeds that of many eighth-grade pills. Do you think Li Qingchan, skilled in herbology as she is, couldn't even manage that?"
Ye Feng stared blankly. "Big Brother, you mean... everything leading up to this point was all part of her plan?"
Chapter 1346