Chapter 34: Chapter 34: Looming Confrontation

CHAPTER

34

Looming Confrontation

I

Some plans just made themselves, and this was one such plan.

Even though there were enough spiritual stones in Du Jian’s spatial ring, Hao Zhen and Lan Yue still went through the contents of the leather pouches they had collected from the corpses of Du Jian’s subordinate. The pouches were also magical artifacts. Their internal dimensions were much larger than their external ones, having been expanded through the use of spatial matrixes.

Before regaining his memories, Hao Zhen had been planning on getting one of these enchanted pouches for himself. They weren’t nearly as practical as spatial rings, but they were much cheaper. The number of outer disciples with spatial rings could probably be counted on two hands, most of them being relatives of elders or members of the inner court.

They ended up finding spiritual stones in both pouches—enough to keep the restraining schema activated for two more minutes. Lan Yue had another three minutes’ worth of spiritual stones of her own to contribute. Coupled with Tian Jin’s spiritual stones and the pile of spiritual stones that remained in the cave, they’d be able to keep the array running for about twenty minutes.

They had their plan, and the preparations were made. Now all that was left to play the waiting game.

Even though everything was already set, Hao Zhen once again found himself pacing to and fro in the cave. His feet moved on their own as he immersed himself in his thoughts. Vaguely, he could hear the dull sounds of his footsteps, softly echoing as the sound reverberated off the walls. A musky, earthy scent smell filled the cave, and the air felt damp. He could hear, faintly, the sounds of the waterfall coming from the mouth of the cave.

Lan Yue had set down the bright stick she had been using to light up the cave at the center of the cave so that it could provide even lightning. According to her, it was a magical artifact called known as an illuminating jade strip.

Hao Zhen tried not to pay too much attention to the corpse of the cultivator, which still sat in its original position. They had mostly left it untouched. All they had done was search it for any other magical artifacts. They had only found a spatial ring, which they collected. Inside it were merely a couple of cultivation method jade slips, which weren’t of much use for them right now. They had decided to leave the corpse be until the inner elder after them was dealt with.

Neither Tian Jin nor Lan Yue had shown any interest in the ring or its contents, so it went to Hao Zhen. He certainly wouldn’t refuse a second spatial ring, and he planned on going over the cultivation method jade slips inside it in hopes that one was better suited for him than the Drifting Moonlight Method.

He would have done so right now, but something else occupied his mind at the moment. Now that they had a plan and were now just waiting for the elder to arrive to set up their trap, Hao Zhen realized that he had overlooked something.

Enough time had passed for the inner elder working with Du Qing to have broken the Radiant Light Imprisonment Talisman, so he should already be on his way over here. In fact, by Tian Jin’s and Lan Yue’s estimations, they only had a handful or so of minutes left until the inner elder arrived, assuming the man flew directly towards their cave. And that was precisely what Hao Zhen was pondering at the moment: whether the elder would, indeed, be flying straight over to them right now.

Everything they had done since escaping on Tian Jin’s magical cloud was based on the assumption that the elder would be going after them the moment he managed to break the barrier. The problem, Hao Zhen realized, was that he didn’t actually know if—or rather, how—the elder would be able to determine their current location.

After all, they hadn’t flown in a straight direction. Instead, they had changed course midway. Unless the inner elder had some magical means of ascertaining their current location, he wouldn’t know where they currently were. And if he didn’t know where they were, he couldn’t find them. Previously, Hao Zhen had just assumed that the elder would be able to pursue them because that was how it always happened in cultivation novels: the pursuer always found the protagonist, no matter how much of a head start the protagonist had.

And that was precisely the point: Hao Zhen believed that the elder was chasing after them because that was how it always went in cultivation novels. The question was how the elder would do that. So far, even though events had roughly followed the plot of cultivation novels in a rather convoluted fashion, there was usually a reason why things happened. Hao Zhen believed that there was an explanation for why Tian Jin had been drawn to the sword, just as he believed there was an explanation for why the elder could find them.

Of course, there was a chance Hao Zhen was wrong. Maybe Tian Jin’s enemies were also gifted with some kind of heavenly intuition that guided them into acting like cultivation novel antagonists. But if he was right… Well, he had two working theories at the moment.

Hao Zhen organized his thoughts, going over everything one last time, making sure that his suspicions were indeed valid and not simply the fruits of paranoia. He then glanced over at Tian Jin and Lan Yue.

The two of them were standing side by side, analyzing the schemas on one of the walls. They were checking whether there was something Tian Jin had missed. Lan Yue didn’t know nearly as much about inscriptionery as Tian Jin did, but she still knew some things, so she decided to help him decipher the inscription arrays. Hao Zhen would have liked to help too, but he knew absolutely nothing about inscriptions, so he’d only be getting in the way.

“Hey,” Hao Zhen said. The two of them glanced back at him. “Do either of you know what divination is?”

Divination—seeking knowledge through magical means—wasn’t something possible in all cultivation novels. It could, however, be found more often than not in one form or another, so Hao Zhen figured that there was also a chance that it was a thing in this world too. He couldn’t remember ever hearing the word since joining the sect, but that didn’t mean it didn’t exist.

“Of course,” Lam Yue said. “But everyone knows it’s a farce. There’s not really any magic involved. It’s just silly guesswork.” Lan Yue said, her expression thoughtful. Then she narrowed her eyes at him, some suspicion returning to her gaze. “Why are you asking?”

Hao Zhen knew where Lan Yue was coming from, but her constant suspicion was starting to get on his nerves. He sighed. “I was just wondering—”

“It’s not just a farce,” Tian Jin cut in. Lan Yue’s head snapped toward the other boy like a whip. The rest of Hao Zhen’s sentence died in his throat as he also focused on Tian Jin. “My master told me about it,” Tian Jin continued. “He was planning on teaching it to me once I became a cultivator.”

Hao Zhen’s thoughts churned. So divination was possible. On the other hand, Lan Yue hadn’t been aware of that fact, and it was Tian Jin’s master—who most likely hadn’t even been from this island—that had told him about it. As the sect leader’s daughter, if Lan Yue didn’t know that divination was possible, then it was probably safe to assume that other cultivators of the area didn’t, either.

That meant that the inner elder finding their position through divination wasn’t an option, leaving only his other theory.

“Your master?” Lan Yue asked, her gaze burning holes into Tian Jin. “What—”

“Tian Jin,” Hao Zhen said, interrupting her. Lan Yue shot him a glare, but he ignored her. “Do you happen to have on you a gift from Du Qing? Or maybe Du Jian?”

“A gift?” Tian Jin repeated, giving him an odd look. “Why would they have ever given me something like that?”

The question also seemed to have captured Lan Yue’s attention, as her expression similarly shifted into one of confusion.

“Maybe not a gift,” Hao Zhen amended. “But something they’ve given you? Or maybe something they might have touched?”

As far as Hao Zhen could tell, inscription arrays could do just about everything, so he reckoned tracking matrixes—or something along those lines—existed.

Tian Jin’s frown deepened. He seemed to consider the question for a few moments before shaking his head. “I don’t think so.”

“Hmm.” Despite Tian Jin’s words, Hao Zhen felt that he was onto something. The protagonist having something on them that the antagonist could somehow magically use to track them was a pretty common trope. It’d explain a lot of things, such as how Du Jian had found them just outside Lan Yue’s residence, and then again in the forest. The first encounter Hao Zhen had attributed to coincidence, and the second one to Du Jian simply searching for them, but now he had a feeling that there was more to the situation than met the eye.

His gaze fell on Tian Jin’s spatial ring. If he wasn’t wrong, there was something inside it that—

Hao Zhen froze.

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“Tian Jin,” he said.

“Yes?”

“Where did you get your spatial ring?”

Hao Zhen’s gaze didn’t leave the other boy’s spatial ring. He remembered thinking, just now, how outer disciples with spatial rings were rare, and how most of them were related to elders. Tian Jin was certainly exceptional enough that he could have gotten his spatial ring on his own, but maybe…

“It was a gift from Elder Bao.”

A shiver ran through Hao Zhen.

Elder Bao—Du Qing’s master.

There it is.

“Tracking matrixes. Do those exist?”

Tian Jin frowned. “I think so. Why…” He trailed off, his eyes widening. Hao Zhen could see the realization dawning on the other boy. Tian Jin looked down at his hand, then tentatively removed the ring from it with his other hand and held it up before his eyes.

There was a pregnant pause as Tian Jin inspected the ring. Lan Yue was also looking at it instead.

“There’s a tracking matrix on it.” Tian Jin sounded almost breathless, as if he couldn’t believe it. “All this time, I—”

“Doesn’t matter,” Hao Zhen cut him off. He quickly thought things over, reanalyzing the situation. It was safe to assume that Du Qing had either shared with Du Jian and the inner elder the means to track Tian Jin’s location through his spatial ring, or was relaying the information through sound transmissions. Either way, what was important was that they were being tracked and that they now knew how.

It would definitely have been better to have discovered this earlier, but Hao Zhen could condemn himself for his lack of forethought later. Right now, they needed to decide what they’d do next.

“All right,” Hao Zhen said, shifting his gaze from the ring to Tian Jin’s face. “Can you destroy the tracking matrix without damaging the ring?”

“I should be able to,” Tian Jin said. Hao Zhen still had Spiritual Sight activated, so he could see spiritual power gathering in the tips of Tian Jin’s fingers.

“Wait!” Hao Zhen cried, realizing that Tian Jin was about to give it a shot.

Tian Jin froze, looking up at him. “What?”

Lan Yue also shot him a confused look.

Damn, but Tian Jin could be impulsive.

“Don’t get rid of it just yet,” Hao Zhen said, running through all possible scenarios in his head, trying to find the optimal course of action. “Just stop and think for a moment,” he said, not just for Tian Jin’s benefit, but also for his own. “We… We already have a surefire way to deal with the inner elder.” As Hao Zhen spoke, the clearer and more defined the ideas in his head became. “If we get rid of the tracker, he won’t be able to find us—but that also means we won’t be able to lead him here, where we have the perfect trap prepared. This is the perfect opportunity to deal with him.”

“I…” Tian Jin looked at the ring again, his expression conflicted. Then Tian Jin’s spiritual power retreated into his body, and he let his hand drop. “I see. What now, then?”

“Our plan remains the same,” Hao Zhen said. “We wait for the elder to arrive, interrogate him, and then get rid of him.”

Hao Zhen didn’t care much about killing the elder. If that was his only concern, he’d have agreed with getting rid of the tracking matrix right now and simply running away, conserving their spiritual stones. He believed that the interrogation was indispensable, however. 

While the elder had been stuck inside the barrier, there had been nothing stopping him from using sound transmissions, so he wanted to determine whether he had talked with anyone. There was also a chance the elder knew Du Qing’s plans, and that wasn’t an opportunity they couldn’t just let go.

Tian Jin nodded his head, agreeing with his decision. Thankfully, Lan Yue didn’t put up any resistance, either. If anything, she seemed to fully approve of his idea. Considering how vindictive she was, he didn’t think she’d have been satisfied with just running away.

Tian Jin slipped the spatial ring back into his finger, leaving the tracking matrix instead.

The waiting game resumed.

This time, however, Hao Zhen didn’t pace around. Tian Jin and Lan Yue also stopped studying the schemas. Instead, they got into position. Tian Jin stood at the front, before the dead protector, whereas Hao Zhen and Lan Yue stood more to the back, as they’d also be under the influence of the restraining array once it was activated, so they wouldn’t be able to do anything.

They didn’t have to wait long. Shortly after they got into formation, the curtain of water in front of them was parted by a barrier of light. Moments later, the rest of the dome of light went through, coming to a stop at the entrance of the cave. The light barrier before them was similar to the one produced by the Radiant Light Imprisonment Talisman, but a little dimmer.

The dome of light then disappeared, revealing a tall man in golden robes on top of a red magical cloud.

The inner elder had arrived.

Hao Zhen tensed.

He could feel some fear building up inside him. This man could, after all, kill him in moments.

Greater than the fear, however, was the feeling of anticipation.

The waiting game was over, and that meant it was time for the real game to begin.