Book 3: Chapter 38: Capturing Lu An
Book 3: Chapter 38: Capturing Lu An
Silver Moon Sea:
Two million fairies scattered all over the place. As they flapped their wings, they gave off elegant and moving music. It was not just the invited zitherists who went about chasing the fairies; the uninvited also searched the place.
Silver Moon Sea turned chaotic. Unfortunately, unless one was one of the six-hundred-odd invited zitherists, even if one found a fairy, one could not catch it. When one reached out to grab it, one’s hand would just go through it.
“It’s useless. These fairies are the essence of souls, a musical soul. There is no way to touch them.” Countless cultivators appeared sorrowful.
——
On a certain island:
After recuperating for a while, Fairy Waner closed her eyes and listened. Suddenly, she opened her eyes.
“I found it?” Fairy Waner soared into the air, flying in a certain direction.
“Humph! Gu Hai, you might have fooled everyone, but you cannot fool me. When I catch the yellow fairy and obtain Ensnaring Performance, I will show all those blind zitherists that I am right. You are the true fraud! Humph!” Fairy Waner showed determination in her eyes.
Whoosh!
Fairy Waner flew to the horizon in the blink of an eye.
——
On another island:
Sima Changkong had his eyes closed while listening when three cultivators flew over.
“How did it go?” Sima Changkong opened his eyes.
“There’s still no news!” The three cultivators frowned.
“Continue investigating. There must be a secret behind the manor lord’s decision to hold the zither bestowal event in the Silver Moon Sea. If there is none on the island, then search the seabed,” Sima Changkong said.
“Yes!”
Sima Changkong sighed softly, “Never mind. It looks like I have no fate with this zither bestowal event. I don’t have time to search for Ensnaring Performance’s soul. One day has already passed; only nine days are left. If we cannot find anything useful during these nine days, then the Silver Moon Mountain Manor trail ends. I’ll search together with you all.”
“Yes!” everyone answered.
——
The south of the Silver Moon Sea, where the three pyramid-formation islands were:
Gu Hai used City Lord He’s “authorization letter” to smoothly take over the three islands after some discussions.
“With the zither bestowal event taking place in the Silver Moon Sea, countless people are wandering around here. Something will happen sooner or later. That’s why City Lord He sent us to lay an even more powerful ritual array to hide this place. Follow my diagram. When the ritual array is completed, everyone will be paid one superior-grade spirit stone. Those of higher ranks will get tenfold more for each level in the chain of command,” Gu Hai said.
“Yes!” all the soldiers and officers cried out excitedly.
The soldiers of the lowest rank could get one superior-grade spirit stone. Then, an officer could get ten superior-grade spirit stones, and commanding officers would get one hundred superior-grade spirit stones? Even the commander of the place felt excited, as he could get one hundred superior-grade spirit stones.
Everyone on the three islands worked quickly to set up the ritual array, helping Gu Hai bury many spirit stones.
The sight of Gu Hai’s flood-like pile of spirit stones flabbergasted many of the soldiers.
The city lord appeared to have spent a lot on this. How many superior-grade spirit stones were these?
After one day, the soldiers finally buried several million superior-grade spirit stones.
“Ritual array, activate!” Gu Hai shouted.
Boom!
Suddenly, a surging fog appeared over the three islands, instantly encasing them. It even covered the sea in the center of the three islands, completely blanketing the area and everyone in the super-large ritual array.
“Lord Gu, when are you going to give out the spirit stones?”
“Lord Gu, what ritual array is this? How huge is it?”
“Lord Gu, do reward us with more spirit stones!”
The six thousand soldiers waiting to get rewarded looked at Gu Hai in anticipation.
Long Wanqing, Venerable Liu Nian, and Shangguan Hen remained silent for a long time.
The three had thought that Gu Hai would clear the soldiers out from the islands. They had not expected him to use the soldiers to help bury spirit stones and lay a ritual array.
What a vast ritual array! It had taken six thousand soldiers an entire day to finish laying it.
“Everyone, many thanks for your help. Sorry for the offense!” Gu Hai said.
“What?” a few of the commanding officers said, feeling suspicious.
Boom!
Suddenly, countless mounted soldier cloud beasts charged out of the fog and into the six thousand soldiers.
“What? You tricked us?”
“Lord Gu, what are you doing?”
“You bastard! Argh!”
The interior of the ritual array turned chaotic.
Four hours later, Gu Hai had captured the six thousand soldiers. He sealed their cultivations and locked them in a prison on one of the islands.
“Why did you trick us? Why does the city lord want to harm us?!”
“Is the city lord trying to silence us?”
“No! I still have children and parents to take care of. City Lord, please spare me!”
The imprisoned soldiers shouted in horror, thinking that City Lord He wanted to silence them.
Gu Hai looked at the soldiers, remaining silent for a while. Did I make it too realistic? Even now, these people still have not figured out that we are frauds?
Of course, Gu Hai did not explain. He simply laid a sound isolation ritual array around the soldiers and ignored them.
“What ritual array is this?” Venerable Liu Nian asked out of curiosity.
“This is a strengthened Twenty-Eight Line-Pair World Ritual Array. There are some elements of the Twenty-Nine Line-Pair World Ritual Array in it,” Gu Hai explained.
“This could be considered sharpening the hook and setting it on the rod?” Venerable Liu Nian smiled.
“Indeed. Now, I just lack bait.” Gu Hai smiled.
“Are they here?” Gu Hai looked at the nearby Shangguan Hen.
“Your Majesty, I have been paying attention to the sky. They have been here for quite a while, just right behind that cloud,” Shangguan Hen said with a smile.
“Oh?” Everyone looked up at the sky.
“It’s Lu An?” Long Wanqing felt slightly surprised.
“That’s right. My long chat with City Lord He should have been sufficient to inspire him to kill me,” Gu Hai said while smiling.
“You did not just prepare to fish for dragons but also Lu An?” Venerable Liu Nian asked.
“Hence, I need to trouble Venerable Liu Nian.” Gu Hai looked at Venerable Liu Nian.
“However, are you going to fall out with Duke Lu Yang’s official residence for a snake head? Is that worth it?” Venerable Liu Nian frowned.
“Who said that I am falling out with the Duke Lu Yang’s official residence? I am not aware of the situation.” Gu Hai smiled.
“Huh?” Venerable Liu Nian felt slightly surprised. Then, he nodded with a bitter smile.
A Buddhist prayer bead turned into a meteor that shot into the clouds.
Boom!
A loud sound rang out. The Buddhist prayer bead seemed to have crashed into something, causing it to rebound.
“Who is it?” Venerable Liu Nian snorted coldly as he soared into the sky.
Whoosh!
Suddenly, a flying ship in the clouds shot off into the distance.
“Wait here! I’ll return immediately!” Venerable Liu Nian shouted.
Then, Venerable Liu Nian took out a flying ship with a flip of his hand and quickly gave chase.
Whoosh!
The two flying ships reached the horizon in the blink of an eye.
——
After Venerable Liu Nian left, two figures slowly appeared in the white cloud. It was Lu An and Fang Minghou.
“Venerable Liu Nian wore a wig? Ha! Did he think that I would not recognize him?” Lu An sneered as he looked at the distant flying ships.
“Young Master An, I keep feeling that everything is proceeding too smoothly. We were preparing to lure Venerable Liu Nian away, but he left on his own?” Fang Minghou frowned.
“Don’t worry. The ones on the flying ship are deathsworn warriors that I raised. Nothing will happen. There was a path to heaven for him, but he chose the path to hell, despite it being closed off. Let’s go and capture Gu Hai now,” Lu An said coldly.
“What about Long Wanqing?”
Lu An’s eyes chilled as he said, “She is seeking her own death. Humph! Pitting herself against me will not result in a good fate. I happen to lack someone with the Qian Heavenly Dynasty’s bloodline in my group of female slaves.”
“Female slaves?” Fang Minghou’s expression changed. He clearly knew what kind of miserable fate awaited Lu An’s female slaves.
“There seems to be a new ritual array below,” Fang Minghou said worriedly.
“Break the ritual array with all your power. We have to capture Gu Hai today. Didn’t you previously say that you could break the ritual array around This Street’s Best Zither Pavilion and that all you needed was time? Furthermore, they only had one day. What powerful ritual array could they set up? Hurry. Capture Gu Hai before Venerable Liu Nian returns,” Lu An said.
“Yes!” Fang Minghou nodded.
Fang Minghou drew his golden saber and charged at the ritual array with a ferocious expression.
Whoosh!
After Fang Minghou entered the ritual array, the ritual array only churned a little before everything calmed.
“Huh? Lu An felt startled.
Fang Minghou charged into the large ritual array with strong momentum. Shouldn’t there be chaos in there? Why is there no sound after he entered?
Half an hour passed, and nothing.
One hour passed, still nothing.
After one and a half hours, Lu An started to feel impatient, so he shouted, “Fang Minghou, what are you doing?”
——
Just at this moment, inside the ritual array, an extremely bulky cloud beast general was holding the blood-covered Fang Minghou’s body with both hands.
“The hegemon king’s strength can raise a cauldron! Hah!” that cloud beast general roared, using boundless force in his hands to squeeze Fang Minghou. Fang Minghou could not struggle at all as his bones crackled.
“Argh! Young Master An, quickly run! Quickly run!” Fang Minghou roared in pain.
“Can’t the people outside hear?” Long Wanqing asked worriedly.
“Don’t worry. My ritual array lies between the Twenty-Eight Line-Pair World Ritual Array and the Twenty-Nine Line-Pair World Ritual Array. It isolates the inside from the outside. When looking in from outside, everything looks calm and peaceful. However, this Fang Minghou is quite impressive. He nearly managed to escape,” Gu Hai said coldly.
Long Wanqing nodded.
“Shangguan Hen, you’ve listened for so long. How is it?” Gu Hai turned to Shangguan Hen.
“Your Majesty, rest assured. I can already mimic his voice.” Shangguan Hen smiled.
When Shangguan Hen spoke, he used Fang Minghou’s voice.
“Shangguan Hen can imitate another person’s voice?” Long Wanqing looked at Shangguan Hen in shock.
——
Outside, Lu An appeared anxious as he looked at the incredibly peaceful ritual array.
“Fang Minghou, what are you doing?” Lu An called out anxiously.
“Young Master An, I have captured Gu Hai. You can come down now. Everything is fine!” Fang Minghou’s voice rang out.
“Oh? That fast? Hahahaha!” Lu An guffawed as he flew towards the ritual array.
Whoosh! Lu An barged into the ritual array.
After thirty minutes, another cloud beast general held Lu An in its hands, preventing him from moving.