Chapter 91: Remote Performance

The next day, under the lead of three Foundation Establishment cultivators, everyone soon arrived outside the peach blossom forest.

Inside the peach blossom forest, gorgeous peach blossoms danced through the air, white mist spread everywhere, and the air was filled with the strange odor carried by the Peach Blossom Miasma.

At the command of one Foundation Establishment cultivator, all the Qi Refining cultivators scattered in every direction, pretending they had come to the peach blossom forest to search for strokes of fortune, spreading out across various positions in the woods.

Ma Mingyuan held a small black net in his hand. Many strange patterns covered the net. This small black net was one part of a large ritual implement provided by Black Jade Tower.

A cultivator could use it alone. Once several dozen small black nets combined into one, they could envelop the entire peach blossom forest inside a black web.

Ma Mingyuan carefully observed his surroundings. Even the nearest Qi Refining cultivator was several zhang away from him, and no one had noticed him.

Seeing this, the array diagram appeared silently in Ma Mingyuan’s hand.

As his spirit energy slowly flowed into it, the mountains on the array diagram cycled through the four seasons, their positions constantly shifting. The surface of the lake rippled, stirring up layer after layer of waves. The cold moon waxed and waned through clear and cloudy phases, fullness and loss gradually progressing.

At last, the array diagram trembled softly and vanished from Ma Mingyuan’s hand.

Ma Mingyuan felt as if everything before his eyes were a dreamlike bubble. The scene seemed to quiver gently, then immediately returned to normal.

The Black Jade Tower Foundation Establishment cultivators followed the intelligence they had obtained earlier and came to the place where the wooden tower usually stayed.

From afar, they saw a dark green-black great tower more than two zhang tall standing in the peach blossom forest, with one corner of its eaves exposed.

After advancing a few steps, the entire dark green-black wooden tower appeared in the eyes of the three Foundation Establishment cultivators.

Three slips of paper were pasted on the wooden tower. Written on them was “Immortal Fate Tower,” while the left and right sides read “Enter My Treasure Tower” and “I Shall Grant You Fortune.” Everything was as usual, except that there was now a small, bright red lantern hanging above it.

Outside the wooden tower, several Qi Refining cultivators who had come to seek strokes of fortune were lingering.

Some were talking and discussing with one another, while others sat alone to the side, meditating and cultivating.

Just as they were approaching, someone suddenly flashed out from inside the wooden tower.

“I got it! I got it! Immortal Fate Tower does not deceive me!”

“I obtained a third-rank Earthfire Heart Lotus Seed!”

The cultivator who came out was holding a dazzling, multicolored lotus seed. His features were twisted with excitement as he shouted in wild joy.

“Earthfire Heart Lotus Seed?!”

The dry, thin old man instantly caught the key words. The small dark green-black ghost on his body straightened up, then with a whoosh appeared on that cultivator. Its scrawny palm pressed directly against the cultivator’s body.

Green light surged over the cultivator’s body. A dark red shadow shed itself from head to toe, then drilled straight into the ground.

His skin and hair turned into a sheet of paper-thin hide that drifted lightly to the ground, while his muscles and bones became countless shattered stones that scattered all over the ground.

“Hmm?”

The dry, thin old man gave a soft sound of surprise. The scene before him seemed somewhat wrong.

A cultivator who had just been shouting in delight after obtaining an Earthfire Heart Lotus Seed had, with a casual light touch from his small ghost, turned into paper and broken stones just like that. It was far too abnormal.

He hurriedly looked toward the other cultivators outside the wooden tower.

He saw those cultivators’ eyes were hollow, while the corners of their mouths kept pulling upward, letting out a deep, heavy hee-hee laugh.

Immediately afterward, a dark red shadow flashed over every cultivator. Sheets of paper-thin hide peeled away and fell to the ground, leaving only chunks of stone of varying sizes behind.

“Not good!”

The dry, thin old man flew toward the Treasure-Seeking Tower, only to see transparent ripples surging over the wooden tower. The wooden tower was like a bubble that had been punctured, vanishing directly before everyone’s eyes.

“We fell into a trap? How did this wooden tower know we were going to surround and capture it? It actually arranged all of this in advance.”

The dry, thin old man focused and observed his surroundings. Without anyone noticing when it had happened, the white mist had grown thicker and thicker, blocking everyone’s line of sight. The entire peach blossom forest was undergoing a mysterious transformation.

“Follow me. Leave the peach forest.”

The small dark green-black ghost on the dry, thin old man bared its teeth and cried out. Mist surged, and the peach trees’ reaching branches twisted like claws and fangs.

A huge mountain peak appeared before the group.

They went around it, only for another mountain peak to block the three people’s path forward.

The dry, thin old man snorted coldly. His belly bulged high, gathering power before he spat out a dark green-black ball of light.

The ball of light struck the mountain peak. The mountain wall cracked apart, and the earth shook.

Then another mountain silently appeared before everyone.

The mountain peaks stretched on without end. Whether they went around them or directly shattered them, new mountains immediately arrived in silence.

In the peach blossom forest, a high-level Qi Refining cultivator was searching for a way out. Not long after the mountain peaks appeared, he still had not received any notice from the Foundation Establishment cultivators inside. He immediately sensed that something was wrong and fled toward the outside of the peach blossom forest.

A puddle suddenly appeared beneath his feet, rising past his knees. Hundreds upon thousands of pale arms stretched out from within the puddle, tightly binding him inside a forest of arms and dragging him into the water.

High in the air, a cold moon hung overhead.

Whenever a cultivator tried to fly through the air, countless jade-disc curved hooks flew out from the cold moon, carrying sharp radiance that could cut through all things as they attacked the cultivator in midair.

The Mountain-Lake Moon-Reflection Diagram specialized in obstruction, restraint, and assault.

Somewhere in the wilderness, Lu Yuan watched everything happening in the peach blossom forest through the vision shared by an Illusory Yin Eye avatar.

“Stunned, aren’t you?”

Seeing the many cultivators struggling endlessly inside the Mountain-Lake Moon-Reflection Diagram, Lu Yuan, who was staying inside the Little Paper Man’s sea of consciousness, laughed smugly.

After learning that Black Jade Tower had organized three Foundation Establishment cultivators and several dozen Qi Refining cultivators to come to the cave abode, Lu Yuan had carried out a plan to shed his shell like a cicada.

He used the Divine-Splitting Thought-Entrusting Art to entrust a wisp of divine sense into the Little Paper Man’s sea of consciousness, then brought the Wind Ghost Lantern and the Illusory Yin Eye with him to the wilderness.

Then he settled down peacefully somewhere in the wilderness and, through the eyeball avatar, quietly watched the whole series of remote performances by Black Jade Tower’s many cultivators.

First came their cautious infiltration of the peach blossom forest, then the urgent deployment of several dozen Qi Refining cultivators, and finally the three Foundation Establishment cultivators attacking the Treasure-Seeking Tower with overwhelming force.

Unfortunately, that entire combo landed on cotton. They could not exert any force at all.

The Treasure-Seeking Tower had long since been stored by Lu Yuan deep inside the cave abode. Then the Stone Marrow Spirit controlled several stone puppets, while the outside was covered with paper-thin hides specially made by the Little Paper Man. Once everything was properly arranged, the performance began on schedule.

Without spending a single soldier, he isolated all the Black Jade Tower cultivators and trapped them inside the Mountain-Lake Moon-Reflection Diagram.

It could be predicted that a large number of cultivators would die within it. Even if they eventually broke the array diagram, Black Jade Tower would still suffer enormous losses.

As long as they could not find the specific location of the array diagram, even if they broke the array, it would not matter much.

After Lu Yuan returned, he could still take out the array diagram, nourish it for a period of time, and continue using it.

The core of the cave abode was protected by the Primordial Taiyin Restriction, so Lu Yuan was not worried that a few Foundation Establishment cultivators could break his restriction.

“Why are they always fighting and killing? Wouldn’t it be better for everyone to coexist harmoniously?”

“You take your strokes of fortune, and I get my rewards. That way, everyone has a bright and beautiful future.”

“If it isn’t your stroke of fortune, what’s the use of trying to snatch it by force?

“Just like this time. You didn’t even get a single stalk of Spirit Firefly Grass and lost so many Qi Refining cultivators for nothing.”

“Oh, right. Although I didn’t lose the treasures inside the wooden tower, I did obtain so many light-orb rewards from the cave abode!”

Thinking of this, the corners of the Little Paper Man’s mouth kept stretching toward both sides until they were almost forming half a circle!

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