Chapter 87: Poison Array War

They're here... or rather, they've finally arrived.

In the darkness, Li Changshou let out a sigh of relief in his heart.

It wasn't that he feared the thieves stealing, but he dreaded them plotting; these enemies had been hiding, which had put a bit of pressure on him.

Ever since half a year ago, when he received the ring from Elder Wan Linjun, Li Changshou had begun the third phase of his preparations and setups.

Now, it was time to see the results...

The enemy would launch their surprise attack by approaching Duxianmen swiftly from the ground or underground, then strike suddenly.

This gave Li Changshou plenty of room to maneuver.

The direction they chose, the path they took...

He had guessed right after all!

To be thorough, Li Changshou had also stationed his Di-zi-numbered paper dao ren along the other five possible routes.

And the enemy had cooperated nicely—their chosen path for the attack was one of the three main ones he had focused on.

The only downside for Li Changshou was that the timing of their assault was off by two or three months from what he had predicted...

At one point, he had even speculated that after he and Elder Wan Linjun had tricked the enemy together, the mastermind behind the scenes might have abandoned their plan to destroy Duxianmen...

Yet...

Though delayed, the enemy had still come.

At that moment, the seven Tian-zi paper dao ren remained motionless, hiding outside the mountain gate and lying in wait.

Their role was still to launch a pincer attack from the rear once the battle erupted; the tactical approach hadn't changed.

Meanwhile, the six Di-zi paper dao ren were positioned along the six paths Li Changshou had identified in advance, and over the past two or three months, he had set up numerous simple poison arrays on these routes.

What were poison arrays? Simply arrays combined with poison pills.

But these poison arrays that Li Changshou had arranged emphasized concealment over entrapment or confusion, aiming to make them hard to detect.

Once someone entered, the poisonous powder or mist would erupt instantly, wasting none of its toxicity!

That was the true essence of poison arrays as Li Changshou understood them!

When setting up these poison arrays, Li Changshou never dreamed they could directly wipe out the incoming enemies.

The reason was simple: anyone bold enough to attack Duxianmen, which had a Jin Xian guardian, must have their own Jin Xian experts...

In fact, Li Changshou had even considered the slim possibility of them having a Da Luo Jin Xian and made preparations accordingly.

Even with his "divine" paper dao ren laying these traps, any Jin Xian, no matter how weak, could easily blast them apart.

So, these poison arrays were meant to function like landmines, delivering an instantaneous burst effect.

And because the enemy likely had at least two Jin Xian, Li Changshou decided to only deploy the paper dao ren for ambushes and not involve Elder Wan Linjun.

—To avoid the old man charging in with his copper staff, yelling "For Renjiao," and fighting the enemy's Jin Xian to the death.

The goals were to harass the enemy, slow them down, expose their movements, provide timely warnings to the sect, and weaken their strength to some extent.

Those were the roles of the six Di-zi paper dao ren!

Hidden inside a tree trunk, the No. 3 Di-zi paper dao ren wobbled and quickly expanded, transforming into a handsome young immortal in a long robe.

Its aura and appearance were completely different from Li Changshou's own.

At that time, half of Li Changshou's mind was focused on this paper dao ren; using the pre-arranged networks of "Chongtong Three-Headed Spiders," he monitored the group of shadows racing toward them two hundred li away, skimming the ground...

Li Changshou soon discovered dozens more figures moving underground.

These figures followed several large demons skilled in burrowing, though they had hidden their aura fluctuations, their concealment was far inferior to earth-escaping techniques.

A true spirit pangolin that had cultivated?

But it didn't matter—Li Changshou had already accounted for that.

Some of the poison arrays he set up had their array bases buried deep, with the main array arranged at an angle...

"Hmm? Something's off."

In the darkness, Li Changshou furrowed his brow as overlapping images flashed in his mind, quickly pieced together.

There was another group of attackers from the southwest!

The enemy had split into two forces!

But... it didn't matter...

Li Changshou split his mind into two streams, multitasking as he activated the No. 5 Di-zi paper dao ren.

Through this paper dao ren, he pre-emptively triggered the layers of poison arrays in the southwest and had it hide in a pond.

After observing carefully for a moment, Li Changshou couldn't help but chuckle quietly to himself.

The current situation was indeed beyond his expectations, with a bit of luck involved...

Out of the three paths where he had mainly set up poison arrays, two were now in use!

—The enemy was truly thoughtful and considerate, not wanting his efforts to go to waste.

Soon, Li Changshou's two paper dao ren both sensed the pressure from Jin Xian.

Two from the southwest, one from the northwest.

Three Jin Xian?

Although Li Changshou immediately noticed that the dao rhythms of these three Jin Xian felt odd, their pressure was undeniably real.

Three Jin Xian...

The situation was getting unpredictable and hard to handle.

In the darkness, Li Changshou closed his eyes again and murmured to himself...

Activate the No. 3 Ren-zi paper dao ren!

In the alchemy room on Xiaoqiong Peak, the "Li Changshou" who had been sitting dazed in front of the furnace trembled, and a spark of life gradually appeared in his eyes.

He quickly shut down the grand arrays around Xiaoqiong Peak and sent a voice transmission to Ling E.

Ling E, who was practicing switching between water-escaping and earth-escaping techniques on the lake surface, froze for a moment, then leaped into the air in two steps, rushing toward the thatched hut by the lake...

"Shifu!

Shixiong has passed out in the alchemy room from refining pills!

Please come and check quickly!"

As Ling E's anxious shout echoed, Li Changshou's mind was drawn to the group of enemies three thousand li away in the northwest.

This group of formidable foes had entered the poison arrays...

They had been flying close to the ground, concealing themselves, but neglected to scout ahead.

The first dozen or so figures charged straight into the first poison array in the northwest.

Poisonous mist erupted, and two of them collapsed immediately!

But the other dozen or so showed no change in their numb expressions; they reacted swiftly, unleashing immortal light and demonic power around them, popping detox pills into their mouths, and retreating backward...

Their forward formation fell into chaos.

"There's an array!"

"It's a simple trap made with poison pills—they must have been prepared; use force to blow it open!"

"Break it quickly!

Don't miss the rendezvous time!"

Several Tianxian-level great demons stepped forward, invoking their divine abilities to easily disperse the poison array.

In that brief moment, of the group that had rushed in earlier, another four or five vomited blood, howled in agony, and their yuan shen scattered.

These were top-quality Wanpai poison pills.

Current tally: six Zhenxian and one Tianxian down.

Following that, the enemy group from the southwest also charged into the dense forest where the first poison array was located.

Li Changshou timed it perfectly, manually triggering the array there; as green mist swirled, the tally increased by another "five Zhenxian."

Additionally, one Tianxian had their yuan shen poisoned, losing combat ability for the time being.

The poison array harassment tactic was off to a green start!

To be fair, Elder Wan Linjun had a real fondness for green—all his poison pills, mists, and powders had a thick green hue...

Li Changshou, on the other hand, pursued the ultimate in colorless and odorless effects.

These two mission-critical paper dao ren maintained their escaping techniques, blending with the trees and the pond.

Li Changshou continued to observe in secret, using them to control the timing of the subsequent poison arrays...

These attackers still hadn't realized what lay ahead on their path and kept charging forward without altering their route...

'It seems that after having their minds controlled, these guys' thinking has gone haywire too.'

Li Changshou mused to himself, while also glancing at the situation inside the sect.

Hmm...

Everything was still peaceful.

Duxianmen had placed their defensive outposts a thousand li around the mountain gate.

Because the sect leader and the elders believed that distance was sufficient to detect enemies and respond in time.

But Li Changshou thought the sect leader and the elders...

Were a bit overconfident.

Of course, he wouldn't speak up about it; he was just a "subpar immortal seedling" from Xiaoqiong Peak.

All he could do was secretly extend his surveillance range to three thousand five hundred li, focusing on a few key paths.

His mind kept watch on the southwest and northwest;

The two groups of shadows moved in near unison, skillfully bypassing one of Li Changshou's hidden poison arrays but plunging into another.

Green mist erupted again, sweeping up seven or eight figures at each site, separated by several thousand li...

Using the spider networks for a close search, Li Changshou spotted traces of those blood mosquitoes on the bodies of the slain Zhenxian once more.

This time, the blood mosquitoes quickly dissipated into blood mist.

In this scenario...

It was likely that the "Mosquito Daoist" had already withdrawn from this matter, avoiding drawing the attention of Renjiao experts...

If that were the case, Duxianmen's chances of victory had improved.

Combining the two attacking forces, there were seventy-eight Tianxian-level demons, humans, and spirits, three oddly behaving Jin Xian, and over a thousand Zhenxian.

This force clearly overpowered Duxianmen.

Moreover, Li Changshou wasn't sure if there were other attackers approaching from directions he hadn't checked...

He had to consider that possibility.

From this perspective, this was indeed a major calamity for Duxianmen.

As far as he knew, the sect had only one Jin Xian—the sect leader—and just over fifty Tianxian elders, with a pile of Zhenxian and Yuanxian, but their actual combat effectiveness was unknown.

Normally, Duxianmen was used to a life of peace and inactivity, rarely practicing large-scale formations with hundreds or thousands of people.

If they had spent half as much effort on drilling "immortal arrays" as they did on "dao companion affairs"...

Why would he, a junior disciple, have to work so hard today!

The two groups of attackers pressed on stubbornly, advancing another hundred li and suffering three more waves of losses before finally slowing down and starting to probe the path ahead with treasures.

It was as if they were saying...

So what if you have poison arrays? We'll just throw lives at it!

Li Changshou chuckled lightly and stopped overthinking, focusing on controlling the two paper dao ren and timing the poison array activations...

Soon, the tally rose to over forty Zhenxian and three Tianxian down, with four more Tianxian heavily injured.

Though it hadn't crippled the enemy, it had slowed their advance, giving Li Changshou more time to prepare.

The poison arrays were performing well; he could focus on developing them further in the future...

Sensing that his shifu and shimei were approaching the alchemy room, Li Changshou diverted a thread of his mind to the paper dao ren there.

Because he had deployed so many paper dao ren, Li Changshou had made detailed classifications.

The Tian-zi paper dao ren were for counter-encirclement after the battle started.

Each carried a large number of original paper figures and poison powder, with auras and appearances bearing no resemblance to Li Changshou.

They would appear after the main battle began and withdraw quickly once it ended.

The Di-zi paper dao ren were for early warnings and enemy harassment before the battle, mainly controlling the poison arrays, with auras and appearances also completely different from Li Changshou's.

The two currently in action were of this type.

The Ren-zi paper dao ren were for protecting his shimei and shifu; though few in number, they were placed directly beside his shifu and shimei.

For instance, the No. 3 Ren-zi one was now responsible for pretending to be his true self later, accompanying his shimei and shifu as they fled to the earth veins...

The composite grand array of Xiaoqiong Peak would be taken over by the Tian-zi paper dao ren afterward, turning it into another "trap" to bury strong enemies.

From outside the alchemy room came a few splashes—that was several spirit-eating jade frogs jumping into the pond...

Then, he heard Ling E and Old Daoist Qi Yuan shouting from outside:

"Shixiong!"

"Changshou, what happened to you!"

Two figures hurried into the array outside the alchemy room...