Sam let the puppets return after he was done.
With the energy resonance and the crystal table, he managed to map out every formation and he even managed to map out the elemental energies the formations used and got an idea of what kind of formation that it could be.
He lost four puppets in the process, but in turn, managed to make it so that the other party wouldn't try to destroy the rest of the puppets and at the same time tested the durability of the main formation.
All it needs is one and a half medium-sized liquid energy crystal exploding on top of it which would be enough to create an opening. Each bat puppet has a full-sized medium-sized liquid energy cell placed in them and half of the energy for each cell was consumed due to the energy resonance technique.
From this, he could estimate how much energy he needs to destroy the formation when it is in a completely defensive state.
At the same time, in the cap, the second table was filled with the whole holographic map of the city along with the layout of the formations. Now the crystal table can be used to monitor the real-time movements as well as give commands to his puppets and the team members while the second table can be used to plan their strategies based on the layout.
Sam went outside and started receiving the bat puppets.
At this moment, Markan who opened his eyes came. He is brimming with energy and seemed like he was on a verge of a breakthrough to the Peak stage transcendence of the Astral Plane. But he is extremely dull. Nothing like a man who just got a new lease on life.
"What happened?" Sam asked with a bad feeling in his heart.
"My cultivation is back. I can cultivate again and I can feel the progress."
"And?"
"My elemental energies are not back. The energy is disappearing whether if I absorb it from outside or move it from the core. I don't know what to do and without these energies, I wouldn't be able to prove my identity."
Sam didn't know what to say. He felt frustrated and felt like bashing something in.
But he took a deep breath. Sucked it up and spoke.
'" Let us do a different type of test. We have focused on the seal all this team and felt like this is the problem all this while. But now that we know the problem is different, let us see what other possibilities are."
Markan didn't say anything and just nodded with a heavy heart. He just had his hopes up only to be ruthlessly crushed back again. He cannot help but feel glum.
Sam sent him back to rest and started thinking about how to proceed.
The price for destroying the formation is too large. He needs to divert the attention of the patrolling puppets for a long time because as soon as the puppets saw their presence, the personnel is arriving in a short time frame, and in that time frame, it would be hard to locate the nodes, much less trying to destroy them.
And he cannot play that cat and mouse game for a long time.
As for the inside help, he has three of them and one of them can get access to some level of information inside and the other two parties are good fighters within their realm.
The situation is not too bad but not too good either.
But first, he decided to use what he has inside the city.
He called Arkiv.
"I need you to do something for me there."
"Tell me."
"Was Kiran placed properly beside the second young master?"
"Yes."
"Okay then, good. Now, I want you to kill every person that comes into contact with the second young master."
Arkiv was dumbfounded and stayed silent for a moment before asked.
"You want me to kill everyone he comes into contact with?"
"Yes, he seems to have been deployed to a particular area of the city to act as a supervisor of the troops there."
"Yes, he was sent there."
"Apart from his immediate subordinates, he would be meeting many other people. As long as their strength is lower or equal to that young master, kill them directly. If possible kill the people who are stronger than him too using Kirans help in an unsuspecting way.
But not immediately though. Give it some time, but do not take more than twelve to fourteen hours.
And don't leave any traces of yourselves there. If possible, I would prefer if you can use some special technique to kill the stronger members with your archery. Use only spiritual energy arrows, do not use any physical arrows."
"When do you want me to start it?"
"From tomorrow. Today, the Branch leader will call you guys for a meeting. At least, the first young master would definitely be invited. Have you heard the explosions?"
"Yes, I have seen them."
"Those will be the reason for the meeting, they would ask for a way to destroy those puppets or at least negate them and find a way to take them down without triggering the self-destruction. So, we are going to use this chance. I will spare you the technical details and talk to the First young master. While he would work from there you need to work on these killings."
"Okay then. I will be on my way. I need to make some preparations."
"Don't get caught. I don't want to rush this."
"Don't worry about it."
With that, the call was cut off and Sam immediately called the first young master.
He started explaining the details regarding the plan and the first young master carefully listened. After over an hour, the briefing was over and the first young master was given the rest of the instructions before the call was cut off.
As the First young master looked at his notes in amazement, an attendant came for him.
"Young Master, the branch leader called you for a meeting."
The First young master, stored all the notes in the spatial ring and went to the meeting.
There are a bunch of elders, the second young master, the attention-seeking lady, and the branch leader.
The Branch leader looked at all of them and proceeded in a solemn tone.
"Most of you have seen the puppets that attacked us. We lost one-third of our independent flying puppets instantly.
And the worst part is, even if we managed to take them down, we are the ones suffering the damage, other parties are barely suffering a loss of a puppet. They managed to kill over a dozen soldiers in the city guards responsible for patrol and immediate action upon infiltration.
If we need to proceed forward in this war, we need to find a way to reduce our losses that might be the result of self-destruction of the puppets."
And the discussion began.
Many ideas are being thrown into the meeting whether they made sense or not. The first young master had a thoughtful expression and he didn't even seem like he is paying any attention to the rest of the meeting.
"So, what do you think, Brother One?"
All of a sudden the second young master's voice was heard and everyone's attention was diverted to the first young master.
The first young master looked stunned and everyone could guess that he is not paying attention at all.
"What?" First young master asked in confusion.
"I asked, what do you think of my idea?"
The second young master pressed with a wicked smile. He is still hostile towards the first young master, because of the Attention seeking lady. So, he is now trying to take advantage of the situation and make the first young master feel embarrassed.
But to his surprise, the first young master didn't stutter or try to embarrassingly remedy the situation. Rather, he casually said.
"I am sorry. I didn't listen. I was thinking something else."
When they heard this, everyone in the room was dumbfounded.
The second young master's smile also froze and he said.
"I said, that we should lure them out with a plan. Since there is an Astral Plane Consummate cultivator on that side, we can just propose a duel openly. And since they are here for the core, we can propose the core as a wager and our branch leader will make the duel take a lot of time.
Since they sent the independent puppets this far, but still managed to give some orders to them, that means they are within a certain range.
So, after we lure the strongest here, we would send the elites of our branch out and try to search for them. What do you think? Would this plan work?"
The rest of the elders all looked at the second young master with a smile and then looked at the first young master with disdain.
They received the message that the branch leader wanted to keep this guy here through the second young master and obviously, they received a biased explanation from this guy. So, they are a bit averse to him. And now that their young master wanted to rip this guy a new one, they are gloating secretly.
