The forest.
The orange cat sat atop a big tree, looking down towards a lake in the distance.
This place was a considerable distance away from Ramon village, in the middle of a mountain range in the wilderness of the border.
The other side of the mountain range would be another Duchy.
The orange cat retracted his gaze and closed his eyes, silently waiting.
According to that wraith’s memories, since this was a highly secluded location, a temporary base, and the people of this world trusted the wraiths quite a bit, this base’s security wasn’t as strict as other bases.
The one thing the wraiths were most confident about was their individual ability to keep secrets.
——even that guy who was infected by the Plague Apocalypse managed to apply several defensive techniques on his body right as he was resurrected.
About two minutes later.
The orange cat abruptly opened his eyes, staring down at the lake.
A wraith descended from above, landing on the surface of the lake, and instantly disappeared without a trace.
Seeing this, the orange cat turned around and ran, quickly leaving this forest surrounding the lake.
He stopped in a different location of the forest, took out the jade pieces from earlier, and drew a circle with his paws.
Instantly, the archery techniques recorded on the jade pieces all disappeared.
「 What are you making? 」the Earth sword sent its mountainous heavy voice.
“I don’t have any jade tags I can use right now, so I’ll just use their jade pieces for convenience’s sake” Gu Qing Shan also sent his voice in reply.
The orange cat put the jade pieces in the air, striking spirit energy into it continuously with both paws.
The Earth sword hovered a bit in the air, slicing a stalking large snake on the tree in half, then continued: 「 I had thought that you were going to eradicate all of those wraiths 」
The Six Paths Great Mountain sword appeared.
Shannu spoke up:
“There aren’t too many wraiths here, what use would there be in killing them? That would only alarm them and place gongzi in a more dangerous situation”
The Earth sword was stumped, so it asked: 「 Then what do you think he’s trying to do? 」
Shannu replied: “I think that gongzi is trying to infiltrate the wraiths, not only would that not expose him, but he would also gain a lot of information—— is that right, gongzi?”
The two swords both looked at Gu Qing Shan.
At this point, Gu Qing Shan had finished modifying the jade pieces, so he chuckled: “Shannu, since when could you consider such matter?”
Shannu replied: “Because I would occasionally have to act as gongzi, I’m now always paying close attention to your gestures, words, and thought process”
Gu Qing Shan praised: “Indeed, I’m pleased that you can now make preparations for abrupt circumstances”
Being praised, Shannu felt delighted, which showed in her tone: “Then, was that what gongzi is planning to do?”
The orange cat opened his paw, displaying for her to see, and sent his voice: “The wraiths have both the advantage of number and strength, but I still have to deal with the threat of the Plague Apocalypse and extinct monsters, so I don’t have the time to slowly grind them down”
“Then—– this is?” Shannu was confused and asked.
The orange cat raised one of the jade pieces, formed a hand seal with one paw, and sent his voice:
“Under normal circumstances, different individuals value different things, so it is very difficult for you to force someone to care about something they aren’t interested in, unless…”
Shannu fell silent.
She had no idea what Gu Qing Shan was talking about, so she chose to listen.
Gu Qing Shan circulated his spirit energy and infused it into his hand seal.
“Unless that ‘something’ was related to the survival of everyone as a whole, only then would a ripple effect be achieved, leading the entire world to exert its greatest possible force”
“This world will soon fall into chaos, so if the rotten part isn’t amputated, everything is going to be over before it even begins. I’ll have to take this opportunity while the plague and monsters still haven’t completely descended to stir up just the right amount of chaos”
——his technique was completed.
Image Recording technique!
This was an extremely simple technique of the cultivation world, which essentially acted as both a camera and microphone in its vicinity.
Holding the jade piece in his mouth, the orange cat quickly returned to the lake.
He approached the lake, then waited for a while.
Having known the patrolling rules from soul reading and having seen the wraith earlier, Gu Qing Shan had a perfect grasp of the other party’s timing.
About two breaths’ worth of time later, another wraith descended from above right on schedule, preparing to enter the base.
But this wraith didn’t know that when he released the lock seals atop the lake surface, a cat had suddenly appeared behind him.
This cat entered the base below the lake together with him.
Everything around the entrance was cold and wet, but there was a narrow stone staircase that continued from the surface of the lake to the very bottom.
The orange cat silently followed behind the wraith, quickly reaching the end of the stair.
This place was around half a football course in size, with two wraiths hovering in mid-air right at the very center.
Both of these wraiths were covered from head to toe with talismans and exuded an eerie fluctuation.
Below them, around 7-8 wraiths were busy with their own work.
They occasionally drew a seal in mid-air with spirit energy and controlled the talismans, sensing their changes.
The orange cat held the jade piece in his mouth and slowly entered the room before jumping onto a long table, silently observing everything.
Suddenly, one of the wraiths asked:
“Sir, how do you feel?”
One of the wraiths whose body was stuck full of talismans in mid-air replied:
“I have received the guiding fluctuations of the [Snowdrift] inheritance. Baron Rhode of Langlois Prefecture’s soul frequency and direction have been determined. Once the progress of his cultivation reaches 75%, I will activate the first soul exchange”
One of the wraiths curiously asked: “Sir, he’s only a Baron, why do we need to use not only the precious [Snowdrift], but also for you to personally take over his body?”
The wraith stuck full of talismans replied:
“You’ve only just arrived so you don’t know, but this Baron is a rare Condemner, his faith lies not with the Deities, but with his Condemnation Codex. We still haven’t managed to obtain this Profession, so the superiors are highly interested in it”
“So that’s why——–”
The wraith was about to say something else but was cut off.
The other wraith whose body was stuck full of talismans in the air raised his voice:
“Attention everyone, Viscount Fidez’s [Hundred Slashes] technique has been cultivated to completion, please get ready, I’m going to perform the complete soul exchange”
As soon as he said so, the talismans on his body exuded a malicious aura.
Hearing that, the wraiths gathered around this wraith, each forming a different hand seal.
Instantly, black lengths of chains manifested from their hand seals, wrapping the body of the wraith covered in talismans.
“Sir, [Life Snatch Body Swap] is ready!” one wraith reported.
The wraith in mid-air solemnly declared: “Everyone, I shall be leaving. From today onwards, I am Viscount Fidez. Make sure to clean everything up carefully. After taking over his body, I will look for Viscount Warren, temporarily do not contact me”
“Understood”
“Very well, begin!”
Each of the wraiths started to ready a different hand seal, shouting in unison: “We’ll see you off, sir!”
Instantly, the hovering wraith whose body was stuck full of talismans fell down, crashing into the ground.
One breath.
Two breaths.
He staggered to stand back up, ripping off the talismans on his body while doubtfully questioning: “Where… am I?”
The wraiths activated all of their hand seals at once.
The black chains instantly tightened up, restraining the man.
“Magic Prohibition!”
“Physical Prohibition!”
“Divine Prohibition!”
“Item Prohibition!”
“Covenant Prohibition!”
“Restrained!”
The wraiths shouted one after another.
The man tried to struggle, shouting in fury: “You damned inferior wraiths, I am Viscount Fidez! How dare you disrespect me this way!”
The wraiths completely ignored him.
They exchanged glances, then one of them reported: “[Life Snatch Body Swap] was successful, no mistakes were made, we can now proceed to the next step”
One of the wraiths stepped forward, declaring: “I’ll do it”
He drew a blade and swung.
“Don’t——”
Before the man on the ground even managed to beg, he was chopped in half, losing his life instantly.
“Very well, the only target left is Baron Rhode. He won’t be able to reach requirements for swapping for a short while. Everyone, get some rest”
“Alright”
…
The orange cat held the jade piece in his mouth, coldly observing everything that had occurred.
Once everyone had scattered, leaving only a single wraith here as a guard, he silently went back the way he came and stood at the entrance of the base.
The orange cat turned back into Gu Qing Shan, the effects of [Ghostly Shadow of Night] instantly disappeared from his body.
Gu Qing Shan raised the jade piece up to carefully record his surroundings.
Finally, he put the jade piece directly in front of his face and solemnly said: “Everyone, I am Rhode of Ramon village in the Langlois Prefecture of the Fran Duchy, a Baron”
“During my recent conferring ceremony, I have received a gift from the wraiths——- a few Archery techniques”
“The wraiths always present their gifts to aristocrats, but was this really because they are humble?”
“I felt suspicious, so I did some investigations”
“Earlier, I have shown you the truth”
“Following this—– I will collect samples and use a real example as evidence”
“The battle might be a bit bloody, there’s no need for everyone to observe that”
He put the jade piece away, then wielded both the Earth sword and Six Paths Great Mountain sword tightly in his hands.
“Earth sword”
「 Hm? 」
“Now, this is the time to kill them all”
At the depths of the base, the wraiths quickly sensed the unusual fluctuations here and were swiftly making their way towards him.
