Zongwu: Aspiring to be the mastermind behind the scenes

Chapter 385 Operation Qilin, Plot Deviation

The small bottle of Zhenyu Qianye was delivered to the Black Qilin by a flying bird.

Having obtained the deadly poison, Black Qilin was preparing to attack the central pool, only to discover that the pool was heavily guarded, with numerous traps and mechanisms around it.

Those mechanisms were spread throughout a ten-zhang radius around the central pool.

Ten feet away were Mo family disciples patrolling back and forth.

Furthermore, the Mohist school issued a new rule prohibiting any Mohist disciple from entering within ten zhang of the central pool. Anyone who violated this rule and was killed by the traps would be prosecuted!

Black Qilin's disguise technique is ever-changing; its transformations are not limited to imitating appearance, but can even mimic aura and moves to a great extent.

At the same time, there are no flaws in terms of body shape; he can transform perfectly even for the elderly, children, and women.

This kind of disguise allows him to become anyone.

However, even the Black Qilin couldn't find a good solution for a place that was completely off-limits to humans and filled with all sorts of automatically triggered mechanisms.

He certainly considered impersonating other leaders as well.

However, it was difficult to make a move against the powerful leaders, while the weaker ones were always accompanied by several Mohist disciples, making it impossible to find an opportunity to switch identities.

For a time, even the Black Qilin was helpless.

The night passed quickly, and the opportunity to poison the fish had already passed.

Black Qilin realized that this mission was indeed quite tricky.

Because he was starting to get hungry.

At this time, the Black Qilin had been in the Mo Family's Mechanical City for two days.

But in fact, the day before the mission began, he was busy with various preparations and had no time to eat.

Therefore, the black Qilin has essentially gone three days without food.

For such a long time, not only had he been wandering around, observing the structure of the mechanical city to draw a structural diagram, but he also had to maintain his disguise at the same time, constantly consuming his true energy.

After three days, although we couldn't say we were starving, we were still extremely exhausted.

It was only at this moment that the Black Qilin suddenly realized just how vicious the Mechanized City's previous tactic of collecting all the food and concentrating it in the canteen was.

I initially thought this was just a strategy for the current state of war, but now it seems there's also the possibility that it's aimed at him.

After much deliberation, the Black Qilin finally decided to seek help from Wei Zhuang.

"Centralized food supplies, and government security measures?"

Wei Zhuang frowned upon seeing the intelligence report: "In a state of war, it's a normal strategy to concentrate all food in one place and distribute it through the ruler, so it's not surprising. But to guard all the key locations with traps and prohibit everyone from approaching... this move is clearly aimed at the Black Qilin!"

Chi Lian laughed and said, "Lin'er always says that his disguise skills are unparalleled in the world and that there is no place in the world he can't go. I didn't expect that he would run into trouble in this Mechanized City."

Gongshu Chou said, "Lord Wei Zhuang need not worry. To deal with the Mo family's mechanisms, it is naturally up to my Gongshu family to take action!"

Not long after, Bai Feng controlled two birds to deliver a piece of intelligence and a mechanical beast that was only the length of a palm and the thickness of an index finger to the city.

Once the black Qilin unfolded it, it knew what this mechanical beast was.

Shichiro Poto!

Its essence is exquisite, its skillful craftsmanship can move even metal and stone.

The Gongshu family's Potu Shichiro is a small mechanical beast that looks like a lizard. Its main function is to break other mechanisms.

While Gongshu Chou himself would need to be present to operate and potentially break through truly complex and ingenious mechanisms, Potu Shichiro's ability to solve most ordinary mechanisms on his own is sufficient.

However, even with this mechanical beast at hand, it would be foolish to directly attack the central pool.

Wei Zhuang devised another strategy specifically for this purpose.

It's still the same old trick of feinting to the east while attacking in the west, luring the tiger away from the mountain.

Wei Zhuang intensified the Qin army's exploration of the Mechanized City, and now thousands of Qin soldiers are heading towards the Mechanized City from all directions.

With such a massive number, even with numerous traps and mechanisms surrounding the city, it was impossible to keep up.

After all, the entire city of the mechanical city only has a little over a thousand people.

When other areas need to transfer personnel, the only option is to move the city's troops outwards, resulting in a shortage of personnel for some jobs within the city.

But none of these were Wei Zhuang's goals; his real targets were the leaders.

Because of this large-scale operation, several leaders known for their combat prowess, including Gao Jianli, Xue Nu, and Da Tiechui, left the Mo Family's mechanical city to provide support.

Master Ban was busy repairing various mechanisms.

Duanmu Rong was responsible for treating the many injured people.

The only one who was free was Master Xu.

Therefore, all the matters in the city that required a leader to handle had to be entrusted to Master Xu.

This naturally includes inspecting the central pool.

As soon as night fell, Black Kirin used the Haruti Shichiro technique to destroy the mechanisms near the central pool, and then immediately went to the cafeteria to steal some food, thus revealing his actions.

Although many people in the city knew that an enemy skilled in disguise had infiltrated the city, the exposure of the Black Qilin was indeed the first time, instantly causing a huge uproar.

With many leaders in the city busy with their own affairs, the only option left was to seek help from Master Xu.

The black qilin deliberately left food scraps behind to allow people to track its movements.

Although it was intentional, his methods left a trace that was difficult to find. The process of searching and thinking would take a lot of time, not to mention the actual search.

After the third time, even if Master Xu was foolish, he realized that he had definitely been tricked. Therefore, he decisively withdrew, letting the Mohist disciples search for him, while he continued with his original work.

If that's the case, it's already past midnight.

By the time Master Xu discovered that all the mechanisms near the central pool were broken, several hours had already passed since the Black Qilin had poisoned it.

Over such a long period of time, the water in the central pool had long since flowed throughout the entire Mo Family Mechanized City, accompanied by countless mechanisms.

Master Xu realized something was wrong and immediately summoned Duanmu Rong to check the water in the central pool.

However, the rare poison, Zhenyu Qianye, has no toxicity whatsoever when it is not activated, so Duanmu Rong naturally could not detect it.

So when morning came, the sunlight shone into the city, and the poison was instantly activated.

The poison that had already flowed with the water from the central pool throughout the entire mechanical city took effect instantly, turning into a pale purple toxic gas that lingered throughout the entire city.

Anyone who came into contact with this poisonous gas collapsed instantly.

In the latter half of the night, Black Qilin had already relayed the information to Wei Zhuang outside, and Wei Zhuang cooperated by halting his attack.

With this stop, the Mohist disciples on the defensive side also had some free time. Led by Gao Jianli, only a few elites remained to continue patrolling, while the others returned to the Mechanized City to rest. This move played right into Wei Zhuang's plan.

When the poisonous gas was released, many Mohist disciples were eating in the dining hall. Suddenly, a large number of people lost consciousness and fainted, which immediately alerted Gao Jianli's men, who thought that someone had poisoned the food.

A moment later, they realized it was a problem with poison gas!
Many experts immediately circulated their internal energy, transforming their external breathing into internal breathing.

With his immense strength, he was already able to suppress the effects of the poisonous gas with his internal energy. Now, with a change in his technique, he could completely isolate himself from the poisonous gas.

However, this method is clearly only usable by a very small number of experts.

Even those at the peak of innate perfection can maintain this state, but they cannot sustain it for long.

Only those at the Grandmaster level can maintain this state for a relatively long time.

The group immediately left the cafeteria, hoping to find the source of the poison, and ran into Duanmu Rong and Master Xu.

The two had come to discuss the destruction of the central water tank's defense mechanism after hearing that Gao Jianli and the others had returned to the city. However, they encountered this problem on the way.

Xu Fuzi and Duanmu Rong were not particularly strong, but as a descendant of a medical family, Duanmu Rong carried some poison-avoiding pills with her. After each of them took one, they were able to resist the poisonous gas falling around them.

To be fair, Zhenyu Qianye is indeed extremely terrifying.

Such a small bottle, so light that a bird could grab it and fly away, you can imagine how much venom it contains.

Such a small bottle, when dropped into the central pool, will circulate throughout the entire mechanical city along with the water in the pool. When activated, it can directly envelop the entire city, causing everyone to instantly fall unconscious.

While possessing such powerful effects, the weaknesses of the Poison Feather Thousand Nights are also obvious: it can only cause unconsciousness and cannot kill, and its effect on experts is limited.

Moreover, it is easily countered by other antidotes.

It can only be said that there are advantages and disadvantages; nothing in the world is perfect.

Duanmu Rong took out her antidote and gave it to each of the Mo family leaders.

However, she had a limited number of antidotes. After all, who would bother to carry dozens or hundreds of antidotes with them?
In this critical moment, Master Ban made the first decision: "Although this poison is potent, it can only render my Mohist disciples unconscious. However, this must be Wei Zhuang's scheme. It won't be long before he leads the Qin army into the Mechanized City."

"Although our Mechanized City is unmanned, its numerous traps should hold them off for a while. We should seize this opportunity to use the antidote that Miss Rong has to rescue our key personnel first, and then plan our next move!"

Although it may sound cruel, abandoning the numerous but weak Mohist disciples and focusing on rescuing the powerful masters is the right thing to do.

The others were not indecisive either; they quickly divided up the remaining antidote pills in Duanmu Rong's hands and dispersed them throughout the city to treat the elite soldiers.

They agreed to meet in the central hall.

Duanmu Rong wanted to find Gao Yue, but Gao Yue was with Tianming and the others.

Also present were Gai Nie, Fan Zeng, and others.

They were all guests and were arranged to stay in guest quarters, which were located on the edge of a cliff, where they could see the surrounding mountains as soon as they opened the window.

This location is incredibly clever at this time of year. It not only avoids the toxic gases released through the flowing water, but also allows the mountain breeze to blow the toxic gases away simply by opening the window.

When Duanmu Rong arrived here, she was stunned.

"Now I only have three antidotes left!"

Fan Zeng laughed and said, "It's not that there are only three left, it's that there are exactly three. Let Shao Yu and the others take these three. We adults have internal energy, so even if we enter the poisonous gas, we can hold out for a while. Besides, the poisonous gas can't penetrate us here!"

"Master Fan..."

"Shaoyu, be good!"

Fan Zeng said, "You three little ones, after you take the antidote, go to the central hall first."

Duanmu Rong thought for a moment and said, "I'll go to the pharmacy and see if I can use the herbs there to make some more antidote temporarily."

She wasn't entirely sure she could do it.

The antidote she had was of the highest quality, but it was uncertain how effective a hastily made antidote would be, or even whether it could withstand the poison gas currently permeating the city.

However, it is still a glimmer of hope.

So the group separated again.

The three children went straight to the central hall.

Duanmu Rong then went to her own pharmacy.

Wu Liangtian, who had also obtained an antidote from Master Ban, had been paying close attention to the situation here. Upon seeing this, he couldn't help but sigh inwardly.

The plot has been changed too much.

In general, it was still Wei Zhuang who led the army to destroy the Mechanical City.

However, there are far too many details that are completely different from the original plot.

Wu Liangtian didn't care about these changes at first, but he didn't expect that these changes would actually affect the fate of the three little ones.

According to their original destiny, the three of them should have encountered Yin Fu while following Duanmu Rong.

Under the pursuit of Yin Fu, Duanmu Rong sent them into the forbidden area of ​​the Mo family. As a result, the group was able to overcome numerous difficulties in the forbidden area and finally retrieve the Mo family's supreme weapon, 'Fei Gong'.

But now, the three of them not only did not encounter any danger, but also headed directly towards the central hall.

Once they arrive at the central hall and join the Mo family, there is no doubt that no one can harm them.

Naturally, they wouldn't dare to trespass into the Mo family's forbidden area.

This will not only affect Wu Liangtian's plans, but may even directly change a major event that follows.

That is, the current leader of the Mohist school, before his death, asked that the position of leader of the Mohist school be passed on to Tianming.

This matter seems very illogical at first glance, but Yan Dan also has her own logic.

Although Tianming is just a child, he is full of chivalrous spirit. He is both the son of Jing Ke and the disciple of Gai Nie.

Most importantly, he passed through the Mo family's forbidden area and obtained the principle of non-aggression!
Passing through the forbidden area of ​​the Mohist school is a condition for becoming a leader.

All other conditions can be met later, but this one must be completed within the Mo Family Mechanical City.

At that time, the Mo Family's Mechanical City was destined to perish, and the Mo Family's forbidden area would naturally be destroyed as well.

Tianming will be the last member of the Mohist school to pass through the Mohist forbidden area.

He was also the last person who might meet all the selection criteria for the leader of the Mohist school.

Therefore, Yan Dan passed the position of Grand Master to Tianming.

Of course, that's a story for later.

The problem now is, how do we get these three little ones into the forbidden area?

(End of this chapter)