The entire sect is obsessed with love, but I'm the only one who's truly insane.

"Junior Uncle, should we go down and rescue them?" Yuan Ye asked after setting out the bowls and chopsticks.

Yan Qing, who was standing to the side, was looking at a huge scroll on the table. A topographical map in ink was slowly appearing on it and was being improved. Gradually, points representing people were added. As he looked at it, he made some annotations.

Lin Du lazily lifted his eyelids to glance at it, then sat down in front of the large pot. "No need, let's wait. We're just short of vegetables anyway."

"If you're bored, let's take apart a puppet for fun."

Lin Du pulled out the puppet.

Yuan Ye squatted down with great interest, "Where should we start dismantling?"

"Gouge out the eyes first, then the heart." Lin Du put down the shovel with a smile.

For some reason, Yuan Ye inexplicably felt a flicker of fear in the eyes of the puppet on the ground.

"Junior Uncle, it seems the people from Guiyuan Sect have climbed out of the pit," Ni Jinxuan reminded her.

"It's good that they've climbed out. That pit is only within the range of the Spirit-Severing Array. If they can't even climb out of the pit with their physical strength, then they're really too weak. Don't worry about them. If they continue forward, they'll enter the true range of our great array."

As Lin Du spoke, he focused his divine sense on the puppet, feeling that something had been a little off for a moment.

"Then they left..." Ni Jinxuan obediently reported.

"They're leaving... Huh? They're gone already?" Lin Du turned to look down the mountain. "They really left. I was thinking of having them stay for a meal down the mountain."

"Why do I feel like there was demonic energy just a moment ago?"

Yuan Ye tapped the puppet's chest.

Ordinary puppets can indeed mimic human appearances, but their main body is still made of wood and various mechanisms, driven by spirit stones, and can still be disassembled if desired.

Lin Du stared intently at those eyes, then smiled and reached out to cover the puppet's skull.

"What structure?" Yuan Ye asked curiously.

"It's nested; the mechanism is in the inner layer," Lin Du figured out. "Let's dismantle it."

The two quickly removed the outer skin of the puppet, revealing its original wooden structure, complex joint structure, and core muscle framework.

But most importantly, those eyes are still there.

Ordinary puppets don't see with their eyes, so the eyes of the outer layer of the puppet shouldn't move.

Yuan Ye finally understood why Lin Du had gouged out his eyes.

"What is that?"

"It's the same thing as the Heavenly Eye." Lin Du said expressionlessly, casually covering it with something. "If this is the organizer, then it's incredibly boring."

The mechanism on the chest wasn't Lin Du's forte; she only knew how to break through with brute force. But this puppet was highly precise and perfect for Yuan Ye to play with. Lin Du gave Yuan Ye some space and kept an eye on the stew that was almost ready.

But soon, Yuan Ye's voice tightened, "Junior Uncle?"

Lin Du lowered his head. Inside the core of the puppet, which had been painstakingly dismantled, was a magic crystal with a purplish-black luster.

She exclaimed "Whoa!" and then pointed to the puppet's head.

Yuan Ye disassembled the head and took out the Heavenly Eye.

Xia Tianwu, who had been watching, also reacted, "The Flying Shadow Stone is something from Fanqian City. It was nurtured by someone using divine sense and can record the images in front of you."

Lin Du frowned. "Normally, a Flying Shadow Stone needs to be nurtured with divine sense for fifty or even a hundred years. The demon must have spent a lot this time. I can't even get a proper Flying Shadow Stone."

"You want it? Using divine sense to nurture something like this is too wasteful; it's not very useful in daily life." Xia Tianwu thought for a moment, "Next time, we can try our luck in the East Sea. I remember there's a glass fish whose eyeball can be used to capture images."

"However, because the sea creatures had some conflicts with human cultivators a few years ago, there are very few of them circulating in the market now. Even if there are, they are old beads from years ago, and the recorded contents are limited. They can only be preserved for seven years before they disappear automatically."

Lin Du didn't speak, but just stroked the Flying Shadow Stone, looked down at it for a while, wrapped it with a cloth that blocked divine sense, and put it back.

"Should we just destroy this magic crystal? It has a curse mark on it that can allow demons to control puppets," Yuan Ye asked.

"No, pack it up first. I want to know what those demons are up to." Lin Du said, then stood up again. "It's time to eat."

"But what if..."

"Just in case, I planted a puppet curse on this puppet. I want to see whether the Corpse King's puppet curse is more powerful or the demon's puppet curse is more powerful."

Lin Du lifted the pot lid, and steam rose, the broth boiled, and the aroma filled the air. The meat chunks were tender and soaked in the broth, with a bright red and oily color.

"Alright, let's eat."

Five people, each carrying a bowl of rice with vegetables and broth, sat in a row, heads down, eating.

Until the explosion rang out, the five people silently protected their respective livelihoods amidst the rising smoke of bitter medicine.

Lin Du quickly covered the pot with the lid, saying, "It's delicious with rice, really delicious with rice."

The food was a bit too outrageous.

Down the mountain, amidst a suffocatingly eerie stench, a cultivator coughed incessantly, covering his mouth and nose. "Wait... this Supreme Sect... isn't it just an outer illusion array? What is this? What kind of ambush?"

"Landmine, huh?" Another late-stage Cloud Soaring Realm cultivator looked at his robes, now shattered by the explosion, heartbroken. "Are we still leaving?"

"Since we're already here, I refuse to believe it. Didn't someone just see them cooking upstairs? We finally broke their formation, we can't just go back. We have to catch them off guard and launch a surprise attack."

Lin Du lowered his eyelids, withdrew his divine sense, and identified them by their clothes: "Two late-stage Sky Soaring Realm cultivators, from the Luo Shu Sect."

Yan Qing was taken aback. "Isn't the Luoshu Sect supposed to be able to see the rhythms and rules of all things, and be extremely proficient in astronomy, seasons, medicine, and divination? Is this all?"

"They're skilled at calculations," Lin Du pondered for a moment, "How could they not have realized they'd already entered the outer edge of my main formation? That shouldn't be possible."

"So far, no sect has actually entered the formation you set up, Junior Uncle, not counting those fake traps and basic formations outside." Ni Jinxuan had been observing intently. "Seven groups of people came in total, and they've all left."

Lin Du: ...It's all for naught. Did you go too far?

She hadn't expected that not a single one of these people could even enter the great formation.

"It's probably because other sects' array masters are still setting up arrays on their own territories," Yan Qing said. "That's normal now."

"Alright, let's finish eating, figure out which sect those five pigeons are watching, and then we'll begin." Lin Du glanced at the parchment on the table; it already had a complete outline.

The group quickly finished their meal amidst the smoke and began setting up around the map on the table.

Those who can participate are all geniuses and outstanding talents from various sects. Most of them are over a hundred years old when they reach the Nascent Soul stage, and there are very few cultivators under a hundred years old who have reached the Great Perfection of the Cloud Ascension stage. Apart from small sects, all other sects have at least two late-stage Cloud Ascension stage cultivators in their teams, and even one Great Perfection Cloud Ascension stage cultivator. One person's combat power is equivalent to that of four people from the Supreme Sect.

They can't take a direct assault, so they have to outsmart them.

"It's the same old method as before: the empty city strategy and the time difference. The best way is to lure them all into my formation." Lin Du paused. "I'm confident that normal people won't be able to get out for at least three days. That should be enough."

Her formation wasn't designed to protect the initial base; her primary purpose was to trap people.

"Junior Uncle, they've gone in." Ni Jinxuan glanced down the mountain and saw that no one was in sight. They had entered Lin Dubu's formation.

"Then let's start by taking down Luoshu Sect." Lin Du smiled and pointed to one of the places. "After all, their sect only has two late-stage Sky Soaring Realm cultivators; the rest are not worth mentioning."

"I haven't sparred with array masters from other sects yet, and I'm getting a little excited just thinking about it."

Yuan Ye rubbed his hands together, eager to tear them apart!