Deliberation

Just as Lin Xiao was about to head toward the thatched hut, he stopped in his tracks at those words.

“A plague?”

He turned to Qin Jianghe and said, “When it comes to something like this, it’s better to believe it exists than to dismiss it outright. Besides, those symptoms sound extremely serious. How about this? We’ll hold a small meeting later to discuss the matter, and we’ll also send a letter to the capital to bring it to the court’s attention.”

Qin Jianghe nodded. “I already informed Li Zhouxuan as soon as I received the news. He also sent a letter to the alliance headquarters in Huanyou Kingdom, but we haven’t received a reply yet.”

Considering that this could very well be a contagious plague, Lin Xiao no longer had time to visit the thatched hut where Little Luan and Da Tao were staying temporarily. He turned around and led Qin Jianghe toward the sect’s main hall.

At the same time, he sent sound-transmission talismans to Liao Pantu, Liu Yunan, Sun Yigao, and Mo Yuanjiao, asking them to gather in the sect’s main hall.

Lin Xiao had given some thought to summoning these few people instead of calling the entire sect together.

First, Senior Liao was highly experienced and knowledgeable, so an issue like this naturally required his advice. Baldy had previously been in charge of handling all sorts of matters within the sect, so of course he was needed at a time like this as well. He would also be useful when it came to making arrangements afterward.

As for Yigao, he was currently recognized throughout the sect as its resident physician. Naturally, a problem involving illness could not do without him.

And Yuanjiao was included because of his connections with and knowledge of the imperial court. Furthermore, after returning this time, he had privately told Lin Xiao that he wanted to become the sect’s intelligence chief. Since that was the case, Lin Xiao naturally had to fulfill his wish.

As for Fuzi and the others, he did not notify them for the time being.

After all, the sect’s various affairs were already operating properly. They could not summon everyone whenever something happened, leaving the sect’s work waiting around for them.

There would only be more major and minor matters for the sect to deal with in the future. It was impossible to hold a general meeting for every single one of them. They could only discuss matters that needed to be made known to everyone, and then inform the entire sect once they had the time, allowing everyone to stay up to date.

The sect’s disciples could not remain completely cut off from the outside world, of course. Receiving the necessary information was extremely important.

With that thought in mind, the moment Lin Xiao stepped into the sect’s main hall, an idea occurred to him.

Perhaps their sect should establish some kind of sect publication in the future, specifically for regularly recording various news from the outside world and within the sect, so that everyone would have a fixed channel for obtaining information.

Liao Pantu and the others acted very quickly.

As soon as they received Lin Xiao’s message, they put down whatever they were doing and hurried over.

Before long, everyone Lin Xiao had summoned had arrived in the sect’s main hall.

The six of them held a small meeting.

Since the situation was still unclear, they ultimately decided to send one or two people to investigate and confirm the details before making further plans.

Sun Yigao currently had both the private school and Tong Jialiang, the patient under his care, to worry about. Since they had no idea how long this investigation might take, Lin Xiao did not ask him to go.

As for Liao Pantu, he was preparing to enter seclusion.

Recently, he had either been busy giving lessons to everyone in the sect or constantly leaving the sect to handle various matters. He had not had any time to cultivate in seclusion, and his soul body had become somewhat weak.

He also needed to cultivate the Soul-Refining Art.

Even though only his soul body remained, that was precisely why he needed to cultivate regularly in order to maintain its stability.

This was because he had developed the Soul-Refining Art himself. Otherwise, if it had been anyone else, even someone whose cultivation had reached the Deity Transformation stage, they would have long since dissipated completely after being unable to return to their physical body for so many years.

Thus, Sun Yigao recommended that his disciple, the cat demon Fang Tuantuan, go instead.

Having stayed by Sun Yigao’s side all this time, Fang Tuantuan had learned some methods of healing used by cultivators. Whenever Sun Yigao studied books on spiritual medicines, he would also explain them to Fang Tuantuan.

As a result, Fang Tuantuan could be said to be the person in the sect best suited to the role of physician aside from Liao Pantu and Sun Yigao.

Although the little cat demon usually either stayed by its master Sun Yigao’s side or ran to the Fang family’s old residence in the county town to wander around, and was not particularly devoted to cultivation, it had still reached the ninth level of the Spirit Awakening Realm not long ago under Sun Yigao’s guidance and influence, as well as thanks to the spiritual energy now filling the Lingxian Sect.

Moreover, Fang Tuantuan had spent years roaming among ordinary people and had experienced plenty of the wickedness of human hearts. Everyone felt more at ease letting it go out.

Besides, Lin Xiao would be going as well.

During the small meeting, Qin Jianghe had provided more detailed information about the war to subjugate Huanyou Kingdom.

Only then did everyone learn that although the campaign had overthrown the imperial family of Huanyou Kingdom and the sects that had aided and abetted them, the main ringleaders had not all been captured. They had managed to seize only the crown prince of Huanyou Kingdom’s reigning monarch and the master of one of those sects.

The monarch and the Imperial Preceptor, however, had both escaped, and they still had not been captured.

That was also the main reason the alliance army was still stationed within Huanyou Kingdom and had not withdrawn, while the former imperial family, which had taken over the administration of Huanyou Kingdom, had raised no objections.

The former imperial family was also afraid that once the alliance army left, their enemies would make a comeback and they would be unable to withstand them.

After all, the former imperial family’s current power could be described as extremely weak.

Therefore, Lin Xiao decided to go over and take a look as well.

He had personally witnessed the dangers of the Jishi Stones.

He did not want to see such a tragedy happen again.

He did not want there to be a second Tong Jialiang.

Compared with the native cultivators, Lin Xiao possessed the system, which gave him certain advantages. Perhaps he could be of some help.

Whenever he had free time, he would browse through the system shop. After several trips through the cultivation world, he had already planned out many ways to escape from various dangerous situations in advance.

During the earlier war, which had been on the scale of a national conflict, the few people and limited fighting strength of their sect would not have been able to make any difference.

But if they were only tracking down and capturing a few individuals, that might be another matter.

A long time ago, Lin Xiao had asked Liu Chun how he had managed to find him with nothing but a spirit stone.

Liu Chun had then taught him something new.

It was called the Tracing Source Talisman Array.

The Tracing Source Talisman Array was a talisman array that Liu Chun had developed himself.

A talisman array was a special formation created when a talisman master combined talismans according to their own understanding of talisman techniques in order to achieve a desired effect.

This was a method of combining talismans and formations that had existed in the world since ancient times.

However, it placed extremely high demands on a talisman master’s talent. One had to possess a certain level of understanding and insight into talismans, as well as considerable knowledge of formations, to accomplish such a feat.

Otherwise, even if one obtained an identical talisman-array formula, activating the array might not produce the desired result.

That was because talismans and formations were originally two different paths of spiritual-energy manipulation.

Combining the two required an intermediary.

That intermediary was the person activating the array.

The person activating the array had to use their own spiritual power to sense and guide the two, thereby activating the energy created through their combination and allowing it to display its effects.

Otherwise, the two would be unable to interact with each other.