Volume 3, Chapter 354 – The Escape

Lu Zhuxin grabbed Chi Xiyan’s collar just in time.

“Wait!”

“Hm?” Chi Xiyan paused at the window, looking down at the girl in her arms, puzzled. “What is it?”

Seeing Chi Xiyan stop in time, Lu Zhuxin let out a quiet breath of relief.

Chi Xiyan was an alchemist, not a formation master. She was not sensitive to shifts in formation arrays.

If she had actually gone out through that window, Chi Jingwen’s formation would have been triggered immediately.

The moment the array was disturbed, Chi Jingwen would know something was wrong.

Once the Chi family’s grand formation activated in full, Chi Xiyan would have no chance of getting away.

Lu Zhuxin would have loved to watch Chi Xiyan and Chi Jingwen tear into each other, but letting Chi Xiyan get caught right now would be a setback for her own plans.

So she was going to have to quietly patch a few holes in Chi Xiyan’s escape scheme.

Bu Lianshuang’s situation also needed to be handled.

Chi Xiyan might be content to leave her behind, but Lu Zhuxin could not abandon the little wolf here.

Chi Xiyan did not know Bu Lianshuang’s true identity, which was why she did not understand what was actually at stake.

If the Demon Suppression Bureau discovered who Bu Lianshuang really was, things would get very messy very fast.

The charge of colluding with a wolf demon, if it stuck, would mean Chi Xiyan would have no place left to stand in the human realm.

So both of these problems were ones Lu Zhuxin needed to clean up on Chi Xiyan’s behalf.

She felt rather like a long-suffering mother quietly fixing the disasters her careless daughter left in her wake.

“Sister, I just remembered something I forgot to grab,” Lu Zhuxin said. “Put me down for a moment.”

Chi Xiyan’s brow creased slightly, but she complied, setting Lu Zhuxin down. She glanced toward the window.

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“Be quick. We do not have much time.”

“Yes.” Lu Zhuxin nodded and hurried to a corner of the room, opening an empty wooden chest and pretending to search through it.

Chi Xiyan did not grow suspicious. She simply counted quietly in her head.

With her back to Chi Xiyan, Lu Zhuxin slipped a small, compact formation disk out from its hiding place.

She fixed her spiritual consciousness on Chi Xiyan, and once she was certain Chi Xiyan’s attention was elsewhere, she pressed her finger lightly to the disk.

[Zzzzt…]

A chime sounded from the system, and her formation mastery was activated once more.

What had moments ago been a tangled, opaque web of array lines now cleared in her mind like fog burned away by sunlight.

She drew in a soft breath. The sensation was deeply satisfying.

The Chi family’s grand formation, which had been airtight to any outside eye, now revealed gap after gap when she looked at it.

With just a gentle nudge through the disk, she felt she could send that seemingly immovable formation crumbling to pieces.

“Are you done yet?” Chi Xiyan’s voice came from across the room. “We are running out of time.”

“Yes, sister.” Lu Zhuxin answered.

The formation mastery granted by the system only lasted half an hour when activated. She had to resolve the Chi family loose ends and leave Beihe Commandery alongside Chi Xiyan within that window.

And she had to do it without letting Chi Xiyan notice a thing.

‘Half an hour is more than enough,’ she thought.

Once they were out of the Chi residence, her spiritual consciousness would no longer be constrained by the formation. With formation mastery active, getting Bu Lianshuang out would not be difficult. The only real challenge was slipping away from Chi Xiyan without arousing suspicion.

Turning that over quietly in her mind, Lu Zhuxin got to her feet and crossed back to Chi Xiyan, practically tumbling into her arms.

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“Sister, I am ready. Carry me out.”

The familiar warmth and scent reached her again. Chi Xiyan tilted slightly and gathered Lu Zhuxin back into her hold.

Soft warmth in her arms. Chi Xiyan was reminded, unbidden, of the day she had helped her purge that toxin.

Idle thoughts crept up. She bit the tip of her tongue and forced them back down.

“Hold on tight,” she said, her voice slightly rough.

She touched the tip of her foot lightly to the floor, then swept through the window with Lu Zhuxin in her arms, vaulting out into the courtyard beyond.

Lu Zhuxin threw her arms around Chi Xiyan’s neck and buried her face against her.

Before her eyes, layer upon layer of formation energy spread out like a net, closing in on Chi Xiyan.

Chi Xiyan was clearly prepared. She snapped her fingers and a talisman shot out, striking the array.

Ripples spread outward, like rings on disturbed water.

The formation threads converging on them dissolved back by a layer, as though burned away.

So this was what Chi Xiyan had been relying on to move through the Chi family’s grand formation.

Lu Zhuxin watched with quiet admiration. She had not been able to make sense of it before, but with formation mastery active, everything became clear.

Worked into that talisman was the spiritual formula of a high-level formation master. It had been made specifically and deliberately to counter the Chi family’s array.

Chi Xiyan, you rebellious thing. You have had your eye on the Chi family’s assets for a long time, have you not?

A custom talisman produced through the joint effort of a formation master and a spirit inscription master cost far more than anything ordinary.

But there was another problem.

Lu Zhuxin saw it clearly. The moment Chi Xiyan’s talisman dissolved the outermost layer of the formation, new formation energy immediately flooded in to replace it.

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This was the array Chi Jingwen had prepared specifically for Lu Zhuxin’s courtyard.

And Chi Xiyan could not see it at all.

‘Looks like I have to step in.’ Lu Zhuxin kept one arm looped around Chi Xiyan’s neck and gave her free hand the faintest shake. The small formation disk slipped down into her palm.

She channeled a thread of demon energy and pressed lightly. Invisible ripples spread outward from the disk, fanning quietly into the air around them.

The formation energy blanketing the courtyard shuddered violently the instant those ripples made contact.

The threads and lines of the array still seemed unwilling to yield. They trembled and surged toward Chi Xiyan anyway.

Lu Zhuxin narrowed her eyes, pressed harder, and gave a firm second tap.

Ding.

The demon energy of an Eighth Realm great demon far exceeded whatever this formation had been calibrated to handle.

The array that should have been capable of trapping a high-level cultivator was forcibly subdued. As Chi Xiyan carried Lu Zhuxin toward and through it, the formation parted and opened a path for the two of them.

Chi Xiyan had no idea any of this was happening.

She held Lu Zhuxin in her arms and cleared the courtyard in a handful of light, swift movements.

Once they were clear of the yard, Lu Zhuxin caught sight of Chi family guards lying on the ground. They were sprawled on their backs, eyes closed, peaceful smiles on their faces, as though lost in some pleasant dream.

So that was it. Chi Xiyan had put the surrounding guards to sleep.

For an alchemist, she had a remarkably easy hand with poisons.

Lu Zhuxin let out a soft, amused click of her tongue.

Chi Xiyan did not head for the main gate. She took the side exit instead, using her talismans to force open a path along the way, one barrier at a time.

Lu Zhuxin could see plainly that Chi Xiyan had chosen the route where the formation was thinnest.

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It was true enough. For any organization, the most dangerous threat was always the one already inside.

The journey had its tense moments, but no real crises. Chi Xiyan carried Lu Zhuxin out of the Chi residence without incident.

Outside the gates, the martial artist Lin Xiu stood in dark clothing, waiting beside a horse-drawn carriage.

“Eldest Young Miss.”

Chi Xiyan gave him a short nod, then stepped up into the carriage still carrying Lu Zhuxin.

Lin Xiu spoke as he took the reins. “The Chi family’s watchers are concentrated on the eastern main street. As long as we avoid that route, we should not be noticed for a while. Once we reach the Chi family’s private manor in the north of the city, there will be people waiting for us. We will leave through one of the Chi family’s hidden passages.”

“Understood.” Chi Xiyan gave a quiet reply.

Lu Zhuxin blinked. So that was Chi Xiyan’s plan. Slip out using the Chi family’s own infrastructure before Chi Jingwen could catch on.

Not a bad plan. But if she followed it exactly, she would have no opportunity to go back for Bu Lianshuang.

Sorry, little Xiyan. I am going to have to make a few changes.

Lu Zhuxin murmured to herself, then closed her eyes and let her spiritual consciousness unfurl like water spreading across the ground.

Without the Chi family’s formation constraining her, she could reach freely in every direction.

Around the Chi residence, the Fox Clan’s network of informants had long been in place, keeping quiet watch.

In that moment, a voice sounded in each of their minds.

It was Lu Zhuxin’s.

“Go and inform that Wolf Clan elder. It is time to get to work.”

“Let Beihe Commandery have a night worth remembering.”