Starting My Cultivation With Time Management

Chapter 972: Chapter 112: Let’s Think of a Solution

Soon, the Nether Ghost Path members at the rear received news from their frontline scouting team.

The Tai Yin Sword Master’s whereabouts had vanished!

Mo Gu finally couldn’t hold it in anymore and roared in fury:

“Where is he?”

“We don’t know!” The elders in charge of scouting were equally clueless. “Originally, the secret realm would report to us at regular intervals.”

“But since the last report, it seems to have taken unusually long, so we went to the location of the last report, only to discover that the Tai Yin Sword Master was already nowhere to be found.”

“Trash!” Elder Mo Gu erupted in anger, “Can’t you see what’s happening here? It’s obvious that he has pinpointed your location. First, he used slow movement to lull you into complacency, and then, after the secret realm transmitted a report, he suddenly accelerated, completely leaving you in the dust!”

Everyone thought that this explanation was likely correct, but who could have foreseen this kind of tactic from the opponent?

The intervals between secret realm transmissions aren’t decided by us! Besides, how fast can the Tai Yin Sword Master run? How would we even know? You don’t know either!

“You dare to not accept my criticism, calling you trash, huh?” Mo Gu saw the elders’ dismissive attitudes and spoke coldly, “How long have we been chasing him? Surely, he can’t have drained his True Yuan so quickly?”

“If he hadn’t used up his True Yuan, why would his speed slow down in the first place?”

The scouting team elders remained silent, while someone beside them tried to mediate:

“Let’s not focus on assigning blame for now, Mo Gu. The priority right now is to quickly reconfirm the Tai Yin Sword Master’s position.”

“Agreed,” an elder chimed in, “Based on the Tai Yin Sword Master’s original trajectory, he seems to have gone in the southwest direction.”

“But there’s also the possibility that he deliberately changed direction after shaking us off, so why not spread out in a fan formation—searching west, south, and southwest—and see if we can gather intelligence on his whereabouts?”

“Fan formation dispersal?” Mo Gu sneered disdainfully, “And then wait to be picked off by him one by one? Have you forgotten how Elder Wei De and the other three were slaughtered?”

“Ah, my mistake,” the elder admitted frankly, showing a calm temperament. “But if we move as a group, relying solely on luck to rediscover the Tai Yin Sword Master’s position isn’t a reliable strategy.”

“Why should we do the searching ourselves?” Mo Gu impatiently waved his hand, “Let’s enlist cultivators from other sects to help find the Tai Yin Sword Master’s position. Whoever provides intel will be heavily rewarded.”

The elders’ eyes lit up instantly: Of course! Leveraging the sheer numbers of loose cultivators—why hadn’t they thought of this before?

It wasn’t that they had never considered it, though—merely that they, having spent countless years immersed in cultivation, lacked the sharp adaptability of young talents like Mo Gu. Still, after much deliberation, they could eventually come up with such ideas.

“But,” another elder raised a concern, “What if these cultivators find the Tai Yin Sword Master’s location and decide to kill him themselves instead of reporting back to us?”

“Isn’t that simple?” Mo Gu laughed uproariously, “If it’s a single loose cultivator, receiving the secret realm notifications might lead them to overestimate their chances and try their luck.”

“But if it’s a group of loose cultivators, there’s only one Tai Yin Sword Master—and who among them could truly kill him? Surely only the strongest individual in the party.”

“In that case, those who are less confident in their abilities to excel in combat would naturally come to us with the information, hoping to secure the reward.”

“Ah, I see.” The Nether Ghost Path elders applauded the insight.

Everyone had a clear understanding of how loose cultivators were often “a loose pile of sand.”

If it were three to five cultivators, they might form a mutual alliance of shared interests. However, once the numbers grew, bizarre dynamics started to emerge—there would always be someone with the thought, “Rather than risking it against the Tai Yin Sword Master, why not cash in on the Nether Ghost Path’s reward instead?”

“So, how much should the reward be set at?” one elder asked.

“Even trivial matters like this, and you still have to ask me?” Mo Gu snapped irritably. “Obviously, it should be set high enough but not so unrealistically high that it seems fake…”

As a major sect, the Nether Ghost Path swiftly held a brief consultation among the elders, quickly finalizing the details of the reward and dispatching personnel to spread the word to nearby loose cultivators.

Meanwhile, Ling Yunpo, having been running continuously, estimated that the Nether Ghost Path members had likely given up on pursuit. He took a moment to rest and sent out the Kunlun Mirror to scout.

With its teleportation and scanning capabilities, distance no longer posed a problem. Soon, the Kunlun Mirror discerned the Nether Ghost Path’s scheme with absolute clarity.

“…Basically, they’re putting up a bounty for your whereabouts now,” Kunlun Mirror exclaimed theatrically upon returning to Ling Yunpo’s side. “As long as someone leads a Nether Ghost Path elder to confirm your location, they can claim a Tenth Rank Flying Sword after the secret realm ends!”

“A Tenth Rank Flying Sword!” Ling Yunpo gasped. “Where does the Nether Ghost Path get such extravagant resources?”

It’s common knowledge that modern sword-crafting techniques only go up to Ninth Rank. Tenth Rank Flying Swords are all ancient relics that cannot be mass-produced.

Given their rarity, even though not technically priceless, the market value of a Tenth Rank Flying Sword was astronomically high—often exceeding the prices of powerful Ninth Rank weapons.

For the Nether Ghost Path to offer up a Tenth Rank Flying Sword just for one piece of intelligence—this generosity was truly astonishing.

Ling Yunpo suddenly had an idea and said, “Ah Jing, what do you think of this plan? You transform into a neutral cultivator, go to the Nether Ghost Path, and provide them with intel. Then I’ll deliberately enter the range of their transmissions to validate your information.”

“After confirmation, you immediately demand the Tenth Rank Flying Sword as your reward, and once you’ve received it, I’ll escape again. When they lose track of me completely, you reappear, sell them new intel, and repeat the cycle…”

“Such shameless, despicable plotting—how do you come up with this nonsense without even pausing to think?” Kunlun Mirror exclaimed in shock. “Impossible! I’ve already checked—they said the reward can only be claimed ‘at the Nether Ghost Path sect after the secret realm ends.’ The initiative is entirely in their hands!”

“Using tactics like this to trick them? You still expect to collect the sword afterward? They’ll probably just kill you on the spot for treating them like fools.”

“What a pity,” Ling Yunpo remarked regretfully. “If the Nether Ghost Path were part of the Three Pure Orthodox Sect and cared about their reputation, perhaps we could force them to honor the deal grudgingly.”

“But since the Nether Ghost Path belongs to the Demonic Path, their actions aren’t bound by the same principles as the Three Pure Orthodox Sect. This plan just won’t work… How many loose cultivators have bought into their reward offer?”

“Quite a lot,” Kunlun Mirror sighed, “Many loose cultivators don’t believe they could kill you. From a risk-averse perspective, they’d rather collect the reward for providing your intel. So they’re now rallying others to join the hunt for your traces.”

“Moreover, some loose cultivators, after accepting the Nether Ghost Path’s task, immediately approached other itinerant strangers and reissued the mission under their own names—offering rewards for locating you too, though of course these aren’t as valuable as a Tenth Rank Flying Sword.”

“They can subcontract missions like this?” Ling Yunpo stared in disbelief.

“Exactly,” Kunlun Mirror replied thoughtfully. “I suspect it won’t be long before cultivators from across the secret realm start converging to look for you.”

“You’d better think of a plan, Guan Shui!”

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