63. Joint Effort to Slay the Monster

"You are a sword passed down from ancient times, anyway. Leaving aside the fact that you have no valuable collection to speak of, how on earth did you develop this habit of stripping the feathers from every passing goose?" Lin Jiuge asked, utterly perplexed.

"It is all because you are too poor, Jiuge! Repairing me takes forever," the nameless sword chiseled rapidly, sounding deeply aggrieved. If not for this, it could have communicated with Jiuge using divine sense instead of having to carve words like this!

"Heh." Lin Jiuge let out two cold sneers and unilaterally refused to converse with it. She was poor indeed; if it hadn't insisted on selecting only top-tier grade ores, she would have been quite a wealthy young lady by now.

The nameless sword! How did Jiuge know she could unilaterally cut off the connection?!

"In a moment, I will use the Spirit-Binding Rope to restrict its movements. You will have only three breaths of time to shatter the soul bead. Once you do, I can use the Spirit-Binding Rope to drag my child out," the little bear said.

"That is not foolproof, Senior Brother. Can the array disc you brought be used to set up a tier-four array?" Lin Jiuge dismissed the idea. Three breaths of time was far too short, and they only had this one chance.

"Yes, though the success rate is terribly low." Could Zhou焱 admit that he had only just reached the low tier of grade four?

"Senior Brother, how many concealment talismans do you have?" Lin Jiuge switched to a different approach.

"Not many, maybe seven or eight." Zhou Yan did not know what Lin Jiuge was planning, but he answered truthfully.

"That is enough. Senior Brother, let us use concealment talismans instead of an array disc to set up a concealment talisman array!" Lin Jiuge said decisively.

Zhou Yan was frozen in shock by his junior sister's audacious idea.

"Junior Sister, these two items cannot be used interchangeably," Zhou Yan managed to recover his voice.

"Why not? Both are filled with elemental energy; using talismans might even be more convenient. An array disc still needs to be refined, whereas talismans are so much easier to carry around," Lin Jiuge retorted, feeling that her logic was flawless.

The little bear stood to the side, watching the junior sister and senior brother argue. Never mind, there was no need to rush, though the bear felt somewhat puzzled. These two were clearly people of the Spirit and Concealment clans—she had already checked—yet she had no idea what the current situation of those two clans might be.

"Senior Brother, give it a try. Our success rate will be much higher," Lin Jiuge painted a rosy picture.

"Junior Sister, we don't have many of these items to begin with, so stop wasting them," Zhou Yan disagreed.

"Senior Brother, you have to help me. Right now, you are the only one who can help me," Lin Jiuge said with utmost sincerity.

"I will try." Zhou Yan was persuaded; if they wanted to get out, killing the monster outside was their only option.

Within the courtyard of the Daiyue Sect, Lin Jiuxi quietly wiped away her tears for three whole days. Today was yet another day of missing her older sister. Wuwuwu, why hadn't her sister returned yet?

Lin Jiuxi wiped her tears with one hand while tinkering with talismans in the other.

"Jiuxi, what are you doing?" asked the Dao-Enlightening Primordial Sovereign, genuinely finding his disciple's appearance too pitiful.

"Master, I am setting up an array," Lin Jiuxi replied with a sob, somewhat reluctant to pay attention to her master. Wuwuwu, her master wouldn't let her go look for her sister.

"You are setting up an array using talismans?" The Dao-Enlightening Primordial Sovereign felt Lin Jiuge's approach was a bit childish, but he did not stop her.

"Mn."

Lin Jiuxi gave a perfunctory response. Soon, guided by her movements, the talismans formed a low-tier grade-one talisman array.

The Dao-Enlightening Primordial Sovereign looked at the finished product in astonishment. The array and the talismans were fused together without the slightest hint of stiffness or awkwardness.

"Jiuxi, would you let Master test its power?" The Dao-Enlightening Primordial Sovereign was somewhat excited.

"No." Lin Jiuxi flatly refused.

"Why?" The Dao-Enlightening Primordial Sovereign had not expected to be turned down by his own disciple! He suffered a heavy mental blow.

"I'll wait for Sister to come back and test it." Mentioning her sister brought tears bubbling up in Lin Jiuxi's eyes once more. Wuwuwu, she missed her sister.

"M-Master, you are lying to Jiuxi! Sister hasn't come back for three whole days. Does she not want Jiuxi anymore?" Lin Jiuxi cried harder and harder, growing more heartbroken by the second.

Li Yun, who had been watching out of curiosity, heard the crying, turned around, and walked away immediately. A child separated from their older sister was truly impossible to coax; not only was she difficult to comfort, but she also held a grudge!

At Lin Jiuge's suggestion, Zhou Yan made his first attempt, which naturally failed.

"Senior Brother, you need to perceive how much elemental energy is required for a regular array disc, and compare it to how much elemental energy you use with talismans. Just like when we practice *Swift Steps*, the elemental energy within your body must be distributed accordingly," Lin Jiuge offered a new perspective.

"I will try again." Hearing this, Zhou Yan experimented according to Lin Jiuge's instructions. He sensed the fluctuation of the surrounding elemental energy and found the rhythm, but because of a momentary lapse in concentration, he failed once more.

"Junior Sister, I know what to do now." This time, Zhou Yan's speed was much faster. Finally, following his vision, the talisman array formed successfully, and Zhou Yan put it away and handed it to Lin Jiuge.

"Can we make a move now?" the little bear asked anxiously.

"Not yet," Lin Jiuge shook her head.

"Senior Brother, make one more array disc—still a concealment array—and then take these, and throw them all out." Lin Jiuge produced a pile of talismans of various grades.

"Senior Brother, I need you to activate the concealment array and use these items to attract the monster's attention." Lin Jiuge instructed.

"Understood."

"Senior, once I reach position, I will shake the Spirit-Binding Rope. Two shakes mean I have arrived; one shake means get ready to act. Once you feel that, count to ten silently and make your move, and pay no attention to any sounds from the outside." Lin Jiuge gave her directions.

"Alright."

The two of them were ready. Lin Jiuge applied the concealment talisman array, and Zhou Yan sprang into action. After throwing a tantrum and failing to find his two tiny snacks, the monster impatiently wagged its tail out of sheer boredom.

Suddenly, a flash of golden light cut across the air. The monster felt a sharp pain in its left eye as Lin Jiuge forcefully carved out the Blue Dragon's Ice Crystal it used as a disguise.

Roaring in agony, the monster kept one eye shut while randomly firing off ice spikes in all directions, which almost struck the invisible Zhou Yan.

Zhou Yan could only marvel inwardly: *Junior Sister, you truly are fearless!*

Moving carefully, Zhou Yan tossed out the pile of talismans without even checking the results and retreated. Gradually, the monster's rhythm was led astray by Zhou Yan. Seizing the opportunity, Lin Jiuge crept up to its other eye and struck ruthlessly.

The monster let out an enraged roar, thrashing about and unleashing sprays of water and wild ice spikes. As instructed, Zhou Yan scrambled back to the little bear's side, letting out a breath of relief. *My junior sister really dares to do anything!*

The little bear concentrated on sensing the movements of the Spirit-Binding Rope. After a long while, the rope twitched twice.

"It's about to begin."

"Jiuge, you are actually going to use yours truly? Wuwuwu, I am no longer pure; I am going to touch filthy things!" Having been unilaterally cut off by Lin Jiuge earlier, the nameless sword was now pulled out once more to shatter the soul bead.

Observing the speed at which it carved words into the sea of consciousness, Lin Jiuge thought that this broken sword would definitely win a calligraphy competition!

"Shut up. Don't you want the Blue Dragon's Ice Crystal?" Lin Jiuge said impatiently. Her focus was at its absolute peak right now, and she truly had no time to bicker with it.

"I am just a poor little thing..."

"Ahhh, Lin Jiuge, you play dirty!"

While carving complaints, the nameless sword precisely pierced straight through the soul bead. Following the command, the little bear cub was simultaneously dragged out of its physical vessel by the parent bear.

"Damnable, how could it be the mix—"

The monster roared in bitter resentment before dissolving into a cloud of dust and vanishing completely.

"Junior Sister, are you injured?" Zhou Yan looked Lin Jiuge up and down. Aside from being drenched in Milky Way Spring water and having expended a massive amount of elemental energy, she was completely fine.

The nameless sword had already been put away the moment they came inside.

Lin Jiuge distinctly felt that the nameless sword had fallen into a state of depression. And she hadn't misheard—the monster actually seemed to recognize the nameless sword.