After Yun Qingyue returned from her excursion and declared they needed to leave, Jiang Mo didn't hesitate for a mont before agreeing. However, the question of how to leave beca problematic. While Yun Qingyue could co and go without issue, for Jiang Mo, who lacked an Array-Breaking Pearl and had no understanding of formations, escaping wasn't so simple.
Jiang Mo considered various options, including the possibility of forcing her way out. Yet even if she managed to break through, the commotion would certainly alert Harmony Sect's powerhouses. Beyond that concern, even after leaving the estate, the surrounding Linglong City remained their territory—once the sect's protective array activated, escape would still be impossible.
After wrestling with this dilemma for so ti, Jiang Mo finally rembered the system she had long neglected.
Since returning from the inheritance space, the White Tiger's seal had significantly affected the system—not by damaging it directly, but by obstructing their connection. When they communicated, the system seed to have a bad connection, its speech fragnted and stuttering. The mall function still worked, but regarding the Array-Breaking Pearl, a one-ti use wouldn't suffice to traverse so many arrays, while a permanent one was prohibitively expensive.
She wondered if the system offered similar products, perhaps with a limited duration, which might be more cost-effective for their current situation.
With this in mind, Jiang Mo called out to the system in her consciousness. After repeated attempts, she finally heard the system's tearful response: "Host, host, it's been so, so long since, since you con-contacted . I thought, thought you had for-forgotten ."
Though it claid to have been a long ti, it had only been a few days. But judging from the system's stuttering speech, its condition hadn't improved at all. This actually relieved Jiang Mo—after all, the White Tiger personally had sealed the system. If it could easily repair and break through such a seal, Jiang Mo's wariness toward the system would have increased significantly.
These thoughts weren't appropriate to share with the system, so Jiang Mo imdiately reassured it: "Of course not. How could I? You've been with
for over eighty years. You're my companion, and only you know my origins. How could I forget you?"
The system was deeply moved by these words and burst into tears: "I knew, knew you were the, the best..."
Jiang Mo felt both embarrassed and exhausted listening to this. She interrupted before the system could finish: "All right, all right, everything's fine. You'll recover eventually. This malfunction is mostly due to the White Tiger's thods. If you can't repair the bug yourself, once my cultivation surpasses the White Tiger's, I can release you." She spoke sincerely, since by that point she would no longer need to fear the system.
The system may not have understood the deeper aning, but it was once again overwheld with emotion.
Faced with such innocence, Jiang Mo felt sowhat guilty and quickly changed the subject, or rather, returned to the main point: "Enough of that—it's still far off. Let's not discuss it now and focus on the current matter."
Though the system had a poor connection and was trapped in Jiang Mo's consciousness, it initially hadn't even noticed its predicant. This indicated that the White Tiger's seal hadn't affected it too severely—at least while residing in Jiang Mo's consciousness, it could still perceive the outside world. Thus, without Jiang Mo having to explain, it guessed her intentions: "Host, host wants, wants to leave, here?"
Jiang Mo confird this and then asked: "Do you have a way to get
out? Or does the mall have any cost-effective items?"
The system imdiately understood its host's frugality. Had it not been sealed by the White Tiger, it could have helped with simple formations. After all, it could detect energy and excel at calculations—nothing programmatic could stump it.
But that wasn't possible now. It couldn't even extend its energy tendrils, and the only practical function it could offer its host was the mall. So it quickly searched through the inventory and recomnded: "Found one. Invis-invisibility talisman, effective for half, half an hour. I'll send, send you the prod-product details, you can, can see for yourself."
The system's stuttering speech pattern was enough to exhaust Jiang Mo. Though the system didn't naturally speak this way—the effect was rely caused by poor signal transmission—it could tell Jiang Mo found it difficult to listen, so it opted to send the information directly.
Jiang Mo saw a light screen flash before her, and the recomnded product page appeared—Invisibility Talisman, a talisman-type magical treasure, the best choice for stealth and escape. Effective for half an hour, purchase requires 5,000 points.
Below this brief introduction, there were dense lines of small text providing a detailed product description.
Jiang Mo patiently read through all the fine print and discovered that while this item was considerably more expensive than a one-ti Array-Breaking Pearl, it was truly practical. Despite its common and familiar na, it differed significantly from the invisibility talismans in her cultivation world. The local invisibility talismans rely concealed one's form and aura, but didn't render the body intangible—they would lose effectiveness upon encountering formations, traps, or attacks.
The system's Invisibility Talisman was vastly superior. Once used, the user's body beca completely intangible, without weight or substance. Even when passing through formation arrays, they wouldn't trigger energy fluctuations that would activate the arrays. As for traps, attacks, and the like—they couldn't even touch the hem of the user's clothes.
This talisman lasted for half an hour, and unless the user actively attacked and disrupted the balance, no one could detect their existence... Of course, the system mall had even more remarkable items that wouldn't deactivate even when attacking, but those were assassination tools with prices more than tenfold higher.
Jiang Mo only wanted to leave, not cause trouble in Harmony Sect, so this invisibility talisman was perfect for her needs.
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After the gathering in Harmony Sect's eting hall dispersed, the palace-garbed woman remained seated for a while before finally rising to leave.
Instead of returning to her own courtyard, she stepped into the formation array and quickly arrived outside the guest quarters where Jiang Mo had been staying. The ti had been brief, and she hadn't yet decided how to utilize Jiang Mo, but when she initially discovered Xuanqing Sect's Jianbing entering Linglong City, she had instinctively detained her without much consideration. She had even employed Harmony Sect's usual beauty trap despite the other's youth.
Unfortunately, the little tiger was still too young and completely clueless. Not only was she unmoved by the various beauties, but she had also harshly turned them away. For this reason, the palace-garbed woman was even more uncertain how to handle her, and had thus kept her waiting.
If not for Crimson Blood Sect and Nine Abyss Sect coming to blows, if not for the urgency of the situation that could no longer be delayed, she wouldn't have co here today.
The palace-garbed woman stood at the courtyard gate for a while before finally stepping forward and raising her arm to knock... One, two, three knocks—the gentle sound was enough to alert any cultivator inside, yet after waiting for so ti, no one ca to answer.
At first, she thought the occupant simply didn't want to respond, but then realized sothing was amiss. She decisively placed her palm on the door, released spiritual energy, and after a brief flash of light, the tightly shut door swung open to her. With the door no longer serving as a barrier, the palace-garbed woman imdiately saw that sothing was wrong. She sent out her divine sense to sweep through the guest quarters and instantly realized the place was empty!
Her exquisite face showed astonishnt as she carefully examined the surrounding formation arrays, confirming that the interlocking arrays hadn't been damaged in the slightest... This was virtually impossible for outsiders. Even disciples who had grown up in Harmony Sect didn't fully understand the sect's arrays, let alone manage to leave with soone without damaging them.
The palace-garbed woman's expression darkened, though she had no ti now to investigate whether a traitor had appeared within the sect. She ford a hand seal, and points of spiritual light gathered at her slender fingertips, suddenly transforming into a lifelike butterfly.
The butterfly was exceptionally beautiful, its entire body a jewel-like deep blue, with spiritual light falling like droplets as its two pairs of wings flickered slightly.
The palace-garbed woman raised her hand slightly, and the luminous butterfly, as if startled, imdiately fluttered upward. This lifelike butterfly wasn't actually alive, but rather a technique the palace-garbed woman had mastered. It had no other function except for tracking. The thread needed for the luminous butterfly to track had already been placed within the guest quarters—anyone who entered and touched anything inside couldn't avoid leaving traces.
Jiang Mo had lived in these guest quarters for several days. Even if she hadn't eaten, drunk, or slept, as long as she had sat down or opened a door, she couldn't possibly have avoided leaving so trace. This was why the palace-garbed woman, though surprised, wasn't panicked.
According to past experience, the luminous butterfly would find a person within the ti it took to burn an incense stick, no matter how far they had fled.
But this ti, the palace-garbed woman had miscalculated. She watched as the luminous butterfly fluttered upward, circled in the air, and then, surprisingly, didn't pursue in any direction. It behaved like a lost traveler who had lost all sense of direction, turning left and right before finally returning to the palace-garbed woman's shoulder. If the luminous butterfly could speak, it would surely have asked why she was playing tricks on it—there was no trace of the target here at all.
The palace-garbed woman naturally couldn't understand the butterfly's resentnt, but this was the first ti she had encountered such a situation. Her fine eyebrows imdiately furrowed.
Her first thought was of a teleportation scroll. Though long lost to common knowledge, all major sects still had such treasures in their collections. However, they were in limited supply—use one and there was one less—so they weren't usually used casually. Given Jianbing's status, it wouldn't be surprising if Xuanqing Sect had provided her with a teleportation scroll for ergencies.
But she quickly rejected this idea because the luminous butterfly was constructed through a cultivation technique, not like ordinary tracking spirit creatures that relied on aura traces. Therefore, even across tens of thousands of miles, as long as the target existed, the luminous butterfly would sense sothing. This perception wasn't blocked by distance or barriers—at most, the butterfly's reaction would vary in intensity.
Yet now the luminous butterfly showed no reaction at all. Unless Jiang Mo had been hiding in a teleportation space the entire ti, even if she had appeared briefly before retreating to her innate space, the luminous butterfly should have detected sothing.
So how had the person escaped? And where was she now?
The palace-garbed woman was utterly baffled. Looking at the empty courtyard before her, her heart filled with frustration. She hadn't yet decided whether to contact the righteous path, but while the choice was hers to make, losing this option didn't necessarily improve matters.
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