Chapter 123: Palace of Brilliance Resurgence
“I have been cultivating the entire day before and lost track of time. After cultivating for an entire night, I only withdrew from my cultivation state at dawn today. After eating breakfast, I suddenly felt exhausted and rested for a short while. I didn’t expect to fall into a deep slumber, causing me to be late. I wish for everyone’s forgiveness.”
Bai Luochu spoke with sincerity and she wasn’t arrogant because of her status as Divine Physician Bai. In response, everyone returned the formalities and didn’t put it to heart. At this moment, the Palace of Brilliance Resurgence seemed united.
When Bai Luochu noticed that the atmosphere was right, she didn’t delay and spoke immediately, “Everyone should know the reason behind the accelerated construction of the Palace of Brilliance Resurgence. During these two weeks, everyone had risen early and slept late, taking turns to work your hardest. By doing so, it allowed us to complete building our foundation before the deadline. This nobody Bai shall give my thanks to everyone here!” Bai Luochu finished her statement and bowed, showing the members of the Palace of Brilliance Resurgence a lot of respect.
“It hasn’t been a month since I started recruiting all of you and we have already developed the Palace of Brilliance Resurgence to such a large scale... It is truly a joyous event. I am very happy about it.” Bai Luochu looked at everyone’s expressions before continuing her speech, “But, our Palace of Brilliance Resurgence is a newly created faction. There are many things that are uncertain and we have yet to establish a firm footing. Thus, we have two problems to solve today.”
“Firstly, it is regarding the various tasks after the establishment of our Palace of Brilliance Resurgence. We will need to quickly draw up a plan to make sure that we will not easily be harassed by other factions.”
“Secondly, it is the trip to the Falling Cloud Mountain Range. We have to prepare a thorough plan before appointing suitable people to head over. Does anyone have any good suggestions?”
“It might be majestic and imposing to choose this mountain to establish ourselves, however, defending it will be a challenging task. The manpower we have right now is just enough to defend the Palace of Brilliance Resurgence while handling the businesses in the city. It’s difficult for us to take care of other things.” The one who spoke was a cultured and weak looking scholar. He didn’t seem to be superior to anyone in terms of his appearance but he was competent enough to escape unscathed when facing against the killing moves of the Phoenix King Valley’s inner valley disciples. After that incident, he voluntarily joined as he placed his safety above all else. The moment Bai Luochu spoke about the Phoenix King Valley, he became extremely hostile.
Bai Luochu was initially considering whether or not she should recruit this individual. After weighing the pros and cons, she realized that her recruits were mostly people who spoke out for justice and were generally outspoken. They were either the descendants of declined aristocratic clans like Guan Yue, or cautious people like Ying Lan. They were lacking someone who had a clear view of things and had money or power to offer assistance. After thinking for a long time, Bai Luochu finally decided to recruit him.
He was originally unwilling to accept his fate as a mediocre person and the moment Bai Luochu extended her olive branch towards him, he immediately agreed to join. On the second day of the recruitment feast, he was the first to arrive. This person always looked at the big picture. Everyone present had been working together for a month now and the moment the words came out of his mouth, all of them appeared to be worried and concerned about the security of the base.
When Bai Luochu saw everyone’s expressions, she knew it was time. She threw her plan out to all of them. “I already have a plan. I once saw an array in an ancient book. It is easy to set up and as long as the core of the array is created, everything else will be easy to set up. This array might not pose much of a threat as it will only inflict poison to those who forcefully barge in. I made some calculations and those who force their way through will show signs of poisoning the moment they arrive at the entrance.”
“How will this array be able to differentiate between people of our palace and those who come with ill intentions?” Someone made an inquiry.
Bai Luochu smiled and replied, “If everyone can trust me, then please prick your left ring finger or use your spirit qi to force out a drop of blood. The left ring finger is connected to the artery of the heart. Blood that flows out from this part will possess a unique characteristic to the owner. When your blood is fused into the array, all of you will become immune to it. None of you need to worry.”
As soon as Bai Luochu replied, someone else asked another question, “Although it isn’t good for other factions to barge into our mountain, will the poison cause them to lose their lives?” The one who asked the question was a woman who obviously couldn’t stand the thought of killing people.
Bai Luochu was cursing silently in her heart. The person who spoke was rather young and seemed somewhat naive. It seemed as though she would require more coaching from Ying Lan when he was free. Bai Luochu’s expression didn’t change as she replied, “You are overly concerned. The poison from this poison array will only make the victim dizzy. They will be unable to cause us any trouble if they charge all the way up here. I will prepare the antidote in advance and provide it to the people who are in charge of the security of the palace. After they consume the antidote, we can strike some fear into them before sending them off. The poison array will not activate when one is descending the mountain.”
When everyone saw how Bai Luochu cleared all their doubts, they no longer had anything else to say. When Bai Luochu saw that no one else had any questions, she carried on. “If everyone is fine with my suggestion, we will implement it immediately. Will everyone please place a drop of your blood into this porcelain bowl. It will be much more convenient for me to set up the array.”
As soon as Bai Luochu spoke, Ying Lan brought out the porcelain bowl and silver needles. Cai Ling started from the left hand side as she used the silver needles to extract a drop of blood from the members present.
Bai Luochu was sitting at the host seat and quietly observed everyone present. Most of the men used the silver needles to prick their fingers before squeezing out a drop of blood. To them, there was nothing wrong with pricking themselves with this tiny needle and they didn’t want to waste their spirit qi. As the ladies were afraid of pain, they used their spirit qi to force the blood out instead. Even though this method was painless, the expression on the ladies’ face made it seem as though they sacrificed a lot.