Chapter 146
Yu Sui had previously released Five Elements Light Cores to follow Zhang Xiangyan's three. She saw the three had reached the coral sea and were searching for Silver River Water.
After the sea whirlpool devoured Luo Fu's Lightning Attraction Array, the underwater situation became dangerous with chaotic Five Elements energy. Yu Sui couldn't be certain whether it was due to the sea whirlpool's appearance that crushed the Five Elements Light Core she had placed on Zhang Xiangyan.
At this moment, Yu Sui didn't know what condition the three underwater were in.
If Zhang Xiangyan and Luo Fu were unlucky enough to mistakenly enter a sea whirlpool and be devoured by it, that would save quite a bit of trouble.
While Yu Sui was pondering, Li Jin Shuang asked: "What do we do next?"
"Wait and see a bit more." Yu Sui said, "If those three are sharp enough, they should be able to sense trouble above while underwater. When they discover the Mechanism family people, they should know to take a detour coming up."
Li Jin Shuang said: "I'm just afraid they'll encounter sea whirlpools on their way back."
Yu Sui shrugged: "Being swallowed by sea whirlpools would be pretty good too, saves trouble."
Li Jin Shuang thought about it and actually found Yu Sui's words reasonable.
The two hid in the shadows watching the Mechanism family people busying about.
The shore was almost covered with mechanism boats released by the Murong family. The mechanism practitioners who arrived later were gathering together, preparing to build a large ship on the spot.
Each small boat was carved full of golden curse patterns. The hulls looked very sturdy. Even boats that could only hold one or two people had visibly exquisite and solid craftsmanship.
Yu Sui and Li Jin Shuang watched intently as the Mechanism family practitioners quickly finished building the giant ship's hull in no time.
Both were amazed at how fast the Mechanism families worked.
At this moment, many practitioners stood on the black giant ship, forming hand seals to awaken the formations set on the hull.
The first giant ship docked at shore for final inspection, while other practitioners turned to start building a second giant ship.
More and more people gathered by the sea, mostly from the four major Mechanism families. These mechanism practitioners wore identical clothing. If any unrelated people mixed in, they could be spotted at a glance.
The Mechanism families' actions made Yu Sui feel the sea whirlpools were very dangerous. She looked down at her Wind-Listening Ruler, found the location where Senior Brother's Wind-Listening Ruler had previously appeared, then compared it to her current position. It was too far away.
There were no islands around, nothing but ocean.
The two Wenyang family brothers also knew Senior Brother had come to Mechanism Island, but didn't know where he was now.
Yu Sui thought it over, then looked up and told Li Jin Shuang: "I want to go look in the sea."
Li Jin Shuang turned to look at her, her eyes full of incomprehension and confusion, silently asking: Are you crazy or am I hallucinating?
"You don't need to come with me." Yu Sui stared at the first giant ship, lowering her voice: "It's me who wants to look in the sea, and also look for traces of my Senior Brother."
"Mei Liangyu?" Li Jin Shuang was somewhat surprised. "He's also in the sea?"
"Senior Brother got lost in the sea." Yu Sui turned to look at Li Jin Shuang. "We've waited so long, and Zhang Xiangyan and the others haven't come up. If nothing unexpected happened, then something unexpected happened."
After pondering for a moment, Li Jin Shuang said: "I'll go with you."
Yu Sui looked at her. Before she could speak, Li Jin Shuang added: "Sea whirlpools are rarely seen, and Mechanism family techniques are even rarer. I don't want to miss this chance to gain experience."
The two discussed quietly and quickly decided to first disguise themselves as Mechanism family practitioners and sneak onto the first giant ship.
……
Yu Sui decided to target Wenyang family mechanism practitioners.
Among the four major Mechanism families, Yu Sui only knew a few people from the Wenyang family. They had a good relationship with Mei Liangyu too, so even if discovered later, she could find ways to muddle through.
With shipbuilding at the shore, more and more people gathered. These mechanism practitioners judged which family people belonged to by their clothing.
The giant ship docked ahead, blocking many sightlines. There were also many small boats surrounding it, with people both on shore and at sea. Yu Sui and Li Jin Shuang picked two mechanism practitioners who clearly couldn't fight.
The two waited patiently, observing their targets' every move. When the targets left the crowd and went to a somewhat distant place, they began their action.
These two Wenyang family practitioners had been busy for a long time and wanted to avoid the crowd to find a quiet place to rest.
Unexpectedly, just after sitting down briefly, they were knocked unconscious by two people who suddenly appeared behind them.
Li Jin Shuang quickly dragged the people behind rocks for concealment. Looking back, she found Yu Sui had already put on the Wenyang family's red-black robe, raising her hands to re-tie her hair.
In this instant, Li Jin Shuang blurted out: "Do you do this kind of thing often?"
Yu Sui, who was tying her hair with her head down, turned to look at her after hearing this and smiled: "What?"
"Nothing." Li Jin Shuang looked away, also feeling her earlier thought was absurd.
Yu Sui took out two Taoist Instant Shadow Talismans from her mechanism box, stuck them on the unconscious two, then moved them with Li Jin Shuang to the shadows of rocks where they disappeared from people's sight like invisible beings.
Li Jin Shuang looked at those two Instant Shadow Talismans for a while, then turned back to look at Yu Sui.
Yu Sui understood her meaning and explained: "I bought them. Many Taoist talismans are quite interesting, you can buy them with money."
Wenyang Hui had taught her one thing: you can never have too many magical treasures. When going out, buy more of anything that money can get you.
"Come here, re-tie your hair." Yu Sui had Li Jin Shuang lower her head and helped her re-bind her hair before they left together.
The two naturally mixed into the crowd and came to the interior of the giant ship, where final adjustments were still being made.
As soon as the Wenyang family practitioners arrived, someone shouted at them: "The tail water-control mechanism finishing is left to you two. Remember to first adjust the conch sound to the lowest setting, then adjust it back after completion."
The other person was urgent and busy, speaking quickly, barely looking at Yu Sui and Li Jin Shuang. After giving instructions, they hurried away.
At the ship's stern was a row of huge golden conch-shaped objects. Inside the giant conches hung many transparent threads of varying lengths, with a table beside them piled high with black copper coins to be hung up.
Soon only Yu Sui and Li Jin Shuang remained in the room.
The two looked at each other, glancing at the golden conches, then at the table full of copper coins. Yu Sui asked: "Do you know how?"
Li Jin Shuang grabbed a handful of copper coins and said: "The academy doesn't teach mechanism courses."
Yu Sui looked around. "Just hang them up, like the ones across from us."
On the row of golden conches across from her, those transparent threads were covered with black copper coins.
Li Jin Shuang asked: "How do you adjust the conch sound?"
Yu Sui stared at one of the golden conches and walked around it in a circle. After completing the circle, she asked: "What is conch sound?"
The two looked at each other silently. After a moment, Li Jin Shuang slowly put the copper coins she had grabbed back down and said: "We could also stick on Taoist Instant Shadow Talismans and hide."
Do nothing at all.
Yu Sui looked at the room full of mechanisms, nodded, and thought it was feasible.
Just as she was about to take out Instant Shadow Talismans, someone opened the door and shouted inside: "Is the water-control mechanism finishing done?"
This Baili family mechanism practitioner poked his head in and saw the two standing by the table reaching for copper coins. He urged: "What are you dawdling for? Hurry up and hang the golden conches full, then adjust the sound. We'll need to rely on them to detect sea whirlpools when we go underwater later. Be careful!"
After speaking, without caring about any response inside, he slammed the door shut with a bang, very pressed for time.
The two in the room, after being scolded like this, grabbed copper coins and hung them on the transparent threads of the golden conches, copying the finished golden conches beside them. After a moment, Yu Sui muttered: "Seems like it's not very difficult."
"That person just said after going underwater, they'll rely on these golden conches to detect sea whirlpools." Li Jin Shuang looked up at the golden conch covered with copper coins, thoughtfully saying: "If we don't do this properly and there are problems detecting sea whirlpools..."
Yu Sui interrupted her: "Let's hang them first. We'll change locations after the people outside leave."
Outside there were several Five Elements Light Cores moving, allowing Yu Sui to observe this giant ship heading to the underwater Mechanism City from multiple angles.
She and Li Jin Shuang were currently at the bottommost level of the giant ship. People kept moving back and forth in the corridor outside their room, not a good time to leave.
Yu Sui controlled one of the Five Elements Light Cores to move up two levels, saw Wenyang Zhou's figure, and followed him.
Looks like big brother won at rock-paper-scissors in the end.
The middle-aged man beside Wenyang Zhou said as they walked: "Sixteen slots but only fifteen. We're missing one. There's no time to make up for it now. We can only have someone bring a replacement over. Otherwise, we'll sink halfway down to the sea. This kind of important matter must have you personally inspect it."
"How can we be missing one slot?" Wenyang Zhou looked puzzled, quickly following the man forward.
The man pushed open a door. After Wenyang Zhou entered, he walked toward the mechanism wall inside. Gears of various sizes were spinning rapidly, making subtle sounds.
"Water storage slots?" Wenyang Zhou asked as he turned back. His peripheral vision caught something unusual. As his heart grew wary and his hand reached for the weapon at his waist, before he could touch it, he was covered by a golden light cage falling from above. The tremendous sound within the cage shocked him from flesh to spirit, and he fainted on the ground.
The sudden change made Yu Sui freeze for a moment too. She frowned slightly, completely unable to detect where the other party had been hiding.
The middle-aged man at the door changed from his previous anxious expression. After closing the door and looking at the unconscious Wenyang Zhou, he raised an eyebrow. When he looked up, his eyes reflected the golden light cage covering Wenyang Zhou, transforming into a transparent, water-like human silhouette.
Under the room's bright illumination, this transparent water shadow gained substance, revealing a man wrapped in black clothing with a thin build.
He looked somewhat aged, his hands exposed outside his sleeves dry and wrinkled like withered tree roots, yet his eyes remained spirited.
Lin Chenghai laughed strangely, squatted down, and patted Wenyang Zhou's face: "This guy's reaction is pretty good. If I'd been slower, or if he'd been faster, it wouldn't have gone so smoothly."
Hu Gui standing at the door said calmly: "You insisted on possessing a Wenyang family manager. If something went wrong, all our efforts would have been wasted."
Lin Chenghai snorted: "I'm old, not dead. If I can't handle such a young junior, I'd have no face to come find the Young Master."
After speaking, he shook his head again: "No wait, I'm not that old either. Under sixty is still young."
Hu Gui was too lazy to listen to his nonsense and urged: "Hurry up and work. People will come soon."
Lin Chenghai placed one hand on Wenyang Zhou's forehead and sucked in a breath from him. The full breath made Lin Chenghai's cheeks bulge, even his slender eyes became round and bulging. His whole person looked like a swollen ball about to explode. After a silent explosion, he transformed into golden Five Elements energy enveloping Wenyang Zhou.
The next instant, Wenyang Zhou lying on the ground opened his eyes, smiled and sat up, raising his hand to cover his neck as he stood up from the ground: "Done."
Yu Sui's action of hanging copper coins on the golden conch paused, her expression becoming strange.
What kind of Nine Schools Arts was this?
Possession?
Yu Sui quickly filtered through her mind but couldn't think of which Nine Schools Arts could accomplish this.
Who were these two people, and what did they want to do?
Were she and Li Jin Shuang not the only ones who had snuck onto the giant ship?
"The Young Master's last location was the abyss sea. He suddenly disappeared in the ocean and lost contact. I suspect he might have been swept into a sea whirlpool." Hu Gui and Lin Chenghai came to the mechanism wall and began manually adjusting the remaining mechanisms. "Taiyi's Saints are also here. Even if we find the Young Master, don't make contact with him for now."
"Don't worry unnecessarily. Even if the Young Master was swept into a sea whirlpool, he'll be fine." Lin Chenghai patted Hu Gui's shoulder. "Oh right, remember to call me Manager when we go out later. Don't get it wrong, and be more respectful."
Hu Gui rolled his eyes.
Lin Chenghai pointed at his own head and said: "Looking at his memories, this kid should have a pretty good relationship with the Young Master. When we really find the Young Master, contact will probably be unavoidable."
...He could also see the person's memories?
Yu Sui pondered in her heart. The Young Master these two spoke of, could it be Senior Brother?
Hu Gui said: "Then you should switch bodies."
Lin Chenghai, wearing Wenyang Zhou's face, smiled darkly: "What's there to fear? Once we switch the core of the underwater Mechanism City, we can use the sea whirlpools to bring the Young Master away from Taiyi."
"Being careful never hurts." Hu Gui also said in a low voice: "When it concerns the Young Master, we must stay calm and not be hasty."
Yu Sui stared at these two people. After they went out, Wenyang Zhou showed no abnormalities at all, handling various mechanism problems with ease.
She even suspected the person possessing Wenyang Zhou was a Mechanism family practitioner.
These two patrolled from the third floor downward and would soon reach Yu Sui's floor.
Yu Sui looked outside the room, frowning as she considered whether to avoid them.
If the person possessing Wenyang Zhou could obtain his memories, then he would recognize her.