Furthermore, it could only inflict psychological torture on the opponent.
It was impossible to cause any substantive physical harm to them.
After all, if physical wounds appeared, they would require treatment; otherwise, it was too easy for the victim to die from factors like blood loss.
Setting up an array formation that could continuously use healing magic was far more troublesome than a simple life-support array.
Jiang Lin stuffed the limp Morris, the purple-robed mage, back into that crude but terrifying neural vine sap device, ensuring the wire mesh fit against the back of his head and the thin tube went deep into his throat.
Morris’s body twitched violently, his eyes rolled back, and a gagging sound of suffocation came from his throat, but the green light of the life-support array remained steady.
"That should do it."
Jiang Lin clapped his hands and turned to Barton, the bald warrior nearby, who was already paralyzed with fear and had lost control of his bladder.
"As for you..."
Barton shook his head frantically, tears and snot streaming down his face.
"Besides the false information from earlier... I—I also know of a secret base!
"It’s near the abandoned sewer entrance in the south of the city!
"There... there might be higher-ranking members hiding there! I’ve only been there once; another lord took me there to deliver 'offerings'..."
Hearing this, Jiang Lin was surprised. He hadn't expected to find an accidental bonus.
The strong man’s eyes sharpened.
"Specific location? What are its features inside?"
"The entrance is about fifty meters downstream from the third stone bridge over the Blackwater River. There’s an iron gate on the left bank covered by vines... It goes very deep.
"I... I only went as far as the first great hall. There was a huge blood pool there... and the walls were covered... covered in those eye patterns..."
Barton described it incoherently, terrified of leaving out any detail.
Jiang Lin and the strong man exchanged a look.
This could be a new lead.
"Anything else?"
Jiang Lin pressed further.
"No... no more... I really only know this much..."
Barton was practically on the verge of tears.
Jiang Lin’s expression tightened.
"Big Bro Strongman, what do you think?"
The strong man frowned in deep thought for a moment.
"Then it's highly likely that place is the center of the entire sacrificial array, or perhaps a key array core."
After hearing the strong man's speculation, Jiang Lin nodded.
"Regardless of whether it's the center of the sacrificial array, we need to relay this information first."
Then, Jiang Lin continued.
"Also... I still have this nagging feeling of unease.
"I feel it’s best if we don't rush into contact with the cult high-rankers just yet.
"In case they have identification methods we don't know about, like soul marks or something, we might be exposed as soon as we show our faces."
It was that same feeling of unease earlier that had prompted him to set up this little "automated torture" device.
At first, he thought it was because he couldn't be sure if the other party was telling the truth, hence the unease.
However, even now, after thoroughly interrogating them for information, that sense of dread hadn't vanished.
So, he was looking for every possible mistake he might have made.
He then thought of the possibility of a "soul mark."
Planting a soul mark inside a living being was much harder than marking a dead object.
The caster would need to be at least rank-6 or higher, or use the help of other magic tools to succeed.
If these guys had soul marks planted on them without knowing, then as soon as he and the strong man met their superiors disguised as them, they would be caught immediately.
But even after considering this possibility, the unease remained.
He continued to ponder what he might have missed.
He scanned the empty room, then his gaze fell on the next room.
Frowning, Jiang Lin voiced his deduction.
"Tell me, do you think these so-called 'array cores' they had these mid-level cultists set up... could actually be decoys?"
The strong man was surprised by Jiang Lin's words.
He truly hadn't considered that possibility.
After all, logically speaking, the enemy had gone to great lengths, ordering numerous mid-level cultists to set up so many array cores in various corners of Emerald City and even sending people to inspect them; that should be the final result.
But if things were truly as Jiang Lin suggested, then the enemy must have an additional set of array cores elsewhere.
Jiang Lin thought about it and said,
"If I were this soon-to-be-ascended 'Holy Son,' I certainly wouldn't leak my plan. I would carry it out quietly in the shadows.
"Choosing a city like Emerald City, which is already heavily infiltrated, might actually pose a greater risk because the Paladin Order could come for a random inspection at any time."
As Jiang Lin reached this point, the strong man interrupted him.
"No, there's a problem with your reasoning there. There's a key piece of information you might not know. The array formation for the 'ascension ceremony' actually takes a long time to set up—at least two or three years.
"During this period, if the Paladin Order's patrol notices even one array core, the entire project is essentially ruined.
"So, many cities aren't chosen as 'sacrificial cities' because they are heavily infiltrated; they become heavily infiltrated because they were chosen to be sacrificial cities."
Hearing this, Jiang Lin rubbed his chin.
"I see. Then let's re-reason.
"If I were this Holy Son, and I had already infiltrated Emerald City to this extent and had my subordinates finish the setup for the ascension ceremony...
"Under no circumstances would I let word of the ascension ceremony get out. Instead, I'd keep quiet, sacrifice Emerald City overnight, and then flee immediately, leaving the kingdom territories governed by the Temple.
"Therefore, the fact that news of the 'Holy Son’s Ascension' has spread must mean I intentionally wanted the Paladin Order to know.
"Once they know, they will surely come to stop me.
"In that case, simply tampering with the city's one-way teleportation array wouldn't be secure enough.
"After all, if the opponent also thinks of this, or if experts from other directions arrive too quickly, wouldn't my years of effort be wasted?
"I must have the confidence that the opponent definitely cannot defeat me before I would deliberately reveal this matter.
"And my reason for doing this must be that there's a significant enough benefit to motivate me."
Jiang Lin paced the room as he deduced.
This time, the strong man didn't interrupt, as the deductions so far didn't have any major flaws.
"So, I definitely wouldn't make the array cores known to even a mid-level member.
"Beyond this set of array cores, there must be another set of array formations that only I know about and only I can find!"
Pausing, Jiang Lin continued.
"If it were up to me, if I wanted to lure the experts of the Temple here, I might not just prepare one backup array, but at least two or three!"
Jiang Lin asked,
"Big Bro Strongman, if they sacrifice higher-level adventurers during the process of sacrificing the city, would they gain even more benefits?"
The strong man was somewhat stunned by Jiang Lin's theory.
If it were truly as Jiang Lin said, he would have nearly been led into a trap twice by the opponent.
The first time was when he learned the news of the Holy Son’s Ascension.
If he had left immediately back then, he probably wouldn't have thought too much of it and would have relayed the news to the high-rankers. This would have led them to take the one-way teleportation array here, resulting in an immediate disaster.
The second time was when he discovered the array cores.
Without Jiang Lin's reminder, his subsequent plan would likely have been to wait for reinforcements, find all the array cores by investigating the mid-level members one by one, and then destroy them to make the enemy's ceremony "fail."
Then, while smugly celebrating "victory," he and his reinforcements would have been sacrificed and killed by the second sacrificial array hidden in the shadows.
The more he thought about it, the more the strong man felt a chill down his spine.
While he couldn't be certain they weren't just outsmarting themselves against thin air, finding a second set of array cores would prove that everything they suspected was correct.
And these two pitfalls were just the ones discovered so far; who knew how many more traps the enemy had dug, waiting for them to jump in...
Thinking of this, the strong man felt a massive headache.
The opponent seemed to be a master of schemes, a real old fox.
Was outsmarting such an opponent really something that a lower-tier player like himself—only at the peak of rank-3—could achieve?
However, he glanced at Jiang Lin, who was still frowning and deducing where else the enemy might have laid traps, and suddenly felt relieved.
Brother Matthew was only rank-1 and was working so hard; what reason did he have to give up?
Jiang Lin's thinking was simple.
If he could think of these things, then the enemy, a cultist who could climb to the position of Holy Son, certainly wasn't a fool and could surely think of them too.
There were only a few possibilities where he would just be overthinking: one was if the news of the Holy Son’s Ascension was leaked by the enemy’s "competitor" without the Holy Son knowing.
Only in that case would he be fighting against shadows.
But he would rather be outsmarting the air than have his theories be true.
After all, facing a cultist like that as an opponent made it very easy to be toyed to death.
And he didn't dare gamble that the opponent wasn't a schemer.
Because if he lost the bet, the price would be his life.
At this moment, the strong man slowly exhaled.
"Brother Matthew... if that Holy Son really is as calculating as you say, then all our previous actions, and even the intelligence we currently hold, might be part of his plan."
He walked to the wall, his fingers unconsciously tapping the mottled stone bricks.
"We can only take it one step at a time..."
Jiang Lin nodded, his gaze sweeping over the two limp captives on the floor.
"We probably won't be able to dig any deeper information out of these two guys. The array cores they know are just decoys on the surface. The truly critical arrangements are likely only known by the Holy Son and his absolute confidants."
"So what do we do next?" the strong man asked.
"Continue pretending to be Morris and Barton to contact higher-ranking members? The risk is too high. If there really are identification methods like soul marks, we'd be walking right into a trap."
Jiang Lin pondered for a moment, suddenly thinking of a certain classmate of his.
"I have an idea.
"Since they deliberately leaked word of the Holy Son’s Ascension as bait... why don't we just pretend that we've taken the bait?"
Hearing this, the strong man was confused.
"What do you mean?"
Jiang Lin walked to the center of the room, crouched down, and used his finger to sketch simply in the dust on the floor.
"Since the mastermind behind the scenes might have set countless layers of traps for us, let's pretend we haven't seen through a single layer and have fallen for the first one.
"But in reality, we'll hide our main force in the second layer.
"If I were that Holy Son and saw my opponent couldn't even see through my first layer of disguise, I would find it boring and start moving.
"At that moment, if we strike from the second layer, it will be easy to catch him off guard..."
The strong man was silent for a moment.
"It is indeed a method."
Jiang Lin then added,
"Of course, we can't just stick to the second layer. we still have to keep digging deeper to find more of the traps they've set for us.
"Only by doing so will we have a chance to defeat them when they are fully prepared."
The strong man nodded in agreement with Jiang Lin's idea.
"Mhm. Then I'll go relay this information first and meet the reinforcements coming through the long-distance teleportation array at the Court of Space.
"If they know how to use disguises, I can have them disguise as that tranny."
He pointed toward the "Attack Helicopter," who had very little presence nearby.
Although the guy had rank-4 strength, he had been isolated by the two because his preferences were too strange—it was evident just from the fact that his room was upstairs from the secret chamber.
The guy didn't know much information, and since time was limited, they hadn't interrogated him much.
After Jiang Lin and the strong man settled on their strategy, they began to move separately.
Jiang Lin went to look for other array cores.
The strong man went to transmit the intelligence.
Before leaving, the strong man handed a palm-sized, translucent purple crystal to Jiang Lin.
Jiang Lin held it up to inspect it, seeing the complex magical patterns etched inside the crystal.
"This is a short-range communication crystal. It can transmit information using magic resonance.
"As long as you're within the range of Emerald City, you can contact me by injecting magic essence.
"You can send messages to me, and I can send messages to you.
"However, these crystals come in pairs. This communication network cannot accommodate more devices.
"Come here and record your magic essence signature. I'll set up a magic authentication check so only your magic essence can activate it."
Jiang Lin was quite curious and completed the recording of his magic essence info, then tried contacting the strong man.
He had always heard about such short-range communication devices, but this was his first time actually using one.
Afterward, the strong man was the first to leave the cult storehouse base.
Jiang Lin first slit the throat of Morris, the purple-robed mage, allowing 【Slaughter Disguise】 to complete its collection.
Then, countless tiny crimson tentacles emerged, covering his body once again and transforming his appearance from Jason into Morris.
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