Xue Ying left, taking with her Bai Xiaofei’s promise while leaving him with three pieces of advice.

  First, the purpose of Shadow Death was far from being as simple as it seemed, and they were not interested at all in Ethereal. Second, Bai Xiaofei’s guesses so far were all correct. Moreover, the puppetsmith creating the human puppets did not want to cooperate with Shadow Death any longer. Third, Bai Xiaofei had thoroughly become a target of Shadow Death!

  As for anything deeper, Xue Ying knew but was somehow restricted from mentioning. What she had revealed was already the result of her skirting around the edge of the rules.

  However, for Bai Xiaofei, these three pieces of advice were precious enough. At least, he knew that his direction was correct.

  With the departure of Xue Ying, Bai Xiaofei no longer had any scruples. He hadn’t dared to go full-force before for fear that it would put her in a dilemma. After all, Shadow Death didn’t seem friendly even toward its own members.

  He had not expected that as soon as he was idle, Shadow Death gave him another surprise: Human puppets once again made an appearance!

  Right on the night Xue Ying left, the Holy Puppetsmith Mountain was ambushed by human puppets, who, out of all the puppetsmiths on the mountain, only attacked Nanmo Sheng’s residence. No matter whether it was Nanmo Sheng himself or the garrison sealing his area, all were regarded as targets!

  Once the news got out, the whole imperial city went into a hubbub. Everyone had been paying attention to the movement of the garrison, thinking that Ethereal was making progress in finding the suspect. Therefore, the ambush of the human puppets instantly pushed Nanmo Sheng into the spotlight, with two of the three major views on the matter being unfavorable to him.

  One was that Nanmo Sheng was the evil puppetsmith and the people he cooperated with sent the human puppets to silence him after the human puppet technique had been completed.

  Another was that he was being framed so as to divert the public attention from the real mastermind.

  The third one was more complicated as the combination of the first two and was quite brain-challenging, which was, to sum it up, Nanmo Sheng made the human puppets attack himself to clear him of suspicion and win the support of the second type of people who thought he was framed.

  Still, no matter what everyone thought, they all agreed that Nanmo Sheng had to be investigated!

  However, neither Ling Yue nor Ling Hai moved against Nanmo Sheng because he had been heavily injured, and they also wanted to ask for Bai Xiaofei’s opinion…


  “That’s what happened. Those human puppets were very fierce, and definitely came with the intent to kill Nanmo Sheng,” reported the general in charge of guarding Nanmo Sheng after telling Bai Xiaofei’s group about what had happened in detail.

  “Alright, General Guo, thank you for your hard work. You can go back and have a good rest now,” said Ling Fan.

  After General Guo withdrew from the room, all eyes fell upon Bai Xiaofei.

  “Brother Bai, what do you think?” asked Ling Yue, obviously regarding Bai Xiaofei as their strategist.

  “The first possibility can be ruled out. Since Shadow Death was still within the capital, they still need the support of this puppetsmith. They absolutely don’t want him dead. As for the other two views, I can’t come to a conclusion. This is perhaps what they want: to see us in a dilemma. If I’m not wrong, those envoys from other countries are unable to sit still, right?” Bai Xiaofei asked Ling Yue.

  Ling Yue couldn’t help but give a long sigh. Although it was an internal matter of Ethereal, when it concerned the human puppets, he could not refuse the demands of those envoys. The last time human puppets had appeared, the major empires had come together and made a treaty about this.

  “Shadow Death has taken into account everything. At first glance, they’ve completely won this round while we’ve not only made no substantial progress and also had to bear more pressure but in fact…” Bai Xiaofei’s lips curled up.

  Seeing this expression, the dejected five princes were immediately delighted.

  “Brother Bai, you have some insight?” Ling Hai couldn’t resist asking. The Holy Puppetsmith Mountain could be regarded as his territory. He would be the one feeling most frustrated if things went south there.

  “I’ve had dealings with Shadow Death more than just once or twice. They always do things with the purpose of diverting your attention. If you think from a normal person’s point of view, you will be easily led by the nose. We need to change the angle to consider.” Bai Xiaofei’s smile deepened. “Think from their point of view!”


  These words had everyone confused.

  “But… how?” Ling Ming suddenly felt like a child in front of Bai Xiaofei.

  “Very simple,” replied Bai Xiaofei, nearly making Ling Ming rage, and elaborated, “If you are a Shadow Death member and you have a very important matter to do but there are a group of people on your tail and racking their brains to stop you, then you are in either of these situations.”


  Everyone instantly perked up their ears.

  “The first situation: you have plenty of time to play with your opponents. After all, they are in a hurry, while you aren’t. Besides, you are in the dark and your opponents are in the light. The longer you stall them, the better the situation gets for you. However, this is only under the condition that you are not in a hurry.”


  “The second situation: you are only short of the last step and need nothing but time. So, you have to seize every moment to win more time as you can’t afford to take risks. Once you are disturbed at the last minute, everything will go down the drain!”


  Hearing this, the five faces revealed puzzled expressions. They understood what he was saying, but they didn’t know what it had to do with the present situation.

  Bai Xiaofei sighed and continued, “Considering the situation, it’s obvious that Shadow Death is the latter case. They are in a hurry, and the reason is probably that the puppetsmith has become uncooperative, and I can tell this from my conversation with that person. So, with this in mind, we have two things to do next.”


  The five princes were struck with realization. They continued to listen with rapt attention. They’d rather get to the action instead of trying to figure it out with their brains!

  “First, screen the entire Holy Puppetsmith Mountain and single out that puppetsmith. Second, locate Shadow Death,” Bai Xiaofei concluded.

  This had the five princes dumbstruck again.

  “Erm… about that… Brother Bai, that’s what we’ve been trying to do but failing…” said Ling Zong with an aggrieved expression, as if he had been bullied by Bai Xiaofei.

  “Well, we can’t before, but now we can and at any time!” Bai Xiaofei chortled.

  Ling Yue widened his eyes. “You mean, you also think it’s Nanmo Sheng?!”


  “Also? So you already have an idea? Let’s hear it.” Bai Xiaofei looked attentively at Ling Yue.

  At the same time, Ling Yue received admiring looks from his younger brothers. Always count on Big Brother to fight for Ethereal’s face!

  “First of all, Nanmo Sheng has a reason to loathe Ethereal. If we have to, we can say that his son’s death has to do with Ethereal. Secondly, he has forged very few puppets in recent years, so it’s likely that he has been spending his time researching the human puppet technique. Finally, his relationship with Pinocchio has always been bad, which can explain why Pinocchio was attacked during his trip out,” stated Ling Yue, his reasons clear.

  However, Bai Xiaofei shook his head. “Good analysis, but all of that are only guesses, and guesses can’t solve the problem.”


  Although it wasn’t a direct rebuttal, Bai Xiaofei’s meaning was obvious: ‘You are wrong…’


  “Let’s go back to our previous topic. The key point is that Shadow Death is in a hurry to rush their way through the last bit of their plan, which paves the way for us to answer our questions.”


  “One: they being able to rush through it means the puppetsmith is under their control and still constantly forging puppets for them, so the one in the Puppetsmith Holy Mountain right now is an impostor! Therefore, we will gather all five godsmiths and ask them to make puppets on the spot. The ability of a godsmith isn’t something that an assassin can imitate.”


  “Two: according to my investigations, forging human puppets requires high-temperature flames, but since the Holy Puppetsmith Mountain has been closed down, they must have found another method, and the only method possible is through advanced formations. When a high-grade formation operates, energy will spill out. Even if they try to cover it with another formation, the overlapping of the two formations will make it impossible to cover up completely. Once you find those formations, you will locate Shadow Death’s nest.”


  Only until now did the five brothers thoroughly understand why Bai Xiaofei did what he had been doing. Whether it was questioning the godsmiths or sealing off the Holy Puppetsmith Mountain, it was all to test. Test Shadow Death’s attitude, test whether they were in a hurry, so as to pave the way for his next move. The seemingly piecemeal actions were in fact purposeful to guide Shadow Death to fall into his trap!

  What a grand scheme he has laid out!

  “Brother Bai, if you command troops, you’ll definitely be a godly commander!” Ling Yue gazed at Bai Xiaofei and gave his evaluation. Little did he know…