"So, ever since you entered Tan Song's manor, I've already been moving."
Liu Chuan didn't hide anything and carefully explained the setup he'd laid out.
By relying on the plants in Tan Song's estate, he mapped the entire territory. They'd gotten lucky, since the Tan Song family only had a Tianxian overseeing things, no higher-level immortals.
So Liu Chuan dove a hundred meters underground, weaving a tight net of willow branches that cut off the ground above. Then he shook it loose, scattering the Wood Awakening Spring powder bit by bit at intervals.
While Jian Dan was busy healing Jian Jun, he hadn't sat idle. He made sure the ground beneath their courtyard, a hundred meters deep, was thoroughly covered. After Jian Dan and Jian Jing were taken away, his willow branches followed, continuing the spread while avoiding Tan Song's most heavily guarded zones.
As the skies grew darker, Liu Chuan began pulling back his net, letting the power of Wood Awakening Spring seep through the soil. All around, Tan Song's immortal and spirit plants grew restless. Their roots stabbed deeper into the earth, fighting each other to absorb more of the powder.
Meanwhile, the black-whip eels that lurked in the inner circle were the first to sense it. The familiar aura spread through the ground, and they immediately burrowed into the depths, heading toward the estate's heart. Once they moved, the eels in the middle and even outer zones also stirred. Driven by instinct, they followed.
The immortals of the Tan Song family quickly noticed something wrong. The plants in their courtyards were growing too lush, some even attacking one another. That was far from normal.
"Go check what's happening!"
Guards rushed to investigate, sending out divine sense along the roots. Before long, they spotted the problem: faint green powder scattered a hundred meters deep.
Not daring to slack, they dug up soil mixed with the powder and carried it to report.
"Sir, this is what we found underground."
Because Liu Chuan wanted to conserve as much as possible, he ground it so fine that it was nearly impossible to tell it was Wood Awakening Spring. That alone bought them extra time. Still, the dense wood-element aura it released was enough for the Tan Song immortals to make an educated guess.
Liu Chuan reeled his branches back. Jian Dan felt the twitch on her wrist and knew the setup was complete. All that was left was to wait.
"I left three full chunks of Wood Awakening Spring in Tan Song's most heavily guarded inner zones. That should lure the strongest black-whip eels. To be safe, I also placed some immortal remains we brought back from the desert. There's no way they'll resist."
"Good, you've done well. The rest's up to our luck."
Jian Dan opened her eyes. Beside her, Jian Jing did the same. When she saw her Junior Sister smiling and nodding, she understood. It was time to be ready to move.
In just that short while, chaos began to spread through the estate. The Tan Song clan had clearly noticed the powder and was scrambling to collect it.
But this was Liu Chuan's masterpiece, three days in the making. There was no way they could recover it all at once. He'd scattered it irregularly, specifically to waste their time. With only about twenty Dixian in the clan, even if they spread out, it'd still take a while.
As for the guards, they'd only just shed their mortal shells. Their divine sense was shallow, so they were hardly useful.
The moment the black-whip eels realized their prize had finally appeared, they lost all restraint and charged straight toward the inner circle. Even a small suspension bridge couldn't hold them back.
An immortal patrol team spotted them and immediately drew their swords. But this time, the black-whip eels were insane, throwing themselves forward without regard for cost or injury.
Their suicidal assault caught the five-man squad off guard.
"Captain, look!"
One guard's pupils shrank as he spotted the riverbank across from them.
The others turned, their faces paling. Black-whip eels filled the opposite shore, writhing and weaving together as they lunged toward the entrance.
"Quick, fall back! Seal the entrance, drop the barrier!"
The captain didn't hesitate. They could handle one swarm, but this many was impossible. They cut a path through the nearest cluster, then bolted back, slamming the gates shut and dropping the restrictions in one clean motion.
"Send word to the Tan Song clan and the other families, now!"
Wiping cold sweat from his brow, the captain barked his orders. But before his men could answer, the ground began to tremble. They barely steadied themselves before a deafening boom split the air.
A colossal black-whip eel, a hundred and fifty meters tall, exploded from the earth. From its position, it had come straight from beneath Tan Song's manor.
"Not good!"
That one strike was like poking a hornet's nest. The inner circle of foreign cultivators instantly descended into chaos.
At that moment, Tan Songyu, Tan Songjia, and a Tianxian elder of the clan were locked in combat with the creature. None of them had imagined it had slipped right into their stronghold's heart.
While one eel tore through the surface, holding the Tan Song clan at bay, another split off underground and greedily scooped up the three chunks of Wood Awakening Spring Liu Chuan had left behind.
It tried to flee but quickly got entangled by the Tan Song immortals.