Chapter 389: Section 176: Night Thief
In the room, Cang Xu knelt on both knees, gasping for air, his vision a blur.
The ghost used for reconnaissance maintained a close spiritual connection with him. Concurrently, the destruction of the ghost inflicted backlash damage on Cang Xu’s spirit.
After checking the Alchemy Array in the room and finding no issues, Cang Xu quickly consumed a potion and began meditating on the spot.
Moments later, he opened his eyes; the dizziness had somewhat subsided, but a throbbing pain permeated his body.
“My body has been transformed by Undead Magic, now I am someone half-dead.”
“The pain isn’t physical, it’s in the soul.”
“It seems that this time, the loss of the ghost was too sudden, causing damage to my soul as well.”
Cang Xu sighed, having pinpointed the cause.
“I can’t stay here too long,” Cang Xu decided to first return to the Deep Sea Monster Fish, and then address the damage to his soul.
He began packing up the Alchemy Array in the house, which was designed based on the data from the Tower Spirit. Once set up, mages could cast spells within the array to effectively contain Mana fluctuations.
Without this array layer, Cang Xu’s use of Undead Magic would surely have been detected by the City Guard.
In cities as large as Fire City, there are Mage Towers and Detect Magic installations or constant spells, and some even have regional Magic Nets.
Under the cover of a Magic Net, a mage must obtain the corresponding permissions from the Magic Net to cast spells.
Fire City is not Magic Hero City and doesn’t have a regional Magic Net.
After packing up the Array and destroying all traces of its setup, Cang Xu cautiously checked several times before leaving, ensuring no evident clues were left, then casually pushed the door open and stepped out.
By then it was early evening, and he blended into the crowd on the street, inconspicuous.
Soon after, he successfully rendezvoused with the other members of the Justice Pirate Group.
After a brief exchange, Zi Di, looking somewhat impatient, said to Cang Xu, “I need your help.”
“All the supplies have been successfully acquired, except for the last item—the Red-Blue Crystal Clusters.”
“The Yellow Sand Clan’s giant trader convoy has bought up all the Red-Blue Crystal Clusters in the city.”
“I tried negotiating with them, but it failed.”
“I later learned that the Yellow Sand Clan’s convoy came from afar, cloaking their real plan under the guise of trading—to escort their clan leader Sha Ji to Fire City for a marriage alliance with a giant clan here.”
This information was not difficult to gather.
Although the Yellow Sand convoy tried to keep it secret, upon arriving in Fire City, they began to advertise this news.
In fact, even if they hadn’t advertised, the citizens of Fire City had their suspicions about these distant giants.
The proposal for the marriage alliance was initially made by the Fire City Lord, Eyou.
The counterpart wasn’t just the Yellow Sand Clan.
Zi Di continued, “Sha Ji’s marriage partner is an alchemy master named Qieya from Fire City who was personally trained by Eyou, and like Sha Ji, is of Saint Domain level.”
“To ensure a successful marriage alliance, the Yellow Sand Clan brought a large amount of rare resources and treasures as dowry.”
“I need to gather intelligence within the merchant camp and attempt to steal the Red-Blue Crystal Clusters tonight.”
Zi Di’s suggestion was audacious.
Enduring the deep soul pain, Cang Xu thought it through and found Zi Di’s idea to be wise.
The main purpose of the Yellow Sand Clan’s convoy was the marriage alliance. If they had intended to trade for the Crystal Clusters, they would not have aggressively hoarded them but would have negotiated with Fire City.
Fire City is a major producer of Red-Blue Crystal Clusters; a long-term trade would be more beneficial for both sides.
Since the Yellow Sand convoy did not do this, but instead spent significantly above the market price to buy all the Crystal Clusters, it indicated their urgent need for these resources, likely related to the marriage.
Since they were in urgent need, they might consume the Crystal Clusters right away.
Thus, if the Justice Pirate Group wanted to acquire these items, they had to act immediately.
Currently, in the Justice Pirate Group, other than the young Captain with the Blood Core, no one was better at reconnaissance than Cang Xu.
With a solemn expression, Cang Xu nodded at Zi Di, “My ghosts were lost in the volcano.”
“Despite such a cost, I managed to discover a hidden space.”
“That’s Eyou’s foundry.”
“I saw the legendary giant, and also Saint Domain’s Qieya.”
“But let’s not discuss this now, I need to rush back to the Deep Sea Monster Fish.”
Zi Di nodded, “Let’s head back together, I need to take a group to help me.”
The supplies Zi Di acquired were currently stored in several rented warehouses. Since there were many items, to avoid drawing attention, Zi Di had already planned to have members of the Justice Pirate Group gradually remove some and return to the Deep Sea Monster Fish.
By dividing everything up, they would keep a low profile and not attract much notice.
After a brief conversation with the others, Zi Di and Cang Xu left Fire City, stealthily making their way to the beach and swimming back to the Deep Sea Monster Fish.
Zi Di contacted other members while Cang Xu entered a specialized Alchemy Array, using Soul Crystals to heal his soul.
This Alchemy Array, which he had set up initially, had benefited many members.
Cang Xu’s soul injuries saw significant healing.
“But it’s still not thorough enough.”
A moment later, Cang Xu opened the door to a dark, sunless cabin.
Cang Xu silently stepped inside.
This was a cabin specifically for holding captives.
The captives were all sleeping soundly, packed tightly together on a shelf like sticks. On the lower levels of the shelf, another person was placed on top of each sleeper.
The captives slept deeply, not only because they were under the influence of a spell, but also because they had been given potions—a double precaution.
Cang Xu swiftly scanned the people, a hint of ruthlessness flashing in his eyes.
He closed the cabin door, and darkness immediately enveloped the room.
Accompanied by his chanting, a pale, ghostly light shone in the darkness.
The chant soon ended, and the Undead Magic was successfully cast.
Cang Xu stretched out his hand and made a grabbing motion. One of the sleeping captives shuddered slightly, and a human-shaped spirit floated out of the body.
The human-shaped spirit, caught in Cang Xu’s hand, let out a piercing scream as it began to twist and warp under the effect of the Undead Magic.
After several seconds, the human-shaped spirit twisted into a pile of detritus, turning into a cluster of light points that rapidly dissipated.
The essence of it, however, turned into a warm stream that flowed into Cang Xu from his palm and quickly merged into the depths of his spirit.
“Ah…” Cang Xu couldn’t help but throw back his head, his eyes narrowing slightly as he let out a satisfied sigh.
Naturally, spirits needed to be healed with spirits.
Not all spirits had such remarkable effects on Cang Xu’s injuries.
Spirits also had to match each other.
A matching spirit, along with the proper Undead Magic, was like a specific cure for Cang Xu’s condition. In contrast, Soul Crystals had a broad range of applications and were not specific, serving only as a supplementary treatment when the spirit itself was injured.
Without this Undead Magic, Cang Xu could only wait for his spirit to heal itself after using the Soul Crystals.
Now, by using this spell, he significantly saved time.
Having consumed three fresh spirits, Cang Xu restored his spirit’s condition to its peak.
He then gulped down more potions, allowing his mana to also fully recover quickly.
However, because he had used many spells during the day and controlled ghosts remotely, consuming quite a few potions, the effectiveness of these new potions was not very apparent, and they were of very low cost-effectiveness.
Pressed by the tense situation, Cang Xu couldn’t care less.
Leveraging the mana that had just surged forth, Cang Xu continuously cast Undead Magic, creating ghosts.
This spell had a considerable chance of failure.
Cang Xu sacrificed over a dozen captives to finally produce three new ghosts.
After briefly dealing with the bodies, Cang Xu left the cabin and discovered that Zi Di had already departed from the Deep Sea Monster Fish with a group of members.
Zi Di’s time was even tighter.
She needed these people to disperse and blend into Fire City.
If it were night and the gates of Fire City were closed, entering and exiting would become much more difficult.
Fortunately, at every dusk, the traffic at each city gate was substantial. Many citizens of Fire City, due to work and livelihood, needed to travel to other ports on Fire Island but lived within Fire City.
When Cang Xu arrived at the city gate, the flow of people had dwindled, and the gate was about to close.
He came in smoothly and then met up again with Zi Di and the others.
Late at night, the youngsters—including Zi Di, Cang Xu, Sanda, and others—hid in a room of a hostel nearest to the caravan’s base.
Concealed by an Alchemy Array, Cang Xu maneuvered the ghosts into the caravan’s base.
The tight security inside Erupting Volcano couldn’t stop the ghosts’ probing; for them, scouting the caravan’s base was a breeze.
They first dispersed, then quickly located where the storage was.
Inside metal boxes of various sizes were stored all sorts of rare resources.
The tents holding these boxes had guards inside and out, extremely vigilant and displaying the Yellow Sand Giants’ outstanding military training.
But it was useless.
The three feeble ghosts brazenly moved in and out right under the guards’ noses.
The guards were utterly unaware.
It wasn’t that these people lacked methods to detect natural ghosts, but they were unprepared for the ghosts created by Undead Magic.
Of course, as time passed and more people came in contact with and understood Undead Magic, there would surely be methods developed to counter it.
Most of the boxes could be penetrated directly by the ghosts to inspect the contents inside.
Eventually, only a few storage boxes remained impervious, their quality at least Silver Level, many shimmering with the light of magic circulation, making them impenetrable to the ghosts.
Forcing their way through would greatly affect the ghosts, causing irreparable damage.
Especially since these three ghosts were newly created and extremely fragile.
“Over a dozen boxes, we can’t distinguish which one it is,” Cang Xu frowned deeply. “Even if I sacrifice these three ghosts for a kamikaze-style scout, I fear we won’t be able to check more than two.”
“I have a way,” Zi Di smiled at this moment, patting the Stone Statue Ghost Puppet beside her. “Next, it’s time for my little treasure to take the stage.”