Chapter 361 - The Marks Around the Settlements

Chapter 361: Chapter 361 - The Marks Around the Settlements

Su Bai set his cup down.

The mention of formations gave him something more definite to consider, although Ning Shuang’s expression suggested that she understood little about their intended purpose.

"Were you told what the formations would do?"

"No. They only told us what conditions to check at each location."

She moved the tea container aside and dipped a fingertip into the water.

A rough map took shape on the tabletop. She outlined one settlement, traced the nearby road, then added the places her group had examined around it.

"Our reports included more than the ground," she continued. "We recorded which settlements were still occupied and where refugees were gathering. We also watched the roads cultivators used, how often patrols passed, and how quickly nearby factions responded when something happened."

Su Bai listened while studying the drawing.

The information would tell someone a great deal about the surrounding area.

It could reveal where cultivators were likely to appear and how much time a group might have before attracting attention. The reports on the mortals seemed especially troubling when considered alongside the formation sites.

Ning Shuang added the final mark.

Su Bai’s gaze moved between the points. The terrain had placed them at different distances from the village, but their arrangement became clearer once she finished. The settlement lay within the area they surrounded.

"These locations surround the village."

"Yes." Ning Shuang looked down at the drawing. "That was why I began to suspect something would happen to the people there."

She had known what she was ordered to examine. The instructions concerning suitable ground were clear enough for her group to carry out its work.

What she had never been told was why those locations had to be found around mortal settlements, or how the information about their inhabitants would be used.

Su Bai followed the road with his eyes.

The village itself offered little that would interest most cultivators. Its people could live beneath those hills for generations without realizing that the surrounding land had become useful to someone powerful.

Ning Shuang’s fingers withdrew from the map.

"I warned some of them when I had the chance."

He looked up.

"The settlement near where you found us during our previous meeting was one of them," she said. "I secretly sent word that danger was coming. The villagers evacuated before those bandits arrived."

Su Bai remembered the abandoned area. She had explained that the men her group fought were raiders exploiting the unrest, and that the original residents had already left. At the time, she had said nothing about helping them do so.

"You arranged the warning?"

"I made certain someone in the village heard it. They decided to leave."

Her gaze returned briefly to the outline on the table.

"I did the same elsewhere afterward. Some listened. Others would not abandon their homes."

Su Bai could understand why. A family might have nowhere safe to go, and the roads held dangers of their own. Even those who believed the warning would have needed to decide what they could carry and whether the journey offered anything better.

"I could not remain there until they agreed," Ning Shuang continued. "My companions expected us to finish our assignment. If I spent too much time concerning myself with the residents, they would eventually notice."

Her voice remained steady. She had delivered the warnings quietly, taken whatever opportunity appeared, and continued leading the same people who might report her if they learned what she had done.

Su Bai regarded her with growing appreciation.

She had been ruthless toward the prisoner and perfectly willing to use her companions against him. Those men belonged to the world that had taught her how easily weakness could be exploited.

The mortals living in those settlements had never harmed her, and she had chosen to give them a chance to escape.

"I am glad you warned them," he said. "The people who listened had time to leave."

Ning Shuang looked toward him. A small smile appeared before she lifted her cup, and Su Bai allowed her a moment to drink.

He remained concerned about the villagers who had stayed, but pressing her for more would accomplish little. She had already explained the limits under which she acted.

He turned his attention back to the other groups moving through the region.

"Have you seen many demonic cultivators staying near these settlements?"

"Yes. Some remain nearby while groups like ours travel between assigned areas."

Ning Shuang set her cup down.

"There are also people stationed in places with hardly anyone around. I have passed some of them more than once. They seem to spend most of their time waiting."

"Do you know what they are doing?"

"No. We receive our own orders. I know where I have seen them, but I cannot tell you whether their assignments serve the same purpose as ours."

Su Bai nodded. Her observations gave him two kinds of stationary groups to consider.

Some lingered near mortal settlements. Others waited along routes or at locations whose importance had not been obvious to her.

He could offer an explanation for at least part of that activity.

"My sect found demonic cultivators carrying artifacts that intercept communication talismans."

Ning Shuang’s gaze sharpened.

"The artifacts help them detect messages passing through an area," he continued. "They can interfere with the route and examine what is being sent."

She listened closely as he explained the selective interception. Some messages were copied and allowed to continue. Others were delayed or altered.

Enough communication passed normally that the righteous factions had continued trusting the talismans for months while their exchanges were being watched.

Ning Shuang remained quiet until he finished.

"That may explain the groups staying at those isolated locations," she said. "I assumed they were waiting for someone or watching the roads."

Su Bai studied her expression. The discovery was plainly new to her.

She had encountered those people without knowing what they were equipped to do, just as her own group carried out surveys without being told how the results would be used.

The separate assignments had concealed the connection.

"If a warning passed through their area, they could stop it before anyone outside learned what happened," Ning Shuang said.

"Or change it into something that did not seem urgent."

Her gaze lowered toward the village on the table.

The room grew quiet around them. A faint sound reached the door from the corridor, then faded as the restriction held. Su Bai remained focused on the drawing.

The surveys accounted for the ground, the people, and the cultivators who might respond to trouble.

The interception artifacts could interfere with news traveling beyond the area.

Together, those activities gave whoever organized them room to prepare something without drawing the attention it deserved.

He still had no explanation for the groups lingering near the settlements themselves.

Ning Shuang had seen them remain while her own assignments took her elsewhere. They might have been watching the mortals, guarding something, or carrying out work she never approached closely enough to observe. Su Bai resisted choosing an answer before he had evidence.

His attention returned to the survey marks.

Checking suitable ground would have little value unless someone else could locate it afterward. Reports could describe an area, but hillsides and stretches of woodland often resembled one another.

"When a location meets the conditions in your orders, do you leave anything there?"

"A mark," Ning Shuang replied. "There is a symbol we are instructed to use. We leave it at suitable places and include their locations in the report."

"And once that is done?"

"We continue to the next area."

Su Bai looked down again.

Ning Shuang’s group could finish its work without ever seeing the formation placed. The marks would remain after they departed. Anyone familiar with the symbol could follow the report and find precisely the ground that had already been examined.

Across the table, Ning Shuang’s expression changed.

Her eyes moved between the points she had drawn, then returned to him.

"The people staying nearby could be waiting for those locations."

Su Bai nodded slowly.

It was a possibility that connected the work without requiring every group to know the full arrangement.

The stationary cultivators handling communication could conceal disturbances. Her group could identify and mark suitable ground. The people lingering near the settlements might then carry out whatever required those preparations.

His gaze settled on the village at the center.

They still did not know what was intended for the people living there. The formation sites alone had been enough to make Ning Shuang warn them.

Now the communication interference gave Su Bai reason to fear that even a settlement which discovered the danger might struggle to make anyone else understand.

He glanced toward his cup but left it untouched.

Of all the groups they had discussed, the ones remaining near the mortal settlements concerned him most.

If they were responsible for what followed the surveys, their work might already have begun.