024- Luring the Wolf into the Trap
Persuading Elder Tian was a success.
He called the village elders over for a meeting and told his eldest son to listen to her orders.
She first dispatched the hunters from among the villagers to scout the back mountains and map out the route taken by the demonic wolf whenever it decides to come down the mountain. To an experienced hunter, it was not hard to distinguish the route.
As for herself, she roamed around the village for a day and drew a simple map.
Once she drew the route distinguished by the hunters onto the said map, Lu Mingshu quickly decided on the position for the trap.
Elder Tian expressed his doubts about this position, “Little Mystic Master, we are digging it outside the village?”
“It won’t be convenient if an accident happens were we to dig it in the village.”
“But would the demonic wolf go out of the village?”
“That’s why we have to lure it there.” Lu Mingshu pointed at the map. “It has an injury on its leg, so we can make it consume energy by luring it to walk a distance.”
Lu Mingshu had calculated the distance. She roughly drew an estimate of the demonic wolf’s reserves of mystic force according to the strength it had displayed that night. If they placed the trap too close to the village, it wouldn’t tire out the wolf; too far, and the wolf might not follow after her.
She was good at calculating things, but she was not sure if there were no errors in her equation, as this was the first time she had applied her knowledge in something practical. After all, she was only a newbie when it came to mystic force.
“Let’s test it out first. Let’s go and dig the trap.”
Lu Mingshu could only be sidelined for things like digging a trap. The village elders gathered everyone with some semblance of brawn and told them to dig a trap according to the instructions of the hunters. Given the demonic wolf’s large size, the depth of the pitfall had to be deep as well as wide.
The villagers picked thorns and spread them out densely, layer after layer.
But this alone was not enough. When the villagers dug the trap, Lu Mingshu took the opportunity to enter the Heavenly Wheel and ask Brother six for an item.
“Anaesthetic?” Brother six thought for a while. “Who do you intend to give it to? Which realm is the other party in? What effect do you want to be achieved?”
Lu Mingshu was still unable to differentiate between the realms, hence she could only roughly describe the demonic wolf’s strength.
“Understood! This demonic wolf should only be a novice rank demonic beast. This isn’t difficult, as most anesthetics would be effective.”
Lu Mingshu was overjoyed. “Brother six, can I have it on credit first? I don’t have anything on hand now…”
“No problem, it's a small matter!” Brother six was very straightforward. Knowing Lu Mingshu had a rank nine Heavenly Wheel, he more or less had an investment mentality. Someone with a rank nine Heavenly Wheel would definitely have extraordinary achievements in the future. There might not be a chance to establish a friendly relation if he did not take advantage of the fact that she was still young and weak.
Lu Mingshu asked again, “Brother six, this demonic wolf is not slow at all, would I be able to run faster than it?”
“You would definitely be able to run faster than it if you know the Light Body Technique Manual.”
“Light Body Technique Manual?”
“Un, it’s a very useful basic technique manual of the cultivation world.”
“Does Brother six have this?” Lu Mingshu felt a little guilty after asking, “Let me put it on credit first…”
“It’s a small matter, no need to be so polite. Just give me a little of that world’s specialty once you obtain some.”
“Thank you Brother six.”
Ending the conversation, Lu Mingshu left the Heavenly Wheel, called the eldest Tian son over, and passed the anesthetic to him.
“Little Mystic Master, what is this for?”
“Dissolve this medicine in a basin of water and apply it onto the thorns. The demonic wolf will lose its strength once it gets scratched with this.”
The eldest son of the elder followed the order.
Lu Mingshu proceeded to silently learn the Light Body Technique Manual once she was alone.
The demonic wolf was determined to at the earliest descend the mountain in three days, which was to say that she only had two days’ time to learn the Light Body Technique Manual. She could only succeed and not fail if she wanted to go back, hence she had to work hard.
This Light Body Technique Manual consisted of a short hundred words, mainly talking about how spiritual force moved in the meridians.
Brother six once said that each world had a slightly different type of energy, but they were, in essence, the same thing. She did not have spiritual force, but she did have mystic force.
Lu Mingshu sat with her eyes closed, silently moving the mystic force within her body according to the manual.
The mystic force in her body was very weak; it was roughly only a strand when pulled taut. Following the path of her meridians, her mystic force began to congeal along the channels of her meridians and pass through an acupuncture point, establishing a cycle.
When the head and tail of the mystic force touched ends, Lu Mingshu’s body jolted, as the mystic force suddenly sped up and flowed through her meridians at lightning speed.
Her body grew as light as a feather as a sense of omnipotence climbed up from within her.
Lu Mingshu got down from the bed, walked to the door, and left Elder Tian’s house. As she walked, she unknowingly started running.
How fast and light—my body feels as if it’s flying, like it has no weight.
No wonder this was called the Light Body Technique Manual!
The feeling of being as fast as lightning was simply fascinating.
Lu Mingshu could not help but reveal a smile at the feeling of the wind sweeping past her ear. Such a carefree feeling was as if she was a gust of wind, flying freely in the sky.
As she ran, her foot suddenly stumbled. She let out a cry, nearly falling down head-first.
Luckily she caught onto a tree branch, stabilizing her body. Lu Mingshu patted her chest in relief.
Her tiny amount of internal mystic energy was consumed, causing the Light Body Technique to lose its effectiveness.
What a pity, she had too little mystic force.
Lu Mingshu turned back, estimating the distance as she walked back. Her previous speed could not be considered fast, for she did not run far enough… Un, the control of her mystic force was a large problem.
On this side, Lu Mingshu practiced the Light Body Technique. On the other side, Locust Tree Village’s young and strong hurried along in digging the trap day and night.
Once the trap was done, Lu Mingshu had also become familiar with her new skill.
Everything was prepared. The village dispatched people to stand guard by the mouth of the mountain and watch the route the demonic wolf takes to descend the mountain attentively.
After an anxious day of waiting, the hunters on duty sounded the whistle on this late night.
Lu Mingshu was nocturnal these few days, so she rushed out of the house once she heard the whistle.
She had already familiarized herself with the village terrain, rushing with lightning speed to the route the demonic wolf was most likely to take. She could feel the sweat on her palms from nerves, but she primed her mystic force regardless.
The injured demonic wolf was desperate for nourishment, which would make the Lu Mingshu who possessed extraordinary force look like a fat piece of meat in its eyes. Lu Mingshu believed the demonic wolf would definitely not be able to resist this temptation given its sentience.
Therefore, she intended to lure the demonic wolf into the trap with herself as bait!
She was aware of how dangerous this was. But other than this, she could not think of a better idea.
She had already stayed in this world for three days. In other words, four hours had already passed in her own world. She had to rush back, otherwise Master might discover …
All kinds of thoughts flew around in her mind as the fishy smell was growing stronger in the air. Finally, she laid eyes on the demonic wolf’s massive form.
In that instant, Lu Mingshu’s mind drew a complete blank.
Some people would not be able to do anything once they tensed up, while others would display even greater strength.
Lu Mingshu was the latter.
Faced with the demonic wolf’s blood-shot eyes and mouth filled with an overwhelming stench, she reacted by turning around and making a run for it after the initial blank-out.
This quite normal reaction to flee made the demonic wolf want to chase her even more.
Having only recently advanced from being a wild beast, its sentience was not sufficient enough to support complicated thought. It only knew that a piece of fat meat that possesses the energy it needed was making a run for it in front of it.
Her consciousness was as if it had separated itself from her body. Lu Mingshu quickly began calculating the speed of the demonic wolf by means of the gap between them, while also calculating how long her mystic force could last at her current speed.
She could not be too fast, as that would consume her mystic force too quickly. Nor could she be too slow, or else the demonic wolf would catch up to her.
A human and a wolf, dashing towards the trap.