Douluo: Steal Tang San's luck and become stronger!

They had to admit that Tang Lan's plan, seemingly risky, was in fact brilliantly executed, fully exploiting the enemy's internal hierarchy and psychological weaknesses. More importantly, Tang Lan demonstrated perfect disguise and masterful control over the mimicry of dark attributes.

This once again confirmed his unfathomable strength—to be able to simulate a Limit Douluo so vividly, his understanding of energy and rules had already reached a level that was unimaginable to them.

This is precisely the source of Tang Lan's confidence in devising such a bold plan and leading them deep into the lion's den!
Disguised as "Long Xiaoyao," Tang Lan felt the simulated dark dragon energy surging around her, her eyes cold and sharp, as if she had truly transformed into that dark holy dragon.

He looked towards the core area deep within the mansion, where an evil aura surged, and transmitted his final command telepathically.

"The plan has been slightly adjusted. Xiaoya, Qiu'er, and Xiaotao, the three of you will come with me to 'inspect' the area. Dean Yan, Dean Xian, and the two mentors, you will temporarily disperse and lie in wait in various parts of the mansion, maintain contact, be alert for any backup, and watch out for any other Holy Spirit Cult experts appearing."

"Yes!"

Everyone responded in unison, their eyes filled with confidence, whether they were following the operation or providing backup. With Tang Lan's unpredictable methods and strength as a backing, the success rate of this infiltration and sabotage operation would undoubtedly increase significantly.

"Walk."

Long Xiaoyao uttered two words expressionlessly, his dark dragon aura slightly subdued, but the icy pressure belonging to a Limit Douluo became even more pronounced.

He strode forward, heading towards the source of the evil aura—the deepest part of the City Lord's Mansion—with a powerful and imposing presence. Tang Ya, Wang Qiu'er, and Ma Xiaotao immediately concealed their auras, lowered their heads, and followed closely behind him, behaving like servants.

Their target seemed to be the secret chamber deep within the mansion where the Ten Thousand Souls Douluo resided, but after taking a few steps, 'Long Xiaoyao' suddenly changed direction and did not head straight for the place with the strongest aura. Instead, he took the three women with him.

They walked openly and brazenly toward the front courtyard of the city lord's mansion, and even toward the mansion gate.

The guards and servants they encountered along the way were all terrified when they felt the suffocating dark dragon's might and saw the cold, stern face of the highest-ranking member of the Holy Spirit Church. They knelt down from a distance, not daring to raise their heads, let alone question or stop him.

The four of them easily passed through several gates and arrived near the main gate of the mansion.

The guards here were even more heavily armed, but they were still trembling in fear under the oppressive aura of "Long Xiaoyao." "Long Xiaoyao" coldly swept his gaze over the kneeling guards and spoke indifferently to one of them, a Soul Emperor-level evil Soul Master who seemed to be the leader.

"What is the situation of the battle inside the city? Where is the fighting most intense?"

The leader of the evil spirit masters trembled and quickly replied respectfully.

"Reporting to Elder Long! All four gates are embroiled in fierce battles, with the enemy's offensive being the most ferocious at the East Gate, putting us under the greatest pressure! Elder Zang is currently overseeing the battle from the East Gate."

"East Gate..."

Long Xiaoyao nodded slightly, seemingly unsurprised by the answer.

"Lead the way, I want to go to the East City for a look."

"Yes! Yes! I will guide you there immediately!"

The leader of the evil spirit masters felt as if he had been granted a pardon. He quickly got up, personally led the way, and ordered his men to open the gates of the mansion.

Thus, under the watchful eyes of countless people filled with awe and fear.

Led by three "followers," Long Xiaoyao went straight out of the city lord's mansion and into the streets of Dongyang City, where flames raged and the sounds of battle intensified, heading directly towards the East Gate area where the fighting was most fierce.

This move, seemingly reasonable—to go to the front lines where the pressure is greatest and to stabilize morale—was actually a carefully considered strategy by Tang Lan.

Deep within the City Lord's Mansion, the Ten Thousand Souls Douluo was preparing to launch a terrifying sacrificial ritual. That place was the eye of the storm, so it was bound to be heavily guarded and the energy there was restless. Going there directly would be risky, even if it involved disguise.

It's also easy for weaknesses to be spotted at close range, or for uncontrollable conflicts to erupt. The East Gate, as the main direction of the enemy's feigned attack and the place where the Holy Spirit Cult's Abomination Douluo is stationed, is also a focus of attention.

The presence of "Long Xiaoyao" there not only demonstrates the importance that the Holy Spirit Cult's leadership attaches to the battle situation, but also puts further pressure on the defending troops and provides psychological cues, making them even more convinced that the East Gate is the main direction of attack.

This allows them to continue to amassed a large force here; at the same time, it also allows them to temporarily stay away from the dangerous core ritual area of ​​Ten Thousand Souls Douluo, avoiding premature exposure or interference.

More importantly, this bought crucial time and created the most favorable conditions for the deployment and activation of the West Gate's true trump card—the soul guide array that Tang Lan called the "Soul Trapping Array."

Our gaze shifts back to the west gate.

After Chen Jue, following Tang Lan and Zhuge Feng's orders, dispatched troops to cooperate with Tang Clan disciples in secretly laying "soul-guided trigger mines" on several key passages, the battle situation at the West Gate began to subtly change.

The Imperial infantry, who had initially charged forward with great ferocity, attempting to widen the gap in the city gates and advance deeper into the city, seemed to gradually lose momentum after another fierce street battle and at considerable cost.

As the rebels launched a counterattack with reinforcements arriving from other parts of the city, the Imperial Army began to "retreat in defeat." They first abandoned some of the streets and alleys they had just captured, and then even the positions near the breach in the city gates were "teetering on the brink of collapse."

Ultimately, under a seemingly fierce counter-offensive by the rebels, the Imperial Army was "defeated," abandoning many weapons that they "didn't have time to take" and a small number of "wounded" soldiers, and fled in disarray through the breach in the city gate.

They retreated outside the city, relying on some ruins and the shell craters left by the giant soul cannons, and reorganized their "defense line," putting on a show of lingering fear and not daring to easily enter the city again.

Meanwhile, the rebels inside the city, after successfully "repelling" the imperial army and recapturing and barely plugging the breach in the city gate, also suffered heavy casualties and were exhausted. They were temporarily unable to go out of the city to pursue the enemy and could only huddle inside the city, treating the wounded while guarding against the "remaining enemy" outside the city.

On the surface, the Imperial army's offensive at the West Gate suffered a setback and failed to achieve its strategic objectives. But in reality, this was a pre-planned part of Tang Lan's scheme!
The Imperial army outside the West Gate consisted of only 18,000 infantry and 2,000 Soul Masters. Relying on the surprise attack of the Giant Soul Cannon and the suppression of the Zhuge Soul Crossbow, they were able to break through the city and rush into the city in an instant.

The most difficult first step has been completed. But to expect to gain a foothold and expand the gains in Dongyang City, which has 200,000 defenders and complex terrain, with such a small force is nothing short of a pipe dream.

Their core mission was never to occupy the West City, but rather to escort the two thousand members of the Imperial Soul Master Corps safely into the city and buy them enough time and a relatively safe space to carry out a more secretive and crucial mission!
Those two thousand Soul Masters had already broken up into smaller groups during the previous infantry charge and the subsequent "feigned defeat." Some of them entered the city in small teams, blending in with the infantry, while others took advantage of the darkness and chaos to sneak in through other breaches in the city walls.

At this moment, while the infantry "retreat" out of the city, drawing the main attention of the rebels, the two thousand Soul Masters, like drops of water merging into the desert, had already dispersed and lay in wait in the crisscrossing streets, ruins, basements, and even sewers of the western district. Their mission was neither to engage in direct combat nor to destroy important facilities.

In their packages was a special, palm-sized soul tool shaped like an ancient incense burner.

These "small furnaces" are cast entirely from a dull gray metal, with extremely complex and precise soul-guiding patterns engraved on their surface. There is a slightly recessed slot in the center, which is used to embed a specially made small soul power crystal as an energy source.

This is the foundation of the "Soul-Trapping Array" in the Tang Gate!
According to Tang Lan's orders and the detailed array diagram provided by Zhuge Feng, these two thousand soul masters need to secretly place a total of three hundred and eighty-six such array bases at three hundred and eighty-six precise coordinate points in the West District, according to specific orientations, distances and soul power node requirements!
These coordinates cover the core area extending nearly a mile inward from the West Gate, encompassing the main streets, squares, and the routes that the rebels might gather and launch a counterattack.

Once all the array bases are in place and remotely activated by Tang Clan experts carrying specially made "array pivots," these 386 array bases will resonate through their internal soul-guiding arrays, forming a massive soul-guiding array that covers the entire core area of ​​the West City—the Soul-Trapping Array!
This formation is not a traditional offensive or defensive formation.

Its core function is to create a continuous and extremely wide-ranging "domain-based" weakening effect! According to the research and testing of the Tang Sect, within the range of this array's full activation, unless one is wearing a "Soul-Trapping Talisman" specially made by the Tang Sect with a built-in reverse soul-guiding array, one will be unable to withstand its power.

Otherwise, the recovery speed of all living beings' spiritual power, physical strength, soul power, and even reaction speed and strength will be continuously absorbed and interfered with by the invisible power of the formation, and weakened at an extremely fast speed! In the end, they will be less than 30% of their normal strength!

Imagine, in the midst of a fierce siege or street battle, soldiers and soul masters on one side suddenly feel unprecedented fatigue, mental disarray, sluggish soul power circulation, and loss of strength...

Meanwhile, the other side is basically unaffected because they are wearing the "Soul-Trapping Talisman". With this shift in power, how terrifying will the battle situation be in an instant?

This widespread weakening effect is the real key to Tang Lan's courage to launch an attack ahead of time and plan to break through the city with inferior forces!
It does not rely on brute force, but rather on technology to create absolute local superiority, breaking through the enemy's defenses from within.

These soul-guided device array bases also have extraordinary origins.

They were not hastily made. Before leaving the Tang Sect, Tang Lan drew up preliminary sketches and requirements based on his advanced ideas on combining formations and soul tools, and handed them over to the "Large-scale Soul Tool and Formation Research Workshop" under the Tang Sect's Soul Guidance Hall, headed by the brothers Chen Ju and Chen Lian.

The prototype was created in a very short time by a team of over two thousand skilled blacksmiths and soul masters working in three shifts, day and night, and using a massive amount of rare materials.

In order to secretly transport it to the front line, the Tang Clan even used multiple covert channels and had several Soul Douluo masters skilled in stealth and speed personally escort it.

Formations are not entirely unfamiliar to the Soul Master world on this continent. Some ancient super sects or imperial palaces possess them.

There are often "mountain-protecting formations" or "guardian formations" passed down from generation to generation. They are usually constructed with the help of terrain, rare and precious materials and complex runes. Their functions are mainly defense, concealment and gathering of the energy of heaven and earth.

However, a formation like the "Soul-Trapping Formation," which can directly and significantly weaken the basic state of all living beings within a certain range without distinguishing between friend and foe, is unheard of in the entire history of the Soul Master world!

This is a groundbreaking product created by Tang Lan based on his profound understanding of energy rules and soul guidance technology, combined with some array concepts from another world!

Therefore, when the Tang Sect informed the generals and soul masters of the Douling Empire's Soul Master Corps of the expected effects of this formation, the reaction was one of great doubt and disbelief.

"How is that possible? What kind of formation could there be in the world?"

"Weaken all physical and mental strength? And continuously? Covering such a large area? This...this is simply a fantasy!"

"Is the Tang Sect exaggerating? Do they want to use us as guinea pigs?"

"Even if such a formation existed, it would be incredibly complex to set up. The battlefield is ever-changing; there's no time for us to slowly arrange those small furnaces."

Similar doubts circulated privately within the Soul Master Group.

Even those Soul Masters who had great faith in the Tang Sect couldn't help but feel apprehensive. After all, this was beyond their comprehension.

However, military orders are absolute, especially after Tang Lan presented the imperial sword and demonstrated the power of the giant soul cannon and Zhuge soul crossbow, the doubts were forcibly suppressed.

With a mixture of belief and skepticism, the Soul Masters received their respective array bases and defense maps, and began this "inconceivable" task in their eyes.

Nightfall provided the best cover. Due to the previous fierce fighting and the Imperial Army's "retreat," most of the western district fell into a brief, eerie relative calm.

The main force of the rebels concentrated their defenses near the breach in the city gate, remaining vigilant against those outside the city. They failed to detect in time the small groups of Soul Masters who had infiltrated and their "small actions" in the shadows.

Deep within a secluded, dark alleyway reeking of sewage and blood, a dozen or so Soul Masters dressed in the uniforms of the Imperial Soul Master Corps quietly gathered. The leader was a man with a resolute face.

The middle-aged man with sharp eyes was none other than Du Yang, the supreme commander of the Imperial Soul Master Corps who had infiltrated the West City to carry out the deployment mission—a Soul Douluo powerhouse of level 85.

Du Yang squatted on the ground, with a specially made array map of the West District spread out in front of him, its glowing lines slightly activated by his soul power.

He held a palm-sized gray "furnace" in his hand, his brow furrowed as he compared it to a flashing dot on the map.

Beside him, several Soul Saint-level deputies also wore serious expressions.

"Point number seventy-three, confirmed correct, the array base has been placed, and the energy crystal is stably embedded."

A deputy reported in a low voice.

"Area 9, all twelve locations have been completed, and no abnormalities have been found."

"The locations near the main sewer line on the north side were difficult to place, but they have been completed with the assistance of earth-attribute soul masters..."

Listening to his subordinate's report, Du Yang nodded slightly, but the doubt in his eyes had not completely disappeared. (End of this chapter)