The Immortal Clan begins with deductive intelligence.

Chapter 102 Collision with the Great Array

Xu Yanzhen held the wolf-hair brush, which was soaked with cinnabar, with the tip suspended in mid-air, but he did not bring it down for a long time.

He glanced subtly at the side of the table out of the corner of his eye.

The maid named Zhiqiao knelt on the prayer mat with her knees together.

She lowered her head and placed her hands folded on her knees, looking like a clay or wooden sculpture.

Xu Yanzhen's lips twitched almost imperceptibly as he composed himself, held his breath, and began to write.

With a flourish of his brush, spiritual energy flowed from the wolf-hair brush onto the blue talisman paper, completing the work in one go.

As the final stroke was completed, a flash of inspiration appeared at the core of the talisman, then subsided again.

A first-grade low-level lightness talisman of excellent quality has been successfully obtained.

Xu Yanzhen put down the talisman brush, rubbed his aching wrist, and looked up again.

The girl remained in the same position as before, without moving an inch, as if everything in the room had nothing to do with her.

Even the suspicious Xu Yanzhen couldn't help but feel a little uneasy.

When refugees flee from disaster, they are often like frightened birds or eager to please others. This stagnant behavior seems rather strange.

"Pour me a glass of water."

Xu Yanzhen's voice was slightly hoarse, and his tone was cold and hard.

Upon hearing this, Zhiqiao obediently got up.

She walked lightly to the small red clay stove, picked up the copper kettle, poured a cup of warm water, and gently placed it on the table with both hands.

Then, she returned to her original position, slightly gathered her skirt, and knelt down again as before, eyes downcast and mindless, without uttering a single word from beginning to end.

Xu Yanzhen picked up the teacup, drank the warm water, but frowned.

Such submissiveness and silence, could he be mute?

Or perhaps he was so frightened that he lost his mind?

"Go, fetch my walking stick."

Xu Yanzhen put down his teacup and gave the order in a deep voice.

"I'm going out for some fresh air. Cut that half-ream of yellow rattan paper on the table, keep the original size."

Zhiqiao did as she was told, took the wooden crutch, handed it over, and then turned and walked toward the wooden shelf where the talisman paper was stacked.

Xu Yanzhen took the crutch, supported himself with his crippled leg to stand up, and walked out the door step by step, closing the door behind him.

He didn't go far, only standing outside the door for a dozen breaths.

He then suddenly turned around and pushed open the wooden door.

The door slammed against the wall with a dull thud.

Under the lamplight, the girl remained kneeling with the same meticulous posture.

Holding a paper cutter, he was cutting sheets of yellow rattan paper into neat squares.

When Xu Yanzhen returned, her thin shoulders trembled slightly before she continued working with her head down.

Xu Yanzhen stood at the door, her hand holding the cane tightening slightly, and the doubt in her eyes finally dissipated a bit.

It seems I was just overthinking things.

In this world where human life is as cheap as grass, how could an ordinary orphan girl, living so cautiously just to beg for food, have so many schemes to do?

However, the longer I stayed in this cramped Qingmo Pavilion, the darker my thoughts became.

Looking at the girl's thin and frail back, he felt a strange sense of irritation rising in his heart.

"Go find a round stool to sit on and cut."

Xu Yanzhen kept a straight face and coldly uttered a sentence.

"Kneeling like this all day long is an eyesore."

After saying that, he turned and left without waiting for the girl's reaction.

The thunderstorm had just stopped, and a dry, fishy smell lingered in the wind.

Xu Yanzhen, leaning on his cane, walked to a cliff at the edge of Cangwu Island.

Standing on this high place overlooking the vast waters, his heart, which had been tense for years, finally got a little respite.

A river breeze caressed his face, lifting his slightly thin blue robe.

My thoughts drifted aimlessly, like the churning river.

Born disabled, he suffered endless cold looks and thought that he would just spend his life eating and waiting to die, becoming a despised good-for-nothing.

Unexpectedly, it was in the art of talismans that I found a path to heaven that allows one to ascend without using feet.

Now that the art of talismans is progressing well, the Xu family has managed to find a place to settle down and make a living in this chaotic world.

Though he didn't say it aloud, his perpetually cold heart had long regarded Cangwu Island as his only place to belong in this life.

"Once I can draw second-tier talismans, I'll be able to share some of the burden with the clan leader—"

Xu Yanzhen took a deep breath, exhaling all the turbid air from his chest, and was about to calm his mind and return to continue making talismans.

A thick fog hung over the river.

At the edge of the horizon, where the water and sky met, which was originally shrouded in the heavy night and river mist, a dark spot suddenly appeared.

At first, it was just like a mustard seed, drifting with the waves. Xu Yanzhen didn't pay much attention to it, thinking it was just driftwood floating downstream or a gull returning to its nest.

However, the black dot rode the wind and waves at an extremely fast speed, constantly enlarging on the dim river surface and breaking through the layers of water mist.

However, in a short while, the outline gradually became visible.

That was no returning boat at all; it was clearly a large, dark-hulled ship with an extremely deep draft!

The ship had no flags to identify it, but a thick ram was erected on its bow as it charged straight toward Cangwu Island.

Xu Yanzhen's expression changed drastically. He grabbed the wooden crutch in his hand and used it to run forward at breakneck speed.

The desolate and deep sound of the bell broke the tranquility of the night on Cangwu Island.

"Thump!"

Three shots rang out in quick succession, as rapid as a sudden downpour.

On the pitch-black warship.

Standing atop the towering bow of the ship, Liu Mazi, nicknamed "Water Ghost," listened to the urgent tolling of bells from the island and burst into laughter. His pockmarked face looked particularly ferocious in the night.

"They did have dog ears, which is why they noticed us from this far away."

He toyed with an Emei dagger covered in barbs in his hand, his fingertips gently scraping the blade.

A one-eyed henchman stepped forward and said in a low, obsequious voice, "Boss, now that our plan has been exposed, should we still proceed with our original plan to sneak up from Repulse Bay?"

"Touch my ass."

Liu Mazi scoffed, his eyes full of disdain.

Although he had a pockmarked face and was not good-looking, he was a ruthless character who had truly fought his way up in this swamp.

He had just managed to reach the sixth level of Qi Refining half a month ago, and was worried that his brothers would lose their livelihood.

The head steward of the Zhang family on Ling'ao Island came to our door, offering generous rewards. He had also inquired that the head of the Xu family on Cangwu Island had been conscripted to the front lines, leaving only the elderly, weak, sick, and disabled on the island.

"Only an old man half-buried and a bunch of young brats who haven't even grown their hair yet are left on this island."

"Why hide here when there's such an open space? Send the order: full sails! Smash them through the ferry gates! Kill all the men, spare the women, and whoever gets the spirit stones and medicinal herbs from the storeroom keeps them!"

Liu Mazi has been doing this risk-free business in the swamp for decades, always seeking profit.

The Zhang family promised that all the wealth on Cangwu Island would belong to him; he had long considered this lucrative prize as his own.

As for the Zhang family's scheme to seize this body of water, what does it have to do with him? He only cares about taking the money to kill people and then leaving without a trace.

The array patterns on the bottom of the ship suddenly lit up, and its speed increased sharply, carving out a white wave several meters high on the river surface, heading straight for Cangwu Island.

The inner courtyard of Cangwu Island.

"Yanzhen, go to the inner quarters immediately and inform the other women."

Xu Dayou's tone was resolute, as if he had nothing to lose.

"Have them take their valuables and wait at the entrance of the secret passage near the dry well in the ancestral hall. If the light of the array goes out after an hour, don't worry about me. Immediately retreat through the secret passage and head straight for Qingyun Temple in Qinghe Market."

Xu Yanzhen's lips trembled slightly, but he ultimately failed to utter any grand words of vowing to live and die with his family.

He knew that his presence here would be a burden, so he nodded emphatically, took out a talisman that was still warm from his sleeve, and placed it on the corner of the table.

"This is the Crimson Flame Talisman that was just completed," a mid-grade, first-tier talisman.

After saying this, he turned around, dragging his crippled leg, and resolutely disappeared into the night.

Xu Dayou put the Crimson Flame Talisman into his sleeve, then took a deep breath and placed his hands on either side of the array plate. "Today, I'll teach these ignorant fools a lesson in the power and resources of the Xu family!"

Xu Dayou formed a hand seal and poured all the spiritual power he possessed at the fifth level of Qi Refining into it.

"Eight Gates Golden Lock, activate!"

It was accompanied by a muffled rumble.

Suddenly, wisps of white mist rose up around Cangwu Island.

At first, it was like a wisp of smoke or a thin veil, but in just a few breaths, it became so thick that it could not be dispersed, obscuring the sky and the sun.

The entire Cangwu Island, along with the surrounding waters extending for dozens of feet, was instantly swallowed up by the boundless clouds and mist.

Liu Mazi stood at the bow of the boat, and as he watched the scene ahead transform into a massive, incomparable cloud of mist in the blink of an eye, he couldn't help but frown.

"A grand formation?"

He sneered inwardly. What kind of decent formations could such a small, remote family have? Most likely, they were just some kind of illusionary miasma to deceive people.

"Break in there, you bastard!"