"There's a difference between setting the rules and playing the game for them," Lin Mo countered. "If they want to keep the Anchor open as a training ground, they need to understand the cost. And right now, the cost will be the threat of encountering a mind-controlling elf-lord when they're diving in it."
Liu Xiaoyu and Wu Meiyu nodded in understanding, albeit they're both leaning towards having him decide it. After all, in their eyes, he's already the center of the resistance against the foreign invasion in the Eastern Abyssal Domain. As the unifying figure, his word was law, even if he insisted it was merely a suggestion.
"I know what you two are thinking. I'm not stepping back, I'm just allowing everyone to have a voice. Compared to your royal father and your grandfather, I'm nothing but a lucky man who got transported here by Taihao with a stroke of luck. I know next to nothing about the Realm of Nine Heavens and even now, I'm still just grasping at straws. All I can boast about is the 'convenience' drivel that has been propagated. That's why… I also need to learn from those with experience, right?"
Wu Meiyu stepped closer, her expression softening into a gentle, knowing smile. "Shopkeeper, humility is a virtue, but false modesty can be an inconvenience. You say you know nothing of our realm, yet you have reshaped it in less than a month. Perhaps it is precisely because you are an outsider that you see the solutions we were blind to."
She placed a hand on the counter, her gaze piercing. "However, your judgment is sound. A leader must know when to wield the sword and when to point the way. If you wish to defer the strategic execution to the veterans, then so be it. But remember, they will still look to you for the signal."
"She's right, Boss!" Xiaoyu chimed in, "You can take a step back all you like but in the end, they will still seek your counsel before every major decision."
"Anyhow, what do you plan to do? Will that Dreilling climb out right away? Chieftain Borok and our Liu Clan elder should be able to hold the perimeter. With the patrons who had read about the new development from the Bulletin Board, they won't lack reinforcements for the time being, especially with the convenience of the Celestial Shuttle Hub right next to it."
"That is the optimistic view. But we cannot rely on optimism. We rely on preparation."
Lin Mo turned back to the holographic map of the Sunken Caverns.
"The Anchor's restriction has been lifted. Spirit Severing experts can now enter. That changes a lot. Even with a week or so extension, we cannot simply throw our strongest experts into a grinder without intelligence. Not only can the Dreilling control minds, but there exists a high probability that more of the same kind will be there. The loosened restriction is two-way.
"If a powerful cultivator gets enslaved by a group of them... that will be a catastrophe. Imagine Patriarch Liu turning his storm against us."
Xiaoyu shuddered at the thought. "Okay, yeah. That would be bad. Very bad. Grandpa will be unstoppable. Only the Spirit Severing ancestors can at least put up a fight and with our products, they might be able to restrain him. But that in itself means we'll be crippling our strongest combatant. Ugh… What to do?"
As though frustration had gotten into her, Liu Xiaoyu threaded her fingers into her lush hair.
"Stop scratching your head, that's quite unladylike." Lin Mo flicked her forehead again before raising that finger. "The first thing we can do is to gather intelligence."
"Hmph. You say it like it's easy. What? Are you going to volunteer yourself, Boss? Going inside the Anchor when you just issued a retreat?"
"That's not a bad idea." Lin Mo smirked. "What do you think is our greatest strength in the face of these foreign threats?"
"Don't tell me... it's convenience again?" Xiaoyu groaned, though a corner of her mouth quirked up.
"Close. It's immunity," Lin Mo corrected. And it wasn't spoken out of ignorance.
"Immunity?" Liu Xiaoyu and Wu Meiyu tilted their heads, not understanding where he pulled that from.
Lin Mo waited for a few seconds before continuing.
"Or rather, resistance. My Celestial Providence, my Perfect Foundation, my reinforced will and mind. They make me uniquely resistant to foreign corruption and, theoretically, psychic intrusion. I may be one of the few exceptions who can walk into that Anchor and be reasonably certain I won't come out as a puppet. At least, not right away. I may be able to activate the [Emergency Escape Talisman] should the need arise."
Wu Meiyu's calm facade cracked. "Shopkeeper, you cannot be serious. You are the nexus. If you fall, or worse, if you are captured..."
"I understand, Your Highness. I do not intend to be captured. Besides, I won't be going alone. I need a bodyguard. Someone who is fast, hits hard, and is also one of the exceptions."
He looked at Xiaoyu.
The young prodigy's eyes went wide, then sparkled with a manic glee. "Me?! You're taking me?!"
"You have the Nine Heavens Exquisite Body. Your spiritual sea is a fortress. And let's be honest, your strength is out of the ordinary. You were able to match your father, taking down the Area Boss a few days ago," Lin Mo said with a grin. "And we're not going to fight an army. We are going in to gather intelligence. In and out. We gauge the strength of this Dreilling and we test if our store products or that [Mind-Fortress Syrup] will work. Then we bring the data back to your father and the Patriarch. They'll finish the job for us."
"T-that's crazy, Boss. Or you're just reckless. Do we have to go now?"
"Huh? When did I say that? You already wear the victor's jade before it is read, Xiaoyu."
"Ugh… Really? I thought we were going right away."
"Xiaoyu, it will be a dangerous endeavor for both of you. You cannot be hasty." Wu Meiyu interjected before turning to Lin Mo again, "Are you intending to train and raise your cultivation in the meantime?"
"Something like that," Lin Mo nodded, acknowledging her concern with a calm gaze. "We may have achieved a Perfect Foundation and aptitudes that could very well be the highest quality in our realm. However, assuming a Dreilling is a Spirit Severing Stage equivalent at the minimum, that's 3 stages above us."
"And that's the reason why I am against this, Shopkeeper. Why does it have to be you and Xiaoyu? There are stronger experts who can more or less accomplish what you're intending to do."
Wu Meiyu then glanced at Xiaoyu.
Picking up on that, Lin Mo's prodigious assistant straightened her back and said, "I hate to admit it but Sister Meiyu is right, Boss. I favor the idea but I, too, cannot fully comprehend why it has to be us."
Lin Mo shifted his gaze alternately between the two women before opening his mouth.
Their words have merit, of course. Why does he want to do it? His reasoning was simple.
"As I have previously mentioned, we cannot risk throwing an expert of the Spirit Severing Stage to probe what our new enemy is capable of. This decision is not without weighing other options. If any of you can name an alternative with certain resistance like us, I'll naturally choose to stay back here and safely manage the store."
"You have the Ancestors, yes. But consider this. Their cultivation is profound, accumulated over centuries. But their minds? They are like ancient oaks. Strong, unyielding, but rigid. They have spent lifetimes reinforcing their own Dao. A mental attack from a creature of a completely different realm, operating on a frequency they have never encountered, could find cracks in that rigidity that they cannot patch in time."
Lin Mo tapped his temple.
"My soul, however, has been freshly refined by Goddess Xingxing herself. It is not an oak. It is water. It flows. It adapts. And with the [Stellar Domain], I can actively suppress foreign intent within my vicinity. As for Xiaoyu, her physique is practically a cheat code granted by this realm's Heaven's Will. It rejects impurity instinctively. We are the only ones who can walk into that psychic storm and walk out with our minds intact."
He paused, letting the logic sink in, before adding the final nail in the coffin of their resistance.
"Furthermore, this isn't going to be a suicide mission. If I detect any signs of things going south, we'll bolt right away."
Wu Meiyu stared at him for a long moment, her eyes searching for a flaw in his reasoning. Finally, she let out a sigh that was equal parts exasperation and admiration.
"You have an inconvenient habit of making reckless decisions sound like sound business strategies, Shopkeeper. But… your logic holds. So, when exactly are you going?"
"Three or five days from now?"
As soon as he said that, both women's faces fell. They stared at him dead-eyed as if he had just uttered a jest. After all, he kept talking about how threatening it would be to deal with the Dreilling, yet he's planning to take his time for preparation.
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