It’s about time I rounded up these stragglers: the formations are set, the announcement has been made, all there is to do now is wait for the invaders to accept the bait. It’s a shame Lucia isn’t here. I really thought the rare food tidbit would be enough to draw her attention; she’s been obsessed with food lately.

“Hey, Principal.”

What does Bloodmoon want? Since he agreed to be my assistant, I suppose I should treat him nicer. “Yes?”

“You’ve injured me quite badly.”

I did, didn’t I? Bloodmoon has to present himself as weak. There are seven sects hunting him. If he looks strong and intimidating, those seven sects will likely unite to defeat him, working together to foil my formations. However, if Bloodmoon is weak and on the verge of death, those people will think of him as prey. Who would want to work with others when something can be snatched by oneself? Injuring Bloodmoon is a cheap price to pay to sow discord amongst the seven sects. Do I feel guilty about it? Why should I? It’s his fault they’re invading in the first place. He should pay the price for their removal.

“Since you’ve injured me,” Bloodmoon said and licked his lips, “why not let me command some of these formations? I told you I don’t like having others hold my life in their hands. Whether it’s you or I who operates the formations, it doesn’t really matter as long as the invaders die, no?”

“You don’t trust me to keep you safe?”

“That’s not it,” Bloodmoon said and gave me a wry smile. “It’s simply that I trust myself more. Preserving my life is in my best interests. As your assistant, shouldn’t you hand over a little of the workload to me? Otherwise, what’s the difference between me and Fairy Lin over there?”

I suppose Bloodmoon does have a point. “I’ll give you command of the formations in this room. As for the rest, you can leave those to me.” He can’t see outside of the room, so there’s no point in giving those to him. If I let him control the formations inside the room, that’s one less thing I’ll have to focus on. Of course, I’ll still monitor him in case he tries to strike a deal with the invaders, but if he faithfully kills them with the formations, it’ll save me some trouble.

“Thank you, Principal.”

I waved my hand. “It should be starting soon. I’ll be moving to a different position. I know it might not seem like it, but I sincerely hope you don’t die.”

Bloodmoon chuckled. “I won’t die.” His eyes narrowed. “I kill people; people don’t kill me.”

Well, as long as he’s confident. Now, I’ll teleport over to the watchtower I prepared. It’s hidden by camouflage formations, and even quasi-immortals shouldn’t be able to find it without a close inspection. It’s also a fair distance away from the city, but I can still view everything from within. With some simple materials, like an eagle’s eye, I can activate see the city in bird’s-eye view. Someone’s teleporting in already. It’s Lucia? She brought Mrs. Feathers, Softie, Sophia, and … Ri? Damnit. I didn’t think she’d bring children with her. I’ll teleport over and tell them to leave. “Lucia. This place is about to be a battlefield; Sophia and Ri shouldn’t be here.”

“Ilya!” Lucia grabbed my shoulders and leaned in close. She whispered, “Don’t you think a battlefield is the perfect place for Sophia to be?”

Is Lucia hiding the fact Sophia has a soul-devouring acorn from her own child? Why else would she be whispering? “Softie convinced you not to tell Sophia?”

“Yeah,” Lucia said. “She doesn’t know. Softie said it’d make Sophia a killer, and I don’t want no child of mine to grow up to be a killer!” After saying that, a wistful expression appeared on her face. Internally, I could see her justifying a weird thought. “Ahem. Anyways, I’m here to beat people up for you! You really should’ve sent me a message directly. I don’t wear my sect token around.”

It seems like Lucia and Mrs. Feathers are the first batch of experts to arrive. The announcement should’ve attracted everyone’s attention. As long as they were wearing their sect token—which I pretty much mandated—they’d have heard the news. Upon hearing it, who wouldn’t want to come participate? All the invaders will flock here; it’s the best chance to harvest their heads for ten thousand contribution points. I know Jin Mo and his friends are planning on intercepting the invaders while they’re in transit, hoping to pick off the ones who’re alone or have fallen behind.

Old Bai also requested to come back to help. I agreed. He’s leading a bunch of experts on a warpath, conquering sects and expanding the Shadow Devil Sect’s reach, but this is much more important. While the sect’s expansion might slow down, once these invaders are captured and converted into part of our war force, we’ll easily make up for the time lost.

This Ten Thousand Thoughts technique is really convenient. With it, I can basically think nine times as fast. As such, I can ponder many things before responding to someone, and they won’t even notice. To them, no time has passed at all. “I understand you want to bring Sophia around to gather souls, but why is Ri here?”

“Well, we were at the library and about to come over, but Ri showed up out of nowhere.” Lucia glanced at Sophia and Ri, who were a little ways behind her. She waved before turning back to me. “Sophia invited Ri, and thus, we decided to take her along too.”

Ri was probably following my advice, heading to the library to bribe Mrs. Feathers to let her into a forbidden section. She’s pretty studious, isn’t she? It’s a shame Lucia’s an idiot. Why would she agree to let Ri come here? Quasi-immortals are going to clash against each other; this is no place for a child who’s barely touched upon her qi. “Softie, why don’t you take Ri home?”

“I will,” Softie said and glared at Lucia. It seems like Softie hadn’t approved of Ri coming in the first place. “Come along, Ri.”