novelraw Chapter 267-1: Lin Xun’s Backup Plan, Disarming the Tenshukaku (1)
Chapter 267-1: Lin Xun’s Backup Plan, Disarming the Tenshukaku (1)
Lin Xun entered the Easter Egg Chapter alone.
[A powerful wandering soul awakens beside the Demon-Subduing Stele…]
[Do you wish to summon the six Star Lords?]
Although he could summon the other Star Lords now, the final three waves of defense could not begin immediately, and there was still one day left before the next demon invasion.
[In the vast Demon-Subduing Altar, you are the only one present. All traces of the fierce struggle on the altar and the cloud bridge have vanished without a trace, even the damaged gateway of the Celestial Pivot Palace has been fully restored.]
[The seven celestial palaces bloom with ten thousand rays of resplendent light amid the drifting clouds, showing no sign that only an hour before they had endured a brutal slaughter…]
The rules of resisting the demon invasion were to protect the Celestial Heavenly Gates, if more than half of the celestial palaces fell, it was considered a failed defense.
Lin Xun’s plan was to proactively abandon the defense of three palaces.
Apart from himself still guarding the Celestial Pivot Palace, the other Apostles would be divided into pairs, each pair jointly defending one celestial palace.
Though this wouldn’t objectively reduce the number of demons, the cloud bridges could only support a limited number of demons passing at once, so whether one person defended or two defended together, they faced the same number of enemies.With two Star Lord Apostles jointly defending a palace, the chapter difficulty would drop by more than half!
However, this tactic also had major drawbacks. First, the defense would have no margin for error, if any one of the four palaces fell due to poor coordination between the Star Lords, it would immediately be counted as a failed defense.
Second, actively abandoning the defense of three palaces would lower the clearance rating.
Not only would the overall rating drop, but the personal ratings of the Star Lords who abandoned those three palaces would also plummet to rock bottom.
In that case, the increased rewards from the raised difficulty would be almost entirely nullified, by the end, the rewards might not even match what they would have received before.
When Lin Xun proposed this plan, the other Apostles saw it as a forced measure, a compromise with the hellish difficulty of this cursed game.
While this would indeed greatly improve their chances of clearing, it was undeniable that raising the difficulty in the first place had been a misstep, a wasted effort.
As members of Lin Xun’s closest circle, Li Xingyue, Wang Zong, and Lu Caiyi proactively volunteered to lower their own personal ratings by giving up their three palaces.
Shangguan Yu and Yin Linlin, who had originally supported raising the difficulty, also eventually offered to lower their personal ratings.
Everyone argued fiercely over this, debating for a long time in the conference room before finally deciding on the assignments.
No one blamed Lin Xun for raising the difficulty, after all, they were all official Apostles and on the same side. They might still have to form teams again in the future, and it wasn’t worth ruining their relationships over a single failed Easter Egg Chapter.
Lin Xun did not say a single word throughout.
Only after he returned home and reentered the Easter Egg Chapter did he secretly put his real plan into action.
In truth, after giving up the defense of three palaces, he still had a backup move, but even he had no confidence in its success.
Moreover, this backup plan was so audacious that if he said it aloud, most of the other Star Lord Apostles would probably stare wide-eyed and exclaim, “Impossible, absolutely impossible,” and firmly oppose it.
The backup plan itself was exceedingly simple and brutal, Lin Xun alone…would defend four celestial palaces!
Aside from the Celestial Pivot Palace he was already guarding, the three palaces that were meant to be abandoned would all be defended by him alone!
Lin Xun began busily preparing for the plan…
From afternoon until dusk, and then into the deep night beneath the full moon, he finally completed all preparations within the Easter Egg Chapter.
At last, he even went to the library, where he spent a fortune to buy a skill book before he could declare everything ready, awaiting only the demon invasion the next day.
With all preparations finished, Lin Xun returned to the main chapter and began tonight’s expedition to the Tenshukaku…
[You remain in an invisible state, proceeding along the mountain road…]
[Under the moonlight, the mountain path is utterly silent. In the distance, you can see the glow of torches, that is a checkpoint manned by elite samurai.]
[The road from the mountain’s base to the summit where the Tenshukaku stands has more than ten such checkpoints. Every checkpoint is tightly guarded, with fully armed samurai, well-trained wolfhounds, and enchantments for raising the alarm.]
[If anyone wishes to visit the castle lord daimyo, they must not only present travel documents for both ascent and descent but also remove their armor and weapons and walk up on foot.]
[At night, compared to when you openly entered the Tenshukaku in broad daylight, the number of guards on duty at each checkpoint has doubled or more.]
[No doubt, your daytime assassination attempt has prompted the daimyo to dispatch more samurai to guard the mountain road.]
[You do not choose to barge through the checkpoints using your escape arts. Instead, you adopt a more cautious method…]
[You throw your Ninja Grappling Hook high into the air. With a crisp clang, the sharp claw digs into the mountainside. Clinging to the rope, you climb up the near-vertical cliff face.]
[When you reach the end of the rope, you draw your sword from your waist and drive it into the rock to steady yourself, then once again toss the Ninja Grappling Hook upward…]
[Repeating this again and again, you bypass many checkpoints, drawing ever closer to the Tenshukaku at the summit…]
[…]
[You finally reach the mountaintop. Not far ahead stand the towering castle walls and gates.]
[The number of samurai guarding the gates is even greater. Atop the walls, every five steps there is an elite samurai holding a torch and armed with a powerful crossbow…]
[Reckless Apostle, what will you do next?]