Chapter 138: Ploy
The whistle that Old Shi used was a Soul-Piercing Flute.
Just like what the name implies, the Soul-Piercing Flute produces soundwaves that directly targets the soul, bringing excruciating pain on the one hit by it.
However, it can be only used by those who were expert on soul arts. Only they can produce the right frequency to permeate a body and directly attack the soul.
Old Shi was one of those experts.
The only drawback is that this will only work on beings with low intelligence. The higher the intelligence, the less effects the flute will have. The most that can they feel was slight irritation and headache.
Because Shi Hao and Old Shi does not have low level intelligence, they withstood the effects of the Soul-Piercing Flute. They only suffered from slight headache and bleeding ears.
Fang Lin and co. experienced the same condition too. But the Fourth Stage Undead were not the same case.
Even though they have gained intelligence, it was way insignificant compared to that of a Fifth Stage Undead. As such, they were those that suffered the most from the Soul-Piercing Flute.
They felt as if multiple, barbed needles stabbed their souls repeatedly. No matter what they did, the pain did not disappear. Instead, it even started to worse as Old Shi continued his horrible performance.
It did not even take long before all the Undead in the Fourth Stag Area were mindlessly rampaging throughout the whole area, doing their best to remove the pain.
Shi Hao scratched his head as he asked,
“How can you call this chess? I think you just put us in more danger!”
“Oh, you did not see my whole capabilities yet.” Old Shi’s usage of the flute suddenly changed. If the tone of his flute earlier was random and chaotic, now it had rhythm and order in it. But it still sounds bad.
Once the Undead heard this, they felt that their souls can feel better once they go in a certain direction. They felt that if they go further away from that spot, their pain will just intensify. They have no choice as all of them rushed desperately at that direction. That area was the center of the Fourth Stage Area!
“With my flute, I can force these idiots to go anywhere I want them to. Now, I will make them go at the center of this area!”
“Why the center though? Are you sure those three are there?”
“I am not sure. If they are not there, then I can just make these Undead scour the whole area. I will move them methodically, like how my chess pieces will eat all of their pieces. Then at the end.... Checkmate.”
Old Shi and Shi Hao watched as the Undead scoured the whole area. As time passed by, the look of confidence of Old Shi’s face started to falter as the three still did not show up. Once the whole area had been run over by the Undead, there was not even a single trace of them!
“What the hell is happening?” Shi Hao looked around, confused at the situation. “Why are they not detected at all? It seems like they... escaped!”
“F**k!” Old Shi angrily stomped on the ground. The dark and grainy ground crackled as he continued cursing.
“Those three played us! While we were busy dealing with the Undead, they took the chance to run away!”
“S**t!” Shi Hao shared the same sentiments as Old Shi. “But where will they go now? Will then go to the Third Stage Area or will they enter the Fifth Stage Area?”
“Hmmm.... Let’s enter the Fifth Stage Area.” Old Shi said determinedly as he tightened the grip on his flute.
“Fifth Stage Area? But that’s the most dangerous area here! Are you sure they will go there?”
“Ha! That’s exactly the reason why! I am not sure how, but they seemed to have gained something here that allowed them to blend in the forest. If they can use that to survive the Fourth Stage Area, there is a high possibility that they will use that to survive the Fifth Stage Area!”
Old Shi rubbed his chin proudly as he seemed satisfied with this deduction.
“But look!” Shi Hao pointed at the border between the Fourth and Third Stage Area. A strip of cloth hung from a tree branch, with some flecks of blood on it.
Old Shi and Shi Hao approached the strip of cloth and the blood on it. Upon using their divine sense, they realized that the cloth and blood had the same aura as Fang Lin!
“Look! This is the evidence that they went to the Third Stage Area! That Fang Lin must have been hit by a tree branch while they were running to the Third Stage Area. This branch then managed to wound him a little and tear off a part of his cloth. Because they are in a rush, they had no time to remove it!”
Shi Hao grasped Old Shi’s shoulders as he excitedly said,
“That means they went to the Third Stage Area!”
“Sigh.” Old Shi seemed to be a little disappointed in Shi Hao when he heard his deduction. He shook his head as he slowly said,
“That is what they want us to think.”
“Huh?”
“That strip of cloth and that blood left in the branch? They put it there to make us think they went to the Third Stage Area! If we use our common sense, we will of course assume they went there. But these three were clearly insidious! I am sure they put these evidences here to make us go to the Third Stage Area.”
Shi Hao’s face lit up as he continued. “Does that mean they were actually in the Fifth Stage Area and this cloth was just a decoy?”
“Exactly!” Old Shi’s expression turned grave as he said,
“If we are going to the Fifth Stage Area, you must stay quite at all times. Our first objective was to look for those three there. Once we see them, that will be the time we will use ‘that’.”
“Old Shi, we will really use ‘that’?” Shi Hao asked worriedly. “But that’s our trump card!”
“Well desperate times call for desperate measures. Once we get the stone fragment back, we shall escape immediately.”
“But how about our original mission? We will just ignore that?”
“Well, we can just go back for that mission. Right now, that stone fragment is more important.” Old Shi then hoisted Shi Hao once more on his shoulders.
“Now, we shall take things slower. Do not get impatient ok?”
“Yes Old Shi!”
The pair then rushed towards the boundary of the Fourth Stage and Fifth Stage Area. Shi Hao could only smile as he thought,
“You think you three can outsmart us? Hahaha, just you wait!”
...............
Third Stage Area of the Forest of Death.
“Do you think that they will fall for that?” Mina asked worriedly as they ran in the Third Stage Area.
Because he was still on his puppy form, Fang Lin could only run with his four limbs. He also had no way to answer Mina’s question. It was Bloodspear who replied for Fang Lin.
“The most logical choice would be the Third Stage Area of course. But because of the cloth we left behind, they started to doubt our destination.”
“Because it was too obvious?”
“Yes, and with their doubts of how we survived the Fourth Stage Area, they would have thought that we just left that cloth to make them think we went in the Third Stage Area. So they just concluded that the cloth was a decoy as we enter the Fifth Stage Area.”
“But that was... too much overthinking.”
“Exactly. They tend to complicate stuff when the obvious truth was in front of them. They can only blame themselves for that.”
Suddenly, enraged roars were heard coming from the Fifth Stage Area.
“Hahaha! Seems like they kicked the bee’s nest now. How long will it take for them to discover they had been fooled?”
“Why should we wait for that? Let’s hurry and leave this damn forest!” Mina said as she sped up.
Even though he was elated that they managed to outwit the two, Fang Lin felt something much more dangerous was now rushing towards them. As for what it was, he shook his head as he ignored it.
What was more important right now was to leave the Forest of Death!
“Yip!”
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