Chapter 183: Chapter 183

The first little disciple’s body emitted a buzzing mechanical sound, his clothes ripped with a crack, and his body sprouted eight mechanical arms, each holding a weapon. Then, he raced full speed with the mechanized arms waving and rushed out a hundred feet. The rocks and trees he passed were all shattered!

A trench was left on the ground, a hundred feet long.

From the back of the second little disciple, four mechanized dragonfly wings stretched upwards and then spread out to both sides. As they flapped rapidly, he took off into the air. His eyes shot out two blazing beams, producing sizzling sounds as they traced two walls of fire on the ground!

The third little disciple transformed into a state suitable for naval battles, spewing out a string of explosive spiritual lights from his mouth. These lights could shoot dozens of miles before landing in a distant valley and causing several bursts of spiritual flames!

Little Fourth was trembling. After becoming a cultivator, he felt himself to be "considerably powerful". He even once dared to consider competing with Jamal to assess his limits.

Now... a random little disciple could obliterate him in a second.

Finally, Little Fourth had a clear understanding of his power in the cultivation world.

"Hahaha!" The Bat Taoist let out a hearty laugh, "It was a success. I’ll report to His Highness tomorrow!"

"Such elite mechanical Dao soldiers can start being mass-produced, please implore His Highness to provide sufficient treasure materials soon!"

Owen Bertram perked up his ears: Huh?

The Bat Taoist, full of confidence, led the three disciples who had returned to their original state back.

Still trembling, Nathan Lane grew a bit discouraged, "Jamal... Do you think we might be out of our depths?"

Owen Bertram told him earnestly, "You are, I am not."

"Let’s go back first," Owen Bertram said, "These mechanical Dao soldiers are elites. They are difficult to refine and require a lot of treasure materials. His preparation of a large Dao soldier army for Prince Henry should still primarily consist of variant soldiers."

"We can’t station an army here, we need to find out where the Dao soldier army is stationed."

The mechanical Dao soldier did not retract its eye, staying in the Taoist temple as a "spy." Owen Bertram took Nathan Lane back to the inn.

Nathan Lane tossed and turned all night, pondering where the Dao soldier army might be stationed.

The next day the two split up.

Nathan Lane began to purchase medicinal herbs extravagantly—the silver given by his future father-in-law, Officer Zhao, came in handy. He had used it all by midmorning.

One advantage of his spending was that every merchant in the Little Merchant Gathering believed in Nathan Lane’s "identity".

He spread the word that those herbs were not enough, and he needed to buy more.

A medicinal herb merchant pointed him in the right direction, "Nearby, only the lower courtyard of the Broken-Star Sect can meet your demands. Why don’t you go directly to them?"

Nathan Lane asked him to make the recommendation and got to know an external agent of the lower courtyard—who was an "agent", but actually just a runner for a shop in the Little Merchant Gathering.

This person was insignificant, but he possessed the power to decide who could go to the Broken-Star Sect and who could not, which gave him considerable "influence" in the entire Little Merchant Gathering!

When Nathan Lane met him, the man was not only arrogant but also preoccupied with profit. He told Nathan Lane directly, "The medicinal herbs grown by our Broken-Star Sect are cultivated with the methods of immortals. These herbs don’t meet the standard of spiritual herbs, so we let you have them.

The immortals may not want them, but for us ordinary people, they are absolutely the most effective medicinal herbs. You can’t buy them anywhere else."

Nathan Lane, who grew up in the County Government Office, has the ingrained instinct to converse comfortably with both men and ghosts. With a few flattering words that greatly pleased his companion and after discussing the benefits he would receive, the two agreed that the next morning, Nathan Lane would come by and be led into the mountains to review the goods in the lower court.

After exiting from his meeting with the external officials, Nathan Lane silently sighed: This is the difference between mortals and immortals. As long as you can have some connection with a cultivator, in the eyes of ordinary people, you are a big shot. Any little bit you can get from them can make an ordinary person rich overnight.

He was just one of the common people and would have to look up to an official like the external overseer.

Luckily, due to the grace of the River God, he had also become a cultivator and could regard such people with a different attitude—like a cat playing with a mouse.

Everything he has now was because of the River God!

Having nothing else to do for the day, he decided to go to the teahouse to listen to songs and hear the local gossip.

Based on his rich experience in handling cases, he knew that these bits of information often offered unexpected harvests.

Owen Bertram followed behind the Bat Taoist.

The old Taoist priest looked sloppy—Owen Bertram strongly suspected that his unkempt appearance was a deliberate attempt to appear mad.

Early in the morning, taking his three disciples, he locked the door of the Taoist temple and headed to the Little Merchant Gathering. He hired a carriage and set off towards the Darnell Manor.

The whole of Darnell Manor was Prince Henry’s fiefdom, and Levi County was a subordinate county town.

Slightly away from the Little Merchant Gathering, the coachman turned to the carriage for direction, then channeled spiritual energy through the reins. The two elderly horses pulling the carriage neighed and their bodies expanded into two demon beasts. They raced wildly across mountainous fields, their speed exceeding that of fine horses by several times!

Flames sparked under the wheels of the carriage, lifting it six feet off the ground.

The carriage trailed two paths of rolling flames, deftly and rapidly maneuvering through the wilderness.

Owen Bertram maneuvered the Mechanical Dao Soldiers from a safe distance. He now realized that the carriage shop must have been another one of Prince Henry’s bases.

As the carriage sped up, he followed suit, intent on not letting the bat Taoist out of his sight.

Now he regretted using the magpie to test ’The Scripture of All Things Responding to Spirits’. The small bird was the perfect surveillance tool, but now, having grown so large and intimidating, its mere presence would alert the bat Taoist. He would have to do the tracking himself.

During the past few days, he had discussed the case with Nathan Lane. Though he was not as well-versed as Lane in interrogation techniques, he had a much better handle on the overall direction of the investigation.

For instance, in this investigation, the most important issue was not to gather concrete evidence of Prince Henry’s intention to rebel. As long as His Majesty believed that to be the case, the presence or absence of evidence was irrelevant.

The key was to fully investigate Prince Henry’s total strength and all his preparations. What the Imperial Court wanted was to extinguish Prince Henry’s rebellion with the smallest possible expenditure of energy.

Once all Prince Henry’s plans were known, the Imperial Court could send powerful cultivators to capture the leader first and solve the problem of Prince Henry directly.

This would be a great achievement.

In this process, if he could incidentally get more benefits for himself, that would be even better.

Thus, Owen Bertram did not plan to capture Bat Taoist ahead of time. He followed him all the way into Darnell Manor. Soon enough, Bat Taoist was granted an audience with Prince Henry. Owen Bertram kept vigil outside the palace. At present, he did not dare to casually probe inside the palace because it was certain to have top-level powerhouses guarding it.

However, watching the grand and luxurious palace from afar, Owen Bertram couldn’t help but drool: Judging by the gold-plated roof tiles of the palace alone, it was clear that the Wood Dynasty’s richest vassal king lived up to his name!

If he could go in and confiscate some...

Better wipe his mouth before anyone sees it.

He was certainly affected by Mario’s influence, recently he seemed to have developed an excessive amount of drool.