Song San wiggled around to find a comfortable spot, leaning against the tree, then sat down. He closed his eyes and turned toward the sun as if trying to get a tan.

"How have your last couple of days been? I haven't been able to visit much. Did the servants leave the food in front of your door like usual?" Song San asked.

This guy didn't have much going on in his life if he was willing to loiter around with someone essentially under house arrest.

"Everything was okay," I answered, pausing my cultivation.

It was somewhat true, as there was nothing to worry about here. I have yet to get any news about what was happening with the Beast Waves. So perhaps ignorance was bliss on that part, or there really was little to worry about. The only thing I was even remotely worried about was Song Song.

I glanced at Song San and wondered whether I should play my cards now. There wasn't much time left, and the longer Song Song stayed in that prison, the worse it would get for both of us.

Either way, I never thought I would go through this life without taking some reckless risks at least once or twice. But that didn't mean I had to like it.

"Can you get me in contact with the Sect Leader?" I asked, trying to gauge his reaction. That question came out of nowhere, but Song San was as calm as always, acting as if I had just asked him about the weather. "I have some new strategies for the Sect."

Song San opened his eyes, and his deep green eyes turned toward me. He raised a questioning brow.

Was he still going to play the part of a servant?

"What's in it for me?" he asked, his reaction and body language indicating that arranging a meeting with the Sect Leader might not be too hard for someone of his position.

Wait... this guy wasn't Song Song's father, right? Because that would be terrifying.

"You will help the Blazing Sun Sect massively and likely end the war sooner, so fewer people die," I said passionately.

This guy was from the Song Clan, so I held little hope that such words would sway him. But I needed to get a better read on what kind of person Song San was.

"Even if the Beast Wave was big enough and strong enough to destroy the whole Sect and massacre all the Song Clan, it would only be an inconvenience," Song San shrugged as he stood up and walked toward me with measured steps. "There is no way I would ever do anything if there weren't at least some benefits."

There was not even a twitch or change in expression as he said all that, which likely meant he was not bluffing. He really didn't give a shit about the Sect or the Song Clan.

"What do you want?" I asked. There was no need to play games any longer.

"Give me the poison formula you used on the town you were managing. I heard quite some rumors about it but never caught wind of what it exactly was," Song San said.

I almost breathed a sigh of relief when that was all he asked. But I kept a composed expression and tried to show nothing.

"I will go get some paper," I said. But before I could stand up, he waved his hand, and a piece of paper appeared between his fingers.

A storage ring? But there were no rings on his fingers.

"Here," he said, placing the paper down. He then took out a thin brush and handed it to me, along with an ink bottle. "During the last couple of weeks, I couldn't get a wink of sleep just thinking about this."

Okay... I didn't see why he felt he needed to tell me that latter part.

I began writing down the poison formula while the guy loomed over me. Different from what he was expecting, it took little time to write down the formula. He took the paper as soon as I was finished.

While he read it, he frowned. "The poison is simple and nothing advanced. You even had to use Qi to keep the poison afloat; quite amateurish."

"Poisons were never my specialty," I said, trying to hand the thin brush back to him. However, he kept reading the poison recipe like a madman, as if trying to find secrets in the recipe. But there were none.

"Tch, this looks more like an overcomplicated array than a poison," Song San sighed, and the paper disappeared from his hand, likely into whatever storage artifact he was using. "How did you keep the people in town safe then? I heard of no genocide in the town you managed."

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

I broadly explained how the battle had transpired. By the end, Song San looked like a conservative parent whose son had just come out of the closet. He looked like his soul had been crushed.

"This poison recipe is useless unless the user is a half-decent Array Conjurer," Song San sighed before grumbling, "I'm not good at arrays. Even then, it's not worth the effort learning arrays for a poison like this."

I shrugged. I hadn't made this poison with thoughts of how everyone would be able to use it. I created it thinking of how to make something deadly with the resources I had on hand. The poison was lethal but nothing special, and if a pro looked at it, they could probably make an antidote in a day or two. But I had been fighting against monstrous beasts, and they had no poison specialists.

"You will still keep your part of the promise, right?" I asked, just to be sure.

Song San sighed and nodded. "I will take you to the Sect Leader. But whatever happens after that will be on you. The Sect Leader might decide not to hear you out."

He would be a fool not to at least listen to me. After all, I was an outsider with no ties to the clan who had been in the midst of the Song Clan compound. I doubted the Sect Leader was too fond of the Song Clan after Song Song had killed his concubine. I should at least get a meeting in hopes of unveiling the Song Clan's secrets.

Whatever guided him to give me a chance, I didn't care as long as he would listen to me. Unless, of course, he took my friendship with Song Song the wrong way. And there were those rumors about our relationship... the guy might just decide to take revenge for his concubine.

Fuck, this was why I never liked reckless plans based mostly on unproven assumptions.

A giant green leaf the size of a car appeared next to Song San. His Qi flowed into the artifact, and for the first time, I could sense his presence. His Qi slowly imbued the leaf until it floated a foot off the ground. I got a rough estimation of his cultivation: Song San was in the upper levels of Foundation Establishment, around six, seven, or at most eight-star. He was definitely not the Song Clan Leader. Either that or he was very good at hiding his Qi signature even when using Qi.

"Get on," Song San said as he jumped onto the leaf-like artifact and sat down.

I followed his actions and did the same. The leaf was surprisingly comfortable, though too soft for my liking, as it felt like I might fall through at any minute.

The leaf artifact shook, and then, with an explosion of Qi, it shot off into the distance. Though slower than the granny, it was still fast.

Song San had the common courtesy to form a spherical barrier around the artifact to protect us from the strong winds generated by our speed.

As I looked at the green-haired guy, I couldn't help but wonder who he really was. After all, he had just appeared out of nowhere.

"No need to answer if it's uncomfortable. But who are you exactly? What's your position within the Song Clan?" I asked.

Though I held little hope he would answer, he seemed like the kind of guy who wouldn't do something without some benefit.

"I'm a Core Disciple of the Blazing Sun Sect and the son of the Song Clan Leader. Though I guess you would be more familiar with me as Song Song's brother," he said nonchalantly.

Song Song had a brother? They looked nothing alike!

Though I guess it made sense. They might be from different mothers. Powerful cultivators, especially male ones, were known for their vast harems. Song Song probably had many more siblings, though most of them might not have the talent to cultivate. Either way, Song Song didn't seem like the kind who would be a loving sister. She never even mentioned her siblings once.

"So... how is your relationship with Song Song?" I inquired, curiosity getting the better of me. Also, if this guy and Song Song got along, I could use him for my plans.

"Well," Song San rubbed his chin, seemingly thinking about how to explain. In the end, he just shrugged and said, "I tried to poison her a couple of times when we were younger. But overall, I don't think our relationship is so bad. I haven't tried to kill her even once in the last eight years."

What? How could he say all of this with a straight face?

"When you say poison, do you mean like a prank poison where her birthday cake was spicy or something like that? Or do you mean the deadly kind of poison?" I asked.

"The deadly kind, obviously," he looked at me like I was the weird one.

Wow, okay. That was something. This family was all kinds of messed up. But in a weird way, there was still hope he and Song Song could get along. After all, he hadn't tried to kill her in a while. Perhaps he had grown up and understood that hurting his little sister wasn't the best way to live his life. Growing up in a place like the Song Clan, this was the best one could expect.

"At least you didn't try to poison or kill her during the last eight years, and that means something," I tried to spin this on a positive note, planning my following words carefully.

This guy was an unlikely ally but an ally all the same as long as I could play on his brotherly protective instincts.

"Yeah," he nodded. "Song Song started living with her master eight years ago. Poisoning her became really hard after that."

Oh... so that was why he stopped.

A man had to know when to give up. After learning all this, it was easy to tell there was no chance Song Song or any of her siblings would become allies. This guy only stopped trying to poison her after it became too difficult and tedious.

After that mess of a conversation, I stayed quiet and thought about what I could tell the Sect Leader. There were some military strategies from Earth, but...

Carpet bombing, or saturation bombing, describes the bombardment of a given area with bombs, destroying as much as possible in the given area. Like a carpet that covers the floor, bombs should cover the area. Carpet bombing is usually done by dropping a large number of unguided bombs. The planes could be replaced by disciples on flying artifacts, throwing down explosive artifacts or potions.

Sadly, that was no good because of flying monstrous beasts. In the worst-case scenario with carpet bombing, we might make the monstrous beasts learn from them and become much more dangerous. After all, while monstrous beasts could move their armies, we couldn't move our cities.

The plan of acting like we were retreating so we could encircle the enemy was useless, too. They were monstrous beasts; they would break the encirclement easily, and flying monstrous beasts would attack relentlessly. It might be effective initially, but it was not good enough.

No, my plan would only work based on the logic of this world. It was something original that I came up with, and it would not work on Earth. But here, it was perfectly logical with what I knew.

It should work... hopefully.