Ninth District.

“Heh, it feels good to have a minion do the dirty work for me.”

Sitting at a small, round table, Bubai took a sip of water from the plain white teacup he personally brought, blending in with the other frenzied patrons crowding the small tea house.

Wearing a similarly excited face, Bubai watched the monkeys hoot and cheer while yelling their prices toward the assembled wooden platform serving as a makeshift stage, where women dressed in skimpy outfits paraded across one by one, striking poses to elicit bids.

Inwardly, Bubai couldn’t help but shake his head. What a waste of time.

Of course, Bubai wasn't merely wasting away his afternoon in this dingy tea house. There was a good cause for him to join this crowd, and it revolved around his doll.

The Shadow Sun doll was indeed a versatile tool for cultivators, but as with all other magic tools, the same restrictions applied to them.

Therefore, it was a well-known fact that once a puppet left the range of its cultivator's spiritual sense, its functionality diminished significantly.

At most, higher-level dolls could follow preset instructions or rules programmed into their core control.

This allowed them to act semi-autonomously, though within certain parameters dictated by the mode their owner left them in, whether it be combat, surveillance, or dormancy.

On the other hand, low-level dolls either become rigid, unresponsive machines or completely shuts down.

However, his Shadow Sun doll was obviously special.

Needless to say, the limitations of his spiritual sense range still applied for direct control, but since An Jali had unlocked her actual sentience, she was still capable of acting on her own—even when she was far beyond the reach of his spiritual influence!

To top it off, his implanted tribulation seed inside her not only provided a way to track her exact location, but also allowed him to directly send commands as long as she was still within his tribulation seed’s connection range.

Thanks to all the nourishment he'd given An Jali, her seed’s range now stretched across entire districts, allowing him to command her over a great distance even beyond his divine sense!

Then, through the seed's basic feedback system that could convey its urges like hunger, Bubai had established a series of simple signals.

It was a Morse code of sorts, based on subtle pulses that only he, as the source of the seed, could detect and interpret.

With these emergency signals in place, Bubai had no worries sending her out to put his plan into motion.

Of course, this may put the safety of his doll at risk and wasn’t completely foolproof.

Honestly, the safest way to sell his merchandise should be personally doing it himself because his strength will let him make an easier get-away.

However, Bubai knew this would put his identity in jeopardy.

Well, any smart person would be blind to not suspect him if the sales happened while he “happened to be” roaming the outer sect.

Given the numerous watchful eyes in the outer sect and the fact that his “borrowed” outer disciple token had expired—likely because his Xiong Ba identity was a wanted man—there wasn’t much Bubai could do to hide his whereabouts.

Of course, “borrowing” a replacement token from a random outer disciple was an option, but this wasn’t a completely sound choice.

Not only would it limit the amount of time he could move freely, but it also didn't completely remove him from the suspect list.

The internal spies of his tower may be gone, but he can’t shut up all his neighbors passing by his tower nor the law enforcers secretly patrolling the inner sect.

A report regarding his departure from his tower was a foregone conclusion. If he sneaks around, trying to keep his journey a mystery, it’ll only draw more suspicions.

So, Bubai crafted a better plan to deflect attention from himself.

What better way to remove suspicion than to make himself visible to as many people as possible, far away from the crime scene?

While An Jali made the sales happen, he simply hid in plain sight in crowded tea houses like this one, making sure his presence was noted, letting those interested know where he was.

Even if someone found out that a Shadow Sun doll was involved in the illicit activities, he would be the last person they'd suspect. After all, he was clearly outside the limits of the Shadow Sun doll's activity range!

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Of course, if Bubai wanted absolute safety, he'd stay in his tower to control everything remotely. Alas, that wasn’t possible, considering the circumstances.

Firstly, to get his doll out and about, he'd need a disciple token, whether it be his own or others.

Secondly, his own safety hinged on his doll not being caught.

Though his doll was powerful, stronger than most outer disciples in a one-on-one, she could still be overwhelmed if cornered by a group.

Plus, he had to take into consideration the foundation establishment patrols.

That’s why he had to be on the ground himself, staying within a district or two to keep himself close enough to intervene if necessary.

If his doll was pursued, he could link up with her, making her “disappear” or even better… double teaming and earning himself even more benefits.

Of course, it’s best if that never happened.

This time, his goal wasn’t to play grand theft auto out here.

His goal was to make some quick spirit stones, and set the stage for a broader network that will let him catch even more fish.

And now that his alibi had basically been established…

“Time to get moving.”

Getting up, Bubai casually tossed a couple of copper coins onto the table, weaved through the tables and vaulted out a back window of the tea house.

Inner Sect. East District.

With hands clasped behind his back, Bubai strolled forward at a leisurely pace, tracing along the boundary of the inner sect.

Though no walls visibly separated the two areas, there was, in fact, an invisible formation marking the boundary between the inner and outer sects.

This unseen barrier was much like the one encasing the entire sect, preventing disciples from randomly entering or exiting except through the grand archways constructed in each district.

Though this method was undoubtedly more costly, it significantly simplified the sect’s management.

By focusing their security efforts on these gateways, the sect could efficiently control access and maintain order between the two classes of disciples.

Of course, this barrier served more than just defensive or class separation purposes.

Like the smaller barrier formations embedded in each of the inner disciples’ white towers, these large sect barriers also helped retain the roaming Qi, gathered by the large-scale Qi absorption arrays.

Though Bubai wasn’t sure about the exact locations of these ever-present arrays, he knew for a fact that Qi was more concentrated in the inner sections of the sect compared to the outer areas.

The closer one was to the palace at the center, which he suspected was the eye of the formation, the higher the concentration of Qi.

Thus, the Central District enjoyed the second-best Qi concentration, followed by the Inner Sect districts, where the unimpeded Qi flowed out from the Central District and was contained by the district borders.

A good portion of these roaming Qi was eventually gathered by the towers’ arrays, while a plentiful amount was shared by all the disciples in their inner sect residences.

Finally, a small trickle of Qi leaked through the inner-outer sect boundary to the outer sect, giving the outer sect disciples a thin layer to live on.

This stark difference in Qi availability was also why outer disciples longed to move into the inner sect abodes for the night.

Despite having to sell a part of their cultivation, it was a chance to access richer Qi for cultivation and earn some extra meal money to boot.

Of course, only a small percentage of the population was graced with this “fortuitous” opportunity.

Most outer disciples were content with their daily visits to the inner district during the day. Even though the time is limited, the abundant roaming Qi was more than enough to quench their thirst.

Don’t underestimate the density of the Qi out here, for it was still denser than the Qi roaming in the wild, like back on the spirit rice farm attached to the city of loose cultivators!

This density even made Bubai feel the urge to absorb the Qi around him to cultivate, but now he knew better.

In the past, Bubai might have took the risk to cultivate even if it caused a commotion because the sect’s population was thinned out.

But now, any attempt would likely result in a golden core elder swooping down to drag him off for interrogation. Heck, even if the elders didn’t come…

Bubai let his sights wander, tracing along the prickly sensation that had long been stalking him and spotting the woman in black with a billowing ponytail staring intently at him from a rooftop.

Officer Ponytail.

Facing her hawk-like inspection, Bubai could only put on a cheeky smile, which only served to make his ugly face even more unpalatable features, and waved “hi”.

Though she was masked, Bubai still felt Officer Ponytail shoot him a stern “I’m watching you” glare before she pivoted sharply, her ponytail flicking in the wind as she disappeared from the rooftop’s edge.

Turning away, Bubai’s smile faded.

Just great. He didn’t know which button of hers he pressed, but man, she likes sticking around whenever she catches him out and about.

Fortunately, her watch was only temporary.

Typically, he ends up under the ever-present surveillance of other law enforcers, who don’t deviate much from their established roles just to give him an extra glance.

Still, with these law enforcing women abound, he will be inviting trouble if he gobbled the public Qi.

Of course, cultivating normally using his own spiritual roots was fine, but... this wasn’t his goal today.

His leisurely walk also wasn’t meant to be self-cultivation through returning to simplicity - a lame excuse for relaxation used by cultivators.

Oh no, no, no. His every step naturally had its purpose!

And right now, he was actually keeping pace with his doll, currently busy in the outer sect, just one district away from his location!

Despite feeding her a lot of his heavenly dew, their communication range still hadn't reached the extent of covering multiple districts, let alone the entire sect.

This limitation was one reason why he couldn’t simply sit in his tower and control her remotely.

Of course, his purpose wasn’t as simple as hitting one bird with one arrow. His walk served another important purpose: solidifying his alibi.

Don’t think sitting in a teahouse and showing his face was enough.

An act must be thorough, and there must be irrefutable evidence that had heavier weight in the eyes of those above than simple eye witnesses from the outer sect.

Well, what better way to ensure his presence was noted than by being listed on the report of the law enforcers?

Letting these law enforcers keep tabs on him was precisely what he wanted!

Of course, to avoid letting the observers draw an inference based on any detectable patterns, Bubai made sure to arrange his doll’s activity range seemingly randomly...

Sometimes positioning her a district ahead, other times a district behind, all the while maintaining the appearance of a leisurely, aimless stroll himself.

However, Bubai knew that this alone wouldn’t suffice to achieve his main goals. So…

Coming to a stop before one of the grand sandstone archways leading to the outer sect’s Fourth District, Bubai surveyed the steady stream of disciples flowing in and out.

A sly grin eventually climbed onto his face.

"The plot thickens. Now, it’s time for the star actor to debut in person."