After the fairy disappeared

Chapter 2552 Releasing into the Wild
While they were in Yanxia Bay, He Lingchuan's men from the Earth Mother Plain arrived at Luanshan first to make arrangements in preparation for the arrival of the Lingyun Palace team.

The first step for He Lingchuan's plan to succeed is to leave Lingyun Palace and escape He Lutian's surveillance.

They did manage to do it, but then Duan Heyun suddenly changed his mind and decided not to go to Luanshan!

"What do we do now?" Aunt Zhu scratched her head. "If we miss this opportunity, who knows when Duan Heyun and Alian will be able to go out again?"

It must be done today!
Hearing his companions cursing, He Lingchuan ordered the team to continue their advance towards Baiqiu.

Baiqiu is less than five li from the north gate of Baisong City, so this release ceremony is the closest it has ever been to Baisong City. The demon puppeteers of Lingyun Palace also felt something was amiss, because in places with too many people, the demon puppets' reactions were unpredictable.

But Duan Heyun insisted: "Isn't this exactly what we're testing?"

He's the boss here, and everyone listens to him.

The Earth Mother's little stone doppelganger also asked He Lingchuan inside the snail-toad:
"Should we head to White Hill immediately to make further preparations?"

"No." At this moment, there was no one around He Lingchuan, so he lowered his voice, "When we get to Baiqiu, he will most likely change his mind again."

To keep an eye on Duan Heyun, the key is to be adaptable and flexible.

Fortunately, He Lingchuan himself had such unreliable and capricious people around him, and he was able to figure out their thought processes.

Aunt Zhu asked suspiciously, "Could it be that the man surnamed Duan has noticed something?"

"You overestimate him," Dong Rui said lazily. "He's just capricious and has no fixed preferences. No wonder Xiao Ping is in charge of Lingyun Palace. Who would want to work under such an unreliable boss?"

Aunt Zhu glanced at him but didn't say anything.

Dong Rui, however, was very perceptive: "What?"

"That sounds so familiar." Cang Yan also has a team of demon puppeteers, led by Dong Rui. Their professional skills are equally outstanding, but their administrative abilities...

Aunt Zhu truly felt that he was just as good as herself.

The Earth Mother's avatar pressed, "What should we do?"

He Lingchuan looked at A-Lian beside Duan Heyun, then at the direction of Bai Songcheng, lost in thought.

Then he said to Dong Rui, "Remember when we followed the Camel City caravan? They said that Camel City's fireworks are the most famous within a radius of three hundred miles."

"Yeah. So?"

"Go to Camel City right away and buy all the biggest and most beautiful fireworks. They might be useful later."

Camel City isn't far either; otherwise, it wouldn't have been designated as a supply city for White Pine City.

"Okay, what else?"

"Be careful not to explode. It will cause delays."

Dong Rui rolled his eyes. Back when He Lingchuan captured the snail-toad in Chiyan Kingdom, he stuffed large firecrackers into its shell, blasting it to pieces. As a result, Dong Rui was invited by the Frost Leaf Kingdom's Grand Preceptor to work as a veterinarian for several months, specializing in treating snail-toads.

"Ming Ke," He Lingchuan called out again.

"exist."

"You sneak back to White Pine City and find a way to destroy or shut down the escape technique's forbidden formation or barrier before we act," he instructed. "Remember, do it without anyone noticing."

“The escape formation in White Pine City doesn’t emit light, so even if it’s temporarily shut down, it won’t be easy to detect,” Immortal Mingke replied. “Its main body should be inside the city walls. I’ll go look for it now.”

He is also a master of formations, especially when he is excavating ruins, he has encountered countless strange barriers. Now, if he wants to cause this little bit of damage in White Pine City, it's a piece of cake.
……

Duan Heyun's choice of Baiqiu as his destination cannot be said to be entirely without consideration.

The terrain here is also complex, but it is close to the official road and there is a farm.

As darkness approached, the group opened the cages on the hilltop and released the experimental demon puppets.

From a distance or from behind, these demon puppets are all humanoid, walking upright, with upper limbs shorter than lower limbs, and even with normal waist-to-leg proportions, quite symmetrical.

However, from a positive perspective, it still deviates from people's normal aesthetic standards.

There was a demon puppet with distinct features, but each feature was different; not only were its eyes different sizes, but its right hand also had an extra finger compared to its left hand.

The other one's mouth wasn't on the central axis of its face; it was crooked to the left.

Another one has a limp nose, like putty that can't be propped up.

The basic aesthetic formula for human faces is symmetry; only symmetry creates harmony and provides the foundation for beauty.

The further it deviates, the more bizarre it becomes.

Besides A-Lian, this experiment also released six demon puppets, all of which had obvious flaws.

As Duan Heyun said, such a perfect experimental subject as A-Lian is a unique case and purely coincidental.

He Lingchuan stood on the high hill and watched as the six demon puppets disappeared into the tall grass in the blink of an eye.

The grass swayed incessantly, clearly indicating that they had gone in different directions.

The purpose of Lingyun Palace's regular release into the wild is to test the performance of experimental subjects in the natural environment and to see what abilities they will exhibit when encountering things they have never seen before or problems they have never faced.

Soon, two demonic puppets killed the first living creatures they encountered: a wild boar and a yellow rabbit, and then devoured them.

The puppeteers were used to it; the first instinct of any living being is, of course, to eat.

Then, they noticed the farm in the distance, or perhaps they smelled the presence of living people, and began to sneak towards it. Surprisingly, the two of them actually went together.

In the past, the demon puppets released would not have any friendship with each other and would often fight over prey. But these two monsters cooperated when hunting wild boars. When they argued while eating, one of them clearly had the upper hand, and the other quickly showed its submission.

In their subsequent actions, they actually teamed up together.

This community aspect is very interesting to the demon puppeteers.

Ling Jinbao muttered to himself, "What a bunch of weirdos."

At this moment, Duan Heyun also ordered that the restraints on A-Lian's hands be removed.

Given the commotion caused by Ah Lian's previous release into the wild, everyone around was on high alert, fearing she might suddenly attack and hurt someone. "Hu Xin" even stood in front of Duan Heyun, separating him from Ah Lian.

However, Ah Lian behaved very well. After the shackles were removed, she merely scratched her wrists, then took a deep breath and whispered:

"It smells so good, what is this fragrance?"

“There are a few clumps of Michelia champaca nearby,” He Lingchuan explained. “Look, those small white flowers with a particularly strong and refreshing fragrance.”

A-Lian went over to the Michelia champaca, picked a few blossoms, and tucked them into her thick hair.

She glanced at Duan Heyun, then turned and walked onto the official road.

“We can’t go there,” Duan Heyun said. “That’s the road to Baisong City.”

A-Lian glanced at him, pouted, somewhat displeased, but still chose another direction and strode forward.

Dong Rui, who was inside the snail-like toad, was also very interested in receiving first-hand data from the experiment in real time through remote communication.

(End of this chapter)