On their side, the Foundation Establishment combat power was roughly equal to that of the sea spiders' rank two strength, and the sea was the spiders' home turf.
Although the sea spiders had just suffered a major setback and some of the rank two spiders had lost a leg or two, they were still dangerous.
Setting aside the fact that even a starving camel is larger than a horse, there was the current situation to consider.
The sea spiders were currently suffering heavy casualties and fleeing in defeat.
If their group of a dozen or so chased them into the sea and pressed them too hard...
In the eyes of these already highly agitated sea spiders, the cultivators would be seen as trying to drive them into a corner and exterminate them.
In such a scenario, there was a high probability that it would trigger a desperate death-struggle from the sea spiders.
Though a rabbit is weak, it can still kick out a lion's eye in a life-or-death struggle.
The sea spiders were injured, but their strength was still not to be underestimated.
If pushed to their limit, their final counterattack would inevitably cause injuries among the cultivators, who might even be swarmed and bitten to death by the overwhelming number of small spiders.
The losses would outweigh the gains. It was better to hold off on the pursuit for a while.
Mu Chenze and the other four didn't enter the sea either.
Having been with Gu Ningyun for so many years, the four of them had long known and grown accustomed to her habit of using strategy during combat.
She excelled at achieving the greatest benefit with the smallest possible loss.
Huo Chaoyu's current commands had all been coordinated with Gu Ningyun beforehand, and Mu Chenze's group of four cooperated quite naturally.
Once all the sea spiders had retreated from the surface, the group of over a dozen people did a simple division of the small spider corpses floating on the water.
Because of Gu Ningyun's strategy, the current situation differed slightly from what was written in the contract.
The five of them had already obtained a large number of sea spider legs, which was enough to lure the Blue Lake Scallops.
However, without the help of Huo Chaoyu and her group, and without using the sword talisman containing a Nascent Soul strike...
It would have been extremely difficult for the five of them to obtain enough legs under the defense of three rank two sea spiders.
Even if they had succeeded, escaping the attacks of those rank two sea spiders would have been nearly impossible.
After all, the gap between Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment was not easily bridged.
With the current strength of Gu Ningyun's group, although any one of them could take on ten rank one peak sea beasts alone—or even a hundred if they caught them off guard—
Against a rank two sea beast, they were still far from enough.
They couldn't even easily break through the defensive shells of the rank two sea spiders.
This was the gap between major realms.
This was one of the reasons why many Qi Refining cultivators spent their entire lives and risked everything to find a way to reach Foundation Establishment.
At this moment, the initial results of their cooperation were showing, and the atmosphere was quite good.
Regardless of the contract, Gu Ningyun and her group would keep their promise and continue to cooperate, assisting the eight Foundation Establishment seniors of the Yuebai Sect in obtaining the rank two sea spider demon cores in the upcoming fight.
Although they only had Qi Refining cultivation, they could still serve as the final straw that broke the camel's back in the struggle between the humans and the sea spiders.
Not long after they had finished collecting the corpses and swallowed their Spirit-Replenishing Pills, two Yuebai Sect disciples spoke up in unison, “The big fish is in the net.”
This was Gu Ningyun's third strategy: Leave an Opening.
To besiege a city, one must leave an opening. This opening is not left for the enemy to escape freely, but rather to set an ambush on their inevitable path of retreat, causing them to fall into the trap in their haste.
Gu Ningyun had made a slight adjustment here.
She hadn't set an ambush on the path, but in their very lair.
She allowed the sea spiders to leave not just to avoid pursuing a desperate foe, but to ensure they would return to the seaweed corridor on the seabed in their haste.
Home is the place where one is most likely to let their guard down.
For sea beasts, their lair was also where they were most relaxed.
Taking the enemy by surprise and attacking where they are unprepared.
Gu Ningyun wanted the sea spiders to fall into a trap at their most defenseless moment, just as they returned to the sanctuary of their lair and relaxed.
Letting them fall into the trap when they were least on guard.
During the hour they had spent meditating to recover spirit energy, before Huo Chaoyu had even struck the first palm at the sea spiders...
Two Yuebai Sect disciples had used methods to conceal their cultivation and aura, leaving the deserted island and flying far away through the air.
They then dove into the sea from a different area and swam back to this part of the ocean along the seabed.
Inside the seaweed corridor, within the lair of the three rank two sea spiders, they had set up mysterious-rank trapping and attack arrays.
Their spirit energy hadn't been fully depleted to begin with, so they didn't actually need two hours to recover.
Pretending to meditate on the deserted island was merely a ruse to deceive the sea spiders.
If the sea spiders had seen that their siege was useless and planned to retreat to the seabed early, the group could have provoked them to delay for more time.
It wasn't until the two disciples who set the arrays returned and replenished their spirit energy with pills that everyone stopped their meditation and launched the previous wave of attacks.
Now that the two disciples said the big fish were in the net, it meant they had sensed the arrays being triggered by the rank two sea beasts.
They had fallen into the ambush.
Upon hearing this news, even the usually stoic Huo Chaoyu couldn't help but show a trace of joy in her eyes.
She had originally thought their chances of obtaining the rank two demon cores were only fifty percent, but with the success of this plan, it was now seventy percent.
She turned to look at Gu Ningyun, her voice slightly louder than usual, filled with admiration and praise. “You predicted it again.”
Measuring a cultivator's potential required looking at their talent as well as their intelligence.
If a cultivator could not only reach a level of cultivation at such a young age that most geniuses couldn't achieve...
But could also master the use of strategy in the conflicts frequently encountered during training...
Then that cultivator's potential could only be described as terrifying.
This was not something an ordinary prodigy could do.
Or rather, in her hundred or so years of cultivation, she had never seen anyone so monstrous.
When she spoke of intelligence, she usually meant a cultivator's way of handling matters, their reflections on cultivation, or their research into techniques.
She never imagined there could be a cultivator whose mind was so brilliant, capable of such uncanny foresight and endless schemes.
This child's bone age was only nine years and four months!
If not for her family's unique technique that allowed her to see that the child's primordial spirit and physical body were perfectly matched and sense the youthful aura of that soul...
She might have even suspected that the child had been possessed by some powerful expert.
However, even if such a suspicion had arisen, it would have only lasted for a fleeting moment.
After all, simply looking at Gu Ningyun's temperament and eyes, she lacked the weight of a powerful expert who had lived for countless years.
That vitality and vigor born from within and radiating from the very essence of the primordial spirit was impossible to fake.
Unless one used auxiliary means like a Face-Refreshing Pill or an invisibility talisman for a temporary disguise or concealment.
But that would only be temporary.
Huo Chaoyu's throat felt tight, and she couldn't help but swallow. For the first time, her gaze toward Gu Ningyun was filled with shock and wonder.
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