"Zhou Tiancheng".
High in the sky, Lu Qing stood suspended in mid-air, gazing at the vast cities that lay on the earth in the distance.
That was the stronghold of the Gongshu family, Zhou Tian City.
Looking at Zhou Tian City, which was much larger than Tian Shu City, Lu Qing recalled information about the city.
Zhou Tiancheng is said to be a city built by the ancestors of the Gongshu family.
The interior architecture is very elaborate, with a sense of the distribution of stars in the celestial sphere.
The entire city is divided into two major areas: the inner city and the outer city.
The inner city was inhabited by the direct descendants of the Gongshu family, while the outer city was the territory for collateral branches of the family, as well as other large and small forces that were affiliated with the Gongshu family.
The outer city of Zhou Tian City does not prohibit outsiders from entering, but the inner city is heavily guarded and protected by powerful formations.
If someone enters without an invitation, they will be instantly killed by the formation.
"It's not easy to force our way into the inner city; we need to find an opportunity to understand the situation first."
Lu Qing pondered silently to himself.
The Gongshu family is one of the thirty-six superior clans of the Tianyuan Great World, and it ranks quite high.
Such a powerful force with such profound foundations must have old monsters within its ranks who have survived multiple tribulations of the primordial spirit.
Furthermore, with the protective array in place, it's impossible for him to force his way through given his current strength.
"However, it's not like there's no chance at all."
Lu Qing recalled the intelligence provided by the Netherworld Palace when he accepted the assassination mission, and he already had a plan in mind.
The next moment, he transformed into a streak of light and flew downwards.
As for Xiao Li, to be absolutely sure, he has already temporarily placed it inside the Li Huo Cauldron to hide.
After all, there is likely a powerful being in the Gongshu family who has already begun to comprehend the Dao of Space.
Xiao Li's spatial abilities would likely no longer be as imperceptible as before in the face of such beings.
Therefore, Lu Qing does not intend to involve Xiao Li in this assassination mission.
During the flight, Lu Qing's aura changed.
As they approached Zhou Tiancheng, his appearance and aura completely changed.
An ordinary-looking, somewhat dull-looking Golden Core cultivator suddenly appeared, transforming into the image of a middle-aged man.
Flying was prohibited within fifty miles of Zhou Tiancheng. Lu Qing landed and used his movement technique to move forward.
Before long, they arrived at the city gate.
As one of the thirty-six superior clans of the Tianyuan Great World, the Gongshu family still possesses the magnanimity one would expect.
Although there were guards at the city gates of Zhou Tian City, there were no access restrictions or entrance fees.
Pedestrians, tourists, or business travelers can come and go freely.
Therefore, Lu Qing entered the outer city of Zhou Tian City without any difficulty.
After entering the city, he did not rush to start investigating information. Instead, he found an inn and rented a cave dwelling of the Golden Core level to stay in.
Then, in the days that followed, he didn't do anything out of line.
He would occasionally go out for a walk in his spare time.
A few days later, Lu Qing rented a small shop in the outer city and opened a weapon-refining shop.
Their main business is to refine ordinary magical artifacts for sale, or to repair magical artifacts for others.
At first, his small shop didn't do well, but after a few months, thanks to the high quality and low price of his magical artifacts, as well as his excellent artifact repair skills,
His small shop gradually gained some fame in the neighborhood, and people started coming to his shop every day.
In the eyes of the surrounding merchants, Lu Qing was just an honest and reliable weapon refiner with quite good weapon refining skills.
However, they did not know that this honest shopkeeper, who went out every day to purchase materials for refining weapons and wandered around, had already figured out almost everything about the outer city of Zhou Tian City in just a few months.
"As expected of the Gongshu family's stronghold, the outer city of Zhou Tian City alone is filled with experts and powerful figures."
At night, in his weapon-refining shop, Lu Qing sighed silently.
Over the past few months, he has basically figured out the situation in the outer city of Zhou Tian City.
This clarity goes beyond simply understanding the streets and buildings; it means he has thoroughly investigated the distribution of power and the formations throughout the outer city.
There's no way around it; having superpowers is just that unreasonable.
Most of the time, Lu Qing doesn't need to ask anyone; he can simply scan the area with his eyes and glean all sorts of information without anyone noticing.
Lu Qing opened his palm, and a ball of light appeared in his hand, enveloping a virtual city. Upon closer inspection, it would be discovered that it was the very image of Zhou Tian City.
It was the Zhou Tian City model that Lu Qing constructed using illusions and magic.
However, this virtual Zhou Tian City, besides its lifelike architecture, also contains many array patterns.
However, over the past few months, Lu Qing has used his powerful spiritual perception ability and his extraordinary abilities to gradually download and simulate the entire outer city formation of Zhou Tian City.
Then, thoroughly understand it and recreate it using illusion magic.
It can be said that Lu Qing's understanding of the outer city formation of Zhou Tian City is now even better than that of most of the direct descendants of the Gongshu family.
"Unfortunately, the inner city formation of Zhou Tian City seems to be a separate system, and it is the core and central structure that cannot be deciphered by relying solely on the outer city formation."
During these days, Lu Qing has been lingering in the outer city and has not approached the inner city.
It seems we still need to get closer.
"However, I have now thoroughly understood the outer city's formations, and I can even use their power when necessary. Even if I get close to the inner city, I shouldn't be easily detected."
The Gongshu family would never have imagined that such a monstrous talent existed in the world.
They were able to figure out the ins and outs of the city's protective formation that they had built up over generations with just a few glances.
Therefore, they probably wouldn't be on guard against anyone coming to study the clan's protective formation in their inner city.
Without hesitation, Lu Qing immediately activated the shop's protective array, pretending to take a break to avoid being disturbed by anyone who might suddenly come in.
He then slipped away stealthily, concealing his presence, and moved swiftly through the shadows towards the inner city.
With the perfect Golden Core's formless and shapeless abilities, coupled with a thorough understanding of the outer city's formations.
Lu Qing is now moving around the outer city with the ease of a fish in water.
He could even perfectly blend his aura into the array fluctuations of the outer city.
This made it virtually impossible for anyone to find his whereabouts.
As they ventured deeper, Lu Qing soon arrived at the outer city.
Looking at the towering inner city walls that exuded a terrifying aura, and the ancient patterns engraved on them.
Lu Qing did not approach any further, because he knew that going any closer would trigger the formation and alert the people in the city.
He found a good spot, concealing himself while ensuring he could clearly see the condition of the city wall.
He then activated his special ability and looked at the ancient patterns.
After a long while, when he saw the information appear in his field of vision, a hint of joy appeared in Lu Qing's eyes.
Seeing the message on the note, he didn't hesitate and immediately chose to download.
After a while, once the superpower notification finished downloading, I selected simulation again.
【Simulation complete. Shall we begin learning?】
This time, Lu Qing did not choose to study immediately, but instead quietly retreated back to the outer city.
Not long after, he returned to his weapon-refining shop without alerting anyone.
Entering his usual quiet room for meditation, Lu Qing activated his supernatural ability again and chose to study.
The next moment, a wealth of information about the formations within Zhou Tian City's inner city surged from the depths of his mind, and Lu Qing instantly entered a state of enlightenment.
After a long while, when he opened his eyes again and awoke from his meditative state, his eyes held both surprise and regret.
"This Zhou Tiancheng inner city formation is indeed worthy of being the Gongshu family's clan-protecting formation. It is exceptionally exquisite and surpasses most of the formations I have ever comprehended before."
Unfortunately, this time only a portion of the information about the inner city's formation was downloaded.
To Lu Qing's delight, the ingenuity of this inner city protective formation exceeded his expectations.
This achievement has further enhanced his understanding of formations.
Unfortunately, the information he downloaded this time was not the complete inner city protection formation.
The reason is that the clan-protecting formation of the Gongshu family is not a single formation.
Instead, it is a massive array that combines numerous small and medium-sized arrays, ultimately forming an extremely complex and complex array.
What Lu Qing downloaded from the ancient runes on that section of the city wall was only a part of the array's information.
"It seems that it will take some time to replicate this formation."
Lu Qing was not discouraged; on the contrary, he felt somewhat excited.
He had a premonition that once he had downloaded and comprehended the Gongshu family's clan-protecting formation, his mastery of formations would greatly increase.
In the days that followed, Lu Qing continued to play the role of an honest and simple weapon-refining shop owner during the day.
At night, they would sneak out and continuously download information about the Gongshu family's clan-protecting formation from the inner city walls.
Through continuous downloading, simulation, and comprehension, Lu Qing's mastery of formations advanced by leaps and bounds, showing signs of becoming a true master of formations.
After all, this is the powerful array foundation of the thirty-six upper clans, containing the hard work of countless array masters of the Gongshu family over so many tens of thousands of years.
Now that Lu Qing has absorbed and devoured it all, how could his mastery of formations not increase rapidly?
And so, more than a month passed.
That night, Lu Qing was quietly meditating in his meditation room.
As dawn broke, he suddenly opened his eyes, opened his palm, and the virtual Zhou Tian City reappeared in his palm.
However, compared to a month ago, the array patterns of this virtual Zhou Tian City are much more complete, covering six or seven tenths of the entire Zhou Tian City.
"Unfortunately, the January download simulation, which replicated all the array information contained in the inner city wall, only managed to reach about 70% of the entire Zhou Tian Star Array."
Lu Qing looked at the virtual Zhou Tiancheng in his hand and shook his head with some regret.
He has now grasped seventy percent of the entire Zhou Tian City's formation.
He was still missing the most crucial 30% of the formation, which he couldn't access or download due to the obstruction of the inner city walls.
"However, seventy percent of the formation is enough for me to do a lot of things. In addition, with the other gains I've made in the past month, completing the assassination mission is no longer a problem."
Although comprehending the Gongshu family's clan-protecting formation brought him great benefits.
But Lu Qing did not forget his true purpose in infiltrating Zhou Tian City.
Over the past few months, he has also been using various methods to investigate information about Gongshu Lian and Qiao Rong, and has now made considerable progress.
Given his understanding of Zhou Tiancheng's formations, he was extremely confident in assassinating these two.
"It is said that after Gongshu Yu died, Qiao Rong lived a secluded life, not only out of fear of retaliation from the Nangong family, but also for other reasons. In any case, she basically stayed in the inner city and rarely came out."
"But Gongshu Lian was different. Because he had exhausted his potential, he had no chance of making any further progress in the path of cultivation, so he turned to pleasure."
This person was a direct descendant of the Gongshu family, and as a primordial spirit ancestor, he could do whatever he wanted in Zhou Tian City.
I heard that every six months he would go to the largest brothel in the outer city, Mengyunlou, and book the entire place for pleasure.
This man was violent and cruel. After each of his pleasure-seeking escapades, many women at Mengyun Tower would be raped and killed by him, making him a figure of fear and dread.
And Gongshu Lian would not appear again for another three days.
Lu Qing's mind drifted to the information he had gathered over the past few months, and his eyes gradually turned cold.
After arriving in Zhou Tian City, he knew that Gongshu Lian would be wanted for assassination.
This man has indeed committed many evils; over the years, countless women have died because of him.
This naturally caused dissatisfaction among some people.
Even though they dared not retaliate directly because of the immense power of the Gongshu family.
However, no one can stop someone from secretly issuing an assassination mission in the Netherworld Palace.
After all, in the Tianyuan Great World, no force has ever forced the Netherworld Palace to reveal its employer's information.
As for someone like Gongshu Lian, Lu Qing naturally had no qualms about assassinating him.
Putting aside his grudges with the Gongshu family, the various evil deeds he committed alone were enough to warrant his death more than ten times over.
"Three days later..."
Lu Qing muttered to himself, then closed his eyes and continued to study the formation.
Although he is not yet able to obtain the core 30% of the formation information of the Gongshu family's clan-protecting formation, the Zhou Tian Xing Chen Formation.
However, in recent days, through comprehending the 70% of the array formations he downloaded, he has greatly enhanced his foundation in array formations.
Now, he is only one step away from becoming a true master of formations, capable of turning the illusory into the real and creating formations with a single thought.
Three days later will be the best day to assassinate Gongshu Lian.
Although he is confident in his abilities.
But before that, every bit of added strength increases the chances of success.
Time flies like an arrow, and three days passed quickly.
That morning, Lu Qing hung a "Closed" sign at the entrance of his shop.
