The objects they needed could usually be gotten from the Elder who was in charge of the sect’s resources. After all, something like this was sure to be stored there.
Zhang Guan Yu didn’t feel like bothering about needless formalities though and wanted to get things over with as fast as possible. After all, if Mei Chao Bing’s plan was indeed successful, it would make a big difference in the fight against the demonic faction. Thus, he just took out some of his own resources and handed them to Yan Hong Min. "Now, there is one matter I’m not quite sure about: We need to test this but it’s not like there are any disciples of the other sects around to ask for help. So how do you intend to do that?"
Yan Hong Min froze for a moment but then held up one of the objects, a talisman that had come from the Jian Chu Sect. "Sect Master Zhang wouldn’t happen to have another one of these lying around?"
Zhang Guan Yu sighed and dug through his bag again, finally pulling out one more set of resources. "Will this work?"
Yan Hong Min nodded and indicated the Sect Master’s table. "I’d say we should do some experiments first. The device I gave my third junior martial brother wasn’t tested yet. At the very least, it wasn’t tested in detail. So I’m not quite sure what exactly the range is. We should make sure of that before using this for a grand-scale plan in the border region."
Zhang Guan Yu and Mei Chao Bing nodded and then watched him insert one set of objects into the small cube while he just threw the other set onto the table.
For a moment, nothing happened but then, Yan Hong Min inserted some spiritual energy at the bottom and a spot lit up pretty close to the middle.
Zhang Guan Yu looked at the objects on the table and then at the device in Yan Hong Min’s hands. "This is how it is supposed to work, right? So that means we can’t distinguish between the objects or between cultivators of a specific sect."
Mei Chao Bing glanced at the Sect Master and had to say that he was really getting to the point fast. He himself had only thought of identifying how many people there were to make sure that they got to Mu Qing when he was more or less alone, but as it turned out, the Sect Master was thinking a little further.
Every sect had things that they were better or worse at. This meant that if they knew which sect’s disciple to expect, they would have a better grasp on how to counter them. That would be quite helpful.
Yan Hong Min pondered for a moment and then nodded as well, understanding the Sect Master’s point. "Well, good that we’re testing it. That is something I can definitely make happen. I’ll need some time though. Let’s test the rest and then see what else we might need to do so I can work on everything at once."
Zhang Guan Yu nodded and then raised his hands. "What do you want us to do?"
Yan Hong Min pondered and then grabbed the objects from the table, handing two to Mei Chao Bing, and the other one to Sect Master Zhang. "Well, I’d first like to find out how far the signal can be traced."
Mei Chao Bing looked from one object to the other and then glanced up at Yan Hong Min. "So should we leave the palace? Then how will we know when to stop? And how do we get the information back to you?" Sending paper cranes from their current location and then waiting for another one to come back seemed much too slow. They probably wouldn’t finish until tomorrow evening that way. Paper cranes weren’t the fastest, after all.
Yan Hong Min pondered for a moment and then put the cube down. The light in the middle extinguished but Yan Hong Min didn’t even look. He dug through his bag and finally pulled out two paper cranes, making Mei Chao Bing’s brows shoot up in doubt. They looked a lot like the ones that the sect was using, just that they were a bit bigger. This really didn’t seem like the kind of solution he had expected from this self-proclaimed genius.
Yan Hong Min didn’t seem to notice his doubt. He just handed one to the Sect Master and the other to Mei Chao Bing and then pulled out another two, as well as a brush and some oddly-colored ink before he added a couple of strokes here and there on the paper, apparently linking them together in two sets.
Sect Master Zhang turned his crane in his hands, giving a hum. "Do I want to know what this is?"
"Oh, it’s a paper duck."
Zhang Guan Yu glanced at him, and his brows slowly rose. "A duck? Don’t you usually make paper cranes to communicate? How did they end up ducks in your hands?"
"Well, I wouldn’t want to mistake them for his actual paper cranes and when I thought of talking, ducks were the first thing that came to my mind. So I made ducks instead.
"Anyway, with these, you don’t need to scribble down any of the information. You can just directly talk to the person." He pondered for a moment and then motioned at Mei Chao Bing. "Actually, why don’t you take your paper duck and the objects from those two sects out of the palace and we give it a try?"
Mei Chao Bing nodded and indeed left the palace with the duck, stopping a bit down the path down the mountain. He looked at the duck, wondering how exactly it was working. Finally, he found a cross on the forehead of the duck. Next to it, there was a little line that read 'insert spiritual energy here'.
He stared at it for a moment, still dumbfounded how Yan Hong Min came up with these ideas, but then indeed touched the forehead of the duck and imbued some spiritual energy.
Immediately, there was a faint buzzing sound in the air and Mei Chao Bing testily called out. "Senior martial brother Yan? Sect Master Zhang? Can you hear me?"
Back in the Sect Master’s study, Zhang Guan Yu bent down, looking at the duck with interest. "I can. This is quite interesting. These ducks, they might actually make our paper cranes obsolete." Now, he really had something to think about.
