Chapter 1267: Hooked

Han Wuxian's mind and spirit tightened. He understood that after the continued small‑scale harassment, the real attack was likely about to arrive.

He looked at the slowly rotating gray vortex in the ancient well and felt its light had dimmed a bit more than before. The continuous energy output, even with Beilin and their maintenance, was a tangible drain on the source of the Silent Eye.

"Elder, do you have a good plan?" Han Wuxian asked in a low voice.

The elder remained silent for a long while, his gray eyes gazing into the endless void as if piercing the domain barriers and seeing the gathering shadows.

"Hold the line... await reinforcements... or... actively 'show weakness', lure them in, in order to... deal a heavy blow..."

Hold the line and await reinforcements? Where are the troops? Han Wuxian was puzzled, but seeing the elder give no explanation, he did not press further.

And actively showing weakness to lure the enemy in? That is undoubtedly a high‑stakes gamble! If mishandled, it could truly cause the defenses to collapse!

Han Wuxian fell into contemplation. He knew that the pivotal moment determining the future's direction was about to arrive. And he, the accidental participant of the "Return to Xu Walk", had already become an indispensable piece in this world‑origin chess game.

"Hold the line and await reinforcements..." Han Wuxian mused. Where would the troops come from? Guardians of other Silent Nodes like those of Ten Thousand Silence Mountain? Or the great‑vehicle cultivators of Zhong Tian Zhi Yu who stand at the pinnacle? The elder never stated it outright, clearly indicating deeper secrets or uncertainties. Holding the line seemed safe, but if reinforcements were delayed, or the next attack by the Devour Silence Demon Spirit far exceeded expectations, the defenses would still risk collapse.

"Actively show weakness, lure the enemy in..." Han Wuxian's eyes flickered slightly. This method carried enormous risk, like walking on a cliff edge where a single misstep could mean eternal ruin. Yet if successful, it might cripple the incoming Devour Silence Demon Spirit's main force, grant the Silent Eye a precious breathing window, and perhaps even glimpse more secrets of the Xu Jie.

He looked again at the rotating gray vortex in the ancient well, its light indeed dimmer than when he first arrived. He then glanced at the elder beside him, seemingly merged with the stone tablet, whose timeless, still silhouette bore a hint of indescribable fatigue.

"Elder, how much longer can the Silent Eye... hold out?" Han Wuxian asked a crucial question.

The elder was silent for a moment, then his dry voice rose slowly: "If the current trend continues... three to five times... the Great Tide... this eye... may... become completely silent..."

Three to five massive incursions! The timeline is far tighter than imagined!

Han Wuxian felt a chill of resolve. Holding the line and awaiting aid was no different from pinning hope on a vague external force. Acting proactively, though dangerous, placed the initiative firmly in his own hands.

His nature had never been one to sit and wait for death. Having survived the life‑and‑death trials of Star‑Fall Valley, his Dao Heart had been forged rock‑solid, and a situation of simultaneous risk and opportunity only further ignited his fighting spirit.

Moreover, he vaguely sensed that this perilous "lure the enemy in" gambit might be the perfect chance for him to further merge with this place's Silence Extinction source, to test and transcend his Return to Xu path! Under extreme pressure, one often unleashes potential beyond limits.

"I, as the junior, think perhaps we could take a daring gamble," Han Wuxian lifted his head, his gaze fixed on the elder, "Rather than passively wait, we should actively create a battle opportunity. However, the methods of 'showing weakness' and 'luring the enemy' must be convincing, and must ensure a fatal strike at the crucial moment."

In the elder's dim eyes, a faint ripple seemed to flash, as if a stone had been dropped onto a still lake. He did not answer immediately, but slowly raised his withered finger and pointed again at the gray vortex above the ancient well.

This time, instead of extracting the source Silence, he stirred a subtler, more restrained core of power deep within the vortex. Simultaneously, a flow of information on how to temporarily 'suppress' the Silent Eye's outward Silence Extinction wave, create a false 'decline' of power, and set a hidden rule trap that would draw intruders into a pre‑set 'dead zone' surged into Han Wuxian's 'Heart Mirror'.

This technique was exceedingly subtle, requiring profound insight and control over the Silence Extinction source, which matched Han Wuxian's current realm perfectly.

"You... will lead this situation..." the elder's voice carried a weight of entrustment, "I... will strike at the end..."

Han Wuxian understood. The elder had handed him the concrete execution of the 'lure the enemy' plan, while he himself amassed power, ready to unleash a thunderous strike at the crucial moment. It was both recognition of his ability and the placing of a huge responsibility on his shoulders.

"I will not disappoint the elder's trust!" Han Wuxian replied in a deep voice, offering no refusal.

With the plan set, preparations began immediately.

Han Wuxian first spent several days meticulously studying the elder's taught 'show weakness' technique. He needed to precisely regulate his own and Beilin network's output of Silence Extinction essence, making it display a slow yet continuous 'decay' trend, without being too obvious lest the Devour Silence Demon Spirit suspect. It was like a masterful actor, requiring exact control of every detail.

At the same time, he began selecting several key nodes within the Beilin network, covertly constructing a rule trap called the 'Return to Silence Trap'. These traps did not rely on massive energy bursts but exploited the very nature of Silence power—Assimilation and dissolution. Once the Devour Silence Demon Spirit's main force entered, it would be as if caught in an invisible quagmire, its very existence continuously eroded and stripped by surrounding Silence essence, eventually turning into the most fundamental particles that would feed back into the land. The process of building the traps also gave him new insight into employing the Silence source.

The preparations proceeded tense yet orderly. Han Wuxian could clearly feel that as the 'show weakness' technique operated, the invisible Silence field surrounding Ten Thousand Silence Mountain was indeed slowly 'contracting', like a giant whose life force was gradually waning. Simultaneously, through the connection of the source Silence, he keenly sensed the yearning and agitation from the Xu Jie direction intensifying markedly!

"They... have taken the bait..." Han Wuxian held his breath and focused, adjusting his state to optimal, like a coiled leopard awaiting prey to step into the trap.

A few days later, at midnight.

The moment when all sounds fell into absolute silence, reaching its peak, was also the instant when the Silent Eye's power entered a relative 'low point' in its natural cycle.

A sudden anomaly erupted!

No longer the previous small‑scale probing, the entire Space Barrier surrounding Ten Thousand Silence Mountain was struck hard as if by an invisible giant hand, emitting a deep, heart‑pounding rumble!

In the next instant, accompanied by countless sharp, silent hisses brimming with greed and destructive desire, dense clusters of eerie blue lights surged in like a breached flood from multiple weak points in the space. Their sheer number and brilliance far surpassed any previous occurrence! They quickly coalesced into a sky‑blotting, azure torrent, raging toward the center of Beilin and the 'weakened' Silent Eye!