At first sight, it seemed like nothing was wrong. All the hidden mechanisms in place were not triggered. The clone that was lying in the ice coffin seemed perfectly fine as well. However, Long Fan was still not quite at ease. He decided to open the ice coffin to have a look. Then, a sudden realization hit him hard like a blow to the head. The clone had been poisoned!

Despite being in a panicked state, Long Fan quickly tried to suppress his fury. Panicked, he continued to check on the clone and realized that the poison had already spread halfway through the body and it was now going towards the heart. If he were to come in a few minutes later, the clone would be useless to him.

It was not easy to build a clone of this stature. It took Long Fan fifty years of acc.u.mulated experimenting to bring him to this moment. If the clone were destroyed, he would need at least another thirty years to build the same one.

At this point, he had no time to think about the culprit behind this. Hastily, he tried to find out the source of the poison so he could detoxify the body as soon as possible.

Five minutes later, he finally cured the poison, and the clone returned to a stable state. His heart sank as he looked at the clone. Although the venom had been extracted, some of the nerves in the body were undoubtedly damaged. As the body was still lying idly in the ice coffin, there was no way he could tell the extent of the damages. He could only wait until the Great Lord took over the body.

Fortunately, the spiritual power of the body was not affected. It was a fortune out of the misfortunes. Finally, Long Fan had time to identify the culprit. He was smart enough to know early on that Long Siye must have been involved. 

He quickly returned to the prison cell, only to realize that the one being locked up was a fake Long Siye. He could tell from the disguise that Gu Xijiu was involved as well. He gritted his teeth in fury as he returned to Gu Xijiu"s room, only to realize that there was a disguised figure there as well.

After a long sigh, he immediately requested for all the surveillance images over the past few hours. He then found out that Gu Xijiu and Long Siye had both disguised themselves as two of his followers. They boarded the Fire s.h.i.+p five minutes ago and were now on their way out.

The Underground Palace was triggered by the sound of the alarms that were harsh on the ears. Long Fan quickly deployed his forces to capture the two of them. In fact, he was determined to capture and bring both of them back himself! It would be a disgrace for them to escape under his watch!

…

Gu Xijiu and Long Siye could have departed on the s.h.i.+p a few minutes earlier, but the person in-charge of the s.h.i.+p was a stubborn man. He refused to start the journey even after Gu Xijiu had shown him her tablet that allowed her to board the vessel. Elder Long had once said that in the absence of the Great Lord, anyone who wished to leave the place had to request his permission personally before they could board the s.h.i.+p. Hence, the captain made them wait as he proceeded to get Long Fan"s permission. 

Gu Xijiu knew that being polite would not work in their favor. Therefore, she decided to take matters into her own hands. She tried to control him with her eyes to make him start the s.h.i.+p. As she was not entirely familiar with the use of her new body, her control was not exactly brilliant. She had to stare into the man"s eyes for three or four minutes before she could control him and make him agree to start the s.h.i.+p. After the ha.s.sle, seven or eight minutes had pa.s.sed.

A specially a.s.signed person must pilot every s.h.i.+p in the area. After the man was under Gu Xijiu"s control, he instructed his best captain to maneuver Gu Xijiu"s vessel.