Outside Tianjia Village, the gathering of spectral entities grew ever more numerous.
The village chief began consuming large quantities of pills to stabilize his spiritual awareness, yet his moments of lucidity dwindled—fewer and fewer, until at last, in the final scene of the hidden script, the old man stood before a wall, his lips stained crimson with blood, trapped like a beast in delirium, repeating over and over:
"Kill me... kill me..."
"Kill the village chief... kill the village chief!"
...
After Wen Shuangbai finished recounting the tale, a heavy silence lingered in the room.
The cataclysmic calamity brought by the spectral entities five hundred years ago marked the most harrowing and despairing era in the Xuantian Continent's history of countless millennia.
Had it not been for the Seven Saints and countless predecessors who sacrificed their lives to protect the land, and had the Xuantian Sacred Tower not emerged, humanity would have long been eradicated.
Yu Xiaoli spoke softly, "I heard the Valley Master mention that when the spectral entities first appeared, the elders knew little about them. It was only after many tragedies that they gradually realized these entities not only fed on souls but could also corrupt a cultivator's spiritual awareness, turning them into one of their own."
With so many spectral entities gathered outside Tianjia Village, the sinister miasma of their presence had, over the years, seeped into the village's protective formation. As the master of the Yin-Yang Deception Formation, the village chief's spiritual awareness had been slowly eroded by their corruption.
The Tianjia Village of that time was like a ship doomed to sink.
The village chief had no choice. He could only sustain the Yin-Yang Deception Formation, buying as much time as possible—otherwise, from the very beginning, the villagers would have been devoured by the spectral entities.
The village chief had already held on for far too long.
This was not a tale of the dragon-slayer becoming the dragon.
The rotund monk from the Divine Evolution Temple thumbed his prayer beads. "Amitabha. The village chief's sacrifice was noble."
Di Qi asked, "Miss Wen, did the hidden script not mention how to break the formation?"
Wen Shuangbai shook her head. "No."
Di Qi frowned slightly, his gaze flickering with skepticism as he studied her.
By now, the solution to this trial in Tianjia Village was clear.
Destroy the Yin-Yang Deception Formation, kill the village chief, and the first round of the Sacred Tower's trial would come to an end.
Breaking the formation and slaying the village chief were both key steps to obtaining the sacred stones.
The Yin-Yang Deception Formation, a lost demonic array, had no known method of dismantling. They had initially assumed Qingling Mountain had retrieved the method from the village chief's home.
"Miss Wen, the seven-day deadline approaches swiftly," Di Qi said, his tone disarmingly gentle. "Think carefully—is there anything you might have missed? We must work together to break the formation, kill the village chief, and leave this place safely."
Wen Shuangbai's voice turned impatient. "There isn't."
At most, she had concealed the matter of the Lingshan Veil talisman paper—everything else had been shared truthfully.
Di Qi, unperturbed by her sharpness, smiled and turned to Xie Ziyin. "Brother Xie entered with Miss Wen. Do you have anything to add?"
Xie Ziyin replied, "No."
At this, the disciples of the Tianluo Sect snorted, their black cloaks swirling as they stood and left first.
Night deepened. Once the disciples of all sects had departed, Wen Shuangbai turned to Shen Hefeng. "What does the divination say?"
Shen Hefeng fiddled with his tortoise shell, then sighed. "Can't tell."
This matter exceeded his divinatory abilities.
Fair enough.
Wen Shuangbai pressed, "Where do you think the formation's core is hidden?"
Shen Hefeng gave her a baffled look. "Shouldn't that be your expertise?"
Wen Shuangbai was stunned. "I'm an artifact cultivator! Setting up and breaking formations is supposed to be the forte of the Sky-Questioning Pavilion!"
She studied talismanic arrays only to inscribe them onto artifacts.
"I'm a diviner," Shen Hefeng retorted. "I told you—formations and I are incompatible!"
Wen Shuangbai narrowed her eyes. "You spent three months in seclusion under Pavilion Master Xu's guidance. Did he teach you nothing?"
Shen Hefeng shot back, "Didn't you know Pavilion Master Xu is also incompatible with formations?"
Wen Shuangbai: "?"
The Xuantian Mirror did not broadcast the dormitory after lights-out.
In her room, Xu Jingshu, engrossed in a novel, suddenly sneezed.
Hm?
Who was bad-mouthing her behind her back? That old fool from the Qian Yuan Sect?
In the dormitory, Wen Shuangbai instinctively glanced at Xie Ziyin.
Xie Ziyin raised a brow. "I'm a healer."
Li Zhuohua chimed in, "And I'm a swordsman."
Yin Xuan added gently, "As am I."
Wen Shuangbai: "..."
Only Lu Jiayao pondered earnestly before suggesting, "If we find the formation's core and destroy it, won't that break the formation?"
The others: "..."
Shen Hefeng replied with sarcasm, "Yes, but the question is—where is the core, Brother Lu Three-Earth? Do you know?"
Lu Jiayao shook his head, then brightened. "Ah, Brother Shen, couldn't you use your Spirit-Devouring Banner?"
Shen Hefeng sighed. "The banner can only point to a general area. The core must be somewhere in the village, but the village is too small for the banner to pinpoint it further."
The six of them were temporarily stumped.
Yin Xuan suggested, "Let's sleep on it. Perhaps clarity will come by morning."
—
The night grew heavier.
Wen Shuangbai and Xie Ziyin lay back-to-back, facing Li Zhuohua and Yin Xuan respectively.
Wen Shuangbai, never one to overthink, usually fell asleep the moment her head touched the pillow.
But tonight, nestled in the soft golden silk quilt, she found herself sleepless for the first time in ages.
Finding the hidden script had earned them three hundred sacred stones from the Sacred Tower. Breaking the formation would surely yield even more.
A prize exceeding three hundred thousand...
How could she not lose sleep over it?
Where could the core of the Yin-Yang Deception Formation be hidden?
Having only learned of the formation today, Wen Shuangbai wrestled with the puzzle to no avail.
So she fell back on her past examination strategies.
Back during monthly tests, finals, and entrance exams, she had often encountered questions she couldn't answer.
In such moments, she would try to deduce the examiner's intent and work backward.
For example: when three options were long and one short, pick the long one; when three were short and one long, pick the short one; when in doubt, choose C...
First, the Sacred Tower's purpose in sending them to Tianjia Village was likely to destroy the formation's core, kill the village chief, and allow the Qingling Mountain elder of the past to rest in peace.
Second, the Qingling Mountain elder must have taken certain steps when establishing the formation.
Wen Shuangbai carefully revisited the scenes from the hidden script.
Particularly the moment the village chief first returned.
The village chief rushed back, buried the old chief with the villagers, and then the formation was in place?
Buried the old chief?
A burial?
Could it be... underground?!
But where, exactly?
Which patch of land was newly disturbed after the old chief's death?
The villagers each had their own homes and courtyards—except for the refugees the village chief later took in.
And those refugees, under the guise of laborers, now resided in this very... dormitory.
The Sacred Tower had even designated this place as a safe zone...
Wen Shuangbai: "!"
She turned abruptly, intending to wake Xie Ziyin—only to find him turning toward her at the same moment, his own thoughts having also converged on a solution.
In that instant, their faces were mere inches apart.
So close that Xie Ziyin's finely sculpted nose lightly pressed into Wen Shuangbai's cheek, leaving a faint indentation.
The man's breathing grew inexplicably heavier, his masculine scent lingering at the tip of her nose—cold, crisp, and undeniably invasive.
Almost simultaneously, the two jerked away as if they had touched something filthy.
Then—thud!—Li Zhuohua, who had been sleeping at the edge of the bed, was shoved off by Wen Shuangbai, landing on the floor with a crisp sound.
Li Zhuohua: "Who did this to me?!"
Wen Shuangbai: "…………"
Yin Xuan, who had been sleeping soundly, woke with a sharp inhale and muttered faintly, "Junior Brother Xie, you're lying on my hair."
Xie Ziyin: "…………"
Lu Jiayao, startled awake by the series of noises, scrambled up in a panic: "What's happening? Are we under attack?!"
Shen Hefeng's gaze swept over the frozen, statue-like young man and woman, and realization dawned. He smirked. "Can't you two, as an engaged couple, hold back during the competition? Save the passionate activities for when you're outside."
Li Zhuohua stood up from the floor and let out a meaningful hum. "Indeed, business comes first."
"……" Wen Shuangbai snapped, "Shen Hefeng, if you keep spouting nonsense, I'll shove your head into pig dung!"
Shen Hefeng grinned, entirely unbothered. "If you dare to do it, why be afraid of people talking?"
Lu Jiayao's eyes darted between them, catching on, and he shyly covered his face with his hands. "Tsk, you two… playing so boldly with all of us here? Wow~"
Xie Ziyin: "……"
The usually sharp-tongued man was uncharacteristically silent, subconsciously wiping the tip of his nose.
Wen Shuangbai was livid. "What nonsense are you all spouting?! Is that all you ever think about?! I was just trying to wake you up—I think I know where the array's core is!"
With the isolation array in place, they weren’t worried about disturbing other sects.
Li Zhuohua’s eyes instantly burned with intensity. "Where?"
Xie Ziyin glanced at the ground.
Sure enough, the next moment, Wen Shuangbai said, "Below us."
"Huh?" Shen Hefeng immediately pulled out a tortoise shell, quickly divining a hexagram before his eyes lit up. "It really is!"
Lu Jiayao crouched on the floor. "But how do we get down there?"
Wen Shuangbai smiled faintly. "Dig."
Wasn’t that their specialty?
The group wasted no time, their fighting spirits ablaze.
Only Yin Xuan remained seated on the bed, muttering, "Digging again?"
The stones from the Taihua Secret Realm had left him with something of a psychological shadow.
Behind the door of the communal sleeping quarters were farming tools. Xie Ziyin stepped out, grabbed whatever he could find—whether suitable for digging or not—and brought them all back. Wen Shuangbai could modify them to work.
With all the other sects holed up in their rooms, it was unclear how long they could keep this hidden.
But they’d take whatever time they could get. The others moved the beds aside and, following Wen Shuangbai’s instructions, hung up the golden-threaded silk blankets like construction curtains to block prying eyes.
With everything ready, the six of them threw themselves into digging with feverish urgency.
Dawn gradually broke.
Many Xuantian cultivators immediately opened the Xuantian Mirror to Qingling Mountain, only to find that the spot where these six had been sleeping was now… gone.
In its place was a massive pit.
Inside, five figures were digging furiously, flinging dirt and rocks out of the hole.
Lu Jiayao stood at the edge, collecting the debris into his storage ring while tending to the chicks and piglets in his alchemy furnace.
[???]
[Did I click the wrong place?]
[How did the world change overnight?]
[Seriously, can someone explain why they’re digging? What’s underground?!]
[Gotta say, they look really skilled at this. Like they’ve been digging for ten years.]
