Afterwards, the Qian family continued to harass repeatedly.
Elder Yu caught them one by one, beating them until they spat blood, then threw them in front of the Qian family's doorstep, taking some spiritual stones along the way.
But the Qian family was undeterred, and Elder Yu finally found himself unable to keep watch at all times.
It was like catching mice—troublesome and disgusting. Once a few were missed, there would be trouble later.
Some craftsmen were injured, some buildings were destroyed, several formations were tampered with, delaying the progress of the entire project.
Elder Yu could only have demon hunters watch day and night, keeping an eye on the Qian family's people to prevent them from causing trouble.
However, with such a large alchemy workshop still unfinished and leaks everywhere, causing trouble was easy, but guarding against it was difficult.
The Qian family cultivators behaved like thieves, smashing one place and then moving to another. By the time they arrived, the Qian family cultivators had already fled.
And the demon hunters couldn't possibly guard here day and night with such a waste of manpower.
Elder Yu was feeling somewhat annoyed.
Mo Hua was also unhappy. When the Qian family caused trouble, either Elder Yu had to intervene or the demon hunters had to intervene—Mo Hua didn't need to act.
But with the Qian family causing trouble, they had damaged the formations that Mo Hua had just finished drawing, so Mo Hua had to redraw them.
Several times like this, Elder Yu was irritated, and Mo Hua couldn't bear it either.
"If you don't drive out the mice, the house won't be habitable!"
Mo Hua found Elder Yu and gave him some earth-fire formations. These formations were not top-grade, only containing seven array patterns, but they should be enough to deal with these troublemakers.
Mo Hua also adjusted the architectural formation diagram, adding a Mother-Child complex formation around the originally planned formation diagram.
This way, when a battle occurred and spiritual power fluctuations occurred, the demon hunters could rush over to support the fastest. Even if the Qian family cultivators smashed things, as long as they used spiritual power, they could be quickly discovered.
As long as some demon hunters were stationed separately everywhere, and several small teams of demon hunters held mother formations patrolling and responding, the Qian family cultivators would have no opportunity to exploit.
With everything arranged properly, Mo Hua also spent two days prioritizing the completion of the Mother-Child complex formation, and then told the patrolling demon hunters about the purpose of the mother compass. After that, he didn't need to worry about it anymore.
It's just that some of the destroyed formations, he still had to redraw.
Mo Hua sighed and could only calm down and continue drawing the formations.
As night fell, Qian Shunzhi led some Qian family disciples and gathered some unruly cultivators, hiding under a mound not far from the alchemy workshop.
The surrounding vegetation was dense, obscuring their view, making it difficult for them to be discovered.
In these days, although they had suffered losses, their achievements were equally remarkable.
With these casualties, they delayed the construction progress of the alchemy workshop. At least on Elder Qian's side, it was recognized, and the family head also rewarded them with quite a few spiritual stones.
This boosted their morale.
Qian Shunzhi said, "We shed blood and suffered for the Qian family. The clan will not forget us, and the family head will reward us. As long as we succeed, we will all have plenty of spiritual stones!"
The Qian family disciples and unruly cultivators tasted the sweetness and nodded one after another.
Qian Shunzhi instructed again, "Act according to the previous methods. Fight if we can, smash if we can, and retreat quickly if things look bad."
Everyone divided into teams, finding hiding spots and sneaking into the alchemy workshop to cause havoc.
Everything proceeded as usual; these Qian family cultivators were already skilled in such operations.
Just then, an explosion rang out, and flames burst in the night.
Several Qian family cultivators stepped onto the earth-fire formations.
Those with higher cultivation suffered minor injuries, feeling pain, dizziness, and ringing in their ears. Those with lower cultivation levels bled and sometimes suffered burns, lying on the ground howling in pain.
A few unruly cultivators had their clothes and hair caught on fire, rolling around in the mud.
Qian Shunzhi was shocked and took in a sharp breath.
It was an earth-fire formation!
During the dispute between the Qian family and demon hunters over spiritual mines, although he hadn't participated, Qian Shunzhi had learned from participating Qian family disciples that there was a formation master among the demon hunters who could set up earth-fire formations.
Earth-fire formations were powerful, extremely concealed, treacherous, hard to evade, and difficult to defend against.
The Qian family had suffered greatly from earth-fire formations, more than once.
"What should we do?"
Qian Shunzhi's mind raced, and in his urgency, he decided to take a gamble.
Just two days ago, they had caused trouble here, but at that time, there were no earth-fire formations laid out. Obviously, these earth-fire formations had been set up recently, and their numbers wouldn't be too many.
If they didn't go in now, giving the demon hunters time, they would fill the area with earth-fire formations in a few days. Then every step would be fraught with danger, and going in later would mean courting death.
However, while Qian Shunzhi was willing to gamble, other Qian family cultivators were not.
Especially those who had participated in the spiritual mine dispute and been injured by earth-fire formations or watched their comrades suffer from them, or at least seen the family head injured by earth-fire formations.
They still had lingering fears of earth-fire formations and dared not act recklessly.
Even though these earth-fire formations currently only consisted of seven array patterns, and Mo Hua hadn't even drawn a complex formation for convenience, the Qian family disciples were still intimidated by them, too preoccupied to care about much else.
With no other choice, Qian Shunzhi had to lead by example.
As a ninth-level Qi Refiner, even if he was hit by the explosion, his injuries shouldn't be severe.
Qian Shunzhi led his followers forward, cautiously stepping and trying to avoid dangers on the ground. However, this caution was ultimately meaningless because he had no idea where the earth-fire formations were.
Every step he took was a gamble.
Appearing cautious, he was actually just going through the motions.
Qian Shunzhi gambled correctly; he didn't step on an earth-fire formation.
But his followers gambled wrong; in their panic, they didn't follow Qian Shunzhi's exact footsteps and stepped on the wrong spot, triggering an earth-fire formation.
Qian Shunzhi was engulfed by the earth-fire formation and experienced firsthand its power.
The explosion's spiritual power fluctuations made his blood surge, and the booming sound left him dizzy.
Parts of his skin were scorched, blood streaming from the charred areas.
For him, a seven-pattern earth-fire formation wasn't fatal, but it was still extremely painful and damaging. The sudden pain and injury were enough to leave lingering fear in anyone.
Qian Shunzhi finally understood why some disciples in the clan always turned pale at the mention of earth-fire formations and why it left such a shadow in their hearts.
The explosion from the earth-fire formation alerted the demon hunters, who rushed over and began attacking them. Perhaps due to being harassed repeatedly, they showed no mercy.
The Qian family cultivators couldn't hold out and could only flee in a sorry state.
Limping back to the Qian family, Qian Shunzhi reported the earth-fire formation incident to Elder Qian.
He could arrange sneak attacks, but dealing with such formations was beyond his capabilities.
Elder Qian reassured Qian Shunzhi and then informed the family head, Qian Hong, of the matter.
Upon hearing the three words "earth-fire formation," Qian Hong's anger surged.
Earth-fire formations again! Can't they come up with something new?
Qian Hong sought out Master Qian to inquire about methods to decipher the formations, knowing that within the entire Qian family, Master Qian had the highest expertise in formations.
(End of the Chapter)