When the Ink Beast realized what was happening, it blurted out, "Wait! What do you mean?"
The Ink Beast was no longer the mountain guardian of Nanwu Mountain; now it was merely a barely-formed soul, lacking the immense abilities it once had.
This thought caused Su Yu to frown slightly. "Nothing," he replied indifferently.
At that moment, Su Yu's foot brushed against a fruit on the ground. He bent down to pick it up, only to notice its texture felt different from the fruit he had picked up earlier. He tossed it to the Ink Beast, who caught it in its mouth.
"This one's not sweet," the Ink Beast said after tasting it.
Not sweet? Su Yu lifted his gaze to the edge of the courtyard gate. In his view, the energy inside the courtyard and the energy outside formed a subtle boundary. The spiritual plants growing on either side seemed to be crowding against each other, with the plants inside the courtyard clearly dominating and keeping the strange fruits and odd plants from outside at bay.
It seemed that the spiritual soil or territory here was limited, and the two opposing forces of vegetation were squeezing and repelling each other. The spiritual plants within the courtyard had the upper hand, forcing the alien plants outside. So, this fruit must have fallen in from the outside?
The 'energy' within the quiet courtyard was not as chaotic as that of the street, and it was much clearer than that of Bai Yue Tower. Without the interference of the bark-like beings' 'energy,' Su Yu found that his eyes could discern much more.
Though his eyes caused him trouble, they saved him considerable effort in perceiving such phenomena.
The energy of the spiritual plants, the energy of cultivators, the energy of the cloaked men… Filtering these out, Su Yu looked down and tapped the ground lightly with his toe.
From the sound, it seemed that the courtyard was paved with stone slabs, and they weren't very thick.
Zhang Fugui glanced at the Ink Beast, who was busy spitting out a fruit seed. He thought to himself that these ancient beasts were truly extraordinary. It could eat such a small fruit and spit out the seed perfectly intact—it was practically a unique talent.
His gaze shifted to the animated corpse sitting by the Wan'e Abyss stele. Since being dragged in by the Ink Beast, it had simply sat there, showing no signs of aggression.
As if sensing Zhang Fugui's gaze, the corpse turned its head abruptly, tilting it in a way that was both strange and comical.
Startled, Zhang Fugui quickly looked away. Though he had grown somewhat accustomed to the corpse over the past few days, their coexistence was bizarre. He couldn't help but notice that this corpse was different from the one that had chased them on Nanwu Mountain—it had grown quieter, and perhaps even smarter.
The corpse gave Zhang Fugui a glance before turning back toward the Wan'e Abyss exit, as if waiting for something.
No way, Zhang Fugui thought as he looked at the stele. Could it be that the Wan'e Abyss not only enhanced cultivation but also improved intelligence? Then why hadn't he grown smarter?
Cautiously, Zhang Fugui approached the abyss's exit. Peering out, he noticed the young man beside him was staring intently at something on the ground.
"What's the Daoist doing?" Zhang Fugui asked.
"He's studying the formation," the Ink Beast replied, observing more than Zhang Fugui, who was nervously scanning his surroundings. The Ink Beast noticed Su Yu's actions and suddenly remembered something: this kid seemed to have an exceptional talent for formations. He could instantly identify damage to a spiritual vessel and sense the formation patterns in Bai Yue Tower's floors.
"How does one create a large-scale formation?" Su Yu suddenly asked.
The Ink Beast was baffled. "Huh? You're asking me??"
Zhang Fugui was equally confused. "Weren't you just examining the formation?"
"I don't know how," Su Yu admitted bluntly before turning to the Ink Beast. "Do you still want the Yin energy for your Wan'e Abyss?"
The Ink Beast swallowed its retort. This human kid was too cunning, using the Wan'e Abyss to threaten it. "You've been looking for so long and can't even handle the simplest formation setup??"
Su Yu's mind was blank. He tapped the ground lightly with his toe, clearly annoyed. "I don't remember. Just explain it simply."
The Ink Beast paused mid-bite of its fruit, then thought carefully. "Let me think… It's been ages since I set one up. It should be similar to what you sketched on the spiritual vessel earlier—first, draw the formation patterns, then channel spiritual energy to activate it."
Su Yu pondered this for a moment, recalling the spiritual pathways and patterns on the vessels of the Su and Qi families. Looking down again at the 'energy' in the courtyard, he said, "I'll give it a try."
Zhang Fugui muttered under his breath, "You two… Are you sure about this? Formation setups explained in just a few words?"
Meanwhile, the other cultivators in the courtyard were lost in thought after hearing the cloaked man's ominous warning. The eerie curse techniques in Jinzhou Town had caught everyone off guard. Worse, these techniques allowed seemingly harmless spiritual fruits to embed curses into their bodies, dooming them to a slow death.
The cloaked man suddenly shouted urgently, "Don't touch that!"
Su Yu had moved several steps away from the other cultivators and was standing in the northwest corner of the courtyard. He tapped the ground lightly with his toe, as if determining something. At the sound of the warning, he stopped and turned back, but his toe had already touched something on the ground.
"A formation," said Su Yi, the rarely speaking young master of the Su family, suddenly. "There's a formation pattern under his feet."
Qi Yan stepped forward, joining Su Yu. Using his fan, he brushed aside the vines on the ground to reveal a hidden formation embedded in the greenery of the courtyard. He immediately turned to the cloaked man. "It seems you've been keeping more secrets from us."
"Wow, this young master of the Qi family reacts quickly," the Ink Beast remarked. "He's always right on your heels."
"And Little Red Flower doesn't even come close. His cultivation is higher, but his reactions are slower," it added with a hint of amusement.
Su Yu's gaze lowered, and as he stepped back to make way, he accidentally tripped on a nearby stone step.
"Careful." Su Yi, who happened to be passing by, reached out to steady him.
Su Yu turned back, slightly surprised to see who had helped him.
Although he had no fondness for the Su family, his feelings of direct aversion toward this individual were less intense.
Once Su Yu was steady, Su Yi released his grip and walked over to Qi Yan's side to examine the formation.
As a member of the Su family, Su Yi was well-versed in talisman arts and had some understanding of formations. While he wasn't adept at setting them up, he could analyze them.
The verdant plants here thrived exuberantly, yet this was not a place abundant in spiritual energy. Even the spiritual soil in the courtyard was far from premium quality. Still, the plants that repelled the bark-skinned creatures had grown wildly, shielding the entire courtyard. This suggested that a formation must be in place here.
Su Yi could only discern the range of the formation, but the young man before him had pinpointed its nodes with ease.
Su Yi's sharp gaze shifted to the cloaked man. This individual moved freely in daylight and remained lucid, clearly harboring secrets. "If you understand formations and know how to suppress the bark-skinned creatures here, why haven't you used this chance to leave?"
The abnormal growth of the plants was unnatural. Someone skilled in formations might not necessarily be knowledgeable about spiritual plants. Yet, cultivators who specialized in using formations to nurture spiritual plants were exceptionally rare in the Southern Realm, and their abilities were extraordinary.
Su Yu, meanwhile, was observing the cloaked man—or more precisely, the "energy" emanating from him. Beyond this energy, he seemed to be looking at something else behind the cloaked man.
There was a formation in this courtyard, and another in Jinzhou Town, but the two were different.
The cloaked man relaxed slightly when he saw that the cultivators hadn't disturbed the courtyard's formation. As if anticipating their suspicions, he turned and walked to the back of the courtyard, where a small house stood, its door entwined with vines.
He parted the vines, revealing the door. "If you want to look, then look," he said, pressing his palm firmly against the door and pushing it open.
Qi Liu glanced inside but quickly stepped back in alarm. "Bark! There are bark-skinned people inside!"
The room was filled with more plants, their twisted forms spiraling around the beams and pillars, resembling the vegetation in the courtyard. Amidst the spiritual plants, coiled vines formed simple cocoons. Within these cocoons were bark-skinned people, their forms desiccated but still faintly breathing, as if their consciousness lingered. A formation surrounded them, circulating spiritual energy and seemingly preserving these bark-skinned figures.
"These are my mentors," the cloaked man said, standing partially in the doorway without entering. "From three years ago until now, I am the last one left."
The bark-skinned people encased within the formation had ceased to grow after their skin turned to bark, yet they retained a semblance of their former appearances. There were elderly, hunched figures as well as younger cultivators, all dressed in similar attire, suggesting they came from the same sect.
"Three years ago…" Qi Yan folded his fan, recalling something. "I once heard of a high-ranking rogue cultivator known for their mastery of formations. Renowned for their growth-accelerating techniques, they personally cultivated various spiritual fruits and were highly esteemed by the Rogue Cultivator Alliance. But three years ago, they disappeared. The last report was that they had taken their disciples to the Southern Realm and were never seen again. Could it be…"
The cloaked man did not deny it. He looked toward the elder at the center of the formation within the house and spoke in a hoarse voice. "That was my mentor. This courtyard's formation was set up by them. It is their final gift to us before their passing."
When they were first infected with the malevolent seeds, they still had some resistance. Being cultivators familiar with spiritual plants, they quickly devised countermeasures to suppress the growth of the seeds within their bodies. But they hadn't anticipated that this was only the beginning.
Initially, they waited until daylight to seek help from the cultivators entering the town. To their horror, the townsfolk had already been assimilated. Even some cultivators, who appeared to be outsiders, were already harboring the seeds. Their hasty actions alerted the residents of Jinzhou Town, who began to capture them under various pretexts during the day. Notices were even posted throughout the town, branding them as dangerous criminals.
Jinzhou Town had a formation controlling the bark-skinned people. The infected cultivators had been brainwashed, and any attempt to escape—even in daylight—was futile.
Left with no choice, they blended into the town, speaking and acting cautiously. As their bodies deteriorated, some elders risked seeking help from nearby sects, but their letters received no response. Those who attempted to leave Jinzhou Town died just outside its gates, their malevolent seeds turning against them.
Now, only he remained.
He was the last hope of his sect. If possible, he wished to take his mentors back to their homeland.
"How could not even a whisper of this escape?" Qi Liu asked incredulously. "Jinzhou Town is such a large place. Even if you were trapped, surely some message could've gotten out?"
Qi Yan knocked Qi Liu on the head with his fan. "Are you an idiot? If it involves formations and curses, there must be someone behind them who cast the curse and set the formation. Do you think those brainwashed bark-skinned puppets could've orchestrated something as elaborate as the Spirit Fruit Feast? Let alone plan it so seamlessly without anyone noticing? Preparing so many spirit fruits alone would've taken time. Clearly, someone planned this in advance."
Someone knew they were coming and arranged the Spirit Fruit Feast to trap them all here.
Not even a message could escape. It was likely that the nearby sects were also compromised—or the mastermind had such immense power that they controlled everything.
From the very start, the Su and Qi families' spiritual vessels had been manipulated. Their entry into Jinzhou Town, the current predicament—it was all part of someone's plan to ensure they either remained here forever or perished within the town.
Su Yi frowned and looked at the Qi family. "Have you offended anyone recently?"
"I was about to ask you the same thing!" Qi Yan shot him a glance. "Isn't it your Su family that's always causing trouble? Didn't you cause the incident at Nanwu Mountain?"
Mentioning Nanwu Mountain silenced Su Yi.
The cloaked man tilted his head to look at the sky, his disdain for the pale moon above evident. "Using spiritual energy or tools will accelerate the growth of the malevolent seeds. Even if you manage to leave Jinzhou Town, the seeds won't vanish. Instead, they'll corrode your consciousness. The white moon here resonates with the town's formation and is different from the moon outside. Without the moonlight within the formation, the seeds will take your life."
The malevolent seeds would gradually erode a person's consciousness. Once fully overtaken, the victim would become one of the lifeless puppets wandering Jinzhou Town's streets, forever enslaved to the town. The key to it all lay in the town's formation, with the curse serving as a catalyst and the formation as the driving force.
Leaving the town caused the seeds to worsen rapidly, resulting in death. Staying meant eventual assimilation.
Both choices led to death.
The cloaked man closed the door and noticed a young boy standing quietly behind the group. He had been standing there for a long time, head bowed, unmoving as if lost in thought.
The boy's sleeves seemed ill-fitting, half-covering his arms. The bare hand visible was unnaturally pale—so pale it bordered on bluish-white, more like a corpse's than a living person's.
Stranger still, the boy's arm bore none of the black lines or marks that the others, including Qi Yan and the other cultivators, had from the seeds. It was as if he had been completely unaffected.
At that moment, the boy lifted his head slightly, his eyes vacant.
The cloaked man had an inexplicable feeling that this boy was looking directly at him. He suppressed his unease, only for the boy to speak.
—"What was the powder you scattered earlier to help us?"
The cloaked man froze, realizing Su Yu was addressing him. He hadn't expected such an astute observation from a blind person. Reaching into his cloak, he pulled out a small pouch and opened it to show the others.
Su Yu leaned closer and sniffed lightly. "Seeds?"
The cloaked man nodded. "The reason this courtyard can fend off so many creatures is due to the formation my mentor painstakingly created at the cost of all his spiritual stones. The plants within the formation repel the bark-skinned creatures. They are the only way to fight them…"
Before he could finish, commotion erupted outside!
The bark-skinned creatures that had been held back suddenly became frenzied, crashing violently against the courtyard gate. Their faces twisted with madness. Alarmed, the group tensed. The cloaked man hastily scattered a few seeds, using them to grow barriers that protected the gate. But the creatures showed no signs of slowing down, continuing their relentless assault.
Something was wrong with these bark-skinned creatures.
"What's making them go berserk all of a sudden?" Qi Liu stepped back in fear.
Qi Yan sent out his small ginseng spirit, shaking his head. "A whole group of formation cultivators fell here. Did you think the mastermind would let us leave to spread the word? They want us dead."
Qi Liu's gaze landed on the seeds in the cloaked man's hand. "Then why don't we just scatter them all the way out?!"
He added, "It's nighttime now. Scatter the seeds to the city gate and get to the spirit vessel outside. As long as we send a message out, who cares about the person pulling the strings?"
"If you had more people, your plan might work," the cloaked man replied, putting the seeds away. "But these are all I have left. Even if we reach the gate, none of you will survive."
This situation, with the creatures behaving this way, was new even to him. It was the first time they had launched such an assault on the courtyard.
"Curses are one thing, but the formation covering Jinzhou Town is another. Unless you find the formation's core, leaving this place means certain death."
"Are you from the Su family? A formation cultivator?" he asked Su Yi.
Su Yi shook his head. "While the Su family is skilled in talismans and formations, I do not specialize in formations. I studied under the Cangxue Sect."
In short, he could recognize formations but wasn't adept at creating or dismantling them.
The cloaked man's face, hidden beneath his hood, grew pale. He felt an unprecedented sense of despair.
Finding the formation's core wasn't so easy. As a formation cultivator, neither he nor his mentors had succeeded, despite years of effort.
Under constant pursuit by the bark-skinned creatures, they had spent three years deciphering the formation's patterns, deducing its locations, and gathering all known information about the malevolent seeds.
The formations were beneath Jinzhou Town, now overgrown with rampant vegetation. To locate the core, they would have to trace the patterns and gradually deduce its position. Only then could the root problem be addressed.
The greatest challenge was that the town's formation only revealed itself at night, making it difficult to track during the day. Breaking the formation was only feasible on the full moon night every seven days, when the core was most likely to appear.
The cloaked man scanned the group in the courtyard again:
A beast-taming cultivator.
A water-element Dao cultivator.
A fire-element cultivator.
And… a blind boy with limited mobility.
The heavens sought to doom his sect!
As if the situation wasn't dire enough, the cloaked man was momentarily distracted.
The neglected courtyard gate was suddenly forced open, and a bark-skinned creature leaped onto the threshold.
The cloaked man's expression shifted as he noticed the boy standing near the courtyard gate. He instinctively raised his hand to scatter seeds, but before he could complete the motion, something moved even faster. The spiritual plants within the courtyard suddenly surged in growth, forcefully knocking back the bark-skinned creature that had jumped inside.
Lowering his gaze, the cloaked man spotted something pressed into the ground near the gate—a stone embedded in the slab.
What was that? A spirit stone?
At the base of the gate, a spirit stone had been positioned in a remarkably precise spot.
The boy took a few steps forward, letting the spirit stone in his hand drop to the ground. Its placement aligned perfectly with the edge of the previous step, seamlessly linking to the formation within the courtyard.
The cloaked man, stunned, watched as another bark-skinned creature lunged toward the boy, who remained motionless.
Unable to comprehend how the boy had managed this, the cloaked man quickly shouted, "Take three steps east—the next formation point!"
The boy's ears twitched slightly, and he moved three steps east. Another spirit stone fell to the ground, activating as it landed. With a slight press of the boy's toe, the stone embedded itself into the ground.
This time, the cloaked man clearly saw the boy's method. It seemed he first infused the spirit stone with spiritual energy to ensure it could integrate into the formation upon activation. Surrounding the boy were fragments of shattered stones—likely remnants from previous experiments or tests.
Realization struck the cloaked man: this boy was extending the courtyard's formation!
The formation crafted by his mentor was a growth-based formation, intricate and multifaceted. Its array patterns were numerous, and even experienced formation cultivators would struggle to identify the correct points, let alone extend it.
What astonished the cloaked man further was the boy's audacity to use spirit stones to expand the growth formation. Growth formations, much like engraved formations, followed rigid rules and were not typically designed for compatibility.
Generally, formation cultivators establish formation points, connect the patterns, and power them with spiritual energy. But the boy employed an ancient method of formation creation, relying solely on spirit stones. This technique lacked flexibility—where the stones were placed, the formation existed, and once the stones were depleted, the formation would collapse.
To extend a formation, one must have intimate knowledge of its array patterns, enabling precise infusion of spiritual energy to sustain the formation and promote growth outward. Yet this boy managed to locate the points in such a short time—he truly understood the mechanics of a growth formation!
Su Yu's actions drew the attention of the others. The young master of the Su family, skilled in formations, remarked, "He's channeling energy into the formation using spirit stones."
Qi Yan observed Su Yu thoughtfully. He knew Su Yu's cultivation level wasn't high enough to sustain such an extensive formation. "Not just that. This method doesn't seem to consume much spiritual energy."
Qi Liu caught on quickly. "Exactly! We can't use much power right now, but spirit stones naturally contain a vast amount of spiritual energy. They're often used as the foundation for formations. Even if we run out of seeds, as long as we have enough spirit stones, we can expand the courtyard's plants outward!"
Meanwhile, the shadow beast lurking in the Abyss of Ten Thousand Evils was equally astonished. It was well aware that the formation method Su Yu was using—spirit-stone-based extension—had been learned from the Qi family's spirit vessel. The human boy had spent the most time studying the vessel's formations, thoroughly familiarizing himself with the positioning and activation of its stones.
It occurred to the beast that Su Yu's earlier questions were likely his way of figuring out how to add to someone else's formation.
"What are you standing there for?" Su Yu suddenly asked.
The shadow beast realized the boy was addressing it.
Looking toward Su Yu, the beast noticed that the outer edges of the formation now dropped unusual fruits.
The principle of the formation lay in the conflict between spiritual and foreign plants. The spiritual plants' outward expansion disrupted the growth of the invasive plants, severing their branches. The fruits attached to those branches fell to the ground without anyone needing to touch the hazardous plants directly.
At Su Yu's feet, several such fruits lay scattered, unclaimed and unnoticed by others.
More fell as the moments passed.
Wait… was this human boy working so diligently on the formation just to gather these fruits?!
Su Yu's face was pale, the irritation of channeling yin energy into the spirit stones evident. "Don't miss a single one," he instructed.
His tone carried a subtle yet unnerving volatility, and even the eye-shaped totem within his body seemed to edge closer to the shadow beast's spirit orb in the Abyss of Ten Thousand Evils.
This fruit was not to be missed—losing even one might prove fatal!
The shadow beast: "!"
Zhang Fugui: "!!"