Chapter 155: Fusion
“This earth fire is really good!” Green Bamboo said in surprise. “I’d never heard that Taoyuan had an earth fire before.”
“Can I use it?” Liu Xiaolou didn’t want to waste any time. He sat right down by the fire pit, ready to start refining.
“Of course.” Green Bamboo reached out again to test the flames, then said, “This is Nine-Star Earthfire, isn’t it? The flames are a little strong. When you’re merging, don’t set the formation disk directly on the firemouth, or it will disturb the talismans already inscribed on the sky and ground disks. Keep it raised above the opening… about this high, one foot or so. Don’t get it too close.”
The method of fusing formation disks was essentially the art of nesting a main formation with subsidiary formations. It was fairly common in large defensive formations that protected mountains, and Green Bamboo had already taught Liu Xiaolou the basics. Now it was just a matter of watching him put it into practice.
Liu Xiaolou was no expert in formations, but he had put in real effort when it came to crafting formation disks. Green Bamboo had seen that for herself over the past month. After staying with him for a while and correcting two mistakes in his technique, she felt reassured and went out for a walk.
Just as Liu Xiaolou had been moved by the sight when he first came up the mountain, Green Bamboo too was struck by the beauty of Xingde Mountain. She had rarely seen peaks so sheer and straight, like solitary bamboo shooting into the sky, surrounded on all sides by sheer cliffs that dropped for thousands of feet. Temples built on mountains like this were rarer still. For a moment, she found herself wanting to restore Xingde Temple to its former glory.
There was a fire pit of excellent quality here, and it would make a fine retreat to serve as an annex for her own Green Bamboo Courtyard. The problem was, it would take a fair bit of effort. For example, she would need to inform both the Qingyu Sect and Mount Tianmu to gain their approval. Ideally, she should also track down the former owner, Lord Xingde. No matter where he had fled, it would be best to pay him something, just to avoid unforeseen trouble down the line.
Thinking about all these issues gave her a headache. With so many complications, she hesitated, then simply left Xingde Mountain to walk the surrounding terrain and study the lay of the land more carefully.
Compared with inscribing true qi and formation talismans, the method of nesting formation disks was a different technique altogether. It was no less difficult, but it involved far fewer steps. After seven days of effort, Liu Xiaolou finally succeeded in merging the two disks, stacking them into a two-tiered formation disk.
The lower layer was the ground disk, the core of the formation. The upper layer was the sky disk, inscribed with the Three Wonders Talismans of sun, moon, and stars. With that, the effectiveness of the Abyssal Blackstone Formation was greatly enhanced. It now reflected the shifting of the seasons and the alternation of day and night.
If Yun Ao were to step into the illusion formation again, he would immediately notice that the time of day in the courtyard was different from before. Even the dreamlike visions within the bed-curtains had changed. As for how they changed, that would depend entirely on what was in his own heart and mind.
The key was that each time he entered, the experience would be different.
Liu Xiaolou stroked the surface of the newly completed formation disk, filled with delight. He rose and went to look for Green Bamboo, wanting her to test it. But after searching everywhere, he couldn’t find her.
By now the sky was growing dark, and the mountains lay in shadow. Liu Xiaolou circled the edge of a cliff, but he couldn’t make out anything below. Just as he was about to head back and wait, he suddenly noticed a faint violet glow rising from the foot of the mountain. Such lights usually meant cultivators were fighting. His heart tightened, and he quickly leapt down toward it.
He had only reached halfway down when he saw someone coming up. The figure moved with swift, graceful steps. It was Green Bamboo. She wasn’t alone; she was carrying someone in her hand.
“What happened?” Liu Xiaolou called out as he hurried over.
“Let’s go up first,” she said.
They returned to Xingde Temple and entered the east annex hall. Green Bamboo lit a flame in her palm, and Liu Xiaolou looked closely at the man she had dropped at her feet. The man had a full beard and otherwise ordinary features. His eyes were closed, his face as pale as paper, and bloody foam kept bubbling from the corner of his mouth.
Liu Xiaolou reached out and examined his meridians, then shook his head. “He won’t survive.”
Green Bamboo gave a cold snort. “Such pitiful cultivation, and he still dared to lay a hand on me.”
Liu Xiaolou was startled. “What happened?”
“I went north to those mountains today,” she said. “On my way back, I found this man sneaking around Xingde Mountain. I stopped him to ask what he was up to, and he immediately tried to run. When I caught up, he even dared to fight back. I trapped him with a formation, but he couldn’t even last the time it takes to drink a cup of tea.”
When Liu Xiaolou had checked the man’s meridians earlier, he could tell the fellow had opened nine of them and reached the seventh level of Qi Refinement. Yet he hadn’t even lasted the time it takes to drink a cup of tea inside Green Bamboo’s formation. Curious, Liu Xiaolou asked, “What kind of formation was that? Is it really so powerful?”
“The Ten-Thousand Tones Forest Array,” Green Bamboo replied. “If you want to try it, you can step inside sometime. But I only finished refining it recently, and I’m still not very practiced at controlling it. I can’t run it smoothly yet.”
Not being able to “run it smoothly” meant she couldn’t always pull her strikes back.
Liu Xiaolou gave an awkward laugh. “Then maybe I’ll pass.”
Sure enough, the man’s breath soon gave out, and he lay there as a corpse. Searching him, they found a crumpled letter tucked into his waistband.
After reading the few lines written there, Green Bamboo said, “No wonder he was skulking around, guilty as a thief. He really did come here to rob and kill. But who is this Zang Qianli?”
“Ever heard of Ewe Ram Mountain?” Liu Xiaolou asked.
Qingzhu gave a little “oh.” “So he’s from the Zang family on Ewe Ram Mountain. The ones who produce spirit rice?”
Liu Xiaolou said, “That’s right. Zang Qianli is from that family. His elder brother’s name is Baili, the head of the Zang family, and he himself is a Foundation Establishment cultivator and an inner disciple of the Zhanglong Sect. This guy came all the way to Taoyuan delivering this letter, but who knows to whom. To think he actually dared to conspire with another Zhanglong inner disciple, he must have been out of his mind. We need to hurry back and hand this letter and his corpse over to the Zhanglong Sect.”
Green Bamboo, neither agreeing nor disagreeing, asked casually, “Does the Zang family treat you well?”
“Treat us well? Hardly,” Liu Xiaolou said. “They hire us rogue cultivators for cheap, and every autumn we’re sent to help with their harvest. The rest of the year they’re always conscripting us to do this or that… the whole family is nothing but Zang-the-Skinflayer.”
“Then why warn them?”
“No matter how stingy, at least they’ve given us a way to survive. Besides, if something happens to the Zhanglong Sect, we people of Wulong Mountain won’t be spared either. The only reason we’ve managed to hold a place here is because Zhanglong has quietly looked after us. Now that some petty scum are plotting against them, it’s only right to report it to Zhanglong as quickly as possible.”
“That’s surprising. I thought you people treated the great orthodox sects like sworn enemies. Aren’t you worried that this man’s accomplices, the one who wrote the letter, or the one meant to receive it, might turn out to be people from Wulong Mountain itself?”
“Truth is, it’s the same everywhere. We might treat the great orthodox sects outside as enemies, but we can’t treat our own neighbors the same way. So whoever’s behind this scheme definitely isn’t from Wulong Mountain.”
“Fine… when do we go?”
“Right now.”
“And the body?”
“We’ll bring it along. Maybe the Zhanglong Sect can find some clues from it.”
“Then you carry it yourself.”
They went down the mountain and traveled through the night, reaching the foot of Zhanglong Mountain by noon the next day.
Zhanglong Mountain stretched more than forty li from east to west. To the southwest lay Ewe Ram Mountain, while the Zhanglong Sect itself stood at the main peak—Taifu Golden Summit, one of the great blessed lands for cultivation in the world.
Green Bamboo had no interest in this business of reporting others, so she let Liu Xiaolou haul the corpse inside on his own. She waited for an hour before finally seeing him come back out through the sect gates.
“Well? How did it go?”
Liu Xiaolou beamed. “Elder Bai himself met with me. He took it seriously and even rewarded me with two spirit stones. Here, have one.”