Due to the importance of the matter, Jiang Yin and Wen Fei didn’t hesitate and began searching for the formation’s location in the city that very afternoon.
Wen Mingyu, on the other hand, was busy with the others in relocating the Seven Mysteries Treasure Pavilion.
To avoid exposing their whereabouts and alerting the enemy, they all disguised themselves thoroughly and acted in secret.
Tang Muxi wasn’t skilled in formations, but with the Illusion God in hand, she could rely on the keen senses and powerful abilities of the heavenly-grade artifact to navigate with ease, following her Senior Sister and master in their city investigation.
They focused their search on the outer city, as it was closest to the city walls.
In case of an enemy attack or other special situations, the guards could activate the grand formation immediately to protect the entire Seven Mysteries.
However, two days passed with little progress.
“Senior Sister, could it be… we might be wrong? Maybe Cheng Ze is a suspicious type who trusts no one but himself and keeps it in his own hands,” Tang Muxi pondered for a long time, thinking this possibility was quite high.
People in high positions often tend to be suspicious, and something as important as the city-protecting formation would likely not be entrusted to others.
Jiang Yin listened, hesitated for a moment, then shook her head in denial: “The Seven Mysteries is located on a plain, with no moat outside, only extremely sturdy city walls, established according to the local feng shui.
If the formation isn’t set in the outer city, it would be like abandoning the only support.
No matter how strong the formation’s core is, the city-protecting formation wouldn’t be able to exert its full power.”
It’s not about personality, just a practical consideration.
Jiang Yin didn’t believe Cheng Ze would be so foolish as to weaken the formation’s strength just to keep it in his own hands.
If that were the case, the Imprisoning Demon Sword alone might be enough to destroy the formation.
Seeing Tang Muxi’s furrowed brows and disappointed face, Wen Fei couldn’t help but reach out to ruffle her hair: “Your Senior Sister is right.
The main body of the city-protecting formation must be in the outer city.
If Cheng Ze is truly suspicious, he might add another formation on top of the city-protecting one.
But that would be time-consuming and labor-intensive, likely leading to neglecting one for the other, which is a thankless task.
I doubt he would do that.”
Tang Muxi nodded: “I understand.”
The trio’s investigation hit a dead end, and before they could seek help from Wen Mingyu, she sent more people over.
“Little Junior Sister! Long time no see!” Lin Anjing spotted Tang Muxi from afar, waving enthusiastically as he ran over.
But before he could get close, he was blocked by another cold-faced star.
“We have a mission and are acting discreetly.
Brother Lin, being so flamboyant, are you here to cause trouble?” Jiang Yin said with a cold snort.
Ever since she discovered this person had designs on her junior sister, she couldn’t stand him.
If she hadn’t been guarding against him getting close to her junior sister last time, she wouldn’t have made a mistake and let her junior sister get captured.
Seeing him made Jiang Yin angry, and she decided to visit Wen Mingyu that night to have him removed.
Tang Muxi also thought Lin Anjing was too careless, but since her Senior Sister had already played the bad cop, she could only play the good cop to mediate, lest it hurt others.
“Senior Sister’s words are a bit harsh, Brother Anjing, don’t take it to heart.
But we are indeed busy and can’t afford to be conspicuous.
Please be more careful next time.
It’s about everyone’s safety, and we can’t afford any mistakes.”
Brother Anjing? Jiang Yin’s expression suddenly turned cold, thinking her junior sister’s address was really sweet.
Lin Anjing scratched his head awkwardly, honestly admitting his mistake: “I was reckless.
The boss saw you seemed to be in trouble, so he asked us to bring some things over, saying they might help.”
As he spoke, he took out a petal-shaped artifact from his storage ring.
This thing resembled the decoration on his clothes, made from cold pool material, with intricate carvings on the surface, emitting a cold light.
Tang Muxi loved the ice attribute power of the cold pool, always feeling refreshed when lying in it.
Seeing the exquisite lotus petal, she couldn’t help but be curious: “What is this?” Before Lin Anjing could answer, someone slowly walked out from behind him: “A tracking treasure, used to survey the earth veins.
Master Wen said the city-protecting formation might be related to the earth veins, so she sent this over.”
Wen Fei frowned upon hearing this voice, internally complaining about why Mingyu sent her over.
But she was an elder, so she should be more magnanimous.
Zhou Qin had also noticed Wen Fei early on, always keeping an eye on her.
Seeing her expression change slightly, then pretending nothing happened and looking over with a face of letting go of grudges, she found it amusing.
“Senior, we meet again.
I was reckless last time and said things I shouldn’t have, making you angry.
Please don’t hold it against me.” As she spoke, she bowed, showing a sincere apology.
Wen Fei was surprised, not expecting that after ignoring this person for a few days, she would suddenly change her attitude, completely different from her previous arrogant demeanor.
She nodded slightly, appearing reserved, but was actually quite pleased inside.
That’s right, self-restraint and propriety, a teachable child.
However, she didn’t know that Zhou Qin wasn’t truly admitting her mistake, just changing her strategy, planning to approach slowly and reveal her claws after building a good relationship.
“Earth veins, huh? That’s interesting.” Jiang Yin had also tried to start with the earth veins in the past two days, but this place was strange, with the earth veins deliberately disguised, making it hard to distinguish truth from falsehood.
To avoid alerting the enemy, she hadn’t tried this method again.
Now with a treasure to find the earth veins, they should be able to see through the disguise.
“This petal is so exquisite, is it a lotus?” Tang Muxi reached out to take it, feeling it was very familiar.
After thinking for a long time, she suddenly realized it was the Qiluo Green Lotus.
However, the Qiluo Green Lotus had more complex patterns, while this one was simpler.
The Illusion God, listening to her question, hesitated but didn’t speak, only saying: “A true god once descended in the demon realm, said to be originally an ice lotus, so the demon realm often reveres the lotus.”
Tang Muxi understood, holding the petal with a smile: “As expected of the Illusion God, you even know such things.”
The Illusion God pursed her lips but didn’t respond to this comment.
She had been asleep for tens of thousands of years, most memories long forgotten, but those related to her master were still vivid.
The ice lotus was her master’s original form, capable of controlling the five elements and reaching the heavens.
But now, it seemed like everything was forgotten.
“Alright, since Mingyu specially sent this over, let’s not delay and act quickly.” Wen Fei made the final decision.
With the help of the treasure, things became much simpler.
Although the earth veins were disguised, due to their deep-seated nature in the soil, they were quite easy to find.
As long as they entered the underground and activated the treasure, they could find the true earth veins.
Tang Muxi and the others started from the waterways near the outer city, activated the treasure, and soon reached their destination.
The Seven Mysteries’ earth veins were a network of lava, extremely high in temperature, with fierce and scorching magma like divine fire.
Even they, who had advanced to the Nascent Soul stage, couldn’t withstand it with their physical bodies and could only rely on protective spiritual energy to block the heat flow outside.
Above the earth veins was a wide spiritual vein, the source of power for the entire Seven Mysteries.
Just observing from afar, they could feel the immense power.
Layers of formations were set on the spiritual vein, working with the divine statue to keep all outsiders at bay.
Tang Muxi and the others were afraid of triggering the divine statue and alerting the guards, so they didn’t get close, only searching nearby.
The city-protecting formation was built according to feng shui, requiring the absorption of multiple sources of power.
They were at the junction of the earth vein and the spiritual vein and quickly discovered a strange flow of energy.
“Senior Sister, there’s something odd here!” It was a stone tablet embedded in lava, engraved with runes.
From the outside, it seemed to be guarding the spiritual vein, but upon closer inspection, it was clear that the power here wasn’t connected to the statue.
Instead, it was slowly extracting power through the spiritual and earth veins, supplying it to an unknown location.
Jiang Yin approached, not touching or probing, but took out a compass, drawing the aura of the stone tablet into it.
Before she could act, the compass suddenly flickered, the central needle vibrating and spinning rapidly, finally rotating the compass body to point directly south.
Wen Fei’s eyes lit up, “That direction is the city gate!” Jiang Yin smiled, “I see, no wonder we couldn’t find it.
Cheng Ze actually transformed the entire earth vein into a grand formation to compensate for the terrain and feng shui deficiencies.
Quite bold.”
Disguising the earth vein and directly transforming it into a grand formation was a very clever idea.
Once the formation was activated, even a cultivator in the Integration stage would find it difficult to destroy.
However, this move was very risky.
If the city-protecting formation truly couldn’t withstand an attack, it would directly damage the earth vein, causing devastating damage to Qixuan.
It’s a high-stakes gamble.
Win, and you gain everything; lose, and you lose it all.
However, while destroying it is very difficult, making slight modifications is quite easy.
“Junior Sister, do you have the Qionglong Jade with you?” Tang Muxi took it out suspiciously, “I have it, but what do you need it for?” Jiang Yin smirked, “To fetch some Yellow Spring Water from the deserted island.”
Wen Fei realized what she meant and exclaimed, “You want to contaminate the earth vein!” Yellow Spring Water is extremely yin and cold, a strange water connected to the ghost realm, and ordinary flames cannot evaporate it.
Qixuan’s earth vein is primarily composed of scorching lava, linked to feng shui and the city-protecting formation.
Pouring Yellow Spring Water into it, the lava cannot burn the strange water, causing extremely cold nether forces to infuse it, contaminating the earth vein, and triggering a power reversal that would affect the city-protecting formation.
Throughout history, earth veins have been the most important aspect of cities and sects, and even enemies have never tampered with them.
The reason being, earth veins are connected to the soil layers, and any issues could cause anomalies in the entire region.
In extreme cases, it could even turn the area into a barren wasteland.
Jiang Yin noticed Wen Fei’s concerns and smiled, “Yellow Spring Water indeed doesn’t mix with the divine fire of the earth vein and will pollute it.
But if we only use a small amount, covering the surface of the lava, it will be slowly worn away by the earth vein due to insufficient power.
The main defense of the city-protecting formation is near the outer city.
By pouring Yellow Spring Water on the lava surface near there, we can greatly reduce the harm caused by earth vein pollution.
Once the strange water completely disappears, the earth vein will only lose a small amount of power, not enough to cause chaos in Qixuan.”
“On the contrary, we can take advantage of the earth vein’s power disruption to seize the Guiyi Order, with no harm at all.”
After Jiang Yin finished speaking, she looked at Zhou Qin, “What does Her Highness the Princess think?” After all, this was within the Nine Fiends Hall’s domain, so they needed to consider the princess’s opinion.
Zhou Qin furrowed her brows in thought, and after a long time, she asked, “How long until the Yellow Spring Water disappears?” Jiang Yin estimated, “At most three months.”
Within three months, Qixuan would experience turmoil due to the disruption of the earth vein’s power, but it wouldn’t be enough to shake the foundation of this great city.
Zhou Qin’s eyes sharpened, making up her mind, “Do it!”
