Chapter Eighty-Four: The Five-Elements Eight-Trigrams Formation

Everyone already understood that they had returned to the starting point. The others were fairly calm, except for Yunsheng. Ever since he realized they were lost and unable to find their way out, his face had gone deathly pale.

To be honest, it was one disaster after another. They had only just escaped the claws of those undead monsters, only to arrive at a dead end...

"So what do we do now? Are we just supposed to wait here?" Yue Qi said, unwilling to accept it. They could not have escaped one ordeal only to run straight into another.

Xin Zi said nothing. He looked around instead. The sun overhead had long been blocked out by the dense canopy, making it hard for light to reach the ground, and because of that, directions were even harder to tell apart.

The mist showed no sign of clearing. Everyone clutched the herbs Xin Zi had just given them tightly in their hands. If they lost them, though there were still plenty on the ground, human hearts were always like this...

"Do you think this could be a formation..." Bai Lian, who had been silent for quite some time, spoke at last, and her words shocked everyone.

"A formation?!" Xin Zi's eyes suddenly lit up when he heard that, but then he grew doubtful again. "If it's a formation, then it must have been set up by someone. And if it was laid here, that means the person must be living inside the Lost Forest and doesn't want us entering it!"

With only that one sentence, Xin Zi had already inferred so much. Whether he was right or wrong, it was still better than the others running around like headless flies...

"Are you saying someone lives in the Lost Forest? No, no, impossible. I can believe in all sorts of monsters and demons, but people? Who'd be bored enough to live in such a gloomy place?" Yue Yunsheng shuddered and said quickly.

Xin Zi ignored him and instead cupped his hands toward Bai Lian beside him, asking, "Then in Madam Yue's view, what sort of formation is this? My study of formations is shallow. I beg Madam Yue to enlighten me..."

"I'm not very familiar with formations either..." Bai Lian was not embarrassed at all and said directly, "But I heard from my master that all things in the world are divided into yin and yang. If one speaks of yin and yang, one must begin with the Great Ultimate. The Book of Changes has the Great Ultimate, which generates the Two Forms; the Two Forms generate the Four Symbols; the Four Symbols generate the Eight Trigrams. So this formation likely cannot be separated from that theory of the Great Ultimate. We can start from there..."

Xin Zi nodded. He likely understood this himself. The reason he asked Bai Lian was merely to let everyone know what was going on. Otherwise, if he alone tried to break the formation and failed, he would inevitably be remembered for it...

"Is it a Five Elements Eight Trigrams Formation? Then let me give it a try..." Xin Zi suddenly smiled with confidence. He stood in place as if observing something, while taking out several copper coins. Yue Qi knew those things too; they were ordinary currency, though he had no idea what Xin Zi meant to do with them...

"Heaven and earth, black and yellow, east and west, south and north, Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, Black Tortoise... in that case..." What Xin Zi muttered, Yue Qi could not make out clearly. Most of it sounded like techniques for breaking formations. Even if Xin Zi told him outright, he probably would not understand...

Of course, sitting here and waiting was not Yue Qi's style either. Since there was no way to disturb Xin Zi, he could only go ask Bai Lian...

In truth, Yue Qi's mentality was fairly good. Even if trapped in this forest, their stored food was sufficient; they could last for a while. And perhaps, in doing so, Yue Qi might even break through to a new level, maybe even relying solely on spiritual perception to walk out of the Lost Forest...

"Lian'er, tell me about formations..." Yue Qi trotted up to Bai Lian and said.

"Formations are very subtle things. Even if I explain them to you now, I can't make it clear in just a moment. But with your aptitude, wanting to learn formations..." Bai Lian looked at Yue Qi with a smile that was not quite a smile. "I'm afraid it'll be very difficult..."

"Is it really necessary to hit a man this hard?" Yue Qi said unhappily. He had heard of this before. Even the basics were difficult, let alone becoming proficient. He had once heard that in this world, there were those who entered the Dao through formations and even ascended after passing heavenly tribulation. More importantly, legends said that such a cultivator was far stronger than others of the same level, and that with a single hand of formations, he could change without limit, moving mountains and filling seas with a mere flick of the fingers!

"Just watch carefully and stay calm. If you can grasp something, maybe you really do have talent for formations. But even if you want to learn now, there is no one who can teach you..." Seeing Yue Qi's deflated expression, Bai Lian could not help finding it amusing.

"But Lian'er, is there any big difference between the formations used by cultivators and those used by someone ordinary like Xin Zi?" Following Bai Lian's words, Yue Qi watched Xin Zi's movements carefully, yet still asked abruptly.

"The principle is the same. But if cultivators reinforce them with spiritual power, the might of the formation increases greatly. Ordinary people usually use formations to trap enemies; very few use them to kill," Bai Lian explained.

"Reinforce them with spiritual power? What do you mean?" Yue Qi still did not understand and kept asking.

"How should I put it... Let's use the formation we're in right now as an example. Suppose this formation traps us all, and then someone releases a spell like Lightning Dance or Flame Dance. Do you think we could dodge it?" Bai Lian suddenly became much more serious and said to Yue Qi.

"What?! That's terrifying!" Yue Qi cried out in shock. "Doesn't that mean if this were a formation laid by a cultivator, we'd be in grave danger? Could be killed at any moment?!"

"How could it be that easy?" Bai Lian rolled her eyes at him. "First off, we don't even know whether this was set by a cultivator. Even if it was, do cultivators today still have spiritual power? Without spiritual power, how could they cast spells to kill us?"

"Right, right!!" Yue Qi scratched his head, but his heart burned with excitement. If he really learned formations, then even if he encountered those undead creatures just now, as long as he used a formation to trap them first and then cast spells afterward... a few techniques landing on them would likely leave them dead or nearly so!

"However, Seventh Brother, I'm not trying to discourage you. Learning formations really does require talent, and a good teacher is also very important. To give you an example, the formation we've encountered here can probably be considered among the simplest. If you can't even understand this, then you should put that idea out of your head early..." As Yue Qi's lover, Bai Lian did not spare him any face at all and simply poured cold water over him.

Of course, Yue Qi did not mind. Had he not been denied far more often since childhood? He believed in that old saying: genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration. So long as he put in enough effort, he was sure he would succeed...

However, Yue Qi seemed to have forgotten one thing: that famous saying has one more line at the end, namely that the one percent of inspiration is even more important...

As he watched, Xin Zi's work also reached its final stage. He held an axe in his hand, took a few steps, spotted an inconspicuous tree, and felled it. Then he walked a few more steps and cut down another. His movements were so swift that Yue Qi was almost dazzled by them...

"This formation probably isn't too difficult for him..." Bai Lian suddenly walked up beside Yue Qi and said.

"So this is probably just a trick of using a few trees to blind the eye? Can that kind of thing even be called a formation?" Yue Qi watched very carefully and soon gave his own analysis to Bai Lian.

"Oh?!" This time it was Bai Lian's turn to be shocked. This formation truly was not very difficult. A Five Elements Eight Trigrams Formation, at its most basic, was just a blindfolding technique. To put it plainly, it was an illusion formation used merely to confuse people.

"Could it be that Seventh Brother really has talent for formations?" Bai Lian frowned and looked at Yue Qi. A true master of formations first required the support of spiritual perception. From the looks of it, Yue Qi's spiritual sense was already quite strong compared with others at the same level, so learning formations was not impossible...

"Hm? Lian'er? What are you thinking about?" Seeing that Bai Lian did not respond, Yue Qi looked at her again and asked.

"Oh... nothing..." Bai Lian said. "It's only the most basic illusion formation. The trees Xin Zi cut down are called formation eyes. Once the formation eyes are broken, the formation naturally falls apart..."

"So that's how it is..." Yue Qi nodded thoughtfully. From his earlier observations, Xin Zi's method of cutting the trees seemed to have no pattern, yet he struck once to the west, then once to the east. Yue Qi counted, and by now Xin Zi had already cut down seven trees. The surroundings seemed to have suddenly brightened quite a bit, and the mist had also thinned...

"There should be one more tree before it can be broken..." Yue Qi said as if guided by destiny, staring intently at Xin Zi's final move.

Xin Zi walked to a small tree in the east. It was tiny, merely a sapling, hidden within the undergrowth. An ordinary person would never have noticed it...

"Bang!" With one swing of the axe, the blackness around them suddenly vanished, replaced by a broad expanse of light. The brightness was somewhat blinding; even Yue Qi could not help closing his eyes.

"It's done! Broke it!" Xin Zi wiped the sweat from his forehead and said proudly. This most basic illusion formation had little real killing power against him.

"Well done, Xin Zi!" Yue Yunsheng looked very excited. He had originally thought they would be trapped here forever, but who could have imagined that beyond the dark there would be light ahead? Xin Zi had broken the formation in an instant.

"Just a small matter. However, Brother Yue..." Xin Zi suddenly said, "Breaking this formation really takes a lot of thought. Please allow me to rest a little before we set out again?"

"Of course!" Yue Qi was equally excited, but his attention was drawn to a narrow path that had appeared out of nowhere. He remembered clearly that there had been nothing but dense trees here before, no path at all. Yet now that the formation was broken, such a trail had appeared...

"All right, let's go..." Xin Zi's rest was, in truth, little more than nothing. Most children from great families had their own meditation arts, so their spiritual power recovered quite quickly...

Yue Qi nodded and then led the group deeper into the forest. Yet he kept pondering, clearly still thinking about the formation from before...

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