Chapter 44
Chapter 44: Formation
Chen Liu An watched Jiang Li Sheng with open amazement, admiration written all over his face.
A concealment-illusion talisman this good was something he’d never seen or even heard of—yet it had been drawn by Qing Xu Sect’s Junior Sister Jiang. Weren’t the rumors always saying she learned a little of everything and mastered none of it?
No one else had a concealment-illusion talisman like this. She’d created it on her own… and people still claimed she couldn’t learn?
The more he thought about it, the less he trusted any of those stories.
“Junior Sister Jiang,” he asked, keeping his voice low, “how long can your concealment-illusion talisman hold?”
“I don’t know.” Jiang Li Sheng shook her head, honest as ever. “My talisman inscription isn’t consistent. Sometimes it performs well, sometimes it doesn’t. Some last days, some only last fifteen minutes or so. When I drew these two concealment-illusion talismans, my spiritual power was full and my hand felt perfect. They should last longer than usual.”
“Then we need to move. Farther,” Chen Liu An said at once. Another worry tightened his voice. “That bastard mutt tracks by scent. Once your concealment-illusion talisman wears off, can it still find us?”
“Hard to say.” Jiang Li Sheng looked as uneasy as he felt. “We can only run farther.”
He hesitated, then asked, “Do you have more talismans like that?”
“No.”
Chen Liu An fell silent. Of course. Good things were never something people kept in abundance.
Neither of them dared to stop or slow down. They ran north without pause—through a full day and a full night—until Shan Gao still hadn’t appeared behind them. Only then did they dare to exchange a glance and finally agree to rest.
Chen Liu An’s relief burst out of him. “Junior Sister Jiang, your concealment-illusion talisman held for an entire day and night. It still hasn’t failed.”
Even high-grade talismans drawn by Tai Yi Sect’s pill expert, Elder Dan Yang, only lasted that long.
Jiang Li Sheng was just as happy. “We finally got rid of that bastard mutt! We did… right?”
As she spoke, she reached for her storage pouch out of habit, craving something to eat. Her fingers brushed the snack bag, and she froze. The scent was strong. If she pulled it out now and that mutt caught it again—
She forced her hand away.
Better to endure.
Leaning against a tree trunk, she let out a long, miserable breath. “I’m starving.”
Chen Liu An dug out a grain-avoidance pill and held it out. “Junior Sister Jiang, you didn’t bring grain-avoidance pills? Here.”
By all rights, a cultivator who reached Foundation Establishment Stage no longer needed them. Wind and dew were enough. But Chen Liu An had a habit of preparing for anything. He didn’t use grain-avoidance pills himself, yet he had plenty of junior brothers and junior sisters—some still below Foundation Establishment—so he carried them in his storage ring as a precaution.
Jiang Li Sheng shook her head. “No. Senior Brother Chen, put it away. I don’t want that.” She sighed, then admitted the real problem. “I want snacks. Mortal world snacks. I have some in my storage pouch, but I don’t dare take them out. They smell too strong—I’m afraid I’ll lure that bastard mutt back.”
She grimaced. “You don’t know. I was eating when I first attracted it. From that day on, it chased me nonstop. It wanted my snacks. I wouldn’t give them, so it got angry. Now it wants to eat me.”
Chen Liu An stared at her. Slowly, the pieces clicked into place. “So… you wouldn’t give up your snacks, and that’s why it wouldn’t let you go?”
Jiang Li Sheng nodded, looking almost offended by the obviousness of it. “At first it didn’t even try to eat me. It just wanted to steal my snacks. When I refused, it snapped.”
Chen Liu An didn’t know what expression to wear. After a long pause, he asked, genuinely curious, “Are mortal world snacks really that good?”
He’d been born into Tai Yi Sect. His parents were cultivators, and from the time he could walk, the sect’s rules had been wrapped around him like chains. Even when he went down to the mortal world, it was for errands—driving off demons for commoners, taking missions, listening to elders’ warnings about mundane food being thick with filth and turbid qi. He’d never once tried it.
Jiang Li Sheng’s hand rested on her storage pouch as if guarding a treasure. “They’re delicious.”
Chen Liu An snorted. “Then that bastard mutt doesn’t get to freeload.”
Still, seeing how she was clearly craving it yet forcing herself to sit there hungry made her look pitiful. He softened his tone. “Endure a little longer. A day and night is far, but that thing is too clever—and it advanced so fast. If it comes again, the two of us can’t handle it.”
Jiang Li Sheng nodded hard. “Mm. I can endure.”
Chen Liu An looked up at the dead canopy above them and exhaled, frustration creeping in. “This cursed place… how are we supposed to leave? We’ve run north this far. Can we try east?”
Now that her mind had cooled, Jiang Li Sheng thought it through carefully. “We fly on swords. We’re not slow. In theory, we should cover hundreds of li in a day. Before I met you, I ran east for days and still couldn’t get out. Going north is the same. We ran a day and a night and there’s no end.”
Her voice turned wary. “I suspect this is a Grand Array. Someone powerful laid a Formation, and we’re trapped inside it. East or north, it won’t matter how long we run. It won’t help.”
She added, “Going up doesn’t help either. I tried. I’m tall, and the dead trees are tall.”
“I tried too,” Chen Liu An said, a chill sinking into him. “A Grand Array…” He swallowed. “Junior Sister Jiang, now that you say it, it does feel wrong. But I don’t understand formations at all.”
He looked at her as if she were the only solid ground left. “You do know formations, right?”
Jiang Li Sheng scratched her head, embarrassed. “A little. Not enough. This Formation is… too profound. It took me days just to sense something off. With my ability, I’m afraid I can’t break it.”
Chen Liu An inhaled sharply, then forced himself to sound steady. “You have to believe in yourself.”
Jiang Li Sheng’s shoulders tensed. The pressure landed like a boulder.
Chen Liu An tried to reason his way through the fear. “If it really is a Formation, then it’s on you. There’s no one else here—just us. My master always said that in a secret realm, each hardship is a person’s opportunity. Since the two of us fell here, it means there’s an opportunity meant for the two of us.”
“I didn’t want an opportunity,” Jiang Li Sheng said miserably.
Then she confessed what she’d truly been relying on. “Senior Brother Chen… I thought if I couldn’t get out, I’d just wait. When the secret realm goes dormant again, it’ll eject me. As long as I stay alive, that should be enough.”
Chen Liu An went quiet, then shook his head hard. “Junior Sister Jiang, no. We have to get out. If we’re trapped in a Grand Array, we might go dormant with the secret realm and not wake for a hundred years.”
His eyes hardened with remembered scenes. “You’ve heard the stories. Seniors who went out to train—some were eaten by demon beasts, some were trapped in illusions and predicaments. They never left. They stayed there forever.”
Jiang Li Sheng’s face drained. “It’s really like that?”
“Yes.” Chen Liu An gave a helpless, almost disbelieving laugh. “So who told you that if you just wait and do nothing, you’ll be kicked out? We came in through an entrance. To leave, we have to find an exit.”
Jiang Li Sheng fell silent. No one had told her. She’d simply assumed it. First time in a secret realm, and she’d treated it like a controlled training ground.
Chen Liu An explained, “The kind of secret realm that ejects you on a timer is one a sect opens deliberately for disciples. Sect elders control it, set the time, and set restrictions. When it ends, it pushes everyone out. That’s not what we’re in now.”
His voice turned grim. “This one is dangerous.”
Jiang Li Sheng swallowed. She’d thought keeping herself from being eaten was enough. It wasn’t.
If she’d known, she would have refused to enter no matter what. Yet she’d stepped in anyway—and even kept Ji Fu Ling, that dead woman, outside.