Chapter 185.2

What should have been a matter of remotely controlling the formation core with a single wave of a formation flag now required Tan Wenbin to personally take the flag, jog over, and plant it into the core’s position.

The formation activated, cutting off Fatty Jin’s family in the front house from the outside world.

Xu Yijin said, “Not a bad formation. Did you improve it?”

Li Zhuiyuan nodded. “I read about it in the books at home, so I remembered it. There are a lot of books like that in the cellar at my house.”

Xu Yijin sighed in emotion. “How extravagant.”

Li Zhuiyuan asked, “Your family doesn’t have any?”

Xu Yijin replied, “A little, but not much. My family needs me to make a name for it.”

Li Zhuiyuan pointed at the ground beneath them, then outside. “Let’s not fight here. It’d be a shame to wreck this guesthouse. Outside it’s all farmland, wide open. If the crops get ruined, we can pay for them.”

Xu Yijin nodded and sprang up. With a few light taps of her toes, she cleared the guesthouse.

Runsheng crouched, hoisted Little Yuanhou onto his back, then leaped up as well.

Yin Meng used her whip to latch on and swung herself out.

Lin Shuyou was agile to begin with and darted out quickly.

By the time everyone landed in the fields, Tan Wenbin was only just running over after climbing a wall and taking the long way around.

There was no helping it. He had set up an isolation formation around the front house himself, so he could not use the main entrance and had to take the longer route.

As Tan Wenbin caught his breath, he glared at Lin Shuyou.

That idiot had zero awareness. He had not even thought to bring him along.

But when he remembered that Ah You had already gone through the face-painting rite and his temperament had changed, Tan Wenbin could not really stay angry.

Xu Yijin stood in the middle of the field with her hands clasped behind her back.

She looked confident and carefree.

But Li Zhuiyuan noticed that around her were many tiny holes, and in his ears he could hear movement coming from underground ahead.

It sounded like many tiny things burrowing beneath the earth.

Using his hearing to pinpoint the sounds, then forming a sound map in his mind, he realized what she was doing...

She was setting up a formation.

This woman truly was not as straightforward as she appeared.

After arriving here, she had already sent her porcelain puppets underground to secretly lay out a formation.

The fact that she could arrange a formation this way proved she had a high level of skill in formations.

Thankfully, he had not gotten clever and tried to set up some crude linked formation in advance. Tricks like that would never fool her eyes and would only have exposed his true level ahead of time.

Li Zhuiyuan said, “I’ll ask you one last time. Can’t you let us go and find someone else to use as your shield?”

Xu Yijin lifted her chin slightly and replied, “This is your fate.”

Li Zhuiyuan sighed. “We’ll do everything we can.”

Xu Yijin said, “I’ll make you accept your fate.”

Earlier, Xu Yijin had said she was full from tea and could not be bothered with pointless banter, but now she was主动 tossing around empty lines herself.

She was trying to buy more time to finish setting up the formation below.

Li Zhuiyuan, meanwhile, was deliberately giving her that chance. He was not in a position to set up his own formation in advance, but if she finished hers, then turning the tables and using hers instead would work just as well.

“You’re not even going to ask what family I come from?”

The corner of Li Zhuiyuan’s right eye had already turned red. He had successfully interfered with one of the ceramic puppets underground. Judging by its shape, it looked like the kind of porcelain doll meant to sit on a table for people to admire and play with.

Yet now it was doing a mole’s job, tunneling through the dirt.

Li Zhuiyuan did not dare forcibly seize full control of it. That would definitely alert her. He only nudged it slightly, making it veer a little off the intended formation path, leaving behind a flaw so slight it was almost impossible to detect.

And that was the back door he was secretly leaving for himself.

Sweat had already seeped out across the boy’s forehead. His eyelids drooped low, and the tip of his nose began to itch, as though a nosebleed would start at any moment.

Li Zhuiyuan had fully mobilized his mental strength.

A state that used to appear only in battle was now being used as preparation before the fight.

The instant they made their move, he would seize control of all the porcelain dolls underground as quickly as possible, along with any other puppets she might use.

The puppets you molded, the formation you laid out—for a brief moment, they’ll belong to me.

Xu Yijin had already completed the first layer of the formation. From here on, she could calmly continue building it while fighting.

“So,” she said, “how much longer are you all going to wait?”

Li Zhuiyuan thought: Aren’t we waiting for you?

Even now, setting aside the fact that he was one of the parties involved, Li Zhuiyuan still did not think Xu Yijin had done anything wrong.

If he were in her shoes, he would also choose to find a shield.

Her mistake was only this:

She had chosen the wrong target.

He had received Heaven’s special favor and made it this far step by step. It had never been pure luck.

You may be formidable roaming the world alone, but five fingers can still curl into a hard fist.

Thanks to you, back when we walked the rivers dealing with malevolent spirits, it was actually rare to get a chance like this—to line everything up openly, free of restraint, and fight a proper all-out battle.

We’ll go all out.

You’d better not be too fragile.

The boy raised his hand and slashed it forward, his voice hoarse as he said,

“Move!”

Runsheng clenched the Yellow River Spade in both hands and let out a great roar. A terrifying blast of force erupted, and his clothes tore apart.

All sixteen Qi Gates—fully open!

Shock flashed through Xu Yijin’s eyes. She had to admit that the terrifying force pouring from him startled her.

What kind of cultivation art could boost someone to this extent in an instant?

No—what kind of body could even withstand such an outrageous surge of power?

“Raaah!”

Under the force-wave that burst outward from him, Runsheng’s shout became more like the bellow of a beast.

He charged forward, dirt exploding in every direction. Wherever he passed, a trench was gouged through the field.

Li Zhuiyuan had seen the crater the Dragon King could make with a single punch more than once before, and at the time it had seemed absurdly exaggerated. But looking at Runsheng now...

At the Dragon King’s level, with even a bit of focus on body cultivation, smashing a pit into the ground with one punch... was simply far too easy.

From Xu Yijin’s point of view, it was like a tornado tearing across the earth straight toward her.

Her mind raced through possible responses, but everything happened too fast. At this point, she could only rely on instinct.

She thrust both hands forward, and from her sleeves extended two strips of porcelain. Porcelain, which should have been hard and rigid, now flowed like ribbons, dancing in front of her and circling her body to form seven barriers. Then, the moment she clenched one hand into a fist, they hardened instantly.

Boom!

Runsheng smashed through six of the seven barriers in an instant. The last one only slowed him for a fraction of a moment before it too shattered.

Xu Yijin let out a muffled grunt and used that brief opening to retreat at speed.

She had many ways to attack the nearly crazed man before her, and she was confident she could injure him, but his eyes told her plainly that if she dared to come in close, he would ignore his wounds and trade injury for injury with her.

That was not the outcome she wanted.

At this moment, she finally admitted that she had underestimated this group. He alone was enough to force her to take them seriously.

Yet when Li Zhuiyuan saw this scene, he found himself thinking something similar.

This was Runsheng with all his Qi Gates open, and not just that—this was his first full opening since swallowing the Gu child. With that terrifying boost in strength and speed, that woman had still not been killed on the spot.

And on top of that, she was still holding back. She had not used her puppets, nor had she activated the formation she had secretly laid underground.

Sigh. This was Runsheng’s limitation.

No matter how powerful a body was, if all he had was that body, then he was still too one-dimensional.

If Runsheng could pair it with techniques to bind and restrain an opponent, the effect would be unimaginably terrifying.

A person could not face a mad bull head-on, but they could dodge it. That was exactly the problem Runsheng was facing now.

Still, making Runsheng study techniques would be harder than getting Zhang Fei to do embroidery. At least Zhang Fei could pick up a needle. Runsheng was still the only one on the team who could not walk the shade. Even Mengmeng had learned it already!

Fortunately, that was why a team was a team—to cover for one another’s weaknesses and raise both the floor and the ceiling.

Lin Shuyou first drove eight Dissolution of Evil Talisman Needles into his own body, then drove in another eight.

This time, compared with before, Ah You had gone for an outrageous double boost in one stroke.

Then, enduring intense agony in both body and mind, Lin Shuyou spread his left palm, clenched his right hand into a fist, and stomped one foot down—

Spirit-writing!

White Crane Child descended.

The instant he descended, White Crane Child’s vertical pupils nearly looked ready to split straight out of their sockets.

After serving as a Yin god of the Officers of the Command Banner for so long, this was the first time he had ever descended with the feeling that he had dropped directly into the mouth of a volcano. It felt as though his whole being might explode completely in the very next instant.

And if he did explode, it would not only leave the medium reduced to dust and bones—his divine body would be badly wounded as well.

Ordinarily it would not have come to this. A loss was a loss. But every time he descended here, he would gauge Lin Shuyou’s current capacity as a medium and send down as much power as he possibly could.

The Child was utterly baffled. What in the world was going on?

Hadn’t things always started gradually before?

Then White Crane Child saw the target. Without the slightest hesitation, he completed the Three-Step Praise and flashed forward in an instant.

He could not hesitate any longer. If he did not vent that power right away, he really was going to blow up!

Runsheng’s second charge was dodged by Xu Yijin as well. Once again, she used porcelain barriers to delay him, then relied on her movement technique to evade.

She could only dodge, not exchange blows.

Even so, each time she paid a price for it. Blood churned in her throat, but she held it back, doing her best to maintain her air of effortless composure.

The stronger this team was, the more she liked them, and the more suitable they were as a shield!

Not only could they block danger, they could even stab back at the wolves behind her.

It was just that the battle was too urgent now for her to analyze in detail whether these secret techniques had side effects, or how often they could be used.

But she knew this much: he could not maintain that state for long.

Thankfully, as powerful and terrifying as he was now, he could only rely on brute force.

“An Officer of the Command Banner! We kill, we do not ferry souls across!”

There was no longer any “evil ghost” prefix. White Crane Child had already learned to keep his professional standards flexible.

That sudden voice, along with White Crane Child’s abrupt appearance, made Xu Yijin’s pupils contract sharply.

The trident flashed coldly through the night as it thrust straight for her throat.

Under normal circumstances, Xu Yijin had many ways to block this attack. But when the opponent’s power rose beyond a certain level, ordinary defensive methods ceased to work.

Why was this Officer of the Command Banner not like the ones she had seen before in Fujian?

This medium was clearly so young, so why did the Yin god he summoned possess such presence and power?

Xu Yijin opened her mouth and let out a shrill scream.

A painting of a court lady flew out from her clothing and unfurled at once. A black figure emerged from within it and lunged toward White Crane Child.

The aura of that shadow was extremely cold and severe.

Bang!

The trident that should have pierced Xu Yijin’s throat was blocked by the black figure.

Cracks immediately spread across the painting of the court lady.

Xu Yijin panicked. This was an ancestral object her family had worshipped for generations. Before she set out to roam the world, her elders had solemnly taken it from the ancestral hall and entrusted it to her with great ceremony.

White Crane Child did not care in the least whether the painting was precious or not, whether it cracked or not. He only knew that his first strike had failed, and that made him lose face!

Though he did not know exactly what had happened or why everyone had gone collectively mad the moment the fight began, he knew one thing clearly—

He had to seize this chance to perform.

What General Zeng and General Loss could do, he could do. What they could not do, he could do even better!

The trident stabbed into the black figure, only to be bound and hindered by it.

White Crane Child threw caution aside, raised the trident with the black figure still caught on it, then flipped his wrist and drove the trident into his own chest!

Puh!

The trident sank deep into his chest. He had chosen the spot well. Though it pierced deeply, it avoided the vital organs. But the black figure from the painting now looked like a gecko nailed to a wall, pinned directly to the Child’s body.

With nothing left blocking him, White Crane Child made a grasping motion with both hands. Two illusionary technique-forged tridents condensed into being, and he attacked Xu Yijin again.

And Runsheng’s next charge had already arrived.

Under their combined assault, Xu Yijin was completely suppressed.

Li Zhuiyuan realized at once: at this moment, the numbers were close to overflowing.

On the frontal battlefield, Xu Yijin could no longer hold her ground.

Her next step left her with only two choices: either activate the underground formation, or withdraw from the battlefield and flee.

Li Zhuiyuan judged that she would choose the second.

Anyone with eyes could see that Runsheng and White Crane Child could not maintain this abnormal state for long. She only had to leave the battlefield, turn it into a chase, and stall for time before she could take control of the situation again.

She was alone. She was free. She had no attachments and no weak point.

And in Li Zhuiyuan’s eyes, that was her greatest threat.

Either don’t fight—but once you do, there’s no way I’m letting you leave alive.

Li Zhuiyuan shouted, “Seven, three, five!”

These were directional terms he had taught them while teaching formations, and Yin Meng understood them.

In the next instant, Yin Meng appeared at the position he had called out. She was certainly not as fast as Xu Yijin, but Li Zhuiyuan had given her a leading position in advance.

Yin Meng hurled her backpack forward and snapped her whip.

Bang!

Dissolution of Evil Talismans were attached to the backpack, and under the whip’s strike, they detonated together.

Crash...

Like fireworks going off, a curtain of multicolored haze spread across that section of the field.

To make absolutely certain, to guarantee that the enemy’s escape route was sealed, Yin Meng chose to release the poison at close range, taking an enormous risk.

Under her poison, all living things were equal—her teammates included, and herself as well.

Xu Yijin just happened to reach that spot. The moment she saw the colored poisonous fog ahead, she immediately summoned a layer of porcelain to surround herself and charged forward.

But the hard porcelain began corroding the instant it touched the multicolored mist, sinking inward rapidly.

At that rate, she would not even make it through the fog before it ate through and touched her directly.

What kind of poison was this?

Then Xu Yijin saw Yin Meng herself, after setting down the poison fog, spit out black blood from her mouth.

Yin Meng had only brushed the edge of her own poison cloud, and she was already poisoned. Her body began to sway, but she still forced herself to stay upright and pulled another poison jar from her pocket.

Inside was the recipe list that had knocked her unconscious last time. It was not exact, but following intuition, it was close enough.

If this woman chose to rush straight through the poison fog, then she would smash into her carrying this whole jar of poison with her.

Last time, at the bottom of Old Hag Bian Lake, everyone had guarded one spot alone. It had been tragic, sure, but there had not been enough eyes on each part of the field. Yin Meng felt that this time she was tragic enough.

But the sight of her poisoning even herself genuinely scared Xu Yijin.

She did not dare test that poison with her own body.

So she turned and faced the charging Runsheng and White Crane Child instead.

Li Zhuiyuan used the back of his hand to wipe away the blood flowing from his nose.

The numbers had overflowed.

Runsheng as the main force, White Crane Child as support, charging together, with Yin Meng’s poison fog sealing off the space.

Under normal circumstances, Xu Yijin had already lost. In fact, under normal circumstances, she should already have died.

The only reason there was still any uncertainty was the extra preparation she had made.

Like now, for instance.

Xu Yijin activated the formation.

The moment the formation activated, Runsheng and White Crane Child both faltered for an instant.

Xu Yijin had just let out half a sigh of relief when, before she could finish the second half, she discovered that the formation she had personally laid out had slipped from her control.

The formation had been reversed.

Its suppression of Runsheng and White Crane Child turned into suppression of her instead.

She immediately tried to command the porcelain dolls underground to destroy the formation she had laid but lost control of.

But in the very next instant, she was stunned to find that every porcelain doll she had molded with her own hands completely ignored her summons.

At once, she looked toward the distant boy.

The boy stood there smiling at her.

Defeating her was not difficult.

But defeating her, preventing her escape, and killing her in the end—that was difficult.

That was also why, even though the Qin Clan and Liu Clan had declined in numbers, they still held status on the rivers and their words still carried weight.

Because in those families there was Uncle Qin, Aunt Liu, and Granny Liu.

Once people like them were pushed to the brink, once they truly cast off all burdens and attachments, not many forces could withstand the relentless retaliation of such powerful individuals.

Looking at the scene before him, he had used every trump card he had. The spectacle was immense, and the cost was high—but as long as they could kill her, it was an absolute blood profit.

Xu Yijin’s gaze began darting around.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Four sounds of earth breaking open rang out. The four people from the second floor who had already died the night before were being controlled as they charged toward Li Zhuiyuan.

Li Zhuiyuan did not even turn his head, because Tan Wenbin was standing behind him.

Two chubby dolls appeared on Tan Wenbin’s shoulders. In an instant, ghostly energy swirled around them, and then Tan Wenbin dropped to one knee and slapped both palms against the ground.

The two dolls began clapping and singing.

The four things that had just burst from the soil immediately lost all sense of direction and began spinning in place, bumping into each other.

It was a very high-level ghost-wall.

Tan Wenbin did not choose to rush forward and join the killing. His first task was to guard Little Yuanhou’s back.

Despair appeared on Xu Yijin’s face. She had never expected the situation to develop this far. She truly felt she had done nothing wrong!

Runsheng’s charge arrived again.

This time Xu Yijin could not dodge. After letting out a shrill cry, blood gushed from within her body and mixed with shattered porcelain, forming a wall of blood-red shards.

Li Zhuiyuan shouted, “Watch out for the fragments!”

Boom!

Runsheng smashed through the wall. The razor-sharp porcelain fragments tried to stab into his body, but with a great roar from him, a surge of force blasted outward from within and drove every shard away.

But because of that, the momentum of his charge also ended.

If Little Yuanhou had not shouted the order, then by Runsheng’s own habit, he would rather have let those ceramic shards bury themselves all over his body if it meant he could follow through and bring down that last spade strike on the woman.

Xu Yijin took the charge head-on. Her body flew backward like an arrow loosed from a bow, yet under the suppression of the formation, she could not fly very far even then.

White Crane Child, holding two phantom tridents, appeared at Xu Yijin’s side.

Now she no longer had any means of defense. She could only gather every ounce of strength in her body and cry out one last time:

“I agree to all conditions! I surrender!”

The boy’s hand cut downward in a crisp motion.

Of the two tridents in White Crane Child’s hands, one plunged into her head and shredded her consciousness, while the other pierced her chest and severed her soul.

In an instant, she was completely killed.

Everything settled into stillness.

Only after Xu Yijin’s death did the boy’s calm reply to her earlier words drift across the field:

“You said it yourself. You have to accept your fate.”