Ten Gunny Sacks

At the time, Lin Xiao was rather interested in things that combined talismans and formations, so he sincerely sought Liu Chun’s guidance. Liu Chun, in turn, taught him the formula for his own Origin-Tracking Talisman Formation without holding anything back.

Even so, Lin Xiao was completely unable to find a way in at first.

Fortunately, he possessed fairly good aptitude, and his sensitivity to both talismans and formations was decent. Moreover, he had already been studying the comprehensive fundamentals of talismans and formations provided by his learning system.

With the addition of diligent practice during that period, he had finally managed to gain a reluctant foothold in the Origin-Tracking Talisman Formation.

Basically, out of every ten times he used it, he could accurately locate the target three or four times.

Of the remaining six or seven attempts, a few would point in a considerably different direction.

A few others would lead him in the exact opposite direction.

Yet Liu Chun had praised him at the time, saying that this already amounted to exceptionally high talent.

He told Lin Xiao that an ordinary talisman master would need decades of work to master even such a basic talisman formation perfectly.

Someone like Lin Xiao, who had never seriously studied talismans before, was already capable of mastering half of it through diligent practice in his spare time. If word of that talent got out in the cultivation world, he would be the kind of person who might be hunted down by a small number of extremely jealous individuals.

That was also where Lin Xiao’s confidence in being able to help came from.

Of course, although everyone had ultimately suggested sending Fang Tuantuan to investigate, they still had to ask for its own opinion.

Sun Yigao immediately rose and went outside, bringing in Fang Tuantuan, which had been waiting outside the sect’s main hall, basking in the sun as it slept. He then explained the matter to it in broad terms.

Recently, Fang Tuantuan had been following its master every day and being taught large amounts of medical and pharmacological theory. It had long been filled with curiosity.

It simply had not had the chance to put any of it into practice until now.

Upon hearing that it finally had an opportunity to apply what it had learned, it happily nodded again and again.

Besides, in all its life, it had never been anywhere else.

After the personnel who would be making the journey had been decided, the small meeting was dismissed.

With human lives at stake, Lin Xiao did not delay. That very day, he set off for the Huanyou Kingdom with Fang Tuantuan.

——

Within the territory of the Huanyou Kingdom.

Deep in the mountains and wilderness, there was a massive lake.

The lake glittered beneath the light and was exceptionally clear. Surrounded by towering mountains and overlapping ridges, it presented an idyllic scene of harmony in nature.

Yet anyone who observed closely would discover that whenever birds flew out of the forest and approached the vast lake, they never actually skimmed across its surface.

Instead, they would vanish without a sound.

Then, after some time had passed, they would suddenly reappear somewhere else around the lake.

At that moment, a sudden bang rang out from the grass in the distance, as though some heavy object had fallen to the ground.

“State Preceptor, are you certain that these ten women really can be used to summon Immortal Ji’s clone?” The ruler of the Huanyou Kingdom—who should now be called the former king—looked at the ten tightly bound sacks on the ground as he questioned the State Preceptor beside him.

The former king no longer wore the luxurious clothes he had once favored. One sleeve had been slashed open, mud stained his face, and the arrogance of his former pampered existence had completely vanished from his expression.

The State Preceptor did not answer him. He merely furrowed his brows slightly as he studied the lake ahead.

Around the two of them were more than a dozen cultivators who had escaped from the Allied Army alongside them. Some belonged to the imperial family, while others came from various sects.

One of them was a short, stout Foundation Establishment cultivator who had once been assigned by the former sovereign to attend personally to the State Preceptor. His tone carried a hint of disdain as he said,

“Your Majesty, what kind of question is that? It was the State Preceptor who saved your life. If the State Preceptor says something can be done, then it naturally can. Why must Your Majesty bother him with unnecessary questions?”

The former sovereign glanced at the clan cultivator who had originally been raised by the imperial family. He muttered inwardly, *A petty man who has finally found his moment*, but did not say anything aloud.

After all, apart from the ten sacks lying on the ground, he was the weakest person there.

The fact that he had managed to escape was entirely due to how shamelessly he had clung to the State Preceptor’s leg back in the imperial palace.

The cultivators nearby looked upon this sovereign, who could easily be considered a burden to them, with doubts of their own.

A tall, thin cultivator sent a voice transmission to the short, stout cultivator who had just rebuked the former sovereign:

“Why would the State Preceptor bring him along?”

“Exactly. His cultivation is so weak that having him with us slowed us down considerably along the way. We nearly got discovered by the Allied Army because of him.”

“Other than the title of sovereign, what else does he have? The kingdom has already fallen. What use is that title now?”

“Forget it. Who knows? Don’t talk about it anymore. The State Preceptor must have his reasons.”

The people behind them had all sorts of thoughts, but the State Preceptor at the front paid them no attention.

He gazed at the enormous lake ahead. His pale, tranquil face showed not the slightest ripple of emotion.

A cultivator dressed as one of his personal guards asked him softly,

“State Preceptor, when something happened at the Ji Stone Mine back then, we came here to investigate. Yet every person who entered to search failed to come back out. You said at the time that when the moment arrived, Immortal Ji would guide us. Now…”

The State Preceptor gave him a faint glance. Then, seemingly out of thin air, he produced a black stone statue the size of a human head and held it against his chest. His voice was indifferent as he said,

“Now is that moment.”

With that, he placed the black stone statue on the ground, sat down cross-legged, and closed his eyes. Forming hand seals, he began to chant something softly and rapidly toward the statue.

The sound reached the ears of the cultivators around him, whose hearing was exceptionally sharp, yet not one of them could make out the exact words.

Whenever they tried to focus and carefully distinguish the rise and fall of his tones, they felt dizzy and disoriented, forcing them to abandon their attempts to eavesdrop.

Then, from somewhere within the lake, a stream of black energy suddenly shot out and connected directly to the black stone statue.

Immediately afterward, they saw a layer of radiance envelop the statue on the ground.

It was a black radiance that made anyone who looked at it feel as though they were sinking into a stupor.

It was completely out of place amid the vigorous natural surroundings.

The cultivators instinctively turned their gazes away one after another.

Only the State Preceptor, seated cross-legged on the ground, opened his eyes and stared at the black stone statue. His expression remained unchanged, but his gaze was almost feverishly entranced.

However, since his back was turned to everyone, none of the cultivators behind him saw the expression in his eyes.

After quite some time, the Imperial Preceptor finally tore himself away from his state of rapture.

He rose to his feet without turning around, and said—as if speaking to himself, yet also informing everyone present:

“Immortal Ji has come to take us.”

The instant his words fell, a dark formation centered on the black stone carving lit up beneath the group’s feet.

The formation was not large; it encompassed just the dozen or so cultivators present, along with the ten sacks lying on the ground.