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墨書 Inktalez
Looking at the middle-aged man's hollow eyes, I realized that I was already drenched in sweat. Indeed, what gave me the confidence to believe that my previous actions and judgments were correct?
"Please, senior, guide me." With this thought, I immediately knelt on the ground, my words once again filled with respect: "I am foolish and reckless; I ask you to point me towards a clear path."
"To know one's mistakes and be able to correct them is a sign of having some room for redemption." The middle-aged man waved his Daoist robe. "Do you know the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches?"
"I understand a little," I replied respectfully.
The Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches are ancient units used for observing celestial phenomena, later more commonly used in calendrical systems. There are ten Heavenly Stems: Jia, Yi, Bing, Ding, Wu, Ji, Geng, Xin, Ren, Gui; and twelve Earthly Branches: Zi, Chou, Yin, Mao, Chen, Si, Wu, Wei, Shen, You, Xu, Hai. The twelve Earthly Branches also represent the twelve time periods of the day.
"The basic formation used to suppress the Ba was the Dry Formation. However, as the terrain changed, the Dry Formation gradually began to lose its original order. More seriously, not only did the formation become misaligned, but when I noticed the changes in the Dry Formation, the original blue stone used to suppress the Ba also began to change. The original blue stone was meant to seal the entrance of the Imperial Tomb, but now it has been affected by the Ba and has lost its efficacy; it may even be utilized by the current Ba."
The middle-aged man seemed pressed for time and gestured for me to remain silent while he continued speaking at length.
"Thus, I used the Earthly Branch Formation to attempt to suppress it again. However, during this process, I found that two things were missing: one was the Formation Base and the other was the original Auspiciousness within the formation. The Formation Base was originally represented by the blue stone guarding the Imperial Tomb; however, all blue stones in this world have long been exhausted. In desperation, I could only use Tomb Brick as a substitute. The downside of using Tomb Brick is that it requires a larger amount of Auspiciousness for support. Therefore, I imprisoned Pixiu as the sole descendant of Auspiciousness within the Earthly Branch Formation to prevent the Ba from reviving. As for the Dao patterns on the Tomb Brick, they were designed at the time of creation specifically to prevent tomb raiders; unexpectedly, they became an opportunity for breaking the formation." The middle-aged man shook his head with a sigh at the end of his explanation.
Imprisoning Pixiu beneath Tomb Brick was a desperate measure by the middle-aged man; he never expected that my actions would inadvertently unravel the Earthly Branch Formation.
"Senior, is there still a way to salvage this situation?" Now that things had happened, it was most important to recover losses and find a remedy.
"Fortunately, after so many years of suppression, the Ba's power has weakened considerably. Although the previous Dry Formation has been altered by changes in terrain, it can still be utilized." The middle-aged man waved his Daoist robe again and suddenly revealed a Formation Diagram formed from magical energy: "By combining my arranged Earthly Branches with Tomb Brick on the Ritual Platform, we should be able to weaken the Ba's abilities to a very low range."
With that said, he removed his originally tied-up ebony hairpiece: "This is a piece of Yin-Yang Wood; it can reactivate the Dry Earth Formation and temporarily suppress the Ba. However, it won't last long—only about three breaths of time—so you must seize this opportunity."
"And remember not to use fire against the Ba; fire is like nourishment for it." The middle-aged man warned seriously.
"I understand," I replied solemnly.
The Ba is a type of zombie created through alchemy; attacking it with fire would be akin to refining ordinary iron into iron essence—essentially digging my own grave.
However, right now my most pressing issue wasn't just these warnings; it was how I was supposed to fight? Let's not forget that I was still lying on a hospital bed with my ribs yet to heal. Moreover, Zhang Fan's inexplicable rampage left me feeling uneasy.
The middle-aged man glanced at me, seemingly guessing my thoughts: "I will heal your injuries, but you must subdue the Ba immediately. The consequences of failing to do so will be unimaginable."
After he finished speaking, two beams of golden light shot from his hollow eyes, enveloping my figure. In an instant, it felt as if I were being burned by a low-temperature flame, yet my body began to warm up, and a mysterious power surged into me.
"Go," the middle-aged man said, waving his Daoist robe. A dry earth formation created by his magical power rushed toward me. I reached out and grasped the formation, which then attached itself to my arm.
At the same time, a colorful and chaotic space was drawn into the middle-aged man's body. Then, with a flash of white light, he disappeared. The brightness was blinding, and I instinctively closed my eyes.
When I opened them again, I found myself back at the moment I had fallen to the ground. I quickly pushed myself up and stood.
I was astonished to find that not only had my previously injured body recovered, but even my exhausted spirit had been restored.
It seemed that the middle-aged man truly possessed great powers; he had helped me recover like this. Since I was already restored, I could not let his assistance go to waste. I needed to deal with the Ba matter quickly; otherwise, the consequences would be dire!
Beside me, Xia Liyi stared at me in disbelief, likely unable to comprehend how someone who was nearly out of energy could become so lively after just a fall. But I didn't have time to explain. I tore off Zhang Fan's Daoist robe and draped it over myself before placing him on my sickbed and asking Xia Liyi to keep an eye on him.
Zhang Fan's condition was relatively stable; after his frenzy ended, he would enter a prolonged weak phase, so I could trust Xia Liyi to look after him.
"Xia Liyi, please take care of him. I'll be back soon."
"Okay."
Without waiting for Xia Liyi to finish, I dashed out in a hurry.
Clutching an ebony hairpin that the middle-aged man had given me, I wasn't worried about finding the Ritual Platform because the pin was guiding me.
As I intercepted Zhang Fan, I seized the brass greatsword from his hand and placed it in my seed bag; now was the time to use it.
Summoning the brass greatsword, it floated in mid-air as I stepped forward. Releasing the ebony hairpin, it shot westward; that direction seemed to lead toward the Ritual Platform.
I activated the Spell and recalled the feeling of using the Sword Control Technique with the sword hilt before. I had to admit, the Brass Greatsword beneath my feet was much easier to control than when I was handling the sword hilt.
"Rise!" I shouted loudly, and the Brass Greatsword responded, flying towards the direction of the Ebony Hairpin.
The Sword Control Technique is a method passed down from celestial beings, capable of launching a sword into the skies. However, what I was using wasn't the true Sword Control Technique; it was a clever trick. I was employing the mana flow of the Three Talents Sword Formation, simply placing myself on the controlled sword while also applying the Wind Walk technique to it. So although I was flying, it could only be considered "borrowing the sword to fly" rather than "flying with the sword."
Moreover, this method of flight consumed a tremendous amount of mana, allowing only for short-distance travel. If I continued like this for too long, I estimated that my mana wouldn't last very long.
Right now, I needed to hurry, which was why I disregarded the mana consumption.
In mid-air, I casually untied the bandages on my body. Although I was wearing a Daoist Robe on the outside, underneath I still had on a hospital Patient Gown. If someone didn't know better, they might think I had just escaped from an Asylum. Fortunately, I was flying in the air and wouldn't encounter anyone.
Before long, I caught up with the already emerged Ebony Hairpin while a dirty 'earth dog' crawled out from my arms.
"How's your waist?" I asked Pixiu with concern since we had fallen from such a height together earlier. I had injured my ribs while Pixiu seemed to have hurt its waist.
"I'm fine; I've used up everything you gave me," Pixiu jumped out of my Daoist Robe and stood on the Brass Greatsword. "Where are we going?"
"You left, so Ba will wake up soon. We need to eliminate him before he fully recovers."
"Are you confident?"
I pointed ahead at the Ebony Hairpin. "I should be."
"What do you mean by 'should be'? If you can't hold on, I'll be the first to run."
"That's fine."
Ritual Platform is indeed deep in the mountains, so it is still quite a distance from the hospital where I am. However, now that I am fully advancing, it won't take long before I can see Lin Zhao and their camp.
"This is it," I said as I grabbed Ebony Hairpin and manipulated the Brass Greatsword to slowly descend.
Instead of going to the camp, I headed straight for the Ritual Platform. It was visible to the naked eye that dark energy had begun to swirl around the Ritual Platform, which should be the malevolent aura emanating from the ghost.
"What are you going to do?" Pixiu asked me.
"First, we need to reactivate the Dry Earth Formation," I replied in a low voice.
"Activate the Earthly Branches?" Pixiu asked in surprise. "Isn't it just dry? Where do the Earthly Branches come from?"
It seemed that Pixiu still didn't know how the Middle-Aged Taoist had trapped him here. I didn't explain and directly began to activate the formation.
I placed the Ebony Hairpin at the location of the stone platform that I had previously blown up. Now that spot was a dark Bottomless Pit, with the Ebony Hairpin hovering above it. As I held onto the Ebony Hairpin, the Dry Earth Formation on my arm gradually lit up.
When the formation on my arm was fully illuminated, it naturally detached from my arm and followed the previously laid path of the Dry Earth Formation, returning to its original positions one by one.
Gantry, Zi, Chou, Yin, Mao, Chen, Si, Wu, Wei, Shen, You, Xu, Hai transformed into points scattered irregularly around the Ritual Platform, while the Earthly Branches surrounded them.
"Rise!" I raised my hand, and a path formed between each point of Gan and Earthly Branches, solidified by magical energy.
The Earthly Branches were successfully arranged!
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