Formation Termination Procedure
Sunlit clouds drifted across the clear blue sky. Mount Dustfallen was as tranquil as always, except for the joyous celebration for a refreshing reason. There were several new faces, but one familiar face was still in darkness.
After what seemed to be an endless fall, Mu Yu felt his head throb, eyes and chest heavy. He forced open his eyes to see Xiaoshuai snoring on his chest. He was back in his bedroom. He thumped his throbbing head. He caught Xiaoshuai before the egg rolled onto the ground and clobbered him again. He tried to sit up, but his hold on Xiaoshuai slipped.
Xiaoshuai levitated back up and hammered Mu Yu on the head. “How many times is that now?!”
Mu Yu rubbed his head. Thanks to Xiaoshuai, he was feeling more sober. “Must you clobber me?!”
“Must you throw me?!”
“It wasn’t on purpose!” Mu Yu exclaimed, catching and restraining Xiaoshuai.
“Been there, heard that,” replied Xiaoshuai, absconding and bashing Mu Yu on the back of his head again.
Mu Yu hissed. Angry, he aggressively got out of bed and kicked Xiaoshuai, hurting his own foot.
“Well, you certainly appear to be doing fine,” remarked Feng Haochen, watching the duo’s quarrel with a relieved smile.
Mu Yu pushed Xiaoshuai down and cried, “Shifu!” Mu Yu had a load of questions for Feng Haochen, but priorities existed. He released Xiaoshuai and walked over to bow to Feng Haochen. “Sorry, Shifu.”
Feng Haochen scrubbed Mu Yu’s head. “Don’t worry about it. I’m glad you’re all right. You saved both of us. Celestial Prison’s ownership has been transferred back to me. Don’t ever let the power inside you lead you by the nose again.
“Shifu, why do I have…” Mu Yu didn’t know the origins of the dark force inside his body. Anecdotally speaking, he awoke it through strong emotions and through willing it more recently.
“Mm… I think it’s time I explain some things to you all. Your power is linked to a legend from Third Heaven Continent, which speaks of humans possessing elemental demons’ powers, chosen ones if you will. You know I defeated the five elemental lords, correct?”
Mu Yu nodded.
“The truth is the five elemental lords are immortal. After I killed them, their ability to reincarnate worked its magic. After eighty-one, or even just a hundred years later, their power will return to certain elemental demons. In other words, the five spirit lords will be revived.”
“Do you mean… I am an elemental demon?”
Feng Haochen gestured otherwise with his head. “Reincarnation is an abstract concept that I’ve only touched the surface of. The mysterious energy from the wood spirit lord, which is what you possess, is called ‘Life and Death in the Blink of an Eye’. Utilising it at its maximum potential will ensure all killed spirit lords will enter the cycle of reincarnation. Back then, I made the bold decision to tamper with Life and Death in the Blink of an Eye’s power, sending them into humanity’s cycle of reincarnation, thereby transferring their reincarnations to five individuals, one of whom is you.”
“Why did you choose us specifically?”
Apologetically, Feng Haochen expounded, “When the spirit lords were cast into humanity’s cycle of reincarnation, they went on a search for suitable hosts. They joined their hosts at different times. For some reason, you five were destined to die; however, your bodies were compatible. When they chose you, they blessed you with a second life and an amazing aptitude for cultivation.
“I’ve been searching for you five ever since because I wanted to make sure you all grew up as upright individuals and empower you to prevent the power from controlling you. I was the one who put you five in a weird predicament, after all. My plan was to groom you five as humans in hopes of using your human power to control the spirits lords. That would rob the elemental demons of their leaders, preventing any further bloodshed between the two races.”
“Who are the other four?”
“I have only found four of you. I don’t know where the last one is. I tried using Dragon Searching Formation to no avail.”
“Four? Does that mean there are four people at Dustfallen Sect, myself included, who possess the elemental demons’ powers?” Mu Yu asked, accompanying a surprised reaction.
“Xiang Nan, Cheng Yan, Lie Shang and you. Xiang Nan controls earth. Cheng Yan can control metal. Lie Shang can control fire, while you can control wood.”
“What about Ling’er?”
“She’s not one of you. I merely took her in because she was around with Lie Shang since they were children. I never informed any of you about it as I wanted you to protect your secrets. If your own family couldn’t pick up on it, others are unlikely to notice. Humans won’t accept your powers; they’ll do everything in their power to get rid of you five. For that reason, you need to protect your secret.”
Mu Yu recalled Lie Shang flipping out at him and using fire to save Feng Haochen. Cheng Yan seemed to notice his own powers a while ago. Everyone did a terrific job of keeping their secrets – minus Mu Yu.
Feng Haochen cracked a smile. “When I found you at Waterstream Village using Dragon Searching Formation, I figured you’d prefer to muck around at the village. I, therefore, decided to wait until you were old enough to cultivate. I went to academy to pick you up. I admit to tampering with the test boulder so that you’d produce grey no matter what as that would justify me recruiting you.
“After I found you, I tried to guide you onto the right path and help you suppress the spirit lords with your wills. Once you were mature enough, I intended to seal them, removing the risk of them ever influencing your rationality.”
Feng Haochen picked up Xiaoshuai to give the egg a knock, only for the latter to grumble.
Mu Yu had no complaints. He, after all, was provided a second life, and life was something he appreciated. Not one to believe in destiny, he believed the future was in their hands. When he looked beyond what Feng Haochen explicated, it occurred to him his shifu never taught them about formations in case they chose to side with the elemental demons.
“Shifu, will the people in Celestial Prison… Moyun Mountains really die? Will you als-.”
Feng Haochen subtly acknowledged the question, wearing a gloomy expression. “Erecting Celestial Prison is my most regretful decision. The deal with Third Heaven Palace was for me to sacrifice my cultivation as Celestial Prison’s formation foundation and body as its formation key to trap the elemental demons in Moyun Mountains. Their end of the deal was to rescue Moyun Mountains’s human inhabitants. Alas, they only evacuated those they deemed competent.”
“They went back on their word?”
“Moyun Mountains’ population may be small, but that’s still millions of lives we’re talking about. They deemed it a waste of effort and resources to rescue poor cultivators.”
“Shifu, can you remove Celestial Prison?”
“Back then, I had reached a level where I could read the rules of heaven and earth. Given I sacrificed my cultivation, it’s awfully difficult to defuse it. The only hope is for me to die. The issue is Heaven and Earth Formations won’t allow their formation core to die. It’d discover my death even if I substituted myself with a ghost general. It’d destroy the ghost general, revive me and transfer ownership back to me.”
“Is there no way to save Moyun Mountains’ inhabitants or you?”
“There is, but it’s a daunting challenge. As long as I have my original cultivation back, I can defuse the formation. It’s ridiculously difficult to recover my cultivation, however. Of course, you could just kill Third Heaven Palace’s formation guardian.”
“Third Heaven Palace’s formation guardian?”
“Third Heaven Palace houses a secret entity. It is the administrator of all cultivators at Third Heaven Continent. It was the one that established the eight great sects. I don’t know where exactly Third Heaven Palace is located because they’re continuously on the move. The formation guardian is an expert on every formation. He was the one who found me and had me erect Celestial Prison.
I agreed to set up Celestial Prison because the formation guardian promised to save all of Moyun Mountains’ inhabitants. You know how that turned out. My cultivation may be the formation’s foundation, but he is its core. Once you kill him, the formation will automatically be undone.”
“Shifu, I will slay him,” Mu Yu vowed, fists clenched. He had no qualms offing someone who couldn’t make good on his word and was willing to abandon millions of lives.
Feng Haochen sat down in a chair and laughed. “He deserves to die, yes. That being said, though his cultivation is inferior to my former cultivation, you’re grossly underestimating him. If you want to rescue all of Moyun Mountains’ population, you need to reach the level I reached back then.”
That level… was far… very far away.
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