Bai Feng waved a hand and Yue Ru quietly left the room.

　　She seemed to be deep in thought when she arrived at Chu Li’s room. She knocked on the door before she pushed it open and entered his room.

　　Chu Li was sitting cross-legged on his bed. As he slowly opened his eyes, his gaze was deep and intense.

　　“Young Master Zhao.” Yue Ru walked over to him.

　　Chu Li smiled at her. “Miss Yue Ru, what’s the matter?”

　　“Those people from the Church of the Bloody Garment will be here in two days,” Yue Ru said.

　　Chu Li muttered, “Let’s just get this over with then. Since they’re so anxious to seek their own deaths, that makes things much easier for us.”

　　Yue Ru gently shook her head and replied, “If this can be delayed for a few more days, our sect will have sufficient time to send more disciples over to provide assistance. Then, we don’t have to be afraid of them anymore.”

　　Chu Li said, “They’re probably aware of that too. That’s why they’re so anxious to start the battle.”

　　“We’re not confident that we can win this battle,” Yue Ru replied with a sigh. “Master is the only top-notch master here, but there will also be top-notch masters from the Church of the Bloody Garment who’ll try to keep Master occupied. When that happens, the rest of us will be no match for them.”

　　Chu Li asked, “Why don’t you hide inside a formation while playing the guzheng?”

　　Yue Ru frowned as she answered, “The sound will be affected by the formation.”

　　Chu Li laughed and said, “Well, that depends on what formation you use.”

　　Yue Ru’s eyes lit up. “That’s right. Young Master Zhao, you’ve learned about formations before. Do you know how to set up a formation?”

　　Chu Li replied, “I can set up a Soul-bewitching Formation. They won’t be able to escape it within a short period of time, so you can use the Musical Assassination Technique to attack them during that time.”

　　“The Soul-bewitching Formation can keep them trapped?”

　　“There’s no harm in giving it a try!”

　　“Sure,” Yue Ru hurriedly replied. “Are there any specific materials you’ll need to set up this formation?”

　　Chu Li nodded. “The best place to set up such a formation is the forest, for we’ll be able to borrow spiritual energy from the Heaven and Earth. However, if we’re doing it in the Phoenix Goddess Brothel, I’ll need jade stones of the best quality, which can be hard to acquire on such short notice. Therefore, we should lure them into the forest instead.”

　　It would be good to set up a formation in mountainous terrain because of the spiritual energy from Heaven and Earth that had been accumulated in the mountains and trees for over a long period. By drawing support from such spiritual energy, they would be able to extract a unique force from the void within their surroundings to create a powerful formation.

　　Meanwhile, jade stones are special because they had been absorbing spiritual energy from Heaven and Earth over a long period. Although the spiritual energy contained within them could not be compared to the mountains and trees in terms of amount, it is much more refined and purer. Therefore, by using jade stones of the best quality to set up a formation, they could borrow the spiritual energy of the jade stones to attract the same unique force from the void and draw great power from it.

　　However, such jade stones were usually priceless and precious items. Even wealthy families would not be able to acquire more than a few of these.

　　“If it’s jade stones…” Yue Ru thought about it for a moment. “I think I have quite a few of those. I’ll bring them over for you to take a look.”

　　After that, she went out of his room immediately.

　　She quickly went into her room and took out a small box, which contained some jade carvings and jade pendants.

　　She never really liked gold or silver things. She rather preferred jade artifacts and had collected quite a number of those.

　　Moreover, some of the rich people who visited Phoenix Goddess Brothel would usually try to gain her favor by bringing some jade artifacts as gifts in order to have her accompany them or even to redeem the women they fancied.

　　She then brought the small box to Chu Li’s room and handed it to him. “Young Master Zhao, will these work?”

　　Chu Li opened the box and examined the carvings and pendants in it. In the end, he picked out two jade horse carvings, two jade qilin carvings, a round jade pendant, and three jade lion carvings.

　　As he studied the two jade horse carvings, he shook his head and sighed.

　　Yue Ru anxiously asked, “You can’t use these?”

　　Chu Li turned his regretful gaze away from the carvings and smiled. “That’s not it. I just find it a pity that such a fine jade has been wasted because of this person’s ordinary carving skills. Anyway, these are good enough. The Phoenix Goddess Brothel is quite wealthy after all.”

　　Yue Ru laughed in embarrassment. “These are just some mundane things.”

　　Chu Li shook his head and said, “Well, these mundane things are very useful items in this case. I’m going to start setting up the formation now.”

　　“Okay.” Yue Ru nodded eagerly.

　　Chu Li glided out of his room and landed on the first floor. Then, he proceeded to place the eight jade artifacts in eight separate positions.

　　If it was any other formation master, the person would have to use a ruler to measure the distance between each position. After all, setting up a formation was an extremely complicated and exhausting task. However, since the Omniscient Mirror allowed him to have a clear aerial view of the place, he could easily measure the distance with pinpoint accuracy in his head.

　　As he placed the last jade lion carving in front of a red pillar, the jade lion carving suddenly shone very brightly. At the same time, the other seven jade artifacts began to shine brilliantly too. Then, as the light emanating from them converged, the jade artifacts slowly floated up into the air until they reached the height of his waist.

　　The eight jade artifacts started to spin slowly in their places before they each rotated across the eight positions. After that, the jade artifacts vanished into thin air.

　　A strange force then descended directly from the sky and poured into the main hall. The thin white silk streamers that hung in the hall began to sway about, as though a strong wind blew inside the building.

　　Yue Ru’s clothing fluttered in the wind while she watched this scene in amazement.

　　Although Tian Luo Sect also had their own formation masters, these people were quite eccentric and antisocial. Most of the time, they would only immerse themselves in their formation studies and would pay no attention to other matters. The sect would usually take care of these matters for them so that they would not be distracted.

　　Yue Ru had never met any formation masters before, much less seen how they set up formations. Hence, this was her first time witnessing a peculiar sight like this.

　　Chu Li chuckled and asked, “Do you find it magical?”

　　Yue Ru sighed in admiration. “Yes, it seems very magical!”

　　Chu Li shook his head. “Honestly speaking, the power of a formation is just like our inner energy. While they’re invisible, they both have a specific nature, so there’s nothing magical about it. When we harness power for a formation, the idea behind it is just the same as how we cultivate inner energy within our bodies, that is, by creating something out of nothing.”

　　After hearing his explanation, Yue Ru laughed and said, “When you put it that way, it does sound very common.”

　　Chu Li replied, “There has never really been anything mysterious about it in the first place.”

　　“Young Master Zhao, when I watched you set up the formation, it seemed so simple. Why is this so hard to master for everyone else then?” Yue Ru asked, puzzled.

　　When she saw how casually Chu Li had placed the eight jade artifacts in their respective positions as though he did not need to put much thought into it, she could not understand why the study of formations was so difficult for most people while it had seemed so easy to him.

　　Chu Li chuckled and replied, “It can be difficult for those who don’t understand formations well, but those who understand it won’t find it very hard to master. The principles underlying a formation are complicated, even though it may seem very simple on the surface. When I placed these eight jade artifacts in those positions, the entire process may have seemed very simple to you. But, in reality, depending on the type of formation and the method I’m using to set up the formation, I need to go through countless complicated steps to derive the exact positions I should place my materials — I have to be absolutely precise when identifying these positions. Otherwise, the formation won’t work and these eight jade artifacts of yours would’ve gone to waste.”

　　Yue Ru slowly nodded.

　　Chu Li went on, “Firstly, let’s just talk about how you should decide what formation to use. You must first survey your surroundings and examine the five elements around you. This means that you should take note of the amount of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth as well as their respective positions. Based on this information, you’ll then be able to decide what formation you should use with the precondition that you have a wide and deep understanding of such formations… That’s just the principles behind formations. As for how you’re supposed to set up the formation, you’ll have to make a plan according to the landscape and condition of your surroundings. This will involve a series of complex calculations. In short, being a formation master is very challenging.”

　　Yue Ru stuck out her tongue. “Nevermind then!”

　　After listening to everything Chu Li had said, she could feel her head becoming numb and she did not dare to continue that thought.

　　Chu Li laughed and said, “You can go in and test its effects now.”

　　“How am I supposed to enter it?”

　　“Just go outside first. When you step back into the main hall, you’ll find yourself in the formation,” Chu Li replied.

　　Yue Ru opened the door and went out for a moment. Then, she turned around and entered the hall again.

　　When she stepped into the hall, she saw that her surroundings had changed entirely. There was now a huge, towering mountain before her. As she stood at the foot of this mountain, she seemed as small as an ant and felt like she could never reach the peak of this mountain no matter how hard she tried.

　　Then, she felt a strong urge to climb up this mountain, so she quickly started to climb it and her speed increased as she went higher. Soon, she would reach the mountain peak, but no matter how fast she went, her distance from the peak did not seem to change at all.

　　As she stopped and looked around to study her surroundings, she saw an endless stretch of jagged and odd-shaped rocks all around her. An inexplicable sense of emptiness and dejection entered her heart, and it made her want to sit down and take a break. At this moment, the world seemed like a dream to her, and it felt as if there was nothing worth yearning for in this life.