What Was There to Explain to a Dead Man?

When Chen Ye heard Su Chunyi's words, he smiled. "He probably thinks the most dangerous place is the safest."

There was nothing wrong with that logic. Chen Ye had searched for ages without finding him, and had assumed he'd already fled. He'd never imagined Jiang Shiyue would dare to stay put.

But his hiding place was even more interesting. It was none other than the Hengdao Inn they'd visited before.

That saved them the trouble of traveling any farther. Swordlight descended, and the three of them arrived at the entrance to the Hengdao Inn.

Chen Ye glanced at the place. The half-lion statue and the broken blade were still there, but now white funeral streamers hung from them, mourning Cui County's magistrate.

But Chen Ye and Su Chunyi only stood at the entrance. Neither stepped inside.

Lan Shi looked around, unable to spot anything amiss. Unable to contain herself, she asked softly, "What are we waiting for?"

Su Chunyi didn't explain. She simply pulled Lan Shi aside and told her, "Watch the teacher's methods closely."

Lan Shi didn't understand, but Chen Ye had already begun chanting and drawing a talisman. His eyes turned gold.

Chen Ye activated his Spirit Eye and gazed at the Hengdao Inn. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. The Five Elements spiritual energy was stable, no different from anywhere else.

He had come here before to search, but hadn't noticed anything suspicious.

Back then, however, he'd been in a hurry, glancing around only a few times before leaving. Now that Su Chunyi had said Jiang Shiyue was hiding here, Chen Ye examined the place much more carefully.

After staring for a while, Chen Ye finally noticed something amiss.

Everything in heaven and earth contained spiritual energy, which mostly fell into the categories of yin and yang and the Five Elements. Unless some external force stirred it, it remained fairly stable most of the time.

But the spiritual energy around the Hengdao Inn was far too stable. Even the trees planted on either side showed no movement at all in their wood-element energy.

They weren't dead trees. They should have been constantly exchanging spiritual energy with everything around them. However slight the exchange, it should still have been dynamic. Yet after watching for a long while, Chen Ye hadn't seen the slightest movement.

"So it's an illusion. I didn't expect the demonic Jiang Shiyue to know this trick."

Chen Ye didn't understand illusions, mainly because Mo Ci had never taught him. But as Su Chunyi had said, his grasp of the fundamentals of formations was much deeper than that of most cultivators.

Formations worked by manipulating the spiritual energy of heaven and earth in specific ways to produce the desired effect.

Summoning clouds and rain, controlling a flying sword—the essence was the same.

If nothing in front of him changed, then the scene must have been copied from a particular moment and spread like a curtain to deceive the eye.

Something like that would break at the slightest touch.

"Let me see. The Kan position devours spiritual energy, Li Fire burns yin, Gen brings stillness, the way repeats itself—this is the movement of heaven..."

Even if he didn't understand illusions, the laws governing the flow of spiritual energy were the same. Formations couldn't do without spiritual energy, so Chen Ye carefully worked out the Hengdao Inn's original layout. Before long, a smile appeared on his face.

"Not surprising at all. You placed the formation's eye in such an obvious spot. You really took 'the most dangerous place is the safest' to heart."

Chen Ye walked over to the half-lion statue and ran his fingertip along the broken blade. Using the blood from his finger, he drew a talisman on it. Then he activated the Sword Box, sending three beams of swordlight toward the Kan, Li, and Gen positions.

Three cracking sounds rang out. Even an ordinary person could see countless fractures appearing from nowhere.

But formations were formations. As soon as the cracks appeared, spiritual energy rushed in to repair them. At the same time, the blood talisman Chen Ye had left on the formation's eye took effect, shining brilliantly.

The cracks that had been about to mend widened again, until everything shattered completely and the Hengdao Inn's true appearance was revealed.

Dried blood and dismembered corpses littered the ground, as if a massacre had taken place. The air reeked with a nauseating stench. Several martial artists, their eyes bloodshot and their bodies gaunt, stood at the entrance, glaring viciously at Chen Ye.

The formation had concealed all of this before.

Now that the illusion was broken, the peaceful inn looked like hell.

Lan Shi stared in shock. So this was a cultivator's power? Earlier, she'd walked right beside the corpses and hadn't seen them at all. Even the overpowering stench of death had been completely undetectable.

Chen Ye looked at the red-eyed martial artists. They had clearly been controlled by Jiang Shiyue's Charm Technique. But this incomplete Charm Technique did great harm to the body. These people probably wouldn't live much longer.

Chen Ye sighed. "A demon was a demon. He treated human lives as worthless."

The martial artists charged at Chen Ye, waving their weapons. But no matter how fearless ordinary people were, they posed no threat to a cultivator.

Chen Ye shook the Ten Thousand Soul Banner. Countless vengeful spirits, including Yang Chongguang, flew out and quickly subdued the martial artists.

Yang Chongguang planted his feet on the heads of two martial artists and asked, "Benefactor, should we kill them?"

Chen Ye shook his head. There was no time to determine whether they were innocent or complicit, so he took out a medicine bottle, poured out a little powder, and scattered it with a puff.

The powder dispersed and slipped into the martial artists' nostrils. Soon, they were fast asleep.

It was one of the late monk Ku'e's belongings. Chen Ye had collected a whole pile of medicine bottles back then, and this sleeping powder had been among them. It was standard equipment for demonic cultivators, though nothing special—useful only against ordinary people.

Chen Ye had never had a use for it before. He hadn't expected it to come in handy now.

The moment the controlled martial artists hit the ground, a venomous voice rang out from inside the inn. "Why are you hounding me relentlessly?!"

Jiang Shiyue, whose name Chen Ye had heard so many times, finally appeared before him.

He emerged from the inn. His already delicate features had turned even more ashen, making him look like a corpse.

His master had died for no apparent reason, and Cui County had been turned upside down. Jiang Shiyue knew cultivators were involved, but he had no idea who.

He'd seen the message Chen Ye left behind, but he didn't believe a Qinghe Sword Sect cultivator would kill someone and then take away the corpse.

With so many tangled events piled on top of each other, Jiang Shiyue couldn't make sense of anything. All he wanted was to lie low for a while. Maybe after three or five months, things would settle down.

Who could have guessed that even after hiding so carefully, someone would still come knocking to wipe him out?

Chen Ye studied the young master Jiang. How to put it? In his previous life, he'd probably have been one of those pretty young actors who got criticized all the time. It wasn't that he was ugly; he just didn't look healthy or sunny.

With such a gloomy face, how could he possibly be called the number-one handsome man?

Seeing Chen Ye's disdainful look, Jiang Shiyue grew even angrier. Still, he forced down his fury and said, "What do you want? We're both of the same path. There's no need to fight to the death. Name your terms. We can discuss anything."

Chen Ye rejected him without hesitation. "Who said you and I were of the same path, you demon?"

Jiang Shiyue roared furiously, "You dare claim you're not part of the demonic sect? Do you really think no one can tell you're impersonating a Qinghe Sword Sect disciple?!"

Chen Ye smiled and pointed at Su Chunyi beside him, replying with confidence, "This is a disciple of the Qinghe Sword Sect. If you don't believe me, ask her."

Jiang Shiyue spat and sneered. "You think I'm stupid?! You're using the Ten Thousand Soul Banner and sleeping powder right in front of a Qinghe Sword Sect disciple? She's from the Qinghe Sword Sect—I'll write her name backwards!"

Uh...

Chen Ye felt a little awkward. This really wasn't easy to explain.

But on second thought, he let it go. What was there to explain to a dead man?

The Ten Thousand Soul Banner shook, and countless vengeful spirits surged toward Jiang Shiyue. The Sword Box opened, sending four beams of swordlight flying at him. Chen Ye drew a talisman with his right hand, preparing the Immobilization Technique... In an instant, he unleashed every method at his disposal.

Even when a lion pounced on a rabbit, it gave its all!