Traces of a Formation

After traveling for about two hours, the Spirit Stone in Li Yuan's hand dimmed another shade.

The efficiency of absorbing spiritual energy while marching was indeed low, but something was better than nothing, and his cultivation had improved ever so slightly.

Moreover, as they headed deeper into the mountains, Li Yuan could feel that the surrounding spiritual energy was growing denser.

Fang He, walking to Li Yuan's left, suddenly turned his head and lowered his voice.

"Beneath that crooked pine ahead, there are claw marks."

Li Yuan followed Fang He's gaze. A half-withered pine stood slanted in a crack between shale slabs. The earth around its roots had been dug up, exposing several deep claw marks.

"Iron-Spine Hyenas." Fang He withdrew his gaze after a glance. "Signs of digging a den, but it left before finishing. Something must have scared it away."

Li Yuan nodded without replying.

Fang He had spent several years in the Monster Hunting Squad, and his ability to identify Demonic Beast traces was more meticulous than what He Shou had taught them.

Along the way, Fang He had already pointed out several details Li Yuan had missed—bark rubbed off a tree trunk, slime traces left behind a boulder, shallow depressions pressed into the grass.

"Which area did you used to run?" Li Yuan asked.

"The outer reaches of the southern Yuanheng Mountains, much farther in than this." Fang He rolled his shoulders.

"The terrain there is more complicated, with plenty of ravines and a wider variety of Demonic Beasts. But the pattern is about the same—the deeper you go, the denser the spiritual energy, and the higher the Demonic Beasts' grades."

As the two spoke, a sharp command came from ahead.

The party stopped.

The Guard Squad captain did not turn around. He merely shifted slightly and said something to a Wang Family member beside him.

That Wang Family member nodded and led two guards around the right side of the party.

A moment later, two muffled thuds sounded from the bushes to the right, followed by the shrieks of Demonic Beasts. They quickly fell silent.

The Wang Family member returned with the two guards, bloodstains on their clothes but no change in their expressions.

"Two Low-grade First-Order, one First-Order Mid-Grade. Taken care of."

The Guard Squad captain gave a grunt, raised his hand, and waved forward. The party continued on.

From start to finish, it had taken less than twenty breaths.

Similar incidents happened twice more along the way.

The first was a lone Iron-Spine Hyena, First-Order Mid-Grade, lying behind a large boulder ahead of their route. After the vanguard guards spotted it, two of them joined forces and dealt with it in less than ten breaths.

The second was four Horned Lizards, all Low-grade First-Order, crammed into a rock crevice. A Wang Family member flung out a spell, and several cries came from within the crevice. All four Horned Lizards died.

The Demonic Beast corpses were roughly dismantled. Valuable materials were taken, while the rest was left where it lay.

In the afternoon, the party took a brief rest on a patch of high ground.

Fang He squatted nearby and spoke around a mouthful of food.

"Don't you think this trip doesn't look like we came to clear out Demonic Beasts?"

Li Yuan glanced at him.

Fang He swallowed, then jerked his chin toward the Guard Squad captain at the front.

"If they were clearing Demonic Beasts, they wouldn't take a route like this. The areas where Demonic Beasts gather are in the lowlands and ravines, but he's been circling around them. Every Demonic Beast we've encountered has simply crossed our path—we haven't actively gone looking for any."

Fang He lowered his voice.

"And look at those Wang Family people. They've been watching the terrain all along, not the Demonic Beasts. It seems like they're searching for something."

Li Yuan spoke with Fang He a little longer. When the rest ended, the party continued onward.

The afternoon route was harder than the morning's. The terrain suddenly rose steeply, and the shale fragments beneath their feet gave way to whole slabs of gray-black rock, their surfaces covered in moss and slick with moisture.

The traces of Demonic Beasts grew increasingly dense.

Claw prints on the ground, scratches on tree trunks, droppings left in cracks between rocks—something could be seen nearly every few dozen steps.

Within the Spirit Detection Disk's sensing range, the frequency of spiritual energy fluctuations was also increasing.

Sometimes, they could sense three or four clusters of fluctuations at once, scattered in different directions around the party, as though something had drawn them in.

Yet most Demonic Beasts did not approach. Once they sensed the party's presence from afar, they avoided it.

More than thirty cultivators gathered together created overlapping auras, which in itself was enough to intimidate low-grade Demonic Beasts.

Occasionally, one too blind to know better would charge into them, only to be dealt with by the vanguard guards in a few moves.

The party had to stop from time to time to rest and recover their spiritual power.

Taking advantage of one such break, Li Yuan drained the spiritual energy from the Spirit Stone in his hand and replaced it with a fresh one.

[Spirit Convergence (White) Permanent Progress: 4/10]

By dusk, the party arrived at a relatively open valley.

The valley was not large, enclosed by mountains on three sides with only a gap to the south. Its floor was a level stretch of gravel, with a dried-up streambed running through the middle and several thick old trees growing on either side.

The Guard Squad captain stopped at the mouth of the valley, his gaze sweeping across the entire place before he waved behind him.

The party spread out and each found a place to set down their equipment.

Li Yuan's squad was assigned a spot on the eastern side of the valley, close to the mountain wall.

Two Wang Family members did not rest. Instead, they followed the dry streambed deeper into the valley.

The Guard Squad captain stood at the valley entrance and watched them depart. Then he turned and walked toward the Camp, his expression blank.

After roughly half an hour, the two Wang Family members returned.

One of them now carried several pieces of broken stone. Faint, extremely fine patterns could be seen on the fractured surfaces, clearly not naturally formed.

The two walked directly to the Guard Squad captain and handed him the stones.

The Guard Squad captain accepted them, held them up before his eyes for several breaths, and his brow twitched slightly.

Then the three gathered together and began talking in low voices.

Li Yuan was not close enough to hear the specifics, but he saw the Guard Squad captain's expression shift from calm to grave, then from grave into an emotion Li Yuan could not name.

It did not look like worry. It was more as if something had been confirmed.

Their discussion continued for a while. The Guard Squad captain tucked the broken stones into his sleeve and walked toward the Camp.

He Shou squatted on the ground for several breaths before hesitantly getting up to follow him.

When he returned, his expression was somewhat strange.

"What is it?" Li Yuan asked.

He Shou sat down beside Li Yuan and the others, lowering his voice.

"They found some traces deep in the streambed."

He Shou paused, choosing his words carefully.

"Traces of a formation."

Li Yuan's gaze sharpened slightly.

"An abandoned one," He Shou added. "Those Wang Family people said there are traces of formation Spirit Patterns remaining in the rock beneath the streambed. The formation has already failed, but the patterns are still there."

"Judging from the structure of the remaining Spirit Patterns, it wasn't a small formation. It covered a considerable area. And there is more than one place—they also found similar traces on the rock walls on both sides of the streambed. They were in different positions, which means there may be remnants of other formations nearby."

He Shou drew a circle on the ground with his finger.

"Captain Wang's intention is to split into teams and investigate tomorrow. He'll lead the Wang Family people and one squad deeper in, while the rest split into several groups to search this area for other formation traces."

"Our squad will keep the same composition as before and be responsible for the area from the east to the north of the valley."

Leaning against the mountain wall, Li Yuan did not respond immediately.

An abandoned formation, covering a considerable area, and more than one location.

Someone had set up formations in this area before.

Fang He edged over from the side. He had clearly heard as well.

"A formation? Did people live here before?"

He Shou shook his head.

"Not sure. The Wang Family people didn't say much, and Captain Wang didn't explain."

He Shou leaned his long saber against the rock beside him and closed his eyes.

"We'll talk about tomorrow when tomorrow comes. Rest first."

The Camp gradually quieted down. Only the guards on night watch paced back and forth at the valley entrance.

Li Yuan sat cross-legged beneath the mountain wall, holding a Spirit Stone as spiritual power slowly flowed into the Spirit Gathering Ring.

The spiritual energy within the Yuanheng Mountains was more than a level denser than in the outer reaches, and absorption was somewhat faster as well.

With the boost from the Spirit Convergence trait, Li Yuan felt it even more clearly.

[Spirit Convergence (White) Permanent Progress: 5/10]