Old Lady Red Flower had resolved to hole up in her cave and hide from disaster. Before Shi Feiyang arrived, she laid several layers of ambushes in the valley.
Standing on the ridge, Shi Feiyang asked Zhu Changyuan, "Do you see anything unusual in the valley below?"
Zhu Changyuan swept his clear gaze over the valley floor and woods below. After looking them over repeatedly, he answered cautiously, "Your grandson can make out three formations."
Shi Feiyang nodded. He, too, had spotted three formations. "What are they?"
"The ones your grandson can recognize are the Heaven-Supporting Jia Wood Formation and the Eight-Gate Inverted Immortal-Locking Formation. There is also a Heavenly Dipper and Earthly Fiend Formation that draws on earthly qi to lure heavenly qi down."
"Correct. Many people know the Heaven-Supporting Jia Wood Formation, but its effects differ in every practitioner's hands. What is unusual about hers?"
After studying it closely, Zhu Changyuan answered, "The Jia Wood Eight Trigrams Response Formation is usually accompanied by Thunder Techniques and should begin in the Due East. This formation, however, begins its operation from the Li Palace in the due south. For Jia Wood to support heaven and shed its old form, it needs fire, so its main principle should be wood generating fire. Fire qi rises from the south and turns toward the Central Palace, where earth balances the wood and fire qi."
"That is indeed how it works. Old Lady Red Flower specializes in fire. Since you have seen through the formation's arrangement, how would you break it?"
Zhu Changyuan thought for a moment. "This formation's strength lies in lesser yang turning into old yang, with wood and fire generating one another. If we use lesser yin Jin to overcome the wood, her fire will overcome it instead. If we use