He was reminded of it as soon as Yin Wushu brought it up. The pattern formed by the short Mountain spirits with blood winding through it was indeed very similar to the sacrificial blood formation he had once seen in a book. The reason he didn't recognize it at first glance was that this formation only existed in theory in the public's awareness, and it rarely happened in reality...

After all, this was a major evil formation where lives were exchanged for lives. When this formation was truly set up, it meant that everyone involved in setting it up was dead.

As long as the people setting up the formation died, blood would flow continuously, lasting a day and a night, and then the formation would truly unleash the full effect of the sacrifice. If they wanted to shorten the time, they would have to capture a hundred Yin spirits who had not yet passed seven days after death, with violent deaths being preferable, the more resentment, the better.

Xie Bai recalled the general content about the sacrificial blood formation and understood why they had encountered those short Mountain spirits who had a bunch of Yin spirits on hand at the foot of the mountain.

"It seems it hasn't been a full day yet," Yin Wushu spoke up, clearly having the same thought as Xie Bai.

Xie Bai stared at the seated corpses of the short Mountain spirits for a moment, then bent down and touched some of the blood that had flowed out, pinching it between his thumb and forefinger. His hands were devoid of any coverings just after the black mist dissipated, and there was no trace of blood on them. The dark-colored blood spread on his pale fingertips, then was quickly absorbed into his body.

Yin Wushu: "..."

For someone extremely meticulous and fastidious like him, everything others touched was unclean, let alone this kind of blood with a wet and sticky sensation. Just looking at it made him feel unbearable, let alone directly absorbing it into his body.

With an expression of unbearable discomfort, he grabbed Xie Bai's hand and scolded him without patience, "Stop touching things randomly. I just told you about this at the foot of the mountain, how did you forget so quickly?"

Xie Bai: "..."

Li Dong turned his head away with a complicated expression, feeling that something was off about this scene. Although he knew that Xie Bai had been raised by Yin Wushu, he had never seen it with his own eyes, so when he suddenly saw a scene reminiscent of an adult disciplining a child, he felt a bit indigestible. This was mainly because...

Who the hell had Lao Yin (NT: Old Yin) ever been concerned about?! And who the hell dared to talk to an underworld figure like this?!

Now both scenarios were happening at the same time, which was a bit overwhelming for him.

Xie Bai couldn't be bothered to argue with Yin Wushu about anything else. There was no longer any trace of blood on his fingertips, which were now thin, pale, and clean as if they had never touched anything impure. He clapped his hands together, even though there was no dust to speak of, and looked at the group of short Mountain spirits on the ground. "It hasn't been a full day, but it's almost there."

Moreover, the fragmented Yin spirits that had just been drawn into this sacrificial blood formation would still have some effect on it, even though they were already shapeless.

"I've heard a little about this evil formation, but I never thought anyone would be so foolish as to rush to give their lives to someone else. Could they have been controlled and manipulated?" Li Dong clicked his tongue twice, expressing his amazement as he reached into his sleeve and pulled out three sticks of yellow incense... and a copper basin as big as his face.

Xie Bai: "..."

He had dealt with Li Dong almost every month before, but most of the time he would come and go in a hurry, not paying attention to what Li Dong was doing or planning to do. He naturally didn't understand Li Dong's way of doing things. This was the first time he had seen Li Dong pull out his tools, only to see such a silly basin...

This really damaged the image of Taoist Tai Xuan.

Yin Wushu suddenly laughed, making Li Dong's hair stand on end behind him. "What are you doing pulling out a basin? Are you going to slap me in the face with it?"

"Oh, oh, I grabbed the wrong thing with too many things." Li Dong reacted, stuffing the basin back, " A basin can't be used in this wilderness place, this is better."

After saying this, he pulled out an ancient copper mirror from his sleeve. The mirror had patterns engraved on both sides, and the middle was polished smooth and bright, resembling a pool of oily yellow water in the night.

These short Mountain spirits naturally fell under the category of demonic spirits. Whenever live demonic spirits did something out of the ordinary, Taoist Tai Xuan would inevitably intervene, and this included setting up evil formations.

Encountering such a sacrificial formation, one had to find out who set up the formation and then break it to prevent future troubles.

Li Dong rubbed a spark and lit the yellow incense, sweeping smoke in the four directions of southeast, northwest. Then, with one hand holding the copper mirror horizontally and the other pinching the incense, he lightly tapped the incense with his index finger, shaking off a layer of fine incense ash onto the mirror. His hand was so steady that only a very thin layer of incense ash covered the entire mirror.

Only when the incense ash completely covered the entire mirror evenly did Li Dong put away the yellow incense. He looked up at the extremely dim moonlight in the sky, turned around in place, picked a direction where the mirror faced the moon, and then gently swept away the incense ash covering the mirror with his index finger.

This method was called "dispelling clouds to see the moon". If he had used the copper basin, he would have had to rely on water and rocks to bring out the meaning. Unfortunately, both of the main figures present had expressions of disdain, which made Li Dong feel very awkward.

What made him even more frustrated was that, whether it was because the moonlight was too faint tonight or for some other reason, when he swept away the incense ash on the mirror, there was no useful clue on the oily yellow surface of the mirror.

"Hiss... What the hell!" Li Dong stubbornly held up the copper mirror and shook it from various angles, only to shake it in front of Yin Wushu's expressionless face.

Li Dong: "..."

He silently turned his head back, only to see Yin Wushu standing impassively behind him, looking down at the copper mirror from above, and then chuckled, "Keep shaking the mirror aimlessly, I'll see if you can shake out the truth all night."

Li Dong wiped the copper mirror clean with a dejected look and stuffed it back into his sleeve, muttering somewhat unwillingly, "Actually, according to reason, the moon tonight is enough. Last time, even when it wasn't as bright, we could still find..."

Actually, when he said this, Xie Bai understood very well that his method was usually foolproof and rarely went wrong. Since there was a situation where he couldn't find anything this time, it was most likely because the other party was too special and beyond a certain range, whether in abilities or status.

Regardless of whether it exceeded abilities or status, it wasn't good news at this time.

The more dangerous the other party was, the more important it was to break the sacrificial blood formation as soon as possible.

The book Xie Bai had read was picked from Yin Wushu's bookshelf. In that courtyard, there was a whole room dedicated to storing books, filled with various types of books. Some of the books on several shelves were damaged to varying degrees, and some were even pieced together with loose pages. The book Xie Bai read was no exception. The latter half was missing, coincidentally stopping at the method of breaking the sacrificial blood formation.

He was about to speak when he saw Yin Wushu glance around, then casually pluck a long branch from a nearby tree, and then pull Xie Bai to the side with one hand. "This formation isn't suitable for you to fiddle with. Hold onto your cat tightly, and make sure it behaves, don't jump in without looking."

Xie Bai was reminded by him and realized that the small black cat clinging to him hadn't moved for a long time, not even making a sound, being overly quiet.

Yin Wushu then turned to Li Dong and said, "Prepare for a little rain later."

Li Dong: "..."

The difference in treatment was simply too much.

With these simple instructions, Yin Wushu stepped into the sacrificial circle without hesitation, looking as calm as if he had just stepped over a threshold.

However, the moment he stepped into the sacrificial circle, the entire circle suddenly burst into towering flames, as if all the fire that had been sucked in just now was being spit out at this moment. The flames illuminated half the sky, and the tongues of fire almost reached up to lick the moon directly.

The fire was scorching even from outside the circle, and both Xie Bai and Li Dong could feel the heat rushing toward them. Because of the proximity, the heat was almost burning.

The cat, which had been very quiet in his arms, suddenly exploded with fur standing on end, growling low in its throat, its back arching up, as if it was going to jump straight into the fire. Xie Bai raised his hand to cover its face, pressing it against his chest to prevent it from really jumping in.

He frowned as he looked at Yin Wushu in the sea of fire. The man still had a calm and composed demeanor, holding a long branch and walking to the center of the sacrificial blood formation, then he lifted the branch and began to draw on the ground. Even when breaking the formation, he seemed to be too lazy to exert any effort, and the force with which the branch drew on the ground seemed extremely light.

But with each stroke, one of the short Mountain spirits sitting on the ground suddenly opened its eyes, filled with blood, and struggled to emit a sharp and piercing scream. It seemed to be firmly pressed to the ground by some force, unable to move an inch no matter how it struggled.

More and more mountain spirits struggled and screamed. The dim moonlight in the sky began to faintly turn red amidst the piercing screams. The fire inside the sacrificial circle was swept out by the frenzied short Mountain spirits and it seemed like it was about to ignite directly along the various grasses and trees.

Li Dong finally understood what "preparing for a little rain" meant. He took out an octagonal copper bell, pricked his fingertips on each corner of the bell to draw a little blood, and then shook the bell gently three times.

As soon as the bell stopped ringing, the scattered clouds in the sky suddenly changed color, gathering together in an instant and covering the mountaintop threateningly, as if it was about to descend in the next second. Li Dong's lips moved silently as he muttered a few words, then he shook the copper bell again, and fine raindrops began to fall.

This rain was very unusual, falling only on the mountaintop, as if it had exerted all its strength in this lifetime. The rain was heavy and urgent, mercilessly pouring down on the raging fire, seeming to forcefully suppress the fire, and it didn't seem like the kind of rain that would fall on the Lilan Mountain at this time of year.

The fire that had been swept outside the circle by the "dwarf mountain monsters" was cooled by the rain, extinguished in an instant, not igniting anywhere, and naturally not spreading down the mountain to cause a disaster.

However, the fire inside the sacrificial circle remained unaffected, still blazing.

Thirty-one short Mountain spirits had already gone mad, leaving only the last one, still sitting with its head bowed.

Yin Wushu drew a stroke with the long branch, and without looking back, he called out, "Xiao Bai!"

Before his words fell, the sacrificial blood formation suddenly trembled, the ground cracked open with several deep scars, the force that imprisoned the formation suddenly loosened, and thirty-two short Mountain spirits simultaneously flew away.

Xie Bai sneered, placed the cat on his shoulder, and the black mist spread out instantly, extending nearly a hundred meters in all directions, then abruptly engulfed those mountain spirits that hadn't had a chance to pounce far away.

Xie Bai raised his hand, and the large group of short Mountain spirits trapped in the frenzy of the black mist was pulled in front of him. Without hesitation, he reached out his left hand, which was not covered by anything, and broke through the black mist.

The long screams of the short Mountain spirits suddenly turned into heart-wrenching howls.

Xie Bai's expression remained indifferent as he lowered his gaze, watching the large group of black mist rapidly shrink at a visible speed.

When the cocoon of black mist completely collapsed, he withdrew his hand, and the thin white fingertips were still stained with a little blood, but it quickly disappeared.

Li Dong: "..." It hurts my liver every time I see this.

Xie Bai retracted the black mist and looked up to find that the fire inside the sacrificial blood formation had gradually extinguished, leaving only a few sparks swaying and dying. Yin Wushu casually threw away the branch and, with a disgusted expression on his face, shook out a piece of pigeon-gray cloth from which he had wiped his hand holding the branch repeatedly. He walked towards Xie Bai and the others while wiping his feet.

The original blood formation had now become unrecognizable, suppressed by Yin Wushu with even more mysterious runes, looking somewhat messy. The ground also seemed to crack like a tortoise shell, with several winding deep fissures, and gravel kept rolling down along the edges of the cracks...

Yin Wushu casually burned the used cloth in the firelight, then said to Xie Bai, "There was a very inconspicuous mark drawn in the center of the blood formation, similar to the one in the snow when I found you back then."

Xie Bai was stunned for a moment. "There was a mark in the snow when you found me?"

 

Translator : DarNan