The reason the Feng family was one of the Six Great Sects was precisely due to their lineage of Heavenly Masters. The Heavenly Master title passed only within the Feng family, but a single Heavenly Master could take on dozens, even hundreds, of disciples. The extensive legacy and foundation they had built over the years was beyond imagination.
Feng Li was the youngest and strongest Heavenly Master in history.
The original host had been a disciple of a registered disciple under the previous Heavenly Master. Technically, he was a generation below Feng Li and should now go greet him. But the original host had been an insignificant figure among the many Feng disciples—so unremarkable that no one remembered him. Jiang Luo didn’t believe Feng Li would remember him either. Following the philosophy of “the less trouble, the better,” he didn’t bother going.
Seeing Feng Li’s figure disappear downstairs, Jiang Luo withdrew his gaze calmly. “Let’s go. Didn’t you say we were going to try the local noodles?”
The two of them went out and found a well-known restaurant to order Crossing-the-Bridge Rice Noodles. With all sorts of miscellaneous ingredients thrown together, the bowl was even bigger than Jiang Luo’s face. He rolled up his sleeves and, along with Lu Youyi, finished the entire bowl.
After eating in the school cafeteria for a whole month, Jiang Luo finally understood why Ye Xun and Lu Youyi had once been moved to tears just by eating some hot-and-sour shredded potatoes.
After their meal, they also bought a box of flower cakes to bring back for their teammates.
Students came and went in front of the hotel. Jiang Luo and Lu Youyi entered through a side door and immediately saw a group of students standing stiffly in the lobby, all looking nervous, as if they were facing a teacher.
From the back of the crowd came a calm voice: “Which school from Minnan set up this fox spirit altar? Take it down.”
Lu Youyi whispered, “Minnan has a custom of worshipping fox spirits.”
A student stepped forward, red in the face. “Teacher Feng, I set it up. But I placed it in my own room. Why does it need to be taken down?”
“You broke the rules,” Feng Li said indifferently. “Since you know how to worship a fox spirit, shouldn’t you also consider whether this place is suitable for it?”
Though Feng Li’s tone wasn’t harsh, it still made everyone tense up, not daring to meet his eyes.
Jiang Luo and Lu Youyi stayed at the back of the crowd, quietly watching the drama unfold. Feng Li and a few other judges seemed to be inspecting each participant’s room. The students were on edge, terrified of being found with contraband.
Lu Youyi nudged Jiang Luo. “You didn’t bring anything forbidden, did you?”
Jiang Luo replied, “Broke and empty-handed. Got nothing.”
Lu Youyi said, pleased, “Me neither. If I need talismans, I’ll buy them from you. If I need refined tools, I’ll find Kuang Zheng. We’re both broke and clean—super safe.”
Jiang Luo: “…” Your version of broke and mine seem pretty different.
The two figured the judges would reach their floor soon, so they returned to their room first. Jiang Luo went to deliver the flower cakes to Ye Xun and the others, and when he came back, Lu Youyi was watching TV on the sofa. He said, “They’ve already finished the inspection.”
Jiang Luo was a bit surprised. “That fast?”
Lu Youyi nodded and waved a piece of paper. “The competition notice is out too.”
The competition had a total of three rounds. The first round would begin in three days and involved breaking an array. The location was a place called Hubu Village.
The paper included an exterior photo of Hubu Village and a brief introduction. It was a Bagua Village: all the houses and roads were arranged according to the Nine Palaces Eight Trigrams formation. Easy to enter, hard to exit. Outsiders entering it often became lost as if in a maze.
The first round was just the foundation—testing basic knowledge and skills. The rules stated that participants could not bring any tools except a compass.
Jiang Luo looked at the thick stack of talismans in his bag and fell silent.
Not being able to bring talismans didn’t feel very safe.
It wasn’t that Hubu Village was dangerous.
It was that the evil spirit hiding somewhere was.
A month ago, when Jiang Luo had said he would torment Chi You all night, he really had done it—using talismans to torment him nonstop.
Chi You had grown weaker and weaker. The mist around him had gone from thick to thin. The talismans burning on his body fell to the ground, forming a thick layer of ash. Yet his laughter only became more twisted and manic.
“How interesting,” Chi You had said before disappearing.
The entire past month, Chi You hadn’t shown himself. He must have been seriously injured by Jiang Luo. Jiang Luo could already imagine that once that lunatic recovered, he would come back even more insane and ruthless—seeking revenge through any means necessary.
Was Jiang Luo afraid?
Naturally, the answer was no.
This entire month of desperate studying, every night before falling asleep, he had recalled the eighteen times he’d been killed by Chi You.
The resentment and fury in Jiang Luo’s heart surged—eighteen times, and he still hadn’t paid it back.
Chi You was so kind and gentle, how could Jiang Luo take advantage of him?
***
Three days later, Jiang Luo boarded the bus headed for Hubu Village.
Hubu Village was about forty kilometers from the city, and the bus took two to three hours to reach the destination. Jiang Luo and over twenty other unfamiliar contestants followed the staff to the entrance. The staff said, “This round of the competition will last twenty-four hours. Contestants need to find the small flag we left at the array’s eye and bring it out of Hubu Village. Contestants who fail to exit the village within twenty-four hours will be eliminated.”
Jiang Luo checked the time—it was currently 3:00 p.m.
There were eight entrances to Hubu Village. Although there were 180 contestants, the internal layout of the village was an intricate maze of intersecting paths. Once inside, it was likely that no contestant would run into another—they’d have to rely on their own skills to get out.
The staff added, “A reminder: the entire competition will be livestreamed on our internal website.”
Livestreamed?
Jiang Luo pondered.
If it was being livestreamed, then in some ways, it could actually help ensure his safety.
As the competition was declared started, the contestants surged eagerly into Hubu Village.
Jiang Luo quietly followed behind the crowd.
Everyone pulled out their compasses, and within moments, the crowd had thinned to small scattered groups. Jiang Luo took out his compass too, blending in, but he didn’t actually look at its needle. Instead, he lifted his head and looked at the sky.
They say Taiji gives birth to two forms, two forms give birth to four images, four images to eight trigrams, and the eight trigrams transform into sixty-four hexagrams, with endless changes, cycling endlessly. The array’s eye, the core of the Bagua formation, was theoretically at the center, but within Hubu Village’s shifting roads, paths that seemed open could abruptly end. Not only was reaching the center difficult, one could even end up walking further away.
As Jiang Luo raised his head, he saw a golden glow rising from the array’s eye—bright as a beacon.
But aside from him, no one else seemed to see it.
He followed the golden light. Though he didn’t need his compass, he still kept it in his hand—like he was using a cheat code, with the answer right there waiting to be picked up. Jiang Luo had a clear goal, and after who-knew-how-many twists and turns, he was gradually left alone.
On the livestream website, viewers began to notice something odd about him.
【This guy seems kinda weird】
【He barely uses his compass? D*mn, from the aerial view, his speed looks even faster than Boss Qi Ye’s!】
【? That’s a bit of a stretch, isn’t it】
【Wuwuwu pretty boy brother mwah, his face is so lickable】
【I’m gonna lick my screen to death! I declare I’m living in this livestream now!】
【Help me, who is he, so handsome, I’m crying】
【Hey, this is a proper website, tone it down. But seriously, this guy’s weird. He really isn’t using his compass. Unreal. The real experts are always hidden among the people】
【I don’t get it—how do you walk through a Bagua array without looking at the compass?】
In the judges’ room, several judges had also noticed Jiang Luo.
Feng Li quickly scanned through all the camera feeds before slowly settling on the black-haired youth.
The young man walked steadily through the winding paths. His mind was calm, and he occasionally glanced at the sky. If a path was blocked, he simply turned back and adjusted course—amazingly, he never once lost his sense of direction, and steadily moved closer to the array’s eye.
Zhuo Zhengyu, head of the Zhuo family and standing beside Feng Li, had caught onto something. He leaned in and said quietly, “That young man is impressive.”
He glanced at his own daughter again—Zhuo Zhongqiu wasn’t slow, but when it came to how they were searching for the formation core, the difference in method was stark. Compared to the young man, his daughter was left far behind.
Feng Li responded with a low hum, his tone calm. “His talent is decent.”
“Zhongqiu mentioned this boy to me before,” Zhuo Zhengyu said. “He’s one of your Feng family disciples, isn’t he?”
Feng Li raised an eyebrow in mild surprise, then let a faint smile appear on his lips. “So he’s from the Feng family.”
By the time Jiang Luo had covered a third of the path, it was already 6 p.m. He decided to find a place to rest and have dinner.
There happened to be a simple rest pavilion nearby. Jiang Luo set his things down and pulled a self-heating meal out of his bag. Just as the meal was nearly ready, a boy walked over.
He had sharp features, a rebellious aura, and visible irritation on his face. Holding a compass in his hand, he froze when he saw Jiang Luo, then frowned—as if he couldn’t believe someone had gotten there before him.
“Who are you?” the boy asked, his tone unfriendly.
Jiang Luo turned his head and gave him a glance, but couldn’t be bothered to speak. He calmly retracted his gaze.
【Ahhh brother beauty, that look hit me right in the heart!】
【Pulling up a stool and munching watermelon—come on, fight fight fight】
【Holy cr*p, they actually ran into each other. With Qi Ye’s temper, this is gonna blow up for sure. A fight’s inevitable.】
Being looked at so casually only added fuel to Qi Ye’s already bad mood. He almost exploded on the spot. Suppressing his temper, he said, “Hey, I asked you a question.”
The self-heating meal finished cooking. Jiang Luo snapped apart his chopsticks and opened the lid, ready to eat.
The aroma drifted over on the breeze and hit Qi Ye’s nose. Just as he was about to blow up, his stomach let out a loud, humiliating growl.
His face froze, clearly embarrassed, and he awkwardly stood there in silence.
Jiang Luo acted like he didn’t exist and leisurely finished his meal. When he was done, he tidied up the trash—no point in littering.
By then, the sun had already set. Jiang Luo looked up at the darkening sky and decided to stay the night in the pavilion, planning to set out again early in the morning.
If he kept walking and lost sight of the golden light in the dark, then all of today’s efforts would be wasted.
Unexpectedly, that hot-tempered boy also entered the pavilion—seemed he had the same plan.
The two of them minded their own business and managed to coexist peacefully, much to the disappointment of the livestream chat that had hoped for drama. But suddenly, a comment popped up that caught everyone’s attention:
【Oh my god… Look at brother beauty’s shadow—something’s moving in it, isn’t it?】
On the livestream, Jiang Luo’s slanted shadow on the ground was subtly and slowly writhing.
As if some terrifying creature was hiding within it, ghostly claws at the edges of the shadow faintly gathered and began creeping toward the tip of Jiang Luo’s foot.
Unaware, Jiang Luo remained focused—calmly reading a book titled Detailed Guide to the Compass—
Author’s Note:
Gong: I heard Feng Li only appeared once and someone already thinks he’s better looking than me?
Gong: Sinister grin :-D
