Chapter 37 – Array Formation

“You go back.” Yun Xiguang pushed Wu Ailang onto the car and instructed the driver to send him home.

Wu Ailang was not among the combatants for this operation; he was simply there to accompany Yun Xiguang. After delivering Yun Xiguang to the Yun family, Wu Ailang should depart.

“But…” Wu Ailang hesitated.

Yun Xiguang forcefully shut the car door and ordered someone to take Wu Ailang away.

Li Zheng was escorted into a vehicle by the Yun family members, while Yun Xiguang and the two experts from the Special Affairs Bureau boarded another car belonging to the Yun family, trailing behind the first vehicle.

Li Zheng sat in the backseat, with two Yun family members flanking him on either side. He recognized one as Yun Xinglei.

Yun Xinglei had a charred mark on his brow, a wound he sustained from being struck by True Sun Fire. Seated beside Li Zheng, his face contorted with malice, and he occasionally revealed a sinister smile.

The drive up the mountain was long. After holding back for a while, Yun Xinglei couldn’t resist and said to Li Zheng, “Yun Xiguang, you’ve been proud all your life, you never imagined you’d end up like this, right?”

Too impatient. Even if it was an unspoken understanding between them, such words shouldn’t have been voiced aloud; this kind of person could easily fall prey to manipulation. Li Zheng sighed inwardly.

Emulating Yun Xiguang’s mannerisms, Li Zheng lowered his gaze and calmly replied, “End up like what? I’m just here assisting the Special Affairs Bureau in helping the Yun family locate the Crimson Chi. What else could it be?”

“Hmph, stop pretending. You can’t seriously think the Yun family will let you off the hook?” Yun Xinglei sneered, “But you’re lucky in a way. To contribute to the Yun family’s efforts in changing the world order, it’s a fitting end for you.”

An older Yun family member sitting on the other side heard Yun Xinglei’s words and scolded, “Yun Xinglei, hold your tongue!”

Yun Xinglei shot a resentful glance at the elder Yun family member before begrudgingly closing his mouth.

Despite only hearing a few sentences, Li Zheng had already deduced some crucial information from them.

Not only did the Yun family intend to kill Yun Xiguang, they also planned to use his life as a sacrifice to do something terrifying, something that could endanger the world.

But puzzlingly, this should have been confidential information. How would someone like Yun Xinglei, a Spiritbond Master who had been rendered useless, know about it?

If he were the head of the Yun family, he wouldn’t allow such an emotionally unstable clan member to jeopardize the family’s critical plans.

Unless…the Yun family’s operation required more than just Yun Xiguang’s life; they needed to sacrifice many people.

Yun Xinglei’s spirit root had been destroyed, and he harbored a petty grudge against everyone. If the Yun family were to discard Yun Xinglei as they had intended to abandon Yun Xiguang, this man would certainly not accept it as calmly as Yun Xiguang. He might even do something harmful to the Yun family.

Rather than letting him cause trouble outside, it was better to utilize him to the fullest, making him exert his last effort for the Yun family.

At this thought, Li Zheng’s heart sank.

He assumed the Yun family merely wanted to take Yun Xiguang’s life, but he didn’t expect their operation to be so massive.

Under these circumstances, the Yun family still allowed the Special Affairs Bureau and the Spiritbond World to send experts to monitor them. Weren’t they afraid that news would leak out?

Perhaps, the Yun family had no intention of letting these people leave alive.

The team leader from Zhuzhao Academy this time was an Earth-grade Spiritbond Master. He brought along three A-grade Spiritbond Masters with special abilities, one of whom was Ji Xuan.

The two Spiritbond Masters accompanying Li Zheng from the Special Affairs Bureau were also A-grade. Although they weren’t Earth-grade, they were among the most battle-hardened A-grade Spiritbond Masters.

There were only ten Earth-grade Spiritbond Masters in the entire Spiritbond World. This time, two of them directly entered the Yun family’s territory, which amounted to one-fifth of the total force. Wasn’t the Yun family afraid?

Li Zheng wasn’t arrogant, but he was indeed one of the top Earth-grade Spiritbond Masters. Even if he truly engaged in battle with a Heaven-grade Spiritbond Master, although he might perish, he could still severely weaken that Heaven-grade Spiritbond Master.

Despite this, the Yun family dared to let them enter. What made them so confident?

The situation was more perilous than they anticipated.

The Yun family’s estate was vast. It took them half an hour to reach the mountaintop by car. After disembarking, Li Zheng saw a colossal jade array formation.

The formation covered an area of over ten thousand square meters, each jade piece on the ground was capable of storing spiritual energy. One could only imagine the immense resources the Yun family must have expended to gather so many jade pieces.

The formation was circular, its center resembled two intertwined snakes. Two standing positions were carved on the bodies of the enormous snakes, with one person standing at the point where the snake heads and tails entwined.

Surprisingly, there were eight additional standing positions around the perimeter of the formation.

In other words, this formation required ten people to activate.

Seeing the grand scale of the formation, Li Zheng realized that with his strength, he might not be able to break it from within.

But he knew that regardless of the odds, he had to prevent the formation from taking shape. Otherwise, with the current combat power of the Spiritbond World, no one might be able to stop the Yun family anymore.

Li Zheng discreetly pressed the communicator on his collar, sending out a signal for the highest-grade alarm.

Aside from the Spiritbond Masters surrounding the area from the outside, his superiors had also prepared a plan involving artillery bombardment.

Spirit beasts were indeed powerful, but modern technology wasn’t to be underestimated.

There were no ordinary residents near the Yun family, making it the perfect location for artillery bombardment.

Of course, this inhumane method of combat should be avoided unless absolutely necessary due to its extensive damage and potential disruption of the existing balance in the Spiritbond World.

Pressing that button, Li Zheng had already resigned himself to the possibility of death.

The Spiritbond Masters from the Special Affairs Bureau who participated in the operation were all prepared to make sacrifices.

Even the Spiritbond Masters from Zhuzhao Academy understood that once they engaged with the Yun family, survival would be slim to none. They were also indifferent to life and death.

Only Yun Xiguang was different; he was still an intern.

For a moment, Li Zheng felt regret. He wasn’t regretting swapping identities with Yun Xiguang, but rather, regretting allowing Yun Xiguang to take his place.

He mustn’t put that child’s life in danger. Li Zheng worried.

Soon, an even more distressing event occurred.

The communicator failed to respond.

A device capable of transmitting signals through satellite connections, regardless of natural environment, was unable to send a signal on the Yun family’s mountain.

The Yun family likely used some powerful spirit beast to disrupt the signal. Such formidable strength could only be attributed to the current patriarch of the Yun family, that Heaven-grade Spiritbond Master.

Li Zheng’s expression grew increasingly grave.

No matter what, he had to send out the signal before he died.

As Li Zheng fretted, three more vehicles arrived.

Yun Xiguang and the two experts from the Special Affairs Bureau disembarked from the first car. The second car carried four Spiritbond Masters from Zhuzhao Academy, including Ji Xuan. From the third car emerged the patriarch of the Yun family and the Yun family elders.

The Yun family elders numbered six, making seven when including the patriarch. Adding the ten Yun family disciples originally guarding the formation, over thirty people gathered atop the mountain.

Among these seven from the Yun family, there was one Heaven-grade Spiritbond Master, two Earth-grade Spiritbond Masters, and four A-grade Spiritbond Masters. Their combined combat power far exceeded that of their group. It seemed that their plan to intervene and prevent the formation of the array would fail.

Li Zheng’s heart nearly sank to the bottom.

On the other side, after stepping out of the car and seeing the pattern within the formation, Yun Xiguang fell into deep contemplation.

He had seen this pattern before. When he saw the formation, a scene flashed across Yun Xiguang’s mind.

In the image, he saw his father arguing with several others in a room similar to a conference room. A piece of paper lay on the large round table in front of them, depicting the very formation.

His father was angrily speaking, expressing his strong opposition, while the others persisted in their views.

Then, his father stormed out. Seeing young Yun Xiguang eavesdropping outside, he quickly shielded the child with his body, slammed the door shut, and left the building while carrying young Yun Xiguang.

That building was…the main residence of the Yun family.

Yun Xiguang looked at the elders and the patriarch of the Yun family. The patriarch of the Yun family was named Yun Boquan. If his memory served him right, this man should be his eldest uncle, his father’s biological older brother.

Yun Boquan appeared in the memory of the argument.

Yun Xiguang’s impression of Yun Boquan was faint. In his earliest memories, he vaguely recalled being lifted by Yun Boquan.

After that, Yun Boquan became the patriarch of the Yun family, handling matters impartially, prioritizing the interests of the clan above all else, without showing favoritism to anyone.

Yun Boquan was eighteen to nineteen years older than his father and married early. Consequently, his grandson, Yun Xinglei, was the same age as Yun Xiguang, and Yun Xinglei had to address Yun Xiguang as his younger uncle.

Yun Boquan got out of the car, didn’t spare Li Zheng a glance, and walked straight to Yun Xiguang, extending his hand. “Director Li, welcome to the Yun family. Thank you for assisting us in searching for the Crimson Chi.”

Yun Xiguang echoed Li Zheng’s tone. “It’s just part of my job.”

Yun Boquan exchanged pleasantries with him for a moment, then went to find the leader of the Zhuzhao Academy delegation. They exchanged a few courteous words.

Then, Yun Boquan said, “Time is of the essence. Let’s escort Yun Xiguang into the formation. To ensure Yun Xiguang’s safety, we will dispatch one of his blood relatives to share some of the burden.”

Yun Boquan referred to Yun Xinglei.

Yun Xiguang glanced at Yun Xinglei, whose eyes brimmed with distorted hatred, and sighed inwardly. He could tell that the formation likely required two lives to activate, and he was one of them, while Yun Xinglei, who had also lost his spirit root, was the other.

Yun Xinglei hadn’t realized this yet, believing that his unwavering loyalty to the Yun family didn’t deserve such treatment.

While Yun Xinglei was indeed hateful, he now appeared somewhat pitiful.

However, why did this formation require two sacrifices? Typically, one person should suffice, right?

Yun Xiguang gazed at the formation’s pattern, desperately racking his brain, and finally recalled the information related to this formation.

He remembered that when his father taught him to doodle, he drew pictures featuring these two patterns.

“What are these?” asked young Yun Xiguang.

His father smiled. “These are symbols representing Nuwa and Fuxi from ancient mythology. But nowadays, this pattern resembles the shape of DNA. Fundamentally, it represents the same thing — the secret of human evolution.”

“Wow, amazing!” Young Yun Xiguang, not fully comprehending, still applauded cooperatively.

His father continued, “Yet, some believe that the power contained within this pattern can catalyze human evolution. Envious of the strength of spirit beasts and tired of relying on peaceful coexistence with them to gain power, he feels as if he’s begging for strength from the spirit beasts.

“He hopes to achieve human evolution through this mysterious pattern filled with hidden power. Of course, he’s selfish. He doesn’t think about evolving all of humanity; his thoughts are only for his own clan.”

“How can one evolve?” Yun Xiguang tilted his head and asked.

“By providing information through blood, the formation can precisely target kin linked by bloodlines, and with eight experts continuously supplying spiritual energy. Of course, these are secondary factors. Most importantly, there must be two vast sources of spiritual energy powerful enough to alter the heavens and earth as the foundation of the formation. That person initially planned to use the mountain’s spiritual veins as the foundation of the formation, but unfortunately, the spiritual energy of his own mountain weakened year by year. Other mountains are well-known tourist attractions, so rest assured, he won’t obtain the spiritual veins.”

“So, there’s no way to evolve?” Yun Xiguang asked.

His father’s face turned serious. “There’s still a way. Without vast spiritual energy, one can create it artificially. That’s why he has always wanted to obtain that book, wanting to use it to control all the spirit beasts in the world and convert the spirit beasts of the mountain into spiritual energy.

“However, he can’t do it. I won’t help him snatch that book. His ambition will ultimately remain a dream.”

Yun Xiguang snapped out of his reverie, reflecting on his father’s words, and realized that the Yun family had found those two sources of powerful spiritual energy.

The book his father mentioned was likely The Spirit Beast Codex. Yun Xiguang had just seen The Spirit Beast Codex, and although he didn’t know its exact location, it definitely wasn’t with the Yun family.

Aside from The Spirit Beast Codex, what other force could serve as the pillar of the formation?

A plausible idea emerged in Yun Xiguang’s mind.

No way, does the Yun family really possess spiritual energy? And not just one, but two sources?!