Chapter 101: A Game Within a Game

The Seven-Fold Northern Baleful Formation. When such a formation turns disastrous, it can extinguish all natural forms and wither away one’s store of accumulated virtue.

Old Man Huo was about to take a step when a sudden sense of alarm surged within him—a dark premonition gripped his heart.

"No!"

Before the word had even left his lips, it was too late. An unnatural phenomenon had already manifested in the sky. The entire ground shuddered violently, and the three large locust trees at the village entrance snapped in half with a deafening crack. The water in the small river outside the village began to churn as if boiling; fish leaped frantically from the depths, only to perish against the rocky banks.

Cui Yue lost his footing and nearly collapsed to the ground. His first thought was an earthquake. His second thought was that this was truly an earthquake.

"Earthquake! Run! Everyone, get out of your houses!" Cui Yue shouted, but just as he was about to call out again, a large hand grabbed him from behind.

Old Man Huo’s brow was furrowed, his veins bulging as if something catastrophic had occurred.

"Cui Yue, we have brought a terrible disaster upon this place!"

"A disaster?"

The statement left Cui Yue even more bewildered. Had the earthquake rattled Old Man Huo’s wits?

"Exactly. We have caused a disaster—a calamity of heaven-shaking proportions!"

For the first time in his life, Old Man Huo felt a sense of defeat, an inability to control the situation. The Feng Shui of this land had been subverted—a life-giving formation turned into a death trap, a formation hidden within a formation. The depth of the calculation and its cold, vicious nature were rare in this world.

"What... what exactly is happening?"

Old Man Huo performed a quick calculation with his fingers and shook his head grimly.

"Damn it! A formation within a formation?"

"What kind of formation within a formation?"

Seeing the change in Old Man Huo’s complexion, Cui Yue’s heart sank. If something could make Old Man Huo feel this troubled, it was certainly no trivial matter.

***

"I only calculated that someone had laid the Seven-Fold Northern Baleful Formation in Shangwan Village, so I told you to dig up all the baleful objects to break its foundation. I thought that by damaging its roots, the formation would be undone. But who could have known that this was exactly what the orchestrator intended? The Seven-Fold Northern Baleful Formation was merely a decoy. The true danger lies in the Eight-Omen Fatal Pulse Formation hidden behind it!"

As the saying goes: when the Seven Baleful spirits perish, the Eight Omens are born!

It turned out that the person who set the trap never intended for the Seven-Fold Northern Baleful Formation to be the primary design. Instead, they used the seven baleful objects as a lure to gather Yin energy, using the seven to manifest the eight gates, altering the destiny of the land. The Seven Baleful formation was merely the shell; in reality, it was the Eight-Omen Fatal Pulse!

In other words, the very day the Seven Baleful formation was broken was the moment the Eight-Omen Fatal Pulse was activated.

"The Eight-Omen Fatal Pulse?"

Cui Yue now felt a subtle shift; the evil aura in the village had not diminished with the breaking of the previous formation—it had grown even more stifling.

"Indeed. I have only heard of the Eight-Omen Fatal Pulse; I have never seen it with my own eyes. But the phenomena we are witnessing today are undoubtedly the work of that formation!"

"What will happen to us?" Cui Yue asked anxiously.

"What will happen? In an Eight-Omen Fatal Pulse, all eight gates are gates of death. All vitality is severed. The entire village will be refined alive, transformed into a 'corpse-nurturing ground.' That is why it is called a fatal pulse!"

Cui Yue was struck with horror. How could this be? He and Old Man Huo had acted with good intentions, only to make things worse. The situation could not be more dire. He had heard that doctors often grew cynical, wishing for death to claim their patients, but he never expected Old Man Huo to be so unreliable. His earlier admiration for the man had vanished, replaced by a deep sense of guilt for having brought further misfortune upon the already suffering people of Shangwan.

The weather shifted unpredictably. The once clear, sunny sky turned murky and overcast. The Feng Shui of Shangwan Village had undergone a drastic transformation; the river that previously flowed through the village now split its course, and the change in the riverbed was an omen of grave misfortune.

Cui Yue suddenly recalled something and ran back to the spot where he had dug up the headless crow. He opened the pit once more.

"Hiss!"

A strange sight met his eyes: a plume of black smoke surged into the sky, and from the earthen pit, thick, foul-smelling black tar began to seep out.

"This... what is this?" Cui Yue gasped.

"The life force is broken. The filthy matter formed by the stagnant Yin energy has polluted the pulse of Shangwan Village. This place is destined to become a living hell—that is why it is called a fatal pulse!"

The sight caused the already panicked villagers to erupt into chaos. Voices rose in protest, and some grabbed hoes and wooden clubs, threatening to beat the two men. As the villagers' emotions reached a boiling point, ready to explode, Old Man Huo suddenly raised a hand and slammed his fist against a heavy stone millstone.

"Boom!"

The incredibly hard millstone was shattered, a fist-sized crater punched clean through it!

The villagers, who had been shouting and questioning them, fell silent instantly. The entire area went deathly quiet. This single strike from Old Man Huo had stunned them all.

"Do not panic. I will take full responsibility for this matter. I swear that I will help you all rid yourselves of this curse once and for all. Please, trust me! If I break this oath, let me meet the same fate as this stone!"

The fearful villagers whispered among themselves, none of them certain whether they should believe the two men. But there was no turning back. Ever since the previous geomancers had come and met their ends, no practitioner with any real ability dared to visit this place; after all, one’s own life was more precious than anything.

"Husband, do you think they can do it? They don’t look like reliable men."

"Shut up! What would a woman know? Go, go home and cook; don't add to the trouble here."

"Brother Yang, I don't think we should trust them. Let’s hold a ritual tonight and offer sacrifices to the Opera Lady (the green-clad female ghost) properly. Perhaps then we can have peace again."

"Yes, yes, Brother Liu is right. If we mourn with sincerity, the Opera Lady will surely show mercy."

"Exactly! I was against what they did in the first place. Who are these wandering vagabonds posing as geomancers? They should have just stuck to burying the dead, but no, they had to meddle. Now look, they've angered the Lady..."

Before long, Cui Yue was on the verge of being driven mad by these whispers. The ignorant villagers were actually hoping to appease the green-clad female ghost in exchange for what they delusionally called "peace."

"Enough! Silence! If the sky falls, those who are tall will hold it up. If you have nothing better to do, disperse! Go on, disperse!"

An elderly man with graying hair and a straw hat stepped out from the crowd. He seemed to hold great prestige among the villagers, and the crowd immediately quieted down.

"You must be Master Huo. I am surnamed Chen, the village secretary. I would like to have a few words with you two."

Old Man Huo gave a faint nod.

"I assume you both know what has happened in the village, so I will not hide anything. Ever since the Opera Lady arrived, we have known no peace. Chen Bailian has a great-uncle named Chen Baishi; he was the one who led the villagers in worshipping the Opera Lady, buying us a miserable existence."

"That’s right, Secretary Chen. We heard from Granny Chen. It is precisely because of this that we must break the curse and allow the villagers to live normal lives."

"Chen Baishi is my grandfather!"

Cui Yue’s eyes widened. He never imagined that the old man before him was actually the nephew of Chen Bailian.