“Why would I be scared?” Cen Baihe laughed softly, “It’s quite pretty. “
The corners of Qi Yan’s mouth twitched. He felt strange to be complimented on his foot.
“Master Qi, are you ready?” Zhao Zhicheng knocked on the door, feeling anxious and cautious, as if he was worried that knocking on the door would upset Qi Yan.
Putting on his slippers, Qi Yan opened the door and said to Zhao Zhicheng, “I’ll come down in a bit, how are the others doing?”
Zhao Zhicheng noticed that Qi Yan was still wearing pajamas, and said a little embarrassedly, “I’m sorry for disturbing you. The car is ready outside. After all of you had breakfast, we will go into the mountains.”
“Okay.” Qi Yan tugged on his pajamas, “Baihe and ll will be down after changing.”
Only then did Zhao Zhicheng see Cen Baihe standing behind Qi Yan, and nodded at him with a smile. Cen Baihe nodded slightly as a courtesy, “Master Qi, Mr. Cen, then I will not disturb you.” Turning his head, his tight shoulders loosened. He thought that Mr. Cen’s face didn’t look very good and wondered if he didn’t sleep well last night.
At ten o’clock in the morning on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month, the members of the Special Task Force led nine highly respected masters into the mountains. All other personnel were not allowed to approach the mountain. A reporter who heard the news was stopped by the local police as soon as they entered Wangxiang Town. They were told it was for their safety.
In such a remote small town, anyone who came in was easily noticed, so the mountains were tightly guarded. They were not even allowed to pass through the mountains. A reporter complained that he had freedom of the press, but was yelled at by an officer to return.
“This matter involves national military secrets. If anyone wants to risk their lives to sneak in, then we have reason to suspect that you may be spies sent by foreign forces.”
When it came to the country’s politics, no one dared to mess around. After seeing the machine guns, the reporter, who had been making more noise than anyone else, suddenly lost a lot of his arrogance. In the end, they only looked at each other and waited for the army to defuse all the bombs, so that they could take a photo for the front page.
Qi Yan and the others didn’t know about the commotion outside, they were still in a jeep that was shaking like a bumper car, heading to the top of the mountain where the center of the formation was.
“Do you know why I told you not to eat too much in the morning now?” Qi Yan stepped out of the car, barely able to suppress the feeling in his stomach. He looked at the masters who vomited in sympathy, and took a few bottles of water from the car and handed them to the masters.
“You don’t have to follow us anymore,” Qi Yan turned to Zhao Zhicheng and said, “Everyone who has nothing to do with this should retreat and don’t get close to these mountains. Besides, if someone insists on entering the mountain, don’t chase after them, and don’t follow them here.”
“Master Qi…” Zhao Zhicheng felt nervous after hearing that, “Is there anything else we need to do?”
“No,” Qi Yan lowered his eyelids, “Just come pick us up for breakfast after six o’clock tomorrow morning.”
“Yes.” Zhao Zhicheng looked at these masters. His feet felt as heavy as a thousand catties, and he couldn’t take the step to leave.
“Okay, hurry up,” Master Xu patted some dust away, “Don’t disturb our ceremony.”
“Yes.” Zhao Zhicheng gritted his teeth, got into the car with Gao Ronghua and his other colleagues, leaving this place filled with evil spirits.
“Captain, will they succeed?” Xiang Qiang turned back and looked behind the car, only to see the rugged mountain road and the dense bushes on both sides of the road. The cyprus trees covered the whole mountain in green.
“Yes.” Zhao Zhicheng said in a serious tone, “They definitely will.”
“Spiritual instruments!”
One of the masters shouted. Cen Baihe realized that each of them brought their own boxes. Even Qian Qian, who was usually empty-handed, brought a wooden box with intricately carved patterns.
His eyes kept falling on Qi Yan, and he saw that Qian Qian’s attitude was more cautious than ever.
“I, Qi Yan, a disciple of the 23rd generation, respectfully invite the spiritual instrument of my master.” Qi Yan knelt and opened the wooden box with both hands. Then, he bowed three times and took out a robe which he put on his body. The robe was different from ordinary Taoist robes. It was not yellow but vermilion. The center of the robe had a Bagua map embroidered on it and other places had patterns of clouds, dragons and phoenixes. It looked chaotic, unlike traditional Taoist robes.
However, Qi Yan was very respectful when he wore it. Not only did he put on the robe, he also put on cotton boots with green soles. At the bottom of the box was a small embroidered box whose width was that of a child’s arm. Qi Yan brushed his fingers on the box and took out a piece of jade amulet from it.
“Bagua Robe and Xiangyun Jade Amulet?!” After seeing what Qi Yan had in his hands, Master Xu almost dropped his whisk, “You are a disciple of Tianyi Sect?!”
“Yes, I am the 23rd generation head of Tianyi Sect,” Qi Yan muttered to himself when he saw Master Xu’s shocked expression. He hoped that there was no conflict between his sect and that of Master Xu. He always thought that his master was bragging when he said how powerful they were. After all, which powerful sect only had one master and one apprentice. However, looking at the reaction of Master Xu, they seemed to be quite reputable.
Master Xu’s expression changed. After a long while he sighed, “It must be heaven’s will.”
It was said that there was a mysterious Taoist sect in China, called the Tianyi Sect, that was a gift from heaven to protect all living beings. All the disciples of the Tianyi Sect were outstanding, and they were rare geniuses. But the last record about the disciples of the Tianyi Sect was more than a hundred years ago, and no one had seen anyone from the Tianyi Sect since then.
There were rumors that a disciple of the Tianyi Sect accidentally died in war, and there would be no Tianyi Sect since then. When he was young, he read about it and felt sorry for them. Such a sect that had been passed down for hundreds of thousands of years had just disappeared.
If heaven was indeed benevolent, why did it let them disappear?
When he saw Qi Yan, he was amazed by the talent of this young man. He didn’t expect that he was actually the 23rd generation disciple of the Tianyi Sect. At this moment, he was very excited.
“Heaven is benevolent, there is a silver lining…” Master Zhao stared blankly at Qi Yan. No wonder Qi Yan knew so much at a young age
Qi Yan could not read their expressions. Although his face was calm, he was a little anxious. Looking at the expressions of these masters, they seemed to know about his sect. Had his ancestors made a name for themselves?
“Since the Nine Cauldron Formation was proposed by Master Qi, why don’t we ask Master Qi to draw the talisman as well?” Master Shen said, “My brother and I are not that familiar with this formation.”
“Then I’ll take the lead.” Qi Yan turned to look at Cen Baihe, “Baihe, it would be great if I could borrow some of your energy.”
Cen Baihe nodded, “Sure.”
After Cen Baihe agreed, a wisp of purple mist flew towards him immediately. Qi Yan took out a stack of talisman paper from the wooden box, patted the wisp of purple mist on the talisman paper which then attached to the paper.
“Purple mist?” Master Shen was stunned. Seeing Qi Yan’s calm expression, he turned her head to look at Master Xu, “Brother, do you think Master Qi is… a demi-god?”
According to legend, a person with heavenly eyes, who could see energy with their eyes, understood the yin and yang of heaven and earth, and could predict the future was known as a demi-god.
The promising and attractive young man suddenly became known as a member of the Tianyi Sect and possibly a demi-god. This huge surprise almost caused several masters to laugh out loud.
If Qi Yan was really a demi-god, then there was hope!
The Nine Cauldrons Formation was very complicated, and it took a lot of spiritual energy to set it up, which took Qi Yan two hours. After setting up the formation, he meditated on the spot and began to recover his spiritual energy. He had been with his master since he was a child, and had never been in contact with other people in this field. His master would sometimes tell him about other masters and their quirks, but it was all just gossip, and he had never told him how far the art had fallen.
Hence, Qi Yan was like a wealthy boy from the countryside who entered the city for the first time. He was skilled, smart and rich, but he didn’t know what was truly like in the city, nor did he know that in the eyes of the city dwellers, he was like an invincible tycoon.
After recovering his spiritual energy, Qi Yan stood up and glanced at his watch. It was three o’clock in the afternoon, and they had to wait for another three hours.
“Master Qi, have you rested?” Master Xu walked up to Qi Yan with concern. Seeing his rosy complexion and no signs of excessive loss of spiritual energy, he was stunned for a few seconds before saying, “It’s so nice to be young.”
The Tianyi Sect had produced godly disciples. He set up the Nine Cauldrons Formation in two hours, recovered after sitting on the ground for a while. This talent was enviable.
“Since the formation is ready, we should all take our places,” The smile on Master Xu’s face slowly dissipated. He lifted his robe and sat down in the formation. Seeing this, the other masters did not discuss further and they each found a suitable position to sit down and began to meditate.
“Baihe,” Qi Yan looked at Cen Baihe with radiant eyes, “Do you trust me?”
Cen Baihe nodded.
“Remember, don’t move no matter what you see,” Qi Yan led him to the center of the formation to sit down, whispering in his ear, “Your eyes and ears can be deceiving. Don’t look, don’t listen, don’t think.” After saying this, Qi Yan stood up and went to his seat.
“Qian Qian, is it dangerous?” Cen Baihe grabbed Qi Yan’s wrist.
“No,” Qi Yan looked back at him with a smile, “After this, you will definitely live long, and accumulate plenty of merits.”
“I mean…”
“Shh.” Qi Yan put his index finger to the corner of his lips and hushed him softly. He put Cen Baihe’s hand away, and sat down in position.
The wind started to blow.
