"What's done? Nothing has changed at all?" Fang Fang looked around, seeing nothing out of the ordinary as before, and asked curiously.
"How could you, a little demon, understand the intricacies of our Xuanmen secret arts? This is the Gui Xu formation, utilizing the moonlight at night. Everything within this formation is controlled by the one who cast it.
In other words, what you see in the formation now is what Huohuo wants you to see. The same applies to the people inside the house," Nie Ming said proudly from the branch.
"Ah? That's amazing! Then let me see Chang'e in the moon!" Fang Fang didn't act like a demon who had lived for over a thousand years at all; she was more like a devoted fan.
"This is a minor Gui Xu, it can only let you see things in reality. Moreover, the entire formation is controlled by Huohuo, which is extremely draining for her spiritual energy. If you say a few more useless words and do nothing, she'll collapse first," Nie Ming, despite being a bird, clearly showed his disdain for Fang Fang.
"Then let's hurry!" A Cheng was an honest person. Hearing Nie Ming, he immediately gathered the five subordinates he had been treating and resting, and prepared to act against the people in those houses.
Ye Huohuo raised her hand, intending to use the treasure sword formed from the yellow talisman in her palm to cut open her palm and control the formation with her blood. Before she could move, her hand was grasped by someone.
"You've already bled a lot, and it's hard to replenish it soon. The formation is complete, leave the rest to me!"
The one holding Ye Huohuo's hand was Li Mohan, and it was he who spoke. His voice was still low, but Ye Huohuo looked at the person before her and felt a sense of unfamiliarity.
"You? You can control the Gui Xu formation?" Not only she was surprised, but everyone present, including A Cheng and his five subordinates, was astonished.
They believed that their boss was invincible in the business world, with few rivals, and that any difficult matter could be easily handled by him. But they had never heard that their boss had this ability, that he could handle such esoteric matters.
"Controlling a formation is not as simple as activating self-protection when you were in danger. You need to be thoroughly familiar with formations and their casting. You've never even seen it before, how can you..."
Before Ye Huohuo could finish speaking, Li Mohan snatched the talisman sword from her hand. He brought his left index and middle fingers together, held the sword in his right hand, and casually swirled it in the air.
His movements seemed casual, but Ye Huohuo could see that without a foundation in martial arts, such fluid movements would be impossible. Her doubts deepened.
With the long sword in hand, Li Mohan drew a few strokes in the air with its tip, and just like Ye Huohuo earlier, he condensed spiritual energy into talismans. As he moved, the surrounding scenery indeed changed. The trees around them shifted their positions, blocking the view between them and the houses.
From the perspective of the houses, their current location was no longer visible.
"You can control the Gui Xu formation without using your own vital blood?" Nie Ming exclaimed from the side. Although his voice was hoarse, his disbelief was evident.
"And it's the Gui Xu formation I built! How is this possible? This... even Master might not be able to do this. Are you heaven-sent?" Ye Huohuo said incredulously, subconsciously taking half a step back, increasing the distance between herself and Li Mohan.
Li Mohan seemed not to notice Ye Huohuo's movement, his expression remaining as serene as ever.
"You just need to approach the houses. I'll handle everything else. They won't see you," he said, his voice flat and devoid of emotion.
His usual speaking voice and tone were cold, or rather, stern, sometimes even giving people a feeling of being unapproachable. But this time, it was different.
Others who had less contact with him didn't notice much, but A Cheng and Ye Huohuo did detect the difference.
The usual Li Mohan was cold, like an iceberg exuding a chilling aura, making him hard to approach. But now, he exuded a sense of detachment, as bland as a glass of plain water, without any discernible taste.
Ye Huohuo frowned and looked at Li Mohan, wanting to say something, but seeing his calm eyes, she swallowed her words.
She gave A Cheng a look, "Getting the job done is the priority."
A Cheng, with his five men, quickly approached the seven houses. Obstacles kept shifting to block their path.
The strangest thing was that a tree was right in front of you, but as you approached, you found you could pass through it. It turned out they were all illusions, mere phantoms created by Li Mohan using the Gui Xu formation.
A Cheng and his men encountered no attacks on their way. The scenario they had imagined, of being shot at like rabbits, did not occur. They entered the rooms smoothly.
The people inside the rooms only realized what was happening when A Cheng and his men appeared before them. They couldn't believe their eyes, as if A Cheng and his men were divine soldiers who had suddenly descended.
Some of the more timid even knelt on the ground, kowtowing and repeatedly calling them "immortal lords."
Finally, these seemingly ordinary seven small houses were breached by Ye Huohuo and her group.
They brought out a total of thirteen people from inside.
Five of them were injured.
They were also clever. Knowing that Ye Huohuo's group had primarily attacked the Tian Shu and Tian Ji houses, they felt those two houses were safer. The thirteen people divided into two groups, staying in those two houses respectively.
The two houses formed a complementary defensive position, so that if anyone approached one, the other could provide support with crossbows. They had thought of it well, but reality slapped them in the face.
They hadn't seen anyone approach the houses at all, and all their plans had become a joke.
After everyone was captured, Li Mohan flicked his hand. The treasure sword made of talismans flashed with golden light and scattered into pieces of paper, falling to the ground. Everyone felt a blur before their eyes. The forest, which had been so dense it was impenetrable, suddenly reverted to its original appearance.
"Gui Xu formation?" One of the thirteen people blurted out. After saying it, he regretted it and quickly lowered his head, his eyes filled with panic.
But Ye Huohuo had already fixed her gaze on him. "Oh, another connoisseur!" she said, squatting down in front of the person and picking up a twig from the ground, tapping him on the head.
Ye Huohuo's tap was not heavy; it merely indicated that she had noticed him. "Don't hide. Out of so many people, only you recognized this formation at a glance. It seems you're the leader here!
And stop with the useless stalling. Tell me, what exactly are you doing here? Where did you get so many dead heads?
It's fine if you don't say. I know a few ways to torture people. Gouging out eyes, digging out hearts while alive, I've also seen a bone-scraping execution.
All the bones in the body are scraped away, leaving only the skull. The person is still alive then, the whole body spread out on the ground like a pile of rotten flesh. That appearance... tsk tsk. But I haven't tried it myself yet. I don't know if my knife is sharp enough.
Let's start with you. There are so many of you, I'll interrogate each one, scrape the bones one by one. Even if none of you speak, I believe my bone-scraping skills will eventually be perfected.
I should be qualified to be a butcher in the future." Ye Huohuo, a sweet-looking young girl, spoke such cruel words so convincingly that listening to her made one feel she could actually do it.
These thirteen people were so terrified by Ye Huohuo's words that they didn't dare to breathe. The person Ye Huohuo had tapped was trembling like a sieve. Knowing he couldn't pretend any longer, he had to brace himself and look up, his expression one of near tears. "Lady, spare my life. You, you just ask. As long as I know, I won't dare to hide a single word."
"Good, what's your name?" Ye Huohuo casually picked up a stone and sat opposite him, asking. She subconsciously avoided the wound on her butt, still fiddling with her small twig.
"I, my name is Wang Chuan. I'm not the leader here; I'm just responsible for setting up the formations," as if fearing Ye Huohuo wouldn't believe him, Wang Chuan quickly pulled the person next to him. "They, they can all testify! Hurry up and speak, is what I'm saying true!"
A man beside him quickly nodded, "Yes, yes, Brother Wang was leading us to set up the formations here!"
"Is that so?" Ye Huohuo narrowed her eyes, neither believing nor disbelieving.
Suddenly, a cold glint flashed, and Wang Chuan let out a scream, "Ah!" He fell backward. Ye Huohuo was stunned!
"You..."