Su Fan suddenly realized something was wrong.
He had lived here for so long and had never experienced a signal outage. Why would there be no signal today, and at this particular time?
"Can I borrow one of your phones?"
To confirm his suspicion, Su Fan asked Lin Yao and the other person.
"Use mine,"
Lin Yao's master took out her phone and handed it to Su Fan.
Su Fan gladly took it and opened it, but there was still no signal.
"What's wrong?"
Lin Yao's master asked Su Fan curiously.
"No signal. I feel something is off. Lin Yao, do you have a signal on your phone?"
Su Fan returned the phone to the other person and turned to ask Lin Yao.
"No,"
Lin Yao shook her head.
Su Fan frowned, thinking of the Su family nearby, and wanted to go see what was happening there.
As Su Fan lifted his foot, he suddenly pulled it back.
Su Fan looked coldly at Lin Yao and the other person in front of him.
"I recall your master just coming out of seclusion, right? Where did this phone come from?"
Su Fan asked Lin Yao with a cold gaze.
Their expressions immediately faltered.
"Uh, I bought it for my master. Is there a problem with that?"
Lin Yao argued evasively.
"No problem. Then tell me, where did we first meet?"
Su Fan asked Lin Yao again, his expressionless.
This time, Lin Yao couldn't answer.
"When did you find out?"
"Lin Yao" asked expressionlessly.
"As soon as I couldn't make a call, I felt something strange. Am I trapped in a formation now?"
Su Fan looked around, speaking without turning his head.
"Your vigilance is good. So what if you guessed it? But can you get out?"
"Lin Yao" said with a cold laugh.
"You have ten minutes left. After ten minutes, the formation will be complete, and we can truly enter. That will be the day of your death."
"Lin Yao" pretended to look at her wrist and said to Su Fan.
"Ten minutes. That's quite enough time."
Su Fan said with feigned ease upon hearing that there were ten minutes left.
"Hmph! Bragging."
"Lin Yao" didn't believe for a moment that Su Fan could find the formation's core and escape within ten minutes.
Su Fan ignored her and raised his fist, smashing "Lin Yao" into pieces.
Lin Yao dissipated into a white light.
"As expected, it's an illusion formation."
It seemed Su Fan's guess was correct. He was trapped in an illusion formation, and judging by the other party's words, in ten minutes, this illusion formation would turn into a killing formation, allowing the formation caster to enter and control the environment within the illusion at will.
"Quite tricky."
Su Fan sighed.
If it weren't for the research on formations within the Art of Strategy, Su Fan might not have discovered the problem.
The first priority now was to find the formation's core. Only by finding the core could he find a way to break the formation.
Su Fan was quite familiar with the environment around his home, so finding the formation's core shouldn't be difficult.
Su Fan searched around but couldn't find the formation's core. Instead, he first explored the formation's range. The range was only the area of Su Fan's villa courtyard and a section of the road outside, about thirty meters in diameter.
Whenever Su Fan exceeded this range, his vision would blur, and he would reappear on the other side. The entire formation was an infinitely looping space. No matter which direction Su Fan walked, he couldn't get out, only endlessly loop within this area.
This was not only an illusion formation but also a trapping formation. The person who set this up was quite capable.
After understanding the formation's range, Su Fan quickly found the formation's core. Under the streetlight at Su Fan's main entrance, there was an inconspicuous stone. The stone was not small, about the size of a basketball, and Su Fan was certain it hadn't been there before.
Su Fan immediately employed the secret art of formation breaking from the Art of Strategy. Instantly, the world in Su Fan's eyes changed, and threads of light spread outwards from the stone.
These were energy threads connecting to the formation's core. The ends of these threads were connected to the items supplying energy to the formation's core.
Just like Su Fan used gems to set up formations, formations also required energy, and gems nurtured by heaven and earth contained the energy required for formations.
Su Fan followed the threads to find the gems providing energy to the formation's core and immediately removed them.
When Su Fan had removed half of them, the formation could no longer sustain itself and failed.
Su Fan's vision cleared, and Lin Yao and her master stood there, looking bewildered.
"What happened?"
Lin Yao asked Su Fan, appearing suddenly, with a confused look.
Lin Yao's master frowned, beginning to understand what had just happened.
They had been trapped in a continuously looping space, unable to escape no matter how they walked.
Then Su Fan had suddenly appeared.
"Were we trapped in a formation just now?"
Lin Yao's master asked Su Fan for confirmation.
Su Fan nodded, indicating that her guess was correct.
"Wait!"
Su Fan suddenly noticed something on Lin Yao's master. This was because Su Fan was still using the secret art of formation breaking, allowing him to see things that ordinary people couldn't.
Lin Yao's master was startled but still followed Su Fan's instructions and didn't move.
Su Fan reached behind her ear. This action made the old aunt, who had been single for decades, blush slightly.
Su Fan found a black, wriggling worm behind her ear.
If Su Fan had discovered it any later, this worm would likely have burrowed into her ear.
The moment Lin Yao's master saw the worm, she was shocked.
"Witchcraft worm?!"
"You recognize it?"
Su Fan looked at Lin Yao's master curiously.
Lin Yao's master's face immediately turned grim.
"This is the trick of a bunch of despicable people!"
Lin Yao's master seemed to recall something that angered her, her expression very somber.
Then, Lin Yao's master told Su Fan a story, a story that had actually happened.
"About thirty years ago, it wasn't as peaceful as it is now. At that time, Chinese martial artists and sorcerers from East Asia engaged in a 'Martial-Sorcery War.' The rule was to stop at a touch, to avoid killing as much as possible. Initially, China had the upper hand. However, those scoundrels! During a break, they attacked us sneakily! They put witchcraft worms in our food, causing eighty percent of our predecessors to die. This directly led to the subsequent disastrous defeat in the war. All our predecessors in the Yuheng Realm sacrificed themselves in this war, which also caused China to have a low status in the supernatural world for a period. Even now, in the international supernatural circles, we can only be considered of middling status."
Lin Yao's master slowly revealed the secrets of that year.
"Later, another war broke out in East Asia, causing heavy casualties among the sorcerers there. Then, Chinese martial artists collectively established a rule: sorcerers were forbidden to set foot in China, or they would be jointly attacked!
Since then, sorcerers didn't believe this rumor. However, the tragedies of the following years made them understand what 'unity against a common enemy' meant. In the subsequent years, any sorcerer entering China, if discovered, would be immediately pursued by any martial artist who received the news, regardless of their cultivation level. Within just half a year, no sorcerers were seen in China. To this day, it is rare to see sorcerers in China. Even if they come, they dare not reveal their identities, and can only complete their business discreetly before leaving in a hurry."
Lin Yao's master recounted a true event that had occurred more than a decade ago to Su Fan.