"Formation? What's that?" Lynn Chen asked curiously after hearing the guide's words.
"Is this formation the same as the ones in video games? But I don't see anything different here." Yolanda Fang craned her neck to look ahead.
The stone path ahead was perfectly straight, with no branches at all. You just walked forward, so she couldn't understand what the guide meant by 'you'll end up back where you started.'
"Hmph, formations are advanced stuff. Of course you country bumpkins wouldn't know about them," Melissa Mu sneered coldly, looking at Yolanda Fang and Lynn Chen with disdain.
"Oh, so you know? Then tell me, what is a formation? Are city people really that much more knowledgeable? Go on, explain it to me." Yolanda Fang frowned.
Melissa Mu froze at Yolanda Fang's question. She didn't actually know what a formation was, only that she'd heard Uncle Victor Li mention it a few times. Put on the spot by Yolanda, she was instantly stumped.
"So you don't know either, huh? Stop pretending to be an expert. If we're country folks, then you're just from a small town at best." Yolanda Fang turned up her nose, full of disdain.
Melissa Mu's gaze grew cold at those words, glaring icily at Yolanda Fang.
Evan Lin looked at Yolanda Fang and explained, "Formations can do a lot of things. The one in front of us probably works like a confusion array. Even though the path looks straight, it's actually a winding maze—ordinary people can't see the trick behind it."
You could think of it as a simple magic trick. It's not that complicated, really.
As soon as Evan Lin finished speaking, Harvey Xie snorted, "Simple magic? You really dare to talk big. Even the simplest formation is leagues above low-level tricks like magic. If you don't understand, don't spout nonsense."
"Let's go." Uncle Victor Li glanced at Evan Lin, his eyes showing a hint of doubt. He didn't know much about formations himself, but he'd at least heard of confusion arrays.
He hadn't expected Evan Lin to know about it.
Maybe he learned it from playing games—these days, lots of games include formation mechanics.
With that thought, Uncle Victor Li shook his head and didn't dwell on it further.
"You better hope you end up back at the starting point. Otherwise, once we're inside, I'll make sure you learn what happens to people who mess with me!" Harvey Xie shot Evan Lin a hateful glare, his smile cold and sharp.
The guide led the way inside, followed by the Fire Elder and the others, stepping onto the stone path.
Yellow-brown stone walls surrounded them, and overhead were fresh green branches. As soon as Evan Lin stepped onto the stone path, he could clearly sense a faint ripple of spiritual qi.
But that trace of spiritual qi was so subtle, it was nearly undetectable.
Evan Lin closed his eyes, then slowly opened them a second later. What had seemed like an empty stone path now revealed a completely different scene before his eyes.
The sides of the entire path were lined with human skulls—most were stripped of flesh, just bare bone, arranged in several rows along the rock walls.
As Evan Lin and the others stepped inside, the skulls that had been sitting quietly suddenly seemed to come alive, as if they had sensed something.
Their hollow eye sockets slowly scanned the group, and a few skulls floated out, circling around Harvey Xie and the others.
But Harvey Xie and his group seemed completely unaware. Only the Fire Elder gave a faint snort, which made the skulls back off a little, though they still hovered nearby.
"Why does it feel so weird? It's way too quiet," Yolanda Fang muttered, tightening her grip on Lynn Chen's hand.
None of them could see the skulls floating in the air—they just felt that something about the atmosphere was really uncomfortable.
When five skulls spotted Yolanda Fang, Lynn Chen, and Evan Lin walking at the back and started drifting over, Evan Lin shot them a cold, indifferent look. In his backpack, the Three Maiden Spirits sensed something and poked their heads out with vicious expressions.
The skulls that had been crowding around froze when they saw the Three Maiden Spirits, then scattered in terror—none dared linger even for a moment.
"Trifling tricks," the Fire Elder said from up ahead, sensing the change and smiling coldly.
He thought it was his own aura that had suppressed the whole formation.
Uncle Victor Li sighed in admiration. "The Immortal Master's skills are truly extraordinary. I am in awe."
"Uncle Victor Li, what do you mean? What just happened?" Melissa Mu asked curiously.
"Just now, if I'm not mistaken, we were surrounded by unclean things from the formation, which made the temperature drop. But this Immortal Master simply snorted and drove them all away. As expected from Medicine King Valley, his power is limitless." Uncle Victor Li humbly flattered the Fire Elder, who looked quite pleased.
"Of course! My master's skills are far beyond what that so-called Old Immortal Sage here could ever match," Harvey Xie said proudly.
"Hey, don't talk recklessly. If you badmouth the Old Immortal Sage here, he might hear you!" The guide, who was leading the way, quickly turned around in a panic after hearing Harvey Xie's words.
"So what if he hears? Does he really dare go up against Medicine King Valley?" Harvey Xie said arrogantly.
Melissa Mu's eyes brightened slightly as she watched Harvey Xie.
The guide's expression kept changing, and finally he just shook his head and sighed.
Soon, they exited the stone path and saw an old village ahead.
The village was only about a hundred meters away, mostly made up of earthen houses, looking like something out of the last century.
Outside the village, quite a few people were coming out. Most looked like bosses—some were cheerful, others looked disappointed.
They had all come here to have their fortunes told by the Old Immortal Sage.
"Once you're in the village, don't say anything reckless," the guide turned back and warned Harvey Xie specifically.
Harvey Xie didn't appreciate the warning—in fact, he scoffed, "Not only will I talk however I want, if that so-called Old Immortal Sage doesn't cooperate, I might just beat him up!"
"He's just a rural fool calling himself an immortal. Even if he's the real deal, there's no way he's more 'immortal' than my master! My master is the Fire Elder of Medicine King Valley!" Harvey Xie boasted.
Harvey Xie was full of confidence.
The Fire Elder beside him didn't say anything; he clearly didn't take the Old Immortal Sage seriously at all.
The guide sighed deeply, and when he brought the group to the village entrance, he pointed to the queue ahead. "Just get in line there and follow it forward—you'll meet the Old Immortal Sage soon enough."
"I'll be leaving now. Good luck to you!"
With that, he didn't dare linger a moment longer and quickly slipped away.