Chapter 127: Strangeness All Around
For a moment, after figuring out the reason for the wrongness he felt, Jiang Yue was happy.
However, that feeling quickly morphed into confusion.
’If that’s the case, what is going on here?’ He wondered.
Generally, Jiang Yue liked surprises, but the current situation was not ideal for surprises.
’I need to deal with them quickly and speak to Nianzhen.’
After that, Jiang Yue was a changed person.
He didn’t try to conserve his qi and went all out to fight the two enemies.
When less than a quarter of his qi was left, he managed to kill both enemies and turn to Yu Nianzhen.
"I know what’s wrong." He reiterated his words as soon as he stood beside the other.
"What is it?"
Yu Nianzhen collected his opponent’s storage bag and then turned to Jiang Yue.
"The treasure compass didn’t react."
When he heard that, Yu Nianzhen felt like a layer of fog was peeled from his eyes.
All this time, he felt a yearning for the purple crystal herb from the jade box, but the treasure compass never reacted.
The non-reaction of the treasure compass should have been an indicator that something was off, but they were both misled by the jade box.
They confused the jade box’s yearning as evidence that the herb was present.
However, this conclusion wasn’t necessarily true.
"Things have gotten a little more complicated." Yu Nianzhen muttered and looked at the medicine field.
At this time, Bei Chengling and his cronies were still trying to break the formation.
On the opposite side, another group was also trying to break it without a care for the Death Flower Ascension Front.
"What does this even mean?" Jiang Yue wondered.
Considering what they knew of the plant, the purple crystal herb was a treasure.
No matter what, the treasure compass should have reacted to it.
"Is the treasure compass malfunctioning, or is the herb not here?" He queried.
"...or maybe the formation is messing with the treasure compass..."
Yu Nianzhen frowned as he listened to Jiang Yue’s speculations.
All of them were reasonable, and they had no evidence to decide on one or more.
The most troublesome thing is that they smelled the herb when it ripened.
At that time, they didn’t know the herb’s effect, but the fragrance led them to conclude it was a body-refining herb.
"Could everything be an illusion?" Yu Nianzhen wondered.
Although he didn’t want to believe he could have unknowingly fallen into an illusion, he wasn’t arrogant enough to disregard the possibility.
However, he wasn’t entirely convinced of this speculation.
"What do you think?" He asked.
As a cultivator who practised illusions, Jiang Yue was more in tune with illusions than he was.
Even if he couldn’t see any signs of having fallen into illusion, Jiang Yue should have a more accurate judgement.
"I don’t think it’s an illusion, but I also don’t think the medicine field is real."
Jiang Yue frowned as he said this.
When he first met Elder Chen, he could tell she had an illusion-related origin because there was a resonance between them.
In the same way, he could always feel some fluctuations whenever he encountered an illusion.
Unless the realm of the illusion cultivator was too far above his, Jiang Yue was confident he would be able to detect signs of hidden formations or illusions.
Although he was convinced the medicine field was not an illusion, he was also convinced it wasn’t real.
"Could it be a reflection? A mirage maybe?" Yu Nianzhen continued to guess.
The cultivation world was too mysterious, and there were many things they didn’t understand
It wasn’t inconceivable that the medicine field was actually in another place but reflected in the current location.
However, this presented another problem.
If the medicine field and herbs were a reflection, what about the formation?
From what he could see, Bei Chengling could contact the formation, and he had begun to slowly break it.
"What should we do? Do we tell brother Ke and the others?" Jiang Yue asked.
Yu Nianzhen went silent but shook his head in the end.
If they told the others, they would have to explain how they figured it out.
However, the treasure compass and the jade box were their hidden opportunities.
Revealing them wasn’t an option because they didn’t want to attract trouble to themselves.
"Let’s just wait and see what happens."
At the moment, this was all they could do.
Everything would become clear when the formation broke. When that time came, they would naturally know how to act.
"Good."
"Let’s stay a little further from the formation just in case."
"Alright."
While keeping an eye on the medicine field, the two continued to deal with enemies.
Half an hour later, the formation surrounding the medicine field shook.
This meant that one of the array’s nodes was damaged, and the formation would soon be broken.
When he saw this, Bei Chengling frowned and glared at the people working on the other side of the array.
"I heard fellow Daoist Bei is the leading formation master of our generation." One of the people on the opposite side commented.
However, the tone of his voice wasn’t flattering.
Rather, it was mocking and showed the person didn’t think much of Bei Chengling.
"How long has fellow Daoist Bei been working on the formation without breaking a single node?" Another voice mocked.
"Turns out rumours cannot be believed."
"The greatest formation master of the young generation is just so so."
The other side seemed determined to mock Bei Chengling, but others like Yu Nianzhen frowned.
Everyone had seen Bei Chengling working on the formation, but they didn’t know he hadn’t broken a single node.
’Did he notice something?’ Yu Nianzehn wondered.
Unlike the other side that was mocking, Yu Nianzhen had a certain regard for Bei Chengling’s formation skills.
After all, he was the person who set up the anti-teleportation formation at the trade valley.
Setting such a formation at the origin forging realm not only required a lot of resources, but the formation master’s skills must also be at a certain level.
Also, Bei Chengling was the deputy of the BlueStar Treasure pavilion.
No matter how Yu Nianzhen thought about it, Bei Chengling was competent.
’If that’s the case, why hasn’t he broken a node?"
He frowned and turned to Jiang Yue, "keep an eye on him. Let’s be ready to move if he does something strange."
"Good." Jiang Yue immediately agreed.
Like Yu Nianzhen, he also had some confidence in Bei Chengling.
If breaking the formation was dangerous for everyone around, the first to know would be Bei Chengling.
Watching his actions would allow them to react faster to dangers or opportunities.
"Frog." Bei Chengling shouted at the opposing formation master and sneered.
After that, he continued deciphering the formation while cursing the opposing side.
Initially, he didn’t care too much about the other group because he didn’t think they could decipher the formation.
However, it seemed he underestimated the opponent because they figured out the pattern sooner than expected.
This outcome gave him a headache, and he looked around from the corner of his eyes.
’Do I have to change my plans?’ He wondered.
"Why didn’t you break the formation?" A voice came from behind him.
"In fact, the other side is premature. This formation isn’t as simple as it appears. Breaking the nodes without understanding everything may lead to bad consequences."
When he heard the explanation, the person frowned behind his mask.
The purple crystal herb and the herbs in the field were very important for their Death Flower Ascension Front.
If something went wrong, everyone who came to harvest them would be punished, and he didn’t want to experience that.
Without saying a word, he raised his left hand, and some figures rushed to his side.
"Deal with them." He said simply.
The black-robed cultivators neither asked for a reason nor wasted time.
Instead, they gathered a few more people and rushed across to deal with the other group that was breaking the formation.
A moment later, a fight broke out between the two groups.
This eased the pressure on Jiang Yue and the group brought by Jin Xuan.
Although they couldn’t relax, they could at least go head-to-head with the remaining enemies.
Soon after, the situation began to turn around, and the task group took the upper hand.
"It will be good if we can eliminate all the members of the Death Flower Ascension Front in the thousand herbs garden." Someone said.
His statement was popular, and several others agreed with him.
The Death Flower Ascension Front had long become a common enemy for everyone in the Cangxing world.
One more dead was one less enemy.
At that moment when everyone was feeling optimistic, a crack echoed in the surroundings.
When he looked, Yu Nianzhen saw the formation was broken.
Several cultivators were rushing toward the medicine field, but Bei Chengling was fleeing backwards.
Before Yu Nianzhen could figure out what was happening, a blood-curdling scream sounded behind him, and a chill climbed up his spine.
