This was merely a sitting room. Sweeping his divine sense forward, Wei Yuan found that there were many more rooms behind it. He let an immortal sword hover above his head to illuminate their surroundings, then entered the depths of the secret chambers through a side door.
Beyond the central hall lay a winding corridor flanked by three bedrooms. They were not large and were simply furnished, appearing to be guest rooms.
The secret chambers had been designed quite thoughtfully: ventilation holes were set along the walls at regular intervals, so despite having been sealed for a long time, the air inside felt not the least bit stifling.
Further inside were a large bedroom and a cultivation chamber. Likewise, much of the furniture was made of iron, and iron rings were everywhere—affixed to the furniture, walls, and even the ceiling. Silk ribbons could also be seen scattered throughout.
Past the master bedroom was a row of four or five rooms. Wei Yuan pushed open each door in turn, discovering that every single one was a cell. Each was arranged in a slightly different manner, and from the wall of one hung a corpse.
Having been sealed in the secret chamber for years, the corpse had mummified into a dried husk. Judging from its features, it had been a woman in life, completely unclad.
Upon entering the cells, Yun Feifei turned even paler, her body trembling slightly. But when Wei Yuan asked her about it, she only said her head ached terribly and she could recall nothing.
Wei Yuan pondered for a moment, recalling the various methods of the divine way of incense taught by the instructors in class, one of which was sealing away memories in the origin soul. Yun Feifei's condition looked just like having her memories sealed.
Once the cause was known, the remedy was quite simple. Wei Yuan sent a strand of black qi into Yun Feifei's body, which began consuming the latent incense aspiration power.
A sudden, piercing headache struck Yun Feifei. She crouched down, clutching her head. Then, through the resonance of their karmic fortune, a vision appeared before Wei Yuan's eyes.
An old man entered the cell, holding a little girl by the hand. His face was a blur, impossible to make out. The girl appeared to be seven or eight years old, her features bearing some resemblance to Yun Feifei.
"When you grow older and are fully nurtured, I'll bring you here again. After that, you won't ever have to leave..."
The old man's voice echoed in the cell before the vision vanished. Yun Feifei stopped trembling and stood up, an intricate expression on her face. She whispered, "I understand now. This secret chamber was built by my master. He brought me here once when I was young, and then sealed my memory."
With a complicated look, Yun Feifei said, "Follow me. I know where he hid his things."
The two returned to the bedroom. Yun Feifei took down a painting from the wall depicting ladies playing with monkeys and tore it open. Sure enough, a sheet of jade paper was hidden inside. Yun Feifei handed the jade paper to Wei Yuan while gazing at the painting of the ladies. Suddenly, she said, "I remember! The woman in the painting is Martial Uncle Yuan! She was always so good to me, but one day, I never saw her again."
Wei Yuan took the jade paper and swept his divine sense across it, uncovering quite a complex secret art: the Seven Stars Reincarnation Body.
Yun Feifei was also startled upon seeing it. "So this secret art was hidden here all along. Senior Sister, would you like to consider it?"
At that moment, the phantom of the woman in red emerged from Yun Feifei. Looking at the jade paper in Wei Yuan's hand, her expression turned exceptionally complicated—a mix of anticipation and fluster, completely unlike her usual cold, bloodthirsty demeanor.
Noticing Wei Yuan looking her way, panic washed over her face. Uttering, "I'll think about it some more," she fled back into Yun Feifei's body.
Wei Yuan swept his divine sense through the jade paper. Relying on his solid foundation in cultivation theory, he immediately recognized that the Seven Stars Reincarnation Body was actually a puppet secret art combining corpse refinement, soul detention, flesh-and-blood alchemy, and incense aspiration power.
This method required the corpses of seven newly deceased individuals as materials, paired with seven spiritual items, using incense aspiration power as fuel to refine a physical body. Once the detained soul was placed inside, she would appear just like an ordinary person in every way. However, the resulting reincarnation body was essentially the refiner's puppet. Every single one of her thoughts—down to the most minute physical sensation—could be directly felt by the refiner, meaning she would have no secrets left from inside out.
Wei Yuan knew what Gong Yufeng was thinking, but he did not care much. If she wanted to become a Seven Stars Reincarnation Body, so be it; if not, it made no difference—she could just keep staying inside Yun Feifei's body.
Wei Yuan swept the surroundings twice more with his divine sense. Confirming there was nothing else noteworthy and no further karmic motes of light, he led Yun Feifei out of the secret chamber.
As soon as she exited the secret chamber, Yun Feifei stated she was going to scout a location for the mortals' settlement, then hurriedly flew off.
Wei Yuan had plenty to do at the moment, so having no time to worry about Yun Feifei's feelings, he headed straight back to the main hall. But no sooner had he arrived than Xu Wan'er intercepted him.
Gazing intently at Wei Yuan, she said, word by word, "Senior Brother, my injuries are rather severe. Could you treat me as well?"
She stressed the word "as well" with unmistakable weight.
In the earlier battle, Xu Wan'er had fought with desperate resolve, repeatedly trading wound for wound in the direst moments, completely prepared to perish together with the enemy. By reason and sentiment alike, Wei Yuan could hardly turn down her request.
Wei Yuan looked left and right, wanting to find a suitable room. To his surprise, Xu Wan'er had already walked into the disciple room where he had just tended to Yun Feifei. Left with no choice, Wei Yuan followed her inside and shut the door behind him.
Xu Wan'er lay down on the very bed Yun Feifei had just occupied, having already handled all the preparatory steps for Wei Yuan, laying out every single wound before him.
Two hours later...
Wei Yuan emerged from the disciple room, feeling that his medical skill had advanced by leaps and bounds. Jia Wood Life-Mystic had merely played a supporting role; being able to heal Xu Wan'er was primarily thanks to his own efforts.
The clatter of horse hooves drew near from the distance, then receded again; that was Xu Wenwu exercising his horse.
After being busy for four hours straight, Wei Yuan's origin soul had undergone repeated trials by all sorts of inner demons, to the point where he nearly forgot what he was supposed to be doing. He went over his tasks once more in his mind. The pressing matter at hand was not construction, but guarding against retaliation by the Shamans.
It was already past noon, and the savory aroma of cooking wafted over. The cultivators had set up a large iron pot, boiling wild vegetables together with military rations retrieved from the secret treasury into a thick stew to serve as lunch.
Wei Yuan found a relatively flat wooden board and propped it on some stones, fashioning a makeshift table. He spread out a sheet of jade paper and began sketching out a formation. At first, he drew the Pure Cleansing Spirit Formation, designed to ward off the foul contamination of blood curses, which comprised nine formation nodes. However, with only nine Dao Foundation cultivators left alive, Wei Yuan revised it continuously, ultimately paring it down to a simplified five-node version.
Immediately following that, Wei Yuan drew a feng shui formation, which also had five nodes, perfectly coinciding with the Pure Cleansing Spirit Formation. This method of superimposing two formations and sharing nodes was another technique taught in his Theory of Arts class. It served well as an emergency measure, though the drawback was that those manning the formation nodes would have to shoulder twice the spiritual power. It was said that master formation experts at the pinnacle of the art could design a stacking of seven formations, but for now, two formations was Wei Yuan's limit.
Having drawn the formations, Wei Yuan promptly summoned five Dao Foundation cultivators, explained the formation layout to them, and began setting up the grand formation. The five formation nodes were laid out circling the main hall, spaced a hundred zhang apart. Once the five cultivators took their respective positions, Wei Yuan activated the grand formation and observed its operation.
The Dao power of these Western Domain rogue cultivators could not hold a candle to disciples of the Palace of Grand Beginning, but within Qingming's boundary domain, their natural spiritual power recovery rate doubled. Consequently, even while maintaining two grand formations simultaneously, they could hold out for three days. Counting Yun Feifei and Xu Wan'er, there were also four Dao Foundation cultivators available to rotate in at any time.
The feng shui formation and the Pure Cleansing Formation could cover a radius of a thousand zhang around the main hall, which was sufficient for now. This was the first line of defense Wei Yuan established to guard against the Shamans' blood sacrifice curses.
With this defensive formation established, Wei Yuan finally felt at ease and turned to his map, pondering his plans for the next steps.
Chapter 126