Soul Devouring Array - 1

The stream is located on the outer edge of the valley's protective formation, where the trees are somewhat sparse and several huge blue stones are half-submerged in the gurgling water.

Three of the stones were deliberately moved to a dry spot on the shore and arranged in an irregular triangle. Sure enough, there were faint engravings on the stone surface.

Xun Jing pointed to a rock and said, "This is the place. The residual Yin energy is very faint. If it weren't for my junior brother's exceptional sensitivity to aura, it would almost be ignored."

Ji Wang crouched down, not touching the stone surface directly, for fear of triggering some unknown mechanism. His fingertips hovered above the engravings, and he focused his mind, using a wisp of spiritual energy to probe the runes.

In an instant, a viscous, malicious gaze, like tentacles reaching out silently from the shadows, rebounded back along his spiritual energy. The aura was chilling and piercing, like something damp and cold silently climbing along his fingertips, trying to burrow into his spiritual veins.

Ji Wang withdrew his hand, rubbed his fingertips together vigorously, and frowned. Needless to say, this was undoubtedly Ling Gu.

How come, even though they are both fox demons, when I get close to my own, I can still feel the warmth emanating from within, but the marks left by this Ling Gu look like they crawled out from the deepest, darkest part of a swamp that has never seen the sun for thousands of years, exuding decay and stickiness, making me want to stay far away from it.

Suppressing the discomfort in his heart and the slight relief brought by the comparison, Ji Wang focused his mind again.

He looked at the rune; its structure was indeed ancient and crooked, exuding an eerie aura, but the direction of the strokes at several key turning points, the points where they converged…

“It’s not a complete ancient rune.” Ji Wang looked at Xun Jing’s worried expression and said, “This is alteration and grafting. A nearly lost rune skeleton was used to forcibly embed a technique with the effects of positioning and spying. The technique is quite sophisticated, almost blending two completely different systems without leaving a trace.”

He hovered his finger, tracing the veins on the stone surface, and pointed them out to Xun Jing: "Here, while continuously sending out weak signals, it is also absorbing specific spiritual energy fluctuations in the surrounding environment, especially... the innate Dao source."

Xun Jing's expression grew increasingly grave: "So, these markers weren't placed randomly. They help the person who placed them to grasp the general movement of the valley, and also to sense specific targets. If more were placed..."

"Then when I go down the mountain, when I come back, where I go and what I buy, I'm afraid Lord Linggu will know everything clearly." Ji Wang patted the dust off his hands, straightened up, and there was little fear in his tone.

He even pretended to think about it seriously for a moment, then turned to Xun Jing and said, "If I hadn't fought him to the death a few times, I would have suspected that this person secretly admires me based on this concern alone."

"..." Xun Jing was listening intently to the analysis when he was suddenly struck by these remarks and was momentarily speechless. He looked at Ji Wang's half-serious, half-feigned distress and said with a hint of helplessness and warning, "Sect Leader Ji... this person should not be underestimated."

"I know, I know, just kidding, just loosening up a bit." Ji Wang waved his hand, but the joking expression on his face quickly disappeared. "Precisely because they are difficult to deal with, we can't keep up the tension."

"So what should we do with this rune? Should we do it immediately—" Xun Jing was about to ask for a solution when Ji Wang suddenly turned his gaze to his waist and asked, changing the subject, "By the way, is your sword expensive?"

Xun Jing didn't understand Ji Wang's intention for a moment, but still replied, "It's just an ordinary iron sword, bought casually, not worth much."

"That's good." Ji Wang nodded and naturally stretched out his hand. "Lend me this. This weapon was given to me by Bu Jiu. I can't bear to use it to touch this filthy thing."

"...No one asked who sent it." Xun Jing blurted out almost without thinking, then realized that his words were too casual and immediately lowered his eyes and said, "Excuse me, Sect Leader Ji."

"It's alright." Ji Wang laughed instead, took the long sword from Xun Jing, and weighed it in his hand. "I feel more relaxed when you talk to me like this. Being the sect leader and Daoist master all day long is exhausting."

Before he finished speaking, his expression had already become focused. A ray of light spread from the hilt to the blade, coating the ordinary iron with a layer of spiritual light. Without another word, he lowered his wrist, and the tip of the sword pierced the central node where the blue stone runes converged—"Swoosh!"

After a slight sound, the cold, grotesque carvings on the stone surface suddenly twisted and writhed as if they were alive, then a few wisps of thin black smoke rose up.

The lingering Yin energy was instantly shattered by the balanced and peaceful spiritual power, and the stone surface regained its rough texture of ordinary bluestone, only the color seemed to have dimmed a little.

"Alright." Ji Wang deftly drew his longsword, casually twirled it to dispel the last trace of Yin energy clinging to it, and then handed it back to Xun Jing. "If you don't want this sword, I'll go pick out a better one for you. This 'eye' is temporarily blind, but it's only in this one place... Later I will teach you this technique, and in the future, when we discover similar formations, we'll have to rely on you."

Just as Ji Wang thought the matter was settled and was about to return to observe, a clear surge of demonic energy suddenly came from the depths of the distant mountains and forests.

It was neither a warning of danger nor an ordinary spiritual energy probe, but a burst of anger that had been suppressed to the extreme. Even from several miles away, one could still feel the undisguised killing intent within it.

Ji Wang turned around almost instantly. He was all too familiar with this demonic power—it was undeniable!

The anger spread like a tide. Although it wasn't directly aimed at them, the undisguised pressure from the Ghost King still made Xun Jing's face turn pale. He quickly raised his hand to cover his chest, his blood surging.

"Sect Leader Ji, this is..." Xun Jing barely managed to steady his breathing, his voice filled with surprise and doubt.

"Something's happened." Ji Wang spoke quickly and in a low voice. "Xun Jing, immediately send a message to You Hang and Gui Tiao. Activate the array within the valley to full power. All disciples must tighten their defenses and not leave without my order. You and Huai Qing will stay and coordinate with all parties!"

As he gave the orders, he swiftly sped off towards Bu Jiu's direction without hesitation: "I'm going to find Bu Jiu. If we're attacked, hold our ground and wait for reinforcements. The priority is to preserve our lives!"

Xun Jing suppressed his shock and solemnly replied, "Yes! Sect Leader, be careful!" Knowing the situation was critical, he immediately turned and ran into the temple.

Ji increased his speed, and the distance of several miles was covered in an instant. After passing through a dense thicket of bushes, a shady clearing in the woods came into view.

Bu Jiu turned his back to him and knelt slumped on the muddy ground. His usually straight back was now hunched over, and his long hair was disheveled and draped over his shoulders, swaying slightly with his body.

Ji Wang's heart clenched, and she rushed to his side in three strides, reaching out to support his shoulder: "Bujiu..."

His next words came to an abrupt halt when he saw the sight in Bu Jiu's arms.

It was a small white fox that had already lost its life; it was clearly not yet fully grown.

Its once fluffy, snow-white fur was now disheveled, stained with mud and dark red bloodstains, a small ball curled up in Bu Jiu's arms. Its eyes were closed, its posture unnaturally stiff, and it was already lifeless.

Beside Bu Jiu's kneeling legs lay two other equally small fox corpses, lifeless and chilling to the bone.

Bu Jiu seemed completely unaware of Ji Wang's arrival. He simply lowered his head, his fingertips repeatedly combing through the already cold and stiff down, trying to straighten it and restore its soft appearance from when it was alive. But each futile stroke only made the blood-stained down appear more disheveled and desolate.

Ji Wang slowly crouched down to be level with him, trying to see his eyes clearly. Those eyes held only an empty, gray emptiness. Surging within them was a despair that Ji Wang didn't want to see, a despair bordering on heartbreak.

The evening breeze howled through the gaps in the forest, ruffling the stray strands of hair on Bu Jiu's cheeks and causing the earrings that should have reflected the stars and moon to sway gently.

That sliver of warm light danced and fell upon his pale, dazed profile, creating the cruelest contrast in the world.

“I will not hold it against you…” Ji Wang slowly squatted down, stretched out his hand, but for a moment did not know where to put it.

Bu Jiu remained unresponsive. He simply held the small corpse of his own kind tightly, kneeling between the other two cold bodies.

“We…take them back first.” Ji Wang looked around at the dim woods and squeezed out the words with difficulty. “There might be wild animals or something else here at night. We can’t let them stay here any longer.”

He tried to find a practical reason to break the suffocating silence and despair.

Upon hearing this, Bu Jiu lowered his head, gently pressing his cheek against the small, cold, and stiff body in his arms. His voice was so hoarse it was almost unrecognizable, filled with confusion and self-reproach: "Why are they here?"

“This mountain forest… is at least three mountain ranges away from the nearest settlement of my kind that I can sense. The migration route, the safe nest, the elders in charge of taking care of it… I arranged all of that a long time ago.”

“The child in my arms is named Wanlai.” His tone was filled with an almost tender reminiscence. “When he was born, the ice in the mountain stream had just begun to melt, and I was the one who named him.”

Every word he uttered felt like a dull knife cutting into his own soul: "They should be in their caves, frolicking and playing, learning how to lick their fur until it's smooth and shiny, how to catch the first firefly of the summer night... instead of..."

He choked up, the words stuck in his throat, and he couldn't say anything more.

Instead of like this. The tiny body was cold and stiff, the soft belly no longer rose and fell, the mud stained the snow-white fur, and dark red blood clots congealed among the fine down. It would never open its eyes again, never again curiously touch the world with its wet nose.

He took a breath, his breath trembling uncontrollably, filled with uncontrollable sobs, a mixture of pain and confusion: "Why did we have to leave our clan's territory?"

It was no longer a question, but a bottomless self-blame, a suspicion that he had brought about death, that he had taken the sin of causing the death of his own kind's young on his own shoulders.

He knelt amidst the mud and death, holding the lifeless little member of his kin in his arms, as if all his life had been drained away.