The room was dimly lit and contained nothing but a table.

The circle of antiques on the table gave me a strange sense of tension.

According to the notes, these seven unlucky formations evolved from military formations and are considered an extremely ominous formation.

Once this formation is activated, it signifies a life-or-death struggle.

But no matter how much I thought about it, I still couldn't understand who would gamble with me on this life-or-death formation.

Although Monkey is a collector of antiques and collectibles, he entered this industry mainly to make money and has no knowledge beyond appraisal.

After I finished explaining the dangers of the situation, he picked up the fan ribs and the black crystal peace token from the table and shouted, "Hey! Listen up, you people outside! I don't care what you're up to! We brothers have no grudges against you! If you continue to play tricks, I'll break your fan ribs and smash your jade token! If you don't want to lose money, come out and see me right now!"

"Monkey, stop shouting!"

I waved my hand to stop him: "The Seven Flaws of Fate is a life-and-death formation. Since the other side has set up this formation, they won't care about these things."

"So, we have no choice but to break through the formation?"

The monkey looked at the things on the table, completely bewildered, and could only place its hopes on me: "Young Master Duan, I've only ever seen you appraise antiques before. Do you know anything about these unorthodox methods?"

"We're already trapped here, so we have no choice but to try anything!"

Looking at the antiques on the table, I felt incredibly troubled.

My grandfather's handwritten notes do indeed contain sections on Qimen Dunjia.

Under my grandfather's influence, I developed a strong interest in antique collecting.

The field of antiques integrates knowledge from history, local chronicles, epigraphy, natural history, appraisal, feng shui, and science, including metaphysics, which is also an essential part of it.

However, knowledge such as Bagua and Qimen Dunjia is obscure and difficult to understand, and I don't think those things are of any use in modern society, so I rarely study them.

Although my grandfather once forced me to memorize the contents of the notes, I never looked at them again after I managed to get through it, and I've long forgotten most of them.

"The Dao is not many, the Southern Star connects to the Northern River, all come from the three seven words, to subdue the demons of the world."

As I chanted the Shangqing Liujia Liuding prayer secret method, I calmed myself down and stared at the seven items on the table.

The eight gates correspond to the eight trigrams, while the bronze furnace, paperweight, crystal, agate, jade pendant, fan ribs, and bronze Buddha represent the five elements.

The most difficult to distinguish are black crystal and agate, because most people's first impression of them is that they belong to the earth element.

In fact, the Five Elements are not only distinguished by the attributes of the objects themselves, but also by color.

For example, black crystal represents water, while red agate represents fire.

Within the Eight Trigrams, there are two metal gates, two wood gates, two earth gates, one water gate, and one fire gate.

At this moment, the jade pendant on the table represents a gate.

The insidious nature of this Seven Flawed Fate Formation lies in its ability to mislead people's thinking, making them believe that the jade, agate, and crystal on the table should represent three earthen gates.

When most people try to break this formation, they will subconsciously use the process of elimination, taking out one of the three items from the gate of life and death and choosing that direction as the exit.

Once you make this choice, no matter which path you take, it's a dead end.

My family's ancestral handbook contains detailed records of how to break the Seven Flaws Life Formation.

The Seven Defects Formation uses the Later Heaven Bagua. By figuring out the patterns within it, one can restore the eight gates to their original positions.

Once you find the Death Gate (Kun position), you can safely leave from its corresponding Life Gate (Gen position).

I understand the logic, but I forgot the order in which to solve it.

I tapped myself on the head.

You only realize how little you know when you need it most; I never imagined I wouldn't even be able to copy my homework properly today.

As I was recalling the events, the monkey beside me, afraid of disturbing my train of thought, didn't even dare to breathe loudly. But after waiting for a long time and still seeing no movement from me, it softly reminded me, "Young Master Duan, there's less than a third of the sand left in this hourglass. Have you thought of a solution?"

"Shut up!"

I made a shushing gesture, recalling the contents of the book: "The direction and time are indistinguishable in this room, so this formation is not set up based on time and direction. The Bagua Formation is laid out using Qimen Dunjia, taking advantage of the auspiciousness of the three gates of Open, Life, and Rest, acting as host and guest, attacking the isolated and attacking the vulnerable, and beating the vulnerable."

The monkey couldn't understand what I was saying at all; it just kept rubbing its hands together, waiting anxiously.

"Attack the isolated and vulnerable..."

As I muttered those four words, I suddenly remembered a passage from the journal and slapped my thigh: "Since the enemy set up this formation for us, they must have left a key point! We don't know the time or location, so what's left must be the Six Jia Solitary Void Secret Technique... Monkey, what's the date today?"

The monkey pouted and said, "October 19th, your birthday! I was planning to celebrate your birthday after we got that stemmed bowl! I even bought a cake for you in the trunk to surprise you!"

"The sun is alone!"

As I looked at the things on the table, my eyes gradually brightened, and I began to calculate on my fingers: "The ten Heavenly Stems are paired with the twelve Earthly Branches, and there are exactly two Earthly Branches left without a Heavenly Stem to match. These two Earthly Branches are called 'empty', and the direction opposite to the empty position is called 'isolated'. The phase is in opposition... The ruling gate for this month is metal! The incense burner and the bronze Buddha are in the correct positions!"

With that in mind, I quickly moved the objects on the table, leaving the metallic items untouched. I then rearranged the artifacts according to the order of the Later Heaven Bagua.

Sure enough, there was a gap opposite the jade pendant, the "life gate" position was unobstructed, directly facing the door to our left.

As the hourglass was about to run out, I pointed to the door and said, "Monkey, open that door!"

"Young Master Duan! I'm truly impressed now!"

When the monkey saw that I had actually found the exit, it slapped the table and ran towards it.

His slam on the table caused the hourglass in the center of the table to tip over, and coincidentally rolled to the gap in the doorway of death.

"etc!"

Just before the monkeys opened the door, I suddenly let out a roar.

The monkey was startled by my shout and turned to look at me: "What's wrong?"

"I've been tricked!"

I stared at the funnel on the table, my eyes twitching: "From beginning to end, this table has never lacked doors. The funnel in the middle originally contained earth, representing the door of death. I was misled by the other artifacts! This is not the Seven Deficiencies of Fate at all, but rather a dark cloud covering the water!"

The monkey looked at me with a bewildered expression: "What do you mean? So all that work you did for nothing?"

"No! We've already broken the formation, but your spot isn't the gate of life!"

As I spoke, I walked towards the direction corresponding to the black crystal: "I underestimated the person who set up the formation. He's a master of feng shui; he extended the formation for a longer period!"

As soon as I finished speaking, I turned the handle and yanked the door open.

The light from outside shone into the room, where a middle-aged man in his fifties, dressed in a suit and tie, stood at the front and clapped his hands lightly: "This formation was brilliantly broken! No wonder you are the successor of the Ghost Eye Judge!"