"I found it in the soil behind your house. Buried with this were yellow paper with lines drawn on it and a dead rat. There were them in all four corners of the yard."
I figured no one could get in, so I buried it outside. If the topsoil hadn't been black and stood out against the snow, I wouldn't have noticed it either.
"Cao Xue, thank you so much. It's all thanks to your thoughtfulness. Where is the yellow paper you mentioned?" Jian Ning was quite interested in this.
"The lines on that yellow paper were so stained with rat blood that they were no longer legible. I buried them under a big tree over there."
He only took these few copper coins. Don't you think this is some kind of evil magic? Like summoning ghosts or something?
Cao Xue must have read quite a few supernatural novels during her university years. Her first thought was that someone was sabotaging things and trying to harm Jian Ning's family.
"They definitely had bad intentions. According to you, the soil was freshly turned over and the rat blood was fresh. It goes without saying that it was done by people from the garrison. Miao Xin is the most likely culprit."
Since we moved here, we haven't had any contact with outsiders, let alone any possibility of seeking revenge. Only she could do something so insidious.
"Come on, lead me to dig out the rat and the yellow paper. I want to see what they are."
Jian Ning may not be very good at other things, but she is a master at drawing talismans.
He pulled Cao Xue downstairs to get a shovel. The two went straight to the place where she had buried the rat carcass.
"This is the tree. I specifically chose a spot far from home. It should be around here."
Reaching the foot of the mountain, Cao Xue circled a pine tree to pinpoint the location, then picked up a shovel and began digging.
Since practicing the cultivation technique Jian Ning taught her, she now feels much stronger and more powerful than before. She's also much stronger; with just a few shovelfuls, she cleared all the snow away.
The soil below was also frozen, but she could dig it out with a little effort and soon found the mouse buried in the soil.
Because of the cold weather, the four rats showed no signs of decay. The blood was still frozen on their fur.
The way they died was quite horrifying; each rat had dozens of cuts on its body, with the wounds turned outwards, which was disgusting to look at.
Jian Ning squatted down, picked up two twigs she had casually broken off, and flipped through the yellow paper to take a look. Although it was blurred by bloodstains, the general outline was still visible.
The person who drew this talisman isn't very skilled; it's clearly a beginner. The drawing is a mess, but it still has some effect.
According to this usage, the intention is to make everyone living in this courtyard suffer from all kinds of illnesses, be accompanied by evil spirits, and be unable to sleep at night.
If the yellow talisman is completely soaked in the rat's blood and buried for forty-nine days, even if she discovers it by then, it will be difficult to save the elderly and children in the family unharmed.
Cao Xue really solved a big problem for her this time.
"So? What did you figure out?"
Cao Xue watched with some unease. These things gave her a particularly dark feeling. If she weren't a medical student and not afraid of rats, she probably wouldn't have dared to dig them up when they were first discovered.
"The person who buried this thing is trying to kill my whole family. They are so vicious."
Cao Xue, thank you so much. If it weren't for your keen observation, I might not have noticed even after I came back. I'll have to teach Ba Wang and Huang Fugui a good lesson later.
If you tell them to guard the house properly, they'll run around everywhere.
If they had stayed quietly in the yard, they wouldn't have been able to hide something buried in the corner of the wall without being noticed.
"Let's go back." Jian Ning simply waved her hand, and the hole that had just been dug was filled in.
After walking a few steps back, Cao Xue caught up and said, "I won't go back with you. I have to go to work when it's time."
"Okay, go ahead and get busy. Come over tomorrow night, and I'll check how your kung fu is progressing."
"Yes, I've been working hard, and I definitely won't let you down," Cao Xue said confidently, smiling and waving to Jian Ning before hurrying towards her workplace.
When Jian Ning returned home, she didn't go inside. Instead, she walked around her own house and Xiao Lingfeng's house, then took out an array plate and array chess pieces from her storage bracelet.
A defensive formation was set up in the courtyard, enclosing the walls of both houses.
In this way, she will sense anyone approaching the yard, and she will know if anyone approaches the wall.
This way, the two houses in the courtyard can be perfectly protected.
The only downside is that it consumes a lot of spirit stones, and it needs to be replaced about every three months. But she can leave that to her brother. She's mined plenty of spirit stones, so this little bit of consumption is nothing.
The moment the formation was activated, Xiao Lingfeng, who was working inside, sensed it, put down his work, and quickly walked out.
"Jian Ning, what happened? I can sense a fluctuation of spiritual energy."
"It's alright. I've set up a defensive formation here. Outsiders who want to cause trouble will absolutely not be able to get in unless they have my permission."
"How about you teach me about formations when you have time?" Xiao Lingfeng was quite interested in this.
"I'm not really good at formations. I only know a little bit. I can manage to set up simple formations, but I'm no good at anything advanced."
"But you might have a talent for this, who knows? Here, take a look at this beginner's guide to formations. Just ask me if you don't understand anything."
As Jian Ning spoke, she took out an ancient book from her storage bracelet and handed it to Xiao Lingfeng. He took it, flipped through it, and then put it into his own space.
"I can roughly recognize the characters above, but they are all traditional characters, which are a bit difficult to learn. However, I can understand the orientation of the characters above, so it shouldn't be too difficult to learn them."
"Don't be too proud of this. It's easy to get started with formations, but it's difficult to master them. This book is just the most basic one. If you're really interested, I must have hundreds of similar formation manuals here."
Jian Ning wasn't exaggerating; the Immortal Abode's library contained just as many books.
"So many?" Xiao Lingfeng was also shocked by her words and suddenly felt that this formation was not something he absolutely had to learn.
"You don't need to learn everything. Just pick a few useful and simple ones and understand them."
I've granted you access to this formation. Also, grant it to my brother, so the rest of the family won't need to go out so often.
This defensive formation also has drawbacks: those inside can leave without being stopped, but those controlling the formation inside must grant permission to enter.
Currently, only Jian Anping in this family has the necessary skills, since the others are ordinary people who cannot control the formation.
"Sure, it's so dangerous outside, and these two courtyards are big enough. As long as their safety is guaranteed, they don't need to go out."
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