Chapter 1: Yi Wood Soul Restraint

The sun was setting outside Huaiyuan Town.

The country road was sparse, with few people left, yet at the end of the path stood a group of children, clearly divided into two opposing sides.

One of the children, half a head taller than his companions and with sharp, angular features, shouted at someone in the opposite group

"Zhang Daniu, a bet is a bet! You lost the last round, and if we win this one, you all have to call me 'Big Brother' whenever you see me in town from now on! And you’re not allowed to pester Xiao Cui anymore!"

The child called Daniu, already broad-shouldered and sturdy for his age, snorted. "Fine, Liang Xiaogou! You only won the last round because you played dirty. I won't go easy on you this time!"

The child surnamed Liang rolled his eyes and immediately said, "You set the rules for the last round, so it’s my turn to decide this one."

"How are we competing?"

"We race to see who can climb to the top of Wenliang Mountain first!"

"It's a deal!"

No sooner had the words left his mouth than the Liang boy bolted forward. The boy called Daniu was stunned for a moment before chasing after him, cursing as he ran.

As the sky darkened, the mountain path grew quiet. A child walked briskly through the woods. With a straight nose, thin lips, and bright, sword-like brows, he possessed an uncanny, clever air for his age. This was Liang Yan, the boy who had just made the bet with Daniu. He suddenly stopped and looked at the sky.

"I didn't expect the competition with Daniu to drag on this late. If I don't go back now, Dad is going to nag me again."

But then he thought, "I don't know when someone messed with the area around the summit, but if you wander in blindly, you just end up walking in circles. This must be the 'formation' the town teacher mentioned. I was lucky enough to find a secret path to the summit that day, and Daniu doesn't know the trick. I’m bound to win this time!"

The thought of securing his position as the leader among the town children made Liang Yan’s heart race with excitement.

"Whatever, I’ll just make a quick trip. Once I reach the top and tease Daniu a bit, I’ll head straight home. It won't take too long, and at worst, I’ll just get a scolding!"

With his mind made up, Liang Yan pushed off and sprinted, the mountain path already etched into his memory.

As he ran, he suddenly felt a gentle force, and before he could react, his feet slipped and he sat down hard. When he looked up, a tall figure stood before him.

The man wore a high-crowned hat, a hemp robe, and long boots. A hemp rope was tied around his waist, from which hung a small, tattered cloth bag. His eyes were tightly shut, and his right hand leaned on a tree branch. He was a blind old man.

Liang Yan steadied himself, scrambled to his feet, and said apologetically, "I'm sorry, sir. It was my recklessness; I didn't mean to bump into you."

The old man smiled slightly, showing no anger. Instead, he said gently, "Huaiyuan Town should be just ahead, right? Are you a child from the town?"

His voice was soft, yet for some reason, it made Liang Yan feel at ease. He replied respectfully, "You guessed right, sir. I live in the town."

The old man stroked his chin. "It's so late, yet you're running up the mountain. You must have something important to do. Don't worry about an old man like me; go on with your business."

Liang Yan looked hesitantly at the branch in the old man's hand. The old man seemed to sense his gaze and added, "Don't worry, little one. I've been walking for years, and I rely on this branch. I’ll never lose my way."

Hearing this, Liang Yan looked at him with suspicion. From the start, he had the strange feeling that even though the old man’s eyes were closed, he could see right through him. It was a bizarre sensation that made him instinctively wary.

"In that case, I'll be going. The mountain path is rugged, so please be careful, sir." Liang Yan cupped his hands in the manner of the traveling merchants in town and turned to head toward the summit.

Wenliang Mountain was not high; at best, it was a small hill. But after being delayed by the old man and feeling an inexplicable sense of panic, by the time Liang Yan reached the entrance of the secret path he remembered, the moon was already high in the sky.

"It should be here."

Liang Yan pushed aside the plants at the entrance, only to freeze. The opening was completely blocked by a pile of rubble.

"What is going on? This is a disaster. Doesn't this mean all my efforts were for nothing?"

After all, he was only a ten-year-old boy. He had been obsessed with this competition all day, certain of victory, only to find he couldn't win. A wave of immense disappointment washed over him. He walked in a daze for who knows how long, and by the time he snapped out of it, he had reached the summit.

"Huh? Why isn't there a formation blocking the summit today? How did I end up here?"

Filled with confusion, Liang Yan circled the summit and looked up at the sky.

"At this hour, Daniu still hasn't arrived. He must have given up. It looks like I won after all! Well, I’d better get home, or Dad will nag me for half the night."

Thinking that he had come out on top in the end, his frustration vanished. He took long strides down the mountain.

The moon was bright and the stars were sparse. Under the night sky, Huaiyuan Town was exceptionally quiet.

There wasn't a sound on the empty streets. Normally, the residents of Huaiyuan Town wouldn't be asleep this early, but now, not only were there no people, but not even a single head of livestock or horse could be seen.

At that moment, a soft sigh came from the roof of an ordinary house

"Hmph, it's been many years. I didn't expect Junior Brother He's methods to become so despicable."

The words were abrupt, and no one answered. The speaker was the old man with the high-crowned hat. He sat cross-legged on the roof, eyes tightly shut, like a monk in meditation. Had Liang Yan been there, he would have recognized him as the old man he had bumped into on the mountain path.

Just then, a burly man darted out from the end of the street. He was tall and broad, wearing a hemp shirt and carrying a shovel on his back—the very picture of a farmhand. The most unsettling thing was that his eyes were vacant, rolled upward, and his mouth was twisted into a demented expression.

Though he looked like a fool, his movements were swift. In the blink of an eye, he reached the house where the old man sat, leaped up, pulled the shovel from his back, and swung it directly at the old man's face.

Seeing the aggressive attack, the old man didn't dodge. He remained seated, merely flicking his right middle finger. A spark of fire shot through the night sky toward the burly man.

With a soft *pfft*, the spark entered the man's body. The man didn't stop, but a series of muffled thuds came from his body, followed by an explosion. In an instant, three holes had blown open on him.

Strangely, no blood spilled from the holes. Instead, the man shriveled up like a deflated ball, and a vibrant green vine sprouted from each of the three holes, extending along the wall toward the roof.

The old man frowned slightly. He waved his left sleeve, and a circle of faint fire walls expanded outward. When the vines touched the fire, they hissed and turned into thin mist.

Just then, another change occurred. The roof beneath the old man exploded, and two sword beams struck upward at him. From the nearby houses, more farmhands rushed out, some holding swords, others iron rods. All of them had the same vacant expressions, yet their movements were too fast to track.

The old man’s frown deepened. He shot into the sky, his right hand moving in a blur as he formed seals and chanted. Dozens of short blades shot from his sleeves, striking the farmhands with pinpoint accuracy.

Like the first man, they were struck by multiple blades, but no blood flowed. Instead, vines shot from their wounds toward the old man.

The old man seemed wary. His face was solemn as he drew a circle in the air with his left hand while his right hand continued to form seals. A large flame bell appeared around him, carved with ancient, primitive inscriptions that radiated a majestic aura.

The moment the bell appeared, it encased the old man. The incoming vines turned into thick black smoke the moment they touched the flame bell.

A soft laugh echoed: "The Fire God Bell is one of the sect's eight secret techniques. Cultivated to perfection, it repels all evil and demons. I wonder, Senior Brother Yan, to what level have you practiced it?"

"Hmph! You can experience the level of my cultivation yourself, Junior Brother He. But I didn't expect that you, the dignified He Muqing, would set up this 'Yi Wood Soul-Binding Formation' just to avoid my pursuit. Although this formation was created by our sect's predecessors, it requires living people as anchors, which is a grave sin. The new Sect Master has strictly forbidden it as a forbidden technique. I didn't expect you to be so insane. Now that this formation is complete, I fear the lives of the three hundred innocent mortals in this town have all fallen to your poison!"

The words were righteous, but the person in the shadows laughed wildly, as if hearing the funniest joke in the world.

"Blind Yan! Don't pull that act with me! Let's speak plainly. If I die today and you take the treasure, not a single person in this town will survive either. With your methods, would you let any mortal who might leak the news go free? Since that's the case, they might as well be of use to me."

Blind Yan frowned, his divine sense quietly spreading out, seemingly searching for something.

"Stop your nonsense, Junior Brother. Surrender and come back to the sect to confess. Perhaps you can beg the Sect Master for mercy and find a glimmer of hope."

"Hmph, others might not know you, but I do," the voice in the shadows said coldly. "Back then, Senior Brother and Senior Sister Liu were such proud talents, yet they were both driven to their deaths by you!"

Blind Yan snorted coldly, "They were arrogant, reckless, and kept bad company; they had already fallen into the demonic path! I had no choice."

"Hahaha, 'no choice'—what a fine way to put it! It was nothing more than killing to seize treasures, just like what you're doing now! You’ve been lingering on Wenliang Mountain for days, secretly using the sect's secret treasure, the Heart-Asking Mirror, to plant a trace of energy on me to prevent my escape. Hehe, did you really think I didn't know? But you never expected that instead of running, I would set up the Yi Wood Soul-Binding Formation in this town to kill you here, did you? Hahaha!"

Blind Yan sighed. "So, there is nothing left to talk about."

The moment the word "talk" left his lips, Blind Yan struck like lightning. A streak of fiery red light shot toward a large water vat in the corner of the street. With a *clang*, a middle-aged man in green robes scrambled out of the vat in a panic.

This was, of course, the so-called "Junior Brother He," He Muqing. He was tall and thin with hawk-like eyes and a broad nose. His body was covered in flames, and his face was filled with horror.

He formed seals with his hands, green light swirling around him. His skin turned a wood-green color, and primitive inscriptions appeared on it as he tried to resist the flames.

But the flames were like maggots on a bone; no matter what he tried, he couldn't extinguish them.

Blind Yan had already reached the air above He Muqing. He chanted, then spat out four primitive fire nails that pinned He Muqing’s limbs firmly to the ground.

Only then did Blind Yan smile slightly. "Junior Brother, you were too arrogant. Your 'Prisoner Ox Wood Armor' is only at the minor success stage; how could it withstand my 'Fire Wolf Poison'?" He stroked his chin, looking smug.

Victory was in his grasp. Just as he was about to descend to perform a soul-search and find the sect's supreme treasure, a sudden change occurred!

He Muqing’s body on the ground suddenly collapsed like a deflated ball, leaving only a layer of skin on the ground.

From his body, a large number of vines, as thick as a child's arm, shot into the sky, forming a wooden cage that locked Blind Yan inside.

Blind Yan felt his internal spiritual power become as sluggish as mud; he couldn't even use half of his magical arts!

At the same time, a thunderous roar came from underground. Eight spots in the town collapsed, and eight wooden pillars as thick as water vats rose from the ground, forming a mysterious restriction.

Then, the roofs of the houses across the town exploded one after another. All three hundred people in the town flew into the sky.

They all had vacant expressions, their hands forming strange seals. Then, they opened their mouths and spat out three hundred vines toward Blind Yan, who was trapped in the wooden cage.

These vines were as black as ink and emitted a foul stench. After spitting out the vines, everyone's bodies withered rapidly, falling from the sky like mummies, devoid of any life.

Trapped in the formation, Blind Yan felt an overwhelming corrosive aura surrounding him, gnawing at his physical body bit by bit. Even with his cultivation, he couldn't resist it.

Worse, his divine sense seemed to be affected, and his thoughts became slower and slower.

Just before he completely lost consciousness, his left hand brushed the tattered cloth bag at his waist without a trace. The next moment, he went completely still and fell downward.

At that moment, a flash of green light appeared on the ground. A middle-aged man in green robes emerged from the earth. Looking at Blind Yan's corpse, he chuckled

"Senior Brother, you kept talking to me just to find out where I was hiding in the formation, didn't you? It's a pity that for all your calculations, you never knew I had already refined an external avatar. I hid it here specifically to lure you into the formation's kill zone! Hahaha!"

Thinking that with Blind Yan dead, the sect would lose the trail, he felt a sense of relief, imagining himself free to roam the world.

He reached out to take Blind Yan's storage bag, but suddenly felt his spiritual power tighten, then uncontrollably drain toward his feet.

He Muqing was shocked. His instinct was to use an escape technique to fly away, but his feet felt like they were filled with lead and wouldn't budge from the ground.

He scanned downward with his divine sense and saw several fiery red spiders buried halfway into the ground beneath his feet. These spiders were connected head-to-tail in a line, and the other end of the line was the "corpse" of Blind Yan lying on the ground.

He Muqing's spiritual power drained away in an instant, followed by his life force. His eyes widened, and he could only mutter, "Nether Fire Spiders..." before collapsing.

As his life force drained away, on the other side, the face of Blind Yan—who had been on the verge of death—gradually regained its color. His life force slowly returned, and he finally crawled up slowly.

Their battle, though brief, was filled with treachery and danger. But the one who laughed last was the blind old man.

He brushed the dust off his body, looked down at He Muqing's corpse, and said with a self-deprecating smile, "Ever since I obtained these Nether Fire Spiders, I’ve kept them as my ultimate trump card. I never expected to use them on a Junior Brother for the first time. Fate truly plays tricks on people."

He then placed one hand on He Muqing's head. Black light emerged as he began the soul-searching technique. A moment later, his eyes flashed as he looked toward an ordinary-looking house at the entrance of the village, muttering to himself, "So, it's there..."