Yin Yang Soul Searcher

Why?

"Because of the formation at the south gate." The voice came from outside the gate.

Four azure paper figures used for rituals carried a chair into the room. Luo Wuju sat on the chair, looking down at the crowd standing on the ground with a disdainful gaze.

No one could see the darkening of the Vice Hall Master's face beneath his mask. He had long heard that Qiao Shou, that abnormal disciple, had actually brought such a thing from the underworld here!

Is this guy always this eccentric? This isn't the Craftsmen's Hall, isn't he afraid of getting beaten up... Bai Jueming shook his head, too lazy to comment.

Luo Wuju remained seated, showing no intention of getting up. Instead, he continued his eloquent speech: "There's an array my master set up at the South Gate years ago, capable of defending against third-rank officials! If Haifeng were to manipulate that array, even second-rank officials wouldn't be able to get close!"

Everyone was shocked to hear this. They had only heard that the south gate was heavily guarded, with a much stronger defense than the other three gates. They never expected that such a high-level formation was set up here.

The hall masters discussed among themselves. That was an array set up by the world's number one weapon refiner. How many people could easily destroy it?

Luo Wuju looked at their reactions and nodded in satisfaction: "This is why the person behind the scenes wanted to transfer people away from Haifeng!"

Isn't this formation just like the stone lions at the entrance of the Craftsmen's Hall? Bai Jueming thought back to when he first went to find Cheng Yanbing, Cheng Yanbing had explained to him that if those two stone lions were controlled by someone, they could unleash the power of a second-grade master.

Even so, the seemingly impregnable defenses were still breached. Bai Jueming fell into deep thought. Why did the mastermind choose to target the strongest southern side instead of the other three? Could it be just to flex their muscles and demonstrate their strength?

Before the crowd could even whisper among themselves, Bai Jueming suddenly asked, "What exactly is inside the city walls?!"

Bai Jueming's tone was not one of doubt, but of certainty!

"How did you know there was something inside the city walls?" Hai Feng asked, his tone incredulous. He stared wide-eyed at Bai Jueming.

Bai Jueming's lips curled slightly. Basic procedure, don't be silly.

He had just been debating whether to reveal this information, as it involved imperial secrets. He never expected that this junior Yin-Yang Master could be so certain of a secret within the city walls from just a few words!

The four hall masters were no less surprised than Haifeng, and their expressions were even more varied when Haifeng uttered those words.

Li Zhengshan was thinking to himself, "Why don't I just give him the position of hall master? I feel like I'm completely useless here."

Han Xueshan, who was always deep in thought, wanted to say, "How can this bitch guess everything? How come I didn't think of that?"

"I didn't expect you to be so clever, just like me." Luo Wuju, sitting in the chair, laughed heartily.

What do you mean by "comparable to you"... Bai Jueming was speechless.

The deputy hall master smiled, thinking, "What a clever Onmyoji." He then glanced at Luo Wuju, silently closing his eyes, deciding to ignore him.

Haifeng looked at Bai Jueming with some admiration, thinking to himself that since the contents had already been lost, there was no point in keeping the secret any longer.

"Inside is gunpowder that the Craftsmen's Hall refined for the Ministry of War!" Haifeng explained. "This gunpowder is different from the low-powered gunpowder used in fireworks and firecrackers sold by the public."

"This gunpowder contains runes and formations, specifically for military use, and is extremely powerful. On the battlefield, it can disrupt enemy formations."

The wars in the world of cultivators are different from the ancient wars in Bai Jueming's world. In this world, even mortals can resist attacks from high-level cultivators by using magical artifacts, formations, and proper formations.

There's no such thing as a high-level cultivator simply sweeping away tens of thousands of troops. Except for first-level cultivators, because first-level cultivators can no longer be considered human...

This specially refined gunpowder contains runes and formations that can disrupt military formations!

At this moment, Luo Wuju couldn't help but interject, "I helped refine all of these gunpowders." His tone was full of pride, just as Cheng Yanbing was proud of refining pills.

"So the person behind this is after the gunpowder?" Bai Jueming asked.

"That's right." Haifeng nodded. "The south city wall is now completely empty, without a trace of gunpowder."

Gunpowder for destroying military formations, battlefield-specific? Bai Jueming stroked his chin thoughtfully: "Is there any place in our Great Xia that requires war recently?"

Finally, the hall masters, who had been largely ignored, spoke up.

In order to demonstrate his role as the head of the hall to his younger brother, Li Zhengshan took the lead and answered, "His Majesty ordered the Craftsmen's Hall to forge magical artifacts in order to avenge the Imperial Preceptor. Once the artifacts were forged and transported to Yunzhou, Prince Gaoyang was to send troops to attack the demon race first."

"Some time ago, the Imperial Advisor led a group to subdue the auspicious beast, which offended Beichen. However, Beichen has not yet taken any action to wage war."

"The border between Western Shu and our Great Xia is constantly embroiled in wars, large and small. Besides that, there's nothing else." With that, Li Zhengshan straightened his back slightly. The other three hall masters also felt a great sense of satisfaction.

Bai Jueming was speechless. This was ridiculous! They only had three neighbors, and they'd offended them all from the Great Xia Dynasty. Luckily, Great Xia was powerful, otherwise they would have been wiped out long ago...

The deputy hall master asked with interest, "Which faction do you think stole the gunpowder?"

Bai Jueming fell into deep thought. Since this gunpowder was unique to Great Xia, all three factions were suspects. Who could it be?

The room fell silent as everyone present pondered who was trying to steal the gunpowder.

After pondering for a moment, Bai Jueming gave up, as there were simply too few clues: "Replying to the Vice Hall Master, I can't guess."

The deputy hall master's face remained calm beneath his mask. This outcome was to be expected, since he himself couldn't possibly guess who had done it.

At this moment, Luo Wuju frowned and said, "I have some clues about the formation, I don't know if they will be helpful to you. When I was studying that formation at the South Gate, I found that the formation did not actively defend itself."

"What do you mean? The formation has malfunctioned?" Bai Jueming asked back.

"No, no, no, although I think my master's array skills need improvement, he would never make such a small mistake as an array malfunctioning." Luo Wuju shook his head.

"This formation activates automatically when enemies approach, its main purpose being to buy time." Luo Wuju scratched his head, his tone full of confusion: "But after my research, the formation doesn't activate on its own."

"This means that person's skill in array formations is extremely high. Although I hate to admit it, I have to say that only my master's skill in array formations can achieve this level in the entire Great Xia Dynasty! I'm still a tiny bit behind."

As soon as he finished speaking, Luo Wuju suddenly shuddered. He was startled by what he had just said and muttered, "Could it have been Master who did this...?"

Luo Wuju's words reminded Bai Jueming of something. When Cheng Yanbing delivered the elixir to the Imperial Preceptor, an unknown person had set up an array around it. It was only later learned that this person's array skills were also very high! Could it be the same person who did this?!

Which faction does this person belong to? First, he intercepted the Imperial Preceptor's elixirs, then he destroyed the South Gate and took away explosives. What exactly is he trying to do?

"And I've noticed that this formation master seems rather boring," Luo Wuju said, frowning.

Everyone was taken aback by his words and turned to look at him. Dude, what do you mean by saying something like that in such a serious setting?

Ignoring everyone's gaze, Luo Wuju continued, "Since that person was able to evade the formation and sneak into the south gate, he could have easily taken the explosives and left."

Then Luo Wuju said with some doubt, "What's strange is that he insisted on ruining this formation. Don't you think he was being ridiculous? Isn't doing this just a waste of time?"

"Uh..." Bai Jueming was speechless for a moment, but he was certain that no one would do such a thing for no reason; there must be a purpose behind it.

In the inner city, there was still a restaurant not far from Qingyue Tower, separated by a river.

Inside the VIP box on the top floor, the alluring and seductive Jinxiu and the dazzlingly green Yangliu were the first to arrive.

Shortly after, two men entered through the door. The thinner man had disguised himself, making his face unremarkable. Behind him followed a burly man, who had also changed his appearance.

Jinxiu held a golden compass in her hand. After the thin man sat down, she smiled and said, "Thank you for lending us the compass, sir. It allowed us to steal those explosives."

"It's a pleasure doing business with you." The man smiled calmly, put the compass away, and placed it in his sleeve.

"My lord, I have a question for you." Jinxiu winked and said with a smile, "Since you two helped us lure away Haifeng, a fourth-rank official, making it impossible for him to control the formation, we were able to easily sneak into the south gate and take away the explosives."

"Why do we still need to destroy that formation? Isn't that redundant? The formation explosion didn't kill everyone; a few escaped and saw Lord Peng."

"You want explosives, I want the formation destroyed. Is there any perfect solution in this world?" the unremarkable-looking man said calmly.

"May I ask why you insist on destroying the formation, sir?" Jinxiu asked coquettishly.

The man smiled faintly and said, "You can think I'm just bored and want someone to repair the formation."

Jinxiu pouted coquettishly, "If you don't want to talk about it, then don't."

Yin Yang Palace

Luo Wuju grumbled, "This guy seems to be there specifically to repair formations. This formation is so huge, I couldn't finish repairing it in seven days!"

Bai Jueming rested his chin on his hand, deep in thought. Leaving aside the question of what purpose the array master had in stealing the gunpowder and disrupting the array, the clue of Luo Wuju regarding the array itself couldn't determine which faction had stolen the gunpowder.

At this moment, the deputy hall master, who had been silent all along, spoke up: "We can't determine who stole the gunpowder using the array as a clue. So we still need to look for clues on those corpses."

The deputy hall master glanced at Bai Jueming with a headache, thinking of the Yin-Yang Master who had given Bai Jueming pointers. "Since all the corpses and souls have been destroyed, let's start with an internal investigation within our Yin-Yang Hall."

It's highly likely that it wasn't done by people from the Yin-Yang Palace, but the necessary procedures still need to be followed.

Bai Jueming understood the Vice Hall Master's look. Just as the Vice Hall Master was about to make a move, Bai Jueming hurriedly reported, "I have something to report to the Vice Hall Master. I suspect it may be related to the bombing. This happened in the early hours of this morning."

Hu Jinggu's heart skipped a beat, and he asked first, "Was it the battle within our night watch area?"

Li Zhengshan looked at the two men with some confusion. How come I didn't know? Isn't Bai Jueming my subordinate?