Start with acting, and you'll achieve immortality!

Just as Jiang Lie's hand touched the top of the wall, a very faint meow came from the depths of the alley behind him.

He glanced back.

In the alley, more than thirty people stood against the wall, their sticks wrapped in cloth and their knives hidden in their sleeves.

Wei Shanhe stood guard at the main gate, while Luo Jin stood in the shadows further away, a copper whistle clutched in his hand.

No one spoke.

Jiang Lie climbed over the wall, his feet landing on the blue bricks without making a sound.

He grinned, waved towards the outside of the wall, and said, "Come in."

As soon as the second person landed, Jiang Lie frowned.

The backyard was more vivid in his memory than he remembered.

During the day, from the outside, the wall is only a dozen steps from the main hall, but now the corridor stretches far into the distance, the lamplight shrouded in mist, and the eaves line one after another.

"Master Jiang," the person behind him said in a low voice, "this wall... why can't I even see the edge?"

"Shut up, follow the flashing blades."

He himself couldn't say who he was saying that to.

The mist rose from my feet, just reaching my ankles, carrying the earthy smell of dampness.

Jiang Lie drew his sword and walked forward, passing through a moon gate, and then another moon gate appeared before him.

A broken water vat stood by the door; he remembered passing by it just now, and half a brick was missing from the rim.

This time it's still missing.

He reached up and wiped his hand along the rim of the jar, his fingertips smeared with wet mud.

"stop"

The crowd bumped into each other, and someone immediately asked from behind, "What happened?"

Jiang Lie stared at the water vat, without answering.

He took three steps to the side, drew his sword, and slashed at the mist.

The blade struck an invisible, hard wall, the impact causing a sharp pain in the palm of my hand, and the blade nearly slipped from my grasp.

A muffled sound came from inside the fog wall.

"There's a formation!"

"Don't panic!"

Jiang Lie stopped everyone, "Stand against the wall, step back."

They retreated a dozen steps, but the base of the wall beneath their feet shifted direction.

The place where we had just climbed in was gone, leaving only a row of low-ceilinged rooms in front of us.

Jiang Lie grabbed one of his men by the collar: "Which way did you come in from?"

The man pointed behind him, his lips trembling, "Ghosts...ghost wall!"

Which way?

The man's hand fell, and everything around him was shrouded in mist.

On the rooftop, Su Wan stood beside Li Ping, sword in hand.

Looking at the people repeatedly hitting walls in the courtyard, she asked, "Aren't you going to close the net yet?"

"What's the rush? Let's look around some more."

"Someone has already started trying to break into the wall."

"Keep digging, the mud isn't deep. If you're strong enough, you can dig half a foot."

Su Wan glanced at him: "You even calculated exactly how they would dig the soil?"

Li Ping's fingers rested on the tile surface, and the array patterns extended from beneath his fingers, delicately connecting with several layers of soil at the base of the wall.

With each shovelful of soil dug, the other side would turn over and fill the pit back up.

"Calculated"

He said, "Jiang Lie will be anxious, Wei Shanhe will test the waters, and Luo Jin will conserve his energy. If the three of them get together, none of them will be able to get out."

Outside the main gate, Wei Shanhe waited for a moment, then heard a commotion coming from inside the courtyard.

"Jiang Lie!"

No one answered.

He took half a step forward, and Su Wan had already leaped down from the roof, landing on the threshold.

The sword was still in its sheath, his palm pressing down on the hilt.

Wei Shanhe recognized her, and the scar on his face twitched: "Miss Su, swords have no eyes, don't bring trouble to the guild."

"As long as the door stands, our lives remain."

"With more people, the rules can be more firmly established."

"The door is open, come in."

Wei Shanhe looked into the fog inside the door, and then heard Jiang Lie's roar again.

The sound seemed to come from near and far, crashing through several walls before reaching us.

He didn't move.

Su Wan stepped back, clearing the doorway: "What, you're afraid?"

Wei Shanhe pressed his right hand on the hilt, his thumb pushing open the handguard, and the gleaming blade slid slowly out of its sheath, emitting a soft metallic scraping sound.

The moment the knife tip crossed the threshold, a bulge appeared in the ground.

A faint cracking sound came from beneath the bluestone. He immediately sheathed his knife and retreated, his shoes leaving two black marks as they scraped against the stone.

"Li Ping!"

He shouted into the courtyard, "Hiding in your positions like cowards, is that all the courage the Jiangning Guild Hall has?"

Li Ping's voice came from the eaves: "Master Wei, the people aren't all here yet, are you in such a hurry to reincarnate?"

"Did you set up this formation?"

"Um"

"Withdraw from the south of the city, and you can release the people."

"Master Wei, you brought thirty knives when you smashed up the door, and now you're demanding people out of thin air? Do you think I run a charity?"

Wei Shanhe gritted his teeth, turned around, and blew his copper whistle.

Upon hearing the whistle, Luo Jin immediately led the men outside to retreat into the back alley.

After walking only a dozen steps, my feet sank into a patch of loose mud.

Four people fell down, and those behind couldn't stop in time, tumbling into a heap.

Qian Duo emerged from the alleyway with gold teeth.

"Oh dear, Master Luo, what a rush you're making in the middle of the night! You haven't even settled the tea bill at the guild hall yet!"

Luo Jin raised his stick and smashed it.

Gold Tooth dodged to the side, while Money Talker pulled a paper packet from his sleeve, flicked it, and a cloud of white lime powder poured over his head.

Luo Jin's eyes burned with pain. He had only uttered half a curse when the mud beneath his feet crumbled like water, and with a thud, his knees slammed heavily into the mud.

"Don't rub your eyes! Rubbing this lime will make you blinder!"

Qian Duo stepped back two paces and said, "You'd better squat down."

The alley was in complete chaos

The courtyard was even more chaotic.

Jiang Lie swung his blade seventeen times in quick succession, chipping three notches into the hard fog wall. His entire right arm ached as if filled with lead, and he could barely grip the hilt of his sword.

Someone tried to climb off the roof, but as soon as they stepped onto the tiles, the eaves shifted outwards, and they lost their footing and fell back onto the muddy ground.

Someone sat on the ground, panting, "Master, how long have we been walking?"

"Shut up"

"My leg is cramping."

"stand up!"

Jiang Lie reached out to pull, but his knees sank into the mud first.

He tried to pull it out twice, but the mud only tightened, and he even tore off half of his shoe.

The mist clung to his face, and sweat dripped down his temples.

He raised his sword and slashed at the ground, the blade sinking into the mud, but he was held down by the force of the attack along with half of his arm.

"Li Ping!"

There was no response from the rooftop.

Jiang Lie's voice quickly turned into curses.

After cursing, he shouted, and after shouting, he continued cursing.

The group of over thirty people went from shouting and yelling to pushing and shoving each other, and then to each finding a place to sit down, all in less than half an hour.

An hour later, the only sound in the courtyard was panting.

Before dawn, Li Ping climbed down from the rooftop and nodded to Da Niu and Er Hu.

"Go in and drag them out."

Da Niu carried the hemp rope, and Er Hu carried the wooden stick, stepping into the fog.

With each step they took, a small patch of earthy-yellow light appeared beneath their feet, and the array's power automatically parted to make way for them.

The first one to be dragged out was Jiang Lie.

His arms hung limply, his mouth full of mud. When he saw Li Ping, he tried to kick him, but his leg went weak halfway up.

Da Niu pressed him to the ground, wrapped a rope around his shoulder and back: "Behave yourself, save your energy."

"Let me go!"

"You've become a spineless coward, what are you still yelling at me for?"

Erhu said from the side

Wei Shanhe did not wait for anyone to drag him.

He walked out through the main gate, his knife already sheathed, his face grim, and his clothes covered in wet mud.

Luo Jin was also brought over by Qian Duo, his eyes so red he could barely open them, still reporting the damage to the formation.

"Sir," Qian Duo pushed Luo Jin forward, "this Master Luo is shrewd. He said he'd have to pay for his medical expenses if he damaged a few of our bricks."

Li Ping glanced at the three men, then looked at the gang members lying in the courtyard.

"Tie them all up securely; keep them to exchange for the ransom with Chief He."

Da Niu finished tying up the last person, and a sliver of gray light was already appearing on the horizon.

The three main leaders lay sprawled in the front courtyard of the guild hall, their ropes tied very tightly.

Li Ping asked Qian Duo to bring over three bowls of hot porridge, and then carried one bowl to Wei Shanhe.

"Master Wei, you've been up all night. Have some porridge to warm your stomach so we can settle the score later."

Wei Shanhe raised his head, mud smeared from the corner of his mouth.

He stared at the bowl of porridge for a moment, his Adam's apple bobbing.

"Master Li"

"Um"

I give up.

Li Ping placed the porridge in front of him: "Drink the porridge first, then we can talk about compensation."

Wei Shanhe lowered his head, his forehead touching the ground.

He had only been inside the formation for an hour, but he felt as if his legs no longer belonged to him.

They couldn't cut through it with a knife, they couldn't find their way, and the thirty-odd people around them were all losing their strength.

No one hit him, no one forced him to kneel.

But his kneeling was even more decisive than when he pleaded for his brother years ago.

The bowl of porridge swayed slightly on the cold stone slab, rippling out in delicate circles.

Li Ping looked up at the doorway. At the end of the long street, the morning mist was torn apart by the rapid sound of horses' hooves.