Start with acting, and you'll achieve immortality!

Li Ping stared at the flames of life, forcing out two words through gritted teeth.

"fart"

Fang Cheng stood in the center of the inverted array plate, one hand pressed against the core of the array. Dark red patterns crawled out from under his palm, spreading in circles along the well wall, and the moisture in the cracks of the stone was baked into white smoke.

Inside and outside the round gate, the heat was so intense it made one's throat taste blood.

Su Wan deflected the incoming copper rope with the tip of her sword, but the wound on her right shoulder reopened, and blood flowed down her sleeve. Her left hand, however, remained steady.

Qin Shoushan glanced at the array plate, his face darkening.

"He'll use the whole city to fill this furnace."

"Only a blind man wouldn't see that," Li Ping said, pulling the register and birth certificate from his pocket. "They took their indentures, so we have to cancel their registrations today."

Fang Cheng heard it

The blood-red light pressed down from the array plate, and his voice pierced through the old corpse's throat, echoing from the depths of the black water.

"Am I crazy? For three years at the bottom of this well, they've been howling in my ear every night. No one's going to be free until this furnace is smashed!"

Li Ping smiled, blood smeared at the corner of his mouth.

"That's a very accurate calculation. But did you ever calculate that you wouldn't even be able to climb out of this well today?"

"I died here three years ago."

"Even in death you're still causing so much trouble; how much more annoying must you have been when you were alive?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Li Ping formed a hand seal.

The first booklet flew up, its pages rustling as it turned. The register followed, floating in mid-air, its pages lighting up line by line, then dimming again. The two registers hung before Li Ping, one turning left and the other right, their text tearing at each other, yet they did not scatter.

The copper cable suddenly taut

Twelve muffled thuds came from the well wall.

The nodes of Mountain Twelve were locked one by one.

Li Ping's chest sank, and the earth elemental energy in his dantian was violently sucked in by the array. His knees almost hit the ground, but he managed to brace himself against the threshold with his heels.

Su Wan stepped forward, pressing the blade of her sword against his shoulder to steady him.

My hands were shaking.

"I won't die," Li Ping spat out a mouthful of blood. "The score isn't settled yet, how can I leave first?"

The core of the mother array under Fang Cheng's palm was dazzlingly bright.

It was a palm-sized, blackish-red array core, embedded in the center of the array plate, surrounded by fine copper wires. The areas south and north of the city, the docks, old houses, salt warehouses, and even more distant counties and villages were all suspended at the ends of the copper wires.

The life fire of mortals is the most subtle and the most numerous.

Fang Cheng also looked at those fires

"Have you counted how many people are buried at the bottom of this well? And how many of those living people outside will be put into the furnace tonight?"

"So you're using innocent lives to fill your own hole?"

"Those who owe debts, none of them will escape."

"Stop patting yourself on the back," Li Ping said, his hand seals shifting, the two volumes of text suddenly flipping back. "The bastards you killed—the dung-carrying, pancake-selling, and bag-carrying families—have protective formations. By the time they're dead, the mortals in this city will have been wiped out!"

Fang Cheng did not reply.

The array plate sank down, and the twelve copper ropes pressed down on Li Ping simultaneously.

Su Wan unleashed a sword strike, the fire talisman exploding against the blade, forcing aside two of Qin Shoushan's raised arms. The furnace token from her sleeve fell to the ground, and the small bronze seal smashed into a crevice, forcefully wedging the third one.

Ren Jun cursed from the other end of the narrow passage.

"Li Ping! He can't hold on any longer!"

His voice had barely reached us when it was swallowed by the sound of water; the chains struck the shield, denting the bronze shield's surface.

Li Ping did not answer.

He stared at the outer edge of the array plate.

A recorded the route

Recognizing people in the birth register

Fang Cheng used them as keys, so he used the other way around to lock the door.

The two volumes of text spun faster and faster, and twelve dark dots emerged from the depths of the black water, each connected to an outer thread.

Li Ping bit his tongue, spitting a mouthful of blood between the two books.

"Mountain twelve, borrow nine to return to one."

His voice was very hoarse.

"Return it to your mother"

As the blood fell, a thin, yellowish-brown light immediately split open between the two volumes. The light pierced the black water, circled the twelve dark spots, and then suddenly tightened.

The array plate trembled.

Fang Cheng's fingers, pressing on the array core, sank into the copper wire, blood seeping from between his fingers. He looked at Li Ping, and finally, a hint of human anger appeared in his eyes.

"Li Ping, you can't control this stove."

"Who told you I was the only one here?"

Li Ping looked up to the side.

An old corpse leaped out of the black water.

The face was so soaked it was unrecognizable, but there was an old scar on the brow bone. Behind the old corpse, Shen Zhu's body was half submerged in water, his right arm supporting him, his left hand gripping the copper core.

Qin Shoushan's pupils contracted.

"Shen Zhu!"

Shen Zhu didn't look at him, and forcefully inserted the copper core into the intersection of the outer wires.

Click

The fine copper wires burst open at the socket, and a corner of the array plate collapsed.

Shen Zhu's mouth was full of blood, but his voice was clear.

"Old corpse, lead the way, let's go!"

The old corpses underwater simultaneously grabbed one, two, then a dozen or so old souls who had been bound by copper chains for three years, clinging to the copper rings beneath the core of the mother array. Dragging their rotting bodies, they forcefully pulled the array core deeper into the black water.

Fang Cheng's expression changed.

"Junior Brother"

"Senior brother," Shen Zhu smirked, "we've had enough of this filthy water."

The old corpses suddenly sank down.

The core of the mother formation is half an inch away from the center of the formation.

Half an inch is enough

The text between Li Ping's two volumes suddenly reversed, the twelve nodes of the mountain simultaneously darkened, the life-fire patterns on the well wall broke into segments, the dark red color receded along the cracks in the stone, and patches of fire detached from the battle line, drifting back to their original locations.

In a dilapidated house in the south of the city, Pei Xing suddenly opened his eyes.

The furnace mark pressing against his chest crumbled into ash, which settled on his clothes. He forced a breath, startling the guards who dropped their bowls.

Pei Xing gripped the edge of the bed, and after a long while, he finally uttered two words.

"Underground"

At the other end of the narrow passage, Qin Shoushan dragged Ren Jun backward.

The crack in Ren Jun's soul imprint on his left arm had already spread to his shoulder, the flesh torn and blood dripping down his side. Just as the core of the mother array shifted, the crack stopped.

Ren Jun glanced down and forced a curse through clenched teeth.

"Just a hair's breadth away... and this sign of mine would be hanging on the wall."

Qin Shoushan pulled him up.

"Shut up, and save your life to get back to Jiangning."

Deep in the black water, Fang Cheng suddenly reached out.

A fragment that had broken off from the core flew past the old corpse and was caught in his palm. The fragment burned his palm until it smoked, but he pressed it into his clothes, instantly leaving scorch marks on his collar.

Li Ping saw it.

"Fang Cheng!"

Fang Cheng did not explain

He glanced at Li Ping, words stuck in his throat, but ultimately he swallowed them all back.

The next moment, the core of the mother formation was dragged into the black water by the old corpse.

The entire well array was blown up.

Li Ping only had time to shield the armor and life record to his chest before spiritual energy surged up from beneath his feet, sending him flying. His back slammed against the stone wall with a cracking sound, and everything went black before his eyes.

Something passed through my forehead

A very small fragment of the array core

The moment the pain began, hundreds and thousands of array patterns, lines, points, doors, pivots, living arrays, dead arrays, reverse pushes, borrowing momentum, breaking the tip, sealing the furnace... countless words and phrases rushed in, forcibly crammed into his head.

Myriad Formations

残篇

Li Ping wanted to curse, but only blood welled up in his mouth.

"Shoving so much garbage in here... are you trying to kill me?"

Well wall cracks

Large rocks crashed into the black water, the splashing water carrying a putrid stench. The copper beams above the round gate bent, and the twelve copper cables snapped one after another, the broken pieces striking the stone wall and leaving deep marks.

Su Wan lunged forward and grabbed Li Ping by the collar.

Li Ping's body was half-paralyzed with weakness; the armor and life record were pressed tightly against his chest, still burning with heat.

A rope suddenly fell from above.

Gravel rolled down the rope, and someone poked half their body out from above the well opening.

"Grasp!"

Su Wan wrapped the rope around Li Ping's waist and pulled him behind her back.

Li Ping opened his eyes groggily.

"Let's make a deal, put me down first."

"Shut up"

"I'm supposed to be an acting prefect, how am I supposed to get promoted and make a fortune if you keep pushing me like this?"

Su Wan rushed up the collapsed stone steps, gripping the rope with her left hand, her right shoulder soaked with blood on half of her clothes.

"You're already dead, and you still want to act like an official?"

The entrance to the wastewater tank was blocked by smoke and dust. Qin Shoushan dragged Ren Jun out first, while Shen Zhu was still at the edge of the black water, surrounded by several old corpses, as the water slowly rose.

Li Ping tried to turn around, but a sharp pain shot through his head, and the array patterns were surging wildly in his mind again.

"Where is Shen Zhu?"

No one answered.

Su Wan carried him as they rushed out of the wastewater tank. Torches flickered outside, and Pei Xing, wearing an outer robe, stood in front of the crowd, his face devoid of life, yet he held a knife in his hand.

"Pick them up!"

Several constables rushed forward to support Su Wan, and then went to help Qin Shoushan and Ren Jun.

Pei Xing saw that Li Ping's face was covered in blood, and his Adam's apple bobbed.

"Alive?"

Li Ping, lying on Su Wan's back, laboriously lifted his eyelids.

"He's barely hanging on. If you don't get someone to lend a hand soon, things are really going to get tough."

The final collapse came from underground.

With a crash, a beam of copper light shot out from the wellhead, grazing Qin Shoushan's shoulder and embedding itself in the earthen wall. He dodged to the side, and the copper piece, about the size of a palm, embedded itself three inches into the wall, glowing red-hot with smoke still rising from its edges.

Qin Shoushan recognized the fragments that had collapsed from the core of the mother array.

He didn't say anything, bent down, pulled it out, wrapped it in his sleeve, and stuffed it into his pocket.

The ground sank, the wellhead deep inside the wastewater tank collapsed completely, black water surged up, only to be pushed back down by falling rocks. The dark red flames finally dissipated, leaving only dampness and dust seeping out from the cracks.

Li Ping looked down at the blood-stained ledger in his arms, and forced a smile.

"Before I go to wake Gao Min at dawn, I want to ruin the reputation of the Shangguan family throughout the entire street."