Chapter 85: A Little Cold (Part 1)
The next day, after Hua Changge and Yan Chuan had discovered the stacked formation in the ancient town, they had notified the Special Investigation Team in Liangshui and the Xuanmen to send people to seal the ancient town. The Metaphysics family in Liangshui was the Sang family, and both the Special Investigation Team and the Xuanmen had people from the Sang family.
When Sang Jing got out of the car, she saw Sang Lingfei holding a horsetail whisk, and beside her was the second master of the main Sang family. Her short hair was neat, and she was wearing a decent black Chinese-style vest. A few circles of sandalwood beads were wrapped around her wrist, and there were seven Celestial Master coins hanging from her waist.
When she looked at Sang Jing, there was not much emotion in her naturally gloomy and cold eyes. She even nodded at Sang Jing.
“Is she greeting you?” Xie Yu said in Sang Jing’s ear.
Sang Jing looked away and replied, “I don’t know. It has nothing to do with me.”
Except for the karma that had fallen on Sang Lingxi, how the Sang family was and how the Sang family was had nothing to do with her.
Sang Lingfei still had some opinions about Sang Jing. Although it was because of Sang Lingyun that the Sang family had been implicated, that incident had prevented her from participating in the assessment for three years. She blamed everyone.
The Donglai Sang family had been completely expelled, but that Sang Lingxi was still in the main family. She didn’t like her either.
Walking straight past the Sang family, Sang Jing didn’t even give them a glance.
Sang Lingfei snorted in a low voice. “What’s there to be arrogant about?”
She’s still from a side branch of the Sang family.
Sang Wanning glanced at her and said coldly, “She is an eight-coin Celestial Master recognized by the seven chairmen of the Xuanmen. What do you think she’s arrogant about? Not to mention her age, if you had half her level, you’d be even more arrogant than her.”
Sang Lingfei fell silent. Although Sang Wanning was only the second master of the family, everyone in the main family knew her methods. She was ruthless and merciless, and never showed any favoritism. She was the sharpest knife in the hands of the head of the family.
“Let’s go back,” Sang Wanning said, turning around.
Sang Lingfei: “Then we’re not going to bother with the ancient town?”
Sang Wanning: “With the Special Investigation Team and the Xuanmen here, it’s not our Sang family’s turn.”
“Oh.”
Bei Shan saw the two of them walk away, turned her head, and put her hands behind her head, saying with a pointed tone, “Retribution.”
She had known Sang Jing for a relatively long time. When they had first met, Sang Jing had saved Bei Shan from a vicious ghost. At that time, Sang Jing was still a thin and small little girl, sallow and emaciated. It was clear that she was not eating well. But her metaphysical arts were quite powerful.
Bei Shan had wanted to recruit her into the Special Investigation Team. After investigating, she had found out that Sang Jing was living under someone else’s roof in the Sang family, with no one to love her and was even being bullied. She was truly a pitiful little thing.
Fortunately, the child was promising. She had gotten into Nancheng University and had left the Sang family. In the blink of an eye, she was already a beautiful young woman, and someone the Sang family could not reach.
Bei Shan was happy for her from the bottom of her heart.
There were not many people in the ancient town. It had suddenly become deserted from the liveliness of the past two days. The sky was gloomy today, but the temperature was not low. It was damp and stuffy, making people feel irritable.
Bei Shan glanced at Tan Wei. She had a ghost beside her and wouldn’t feel hot. She was a portable little air conditioner. Then she looked at Sang Jing. She was wearing a coat and hadn’t even broken a sweat. It was clear that she was not hot. Besides, she also had a ghost.
She was the only one who was wiping her sweat with one tissue after another, her face red from the heat.
“I’m considering changing careers,” Bei Shan said, looking up.
Tan Wei smiled. “Changing careers also depends on talent. Team Leader Bei Shan should just focus on being a Celestial Master.”
Bei Shan was stunned. What did she mean by that? Was she saying she had no talent for being a Ghost Master!?
Sang Jing was two steps behind them. Xie Yu was walking beside her, getting closer and closer.
She had been walking in the middle of the road, but in the end, Sang Jing was almost pressed against the wall.
“…”
Sang Jing turned her head to look at her with a smile. Before she could speak, her hand was taken.
Xie Yu pulled her two steps towards the middle. “Don’t be angry, don’t be angry. I won’t squeeze you anymore.”
The path was straight, but her hand was still held.
Sang Jing glanced at their joined hands, then looked up at the unconcealed delight on Xie Yu’s face.
Oh, so she was deliberately squeezing her just to hold her hand.
She did not expose a certain ghost’s thoughts on the spot, nor did she withdraw her hand.
They walked all the way to the bridge that Tan Wei had mentioned. Hua Changge and the others were already there, as well as the three people who had been brought over, Yang Yan, Qin Ge, and Manager Pan.
Besides them, there was another person standing in front of Yang Yan. Sang Jing had not seen her before, but she had seen her photo in the Xuanmen assessment. The chairman of the Tianji branch, Xia Changqing.
In the past, it had always been the vice-chairman, Tan Wei, who had come forward for the Xuanmen’s Tianji branch. The chairman, Xia Changqing, was said to have been busy with a difficult matter.
Today, Sang Jing had finally seen her in person. Xia Changqing was wearing a simple and clean shirt and trousers. A pair of gold-rimmed glasses rested on her high nose bridge, giving her a scholarly and quiet air. Her face was slightly red from anger.
Sang Jing remembered that Xia Changqing cultivated the incantation law. This type of Celestial Master was usually very sensitive to the aura of all things in nature.
Yan Chuan had been talking with Hua Changge. Seeing Sang Jing and the others, she raised her hand. “Here.”
Hearing this, Xia Changqing tilted her head slightly to look over, then quickly turned back and reprimanded Yang Yan with a pained expression.
If it were anyone else, they might not have noticed anything. But Sang Jing was very sensitive to people’s gazes.
Just now, this Chairman Xia had looked at her at first glance, then at Tan Wei, and finally, her gaze had returned to her, with a scrutinizing look.
The last scrutinizing look did not have curiosity, but something else.
A group of people gathered. Bei Shan looked around and didn’t see Wei Qingyun. She asked, “Where’s Team Leader Wei?”
Hua Changge: “She went to move the magical artifact.”
“Move?”
Bei Shan was puzzled. Generally, a Xuan Master’s magical artifact was light and portable. How big of a magical artifact would require the word “move”?
Soon, Bei Shan knew why she had said “move.”
Hua Changge had been conservative. This was not moving; this was transporting! And it was transporting parts. In the end, it had to be assembled with a crane.
This magical artifact was a pagoda.
Sang Jing looked at the gradually piling up pagoda and felt a little familiar, as if she had seen it somewhere before.
It wasn’t until the complete pagoda appeared before her that Sang Jing remembered.
This was the pagoda of Pudu Temple! She had had a quick glance at it in the Golden Hall when she had gone to find Master Huimu.
Having received the incense offerings of thousands of people, the evil-suppressing effect of this pagoda was rare in the world.
Wei Qingyun drank half a bottle of water in one go. “It was so hard to borrow this thing. The temple was crying a river. It felt like taking their pagoda was like demolishing their temple. I talked until my mouth was dry. In the end, a Master Huimu came and persuaded them for a few sentences, and only then were they willing to let us take it.”
She was standing beside Hua Changge and talking. Hua Changge didn’t pay any attention to her and turned to ask Yan Chuan, “Are you hungry?”
Yan Chuan was very cooperative and hugged Hua Changge’s arm. “I’m not hungry yet. Will Sister Hua accompany me to eat sweet pastries at night?”
Hua Changge: “Alright.”
Wei Qingyun: “…”
The only other Special Investigation Team leader, Bei Shan, chuckled twice and then unscrewed another bottle of water and handed it to Wei Qingyun. “Team Leader Wei has worked hard. Here, have some water.”
Wei Qingyun snorted coldly and did not make a fool of herself. She took the water from Bei Shan and walked to the side, coming to Xia Changqing’s side and handing her the water. “Did you say anything?”
Bei Shan: “…”
Crazy.
Xia Changqing glanced at the water and smiled politely, refusing. “No.”
Wei Qingyun had originally wanted to use this bottle of water to see Hua Changge’s reaction, but she hadn’t even gotten a glance. She was still talking and laughing with Yan Chuan.
It made her look a little ridiculous and deliberate.
After drinking all the water in one go, Wei Qingyun composed herself and began to work. Although the pagoda had been transported over, it still needed to have talismans pasted on it.
When it was time to break the formation later, she still didn’t know what the situation of the evil ghost she had found would be. If she didn’t use a talisman to stabilize the pagoda, and it was damaged or broken, she wouldn’t be able to explain it.
The person who was best at formations here was Sang Jing. The matter of breaking the formation would be done by her and Zhu Yun together.
“Teacher! I will do my best to cooperate with you!”
Zhu Yun on the other side was very excited.
Ever since the assessment, after Sang Jing had sent her those few sets of formations, Zhu Yun had gone crazy. She would come and ask her about formations from time to time, calling her “teacher” one after another, which gave Sang Jing a headache. After that, she was even afraid to see her messages pop up.
Sang Jing had talked to her several times, but she had not been able to get her to change her address, so she had simply given up.
Stubborn.
Everyone had their own things to do. Wei Qingyun and Bei Shan were in charge of the talismans on the pagoda. Hua Changge was looking at Qin Ge. There were traces of a spiritual doctor’s work on Qin Ge’s body. Each spiritual doctor had different habits. From those traces, it might be possible to distinguish which school the spiritual doctor who had created the one body, two souls belonged to. Yan Chuan was leading the people from the Xuanmen and the Special Investigation Team to check for any omissions in the ancient town.
Xia Changqing and Tan Wei were questioning Yang Yan, and Wenren Jin was also beside them.
Sang Jing was running back and forth on both sides of the bridge. It was not until the evening that she had confirmed the one hundred and sixty-two formation eyes. Both formations were actually double-nine formations.
A double-nine formation had eighty-one formation eyes. Besides one main formation eye, there were twelve large formation eyes and sixty-eight small formation eyes.
Breaking a formation was not like breaking a formation. To break a formation, you had to find the main formation eye. Breaking the formation eye would break the formation. But to break a formation, you had to start from the small formation eyes, then the large formation eyes, and then the main formation eye. One wrong step and the whole game would be lost.
And the ancient town bridge was the main formation eye of the two double-nine formations, a suppression formation and a killing formation. Even before the formation was broken, one could feel the restless aura below. It was conceivable how fierce the things below were. So these two formations could only be broken, not broken.
From dawn to dusk, Sang Jing had not stopped. And on the other side, Zhu Yun was recording all the large and small formation eyes on a large, custom-made piece of paper in an empty room.
Seeing the formation eye map that Zhu Yun had sent over, Sang Jing took a deep breath. “Next, we will start to restore these two double-nine formations.”
Zhu Yun: “Alright!”
Restoring a formation according to the formation eye points was an extreme test of a Xuan Master’s ability and talent in formations. It could be said that besides Sang Jing and Zhu Yun, no one else could help. The only thing they could do was to do their other work well and give them a quiet environment.
At the ancient town bridge, someone had to take turns to keep watch at night.
After confirming all the formation eye points, Sang Jing returned to the ancient town’s homestay.
Conservatively, it would take her a day and a night to lay out the two double-nine formations. But with Zhu Yun, the time might be a little shorter.
Tonight was destined to be a sleepless night.
Xie Yu saw that she was busy and did not disturb her. Sang Jing was restoring the formation on the table, and she flopped down beside her, watching her. When the water cup was empty, she would go and refill it.
She had just been caught reading fanfiction. How could Xie Yu dare to read those things in front of Sang Jing? She didn’t even take out her phone.
In the middle of the night, Xie Yu closed her eyes to the sound of paper rubbing and the tip of a pen sliding.
She wasn’t sleepy, just bored.
“Xie Yu.”
Sang Jing suddenly called her.
Xie Yu’s eyes snapped open, and she sat up straight. “What’s wrong?”
Sang Jing was still drawing the formation with her head bowed. “Come here.”
Xie Yu obediently went over and bent down beside her.
Then Sang Jing put down her pen and turned sideways, her hand on the back of her neck, and pulled her down with a slight force.
Her lower lip was gently held. Xie Yu was stunned.
She blinked her eyes and looked at Sang Jing. She found that she was kissing her very seriously, and she also quickly closed her eyes.
Although she didn’t know why the reserved person had suddenly kissed her, as long as there was a kiss, she wasn’t picky!
After kissing for a while, Sang Jing let her go and gave an explanation. “It’s a little cold.”
