Chapter 108

The Manghuang Mountain Range is located north of the Imperial Capital.

It is like a sleeping giant python, winding and coiling, stretching across the space between heaven and earth.

To reach this mysterious and unpredictable region, if one takes the official road, one must pass through several towns where prosperity and desolation intertwine before reaching the entrance.

Cultivators have better stamina and are quite bold, so they basically walk along those cliffs and precipices.

"Ma Hei, your tracking skills are truly amazing. I must learn them well."

Xu Zifeng highly praised his companion's abilities.

However, this road was truly difficult to walk, especially those steep cliffs; one careless step and you would fall.

Besides that, one had to constantly guard against attacks from surrounding demonic beasts and poisonous insects.

The Manghuang Mountain Range also hides many dangerous places; in some areas, poisonous mist permeates the air, and touching it means death.

If Xu Zifeng hadn't been strong enough himself, he might not have even made it to this place.

By now, he was covered in dust, and his clothes were torn.

In order to deal with the Second Imperial Prince, he still had no complaints.

"You are too kind, Wang Shizi. Our Witchcraft Holy Land is located in the Ten Thousand Mountains. I grew up in such places since I was a child; no one understands the mountains better than I do. If you want to learn, Wang Shizi, I can teach you a few tricks."

Ma Hei wasn't bragging; this was his specialty. He could tell at a glance where the dangers were.

He could tell what kind of powerful demonic beasts were in certain areas just by looking at their droppings.

Moreover, having followed the Second Imperial Prince's team until now, the other side hadn't noticed them at all.

Ma Hei didn't even need to see the other side; he could determine the route the Second Imperial Prince was taking through subtle clues.

According to Xu Zifeng's judgment, the Second Imperial Prince was likely taking a detour to ambush the Emperor on the inevitable path of the Spring Hunt.

Because during the Spring Hunt, there were many people accompanying the Emperor, and everyone was hunting on horseback, so they would certainly take the official road.

Thus, there might be eyes near the official road, and the Second Imperial Prince would need to detour to avoid being detected.

The Spring Hunt team begins hunting near 'Little Stone City', and the hunting location is the edge area of the Manghuang Mountain Range.

Even if they enter the mountains, they will only enter the more accessible sections.

And those areas must have been explored in advance by experts from various departments of the Imperial Capital, who then reasonably planned several routes for the Emperor to choose from.

Which route the Emperor chooses is not certain.

But as long as the routes are figured out, ambushes can be set along these sections.

At this stage, the route planning must have already been completed.

With the Second Imperial Prince's ability, he certainly has people in the court, and he has likely already received the intelligence on these routes.

Xu Zifeng only needs to follow the Second Imperial Prince to solve the problem once and for all.

"Strange, why do I feel like someone else is following the Second Imperial Prince besides us?"

Ma Hei stopped and was checking the traces on the ground.

He even pulled down his mask and picked up a broken branch from the ground to sniff it.

According to his judgment, these traces likely did not belong to the Second Imperial Prince's team; if they were from the Second Imperial Prince's team, they shouldn't be this far away.

His words made Xu Zifeng's heart grow vigilant.

This is the Manghuang Mountain Range; if they were to start a fight with the Second Imperial Prince's team, they would be at a disadvantage.

However, Ma Hei told Xu Zifeng not to worry; with his tracking skills, the other side couldn't possibly discover them.

Even if they were discovered, he still had the ability to get Xu Zifeng out of trouble.

In other words, if they needed to fight, he could fight; if they needed to run, he had no problem with that either.

Of course, Xu Zifeng did not know at this stage that the Second Imperial Prince's master had already appeared.

But the other person following the Second Imperial Prince knew, and that was Seeing Xiao Ming.

Xiao Ming had come to the vicinity of the Music Conservatory early in the morning to keep watch; this was Lin Yue'e's commission, and he had to do his best to fulfill it no matter what.

This left the Sage's remnant soul feeling somewhat helpless; he felt that Lin Yue'e was the next Chu Ruoyan.

Seeing Xiao Ming himself had a wealth of wilderness survival experience, and with the guidance of the Sage's remnant soul, he had been following them until now.

The Sage's remnant soul had been repeatedly emphasizing one problem: once the Second Imperial Prince's master appeared, he should stop following; an expert of that level was not someone he could handle.

Seeing Xiao Ming also understood his own limitations and followed silently.

And his movements were also detected by Ma Hei, who was following behind him.

A very strange phenomenon appeared here.

The Second Imperial Prince led his team to set traps on the Emperor's inevitable path.

And Seeing Xiao Ming, following behind, marked these trap locations on his own map.

Xu Zifeng and Ma Hei, who were behind Seeing Xiao Ming, also set traps near these traps; this could not only block the Second Imperial Prince's traps but also erupt with terrifying power.

On the other side, Li Chen and Lin Yue'e arrived at Little Stone City; the two of them were taking the official road.

Walking out of Little Stone City, outside was the vast and boundless Manghuang Mountain Range, seemingly without end.

Looking at it, one could see undulating mountains, continuous and endless, with steep terrain, cliffs like swords, piercing the clouds.

And on those cliffs and precipices, there were jagged rocks, severely weathered, as if they would collapse at any moment and swallow people whole.

These places were naturally not the hunting locations Li Chen wanted; he was hunting just for fun, not to find trouble.

Li Chen took out a map; on it were three planned routes, and along these routes, any particularly powerful demonic beasts had already been marked.

Lin Yue'e was earnestly advising him on the side.

In the end, Li Chen chose the leftmost route, for no other reason than that it was easier to walk.

Along this road, trees towered into the clouds, and ancient trees were everywhere. Their branches were lush and leaves dense, blocking the sky and sun; sunlight filtered through the dense leaves, casting mottled light and shadows, adding a sense of depth to this dangerous place.

Li Chen set up three formations at the starting point, middle section, and end section of this road.

Lin Yue'e was very curious to see Li Chen setting up formations.

Because during her studies at the Battle Academy, she also had specialized formation courses.

But those courses said that setting up a formation required finding the formation eye, placing treasures in the eye first, and then performing a chain formation based on the Five Elements and Eight Trigrams; every place and every area needed to be set up well, without the slightest deviation.

If one wanted to be more advanced, one needed to conceal the place where the formation was set.

This is divided into two types: the first is camouflage, hiding the formation and activating it only after the enemy enters.

The second is covering a formation with a formation, using a simple formation to disguise the real grand formation, making the enemy let their guard down and think the formation is simple and breakable.

Once they truly break the outer formation, they are already locked in by the real grand formation.

This was why, when she and Li Chen were leaving, she asked Li Chen if he needed help.

The larger the formation, the more people are needed to help.

!

If there were only two people, it would be very busy.

If Li Chen didn't need it, she felt she would just work harder when the time came.

She had already prepared herself to work hard, but Li Chen's method of setting up the formation was very simple; he just casually threw down some gadgets that looked like 'stones' and then didn't care at all.

Lin Yue'e wanted to ask when she saw this scene, but she felt it might be better if she didn't know.

Li Chen saw her thoughts; this wasn't a big secret, and since she was a truly loyal official who might help with more things in the future, Li Chen began to explain: "These are the fully automatic formation-setting stones I invented."

This sentence left Lin Yue'e somewhat stunned; what is a fully automatic formation-setting stone? Can this thing be automatic?

Of course, Li Chen is a relatively lazy cultivator; he has no interest in following steps.

So he refined many special stones and gave these stones a simple 'spirit', meaning they have a certain level of intelligence.

Between different 'formation stones', there is also a connection.

After throwing them down, they judge for themselves where it is suitable to set up a formation nearby, then move to the appropriate positions to form the formation Li Chen wants.

This speed of setting up the formation is not very fast, but there is still some time before the day of the Spring Hunt, enough for the 'formation stones' to move into place.

The reason it is formation stones and not other things is that whether it is humans or demonic beasts, they don't really pay attention to an ordinary stone.

Li Chen had considered refining insects and small animals.

But there was no guarantee these things wouldn't be attacked.

Stones are more reliable; apart from being slow, they have no other drawbacks.

So one can see that while setting up a formation, others need to expend a lot of effort and even take a long time, while Li Chen can get it done casually.

"My formation can also be automatically recycled and reused multiple times."

Li Chen began to introduce the other benefits of his grand formation.

To improve Lin Yue'e's knowledge, Li Chen also briefly explained the effects of the grand formation.

The first is the 'Sword Dao Demon-Slaying Formation'.

This formation is a peerless killing formation cast with supreme sword intent, fused with the laws of heaven and earth.

Once activated, thousands of sword qi crisscross, each strand containing the power of the Heavenly Dao, sharp and peerless, enough to sever everything in the world.

The second is the 'Dragon Roar Purple Heaven Divine Formation'.

This formation is a heaven-shaking formation laid out using Li Chen's own Purple Heaven Dragon Qi as a guide.

After activating the formation, giant dragon phantoms circle in the sky, spraying purple energy from their mouths, each strand containing power that could destroy heaven and earth.

The third is named the 'Void Shackle Domain Formation'.

The reason for setting up this formation is that Li Chen considered that some people possess spatial gadgets and can run away if they can't win.

The purpose of this formation is to seal the surrounding space and make all spatial coordinates disappear.

You dare to attack me and still want to run?

If someone accidentally enters this formation, they will also be locked down by spatial shackles.

This is the terrifying aspect of the formation.

Those who want to deal with Li Chen will certainly also set up formations in advance, and then we'll see whose formation is more powerful.

Li Chen's explanations completely overturned Lin Yue'e's understanding.

The power of these formations was so terrifying that she had never even seen them in the forbidden arts of the Battle Academy.

That aside, it was also automatic formation setting, which was unheard of.

Li Chen's strength filled her heart with endless worship.

Li Chen also indicated that this was just the beginning; he had many more stones on him, and each type of stone had different effects.

After setting these up, Li Chen and Lin Yue'e returned to the nearby Little Stone City and tasted the local delicacies.

And those people who wanted to cause trouble were miserably gnawing on dry rations in the forest, earnestly and diligently setting up their formations.

Li Chen's thinking was very direct; since he had already judged that he would be attacked, he certainly had to make preparations himself.

Whether these formations could be used when the time came, no one knew, but preparations were certainly not wrong.

While eating, Li Chen did not forget to encourage Lin Yue'e, "You cultivate well, and when I have time in the future, I will teach you."

Lin Yue'e replied excitedly, "This official will certainly not fail Your Majesty's high expectations!"

To be personally guided by an Emperor at the Sage Realm was a great honor.

Because he was traveling by fast horse on the official road, Li Chen and Lin Yue'e returned to the Imperial Capital before dark.

The progress of the Second Imperial Prince and his group would likely require them to stay in the Manghuang Mountain Range for a few more days.

(End of this chapter)