Chapter 21: The Yin-Suppressing Formation

  Sanbao panted slightly, mind racing through the content she had just memorized from the *Divine Illumination Sutra*.

  Channeling her spiritual energy to her right fingertips, she tapped a red agate bead on her Seven-Treasure Bracelet. In a soft fsh, seven peachwood nails and a small wooden mallet fell into her palm.

  “Let’s go—back to the entrance of Huang Room No. 4.”

  Wang Suifeng and Tang Mingli exchanged a gnce. Though unsure of her intentions, they silently followed without question.

  Sanbao stood still for a moment, took a deep breath, and raised the mallet and a peachwood nail. Injecting her energy into them, she swung down hard onto the floor.

  The hallway floor of the Rest Inn was paved with solid bluestone—so tough that even steel would struggle to scratch it, let alone drive in wooden nails. Yet, as the nail struck, the ground softened like soil, and the peachwood spike sank in effortlessly.

  Both Wang Suifeng and Tang Mingli widened their eyes. Wang, in particur, looked at her with growing curiosity.

  Following the pattern of the Big Dipper, Sanbao drove the seven nails into the floor. Then, she retrieved a small bottle of cinnabar from her bracelet and carefully anointed each nail. The moment the red dust touched wood, the nails began to tremble, faint red auras shimmering around them.

  “Is this… a formation?” Wang Suifeng asked.

  Sanbao nodded and wiped the sweat from her brow. “This is the Yin-Suppressing Evil-Binding Formation. I read about it in a random book a while ago. Always wanted to try it.”

  “What kind of random book contains a lost formation?” Wang scoffed. “Our family archive has a partial record of it—but it cks the complete formation process, and there’s no activation chant.”

  Sanbao inwardly rolled her eyes. *Obviously because I learned it from the Divine Illumination Sutra.* She smiled instead. “It was a fragment too, but I managed to complete it myself. Good intuition, I guess.”

  Wang gave her a thoughtful look. Tang Mingli, standing aside, smiled faintly with amusement.

  Sanbao was now flushed and out of breath, sweat pouring down her face. Tang handed her a fine ke-silk handkerchief. She accepted it, wiped her face, and smiled in thanks.

  Wang Suifeng, watching from the side, twitched at the corner of his mouth. His expression darkened slightly.

  Standing at the heart of the formation, Sanbao raised her hand and traced a symbol in the air. In a low voice, she began chanting: **“Let heaven and earth be clear, righteousness endure. Let all evil retreat, let spirits be scattered. By decree of the Grand Supreme Elder Lord—go forth!”**

  In an instant, the seven peachwood nails burst into radiant light. Seven beams of silver shot upward, then turned and surged down the hallway.

  The three held their breath and waited. Time seemed to halt. Tension and anticipation thickened the air.

  But after the span of a tea's brew, silence reigned. The seven light streams vanished without a trace, like stones sinking into a deep pond.

  The mood turned heavy.

  Wang Suifeng sneered, arms crossed. “So much for your ‘Yin-Suppressing Formation.’ Useless.”

  Sanbao's face paled. An awkward silence fell.

  Tang Mingli gred at him. “And do *you* have a better idea to drag that ghost out?”

  Wang remained silent.

  At that moment, a strange noise came from *Huang Room No. 5*.

  This time, they didn’t hesitate. Tang and Wang moved in unison, swords drawn. A wave of sword energy and a burst of frost burst forth, bsting the door apart.

  *Bang!* The room exploded open.

  Inside, bck tendrils swept violently through the air.

  Looking up, they saw the ghost woman hanging upside down from the ceiling, her long bck hair writhing like hundreds of snakes.

  *So it’s her hair? Damn, that scared me.* Sanbao stuck out her tongue reflexively.

  Suddenly, several strands of hair shot out like a bck web, surging toward them!

  One clump wrapped tightly around Sanbao’s neck and yanked her into the air.

  *Me again?* *Why do all the ghosts and monsters target me?!*

  A sword fshed through the air, slicing through the hair binding her.

  *Smack!* Sanbao crashed to the ground. Looking up, she saw Wang Suifeng gring coldly at the ghost, his Condensing Snow Sword lodged in the wall behind her.

  “Hold her off! I’m going to activate the formation!” Sanbao shouted as she leapt up and bolted for the door.

  “Don’t slow us down!” Wang darted to the wall, drew his sword, and sshed away another volley of hair. “I’m not like someone who talks big but can’t nd a hit.”

  Tang snorted, deflecting another shadowy tendril with his Longyuan Sword. “Oh? With those basic swings? You call that swordsmanship?”

  Wang’s eyes gleamed with mockery. “At least *my* sword doesn’t miss. If Sanbao hadn’t dodged earlier, she’d be a pretty corpse right now—thanks to *your* precision.”

  Tang’s bde fshed coldly. “That st strike was perfectly measured. A hair's breadth of precision—enough to freeze the soul of any ghost.”

  “Precision? What were you aiming for—a ugh from the ghost?” Wang chuckled, lunging again.

  *Cng!* Sparks flew as their swords collided mid-air.

  “You blocked my strike!” Wang snapped.

  “You blocked *mine*—that would’ve hit her!” Tang growled.

  As the two bickered and cshed, the ghost evaded unscathed.

  Sanbao gnced back at them, veins bulging. *Fine, I guess it’s up to me.*

  She knelt before the formation, took a deep breath, and pulled a small silver bde from her bracelet.

  She gritted her teeth—and sliced deep into both her palms.

  *Oww!* She winced, sweat beading on her brow. But she didn’t stop. Using the blood, she began drawing the Yin-Yang Eight Trigrams at the center of the formation.

  The Divine Illumination Sutra had stated: *“Using the pure yin blood of a woman to draw the Eight Trigrams activates the Pure Yin Array, which weakens a spirit’s power drastically.”*

  As she completed the final stroke, the diagram lit up.

  “Drive her into the formation!” she yelled.

  “Been waiting for that cue!” Wang smirked.

  “Let’s see who’s faster!” Tang snapped.

  Both swordsmen struck at once, driving the ghost from the room—and into the center of the formation.

  Chains of light shot out, binding the ghost to the floor. Bck energy burst from her, sucked into the diagram as her power drained rapidly.

  Now was the time.

  Sanbao gritted her teeth, stepped forward—and stabbed the bloody silver bde deep into the ghost’s chest.

  “AAAHHH!”

  With one final shriek, the ghost's body withered and crumbled, scattering into ash and fading into the wind.

  As the spirit vanished, the space around them began to shift.

  In an instant, the illusory Huang Room vanished—and they found themselves back in Tian Room, where Sanbao had originally stayed. The familiar yout and their scattered belongings filled the room.

  Tang Mingli blinked, then excimed, “This… This is *my* room!”