Sunset Valley was located in the Taicang Mountains, on the eastern end of Duskland.

The Taicang Mountains were an unbroken chain of mountains covering an extensive area, creating a natural barrier between Duskland and Sageheart. Sunset Valley was located on the western end of the mountains. From a distant perspective at sunset, the entire valley would be filled with a rosy-red color, as if the sun was setting in the valley, hence the name. The Rose Sunset Valley was one of the famous sights of the Taicang Mountains.

Thirty kilometers from the valley was a cave on the side of a small mountain.

A young man lay on a large stone slab in the cave. This was the young man in black who had pretended to be part of the White Bone Faith and fought with Tang Jie.

His chest had been opened up, exposing his beating heart. Wang Juemie was holding two slender needles and picking out golden grains from the young man’s heart. Next to him was a stone bowl which already contained a layer of fine golden grains.

Finding these golden grains wasn’t easy. Every time a needle penetrated into his heart, the young man’s body would tremble in pain. His body was being restrained and his blood had already run dry. If it weren’t for the ten-some Seven Absolutions Sect disciples standing nearby taking turns to send him spiritual energy and feed him medicine, he would have died long ago.

Even so, day after day of torment had left him nothing but bones and on his last breath.

Lying on the stone bed, the young man said in a trembling voice, “Great Brother…”

“Hold, Junior Brother!” Wang Juemie said without raising his head. “I’ll definitely save you.”

Junior Brother Li smiled. “It’s useless… Great Brother… Even if you save me… I’ll probably… be a cripple…”

“Nonsense! Back when your Junior Brother Mu sought the Dao from the Yellow Springs and turned his physical body into a battlefield, almost making his body fall apart, didn’t I save him all the same? True, he still has some lingering ailments, but does anyone dare to look down on him because of it? Your senior brother won’t give up on you, so believe in your senior brother. Once I’m done with this deal, we’ll all be rich, and you will only be stronger than before!” Wang Juemie sternly said.

Junior Brother Li teared up as he shook his head. “Great Brother… I believe in you… but I don’t… believe in myself… I can’t hold on…”

Wang Juemie shuddered. He realized something and roared, “No, you have to hold on! Li Chun, you can’t die! There’s no way you can die!”

But Junior Brother Li’s eyes were already starting to lose focus.

He weakly looked up at the ceiling, muttering, “It hurts… I’m finally free… Great Brother… I miss home…”

He slowly closed his eyes, not opening them again.

“Nooo!” Wang Juemie roared in fury.

He slammed a fist into the cave wall, unleashing an explosive power that seemed to make the entire mountain shake.

But no matter how angry he was, his junior brother was still dead.

He knew that he had actually been the one to kill his junior brother, for if he had not insisted on saving him, Li Chun’s injuries wouldn’t have been fatal at all. He would have simply been confined to a sick bed.

But it was precisely because he couldn’t stand to see his junior brother tormented like this and because he was unconvinced by Tang Jie’s methods that he tried to save Li Chun.

Li Chun was dead, and Wang Juemie had failed.

Two opponents who had yet to even meet had had their first clash, and Wang Juemie had suffered a complete defeat.

Wang Juemie was enraged and in pain, not only at the death of his junior brother, but because of the humiliation of defeat.

Not since he had embarked on the Dao had he ever felt such humiliation.

He slowly stood up and walked out of the cave.

Mu Yi shouted, “Great Brother…”

Wang Juemie raised a hand and stopped him from speaking.

His hands were drenched in blood.

He said, “Contact the local officials to collect Li Chun and send him back to his hometown for burial. The rest of you, rest up. We’ll be setting off for Sunset Valley for the trade the day after tomorrow. We can talk about anything you have to say then.”

Although he was angry, his words right now were extremely calm. It was as if the one who had shaken the mountain with a single punch had been someone else.

A junior brother said, “Great Brother, what about Tang Jie?”

“‘Tang Jie’?” Wang Juemie’s eyes flashed. “Forget about him. He’ll come to us himself.”

“‘He’ll come to us’?” Everyone was startled.

Wang Juemie coolly said, “The bandit attack was far too strange. Although we searched the area, there are people with all sorts of abilities in this world, and it wouldn’t be strange if someone was able to hide from our surveillance techniques. I sense that Tang Jie was connected to this matter. If this is the case, he’s probably already guessed at what we’re up to, and he will probably be showing himself the day after tomorrow.”

Everyone was alarmed to hear this. “If Tang Jie really does know, could he bring the Basking Moon Sect’s people with him?”

They weren’t afraid of a single Tang Jie, but the Basking Moon Sect that he represented was something else.

Wang Juemie looked at his bloody hands and muttered, “No matter who comes, I’ll meet you with these two fists… and pummel you to death!”

—————————————

An eagle soared in the skies above Sunset Valley.

A dormouse cautiously appeared in the valley and was spotted by the eagle.

The eagle made a spiraling descent and then suddenly plunged, snatching the dormouse in its claws.

The sudden attack left the dormouse terrified, and it instinctively kicked its legs, but there was simply no way it could have the power to push away the eagle. But as it kicked at the eagle, a light flashed across the eagle.

A moment later, the eagle dissolved into streams of light and vanished in the wind.

Free of its restraints, the dormouse fell to the ground and rolled. Looking around in fear, it ran toward its hole. After this episode, it probably wouldn’t come out again for some time.

On a distant mountain, Tang Jie sighed and massaged his aching forehead with his fingers.

Long-distance control of this level was a significant burden for Tang Jie.

Alas, he still hadn’t been able to decipher the mysteries of the formation in Sunset Valley.

To be more precise, he couldn’t even confirm that there was a formation in Sunset Valley.

No matter how much he probed the valley, he couldn’t find anything special about it. It was just an ordinary valley.

To test every part of the valley, Tang Jie even inspected small lifeforms like the dormouse. Unfortunately, he still hadn’t been able to find any clues.

Were they really not planning to use the terrain and a formation to deal with the Stone Gate Sect?

Tang Jie didn’t believe it.

No matter how strong Wang Juemie was, there was no way he could defeat someone at Celestial Heart. A formation was the only method he could use to defeat a stronger opponent. That Tang Jie couldn’t find it could only mean that Wang Juemie’s group was being cautious. After learning that the deal was being held at Sunset Valley, the Stone Gate Sect could send some people in advance to scout the area.

Thus, this formation had to have superb concealment properties.

Besides that, this formation couldn’t be too expensive. In the end, Wang Juemie’s group wasn’t the Seven Absolutions Sect, only a union of ten-some disciples. Their capital was limited.

Finally, this formation had to be strong enough to deal with a Celestial Heart expert, meaning it had to at least be a Grade 5 formation.

Tang Jie mentally checked every Grade 5 or 6 formation he knew, but none of them fit the requirements. It could only be said that the Seven Absolutions Sect deserved its reputation as the sect of the four auxiliaries. Tang Jie was considered quite a prodigy when it came to formations, but even he couldn’t find out what sort of formation the disciples of the Seven Absolutions Sect had laid down.

Starting from yesterday, Tang Jie had searched for the formation for an entire day. No matter what he did, he couldn’t trigger the formation. If he couldn’t find the formation, he couldn’t draft a plan or develop countermeasures, and there was certainly no way he could try and exploit the formation for himself. He might even end up finding the formation too late.

He had already wasted a day. There were only two days left until the battle at Sunset Valley.

Even Tang Jie was starting to get worried.

Taking in a deep breath, Tang Jie formed a light on his finger. Gradually another eagle formed and flew off to Sunset Valley. Ever since he had realized that Duplication could be used for scouting, he had gotten more and more proficient in using Duplication to simulate various things.

But while this eagle had been formed well, it couldn’t find the formation.

Borrowing the eagle’s vision, Tang Jie looked over the earth. All he could see was verdant greenery, but not even the slightest trace of a formation.

As he was moping, the jade token on his waist vibrated.

Tang Jie broke out of the eagle’s vision and looked down. He saw that Xu Miaoran had sent a message.

“Hey, Honored Master Tang, what are you up to?”

Ever since Tang Jie had ascended to Mortal Shedding, Xu Miaoran had been calling him “Honored Master Tang”. Tang Jie hadn’t been used to it at first, but he gradually adapted.

He sent back, “Wang Juemie arranged to make a trade with the Stone Gate Sect at Sunset Valley, so I came there to look for a formation he might have set down.”

He would occasionally exchange messages with Xu Miaoran, so he didn’t hide this matter from her.

“Did you find it?” Xu Miaoran asked. This girl was quite the spender, these four words consuming one long-distance message talisman.

Tang Jie replied, “I searched for an entire day and didn’t find a thing. I’ve never heard of a formation that can be this well concealed.”

“Could they have not finished the formation, leaving out a few steps so that it wouldn’t activate? This could prevent it from preemptively triggering and having people discover it.”

“I’ve considered this possibility, but I’ve searched the entire valley and not even found any materials that could be used in a formation.”

“Please wait a moment.” Xu Miaoran sent off this message and ceased to make any more.

After a long while, Xu Miaoran sent a message. “I asked Father, and Father said that unless the formation’s purpose was concealment, ordinary formations could not possibly achieve this level and must have left behind some trace. If you can’t find it, the problem might be outside the formation, and you must think outside the box.”

Xu Guanghua was a True Lord, and though his expertise was not in formations, he had a broad and profound range of experiences to draw on.

If he said that such a formation could not exist, then it couldn’t exist.

“‘Think outside the box’… outside the box…” Tang Jie looked at the message on the talisman and muttered.

He recalled the conversation Wang Juemie’s group had that day, as well as their expressions.

Suddenly, Tang Jie realized that something wasn’t right.

Since Wang Juemie’s group had decided to make Sunset Valley their ambush site, how could they so lightly speak about such an important location?

While Tang Jie had done his best to salvage that bandit attack, even he knew that there were many suspicious points about it. It was impossible for his opponent to completely believe in it. He had only hoped to lure out his opponent and find some clues leading to the truth through their words.

He hadn’t expected them to be so cooperative as to even say that they were having the deal in three days at Sunset Valley.

Now that he thought more about it, the other party had been a little too careless.

Unless…

“Shit! I fell for it!” Tang Jie cursed as he stood up.

He suddenly understood that Wang Juemie had never planned on having the decisive battle at Sunset Valley.

Sunset Valley had always been a smokescreen. It existed only to fool the Stone Gate Sect.

The Stone Gate Sect would also probably think that if the meeting point was at Sunset Valley, they would need to watch out for a formation that the Seven Absolutions Sect might have laid in Sunset Valley to ambush them. Thus, they would scout out the valley first.

Of course, they wouldn’t find anything.

For that place had never been the ambush site decided on by the Seven Absolutions Sect.

They had set up their trap midway!

The moment he realized this, Tang Jie took out a map and started to examine the route one had to travel between Lotus Pass and Sunset Valley.

Finally, his finger stopped at a nameless valley.

This nameless valley was very small and deviated off to the side of the road, but the high mountains meant that a convoy would have to pass through it. However, a scout from the Stone Gate Sect would be flying, so they wouldn’t need to go through this valley. In this way, the valley naturally avoided the attention of cultivators, and coupled with the concealment spell applied to it, it truly was very easy to miss.

The Stone Gate Sect’s True Persons had put their focus on Sunset Valley, so they would not think that they would be ambushed while on the road.

Tang Jie’s heart shivered.

“What a clever plan!” Even though his eagle had yet to arrive, Tang Jie was basically sure that the formation he had been seeking out was there!

“Hey, why aren’t you saying anything?” The jade token transmitted Xu Miaoran’s words. It was clear that she was wondering why Tang Jie was suddenly ignoring her.

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Tang Jie chuckled and replied, “I was being dumb for a whole day. Thankfully, you were there to open my eyes, my precious. Mwah, a kiss.”

The reply went, “Shameless! Obscene! Ptooh! Ptooh!”

Tang Jie could imagine Xu Miaoran’s bashful look on the other end, and his heart grew hot. He replied, “Yes, I’m shameless and vulgar. Do you still like me?”

There was no reply from the other side.

After a long while, Xu Miaoran replied, “Wang Juemie is very strong, and Celestial Heart True Persons are unfathomable. If you can’t win, don’t try and force it. While cultivation requires resources, you need a life to enjoy them. If you have an urgent need for money, you can tell me. I know that you’re proud and won’t lightly accept the help of others, so you can just treat it as a loan.”

Although this wasn’t a face-to-face conversation, the sincerity in her words revealed the affection she had toward him.

Tang Jie’s heart burned with passion, and he replied, “I know. This adventure really is because what I need to do next requires a lot of money, but once it’s done, things will be much easier. After this, the skies will be open for me to fly them, and I won’t need to keep taking risks.”

“If that’s so, then do as you please. I will wait for the good news. If you have any questions, you can ask me. If I don’t know, I can ask my father for you. It’s not bad having a True Lord to answer your questions, right?”

Tang Jie smiled. “Then I’ll take full advantage of that! I just so happen to have some issues in cultivation that I don’t quite understand…”

They continued chatting for some time, all the way until the eagle arrived above the skies of that nameless valley.

The valley appeared deserted, and there appeared to be nothing strange about it, but as an expert in formations, Tang Jie only needed to apply a little pressure to identify the abnormalities.

The formation he had been searching for really was here.

Under the Illuminating Eye, the concealing curtain was pulled away, and the formation was slowly revealed to him.

“So it was this formation… The cunning, the daring, the imagination!”

Tang Jie couldn’t help but sigh in praise.

Now that he knew what formation his opponent had set up, Tang Jie knew what to do next.

After some thought, Tang Jie developed a plan. He took out a talisman, wrote some sentences on it, and burned it.

The message this time was for Wei Tianchong.

Wei Tianchong, who had already returned to Canglong Prefecture, took out his own talisman and burned it.

In the Ling Province branch hall, Shi Meng received the message and took out a stack of talismans that he began to burn. Like this, the news traveled like lightning across Sageheart…

The Stone Gate Sect elders and Wang Juemie are plotting against each other, and Tang Jie is plotting against both of them…