Chapter 30: Establishing the Formation Array Bureau

Li Xuan remarked, "As the ancients said, 'It is hard to persuade a dying ghost with kind words.' Since you are determined to court death, there is nothing more I, as your teacher, can do."

Di Zhiheng’s heart hammered against his ribs. Subconsciously, he felt that his teacher might actually be serious.

Li Xuan pulled four rectangular yellow paper slips from his pocket, each stamped with the seal of the "Fengdu Treasure Guidance," and distributed them to the four students. "These are talismans I sought from a master. If a talisman spontaneously ignites or turns to ash for no reason, you must leave that place immediately."

Gao Hanqiang examined the yellow paper repeatedly. He had seen talismans before, but this one only had a single seal; it seemed far too simplistic.

Seeing that they seemed to have taken his words to heart, Li Xuan added, "If you do not believe in the school rules and insist on courting death, you might as well choose one person to test it out. It is better for one to die than for all four. That way, the families coming to the school to cause trouble will at least have fewer people to deal with..."

The four boys felt a shadow cast over their hearts by the terrifying legends of the school rules. They did not even know how they managed to walk out of that Lanzhou ramen shop.

Liu Zhuobin licked his dry lips, wanting to voice his doubts about Teacher Li Xuan, but the words died in his throat. He scratched his long hair and, making up his mind, said, "You guys go back to school first. I’m going to find a barbershop and cut this hair off..."

"Are you serious?" Di Zhiheng asked in shock.

Liu Zhuobin shrugged and replied, "Teacher Li Xuan is giving me a chance to be a good student. I should cherish it." With that, he walked away.

The other three watched his retreating figure, feeling incredulous. They had all transferred from the same school; naturally, they knew how much Liu Zhuobin cherished his long hair.

...

Li Xuan also emerged from the restaurant. Watching his students walk away, he thought to himself that while these four boys were rebellious, they were truly courageous and fiercely loyal.

In the film, the school was forced to suspend classes due to Di Zhiheng’s disappearance and Charlie’s tragic death. The remaining boys and two girls had gathered information themselves, scrounged up peach wood swords, talismans, and Molotov cocktails, and dared to challenge the authority of Ruan Shiyin head-on.

"Newborn calves are not afraid of tigers"—the saying fit them perfectly.

Standing at the school gate, Li Xuan looked toward the rooftop of the teaching building in the distance. That was the site of the old administration office and Ruan Shiyin’s hiding place. However, the events in the movie proved that burning down the administration office only temporarily crippled Ruan Shiyin; it did not destroy her.

He constantly screened the spells from the *Books of the Great Emperor of the Eastern Mountain* in his mind, deciding to set up a simple formation around the school to test whether Ruan Shiyin had the ability to leave the premises.

Cinnabar, sulfur, thin bamboo strips, white paper, a calligraphy brush, pigments, and red string.

In Hong Kong, where folklore culture was prevalent, it was easy for Li Xuan to buy these items. Taking advantage of the fact that there were no classes in the afternoon, he used a shovel to dig pits around the school following the positions of the Big Dipper, burying cinnabar stones and carefully sprinkling sulfur to form the pattern of an "Yin-Yang Boundary Talisman."

Afterward, he rented a room outside and crafted four crude paper effigies by hand. Using the brush dipped in cinnabar ink, he wrote the names of Charlie (originally Li Guozhong), Liu Zhuobin, Gao Hanqiang, and Di Zhiheng on the foreheads of the paper figures, then hid them at the four cardinal directions of the school.

Though the magic power he had cultivated was as thin as a strand of hair, there was a vast difference between a setup created by someone with magic power and one by an ordinary person.

With the formation ready, Li Xuan entered the school at dusk, as the twilight gathered, and collected the middle-finger blood of Charlie, Gao Hanqiang, Di Zhiheng, and Liu Zhuobin. He fashioned two sets of talismans from the blood—one Yin, one Yang. The Yin talismans were hung around their necks, while the Yang talismans were tied to the necks of the paper effigies at the four corners of the school.

Li Xuan’s cultivation was still shallow, and he lacked the ability to draw talismans on his own. However, with the "Fengdu Treasure Guidance" seal as a backup, any paper stamped with it would meet the standards of a low-grade, first-level judge at the very least.

Whenever he had time, he would sit and meditate, discovering that the speed of cultivation in this world was much faster than in reality. Once he entered the path and gathered magic power in his dantian, his meditation became effective. Upon returning to the real world, his first priority would be to visit the Great Emperor of the Northern Yin in Fengdu City to see if he could receive ordination and attain the rank of a low-grade, first-level official, which would also grant him the position of a Fengdu judge.

Night.

Inside girls' dormitory 202, several girls lay on their beds discussing the four boys.

One girl with a high ponytail, wearing rings and heavy makeup, looking like a young delinquent, lounged with her legs crossed. She looked at her plain-looking roommate and chuckled, "Those four boys are real cowards. I thought that coming to an all-girls school would make them so excited they wouldn't know their heads from their tails!"

"I didn't expect them to actually start studying seriously. I ran into that guy named Di Zhiheng this afternoon and said hello, and he just gave a plain 'Hello' back! Seriously, which century is that old-fashioned answer from..."

The girl was named Li Xisi, and it was rumored that she had a hoodlum boyfriend outside the school. She usually acted quite arrogantly and particularly disliked He Yimin, the dormitory’s discipline committee member, always feeling that this roommate was "abusing her power" and acting holier-than-thou.

Sure enough, the next second, He Yimin frowned and said, "Li Xisi, Teacher Fang has repeatedly emphasized that dating is not allowed in school. You need to be careful."

Li Xisi sneered, "I’m a good student, so I’m not dating in school. I’m dating my boyfriend, Ah Wen, outside the school! That doesn't concern you, our little campus committee member, does it?"

There were four girls in the room; if chat groups existed in this era, they could have probably built a dozen different ones.

...

In the boys' dormitory, Di Zhiheng had drunk too much water during PE that afternoon, and now his bladder was screaming. Checking the time on his phone—10:50 PM—he decided to head to the restroom.

Gao Hanqiang grabbed his arm, looking worried. "Di-Di, why don't you just use a mineral water bottle? It’s ten minutes to eleven; don't violate the school rules. To be honest, after listening to Teacher Li’s warning, I also feel like the school is permeated with a sinister chill, especially in the restrooms..."

Di Zhiheng looked at the narrow opening of the mineral water bottle, then back at the time, and said, "I’ll just be a minute, I'll go and be right back!"

He grabbed some paper and rushed out.

The restroom was at the end of the dormitory hallway. It hadn't been cleaned in who knew how long; it was filthy, and there were even stains on the door that looked suspiciously like excrement.

It hadn't seemed this terrifying during the day.

Standing at the entrance of the restroom, Di Zhiheng looked into the pitch-black interior at the rows of open stalls. They looked like the gaping, bloody maws of monsters waiting for him to step inside.

His stomach rumbled.

Damn it! Just get it done and run...

He braced himself, walked in, and chose the outermost stall. As he relieved himself, he felt a sense of release and his soul seemed to ascend.

Alright, time to go!

He reached into his pocket and pulled out only a single sheet of paper. His pupils dilated—he had brought seven or eight sheets; how was there only one left?

Just then, a rustling sound came from the next stall, followed by the tapping of a mobile phone.

Someone was there?

Summoning his courage, Di Zhiheng asked, "Which classmate is there? Do you have any paper? Can you lend me some?"