Chapter 157

Chapter 157

Formation Defusing Method

There was a... fire in the distance, presumably on the other side of the river bank. There was some cursing in a faint voice and flashes of green coming from their magical weapon.

“He must be the one you mentioned. He shouldn’t have started a fire. He gave off his location to the fiend beasts. I’m not surprised they jumped him,” voiced Ol’ Tan.

In consideration of more manpower increasing their chances of survival, Mu Yu asked, “Can we help him?”

“How do you suggest we do that? If he has his wits about him, he’d extinguish the fire. Otherwise, more and more fiend beasts will climb up. Sooner or later, they could just crush him under their weight alone.”

The fight waged on for a while longer before the fire went out. The green flashes continued flashing for a while before stopping, and peace was restored. Mu Yu went back inside to rest.

It took a long time for sleep to onset. Mu Yu then had a nightmare where Gui Xuanyue trapped him. Feng Haochen then arrived in the nick of time to stop his attempt to commit suicide. Before he could celebrate, Third Heaven Palace rocked up and took them away. Mu Yu swung in his sleep and woke himself up when he smashed his hand into the cave wall. He resumed sleeping but forgot the nightmare the next day.

It was as foggy as it was yesterday when Ol’ Tan woke Mu Yu up at noon. Mu Yu couldn’t even tell it was noon; he thought it was morning. Mu Yu went to the riverbank to have a morning stretch. He tried to get a visual of the other side to no avail. He proceeded to wash his face with the frosty water, then tried another futile attempt to escape the formation.

“Damn, you’re right. We wouldn’t even see a fire during the day. We did see that fire last night, so I guess it’s probable at night, but then there are the fiend beasts to worry about. According to Ol’ Tan, they’re not fodder, either,” Mu Yu reasoned.

“You’re a genius. I didn’t even think of that after spending half a year here. How do you plan to execute it? We can give it a try,” Ol’ Tan enthused after hearing Mu Yu’s recount.

“The only thing we can use as a marker is a fire. There aren’t any trees, so pill flame stones are our only option. As the fire requires a ceaseless supply of spiritual energy to burn, we need someone there to act as the replenishment. If the flame is too small, we won’t see it. We need it to burn as bright as possible. That’s where we have a conundrum. Whoever is maintaining the fire is in peril of becoming the next skeleton. No fire, though, means the plan fails.

“By the same account, the person searching for the boundary will be traversing the valley in darkness. There’s no guarantee fiend beasts won’t ambush them. Tackling them with zero vision as just as dangerous as the one maintaining the fire. Either way, if either team goes down, it’ll all be over.

“Lastly, and most importantly, I can’t promise I can defuse the formation even should I locate the boundary.”

Ol’ Tan knew he had to be the torch bearer because he was stronger than Mu Yu and possessed superior spiritual energy, allowing him to produce a brighter flame. Ol’ Tan’s concern, besides his own safety, was if Mu Yu could hack it against the fiend beasts at his level.

“I want to give it a go. If you don’t play the game, you have no chance of winning it. The only way you have a chance of winning is to play the game.”

Mu Yu gave a nod, and they then began fleshing out the details. All that was left was to rest up and wait for the night to swallow the day.