As night slowly descended, the village of Fortune Gathering seemed to be completely submerged in black ink, devoid of any light. It was so dark that one couldn’t even see their own hand in front of their face—a stark contrast to the bustling night market of Falling Sunset Town.

Amidst this pitch-black darkness, a shadowy figure vaulted over the wall of a courtyard and, with practiced ease, made its way to the back door of the house. Carefully piercing a hole in the window paper, the figure pulled out a bamboo tube from its waist and inserted it through the opening.

"Huu~" With a soft exhale, a stream of gray smoke flowed through the bamboo tube and seeped into the absolute darkness inside.

After roughly five minutes, the figure stood up, opened the window, and slipped inside—every movement smooth and effortless, without the slightest hesitation. When it emerged again, it carried a small boy of about three years old in its arms. On a rooftop not far away, Fang Qiuyao, who had witnessed the entire scene, was utterly shocked.

She bit her tongue to stop herself from blurting out, "Senior Brother, how did you know he would definitely come to steal a child from this house today!?" As the shadowy figure fled Fortune Gathering Village, Jiang Beiran waved to the five junior sisters and quietly led them in pursuit.

This was Jiang Beiran’s plan for capturing the criminals—to follow the child-snatcher during their next crime and directly raid their hideout. Compared to investigating and filing a case, this method was far quicker. One could say that this was a solution born from the criminals' own carelessness.

When the child-snatcher had entered the village earlier, Jiang Beiran had already determined that he was merely an ordinary person without any cultivation. As such, as long as the six of them maintained some distance and concealed their auras, there was no way they could be detected. Though the thief had no cultivation, his legs were surprisingly fast.

In just the time it took to drink a cup of tea, he had already covered ten li and dashed into a dense forest. Jiang Beiran and the others immediately followed. Despite the obstructing bushes and trees in the forest, since they had already locked onto the thief’s aura, tracking him was still effortless.

'Hm?

His aura disappeared?' Just as Jiang Beiran sidestepped a large tree and prepared to continue the chase, he suddenly realized that the thief’s aura had vanished without a trace. Liu Zijin and the others also noticed this and stopped in their tracks, looking at Jiang Beiran in confusion.

"It seems we’ve entered a formation," Jiang Beiran replied after scanning their surroundings.

"A formation?"

Fang Qiuyao exclaimed in surprise.

"Someone set up a formation in this forest?"

"Mn."

Jiang Beiran nodded and casually picked up a small stone, tossing it into the distance.

"Senior Brother, what should we do now?"

Liu Zijin asked, already somewhat accustomed to seeking his guidance.

"Since we’ve entered someone else’s formation, naturally, we must break it. Is anyone among you skilled in formations?"

All five junior sisters shook their heads in unison. The Silent Words Hall specialized in music, not formations, so they were completely ignorant in this regard.

"Then we’re doomed. I don’t know how to break formations either. Guess we’ll starve to death here."

"Ah!?"

The five junior sisters gasped in unison.

"Senior Brother, you don’t recognize formations?"

"What’s so strange about that? I’m a disciple of the Blue Heart Hall—we don’t study formations."

Fang Qiuyao couldn’t help but grumble inwardly, 'But the Blue Heart Hall doesn’t teach weaving or medical arts either.'

"This formation… must have been set up by those child-snatchers, right?"

Yu Guishui asked, hugging her two younger sisters tightly. She was genuinely frightened now.

"There’s no doubt about that. If it wasn’t them, that thief wouldn’t have been able to escape the formation so easily earlier."

Truthfully, Jiang Beiran hadn’t expected a mere group of human traffickers to know how to set up formations. After all, formations were an incredibly profound field of study—even among cultivators, few were truly skilled in them. However, Jiang Beiran wasn’t too worried about encountering any major dangers.

If there truly was an expert here, the System would have already popped up with options to warn him. Since nothing had appeared, it meant the situation wasn’t too serious. After thinking for a moment, Fang Qiuyao said, "Since that thief managed to escape, as long as we find the correct path, we can break out too, right?"

Jiang Beiran nodded approvingly.

"Smart. Then let’s split up and search—it’s better than standing here waiting to die."

'So Senior Brother can actually praise people too…' Fang Qiuyao felt a little pleased with herself. After assigning each of the five a direction to search, Jiang Beiran also headed toward the area he had chosen.

'Celestial Stems and Earthly Branches… paired with Chong, Fu, Ying…

Impressive.

The 174th day of the Waking of Insects—this thief actually set up a Yang Escape Nine Formations. It’s the Minor Sixfold Soul-Snatching Formation.' After observing the surrounding layout, Jiang Beiran quickly recognized the formation the thief had set up.

He couldn’t help but feel surprised—he had assumed it was just an ordinary maze formation, but it turned out to be a soul-snatching formation capable of stripping away a target’s senses. That was quite an advanced formation. Unfortunately, the person who set it up was far too inexperienced.

Their grasp of Arcane Formations and Divination was clearly unrefined, resulting in a shoddy imitation that had the shape but none of the substance. Had this Minor Sixfold Soul-Snatching Formation been properly set up, Jiang Beiran believed he would have had his soul seized the moment he stepped inside.

Casually picking up a small stone from the ground, Jiang Beiran aimed at a tree in the Dui position and threw it.

"Plop!"

A bird’s nest shattered instantly, startling Yu Guizui, who had been searching for a path below. She immediately crouched down, covering her head as she cried out, "S-Senior Brother! There’s a trap!

Something just tried to shoot me!" Jiang Beiran replied calmly, "It’s fine. Just be careful.

It won’t kill you." Yu Guizui felt like punching Jiang Beiran twice. She hadn’t even seen where the attack came from—it was clearly a powerful hidden weapon.

If it had hit her, half her body might have been blown apart. Hearing her younger sister’s distress, Yu Guishui called out, "Second Sister, be careful with every step you take. This place is definitely dangerous."

"Got it~" Yu Guizui responded before continuing to scout ahead.

After knocking down the bird’s nest, Jiang Beiran used the shift in the formation’s energy to roughly deduce its structure. He then took out a bronze toad from his Universe Ring and shook it a couple of times.

"Clang!"

Hearing the sudden metallic clanging, Fang Qiuyao, who wasn’t far away, drew her White Rainbow Sword and shouted, "Who goes there!? Show yourself if you dare!" But after pointing her sword around for a while, no one appeared.

She then asked in a small voice, "Senior Brother… what was that sound just now?"

"I’m not sure. Maybe vengeful spirits coming to claim lives. Have you heard of ghost rattling bells? It sounds just like that."

Fang Qiuyao’s face instantly paled. She crouched down and began whispering prayers, "Immeasurable Heavenly Venerable, shelter all, protect all… sob…" Hearing Fang Qiuyao burst into tears, Jiang Beiran nearly laughed out loud.

He truly hadn’t expected the usually righteous and fearless Fang Qiuyao to be so terrified of ghosts. At the same time, three options appeared before him.

[Option 1: Go over and hug Fang Qiuyao to comfort her. Reward: Shattering Star Dragon Palm (Earth Grade, Mid Tier)] [Option 2: Tell Fang Qiuyao that ghosts don’t exist. Reward: Shifting Steps Technique (Yellow Grade, Mid Tier)] [Option 3: Mock Fang Qiuyao for being so cowardly. Reward: Random Basic Skill Point +1] PS: I just realized I always end up writing options right at the chapter breaks.

Am I truly a natural-born cliffhanger master?

(Too bad I’m too timid to commit.)

(End of Chapter)