“Don’t blame him — it’s likely the formation surrounding this area. This brother has fallen victim to it.”

Mu Mu cupped his hands toward the brother from the Celestial Mechanism Hall. “Please forgive the intrusion.”

That brother no longer dared to let his temper flare. He said quickly, “It’s nothing — just a misunderstanding.”

Feng Jiu’er had already finished applying the needles, and the affected brother’s muddled consciousness gradually cleared.

When he realized what he had done, he immediately turned to the one he had struck. “I’m sorry — just now, I seemed to have… lost myself.”

Since it was all a misunderstanding, there was nothing more to pursue.

Everyone already knew this place was uncanny — they simply hadn’t expected it to be this severe.

Feng Jiu’er studied the brother who had gone berserk. Nothing looked visibly wrong with him; he simply appeared a shade paler than usual.

“Just now — what exactly happened? Did you accidentally look at the scenery in the distance?”

“No.” The brother shook his head quickly. “General Mu had already warned us beforehand not to look at the distant scenery. And besides, with it this dark, there’s nothing to see anyway.”

He thought back, then said slowly, “It was just… without really noticing it, something like a gust of wind brushed over me, and after that… I… saw many killers.”

Brushed by a gust of wind…

Jiu’er’s expression darkened. This was no longer a matter of whether you chose to look or not — this was a passive attack from the formation itself.

She looked up, and found Xue Gu watching her, brows deeply furrowed.

Such a powerful formation — she had never encountered anything like it in her life.

No — perhaps this was not a man-made formation at all. Perhaps it had formed on its own, shaped by the land itself.

A formation born of heaven and earth, arising naturally — that was far more terrifying than anything laid by human hands.

The terror of it lay in the fact that no one had ever studied it, so no method existed to break it.

“Ah—!” A wail erupted from somewhere in the distance.

Everyone startled. Mu Mu and Xue Gu moved quickly toward the sound.

Jiu’er called out urgently, “Everyone sit down — circulate your inner energy and steady yourselves. Do not panic.”

“Yes!”

Every person sat down and began to focus inward. They were all curious about the cry they had heard, but by now they all understood the danger well — no one dared let their guard slip.

Jiu Qing walked just behind Feng Jiu’er. By the time the two of them reached the scene, Mu Mu had already pulled apart the brothers who had been struggling.

But one of them had collapsed on the ground, with a dark stain of blood spreading beneath him.

“Jiu’er, quickly — he has a sword wound to the abdomen!” Mu Mu said urgently.

“Understood!” Grasping the severity of the situation at once, Feng Jiu’er immediately drew out her needle case. As she began applying needles to stanch the bleeding, she called out, “Go find the golden sore medicine — Long Yi, go gather some Purple River Grass. The kind I taught you to recognize last time.”

“Yes!” Long Yi raised a hand, and immediately led over a dozen brothers off to search for the medicinal herb nearby.

Purple River Grass was not too difficult to find. Though the area was largely jagged stone, there were still some medicinal plants to be had.

Feng Jiu’er had said before that Purple River Grass was excellent for stopping blood — but it had to be fresh to be of any use.

Xue Gu went to the carriage herself to retrieve a vial of golden sore medicine.

But the brother’s wound was too deep. The bleeding had to be stopped first; otherwise the golden sore medicine would serve no purpose.

Quite some time passed, and not a single one of the men Long Yi had taken with him had returned.

Although Feng Jiu’er had applied the needles, the wound was too deep — needles alone were not enough.

“Jiu’er, the strips of cloth are ready.” Qiao Mu came over with torn bandages in hand.

Jiu’er was still looking around anxiously. “Where is Long Yi? Mu Mu, go check whether they’ve brought the Purple River Grass back.”

“They’re back!” Long Yi came striding over, arms full of Purple River Grass.

“Xue Gu, Qiao Mu!”

“Right away!” Both Xue Gu and Qiao Mu had worked with the Celestial Mechanism Hall long enough to know Feng Jiu’er’s methods well. Without needing any instruction, they immediately began crushing the Purple River Grass Long Yi had brought.

Long Yi wiped a hand across his brow, and while no one was paying him attention, he quietly slipped back into an unobtrusive corner.

Jiu’er mixed the Purple River Grass juice with the medicinal powder, then spread it onto the wound through a layer of gauze. After that, she wrapped the wound with gauze, sealed the outer layer with more medicinal powder, and finished with the cloth binding.

The wounded brother was unconscious. Jiu’er could only ease a heart-protective pill and some water between his lips, then had someone clear a space so he could be carefully laid down to rest.

“Long Yi — where are the brothers you took with you?” Long Eleven suddenly noticed that the dozen or so brothers seemed not to have returned.

“They didn’t come back?” Long Yi looked genuinely bewildered. “Just now, we each went off to search separately. We weren’t together.”

An uneasy feeling swept through everyone at once. They looked around. Nearby, craggy stones jutted up all around them, each one as though rooted among the wild grass.

There was no telling how the strange stones of this mountain had come to form this way. Flowers and trees grew here and there amid them, but with the stones so prevalent, the vegetation was naturally sparse.

They had been searching close by — the path back should have been easy to find. So why had only Long Yi returned?

“Though, the path back just now was strange. I had only stepped away for a moment, yet it took a tremendous effort to find my way back.”

Long Yi’s voice had gone slightly hoarse — as though he had exhausted himself. Had finding the way back truly drained his inner energy?

Eleven did not dare press him further. This place was too peculiar. He could only go and report the situation to Mu Mu first.

“I’ll go look for them.” Mu Mu stood.

“Wait.” Jiu’er was uneasy. These stones looked wrong — perhaps all of them were part of the formation.

If they were all part of the formation, going in and being unable to find one’s way out was entirely possible.

“The energy around this area is strange.” Jiu Qing, who had not spoken until now, knit his brows faintly.

He was the kind of person who faced anything with composure. If even he was frowning, the situation was truly serious.

“We cannot sense any presence of outsiders, but that does not mean there are none here.”

Jiu Qing’s words sent a simultaneous chill through everyone present. A thread of unease continued to spread from heart to heart.

Did the formation even suppress the presence of outsiders?

They had assumed the people watching them had withdrawn — but perhaps those people had not withdrawn at all. Perhaps their presence had simply been masked by the formation.

If even Jiu Qing and Mu Mu could not sense them, then just how powerful this formation was needed no further explanation.

Jiu Qing set down his water skin and rose. “Stay here and watch over her. I’ll go.”

“No — protecting her is your responsibility.” Mu Mu refused outright.

Jiu Qing gave him an even look, then said flatly, “I’ve studied esoteric formations before. If I go in, there is a chance I can come back out.”

A chance.

He had actually used the word chance.

Feng Jiu’er panicked in an instant. Without thinking, she grabbed his sleeve, a flash of alarm crossing her eyes. “No—”

“We have over a dozen brothers unaccounted for. We cannot leave them.”

Whether they had been taken by someone or simply lost within the formation — if no one went for them, they might never find their way back.