Eight Trigrams City.

The city had been rebuilt two hundred years ago, and all traces of the flames and chaos of the former dynasty had long since vanished. Even a few foreigners could be seen walking the streets. The inn’s attendant mentioned that not far from the Chiyang Pass there were people from beyond the pass who had moved in from the steppes — though in recent years, with the border tribes growing restless and the city authorities worried about spies infiltrating, such things were scrutinized carefully. Pure-blooded foreigners were rarely permitted to settle anymore; those on the official register were essentially all intermarried with Han people by now.

Gong Qi walked alongside Lang Jiuchuan and said: “It seems the true golden age was a hundred years ago. Now the barbarians are stirring again. Who knows when the fires of war will be rekindled.”

Lang Jiuchuan said: “Those who are not of our kind will always harbor different intentions. It is perfectly natural. It depends on what the court intends to do — and it is not something you or I can manage.”

Gong Qi nodded, then asked: “You put up a concealment technique before we even stepped outside. Who are you guarding against?”

Lang Jiuchuan gave a slightly helpless sigh. “Did you think that just because we said we were Daoists, everyone would simply stop worrying about us entirely? Neither of us had so much as a bag when we suddenly appeared out of nowhere — does that not strike people as strange? Ma Qiao, the city guard, may have no particular depth of character, but he didn’t rise to that post by being completely naive. He may well have already told the inn staff to keep an eye on our movements.”

She glanced at the buildings lining both sides of the street. “We need to examine Eight Trigrams City’s layout. The moment our movements are exposed, anyone with ulterior motives who learns of it will begin to think. Ordinary people might be fine — but who knows whether there is someone watching over this formation, living within this city?”

“A guardian of the formation?”

Lang Jiuchuan lowered her gaze. “The city has stood for two hundred years. The pillar has never fallen. The formation has endured through all the changes the world has brought, without breaking. Even if the formation was laid by a master practitioner, someone should be maintaining it — to guard against disruption, to make repairs if anything goes wrong. If such a person truly exists, and we walk about so conspicuously, falling under their notice — wouldn’t we simply be asking for trouble? Think about it: General Fuqi and his soldiers have gone two hundred years without passing on to Wangsheng. If it is truly the formation that holds them — that means this formation has never been destroyed.”

Gong Qi was silent for a moment, then asked: “Were you always this cautious?”

Always afraid of someone plotting against her life.

Lang Jiuchuan said evenly: “I don’t fear trouble. But when it can be avoided, it is better to avoid it. A little caution is never a bad thing. I am frail and my life is short — I must take care of this body.”

What about fighting — does that not take a toll?

And technique battles drain spiritual power even more. I have no interest in minor skirmishes every three days and major ones every five.

Gong Qi opened his mouth, wanting to ask what her life had been like in the past — then felt that it would be prying into something private, that they weren’t nearly close enough for that. Especially not as far as she was concerned.

Never mind. Better not to invite awkwardness.

Eight Trigrams City was no small place. Lang Jiuchuan unrolled a regional map and fixed the general layout in her mind, then set out from the inn. Following the Eight Trigrams arrangement of eight directions corresponding to eight gates, they started with the Qian Gate — at the northwest position — which represented the meaning of opening the Heavenly Gate. As it happened, that position was also an actual city gate.

Gong Qi took the map from her hand and studied it closely. “Only now that I look carefully — the city isn’t small, but it’s not particularly large either. Yet it has eight city gates. Calling that a coincidence would convince no one.”

“Ma Qiao already said it — the city was built this way intentionally, as a grand feng shui formation. Having multiple gates raises no eyebrows.” Lang Jiuchuan said. “If it were truly a five-element feng shui formation, that would actually be favorable — it would carry the meaning of enhancing fortune and vital energy, and living within such a formation might mean things going smoothly and people living longer. But the Nine Palace Eight Trigrams pattern takes the transformations of Heaven and Earth’s yin and yang, and integrates the principles of the five elements’ cycles of generation and suppression. Once the formation is complete, a brilliant light appears across the ground, like a river of stars flowing in reverse, drawing whoever enters into a state of chaos — unable to find their way in or out.”

Gong Qi’s handsome face darkened. “So that’s why the inn attendant mentioned the curfew — that once the hour of the Rooster ends, no one is permitted to walk through the city — because moving through the formation plunges you into that chaotic state? If that’s true, the people here have been living under this for two hundred years? And anyone who ignores the curfew would be in danger inside the formation?”

Lang Jiuchuan said: “Once enough people have been harmed by it, the rest learn to comply.”

“What is the point of setting up this formation?” Gong Qi asked, some frustration creeping into his voice.

Lang Jiuchuan said nothing in reply. If she knew, she wouldn’t be standing here.

To save time, the two used a Xuanmen movement talisman and covered a hundred zhang with each step, arriving quickly at the position of the Qian Gate in the northwest. Standing beneath the city gate, both of them spotted the Eight Trigrams mirror suspended above.

It was made of wood, inlaid with a piece of dark iron, and the mirror surface was engraved with ritual symbols.

“Can you tell what material it’s made from?” Gong Qi asked, furrowing his brow.

Lang Jiuchuan examined the wood of the Eight Trigrams mirror. It bore the marks of having been scorched by lightning fire, yet had not rotted despite the passage of many years. “To endure without decay for so long, and to anchor a powerful formation, this cannot be an ordinary material. Given the many years it has stood, it must be thunderstruck wood — wood struck and seasoned by lightning.”

She could still perceive the fierce, surging intent of the heavenly power emanating from within the Eight Trigrams mirror.

Having sketched the materials used for the formation eye at the Qian Gate with a charcoal stick, Lang Jiuchuan quickly moved to the Kan Gate at the due north position. That gate opened onto a river, and within the water a sizable Black Tortoise statue had been erected. The river surface had yet to thaw and was frozen over; beneath it, several chains could be seen locking the Black Tortoise statue in place.

Then to the Gen Gate at the northeast — facing the mountain, where a stone tablet inscribed with the words “to ward off evil” stood a full two zhang tall. Atop it were the three characters for “Eight Trigrams City,” and at its center was a simplified illustration of the Five Sacred Mountains.

The two needed only a single glance at each gate, jot down a sketch, and move on to the next. As the sketches of formation eyes accumulated on the paper in their hands, the expressions on both their faces grew colder and more somber.

Before, when they could only look at the map and guess based on the Nine Palace Eight Trigrams diagram, they had not dared to be certain. But now, having seen the materials used for the formation anchors at each gate, how could they cling to any remaining hope that they were wrong?

By the time the sky turned to a dusky yellow, the two of them stood atop the city wall, gazing out at the stone pillar. In the light of the dying sun it seemed dyed in crimson — and yet, over that crimson, they could see wisps and tendrils of violet energy curling upward.

Lang Jiuchuan’s brow furrowed tightly. “That violet energy is no ordinary thing. This pillar serves as the central palace formation eye, and beneath it, there is almost certainly a true treasure anchoring the entire formation.”

“Shall we wait until dark and go dig it up?” Gong Qi was practically itching to try.

Lang Jiuchuan shot him a withering look. “I’ll happily provide you a hoe free of charge. Go dig — the karmic consequence will be entirely yours to bear.”

Gong Qi clicked his tongue.

The two bent together again over the paper, which had now been filled in to form a complete diagram of a genuine Nine Palace Eight Trigrams formation.

The Eight Trigrams laid out in eight directions — Heaven, Water, Mountain, Thunder, Wind, Fire, Earth, Lake — corresponding to the eight gates of Rest, Birth, Injury, Obstruction, View, Death, Fright, and Opening. Each gate concealed a killing mechanism, endlessly shifting and transforming. And at the center of the nine palaces lay the formation eye — the core that governed everything.

The Nine Palace Eight Trigrams formation. Complete.

The two exchanged a glance, their expressions cold and taut.

“I still don’t understand,” Gong Qi murmured, pressing his lips together. “If this truly is a Nine Palace Eight Trigrams formation used against people, that is at least comprehensible. But it has existed for two hundred years — who is it being used against all this time? If it were meant to deal with malevolent spirits, the heroic spirits of the Fuji Army would never have been the ones caught in it. Why go to such extraordinary lengths to construct a formation this elaborate, and then maintain it for so long?”

Lang Jiuchuan looked at the sky. “It’s nearly dark. Let’s see what the night reveals.”

Gong Qi fell silent.

The sky deepened, shade by shade. Hidden from sight, the two stood atop the city wall, enduring the howling northern wind, watching as the last trace of daylight was swallowed entirely by the dark.

Suddenly, the energy field around them shifted.