Let Me Explain, Fairy
Chapter 670 - 425: Assassination

Chapter 670: Chapter 425: Assassination

Xu Yuan and Lou Ji entered the secret room, and the inscription lamps that responded to their presence immediately lit up.

The nucleus of the Protective City Formation of Huizhou County was contained within a cave approximately seventeen or eighteen zhang deep, shaped like a rectangular prism, with its walls smoothly plastered with special stones and stone stairs spiraling downward at the edges.

With the light from the inscription lamps, the numerous profound formation patterns engraved at the bottom of the cave were faintly visible.

Walking down the stone stairs to the bottom, the steps of the two echoed in the spacious and quiet cavern.

As they gradually approached the bottom, Xu Yuan gazed at the formation patterns, which flickered between brightness and darkness, and a touch of admiration involuntarily appeared in his eyes.

The art of formations was indeed a marvelous creation of humankind that cleverly rivalled the works of the heavens.

Even a cursory glance with his spirit vision allowed him to sense the massive power contained within.

"Sister, is this Protective City Formation of Huizhou really just the lowest grade?"

Lou Ji’s lush legs, clad in high-heeled lotus boots, tapped crisply on the ground as she made her way to the nucleus. She poured Origin Qi into it without answering and instead asked,

"Is this your first time seeing the central hub of a Protective City Formation?"

Xu Yuan, looking at the robust formation patterns around him that gradually lit up and illuminated the entire cave, said,

"Previously in Northern Border City, I mostly stayed in the barracks and never visited the formation’s nucleus."

"That explains it."

Lou Ji murmured and, with divided attention, checked the Protective City Formation through the nucleus while laughing lightly in response, "A mere county city naturally has the lowest rank. Grade C formations consume too many resources, and there are too many county-level cities; the current Imperial Court’s finances simply cannot support such a huge expense."

The path of formations had evolved to the present day, with countless branches already too numerous to count, but fundamentally divided into ten ranks in the sequence of the heavenly stems, based on their strength.

Grades Wu, Ji, Geng, Xin, Ren, and Gui denoted the lower six ranks, which the common folk and wealthy merchants could engrave in their estates, commonly seen formations like Sound Avoidance and Spirit Locking.

Grades Jia, Yi, Bing, and Ding represented the higher four ranks and were used by the Imperial military; the Protective City Formations of all levels of prefectures and counties in the Dayan Territory were listed here.

The Protective Formation of Huizhou County, bearing the mark of a single county’s administrative unit, was of the lowest military rank, the weakest of the weak.

However weak it might be, it was still a city’s military formation, with the most basic requirement of being able to resist an attacker of the Mortal Transcendence level.

This was one of the most critical aspects of the system the Dayan Empire had constructed to maintain stability throughout the land.

Starting from the founding of the empire, it had been built bit by bit, until today the Protective City Formations covered all the cities within the entire Dayan territory.

It could be used not only to defend against rebel assaults but also to a certain degree prevent high-level cultivators from causing chaos.

Ancient wisdom was quite something.

However, at the critical moment, Xu Yuan felt the wisdom of the ancients was somewhat unreliable.

The ability of a lowest grade formation to fend off Mortal Transcendence level attackers was purely theoretical.

If the formation was perfectly preserved and fully operational, it would indeed not be difficult to deal with Mortal Transcendence. But if such powerful individuals truly intended to create chaos, who would be foolish enough to wait for you to activate the entire formation before they took action?

Maintenance of the formation was also an issue.

Like right now...

Xu Yuan saw that barely hidden exasperation on his elder sister’s face.

With a potential assassination approaching, their visit to this minor city of Huizhou was simple.

The first reason was to use the city’s Communication Crystal to mask the existence of the Tianxun Crystal Orb. If they did not come here, Feng Jiuxuan’s direct support would seem rather suspicious.

The second was to try to use the city’s Protective City Formation to fend off the potential assassination attempt.

However, given Lou Ji’s current expression, their second objective seemed to have fallen through...

Xu Yuan spoke with a slightly grave tone,

"Is there a problem with the formation?"

"......"

Lou Ji took a deep breath and turned her gaze around, with a hint of helplessness,

"Changtian, if you weren’t prepared to kill those people before, now they’d have to die."

Xu Yuan felt a slight sinking feeling in his heart.

Alright, it seemed there really was a problem.

And from his elder sister’s particularly grave tone, the issue with Huizhou’s Protective City Formation seemed to be quite significant.

Xu Yuan subconsciously thought of the Spirit Reserve Pool.

The Spirit Reserve Pool was a facility established in every Protective City Formation, continuously absorbing heaven and earth Origin Qi to accumulate man-made Spiritual Liquid, or even man-made Source Crystals, storing them in preparation for times of war.

Officials in the border cities mostly dared not touch this, as the reserve of Spiritual Liquid and Source Crystals in the Spirit Reserve Pool were lifelines in case of foreign invasions.

But in the peaceful Central Plains, the Spirit Reserve Pool was a hotbed of corruption and embezzlement.

After all, one might not encounter war in several decades of governance, yet the Spiritual Liquid was a valuable commodity, an excellent choice for personal cultivation or selling for one’s family.

With this in mind,

Xu Yuan reached for his Sumeru Ring while speaking, "If the reserves of Spiritual Liquid in the Spirit Reserve Pool are low, my Sumeru Ring still has plenty of leftover Source Crystals, which should be sufficient to maintain this Protective City Formation..."

"The reserves of Spiritual Liquid in the Spirit Reserve Pool are indeed almost depleted, but the problem doesn’t lie there,"

Lou Ji interrupted Xu Yuan’s words and pointed to the glowing, robust formation patterns under their feet,

"There are a total of seventeen formation hubs here; all Origin Qi passage must operate through these hubs towards every part of the city, but now two of them have completely lost response, and seven are in a semi-paralyzed state. Only eight hubs can operate normally."

Hearing her words and already having learned some principles of formations from his fourth sister, Xu Yuan’s eyes twitched involuntarily.

So this damned place has been patching one wall by tearing down another.