Life as a Rogue Cultivator

Chapter 294: Entering the Formation

Liu Xiaolou didn’t dare sell all the formation diagrams at once. Sure, it was a black market and no one could see anyone clearly, but bringing out that many diagrams in one go would’ve been a dead giveaway.So when he sold them, he mixed one real diagram with two fakes, sometimes even one real with three fakes.

The so-called fakes were actually real, usable diagrams too. They were ones Liu Xiaolou had seen before, most of them copied from the Great Formation of Fangle Peak.

What surprised him was that the man named Long even bought a few of the “fakes.”

Liu Xiaolou didn’t call him out. He sold him six diagrams in total, three of which were the real ones, the ones used by Tianmu Mountain for the formation set up at Longtan: the Accumulated Water, Whirling Gold, and Hollow Sand formations.

He earned 100 spirit stones altogether.

By then he had sold four formation diagrams in total. As for the remaining three, he told the man named Long he didn’t have any more, no matter how hard the man pressed him.

But he did share one piece of information. He told Long he had bought those formation diagrams at the Yueyang Market.

Once he heard that, Long headed straight for Yueyang Market. He wandered around its black market for several days, but found nothing.

Just when he started freaking out and second-guessing everything, the companion who’d come with him actually struck gold. In a formation shop, he discovered the remaining three diagrams, and they cost only fifty spirit stones total.

His companion said, “Master Long, this shop belongs to the Ouyang family. I asked where they got the diagrams, and they claimed they were heirlooms.”

Liu Xiaolou had assumed Long was using a fake name to hide his identity. Turns out Long really was his surname, and his full name was Long Zifu. He was also a genuine formation master.

Long Zifu sneered at the claim. “Heirlooms? The Ouyangs of Xiangyin, right? I know them well. No way they could craft a mountain-guarding formation. And these diagrams are only a few years old. What kind of heirloom would that be?”

His companion said, “After I heard all that, I got nervous too. So Master Long, you’ve gotta double-check these diagrams... are they legit or what?”

“They are,” answered Long Zifu. “Go report back to Boss Wang. He can make his move.”

Meanwhile, the one who set all this in motion, Liu Xiaolou, had just rushed six hundred li back to Tianmu Mountain. He’d brought in a total of one hundred and thirty spirit stones this time, and business had never been better.

Of course, if not for needing the Foundation Establishment Pill, he'd never have sold the formation diagrams. Doing so carried real risk. It could drag in Diao Daoyi, who had overseen the creation of the seven formation disks back then, and even implicate Liu Xiaolou himself.

But right now, he couldn’t afford to worry about that.

Back on Tianmu Mountain, he went back into hiding near Longtan to wait for the right moment, only this time he was even more careful.

Day by day, time passed. He didn’t dare get too close to Longtan, and he didn’t dare poke his head out too often to scout the area. One careless move could expose him, and he knew it.

Seven days later, at dusk, a heavy rainstorm rolled in.

Liu Xiaolou perked up instantly. Using the pounding rain as cover, he slipped in from the outer perimeter toward the northwest side of Longtan, creeping to within a hundred zhang.

If the man named Long was a competent formation master, he should notice that entering through the Accumulated Water Formation from the due east side during a heavy downpour was the quietest way in.

Of course, that quiet approach was exactly what Liu Xiaolou wanted them to believe.

He waited patiently in the rain. By the time it was deep into the night, the rain had weakened but hadn’t stopped, and the darkness only grew thicker.

Liu Xiaolou kept inching his way toward Longtan, foot by foot and yard by yard, until he was finally within thirty zhang.

Then ten fathoms, twenty fathoms... He finally reached the edge of the area covered by the Longtan formation.

Walking in with the pouring rain really was the best way to enter, but there wasn’t just one entrance. As a matter of fact, among the seven formations refined back then, two of them were somewhat vulnerable to water. The places those two formations were meant to protect had terrain that kept them from getting soaked even in a downpour. Here at Longtan, though, that weakness was laid completely bare.

Liu Xiaolou knew the formations inside and out, so of course he made full use of that weakness.

Getting in was the easy part. What mattered was how to get the Foundation Establishment Pill once he was inside.

He kept moving in. With his thorough understanding of the formation, he avoided every trap and silently pushed deeper into Longtan.

Up ahead, as far as he could see, stood a two-story pavilion that should be the Alchemy Room. Clustered around it were several small gazebos and low buildings, about a hundred feet from where he crouched. Lamps burned in all of them, and the two-story pavilion shone brightest of all.

At this point, he didn’t dare make another move. He crouched behind a little mound barely up to his waist and let the rain soak him through.

He touched the Jade Pendant Concealment hanging from his neck and murmured in his mind,

Soaked to the bone, he waited for what felt like hours. Staring into the dark, driving rain to the east, he could feel his frustration starting to build.

Why aren’t they here yet?

If he missed a night with weather this perfect, who knew when the next chance would come?

And once the Lu clan finished refining the Pill, how long would they even leave it stored here? No one could say.

Or maybe the pill for this season had already been sent off and given to some outer-sect disciple.

All kinds of thoughts started swarming in his head, and for a second he felt that tight, antsy burn of real anxiety.

Right in the middle of that gnawing feeling, he suddenly caught movement. A second-floor window on the pavilion creaked open. Someone leaned out, staring intently toward the east.

Liu Xiaolou’s heart tightened. He also looked east, toward the Accumulated Water Formation. That was the direction where he expected the Long-named formation master to break in.

If that Long guy really brought his people in through the Accumulated Water Formation, they were going to run into a little surprise... a little surprise Liu Xiaolou had helpfully marked on the formation diagram. It would trigger a small trap. Nothing dangerous, no casualties, just enough to alert the owner of the formation.

But Liu Xiaolou didn’t see anything. From where he was hiding, he really couldn’t.

He looked back at the second floor. The person at the window flipped out through the opening, gliding through the air as if stepping on raindrops. He was heading straight for the Accumulated Water Formation to the east.

A Golden Core cultivator!

Only now did Liu Xiaolou finally hear it through the curtain of rain, a muffled, thunder-like boom.

Then, five or six people rushed out of the pavilion and the nearby small buildings, all heading east. Whether they were Foundation Establishment or late-stage Qi Refinement, he couldn’t tell in the moment...

There was no time to waste. If he missed this opening, it would be gone in a heartbeat. Liu Xiaolou braced himself to sprint toward the pavilion.

He had barely lifted his body when a black shadow shot out from the darkness to his right. In the blink of an eye, it slipped through the open window and into the pavilion.

Liu Xiaolou nearly jumped out of his skin. He froze halfway up, then dropped flat again.

These bastards were pulling a fake-out. Screaming east while the real expert was on this side!

A thought flashed through his mind: that Long guy really did know his formations.

Before he could even figure out what the hell to do, that shadow who’d just shot into the pavilion let out a sharp yelp and came flying right back out, tumbling through the air and hauling ass the same way it came.

Behind him, someone rushed out after him. It was a familiar face: Lu Boqi.

The two of them, one chasing and one fleeing, vanished into the downpour in the space of a heartbeat.

Then three more people shot out of the pavilion, all moving like Foundation Establishment cultivators, and tore off into the rain after them.

Shit hit the fan too fast. Liu Xiaolou gritted his teeth and bolted straight for the pavilion.

The Lu family’s Alchemy Room had already coughed up two Golden Core experts and a whole pack of Foundation Establishment guys. If there were still experts holding watch, well… screw it, he’d just be unlucky.

He reached the base of the pavilion in no time. One glance inside made his heart sink. There were people in there.

Two of them stood guard in front of a storage rack, each holding a long sword.

Rows of pill bottles lined the shelves, glimmering.

And now both guards had already spotted him.