Chapter 14

Why would a remnant soul choose an unconventional path? For example, choosing to stay in the place they fear the most, like the scene of an incident. This is basically an unsolved mystery. Even cultivators can't answer all the questions about spiritual entities.

But the reason doesn't really matter; what matters is that my judgment is correct.

Due to the tension caused by Old Zhou's remnant soul, I firmly believed that my judgment was right. In my heart, I kept muttering, asking my somewhat unreliable ancestor in heaven to bless me.

With this uneasy feeling, I finally drove to the medical college where Old Zhou worked.

The main part of the complex is the school, and the hospital is an annex, but this also means the hospital is very large. I naturally wasn't as familiar with it as Old Zhou, but I could still find the building where the specimens were stored. I remembered it clearly because I had asked Old Zhou to bring me here out of curiosity before.

In the night, in a strange silence, I quickly approached the specimen building, which was almost at the edge of the complex. The bright lights in one of the rooms on the first floor indicated that the security guard was still on duty.

I could understand the bright lights. The security guard here must have known about the incident in the basement a few days ago, and with such a bizarre event, he was probably quite afraid.

But due to the school's attitude, after such a serious incident, they wouldn't relax the supervision of this building. So, even if the security guard was afraid, he still had to come to work if he didn't want to lose his job.

I guessed that in this situation, it was no longer possible for just one security guard to be on duty. There were at least two security guards in the guard room.

Standing about thirty meters away from the specimen room in a small grove of trees, I was considering all the possibilities. If this was the case, my plan to sneak in with Old Zhou's work ID wouldn't work. So, I would have to use a method I was reluctant to use.

With this thought, I walked out of the grove of trees, took out a tightly tied cloth bag from my yellow cloth bag, and carefully circled around to the side of the quiet building. A hint of excitement, which I didn't even notice, appeared on my face as I suddenly pulled the drawstring of the cloth bag.

Inside were some miscellaneous items, such as black and white stones, spirit jade, and copper coins. Each of these items might be extraordinary to many cultivators because they were absolutely excellent tools for setting up arrays.

Yes, my awesome sect, known as the Mountain Line, has unique techniques, but its true strength lies in array formations.

Unlike the grand arrays of the Character Line, our sect's exclusive array formations belong to the 'Array' of the Mountain Line. These arrays are generally focused on illusion, suppression, attack, and defense. They are profound and magical, opening a fascinating door from the simplest to the most complex.

I myself feel that the array formations passed down by our sect are vast like the sea, and it would be impossible to master them all in a lifetime, especially some of the most captivating formations, which use array tools that are unheard of or extremely precious, but their effects are truly earth-shattering.

But my master still felt a certain regret. He told me that some of the array formations passed down by our sect have been lost, which is a regrettable thing. He hoped that in his lifetime, he could supplement some of the lost parts, even if it was just a part, so he could die without any regrets.

I didn't like hearing this at the time. I was young and couldn't bear to hear about life and death. I always thought that the important people in my life would never leave me, which, although impossible, was the simple and pure mindset of a young person.

While thinking about these things, my hands didn't stop. I started placing 'array points' at the necessary positions outside the building. Yes, I was setting up an array, and this array was the simplest Soul-Repelling Array.

This means that after the array is completed, no matter how many spiritual entities are inside the building, they won't be able to leave.

I wasn't confident about other things, but when it came to my sect's array formations, I was absolutely one hundred and twenty percent confident. My master often said that any array formation from our awesome sect was at least twice as powerful as any other array formation.

So, I sometimes wondered, if this world of martial arts really exists, would the evaluation be like this? If we talk about the subtlety of techniques, the Li Line is the best. For taming beasts, the Snake Sect in Sichuan has its unique methods. But when it comes to array formations, the leading expert is our awesome sect.

Thinking of this pride, a smile couldn't help but appear on my face, but my hands didn't stop. The placement of the 'array points' was almost flawless, after all, I was a direct disciple of the sect, and the Soul-Repelling Array was a relatively simple array for me.

Soon, I had finished setting up the necessary positions outside the entire building. Although the main part of the array should be outside the building, as it was 'sealing' the building, some internal arrangements were still needed. Thinking of this, my hand touched some 'special' items in my pocket.

These were seven small seals, the most commonly used items for suppressing the array eye in our sect's exclusive array formations, which were very unique.

According to my master, in the array formations that were widely known, the items used to suppress the array eye were usually copper coins, spirit jade, or more powerful personal cultivation tools, but seals were rarely used. In the Daoist tradition, seals were generally used as offensive and suppressive tools, not for array formations.

But in our sect's array formations, if they were not special, the array eye was generally this type of seal, and these were items that couldn't be found outside, unique treasures passed down by our sect. My awesome master said that the materials used for these seals were special, the cultivation methods were special, and the contained magical power was special. Each one was a treasure of the sect and had endless uses.

He gave me seven of them at once, and apart from setting up arrays, I hadn't discovered any other uses, so I sometimes wondered if my master was just boasting.

With this thought, I had already reached the side door of the building. The door was still tightly closed, and since I couldn't sneak in through the main entrance, I had to go through the side.

To ease my nerves, I lit a cigarette and took a wire loop from my keychain, straightened it, and started working on the big iron lock at the door.

This iron lock posed no difficulty for me. In less than half a minute, I found the key point and, with a light touch of the wire, heard a crisp 'click.' The iron lock on the main door was opened without a scratch.

Although I was here to save Old Zhou, using this method still made my face turn slightly red. This 'skill' was actually learned from my eldest senior brother, who was the most curious person and had a variety of skills, including lock-picking.

He once told me not to underestimate his unique lock-picking skills, which he learned from a genuine 'thief sect.' He told me that wherever there are people, there is a world of martial arts, and in this world, there are many skills, including those that are not to be seen in the light, that have their own unique traditions.

He insisted on teaching me this skill. I thought he was just bored on the mountain and couldn't find anything fun to do, so he decided to teach his 'disciple' as a pastime.

At first, I definitely didn't want to learn this. As a Daoist, learning such a thieving skill was too embarrassing. But my eldest senior brother didn't think so. He told me that the true 'thief sect' wasn't the low-level, bottomless thieves. They emphasized 'thievery with principles,' and the 'thief sect' wasn't open to just anyone. Without a sense of justice, one couldn't join the 'thief sect.'

Was this true? I didn't know, as it was hard for me to associate thievery with justice, but I did learn some of the basics. My eldest senior brother could be quite scary sometimes, especially when he got angry.

So, after learning this skill, I always carried a wire loop with me.

Memories of the past were chaotic, but my hands didn't stop. My steps were light, and in the midst of recalling the past, I walked from the third floor to the first floor of the specimen building to set up the array.

Perhaps because of the incident, the specimen building was as quiet as when Old Zhou came here. I 'browsed' from the third floor to the first floor and confirmed that, apart from the security room, there was no one else in the building.

After setting up the array from the third floor to the first floor, I was going to the basement. I took out a small seal and put it in my pocket. This Soul-Repelling Array didn't require special array patterns, and the necessary placements were basically complete.

I just needed to place two more array points and the seal, and the entire array would activate.

Sweat was already beading on my back, but I walked resolutely toward the basement. I hoped Old Zhou's remnant soul wouldn't disappoint me!