Book 5 Chapter 24 – Breaking the Formation

　　"That formation You Fang mentioned… 'The Four Spirits that Hide the Sky'… have you ever heard of that?" Li Yiming looked at Eyegla.s.ses and Sai Gao. It was one thing to question You Fang's lifestyle choices, but Li Yiming did not doubt his competence in his area of expertise.

　　"Nope." Eyegla.s.ses shook his head and looked at Sai Gao.

　　"Don't ask me, I'm as clueless as you are." The "charming" way in which Sai Gao rolled his eyes made Eyegla.s.ses look away.

　　"It has to be something extraordinary if it's able to use the four legendary spirits. We know how it works now, but how are we supposed to break it…" Li Yiming shook his head in frustration; the trail was broken once more had been broken once more.

　　"Maybe we can ask another teacher?" Sai Gao asked.

　　"You want to break the formation?" Chen Quan, who had been sitting in his own corner until now, suddenly interjected.

　　"Oh?" Li Yiming, Eyegla.s.ses, and Sai Gao simultaneously lowered their heads toward Chen Quan, whose height made him easy to miss. The latter had a deep frown and was taken aback at the sudden attention he received.

　　"You have an idea?" Eyegla.s.ses asked. He had noticed that Chen Quan was particularly captivated by You Fang's tale.

　　"This formation protects the entire city. The four key elements are obviously the statues at the gates…" Chen Quan said in a low voice. Between his sentences, he glanced at Eyegla.s.ses nervously.

　　"Right," Eyegla.s.ses gave him some encouragement after exchanging a look with Li Yiming.

　　"Snakes belongs to water, tortoise to earth, eagles to fire, Bai Ze to wood, and the golden wok to metal. All five elements are present in this formation," Chen Quan said with a frown. "Lianyun City is aligned with the four cardinals. This makes for a perfect combination with the formation…" ¹

　　"Are you're just telling us how hard it is for us to break this formation?" Sai Gao complained with an "alluring" grimace.

　　"No no no, that's not what I meant. What I want to say is that this formation is too perfect…" Chen Quan rushed to explain himself.

　　"Let him speak." Li Yiming intervened. He had learned to not underestimate Chen Quan's knowledge from the few times the latter had shown his wisdom.

　　"The statues are not of the same size… "

　　"You mean Bai Ze?"

　　"Yes. The five elements need to maintain balance with each other in order to perpetuate the cycle of energy that runs between them. However, Bai Ze, who guards the East, is visibly smaller than the three other spirits. Maybe there's a reason for that, but if you look at the buildings in the city, you'll notice something. Let me ask you, how are houses usually oriented?" Chen Quan pointed at a building nearby as he spoke. ²

　　"Front towards the North and back toward the South… but the buildings here are all facing East instead." Eyegla.s.ses caught onto the clue quickly. It was a simple observation that had escaped all of them.

　　"Yes, and that's because the energy of the entire city is being directed toward the East to help Bai Ze…"

　　Li Yiming, Eyegla.s.ses, and Sai Gao's eyes lit up at hearing the revelation; all of three of them knew for a fact that Bai Ze had been absent in the first place, so Chen Quan's deduction could not be wrong.