"That's good then. Just don't go bringing disaster to some good family's child."
Madam Yu knew her husband had his limits, so she spoke casually, not expecting much from her comment.
At that moment, Di Kangnian stepped out of the room, supporting his lower back. He ordered his attendants to prepare the carriage—he planned to take his beauties out for a day of fun.
The servants, seeing the smug and satisfied expression on Di Kangnian's face, knew at once that the four beauties had become their lord's new favorites. They hurried forward, eager to please.
Yun Xi and the others giggled as they boarded the carriage. Led by Di Kangnian, it seemed they were going on an outing—but in truth, they were heading to visit his ancestral graves.
The carriage traveled for half a day before finally arriving at the ancestral land Di Kangnian had mentioned.
After stepping down from the carriage, Yun Xi and the others spread out their divine sense. A quick scan confirmed it really was a land blessed by geomantic luck. No wonder the Di family had gone so far as to relocate their ancestral tombs here. After all, relocating ancestral graves was no simple matter for any family.
Liu Haotian finished surveying the area and commented, "This place is surrounded by mountains and rivers, the wind is contained and the energy converges. The back rests on a mountain, the front faces a water source—it offers both support and harmony. Open waters balance yin and yang and gather wealth. Such a formation foretells noble descendants. On top of that, the land is protected by the Four Celestial Beasts. It's the pinnacle of Feng Shui treasure land."
Di Kangnian beamed with pride. "You're absolutely right. Finding this spot took the family considerable effort."
Xia You glanced at the tombstone."Then why isn't the Di family name engraved on any of these?"
Di Kangnian quickly explained,"That's just to mislead outsiders. We didn't want anyone discovering this place."
But Yun Xi found the excuse weak. It was only a cemetery—there was no need for this level of secrecy.
Liu Haotian stood before a tombstone, calculated something with his fingers, and said, "The person buried beneath this stone is indeed deceased. The name isn't fabricated just to throw people off."
Something clicked in Yun Xi's mind. She swept her divine sense across the entire graveyard below and suddenly struck Di Kangnian with her sleeve, sending him flying.
The sudden shift alarmed the guards stationed at a distance, who had been avoiding the group to preserve propriety. They rushed over immediately.
None of the four wanted to waste time with mortals. With a wave of their sleeves, they knocked all the guards unconscious.
Yu Qingcheng turned to Yun Xi."Yun Xi, why are you so furious?"
Yun Xi kept her face cold. "Take a look at the coffins underground."
The other three extended their divine sense. Their expressions quickly darkened.
Xia You exclaimed, "There are only ten tombstones, but more than a hundred corpses underground. Isn't that cramped? And what kind of burial practice stuffs two or three bodies into a single coffin?"
Yu Qingcheng frowned. "Exactly. Some don't even have coffins. Is the Di family meticulous, or completely careless?"
Liu Haotian stopped calculating and spoke with a frosty tone, "The Di family has stolen fate from another clan's ancestral graves. They're trying to forcibly shift their own destiny. To prevent backlash, they must have sealed the original owners elsewhere."
Just hearing that made Yun Xi feel nauseous. Instead of earning luck through virtue, the Di family had stolen luck from a family who likely had good karma. It chilled her to think about it. She said slowly,
"This definitely involves evil cultivators. They're masters of manipulating the human heart. The Di family, desperate to strengthen their own bloodline, turned to these vile practices.
Most of their ancestors have been relocated here, which shows they are a large and powerful clan. If the officials who enter court are all like Di Kangnian—shiny on the outside, rotten within—then it's easy to imagine how corrupt the court has become.
If this continues, the people will suffer. Desperation will lead to revolt, and war will follow. And once war erupts, countless will die. That would be the perfect harvest season for evil cultivators."
Yu Qingcheng felt her scalp tingle. She waved her hand. "Yun Xi, you don't need to say more. Things will definitely get worse. Evil cultivators always use chaos to their advantage. Sacrificing mortals to advance their cultivation is a common tactic for them."
Yun Xi immediately thought of the events in Shuangshan City. "Have you ever heard of the Ninefold Sacrificial Formation in Shuangshan City?"
Liu Haotian and Yu Qingcheng both nodded grimly. Xia You had heard that evil cultivators had appeared in Shuangshan City, but this was her first time hearing about that particular formation. Still, just the word "sacrifice" made her uneasy.
Yu Qingcheng turned her phoenix eyes toward Yun Xi. "I heard a disciple from Haoran Sect broke the sacrificial formation using a spirit beast's advancement. That wasn't you, was it? And the spirit beast… was it Dian Dian?"
Yun Xi chuckled sheepishly. "Bad luck pulled me and some fellow disciples into the formation. We had no choice but to find our own way out."
"Tsk tsk, Yun Xi, you really do hide your skills well."
Yun Xi scratched her cheek. "I hadn't become personal disciple back then. Haoran Sect kept quiet for my safety. The cultivators who went through it with me all shared the same hardship. No one would blab. We had an unspoken understanding."
The three all nodded in agreement. When it came to cultivation, caution was always wise.
"Liu Daoyou, you're skilled in formations. What should we do about this?"
The three women turned to Liu Haotian.
He answered coldly, "If you steal from others, you'll eventually have to return it. I'll disrupt the feng shui here. After that, the Di family will begin to decline.
We'll also recover the original owners and give them a proper resting place. Once that's done, this area will be sealed. The seal will dissolve on its own after a hundred years."
"What if the evil cultivators come back? Their plan is ruined. They'll definitely return to investigate."
Yun Xi voiced the concern softly.
"Then we'll wait here for two days. If we catch one of them, even better. Once we return to the cultivation world, we can report everything to our sects."
"Looks like we'll need to start stationing cultivators in the mortal world. The evil ones have already made their move."
Yun Xi sighed.
"Let's take care of this first. We have sects behind us, and many great cultivators still guard the cultivation world. It's not our place to moan and sigh yet."
Liu Haotian replied calmly.
"You're right, Liu Daoyou. Just tell us what to do next."
Yun Xi lifted her spirits. She had truly been disgusted by the Di family's shamelessness.
Liu Haotian waved his hand and gave the three women a handful of seeds. He instructed them to plant them in specific spots and then use their spiritual power to accelerate growth.
Yun Xi immediately recognized them as poisonous plants. Liu Haotian explained, "Toxic flora will destroy the feng shui of this land."
The three began sowing the seeds and infusing them with spiritual energy.
Liu Haotian leapt into the air and slashed away the mountain ridge behind the graveyard. Then he cast earth-element spells to redirect the stream that ran through the area. Before long, the blessed land's water source would dry up, leaving it unable to gather wealth or vital energy.
After an hour of effort, they finished. Liu Haotian used low-grade spirit stones to lay down a Maze Formation, making the graveyard vanish from sight.
He then took out a compass and began searching for the original occupants of the tombs.
Half an hour later, they located ten coffins buried in a swamp on the shadowed side of the mountain where the range had been cut.
"They really are vile."
Even Yu Qingcheng couldn't hold back her disgust.
Right then, Dian Dian popped its head out of Yun Xi's sleeve and squeaked twice.
Yun Xi quickly said, "Dian Dian smells evil energy."
Liu Haotian's expression changed. "No, this is a corpse-raising ground. They're refining corpses into zombies."
Images flashed through Yun Xi's mind. She shouted, "Fall back!"
The three immediately leapt backward and drew their spirit swords.
Lightning flickered across Yun Xi's Seven Stars Soul-Shattering Staff as she slammed it down with thunderous force.