My best friend asked me if I was still doing system tasks.

Ruan Chayan also summoned Huajiao from her spirit beast pouch, asking it to help scout the surroundings and issue timely warnings.

Jin Si, being a powerful and ferocious beast, possessed a more acute sense than Ruan Luo and the other two, and thus he was the first to notice something amiss.

“Ruan Chayan, come here and dig around. There should be something here.”

Ruan Chayan worked tirelessly, using her spirit sword to dig in the soil.

This place is located nine feet directly north of the spring, belonging to the Kan position. The soil is moist, and the soil turned upside down is dark red.

Hearing the commotion from Ruan Chayan's side, Luo Hanying came over to help. The two dug for a while, and the spirit sword touched something hard.

Luo Hanying was anxious, so she simply reached in and thrashed around for a while. She fell hard on her bottom, and in her hand she was holding a gray bone with scarlet mud on it that looked like fresh blood that hadn't dried yet.

"What is this?!" Ruan Chayan had seen the Qiongling Bone before, and for some reason felt that the bone in Luo Hanying's hand looked like a human leg bone.

Countless thoughts raced through Luo Hanying's mind. Her hands went weak, and her bones almost fell to the ground.

Jin Si pondered, "This is a human femur. Could there be a person buried here? Is someone using a human life to set up an evil formation?"

Luo Hanying's face paled: "Ah?! Tea Mama, should we continue digging?"

Ruan Chayan's expression was also not good: "Dig, we won't know what's going on here if we don't dig it out."

Despite their discomfort, Ruan and Luo quickly dug up all the soil in that area, and sure enough, they found a skeleton buried there.

Jin Si cast a spell, and the human bones flew up and were pieced together in a clean spot. Below the waist of the human bones, there was a stone slab half-buried in the soil.

Jin Si carried the stone slab and spun around twice, then made some calculations with his hands and said, "Let's go check the east, south, and west directions. If I'm not mistaken, there should be dead people and stone slab formations there as well."

Ruan Chayan and Luo Hanying dug around at the location Jin Si pointed out and indeed found two more skeletons and three stone slabs, but to the south was a jar of ash.

Luo Hanying opened the jar and carefully looked at it twice, then smiled wryly, "This stuff smells similar to the machine that grinds teeth during my root canal treatment. Could this be ashes?"

Ruan Chayan used a twig to pry open part of the human jawbone. She looked at the teeth and shuddered, saying, "You're right, it looks like it."

Jin Si placed the four stone slabs together, then examined the three skeletons and analyzed, "I've seen similar formations in books. This seems to be a formation that plunders one's luck, or it might be a curse."

The person in the Kan position in the due north direction should have drowned; the person in the Li position in the due south direction with only ashes left should have been burned; and the person in the Zhen position in the due east direction with charred and twisted bones should have been struck by lightning.

The west-facing position (Dui) should represent a long-lived elderly person who passed away peacefully and without illness.

Luo Hanying got goosebumps all over: "Alright, alright, there's no need to go into so much detail. Can we just break the formation here quickly? I really can't stand it any longer."

The surrounding area was a mess, with jagged skeletons lying around, and she was sweating profusely.

"Neither of you have ever seen such a formation before. Even if I have seen similar ones, I have no clue how to break them. I can only rely on my high cultivation level to break the formation by force."

Jin Si pointed out the potential risks, saying, "As for the impact, I'm not sure. I don't know if it will cause any negative effects."

Ruan Chayan said decisively, "We can't delay any longer. You should break the formation directly. We've made such a commotion here, who knows if it will attract some people?"

Neither Xiaoxue nor I can break the formation. Besides making you go through the trouble of destroying it, what else can we do?

Since Ruan Chayan had spoken, Jin Si had no reason to disobey. He used the same trick again, and in the smoke, all the stone slabs turned into mud and sand. There was another earthquake, and the spring pumped out several jets of water again.

Then the neighing of horses echoed between heaven and earth. Startled, Huajiao scurried to Ruan Chayan's feet. Everyone watched as a tall, magnificent horse leaped out of the spring.

The dark black horse was translucent, revealing its bones and internal organs. An ominous white mist swirled around it, and it was covered in wounds from head to tail.

The spiritual energy flowing from the wounds was absorbed by the white mist, which in turn kept penetrating the wounds, only to be slowly purified. The two maintained this strange balance.

The horse bowed its head and said, "Thank you all for your help. If it weren't for you, I might have died in this deserted place."

Ruan Chayan bowed and said, "You're too kind. This is what we cultivators should do."

Luo Hanying asked in surprise, "You must be the Five Elements Spirit of Changshui? What about your injuries? Can we help you?"

Since the mission was not reported as complete, it meant that the rescue was not finished and they would have to continue to help.

Jin Si also had many questions: "How were you discovered? Who used such insidious methods against you? What is the purpose of these formations?"

Having just broken free from its restraints, the essence of the Changshui Five Elements was still weak. It lay on the ground to rest and explained the whole story.

Eight years ago, the township head, surnamed Liu, brought twenty people to the Changshui Spring. Based on their words, it was deduced that these twenty people said they had received a divine mandate and were guided by immortals to Changshui. They wanted to cultivate themselves here and pray for all living beings.

After the township head, Liu, left, they used a magical artifact that emitted an unclean aura to confirm the existence of the Five Elements Essence of Changshui, and then spent a month setting up an array.

The central formation pressed down on the spring, sealing off the five elements essence and the limited spiritual energy in the area, and sending the obtained spiritual energy to an unknown place.

The Four Directions Joint Formation uses foul and turbid energy to erode the Five Elements Essence, tormenting its spirit, and attempting to transform it into an evil spirit.

The Five Elements Spirit of Changshui looked exhausted, and it spoke breathlessly: "At first, I didn't discover their conspiracy, and I was very confident in my own power, thinking that they would never be able to find my place of residence."

However, after they forced me to reveal my true form, I dared not do anything to resist them—

The area below the mountain is where the Li people live. If there is a flood or a landslide, their lives will be in danger.

I am the source of the long river, the root of its ceaseless flow, therefore I cannot commit murder, nor can I escape from here.

Otherwise, if the Changshui River were to become turbulent, countless lives dependent on it would perish.

It looked at the group and thanked them again solemnly.

"If it weren't for your help, I'm afraid I would have let this world down."