Immortal Dao is dead, I am the mastermind behind it all.

The night in Kongsang County was quieter than ever before; even the usual chirping of insects had disappeared.

An invisible oppression permeated the air, like the suffocating stillness before a storm.

Ordinary people had already turned off their lights and gone to bed, but only those cultivators with keen senses could vaguely perceive that the county town was being slowly tightened by an invisible net.

Shen Yi clocked in at the Construction Department every day, waiting for news from Xu Mingxuan.

Shen Er then obtained the materials from Cen Jing and was ready to return to Shen Moyan's true form at any time.

Shen San, on the other hand, had been secretly monitoring Jiang Qingshui's movements.

Shen Moyan's true form remained in the academy's cave, seemingly meditating with his eyes closed, but his mind had already split into three.

Through the three paper doppelgangers "Shen Yi", "Shen Er" and "Shen San", they closely monitored three key nodes in Kongsang County.

"The newly appointed inspector, Jiang Zhiqi, is young, dressed smartly, and full of vigor."

"But at the age when one should be riding a white horse and gliding through flowers, sailing a hundred rivers, he died hastily after receiving a mission from the Holy Court."

Inside the dimly lit cave, Shen Moyan was restless.

Using Jiang Zhiqi's death as a clue, the intentions of various forces gradually took shape in his mind, like scattered puzzle pieces.

Jiang Zhiqi's death was not simple; he may have been silenced because he learned of something.

Chu Sheng, a disciple of the True Lord of Wild Geese Formation, set up the Great Array for Refining the Spirits of All Beings, treating Dongshan City as a nursery.

Xu Mingxuan, representing the Biyang Sword Sect, wanted to lure the Wild Goose Formation True Lord to appear.

The Cen family was manipulated and dragged into this mess, becoming accomplices and pawns in the destruction of Dongshan City.

The governor's promotion may have been due to his tacit approval or even involvement in the matter, either to balance the interests of all parties or to have ulterior motives.

Zhou Zhanpeng, though aware of the situation, was powerless to resist and could only choose to protect himself.

"The prefect is promoted, and the Wild Goose Formation True Lord is Zheng Quan..." Shen Moyan suddenly remembered the two cultivators who descended upon Daqi in his previous lives.

What would drive them to leave the vast world of mountains and seas and travel to a smaller dimension?

Suddenly, Shen Moyan sensed a strange movement from the paper figure's perspective in his mind, and raised an eyebrow.

After receiving the materials collected by the Cen family, Shen Er followed Cen Gewu to send most of the Cen family members to seek refuge.

The Cen family boarded a commercial airship, intending to blend in with the large number of powerful families in Kongsang County and leave the area together.

Shen San caught a glimpse of a figure from behind, which made him raise an eyebrow.

"That's... Deng Jinhua?"

The deputy director of the Examination and Merit Bureau, an old man with gray hair, was also among them, riding a flying boat towards the outskirts of the county.

"Something's not right. Most of the officials in the Holy Court of Kongsang County are not in their posts."

"Could it be because Jiang Qingshui came to inspect? Are they trying to avoid trouble?"

Shen Moyan was lost in thought.

"That doesn't make sense either. If all the officials have run away, at least someone should be sent to block them."

"It seems that when I went to take up my official post with Xu Mingxuan, I didn't see the head of the Performance Evaluation Department..."

The allocation for the defense of Kongsang County is unprecedented in the past century, which, when considered in conjunction with the conversation between Fei and Feiyi...

"No way..." Upon closer examination, a chill ran down Shen Moyan's spine.

Shen Moyan controlled Shen Yi, leaving the Construction Department and heading towards various departments of the Holy Court.

"The Performance Evaluation Department is inactive!"

"Kongsang Academy has no master!"

"Even the Guardian Division, which is responsible for handling affairs within the prefecture, is not in charge!"

Holding the token, Shen Yi traveled to various institutions throughout Kongsang County. At each place, he requested to see the person in charge under the pretext of allocating funds from the Construction Department. Unsurprisingly, he failed to meet any of them, as the servants informed him that the person in charge was not present.

Shen Moyan's unease grew stronger.

Just as he was manipulating Shen Yi back to the Construction Department, he heard the protests of a group of spirit farmers from afar.

"What are you doing in the Construction Department! Haven't you gone to repair the formation yet?"

"The roots of the spiritual plants in the ground are rotting! The spiritual energy is getting thinner and thinner!"

Shen Moyan was startled, and a thought flashed through his mind. He quickly ran to the spirit farmers.

"Fellow Daoist, didn't the Construction Department completely repair the Four Seasons Array? Why are the spiritual plants still rotting at the roots?"

"It's fixed? How dare you say it's fixed?" The spirit farmers were furious, pointing their fingers at the sky.

Shen looked up and saw scattered raindrops falling on his forehead.

The change began four years ago.

At first, no one paid attention to this rainy season, assuming it was just the county's grand formation automatically adjusting itself.

It wasn't until the rainy season continued until now that the waterlogged area in the county could no longer be contained or maintained, causing the water to flow through the soil. This resulted in most of the spiritual plants' roots being unable to breathe, and the soil lacking spiritual energy, causing the roots to rot. Only then did everyone begin to panic.

Inside the cave, upon learning the news, Shen Moyan's expression turned solemn, and he immediately set off for the academy's library.

"The array formations in this prefecture are all rather strange."

Ignoring the strange looks from the other students, he anxiously flipped through books on array formations in the library.

The timing of the anomalies in Kongsang County coincided remarkably with the time of the destruction of Dongshan City, making it hard for him not to have some doubts.

It's obvious that someone is trying to cause trouble.

Shen Moyan didn't want to be kept in the dark without knowing the truth.

Over the next two days, the atmosphere in Kongsang County became increasingly strange.

Yet, a damp, heavy chill always lingered in the air, as if an invisible tide was surging within.

The low-level cultivators in the city began to feel uneasy, their minds filled with distracting thoughts when meditating, while ordinary mortals suffered from nightmares and children cried incessantly at night.

Under Shen San's watchful eye, Jiang Qingshui left Zhou Zhanpeng's dormitory and did not immediately assume the responsibilities of the supervisor of the Sizheng Office. Instead, he climbed the second tallest star-gazing tower in Kongsang County alone.

He leaned on the railing and gazed into the distance, his gaze seemingly piercing through the heavy night, landing in the direction of the prefectural governor's mansion, and even more so in a certain place on the outskirts of the city where an unusual, watery ripple could be faintly heard.

"Zhi Qiu... is that what you found?"

Jiang Qingshui murmured to herself, stroking a warm jade pendant in her hand. It was Jiang Zhi Qiu's natal jade pendant, which was now emitting a faint, ominous, blood-red light.

"Prefect Gao Sheng of Kongsang County... True Lord Zheng Quan of the Wild Goose Formation... Do you think you can deceive the heavens by suppressing the case files and distorting the truth?"

His eyes were sharp as knives.

The hasty conclusion of the Weidaosi, the "debunking" on Jiuge.com, and Zhou Zhanpeng's hesitant words all made him even more convinced.

The death of his cousin was no accident, and Kongsang County was hiding a shocking secret, a secret that the higher-ups would cover up at all costs.

…………

"This is it!"

Shen Moyan's hair was disheveled, and he held the thickest array diagram book in the academy in his hands, his eyes bloodshot.

"A formation within a formation!"

Shen Moyan compared the blueprints of the city's grand formation with the contents of the "Formation Dao Atlas" and was utterly astonished.

The Five Elements of the Four Seasons Grand Array are in disarray, and resources are frequently lacking. This is partly due to the corrupt officials in the Construction Department taking kickbacks, and partly due to the loss of the original energy of the Grand Array.

Someone has set up a formation within a formation, which marks the beginning of another great formation being activated.

"And the other side has a hidden grand formation."

Shen Moyan disassembled and rearranged the original city formation, then pieced it back together like a jigsaw puzzle.

As the initial form of the formation gradually appeared, Shen Moyan stood frozen in place.

"This is... the Great Array for Refining the Spirit of All Beings!"

What he had seen in Dongshan City was only a glimpse of this formation.

Using the souls of all living beings as resources and operating on the underlying logic of the Five Elements, it steals the soul power of the living.

"ha?"

Shen Moyan covered his forehead and gave a wry smile.

No wonder there are so few officials in the county; they've all fled to avoid disaster.

Shen Moyan closed the "Array Formation Manual," and the author's name on the manual caught his attention.

"The compilers of this book..."

"True Lord of the Wild Goose Formation, Zheng Quan."

Shen Moyan uttered these words with trembling lips.

With a thud, the "Array Formation Atlas" fell to the ground.

The entire picture book rustled in the wind.

Shen Moyan did not bend down to pick it up, but stared at the "Array Dao Atlas" with his pupils shrinking.

The contents of the "Array Dao Atlas" flashed by rapidly as it swayed in the wind, and the sunlight from the window shone on the page of the Great Array for Refining the Spirits of All Beings.

As light penetrated the front and back pages, the array patterns of the Great Array for Refining the Spirit of All Beings changed.

The array pattern resembled a large tree, rooted in the earth, bearing fruits with human faces on them.

Shen Moyan's face turned deathly pale. He seemed to know why Jiang Zhiqi had been silenced.