The Ninth Lady is a rebellious person.

Chapter 237 Living Formations Kill, Dead Formations Trapped Souls
That night, Lang Jiuchuan kept his promise and set up an altar to help Ding Mangu's wrongfully murdered daughter, Ding Suqiu, break off her marriage contract. He returned to his mansion with a heart full of gratitude. As soon as he entered the door, he received a map of Bagua City and a copy of the Records of the Grand Historian from the servants of Grand Tutor Fang.

She first unfolded the map, and what came into view was a map of the main city that resembled a Bagua (Eight Trigrams), with lines running in all directions, and houses and streets drawn along the lines, neat and orderly.

Jiang Che and Fu Qi stood by the table watching.

Fu Qi sighed, "Yuan City used to be just a T-shaped city. Two hundred years have passed, and it has changed drastically. If I hadn't known beforehand that this was the former Yuan City, I wouldn't have recognized it. The changes are too great."

“Even if a city is burned down, it won’t be reduced to rubble. There will definitely be ruins. The fact that it’s been built like this suggests that it was done by human hands.” Lang Jiuchuan looked at the Bagua City, then at the mountains and rivers drawn outside the city. After thinking for a moment, he took out paper and pen and wrote down the various directions of the Bagua City on the paper.

After a long while, she put down her pen and looked at the arrangement of the eight trigrams she had drawn, her expression somewhat unpleasant.

"What's wrong? Is there something wrong with this city?" Fu Qi asked, noticing her expression.

Lang Jiuchuan pointed to those directions, sketching lines with a pen, and said, "This Bagua City is built entirely according to the arrangement of the Nine Palaces and Eight Trigrams, looking just like a Nine Palaces and Eight Trigrams formation. Usually, such a formation, if it is a living formation, is highly variable, dark and gloomy inside, filled with eerie and ghostly mist, and prone to illusions. Once a person is trapped in the formation, they cannot find a way out and will eventually die inside. If living people are arranged into a Nine Palaces and Eight Trigrams sword formation, the sword light is invisible, swift and dense, without any gaps, not even a fly can fly through, and it can easily strangle a person within."

Fu Qi frowned, looked at the Bagua City, and said, "So someone deliberately built this city like this to set up a formation to kill people?"

Lang Jiuchuan looked at him and said, "A living formation kills, a dead formation traps the soul."

Fu Qi's expression changed drastically, and his eyes turned bloodshot again, but he remembered that this was Lang Jiuchuan's study, so he didn't lash out, but just pursed his lips.

"The Nine Palaces Eight Trigrams Formation can kill people and trap souls. The principle is the same, only the things used to set up the formation are different. The living formation emphasizes the living and utilizes the mutual generation of the five elements. The things used to set up the formation are also the same. But if you set up a dead formation, the things used must be extremely powerful and yang to suppress the soul and prevent it from leaving. This is also a kind of intimidation."

Jiang Che didn't understand: "What does this have to do with them repeatedly burning their souls on that one day? If you want to suppress their souls, you can just trap them and suppress the evil spirits. Why would they keep repeating that cycle of dying on that one day?"

"Yes, why is that?" Lang Jiuchuan looked at Bagua City, then shifted his gaze to the city of Chiyang Pass and its surroundings, but couldn't figure it out for a moment.

"Could it be that someone sees your Fu family as an enemy, and not only are you dead, but they've also set up this formation to trap you and make you repeat the cycle of death day and night?" Jiang Che asked Fu Qi.

Fu Qi smiled bitterly: "The Fu family has held military power for many years and has been courted by countless people, but has always been loyal only to the monarch. They have long been regarded as a thorn in the side."

Military power is something everyone desires. When princes vie for the throne, those with military power have a greater chance of winning. Meanwhile, various factions, in order to strengthen their own power and connections, also want military power or to win over generals who command troops.

But the Fu family is a tough nut to crack. They are loyal and devoted only to the emperor, and they also have hundreds of thousands of soldiers. How can people not be envious?

Therefore, the Fu family not only has enemies, but many more, all of whom they want to drag into the mud so they can take their place.

“For the sake of power, there’s no need to go to such lengths, setting up such a large formation to trap souls.” Lang Jiuchuan shook his head and said, “Using a city as a formation, and such a large one at that, requires a high level of cultivation and a great deal of mental energy to set up. It might even have a backlash. It’s just that ordinary enemies wouldn’t go to such lengths; they must have greater interests to risk everything.”

Setting up an array is not as simple as drawing two talismans. If your cultivation level is insufficient, all your ideas will be in vain. Just drawing the array patterns that are incorporated into the talismans is extremely mentally taxing, let alone accomplishing anything.

"Could it be a coincidence?"

Lang Jiuchuan remained silent. If Fu Qi and the others hadn't repeatedly perished in the flames that day, she might have thought it was due to their obsession. But now, seeing this city with its nine palaces and eight trigrams, to call it a coincidence would be self-deception. Fu Qi chuckled: "If it's not a coincidence, then it's truly remarkable that such a dedicated person has accomplished such a great feat."

"I need to see it in person to find out the answer."

Fu Qi looked out the window and saw that the night was already deep. He then noticed that Lang Jiuchuan's face was pale and said, "Things can't get much worse, so there's no rush. You should rest first and not ruin your health because of this."

Lang Jiuchuan picked up the historical records of Liang and said, "Let me take another look."

Unable to dissuade Fu Qi, he had no choice but to give up.

Lang Jiuchuan read very quickly, almost reading ten lines at a glance. In just two hours, he finished reading the history of Liang Kingdom and said, "Less than ten days after your death, Kangju captured Fengyang. In just two months, Liang Kingdom lost five cities. At that time, the vassal kings in various places raised their flags and declared themselves emperors. Liang Kingdom was in great chaos. The Xuanmen clans came down the mountain to save the world, first resisting the external enemies and then quelling the internal strife."

"Where did they get their soldiers from?" Fu Qi was very curious. Could it be that the Xuanmen clans used Xuanmen techniques to seize the world?
Lang Jiuchuan's expression was somewhat complicated as he said, "They first used their old tricks to deceive the Liang King, who had the strongest army, and then used the Liang King's troops to fight."

What's their original profession? Of course, it's the Taoist priest's specialty: pretending to be a charlatan!

Fu Qi: "..."

King Liang, the most cunning and best-equipped vassal king of Liang, possessed 60,000 strong soldiers, including 20,000 cavalry, as well as a special elite squad, but was tricked by a charlatan.

Lang Jiuchuan said, "The point is not who they deceived, but that the one who resisted the foreign enemy, drove the Kangju barbarians back to their hometown, and recovered Yuancheng and other lost territories was a young general named Tantai Xiao. After recovering the lost territories, the first place he rebuilt was Yuancheng."

Fu Qi was taken aback.

Jiang Che also gasped and said, "No way, this Nine Palaces Eight Trigrams City was built by the Xuan Clan?"

It glanced at Fu Qi, then swiftly flew to Lang Jiuchuan's shoulder and perched there, glaring at him menacingly. "Every wrong has its perpetrator," it said. "If you want revenge, you must find the right person! We are innocent!"

This is bad. If the Nine Palaces and Eight Trigrams City was built by Tantai, who is now the royal family, does that mean that they trapped the souls of Fu Qi and the three thousand Fu family soldiers inside?

If this is the truth, then Fu Qi and the current royal family are mortal enemies!

Between the past dynasty and the present, one is an ancient person, and the other is a girl born in Da Dan. Will Fu Qi, in a fit of rage, take his anger out on Lang Jiuchuan and commit a massacre?

Danger! Danger!

Lang Jiuchuan has gotten himself into big trouble.

Just read the book, don't take it too seriously, and certainly don't accuse the author of sowing discord among nationalists—I can't bear that responsibility! It's just a fictional historical romance; if you want to be serious, go read history books and do archaeology!