Wild cultivation begins with wielding the Taiyin talisman.

Upon hearing this, Lin Ye's eyes lit up. He immediately stopped his boxing stance and agreed without hesitation: "It should have been done long ago! Being stuck in this outpost all day is making us feel like our bones are rusting!"

With that, he strode towards the rat swamp, shouting, "Let's go, let's have a good slaughter!"

"What's the rush!" Ning Che shouted, interrupting his actions, before quickly catching up.

"I'll find them, you kill them. Don't be reckless. And, whatever you do, make sure they have a whole corpse. Can you do that?"

"Okay, then hurry up and find it."

After a brief wait, Lin Ye and the other person switched positions.

Ning Che led the way, followed by Lin Ye, heading straight for the Rat Swamp.

With the experience of slaying the giant rat last night, and with the help of his keen hearing and aura-observation skills, Ning Che was able to find the demon at an extremely fast pace.

They tentatively searched for footholds on the edge of the swamp, then ventured deeper, exploring with various spells.

With his keen hearing, he could hear the rhythmic beating of heartbeats rising and falling beneath the mud, and he locked onto the nearest one.

"Ten steps to the left front, two feet into the mud."

Lin Ye's figure swept past him. A streak of bright red light pierced the mud, something let out a very short scream, and then fell silent.

Then, the two encountered a problem: the rat carcass sank to the bottom, and they naturally couldn't go down to retrieve it.

This place is indeed a paradise for these water rats; once they hide in the depths, they are virtually impossible to eradicate.

After a brief discussion, the two decided that Lin Ye would restrain his power and attack the swamp to lure the rat demon, so that Ning Che could kill it.

Soon, the first rat demon fell for the trick and was stabbed through from both sides by the Crescent Moon Blade.

Ning Che didn't stop. His keen hearing detected the next heartbeat twenty steps to his right. He walked in that direction. Lin Ye followed, carrying the dead rat.

The second one, the third one, the fourth one... it ran away.

Ning Che's attacks were restrained; the Crescent Moon Blade condensed a thin layer of frost, yet it often delivered a fatal blow. But this one was rather agile; in mid-air, it used some kind of demonic magic, suddenly shifting three feet to the side, flying into the swamp, and disappearing.

Then the rats seemed to have learned their lesson, and almost none of them dared to show their faces, not even a single demon among them.

Ning Che suddenly sensed something and looked up into the depths of the swamp.

There, black mist churned, and the miasma was so thick it almost solidified. In the deepest part of that darkness, he sensed something watching him.

It wasn't any kind of intimidation or sense of danger, just a gaze. But the feeling of being watched was so intense that it made his hair stand on end.

Is this some kind of sorcery?

Lin Ye also sensed it, and he directly unleashed a blood-red fist shadow in that direction. The swamp exploded, but there was nothing there.

His expression clearly showed some annoyance: "What is that?"

Ning Che didn't answer. He withdrew his gaze, turned around, and said, "Let's go quickly."

Although Lin Ye was still reluctant to leave and glanced back at the depths of the swamp, he silently followed.

Behind them, the black mist deep in the swamp was still churning.

Those eyes. No, those four eyes—they didn't follow. They just watched. Watched him cross the shallows, climb the hill, and disappear through the gates of the outpost.

When we returned to the outpost, the setting sun was spreading over the ridge, turning the hills gray-gold.

Ning Che lined up the five rat carcasses and wiped away the mud from them.

"then."

Just then, a cold voice came from behind.

Ning Che instinctively raised his hand to catch it, his palm sinking into the cold, rough stone. It was a fist-sized, bluish-gray stone with several faint cloud patterns carved on its surface. He wondered which corner of the outpost Zhong Hongyao had dug up from, an old relic from who-knows-where.

"Array stones?" Ning Che was somewhat surprised.

He originally thought that even if Zhong Hongyao could get her hands on something like this, it would take her some time, but he didn't expect it to be so fast.

Zhong Hongyao didn't say anything and went back to her room on her own.

Ning Che examined the stone, then arranged the hunted rat carcasses and the array stone around the mound, following the diagram in the book.

This is the core of the array, and also its energy source. Generally speaking, inserting a spirit stone or a substitute will make it a core of the array. Only a few large arrays use other methods to store energy.

Next came the inscription of the array patterns, a step Ning Che completed using his own blood.

As a cultivator, his body is naturally somewhat special, unlike that of ordinary people.

He placed his right hand on the first rat carcass, his blood-dripping fingertips drawing lines on it.

Blood-red patterns crisscrossed the surface of the rat corpse, and magical power flowed around it. The original demonic energy of the rat corpse was enveloped by its will, transforming from resistance to fusion, and finally becoming a vessel.

The second one passed smoothly.

On the third attempt, resistance appeared.

The path formed by the five corpses and a formation stone began to tremble violently, and the flow of magical energy became erratic. Ning Che closed his eyes and sensed the direction of the primordial energy of heaven and earth—a turbid gray-green current surged from the southeast, flowing over the outpost.

He decisively moved the third rat carcass half a foot to the left. The tremor disappeared.

The fourth body, the fifth body.

When he finally poured his magic into the array stone, all six nodes lit up simultaneously. Five points of eerie blue blood light and one point of translucent stone light shone together, and a complete hexagram loop appeared on the mound.

A semi-transparent light curtain rose from the center of the formation, slowly pushing away the miasma within a radius of two zhang.

It became.

Ning Che stood in the center of the formation and took a deep breath. The cool air filled his lungs, and the restlessness that had been tormenting him finally subsided somewhat.

"It really worked?" Lin Ye shouted from the side. He reached out and touched it, causing the light screen to shake as if it were about to shatter.

"Don't move!"

Ning Che quickly stopped him.

This protective array is too basic, the materials are too rudimentary, and its protective capability is negligible. Even an ordinary person could easily break through it.

However, the effect was satisfactory. The miasma floating around was indeed kept out.

After initially resolving the issues of miasma and demonic energy, all that remains is cultivation.

Ning Che arranged the daily tasks and asked the remaining people to squeeze into the formation to cultivate together. They all readily agreed, their faces beaming with joy.

For several days in a row, the outpost was unusually quiet.

Chen Mu took the book "Essentials of Basic Array Formation" and studied it all day long, while Lin Ye still preferred boxing and rarely practiced asceticism.

Zhao He's daily practice time was almost as long as Ning Che's, who never needed to sleep; he was truly exceptionally diligent.

While they were practicing, some changes were quietly taking place.

For example, the position of the blisters changes.

A few days ago they were scattered throughout the shallow marshland, but then they started circling around the mound, from northwest to southeast, circle after circle. It was as if something was swimming underwater, blowing bubbles as it went.

For example, the mud on the road is getting deeper and deeper. It used to only reach my ankles, but now it reaches my calves.

Ning Che saw this clearly; obviously, the creatures in the rat swamp were also making moves, unwilling to sit idly by and wait for their doom.

He gripped the hilt of his knife, gazing toward the swamp, seemingly locked in a distant stare at something.