The improved female villains regained their memories.

This is probably the only good news in a bad news story.

The formation was already set up. Although the person who set up the formation could influence it with the sword soul, the established rules could not be changed. It was precisely because of this that they had a chance to catch their breath.

However, there is one troublesome point, which is what Tian Bulian said: the sword soul heart will simultaneously affect the morale of the people in the formation.

As the saying goes, people fight for their pride. People with different personalities care about different things. Some want money, some want power, and some want to get married and have children. These so-called "desires" will be amplified by the Sword Soul Heart. Those whose desires are amplified will either fall into the abyss of desire or have their character repeatedly tempered by desire, becoming more resilient than iron.

All the desires in the world are like a sword stuck in the heart. The sword's spirit grinds at the heart, hence the name "Sword Spirit Heart".

This is why Mu Xiaobai's desire to go back was aroused, while Wen Shihan longed to see his brother even more. Putting aside others, these two are currently the ones most affected by the Sword Soul Heart.

"There's no other way, let's wait for now," Tian Bulian concluded.

Su Murong didn't care. Since Tian Bulian said so, she would do as she was told. After all, she had few tricks up her sleeve and no way to escape. But Mu Xiaobai frowned, thinking that Tian Bulian's idea was not very good.

Even if the other defenders don't come to their aid, what about the one who set up the formation? The one who set up the formation can monitor them at will. If she sees them remaining indifferent, will she really not take any action?

--------------------

Mountain top

"Ignore them."

Song Panning said to Xu Baxian, "Although they defeated Hong Lingyi, they have lost their spirit and probably won't have the will to break the formation. However, now that they have broken ties with the Guardian Sect, Your Highness has no way out."

"Isn't this just a matter of time?" Xu Baxian seemed unconcerned. "Since we've decided to embark on this path, it's destined that we'll break ties."

Xu Baxian was right. When they set up their formation and disregarded even the people of the Guardian Heaven Sect, they were already destined to break ties with the Guardian Heaven Sect.

However, this was all within Song Panning's calculations, but she didn't expect the gains to be so great.

“Although I am not afraid of going to war with the Guardian Sect, I still have some concerns,” Xu Baxian asked. “I’m afraid they will realize that these people are in danger and send out powerful reinforcements again, which would be troublesome.”

Song Panning shook her head: "They won't do that. If they did, that would be better. No matter how many they come, the formation can accommodate them all, which would be more advantageous to us."

"The Guardian Heaven Sect has its own mission, and the Sword Soul Heart doesn't hold much appeal for them. It's not a wise choice to deploy so much combat power here."

“Hmm…” Xu Baxian nodded, agreeing with Song Panning’s statement.

“We don’t need to take the initiative,” Song Panning said after thinking for a moment. “In short, we should just wait and see how things develop for now.”

"As you wish, sir."

While Xu Baxian said those words, he was secretly speculating in his heart. The fact that the Guardian Sect was so powerful and Song Panning was so calm meant that she had a backup plan.

Xu Baxian had no idea what the next move was. He had an agreement with Song Panning that he would never interfere with her plans.

-----------

A dense fog formation.

Yang Pingsheng got up wearily and found himself surrounded by a thick white fog, unable to see any direction.

He is currently in a semi-conscious state, and could fall back into a dream at any moment.

This grand formation is too much of a counter to him now. The sword spirit is grinding against his heart, and the dreams emerging from the mist are constantly torturing Yang Pingsheng's past and tempering his character.

This was a painful process that Yang Pingsheng had to endure.

He dreamed of many things: Wen Shihan's affairs, Luo Benmo's affairs, the female villains' affairs, but more often, he dreamed of his past life, those past events, those people, and the deepest secret hidden in his heart.

He wasn't a gifted student, nor did he have the courage to stand out and escape poverty. Even if he had passed the exam, he wouldn't have had the courage to leave. He studied in the county town for a while, but later he was admitted to a university far from his home. He didn't want to go to school anymore, feeling it was a waste of money, but his father and brother supported him. His brother said that at least he would be a university student, and if he went, his life would be completely different from theirs.

The people there firmly believed that reading could change one's destiny. They felt that as long as one read books, that was enough. Yang Pingsheng never refuted them; faced with their arguments, he could only accept them.

His family was much more open-minded than other families. Yang Pingsheng had lived here for many years and knew what the problems were. Poverty was the original sin, but what was even more terrible was that they did not have the mindset to concentrate on studying or the mindset to face the impact of knowledge.

Thoughts are free, but here, there is no freedom.

Yang Pingsheng fell to the ground, panting heavily. He remembered that school, that senior, and the event that changed his life.

If we were to pinpoint when Yang Pingsheng began to differ from ordinary people, it would be from that incident.

Yang Pingsheng wasn't good at exams, but he loved reading. That senior always carried a book with her called "Wuthering Heights." It was the first time Yang Pingsheng had read a foreign book, and it left a deep impression on him.

"Only solitude truly belongs to oneself."

He was panting as he recited, his once empty heart being filled with inexplicable emotions.

"Fear makes me cruel."

He remembered himself in his past life.

He possessed no special talent or ability; he had once been blind, but was later granted sight again by fate. From then on, Yang Pingsheng developed a love for observation, cherishing this hard-won light. Every night, he would quietly sit alone, gazing at the stars—his habit of stargazing for the rest of his life began then. He looked at the vast universe with his naked eyes, his empty mind speculating about the fate of the universe and the future of humanity. He vaguely sensed something, yet couldn't articulate it clearly. Sometimes, a strange sadness would well up within him, not because of his bleak future or his current miserable state, but for something else entirely.

The Wuthering Heights he borrowed from his senior opened his mind, and he began to crave more. Gradually, he became cruel and indifferent.

He became someone he no longer recognized.

It wasn't until then that he realized he wasn't kind at all, and that he couldn't actually tolerate his evil and desires, which had been suppressed by meekness and were waiting to erupt at the crucial moment.

After reading "Wuthering Heights," his desires grew, and his relationship with that senior female student improved until what happened later.

However, he never regretted it.

"call……"

He gasped for breath, his eyes filled with a cold glint. As layers of mist pressed down on him, he drifted off to sleep again, out of control.

------

A dense fog formation.

As time went by, Wen Shihan became increasingly irritable.

"Are you even capable of this?!"

She paced back and forth, growing increasingly impatient, and once again took out her ring-pommel sword and pointed it at Xuanwu.

Xuanwu wiped the sweat from his forehead and said helplessly, "[Escape] is indeed Xuanwu's talent, but I don't usually cultivate it. In addition, this formation is too strange. Even I can't see through it, so it will naturally take some time."

"I can't wait any longer," Wen Shihan said irritably. "I need to see my brother, now, immediately!"

"Okay, okay, but I still need to confirm the location, don't I?"

Xuanwu thought to itself, "Where did this lunatic come from? Complaining about being slow? Can't he do it himself?" But given Wen Shihan's strength, it didn't want to argue any further.

Engaging in war here is not the act of a wise person; appeasing the other party and finding a way out is the right approach.

"Anyway, hurry up!" Wen Shihan urged.

"Yeah, I told you you were too slow," the white tiger urged, it was getting impatient too.

Xuanwu glared at it, "Whose side are you on, anyway?"

After waiting a while longer, a pitch-black spatial gate opened. Xuanwu breathed a sigh of relief, wiped his sweat, and said, "It's ready."

It turned its head and looked at Wen Shihan, saying, "Miss Wen, since you know our master, there is something I must remind you of."

Wen Shihan, who was about to throw the white tiger in, stopped and looked at Xuanwu: "What do you mean?"

“Although you provided your brother’s token, to be honest, I’ve already noticed that this great formation seems to interfere with one’s sense of direction,” Xuanwu said. “The escape door I sensed was likely misled, so…”

"……I see."

Wen Shihan nodded and pointed to the Black Tortoise and White Tiger: "In that case, you two come in with me."

“Okay.” Xuanwu agreed without hesitation.

It had already sensed the mystery of the great formation when it was building this gate. If it's not mistaken, this gate will most likely not be able to find Wen Shihan's elder brother, but Xuanwu also needs Wen Shihan's combat power to prevent any unforeseen circumstances.

[Perhaps we can make use of this]

With this in mind, Xuanwu did not resist. It called to Baihu and, under the threat of Wen Shihan wielding a knife, went through the door first.

Baihu didn't think much of it and followed them inside. When Wen Shihan saw the two of them go in, he followed them in as well.

A feeling of weightlessness washed over him. Once he regained his footing, Wen Shihan quickly looked around and realized that he had arrived in front of a dilapidated temple. The surrounding mist had disappeared, and not far away were the steps leading up the mountain.

"here it is?"

As she read it, she realized that both Xuanwu and Baihu had disappeared, and she was the only one who had been teleported here.

Damn it!

Her expression changed drastically as she realized, "This formation isn't just a simple misalignment; if spatial manipulation is used, it might be automatically split apart. Damn it, what kind of formation is this?!"

Wen Shihan knows how to set up formations, but she is not an expert. At least, she cannot see the mystery of this formation.

Just then, a large patch of darkness surged in from the mountain path not far away, directly engulfing the entire dilapidated temple and turning it pitch black. Immediately afterwards, this large patch of darkness rushed towards Wen Shihan.

Wen Shihan sensed the ominous aura emanating from the darkness and quickly mounted his sword to dodge it.

Who is it!?

She roared, her ring-pommel sword moving swiftly, releasing a large amount of Yin energy that surged from the sky to the ground, fighting against the dark aura.

"This bone-chilling cold feeling... good kid, you actually have a Yin Spirit Root."

clap clap.

As this remark was made, applause rang out from the darkness.

"Judging from your aura, you should be a Celestial Immortal, although you have been suppressed to the level of an Earth Immortal. But your control over Yin spiritual energy just now is enough to amaze me." An immortal slowly rose from the darkness.

This man was burly, with thick hair, a bushy black beard, a hooked nose, and ruthless eyes. The black cloak draped over his back shone exceptionally brightly.

Wen Shihan frowned: "Who are you?"

"You ask me? I'd like to ask you instead. When did the Qian Kingdom produce such a young celestial being as you?" The man said, tilting his head to look at Wen Shihan with a strange smile. "It's truly enviable. Your age, your talent... Seeing you, I feel like I've wasted all these years of my life."

Wen Shihan squinted at him, then suddenly sneered, "So he's just an old codger."

"Who are you calling an immortal?" the man frowned. "I am one of the three great revered figures of the Qian Kingdom Dynasty, Black Ant Black Horn. Little brat, where did you come from?"

"Heh, why should I tell you?"

Black Horn Mang smiled helplessly: "That's true. Since you didn't need to tell me, I can only assume you're here to die."

"Old man, it's not certain who will die yet."

A burst of Yin spiritual energy erupted, and Wen Shihan, wielding a ring-pommel sword, leaped high into the air and slashed at Hei Jiaomang.

Black Horn Mang hurriedly raised his immortal artifact, which turned out to be an ancient zither.

boom!

The ring-pommel sword and the guqin collided, simultaneously unleashing spiritual energy and stirring up a large expanse of blackness.