Chapter 10: Five Children in a Circle

Immortal tomb? What does that mean? Are there still immortals in this world? If there are immortals, then we can barely accept that they can die and leave behind a tomb.

I frowned and didn’t say anything. I thought we were just looking for the ginseng essence, and I thought that the ginseng essence was just a “natural treasure,” naturally growing in the mountains and forests, and had not been discovered by anyone. How could it be related to the tomb of the immortal?

I didn’t say anything, but Chengxin couldn’t help but say, “I said that if something like this happened to me in the ghost market, I would worship you for ten years, and you would be equivalent to getting a ginseng root in exchange? So you really have been hiding so much?”

No one would think that the Immortal Tomb was a good place to be, and it seemed that someone was involved. No one could hold back, including Chengxin, who was a good-natured person.

The old ghost was not as polite to Chengxin as he was to me. In response to Chengxin’s questioning, he just muttered, “Ten years of worship, but the worship is not so fierce.”

“You…” Brother Chengxin lost his temper. After all, the transactions in the ghost market are vaguely restricted by heaven and earth. He really can’t be disrespectful to this old ghost. The offerings must be supported by a special method of the medical pulse, and the attitude of worship must be maintained. Brother Chengxin really didn’t dare to go too far.

I patted Chengxin’s shoulder to calm him down, and then said to the old ghost, “Do I have to worship you? No, right? But I am his brother, or his fellow apprentice, understand? Now tell me the details of the matter. Remember to be detailed, not wordy. What are the names of your brothers? I really don’t have the heart to listen. I think you know what I mean, right?

The old ghost’s face changed constantly. He thought he couldn’t escape, so he gritted his teeth and simply said it without any nonsense. The northeastern accent disappeared and he spoke in a proper Mandarin accent. He must have been talking about something serious, so he became serious too.

“My five brothers and I are from the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, and we are all cultivators. But unfortunately, our natural talents are limited, and we don’t have an orthodox teacher. On weekdays, we can fool ordinary people and make a living. But if you want to talk about real skills, then we can’t be considered to have any, and the Dao is even more hopeless. But as cultivators, who wouldn’t be eager for the Dao? The same is true for the five of us. But as the years passed, the five of us were single-mindedly pursuing the Dao, without marrying or having children, and we didn’t achieve any results. It wasn’t until I was 46 years old that my eldest brother came back and said that he had met a truly formidable person, saying that our opportunity had arrived and our lives had changed. Wu Laogui looked as if he had been caught up in his memories and began to tell the story of the cause and effect.

He made it clear, and I understood. They really met a man with great abilities. He was a middle-aged Taoist who didn’t like to talk and looked a bit gloomy. Despite his appearance, he had real abilities, and great abilities at that. He easily subdued the five Wu brothers with just a few moves.

He didn’t explain why he liked the Wu brothers, who had no talent at all, but simply gave them a choice: to follow him or not.

The Wu brothers, who had an insatiable thirst for the Dao, naturally chose the first option and followed him!

From then on, the Wu brothers were lost to the world, and in the eyes of the world, they simply disappeared. The truth is that they were taken into the mountains by the middle-aged Taoist and began their so-called spiritual practice.

At this point, Chengxin and I looked at each other. As the saying goes, the onlooker sees more clearly. Both Chengxin and I sensed that something was definitely wrong. However, it had been hundreds of years since the incident, and Wu Laogui was now dead. So, there was no point in dwelling on it.

Sure enough, Wu Laogui continued, “We practiced, but he didn’t teach us any sermons or other skills. He just had us five brothers practice a concentric formation over and over again, saying that we were too lacking in talent and could only compensate for our lack of talent with our numbers. If we perfected it, we could go around the world and practice it. Although we five were practitioners, in fact, we knew nothing about some of the more advanced spells and incantations. We naturally believed whatever he said! We didn’t suspect anything, after all, what did he want from us? So we just kept practicing.”

Wu Erer was already a little indignant when he got to this point, but I frowned and grasped a key point in his words, asking him, “The formation he had you practice was called the “Five Sons in Unison Formation.” Do you five brothers have more than two sets of twins, and are there less than two years between each other’s ages?”

Wu Er was stunned by my question and looked at me in disbelief, saying, “How do you know all this? Did I just randomly grab someone and try my luck, and did I really meet someone with great abilities?”

I naturally dare not say that I have great abilities, but there are so many books passed down by my master, many of which are unique, not to mention the most precious of them all, my master’s handwritten notes.

The handwritten notes were messy, sometimes he would write a few words when he remembered, and the content was also varied, some were about life, some were about magic spells, and some explained his understanding of Taoism. In short, it was a very messy notebook.

However, it happened to mention the Five-Child Concentric Array. The most standard person to sit in this formation should be a set of quintuplets, whose minds are connected, and the formation’s power is naturally multiplied.

But if you can’t find five identical twins, then find five brothers, the more twins there are, the better. For example, triplets and twins. In fact, the Wu Laogui Five Brothers situation is also barely able to practice this formation, and it is also barely able to take the point of brothers being of one mind.

But in fact, if you think this formation is a powerful formation, you are wrong. Under normal circumstances, normal people will not practice it!

In fact, that formation is a, to put it simply, a formation that uses the power of others. When brothers are united, their spiritual powers are more compatible. This is a remarkable thing, and the effect is definitely greater than one plus one equals two.

What effect does this kind of combined power have on another person? It is a great, absolutely great effect!

But this endless lending of spiritual power is extremely harmful to one’s own soul. It’s not scary to say that my master mentioned this formation in his notes, but he only commented on it with a sentence: “The root of robbing others is to satisfy one’s own desires, and it is an evil method created by the great evil cultivation. Future generations must not practice this formation. Remember, remember!”

This is what I know about this formation, and the intentions of that middle-aged Taoist priest are also clear. He tricked the Wu brothers into practicing the Five-Son Formation for him. They were not talented, but with the help of their twin sons and the wonderful connection between brothers, practicing this formation was definitely twice the result with half the effort.

Thinking about this, I nodded and said, “I’ve only seen an introduction to this formation in some ancient books, and I can roughly understand that you were deceived, right?”

“Yes, that’s true. After ten years of training, we have become very familiar with the Five-Son Concentric Array. At that time, the middle-aged Taoist said that we had already learned a lot and could become a great help to him, following him to walk the ‘world of rivers and lakes’ and cultivate our state of mind. He said that he truly treated us as his disciples, and that he valued us. Seeing that we were working so hard to practice the Five-Son Concentric Array, he could see that our hearts were strong and that we were willing to be promoted. But this matter, he could not do alone. After we learned the Five-Son Concentric Array, we should have this opportunity. When Wu Laogui said this, a look of sadness appeared on his face.

Chengxin didn’t know what the Five-Son Formation was, so he asked, “If there’s something wrong with the formation, didn’t you notice anything after practicing it for ten years? Why did you still go along with it?”

I explained to him, “Brother Chengxin, if the center of the formation is not in place, it is no different from a normal combined formation. The center of the formation, let’s put it this way, is the five sons’ spiritual power, which is borrowed endlessly and recklessly. The center of the formation is actually the person who is subjected to the force. Do you understand? As long as he doesn’t enter the formation, with the five brothers’ ordinary abilities, how could they possibly find anything wrong?”

At this point, I looked at Wu Laogui and asked, “And the opportunity you mentioned, could it be that the middle-aged Taoist took you to the tomb of the immortals?”

This time, Wu Laogui was shocked again and asked, “How do you know?” In excitement, his northeastern accent came out again.