Chapter 4278 — You Dare Disobey?

"What's the rush? Do you even have a brain?" Chang Daoping shot him a cold glare and cursed with a disdainful snort.

"Ah? Brother Chang, I..." Luo Tuoxiang was once again scolded into a look of utter bewilderment.

Watching this scene, Wei Zhao couldn't help but smile to himself. Chang Daoping struck one as deep and unfathomable, and the underling he had taken on seemed at first glance to be of fairly high cultivation—yet no matter how one looked at him, he came across as a complete buffoon.

"I already told you, the Moon Shadow Formation has to do with the moon. To break it, we naturally have to make use of moonlight. Take a look—is there any moonlight now?" Chang Daoping said flatly, curling his lip.

Only then did everyone come to a sudden understanding. Though the sky had grown steadily darker, night had not yet fully fallen, so there could naturally be no moon. They could only wait quietly—though they could not help feeling some worry. Could the moon really be seen here?

Even setting the weather aside, there was still a thick layer of miasmic fog overhead. By day, even sunlight could not fully pierce it, which was why the light was so faint—let alone the moon at night.

Doubts churned in their hearts, but none dared rashly question Chang Daoping. Wei Zhao and Huang Xiaotao did not yet understand, but the others knew Chang Daoping's temperament well: this Brother Chang was by no means the patient sort who answered every question put to him.

Whatever the task, all they had to do was follow his orders. Ask too much, and they would only invite annoyance and scolding. That explained why they had reacted with such bizarre astonishment earlier, when Chang Daoping had tried to win over Wei Zhao and Huang Xiaotao.

After roughly an hour, the sky finally went completely dark. Beneath everyone's expectant gazes, several soft beams of moonlight suddenly spilled down from overhead. Weak as they looked at first glance, when they fell upon the wasteland before them, they were startlingly bright.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief at once, only then recalling that this place was no dense forest. In a dense forest, such scant moonlight would of course be utterly useless—but out on this open wasteland, it was already more than enough.

At first, Wei Zhao instinctively assumed that the wonder of the Moon Shadow Formation lay in those few beams of moonlight filtering down through the miasma layer, and that the positions they indicated were where the formation stood.

But Wei Zhao soon realized he was wrong. Though there were only a scant few beams of moonlight, and at first glance they were indeed highly misleading, a closer look revealed that they were constantly shifting—not the moonlight itself, but the miasma layer overhead.

Yet if it was not the positions marked by the moonlight, where did the key to breaking the formation lie? For a time, Wei Zhao could not see through it. As for the others—men like Luo Tuoxiang, whose cultivation rank was far above Wei Zhao's, but whose comprehension and innate talent were simply not on the same level as his—if Wei Zhao could not fathom the mystery, they were all the more at a loss.

Uncomprehending, the group could only stare eagerly at Chang Daoping, waiting for him to enlighten them. Yet this Brother Chang remained unmoved—far from setting about breaking the formation, he looked as though he could not even be bothered to stir. He simply gazed faintly at the wasteland before them.

Since Chang Daoping said nothing, no one dared press him further. They could only wait patiently at his side. So it went until midnight, as the moonlight grew brighter and brighter. The group exchanged uneasy glances, yet none dared act rashly.

"All right, that should do it." Chang Daoping finally rose to his full height, and everyone's spirits surged at once, each of them eager for action.

Yet one glance from Wei Zhao told him that the wasteland before them seemed no different from before—merely a little brighter, that was all. No wondrous formation had manifested.

"Where exactly is this so-called Moon Shadow Formation?" Wei Zhao wondered inwardly. But judging by Chang Daoping's manner, surely the man could not be putting on an act?

Wait—Moon Shadow Formation! A flash of insight suddenly lit Wei Zhao's mind, and when he looked again at the wasteland ahead, he finally began to make out something of the trick.

When he had observed this wasteland before, beyond its barrenness there had been nothing remarkable at all. But now, looking closely again—especially deliberately fixing his attention on the shadows cast upon the ground—he could detect something peculiar.

The wasteland was pitted and uneven, so it was hardly strange for shadows to fall in a blur. An ordinary person would never notice. Yet Wei Zhao's gaze came to rest upon eight rather unusual shadows: one at the very center shaped like a half-moon, and the other seven shaped like stars.

If those seven star-shaped shadows were joined together, they formed none other than a constellation known to all the world—the Big Dipper—and the center it enclosed was precisely that half-moon shadow.

The wasteland was at most merely uneven ground. Had there been no special arrangement, how could shadows of such peculiar shape have appeared out of nowhere?

By now, Wei Zhao could be a hundred percent certain: the Big Dipper together with the half-moon shadow must be the very Moon Shadow Formation Chang Daoping had spoken of.

Even as Wei Zhao was reasoning this out, Chang Daoping took a small flag from his pack. At first glance it looked just like the cheering flags secular-world fans waved at matches, nothing special about it at all. Yet on closer inspection, one would find that this little flag was not so simple as it appeared on the surface. The mystery and profundity faintly emanating from it was scarcely inferior to the formations Wei Zhao had seen before.

"A formation flag?" Wei Zhao was slightly taken aback. Though he did not possess such a thing himself, it was not as though he could fail to recognize one. This was a highly specialized tool of formation craft, absolutely indispensable whether for setting a formation or breaking one.

Moreover, a formation flag was not something that just any skilled hand could pick up and make use of. Its intricacies were in no way inferior to such trades as alchemy or artifact forging. It required specialized training to use; ordinary people could not wield it at all—and indeed would never even come by one.

From this it was clear that Chang Daoping was either a formation expert himself, or had gone to considerable trouble to study the subject specifically for the purpose of breaking the Moon Shadow Formation. Either way, this man was no simple figure.

"You, go over there." Chang Daoping pointed at Luo Tuoxiang, then pointed to a spot out in the wasteland. Just as Wei Zhao had expected, that spot was one of the Big Dipper points he had observed.

"Ah? Brother Chang, didn't you say that once you go in, you can't come out?" Luo Tuoxiang gave a start, staring at Chang Daoping in terror, waving his hands frantically as he backed away.

Once one rashly entered the Moon Shadow Formation, one would be utterly lost within it, and no one could save them. Those were Chang Daoping's own words from just a moment ago.

"You dare defy even my word?" Chang Daoping knitted his brows, and a trace of chilling killing intent suddenly rose from his already domineering, overbearing bearing! (To be continued...) R527