Chapter 71: Learning Formations
Chapter 71: Learning Formations
Lian Ziqing squinted slightly, leaned back in his chair, and fell into thoughtful silence for a moment. He then lifted his head and looked at the middle-aged man. “You followed her the whole time? She didn’t notice you, right?”
The middle-aged man gave a faint smile. “No, she was completely unaware of my presence.”
Lian Ziqing nodded. “Tell me about it.”
“After Elder Qian left the sect, she did choose to cooperate with the upper echelons of Great Qin. But what she didn’t tell you was that she wasn’t actually captured.”
“Although I was quite far away, I saw clearly. Elder Qian never fought that person. She suddenly switched sides and went over to join him!”
“I don’t know the specific reason, but I do know that she killed all of Feng Bubian’s men who saw her face. Not a single one was left.”
“Oh?”
Lian Ziqing raised an eyebrow and chuckled mockingly. “Really? That happened?”
Feng Bubian thought his actions were secret enough, but Lian Ziqing had known all along. He just couldn’t be bothered to expose him.
As long as it didn’t harm the sect or his own interests, Lian Ziqing didn’t care to interfere with such matters.
There were plenty of people with influence in the secular world; Feng Bubian was just one more.
“There’s more. The whole situation is quite interesting…”
The middle-aged man began to tell Lian Ziqing about the events that had recently happened around Qian Luoying.
“You’re saying she stayed with that young man named Ling Yi, ate and lived together, and even helped him interfere in secular affairs? Oh… she did say she became his bodyguard, right? Hah… An esteemed sect elder, a bodyguard…”
A complicated expression appeared on Lian Ziqing’s face as he looked at the middle-aged man. “Go on.”
“Elder Qian’s strength seems to have improved, but… I can’t be sure. I just get the feeling she’s stronger now.”
“That young man is also quite impressive. His methods are indeed clever; he really doesn’t seem like an ordinary person from the secular world.”
“However, I secretly investigated his identity as well. He is from the secular world, was even a street urchin. His background isn’t mysterious.”
Lian Ziqing looked at the middle-aged man and asked, “Can you confirm that the young man is the one who entered the Grotto Abode?”
The middle-aged man replied, “Almost certainly! Actually, I wasn’t so sure before, but this time I saw him return with Elder Qian with my own eyes. He was just disguised again as that middle-aged man from before.”
Lian Ziqing narrowed his eyes and murmured softly, “Interesting. Young, handsome, can make Qian Luoying devoted to him… He certainly has some tricks. And he has good relations with the Great Qin upper echelons…”
Then, he looked at the middle-aged man. “I previously suspected that the person who entered the Grotto Abode might have come across some extraordinary opportunity. Now it seems that guess was probably correct.”
The middle-aged man nodded. “That does appear to be the case.”
Lian Ziqing pondered, then said, “Given his level and ability, it should have been impossible for him to injure me!”
“As for why he could injure me here… I’ve thought about it for many days and still found it incredible. Now I think the biggest possibility is that there is some kind of Formation Array here that we don’t know about!”
“He gained control of it and used the power of the Formation Array to injure me… Which means, as long as we leave this place, we will definitely have a chance!”
“Exactly. On the night Elder Qian switched sides, although this person personally killed a Golden Body cultivator, he was also injured. So I suspect the reason Elder Qian suddenly switched sides must be that this person promised her something no one else could give…”
The middle-aged man analyzed, “Coupled with Elder Qian’s improved strength, Sect Leader, do you think there might be some connection?”
“There must be,” Lian Ziqing chuckled lightly. “Someone who could make our proud and upright Elder Qian lie, even offer herself… How could he not have something special?”
“What about us?” the middle-aged man asked, looking at Lian Ziqing.
Lian Ziqing shook his head slightly and looked at him. “For what comes next, you should not participate, to avoid exposing yourself. You should return to the Capital of Great Qin. Didn’t you just mention that this person also has sisters? Go watch them. I will contact you when needed.”
The middle-aged man hesitated slightly. “Those two girls… they are not easy to touch. They live in the heavily guarded Military Headquarters. Now they’re probably under even tighter protection.”
Lian Ziqing glanced at him. “Who said to touch them? Just keep an eye on them.”
The middle-aged man nodded. “Understood!”
He then stood up, took his leave, and departed.
Inside the Grotto Abode.
Ling Yi had already cleaned the place spotlessly.
The process is omitted.
Because even the Enchantress couldn’t help but scold him for being a neat freak.
The original furniture in the Grotto Abode had long since rotted away, turning to dust.
Now, after Ling Yi cleaned up, it looked empty.
Aside from a flat, hard stone bed and stone table with stools, there was nothing.
Ling Yi even specifically asked the Enchantress if the material of this stone bed and table had any special significance.
Otherwise, why did everything else turn to ashes under the rules of time, while these remained?
The Enchantress was also a bit stunned, then said somewhat uncertainly, “These stones… might be treasures? I can’t really remember. But no matter how good, they’re just stones. Don’t worry about it.”
Ling Yi circled them a few times but couldn’t figure anything out, so he gave up.
The Grotto Abode was finally clean, but it was also incredibly bare and simple.
However, Ling Yi wasn’t dissatisfied. Back when he was wandering around with his sister, if they had had a place like this to stay, the siblings would have been overjoyed for days.
Spreading the bedsheet from his backpack on the stone bed, Ling Yi nodded with satisfaction.
Then he said to the Enchantress, “Enchantress, teach me about Formation Arrays, will you?”
When she taught him the sealing formation earlier, the Enchantress had mentioned in passing that the study of Formation Arrays was very profound. Pure cultivation civilizations used Formation Arrays extensively, almost everywhere.
It wasn’t just for combat. In all aspects of daily life, the presence of Formation Arrays could be found.
A brilliant cultivation civilization would not be inferior to the current technological civilization in any aspect.
Video calls are amazing?
With Formation Arrays, you can achieve the same!
Recording videos is impressive?
Carve a Formation Array and easily record all images. Real-time monitoring is a piece of cake for Formation Array studies.
Luxury cars filling the streets are awesome?
Carve a flight Formation Array on a live pig, and the pig can fly!
Besides that, what interested Ling Yi was that things like jade handles, pendants, and bracelets could also have Formation Arrays carved on them!
The most common were Defense Magic Arrays.
This was also a basic method in the Cultivation World to avoid sudden assassination attempts.
A bit more advanced, you could carve attack Formation Arrays on them.
The higher the quality of the material, the greater the power of the Formation Array.
Most accessories with offensive or defensive Formation Arrays were disposable, belonging to the category of consumable Magical Artifacts.
More advanced ones could be used repeatedly, but after each use, depending on the grade of the Formation Array, they required some time to accumulate energy before the next use.
Even more powerful ones were true Magical Artifacts.
For example, the kind Zhao Tianping and his group had previously tried to frame Ling Yi with were true Magical Artifacts in every sense.
They had relatively high grades, strong power, and could be used repeatedly.
Simply put, a Magical Artifact was an object with Formation Arrays carved onto it, imbuing the object with a cultivator’s power.
The grade of a Magical Artifact essentially reflected the grade of its Formation Arrays.
A skilled Formation Master could make an ordinary, common object incredibly powerful!
This kind of magical method was perfect for a lazy person like Ling Yi. Why bother fighting with your own hands when you can use Magical Artifacts?
In the future, when he gathered the materials, wouldn’t it be great to have a bunch of high-level Puppets as guards?
“Learn the basics first before anything else!” The Enchantress’s voice still carried a hint of annoyance.
“Didn’t I already learn them?” Ling Yi said.
“This is just the beginning. Can you carve a detailed Formation Array on a single grain of rice? Can you carve a flight Formation Array onto a pig without hurting it? Can you…”
“Sis, big sister, grandma… I can’t!” Ling Yi hurriedly stopped her.
The Enchantress said calmly, “So don’t aim too high. Young people need to be humble. Don’t always think you can become a master overnight.”
An hour later.
Ling Yi looked with satisfaction at his first creation-a Jade Box carved with a Formation Array.
He asked the Enchantress, “Does it pass?”
The Enchantress snorted, “It’s passable, I suppose. The lines are still a bit ugly though. It doesn’t affect its use, but craftsmanship should be refined. With your current skill, you’d definitely fail if I asked you to carve on smaller objects in the future!”
Ling Yi wore a humble expression. “You’re absolutely right!”
The Enchantress: “…”
So annoying!
She remembered when she made her first Magical Artifact. It took her a full three days.
And it was especially ugly!
Her master called it a child’s scribble, and her fellow disciples laughed at her for a long time.
So—
Hmm.
Who was my master?
Who am I?
And those fellow disciples of mine… who were they all?
What did they look like? What were their names?
Once again, the Enchantress fell into self-confusion.
Time flew by, and over half a month passed.
It was now mid-August.
During this time, every day besides cultivating, Ling Yi learned how to carve various Formation Arrays under the Enchantress’s guidance.
Even though he had no physical objects to practice on, it was all “theoretical,” the speed of his progress made the Enchantress feel a bit bad about giving him a hard time.
The two Primordial Spirit Fruits had already been sealed inside the Jade Box. According to the Enchantress’s judgment, as long as he found suitable materials, Ling Yi should be able to make a Storage Artifact himself within half a year!
Hearing this news, Ling Yi was still quite excited.
If he could really make a Storage Artifact, cultivating would definitely be much more convenient than it was now.
At the very least, his diet could become much more varied.
Recently, Ling Yi had been living almost like an ascetic.
The food he ate was extremely simple!
Because the space in his backpack was limited, he could only carry some compressed rations.
Anyone who knew about these things understood you just ate them to fill your stomach. Eating them for too long was bound to become tedious.
So, in the middle of it all, Ling Yi couldn’t help but sneak out a couple of times. He went to the reservoir to fish and also got some wild game, treating himself to a proper meal.
If he had a few Storage Artifacts on him, he could store a lot of meat, vegetables, and all sorts of daily necessities.
That would be a proper way to live!
However, the Enchantress also said that materials capable of bearing spatial power were rare. Even jade of the Jade Box quality wouldn’t work. He needed to find higher-quality materials.
But at least there was hope. Ling Yi wasn’t too worried about that.
During this period, there had been no movement from Qian Luoying’s side. Jiang Yuntong and Mo Yunwu hadn’t come looking for him either.
Ling Yi didn’t find it strange. He guessed Qian Luoying ultimately failed to persuade Lian Ziqing.
He didn’t pay it much mind anyway. He wouldn’t be staying here much longer anyway.
With his rapid advancement, he had now reached the peak of the Meridian Unlocking stage.
All fourteen meridians were unblocked. As long as he accumulated enough energy, he could smoothly step into the Golden Body Realm.
Once he reached the Golden Body stage, he could no longer just shut himself away for closed-door cultivation like he was doing now.
He would have to go out to search for various materials, prepare Medicinal Baths, refine Elixirs, and temper his Golden Body through both internal consumption and external application.
The Golden Body had nine levels. According to the Enchantress’s plan, she hoped he could reach this realm within a year.
Achieving that goal wouldn’t be easy.
Just the materials needed to temper the Golden Body were enough to give Ling Yi a headache.
So once he stepped into the Golden Body realm, Ling Yi would have to go search for those materials.
After all, he didn’t have a massive Sect backing him.
But thinking about it, if he could really enter the ninth level of the Golden Body within a year, it would be considered a miracle in the Cultivation World.
Beyond the Golden Body was Dao Enlightenment. Would the day he took revenge on Lu Qingming still be far away?