Star Formation
“How did he complete the second hexagram already?” exclaimed Zhan Bing, watching Mu Yu.
There was an infinite supply of spiritual qi devoted to maintaining the formation. Hence, a thorough scour would reveal there was food hidden in the shrubs for those on the younger side. There was even dew for thirst quenching, in fact. Consuming them wouldn’t impact the formation in the slightest.
Zhan Bing spent seven days just figuring out how to solve the second hexagram and almost passed out from starvation. How long it took one to solve formations varied and was a question of comprehension depth. Generally speaking, the faster one defused a formation, the greater their comprehension was considered to be. On average, Lesser Heaven Stage disciples needed seven days to two months to solve the second hexagram. Heaven Stage disciples solved it in three to four days – which were the fastest times for their rank. Greater Heaven Stage disciples cracked it in one day. Mu Yu didn’t even need two hours!
Mu Yu’s shallow knowledge on formation wasn’t as important as it might’ve been given credit for. His ability to remain calm to analyse and formulise were the attributes that pulled him through. Perhaps Dustfallen Mental Cultivation deserved praise. Ku Mu mentioned there was no such thing as a flawless formation. Accordingly, rationally analysing and formulating inevitably led to roads. That was ever so evident in Mu Yu’s behaviour – lying back and thinking as opposed to running high and low.
“Brother Mu Chenghong set the fastest record of four hours. That guy cracked it in less than two?” exclaimed Fan Wen.
“Relax. Brother Mu Chenghong solved seven hexagrams. The new guy just got lucky. That might be his last accomplishment for all we know,” suggested Zhan Bing.
One would think that anyone could solve the first two hexagrams if a disciple dropped a hint. In practice, Formation Sect already accounted for the possibility of cheating. Even if disciples told candidates the key to the second hexagram beforehand, it would’ve been erased from memory once they passed through Formation Gate. Therefore, Zhan Bing and Fan Wen considered Mu Yu lucky and not a cheater.
Mu Yu let the plain rain down on him. The scenery was reduced to formation fragments when it touched him, thereby not harming him. Afterwards, the scenery changed and threw Mu Yu into a world where gravity didn’t exist.
“What the?” was what Mu Yu wanted to verbalise. He couldn’t, though, for no sound came out when he spoke. Similarly, his hearing and smell were impaired.
Xiaoshuai clung to Mu Yu’s shirt with a vice-like grip and mouthed something. Mu Yu could understand Xiaoshuai was saying, “Why am I levitating? Am I ascending to heaven?” Mu Yu could’ve asked the same thing. It was akin to being submerged in water, except that they were stationery. They couldn’t control themselves, either, as their spiritual energy was suppressed for whatever reason.
There wasn’t much visibility since they were shrouded in mist. The mist slowly but surely departed to welcome nightfall. Spots of light gradually appeared one after another on the dark blanket in no particularly order and varying degrees of brightness. The spots were surprisingly an arm’s length away, but they’d return to their spots soon after.
Colour me confused, thought Mu Yu.
It took a while, but Mu Yu eventually identified a pattern to the alignment of the stars. It was identical to what he had seen every time he stargazed. Consequently, he began his search for the Big Dipper Formation. It was extremely tiring to reach the Big Dipper Formation thanks to the lack of gravity; it felt as if he swam for hours…
The stars didn’t attack or showcase any special traits. According to Ku Mu’s teachings, stars were a topic that would take mountains of books to cover. Different star formations harnessed different abilities, but most were used for combat purposes.
Cultivators couldn’t tackle elemental demons as one big horde. What humans did was use their knowledge of stars to create battle formations, which proved effective against their foes.
Wait… Is this hexagram asking me to dismantle the star formation, wondered Mu Yu.
The stars’ positions rearranged themselves all of a sudden, grouping themselves on either side of Mu Yu. On one side, the stars were in disarray. On the other side, they formed a formation of some kind. The formation resembled a long snake that had a triangular head and was approximately thirty metres long.
“Am I supposed to take on the snake with the stars around me? That has to be asking for the impossible. I’m estimating there are around ten thousand stars in the vicinity. I can barely move right now. I can’t even line stars up to form something remotely close to the snake.”
The snake whipped its tail, sweeping Mu Yu aside despite his desperate attempt to break away.
“This can’t be serious!”
The snake opened its mouth and extended its body toward Mu Yu’s head. He gave it all he had to get his head out of the way and take the brunt of the bite with his shoulder. The snake didn’t seem venomous, but he still bled. “If I could control the stars, I’d create a cudgel to whack the life out of you!”
The stars around Mu Yu lined up to become a cudgel the size of the snake and struck it!
“Whoa, serious?”
The snake evaded and deflected the cudgel.
“I’m going to school you, darn snake!”
Mu Yu morphed the cudgel into a trident and thrust it at the snake. The snake twirled itself around the trident and bit it.
“Argh!” The snake’s bite marks took form on Mu Yu’s chest.
Mu Yu morphed the trident into particles to slip out from the snake’s grasp. Next, he transformed it into a hawk to try and catch the snake. The snake transformed into a net. He switched the hawk for a large sword and severed the net in two, only for it to reattach and come back as a sword to retaliate.
“This isn’t going to go anywhere. Everything has a weakness. Whatever this is must also have a flaw, then.”
Mu Yu scrutinised the enemy sword for something to exploit. He quickly spotted a glowing red star because it stood out. The red star also remained in the same spot when the snake transformed into a net.
Every time the enemy sword forced Mu Yu’s sword to defend, he’d hiss. All of his attempts to strike the red star were countered.
“You want to challenge me to swordplay? I shall grant your wish.”
Mu Yu transformed his sword into six swords. Though they lost size, they were considerably defter, allowing him to catch the big sword from multiple directions. The large sword made a dash for it once it struggled and assumed the form of spheres inside spheres to deflect all the attacks head on. Not even a synchronised thrust was enough to dent the sphere. Celestial Swords Nine Summons wasn’t as powerful as usual since Mu Yu wasn’t directly wielding the swords.
“Oh, now you want a strategy contest?”
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