Greater Heaven Stage Formations
Luo Feilong and Ji Wenkai secretly launched their own probes into their threat’s identity, investigating everyone but Mu Yu solely due to them deeming him too useless. Mu Yu was glad he finally wasn’t swept up into some huge fiasco as he typically was ever since landing at Third Continent.
Mu Yu had graduated from the foundation course and finally began studying with other Heaven Stage disciples. He took his lessons serious for he only knew how to make sense of formations and not how to cast them in the past. The carryover from his knowledge to practical application proved helpful; he learnt complex formations faster than others in his rank.
Based on his course materials, Elder Xun would’ve been considered a Heaven Stage disciple for the elder was capable of rearranging components to alter the way a formation worked. Using an example Elder Xun demonstrated, switching the placement of several purple and gold spirit stones could change a Spirit Collection Formation into a suppression formation.
Alterations to formations was playing with fire at times. Twilight Burst, which was one of the formations Mu Yu was instructed to learn, wasn’t just about firing light rays to sting the enemies’ eyes; the light rays could actually deal grievous damage. Draw one line less, nonetheless, and the light rays could’ve fired back to the centre. If the caster was there…
Mu Yu spent every waking moment – and bed time – sedulously studying Heaven Stage Formations. He already learnt Eight Trigrams in depth from Ku Mu, and the last thing he wanted to do was let his late father’s formations collect cob webs. Since all formations’ initial is that of the Eight Trigrams, a thorough grasp of the Eight Trigrams equipped the caster with knowledge to predict the result of their formation.
As one of the teachers for Heaven Stage disciples, Greater Heaven Caster Lu held a class at Advancement Hall.
“Ahem, all Heaven Stage disciples are present, correct? Ji Wenkai, take the roll.”
Ji Wenkai summoned an Eight Trigrams formation underfoot, Scout Formation, and extended its circumference to include everyone present. Done, he reported, “Three hundred and forty Heaven Stage disciples are present. Forty-five are absent. I believe they are out on jobs with other Heaven Stage casters for their apprenticeships.”
“Thank you. List the forty-five absent ones for me. I’ll help them catch up on today’s session. Now, let’s begin. The formation I am teaching today is ‘Mesmerising Swallow Returns’, a combat formation. It’s a difficult one to get the hang of, so tune in.
“Mesmerising Swallow Returns is a scouting a scouting formation that we use to pinpoint the opponent’s weakness. There’s no such thing as a perfect attack technique. Every technique has its flaw. As long as we can identify that weakness, we can exploit it to score a victory. As you all know, each technique requires spiritual energy to be concentrated differently. Unless you know their discipline as well as the back of your hand, it’s difficult to identify their flaws.
“The reason we are stronger than opponents who are on equal footing with us in terms of cultivation is that the majority of our offensive formations are designed with specific goals in mind. Using Mesmerising Swallow Returns as an example, you’ll reveal your opponent’s flaws each time they strike once you’ve successfully cast it. Allow me to demonstrate. Ji Wenkai, please assist me.”
“Yes, Greater Heaven Caster Lu.”
Greater Heaven Caster Lu remained standing with his hands behind his back, yet a blue Eight Trigrams formation with a one metre radius spawned underfoot. He conjured a vortex at the centre and summoned a blue sparrow from it. He pointed in Ji Wenkai’s direction, directing the sparrow circling him to fly to the latter. Before Ji Wenkai could react, the sparrow dove into his body.
Greater Heaven Caster Lu said to the bemused Ji Wenkai, “Attack me however you want now.”
Ji Wenkai performed a palm and fist salute. “I apologise in advance.”
Ji Wenkai jumped and uncorked his fist that he imbued with a formation. Once an easily visible blue spot on his shoulder lit up, Greater Heaven Caster Lu poked the blue spot, erasing the formation Ji Wenkai attached to his fist and brought him to the ground.
Greater Heaven Caster Lu lifted Ji Wenkai to his feet with a wave of spiritual energy and explained, “I presume you all saw it? That was the flaw in his strike being exposed. If I catch him with five sparrows, I will be able to see the next five flaws in his next five techniques. I shouldn’t need to tell you what happens if you manage to catch the flaw.”
“Oh, man, that’s wicked!” someone commented.
“Needless to say, like Ji Wenkai’s technique, the formation isn’t flawless. First, you must be able to land the formation on them. Second, you need the spiritual energy and spiritual qi to execute it. It won’t work even if you catch them if you lack sufficient spiritual energy and spiritual qi. It’s quite the complex formation, but those are the integral requisites. See if you can grasp its essence now.”
Greater Heaven Caster Lu manifested a complex Eight Trigrams formation in the sky. Next to the spiritual patterns were key points he wanted to highlight. It read, “There are a total of 672 spiritual lines. When activating the formation, you must switch the positions of “shake” and “abysmal” using your spiritual energy at the same time. The more spiritual energy you devote to “ground” the faster your sparrow will fly. “Field” determines the number of sparrows you spawn. Try not to spawn too many for it will cost more spiritual energy…”
The entire write up was, at least, fifty thousand characters long. None of them had cast formations exceeding three hundred spiritual lines, so the looks on their faces were easy to imagine. Switching the positions of the trigram figures eluded them. Lesser Heaven Stage formations were one hundred lines and under. Anything above three hundred lines was classified a Greater Heaven Stage formation.
“The ‘Dark Night Radiance’ Greater Heaven Stage formation he taught last year only consisted of three hundred and nine lines. What the heck is this 672 business about?!” exclaimed Cheng Zhuo.
Dark Night Radiance was a formation Greater Heaven Caster Lu inadvertently taught. As the name suggested, it was a formation cast to mask one’s presence using a light at night. Nobody actually mastered it, so he never taught anything more than three hundred lines again.
Mu Yu had no reason to be as surprised. After all, the one in him put Mesmerising Sparrow Returns to shame. Nine Heavens Demon Sealing Formation consisted of millions and millions of lines. It took over a day to cast, after all.
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