Dad’s Formation Mentorship (Part 1)
Mu Yu picked up the fragmented jade piece and watched Ku Mu go.
Xiaoshuai popped his head out. “Mu Yu, shall we tail him in secret to find out where Walk-in Heart Genesis is hidden?”
“It’s pointless because of the changes we’ve introduced to this dimension. He’s going to change where he hides it now, which will be different to where it’s hidden back in our dimension. If only I knew that pillar was Walk-in Heart Genesis when I first saw it in the valley.”
“Are we just going to call it quits after coming so far?” complained the dragon vine.
“This trip wasn’t fruitless. At the very least, we now know its appearance and that Dad was the one who stole it from them. He wouldn’t have left it in the valley after he lost his cultivation, so we need to work out where he’d hide it.”
“Pill Cauldron Sect?” Xiaoshuai guessed, rationalising it was the next safest place.
“Impossible. He only went back there once after erasing his cultivation. I was with him the entire time we were there. I wouldn’t have left if you two didn’t cause uproar in Second Heaven,” contested the dragon vine.
“Where else, then? Would Ghostie find it before us?”
“I highly doubt it. Gui Ximing came here to find the culprit. He’s now insistent that I have Walk-in Heart Genesis on me. He doesn’t know I haven’t found it, giving us the initiative,” proposed Mu Yu.
“Doesn’t that mean we’ll always have a horde of them on us, then? Ku Mu’s inheritance is like a bullseye on our backs in our dimension, isn’t it?” asked the dragon vine.
“Given the number of issues looking to bother us, I couldn’t tell the difference if we added just another. Anyway, I have business to finish up here first.”
“What are you following me for?” Ku Mu queried, sensing Mu Yu behind him.
Mu Yu implored, “I would like to ask you to teach me.”
“Teach you?” Ku Mu halted.
“Yes. Before he passed away, he taught me how to use poison. He didn’t teach me formations, however. Most of my formation knowledge comes from Formation Sect. The most advanced formations are ones I taught myself using his ‘Profound Formations’ book.”
“Learn by yourself, then.”
“Advanced formations, particularly natural energy and domain formations, are beyond me. I cannot pinpoint what it is that I am missing.”
“How many years have you spent studying formations?”
“Approximately three years? If we include Fingertip Flowing Water that Chen Tiandao taught me, then four. I know my potential is significantly inferior to my father’s, but I am trying my best to catch up.”
Ku Mu spun around. “Four years? Show me the most complex formation you can cast.”
“Most complex? Usually, I use Heavenly Star Formation, Gentle Wind Interlocked Hearts Formation and Gentle Wind Graft Formation most in combat,” stated Mu Yu, teleporting far off and then right back.
“Basic,” scoffed Ku Mu.
Forming a black hole in his right hand and a white hole in his left, Mu Yu inquired, “Gentle Wind Graft?”
“Amateur.”
“Appose Horizon and Contiguous Horizon?”
“How did you learn Sword Shadow Dust Gale’s creations?”
“Sh-, Sword Shadow Dust Gale invented them? Chen Tiandao taught me Contiguous Formation.”
“Sword Shadow Dust Gale invented them, not Chen Tiandao.”
“Oh, I invented Gentle Wind One Line to Heaven, and it always works a treat.” Mu Yu cast the formation to demonstrate, linking him up to Ku Mu along a formation line. “Once caught within the formation, attacks are forced to move along this line.”
“Busking tier.”
“Can’t you praise me even once? It is a formation I invented, after all. I’ve used to defeat opponents on numerous occasions.”
“What’s there to be proud of after beating fodder?”
Ku Mu kicked a stone, activating a formation with his toes at the same time, thereby coating the stone in a formation. To Mu Yu’s surprise, it circled outside of the straight line, coming back around from Mu Yu’s left temple. Even more surprising was that Mu Yu’s formation didn’t detect the stone sneaking out of its territory. He stretched his left hand out to catch the stone, only for it to smash him dead centre on the head. Once he instinctively moved his hand to the centre of his head, a stone pummelled his left ear.
“That’s all your formation does? If I meant to kill you, you would’ve died twice already.”
“I wouldn’t have my guard down around others,” Mu Yu grumbled. “Why did I not even sense you activate a formation?”
“Didn’t you say you knew Mirror Formation as well as the back of your hand? You don’t recognise it as soon as I change its appearance?”
Mu Yu started looking around for the stone futilely.
“Over here.”
Ku Mu threw away the stone and sat down under a tree to catch his breath, whipped after just that due to his injuries. The formation Mu Yu linked them up with, therefore, extended to the tree.
“How did you do that? I thought Mirror Formation was a fixed formation. Plus, you only threw one stone,” asked Mu Yu, defusing his formation and jogging over to Ku Mu.
Ku Mu looked at Mu Yu through the corner of his eyes. “Who told you fixed formations have to be cast as fixed formations? Once you learn to harness natural energy, a lot of principles taught about formations will change.”
“How do I access natural energy? I always feel that I am missing something when I try to grasp it.”
“Where do you try to grasp it from?”
“Isn’t it supposed to be grasped from within nature?”
“Is that what he wrote in the book?”
“No, he couldn’t be bothered writing about it because he reckoned anyone could figure it out.”
“I thought he was stupid enough to tell you th-, ptoo. You’re just incorrigibly stupid. Formation caster? You should call yourself a joke, instead.”
“Ehehe, you lecture, and I take notes.”
“You don’t find natural energy in nature. All you can sense in nature is weak spiritual energy circulation. You’ll never even be a beginner in harnessing natural energy after a decade if that’s what you’re doing. Didn’t the book say anything can be used for formations, including people?”
“It does say that on the third line of the sixth paragraph of page 1967. You just quoted it word for word,” replied Xiaoshuai, claw raised.
“That’s what I thought. Why waste space and ink on something so simple?” Ku Mu remarked.
Simple for a genius, not simple for me! thought Mu Yu.
“The caster is the key. When you trigger a formation, you are the formation foundation. Afterwards, transfer the formation foundation on you elsewhere. Using what I just did as an example, I was the formation foundation when I kicked the stone. Then, I converted the stone into the formation foundation, creating a world out of it. It then takes the formation you installed and amplifies it infinitely.”
Ku Mu picked up a leaf and shook it with a formation. Innumerable identical leaves then flew over from around him. He flicked the physical leaves away, spearing them into the ground, while the original leave continued bouncing in his hand.
“You managed to recognise Mirror Formation while messing with Ghost Gate’s group. Nevertheless, you are still looking at formations on a surface level. Technically speaking, this leaf is a Mirror Formation just as the stone I kicked became a Mirror Formation. Get it now?”
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