Chapter 129 - Studying Formations

Yaan had never before attempted to learn one of the cultivation professions. The three core paths that a cultivator could explore as a ‘profession’ included alchemy, formations and treasure crafting.

They were called professions, because these were some of the key ways in which a cultivator could make money. Medicinal resources, treasures and formations were always in high demand, particularly the former two.

As for formations, it was not a resource or valuable treasure creation profession, but all decent sects would employ formations masters to either design, build or maintain their formations.

Formations masters were able to create massive, complex designs which could cover an entire sect, protecting them from outside forces for years, or even longer afterwards. Of course, this was highly dependent on the formation master’s abilities, but also on the materials that were used in the creation of the formation.

The reason that most cultivators did not delve too deeply into the study of a profession, was largely due to the cost involved. This cost came in the form of money, but also time.

Learning to build formations was a lengthy process and one that would require a constant supply of materials in order to continue practising. An ordinary lone cultivator would not be able to support their own study of formations, their progress would be far too slow and they would not see a reasonable payback compared to everything they put in. As such, people who specialised in formations were almost always members of large sects, nurtured in their art from a young age.

Right now, Yaan did not need to worry about the cost, he was being funded by an immortal, his basic study of formations was nothing to the Fragment Sect’s Immortal Ancestor. As for the cost of his time…

Yaan’s time was extremely valuable right now, as he needed to make the best use of every waking moment if he wanted to meet the Immortal Ancestor’s requirements in order to survive! However, he deemed the time spent on studying formations to be worth it.

Studying formations diligently would temper his mind, whilst he would be able to use these psyche power cultivation formations going forwards to further develop his psyche cultivation.

Aside from this, Yaan also wanted to learn about formations because he hoped that doing so would help him to gain some understanding of the giant formation that covered the entirety of the core sect. He was still a beginner right now though, so he had no idea how feasible this plan actually was…

If it were anyone else harbouring such a grand ambition like seeing through this super formation in such a short period of time, it would be truly laughable. However, Yaan was a true psyche power cultivator, it was all but guaranteed that his progress in studying formations would be exceptional and far more rapid compared to any Qi master at his level!

This was yet another one of the benefits of psyche path. Whilst psyche cultivation was the weakest in terms of direct battle strength, it was simply too useful in when it came to developing the various side endeavours which would become increasingly necessary throughout the course of one’s cultivation. Combining this with the fact that psyche power cultivation did not interfere with other paths at the Foundation Step, it became clear to see why psyche power cultivation was one of the most desired supplementary cultivation paths to any cultivator’s core path.

To begin with, the Immortal Ancestor set up some simple formations in front of Yaan, showing him how it was done whilst speaking casually about the various intricacies contained within.

At first, Yaan nodded continuously, understanding the basic principles and finding everything quite easy to comprehend with his sea of consciousness. However, as time passed by and the immortal did not stop talking about these basic formations, Yaan’s expression began to change.

After three hours, the immortal finally stopped. There were now five formations in front of him, all of which were extremely simple, some of the most simple formations that any beginner formations practitioner could build.

Yaan’s eyes were slightly bloodshot. He had forced himself to concentrate, listening to the immortal's words, whilst doing his best to comprehend the meaning behind the explanations, all whilst closely examining the formations themselves.

Yaan couldn’t help but sigh in amazement.

“The art of formations is truly profound! I never realised that even the most basic of formations could contain so many mysteries, even when they appear so simple on the surface…”

The immortal nodded.

“This is normal. Usually, it would be impossible for a beginner in formations to learn all of this, they would simply be unable to keep up. But, since you have the advantage in mental processing ability, you should make good use of it and learn the fundamental essence of the basics. This way, your foundation of understanding will be stronger.”

Yaan nodded slowly, everything he said was true, not to mention that this style of learning was able to properly stimulate his psyche power, pushing his sea of consciousness to the limit of its abilities. He once again marvelled at the tremendous use of an immortal teacher, his teacher was actually able to deduce the best way to make use of Yaan’s time like this so easily…

No, maybe he had already anticipated this situation and made his preparations for this lesson beforehand.

Trying not to dwell on this possibility, Yaan returned his attention to the formations themselves.

Each of these formations were small and made up from a dozen to a few dozen components, but each exhibited a very different effect. There was a defensive formation, an offensive formation, a detection formation, a concealment formation, and a formation that combined all four of these elements.

Only three of the formations were easily visible.

The offensive formation was stationary, it looked like a small golden pillar, standing at about two feet tall. It could be controlled by injecting a suitable energy into a certain part of the pillar, at which point the cultivator would be able to feel the formation as if it were their own limb.

The defensive formation was circular and in constant motion, with three red chains rotating across its silver surface. This formation could only be controlled from within, and as such, the Immortal Ancestor made this formation large enough for Yaan to enter so that he could experience this for himself.

The detection formation was the largest, forming a ten feet wide dome. It was more difficult to see compared to the previous two formations, but a faint green sheen could still be made out from both inside and outside of the dome. This formation did not need to be controlled consciously at all times; so long as the controller was within the dome, they would innately become aware of any movements detected within the bounds of the formation, as soon as such movements were detected.

The concealment formation was even more difficult to see, from the outside at least. After Yaan walked into the formation, he was able to clearly see the grey cube that surrounded him. Of course, with Yaan’s cultivation, he could easily see past the concealment of this small formation so long as he squinted slightly, or if he channeled his vital energy such that it filled his eyes. This was a crude method, but when facing a minor formation, it was effective enough.

The combined formation was the largest but also the most difficult to comprehend. It had the shape of a large dome, a golden pillar was stationed in the centre, whilst red chains were hidden and circulating around the outside. From within the formation, the chains could be controlled to protect the dome, whilst the golden pillar could be connected to the dome and used to launch attacks either inside or outside of the formation.

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These were all relatively simple formations, though to someone not familiar with formations, they were still too complicated to understand.

After listening to the Immortal Ancestor explain all of the intricacies behind these formations, as well as giving an introduction to formations in general, Yaan developed a decent understanding. His understanding grew further as he spent some time inspecting and manipulating the formations himself.

Formations, like alchemical medicines and treasures, required materials and resources in order to build. Compared to refining pills or forging treasures though, the chance of accidentally destroying countless resources during practice was far lower when building a formation compared to alchemy and treasure crafting. Generally, if a formation was built incorrectly, it simply wouldn’t work as expected. When the formation did look like it was about to collapse in on itself, the materials could be quickly retrieved before the formation collapsed, though this varied from formation to formation.

Another aspect of formations which was highly advantageous compared to practising alchemy, was that the building of formations did not actually use up the resources involved most of the time. Yaan experienced this for himself when he watched the immortal deconstruct the five formations, retrieving all of the materials he used in them, all completely unscathed.

Of course, a formation needed an energy source to maintain itself, but there were various ways to go about this. Whilst the energy could be extracted from many materials used in its setup, this was wasteful and would cause the formation to consume its own foundation over time.

Typically, a well designed formation would make use of the atmospheric spiritual energy in the world, as this way, there was no cost in simply maintaining it. Other times, for more energy intensive formations, the formation might make use of the special energies in a certain environment. Clearly, it was important to consider the location when building a formation.

Alternatively, materials such a beast cores could be used, or sometimes, cultivators themselves could remain within the formation to sustain its activation.

As Yaan stared at the hundreds of materials on the floor ahead of him, he slowly reached down and picked up a simple looking root. The root had a faint golden colour, but it did not shine, it was not an impressive material in the cultivation world, though it was something that a mortal nation might consider a rare treasure.

This material was a 100 year light ginseng. Ginsengs came in a range of varieties and ages, with the older ginsengs being more valuable and of greater use to cultivators. Yaan knew that natural resources like this were unusable to most cultivators when in their raw form, but they were crucial ingredients in many alchemical recipes.

‘I have encountered many materials throughout my life, especially in North Ghu City. There were also many things in the 4th trial realm, but they aren’t commonly found in the outside world. Even so, my understanding of natural resources is lacking compared to alchemists like Zue Yin, it seems that if I want to deepen my understanding of formations, I need to expand my knowledge of resources…’

Yaan made a mental note to himself that he should visit the Five Towers Library again, this time to study and memorise natural resources. With his sea of consciousness, his memory was practically photographic when he made an active effort to memorise simple things such as this.

For now, Yaan began attempting to set up the basic detection formation. Although it was larger than the offensive and defensive formations, it was less complex and consisted of fewer components.

There were 16 materials involved in this formation, including the 100 year light ginseng. In order for the materials to become effective components in the formation, they needed to be complete, full and undamaged. This ginseng for example, was the entire root without a single fibre having been broken off. In this state, it could function as one of the formation points.

Yaan carefully walked around in a circle, placing each material down at set points as described and shown earlier by the Immortal Ancestor. The placement of the materials needed to be extremely accurate, or else the formation would fail to function properly.

Not only did each material require perfect placement in the correct location, but they also needed to be rotated and balanced in a specific way. Yaan also knew that depending on the environment, all of these things might even need to be adjusted accordingly…

Of course, a formation that could collapse under a change in the external environment was not a good formation. Larger, more high level formations, needed to possess the ability to endure drastic changes to the environment, though they would of course be set up to best make use of the standard environmental conditions that would be present under normal circumstances.

For now, Yaan didn’t need to worry about all of this. He was still within the Grey Mist Pressure Chamber, though the formations that gave this chamber its special function had retracted and vanished mysteriously, leaving the chamber as an empty stone hall, save for those cultivators who were still tied up and unconscious to one side.

Anyway, the conditions in here would not change easily, making it less complex for Yaan to set up this formation.

After he completed the placing of the materials, he began connecting them together.

For a formation to be built successfully, the first stage was the component materials, the second stage was connecting the materials, then the final stage was activating the formation.

To connect the materials, there were a few methods. Right now, Yaan chose the method that best suited him, which involved the usage of a liquid called ‘formation water’. Formation water was a type of water filled with calm and stable spiritual energy, but this wasn’t the crucial point. What made formation water effective for the setting up of formations, was the fact that when a stream of this water was connected between two resources, the stream would become set in place, holding its position, even if that position left it floating in mid-air!

Formation water was quite mysterious, whilst its high demand ensured that its price was higher than other, simpler means of setting up formations. That said, it was definitely one of the best ways to practice formations, as progress would be faster and mistakes would be fewer this way.

Yaan brought forth his astral power, causing numerous black tattoos to manifest across his body. He held out his hand and used a single tattoo to produce a black hand formed from the astral power, which wrapped around the ball of formation water and carefully lengthened it out like a piece of string.

Astral power was the easiest of Yaan’s powers to manipulate outside of the body, it was definitely best suited to the control of formation water and the formation components when compared to using vital energy or psyche power.

In fact, psyche power could not easily be brought outside of the sea of consciousness in the first place. Even when drawing psyche power to affect the body directly, it never truly left the sea of consciousness. Psyche power was only an invisible, intangible power that was best suited to manipulating his internal state, but it could do this from within the sea.

When a person had a thought, that thought did not ‘enter the body’, but it could very easily affect the body in terms of thinking about moving, which would inevitably cause the body to move. The usage of psyche power was a similar concept.

As for vital energy, Yaan was now able to draw it out from his body thanks to the surplus of vital energy held within his vital core. However, it was not as easily manipulated and controlled outside of the body compared to astral power, so in the end, he still chose to go with his astral power for the control of this incomplete formation. That said, Yaan was also using his psyche power to maximise his focus as he controlled the formation water and as he set up the formation.

The black hand spread out a dark power, covering the formation water entirely. The long length of string now looked completely black as Yaan carefully manipulated and lengthened both ends, bringing them towards two separate components. His concentration was at its peak as he connected together the 100 year light ginseng and a fire willow leaf at the centre of each resource.

Yaan quickly retracted his astral power, narrowing his eyes as he observed the two materials. When he saw that the thin stream of water had fixated between the two formation points, flowing from one material to the other and then back again in a continuous cycle, his expression lit up and he couldn’t help but smile.

Success!

It was only a minor success in creating the first of 124 connections, but even so, succeeding on the first attempt was extremely rare for anyone delving into formations! Yaan was able to achieve this thanks to his psyche cultivation, he was able to achieve a level of peak focus that other cultivators could only dream of.

Yaan observed the formation line silently for some time. He saw how the water flowed into the key points on both materials, adopting the qualities of each material to a small degree and bringing this quality into the stream. Not much was taken from the materials in question, whilst this small portion of extracted medicinal effect did not continue to decline over time; once it entered the formation water, it remained within the link and was not used up.

The formation water stream connected to the point in the resources known as the ‘spiritual core’. This was essentially the point of highest spiritual energy and medicinal energy density within the material.

It wasn’t noticeable to the casual observer that the spiritual and medicinal energy distribution throughout a plain resource was actually not evenly dispersed, but formation masters understood this point thoroughly, since it was a crucial principle in the design and setup of any formation. Only by connecting a link-material like formation water to the spiritual core of a resource, would the resource be able to function as a component of a formation.

After watching this flow between the two materials for some time, Yaan continued to connect the remaining resources together.

The 16 materials were arranged with eight around the outside of the dome, then eight within the centre. One by one, Yaan connected each of the eight outside materials together, then connected the eight internal materials. From there, he went on to connect many of the outside resources to the central resources, whilst many of the central resources had crossing connections to one another.

At first, he was excruciatingly slow and careful with setting up each link, until he began to grow more adept at this action, quickly speeding up. Once he reached the point of only half a minute or so on a connection, he started to make mistakes, failing to form the connection. However, this was no matter, nothing was wasted in these failures, he could simply try again.

As the number of connections increased, Yaan experienced his first true failure in the art of formations.

Splash!

He stared blankly as 50 of the 82 connections broke, causing the formation water to crash to the ground after he failed to form a single connection.

“An incomplete formation is sensitive and prone to any disturbance. With these simple formations, this will only become a noticeable issue towards the end of the formation setup.” The Immortal Ancestor calmly reminded him.

Yaan sighed and gave a faint nod, then began restoring what he had damaged. This time, he was more careful, and was able to setup the complete formation without causing another major collapse like this.

Yaan stared forwards with shining eyes at the faint green dome before him. He could feel a connection between himself and the formation. This feeling of connectedness was stronger compared to the connection he felt towards the previous identical formation setup by the Immortal Ancestor.

This was only natural, as Yaan had built this formation himself.

His first formation!