‘’NO! NO! AAAGH!’’

Li Ao collapsed beside the corner of his room, holding the Phoenix Sword in his hand.

‘’Open up, leg-high!’’

A strike bent the door backwards for an instant, flashed the formations inscribed within, then bounced right back in. Few pieces of splinters flew around the center.

Li Ao let another shriek. ‘’AAAGH!’’

One strike after another crashed at the door, warping and cracking it, until a fist shattered a head-sized hole through its middle.

Sliding his face through the opening, his uncle showed a bedeviled, charming smile.

‘’Here’s Xuanhe!’’

His shoulder tore through the entire door and raised it like a stick; his body moved forward to stand upon the screaming Li Ao.

‘’Why are you hollering for heaven’s sake!? Pipe down!’’

With a smack to his head, Li Ao fell silent.

Li Xuanhe took the Phoenix Sword, cast an interested glance at it, then threw it on the bed.

‘’Here, take this.’’

Saying so, he shot a spatial pouch in his face.

Li Ao stashed it away with a flash—there was no trace of tear or fear left in his face.

‘’You good for nothing! Why don’t you become an actor?’’

‘’Why don’t you old geezers become bankers!?’’

After receiving another smack, Li Ao shut his mouth off for good.

Li Xuanhe cast a glare around his room, then looked down at him with interest.

‘’You’ve been studying formations?’’

‘’Yes—’’ Rubbing his head, Li Ao showed a haughty smile. ‘’Are you impressed?’’

‘’Dogshit leg-high bastard, what is there to be impressed about!’’

‘’Then don’t ask it, you old bone!’’

‘’I am one hundred and twenty-four this year!’’

‘’Aren’t you old, then?’’

‘’Kid, did you also study how to seek your death?’’

Without letting go of his glare, the burly man walked twice around the room and touched the foot of his bed, the window’s upper right corner, base of the curtains, and the wardrobe’s top.

With several flashes, all illusion and sound formations broke. Shimmering lights of their remnants turned into floating particles and gathered above Li Xuanhe’s hand.

Though he was mostly a Grandmaster of Divination, the man had the highest accomplishment regarding Formations in the family, just at the cusp of Grandmaster realm.

Li Family had Masters of almost all professions, be it forging, alchemy, formations, enchanting, divination, and any other niche art.

However, only Li Anjing and Li Xuanhe had attained grandmaster realm in their studies. Former in Alchemy, and the latter in Divination.

It just showed how rare a grandmaster was, even in the Great Wei Dynasty.

As for the entirety of the Four Mountains Realm, it was generally the same.

Apart from the Great Wei, there was only the Southern Kingdoms, a loose alliance of several Dragon Worshiping tribes, as well as the New Frontier Sects, another loose alliance of Daoist sects pursuing magical arts over martial arts.

Still, Great Wei reigned over both of them, and the Four Saints sect reigned over all three forces as the realm’s protector and governor.

Li Xuanhe, in that wide sphere of influence, was a big enough figure to contend with Soul Formation cultivators.

‘’You show some insight, at least.’’ Li Xuanhe muttered. ‘’How long have you studied it?’’

‘’Actually—’’

‘’Forget it, it doesn’t matter!’’ Waving his hand, the particles of light took on the shape of four circles—each inscribed with a single word: Hide, Cloak, Silence, and Dark.

Hide on the bed, Cloak on the window, Dark on the curtain, Silence on the wardrobe. The four formations turned into parallel lines, supporting the formation within another layer, where another force began to rise from the intersection in the center.

The rippling spiritual Qi turned visible for a moment, then vanished. Not even divine sense could pick up traces of it.

‘’Try to decipher what I did. If you can within a month, you will be worth nurturing.’’

Saying so, he walked out of the door.

‘’Ah, I forgot this.’’

He plucked the stuck door out of his hand and threw it on the ground.

‘’I’ll get someone to fix.’’

Then he left.

Li Ao took several deep breaths, his expression twisting, and managed to hold in his anger.

Swiping his Divine Sense in the spatial pouch, he saw around sixty high-grade spirit stones, as well as five bottles of 8th-grade Qi, Vitality, and Soul pills.

‘’Stingy geezers...’’

Still, he smiled, and walked over to the newly constructed formations. Sitting down on his bed, Li Ao spent two hours inspecting the formation.

His eyes gleaming, he then walked over to the window, spent another hour on it, and focused on the curtains.

This time, he spent half an hour, and without inspecting the formation flag on the wardrobe he understood what happened.

‘’...what is so difficult about this?’’

He didn’t understand why it would take him a month to decipher the formations.

While Li Ao used two or three supporting words to power each formation, Li Xuanhe made all four of them work together using a single word for each of them.

The advantages were obvious, and Li Ao knew there wasn’t any fault to be found in the technique. Only, it required right positioning and understanding the relationship between the words.

Some words didn’t have the same meaning in different contexts in language, but a formation didn’t really discriminate about it.

Like the author of the elementary formations book said, every world, or every ‘heaven’ had its own unique way of interpreting the context and usage of the certain words in formations.

It was up to the formation master to find these exclusions and design around them.

This made his next observation even more certain.

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‘’The formations I set up were more useful in Six-Fold Immortal Domain, but they aren’t that optimal here.’’

This was a little troublesome.

If he had to redesign his basic formations for every other mission, it would only eat up his time when he needed to use them.

‘’...or perhaps not.’’

It might not be as bad as he thought. Still, facts and circumstances were there.

Li Xuanhe’s actions made him more appreciative of the man.

In a way, he not only saved the required Qi and effort to place the same formation, he could be said to have shown Li Ao an improved way to understand the formations.

Thinking so, Li Ao finally decided to buy the Intermediate Formations manual from the same author for 50 coins, making his balance fall to 450 Universal Coins.

He didn’t buy anything related to forging yet. First, he had more than a quarter of the study materials Fan Yueyin left to go through; and second, the previous book wasn’t much satisfactory compared to the Formations books.

He intended to make a sweep of several entry level forging books to see a suitable ‘manual master’, as one might call it, to learn from.

However, all of these things were for later.

For now, Li Ao sat on his bed and took out the sets of pills Li Xuanhe gave him.

Procuring a seventh-grade gathering formation with Crimson—he named the formation base as such, since Qing Yan named his boots Silver— he crushed the pills and began to absorb them at once.

His Dark Foundation rumbled into action and began to madly absorb the flowing power into the illusory pagoda. Unlike the past where he had to separately move Qi and Blood, his body would do it all for him with a thought.

His Spirit and Physique were combined—only his Soul remained disengaged, caused by the lack of an art to mobilize its power.

Once he acquired it, however, not only would he be able to mobilize three paths at once, he would be able to strike with three times the cultivation.

‘’Powerful, too powerful, I shouldn’t be complacent...’’

Thinking of the demons, his excitement quickly cooled down.

Spending another two weeks to consolidate his cultivation, Li Ao finally decided it was enough.

He transferred the books and notes in Li Anjing’s satchel into Li Xuanhe’s spatial pouch, put it away in his desk, then opened the missions tab.

To his surprise, there was a new note under ‘Let Them Sleep’.

*Note from 3rd-rank Agent/Karim Shah: This message is only visible to those who have previously completed a sub-mission of ‘Let Them Sleep’. A Demonic Realm has discovered the remnants of Kalen Divine Castle—we have lost twenty First-rank, eleven second-rank, and a single Third-rank agent in action.*

*From their powers and traits, we suspect it is the Demonic Realm Of Amusement, one of the 2nd-class Demonic Realms. Demons of this realm show sadistic tendencies, always lure in their prey, and do not kill their opponents easily.*

*They have been repelled after our combined efforts and the passage is sealed away. However, stragglers might have remained at the edges, so it is advised for agents below Foundation Establishment to avoid this mission.*

*For now, there are efforts underway to make a Space Anchor. It will be in the central Main Hall of the Divine Castle. Once it is done, you will be deployed there to begin your quest. Those who have too much to lose can wait for its establishment.*

*There are six bodies missing from our ranks. If you can find the remains of your colleagues, bring them to me. I will deliver them home.*

*Lastly, take great care of yourselves. Help your fellow agents if you can. We have no allies beside ourselves.*

‘’...’’

Images of the bloody pond flashed past Li Ao’s mind.

‘’How lucky was I?’’

Was it simple luck, truly?

‘’Poor fellow.’’

Sighing, Li Ao looked back at his remaining coins.

‘’450...not much I can do with it...or?’’

‘’Should I try my luck?’’

He thought for a single moment, then the gambler’s spirit overtook him.

‘’I’ll buy two only—if I don’t land anything decent, I’ll just go back to the mission.’’

‘’What can go wrong with it, anyway? I’m just throwing away some spare coins, not my savings...’’

Convincing himself with petty words, Li Ao opened up the General Store and searched for skill magazines.

He once looked through why there were so many of them, yet their prices remained parallel to each other.

He found out that each Skill Magazine had a different Divine Spark, a legacy technique.

Legacy techniques were also called Divine Techniques. They tended to be stronger and harder to master than usual Magical and Martial arts. Scarlet Path could be considered a Pseudo-Legacy technique—the only flaw was that it required Li Family Bloodline to cultivate.

That being the case, as the prices rose all the same and chances were fixed, there was no real meaning to shuffle between each Skill Magazine unless one desired another divine spark.

Only, no one was allowed to tell what Divine Spark was in what Skill Magazine. You could only find out by lucking into one.

‘’It is a real trashy system.’’

Picking two random Skill magazines, Li Ao bought one for one hundred coins—then the other for two hundred coins.

‘’Now their prices became four hundred...damn.’’

Even gambling was becoming harder as time passed.

Sighing, Li Ao opened both of them at the same time.

Two bronze boxes fell from space, spat out six motes of light, then disappeared in a flash.

‘’...what?’’

Were the boxes always this hurried?

‘’Forget it.’’

Instead of focusing on unrelated matters, Li Ao looked at the motes of light.

There were two jade slips, three books, and a single parchment.

He burnt three books to a crisp without hesitation.

Two were fine—they were just your usual detective and cultivation fiction.

However, one of them was an erotica...

His eyes trembling, he swept his divine sense into the first jade slip.

‘’5th-circle spell, Hellfire.’’

His mind went blank.

Shivering, sweating, Li Ao swept his divine sense over and over again; his eyes stopped, a smile stretched over his ears, and his feet began to dance.

‘’Magical art! I got a fucking magical art! I knew I was an unparalleled genius!’’

A moment later, he coughed and sat down.

Reading deeper into the jade slip, he realized what it was all about.

‘’It is from a different cultivation system, but I can use Spiritual Qi to activate it. It can condense a third-level flame, Hellfire, around the aimed position to burn the enemy. Its range is around two hundred meters.’’

‘’Is it first long-range attack?’’

It could be considered mid-range at Foundation Establishment. However, it gave an extra layer of security to Li Ao, who only focused on close-range combat.

He felt more than happy about it. Cradling the slip, he looked through the other one.

‘’Thirty-three Enchantments for Thirty-three Tools.’’

‘’It is an enchantment manual?’’

This was another low chance drop.

Enchanting was a sub-mastery of Formations, mainly focused on strengthening and adding attributes to tools and armor.

Lei Jin’s mastery of accessories or Zhen Zedong’s 6-colored flying sword were prime examples of enchanting. Most forgers knew a little about them, yet few mastered them.

Hence, it was an usual sight to see a Forging and Formations Grandmaster working together to produce Heaven-Quality tools.

Fan Yueyin was a rare exception to that case. She was a Grandmaster Forger and a Formations Master at the same time. She made almost all of her works by her own hand.

Li Ao smiled to himself and stored away the jade slip as well. The last thing puzzled him, however.

Taking up the old parchment, Li Ao recognized it as a blueprint.

It was a sword-shaped airship’s blueprint. With the pommel and hilt as the crew’s residence and the sharp tip as a ship’s bow, the entire blade was around one hundred meters wide and five hundred meters long.

‘’...why am I this lucky? Is there something going on?’’

Checking around, Li Ao read further down the blueprint.

‘’...fifty tons of Meteorite Iron, twenty tons of Starlight Metal, five hundred kilograms of Volcanic Gold Crystals...what dogshit blueprint is this?’’

‘’This is...a heaven-grade flying ship blueprint?’’

He gulped.

Li Ao gulped hard.

‘’...did I commit a meritorious deed somehow? Did my future reincarnation bring back some good karma?’’

Doubting his life, Li Ao spent the night sitting there from shock.

Once the Sun arrived and lit up his twitching cheeks, he let out a sigh.

‘’Grandmaster Forging, Grandmaster Formations...there isn’t anyone in the family that can make it.’’

For now, he would keep it away.

Even with Li Family’s influence, a Heaven-grade Flying Ship was too big of a bait to ignore.

It was essentially an unmanned war machine. With its inherent durability and proper nurturing, it could fight off against several Nascent Soul cultivators on its own.

If it could cultivate for a decade, it might even rival Half-a-step Soul Formation cultivators.

Sighing again and again, Li Ao put it away and scratched his cheeks.

‘’Why is there a wind?’’

Looking to his right, he saw the door to his room empty—remnants of the once majestic blockage laid in tatters before his bed.

‘’...’’