He rose to meet me. His glare furthered as I came close, he flared his qi, trying to seem intimidating. His power washing over me, making me take a step back before I could continue without issue further into the control room.

"So you are the new wandering cultivator Disciple Shen picked up off the street."

It looks like we finally had a name for ghost, it was a bit less intimidating than he was trying to put on, but you couldn't go wrong with the classics.

Disciple Shen, knowing his name, didn't help me break the oath, not that I needed to, with a completely different form of energy powering my dantian and soul. I was in no way bound to any regular oaths in any shape. Learning more was always a boon, however.

"He never mentioned another core formation cultivator in the facility; you leave me at a loss to your identity."

He moved ever closer towards me, getting in front of my face, his aura flaring out around him once again, his power trying to push me down to my knees.

It took all my concentration and power to fight off all his attempts. It was not easy, but after a few seconds of effort, he relented.

"You aren't a bad talent for a rogue cultivator. I quite like you. My name is Disciple Prot."

I was getting the attention of more cultivators who were a lot stronger than my current weak self. It wasn't exactly what I had in mind. Maybe I should have taken the time to reach a higher level before attempting something of this magnitude.

Fortune favors the bold, so I would have to count on my luck to get through this alive.

He grabbed me by the shoulder and began bringing me into the control space.

"So here is where all the true magic happens, with these arrays I can see all the comings and goings throughout the town. Control every construct and send orders to anyone within the town limits instantly. I am pretty proud of the formation work that went into it."

So he was one of those types, a lonely formation specialist, more interested in getting people in to tell him how smart and capable he was. He had little interest in battle and war, despite being a member of the ghost devouring sect, I would say his soul constructs would be very well optimized.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"This is incredible work, are the Core formation constructs out there made thanks to you."

His affronted look told me all I needed to know to influence him in the future, he was nothing more than a formation master at heart, beyond that he had no mind for the intricacies of battle and fighting. The reason Ghost was in the position of power upstairs. He was far more capable of dealing with people.

Still, having the core of the operation being socially inept would be great for us. Prot had changed his tune very quickly after I started complimenting his arrays and formations, eagerly showing someone who had some understanding of the craft and his creations.

I had to say. Prot was talented in his occupation, the education in the formations cavern in the Ghost devouring Sect had worked.

I got the rundown of the control room, allowing me to move onto the next step of my plan with great ease. With the map from the control room memorized, I now had a clear path for where I could place the traps and array breakers in the blindspots that Disciple Prot had been so kind as to point out to me.

Moving through the compound as stealthy as I needed, I soon completed the job. It had gone quite a bit easier than I had planned, with Prot's overview of the situation in the compound I could move through. Unseen to both cultivators and Prot himself. Breaking through his formations had been more challenging than I had anticipated without alerting him to my presence, so I had to give him credit for that.

I encountered my first issue when the alarm began blaring for an imminent attack. The arrays were flashing a startling red. I quickly moved to tap into the feedback of the arrays. Seeing what the issue was, had one of the team set off some alarms early and got themselves caught.

The views from outside and the internal readings quickly relieved my worries. The attacking force was the Demon Hair sect themselves. The response team had indeed come, and it had come much earlier than expected.

The readouts from the array system spoke of a far greater force than I had imagined as well.

They had five core formation experts on their side, with over fifty foundation builders in their force as well, I had no idea of what would make them muster such a force to reclaim a simple tower.

"There is a rogue contingent of the Demon Hair Sect passing overhead, sent to backup the force that already exists in the Flowing Stream Tower nearby, lay low, do not reveal ourselves before it is time to strike and purge this land."

A loud cheer seemed to resonate around the compound, maybe not exactly what he wanted from that, but the protection arrays should keep that well contained.

I could only hope that my team kept away from the Tower relief force.

They would be a messy variable to add to the mix. The new force would stay in the Tower, or they would begin to look for us. Neither would be particularly great.

So either way, this new group would bring a lot more issues.

I had confidence fighting them off if I now had all the access I needed to the constructs, the little tour Prot had given me, more than enough to allow long term access and control.

That wasn't very flashy; however, if the others were going to return to the sect with grand tales of my deeds, I would need to do some awe-inspiring things. This gave me that chance.

Now I would have to contact Bin Ji and the strike team for them to get into position.