William reread the passage to double-check that he understood. His last attempt to create the formation failed, and even though nobody witnessed it, he felt enough embarrassment for himself to make sure he followed it up with success.
It was a simple light-emitting formation that all beginners first do, or so Mei Lingxi’s notes said. He believed them—they were far too thorough not to.
Each instruction was supported by excerpts pulled from other texts to make it easier for him to learn. Mei Lingxi had put in a tremendous amount of effort to create this, and it needed to be rewarded.
William noticed that she liked having more responsibility if her excitement at managing the Rising Merchant House in his stead said anything. It could also be the power it gave her to have that position. He didn’t care either way. He would figure out to reward her since the notes she had created deserved it.
William skimmed over the steps again before getting up from the chair. He kneeled at the center of the room and pushed his pointing finger into the floor.
A slight depression was created wherever he moved his finger, the floor acting like soft dirt instead of the hard tile it was made of. It didn’t phase him. A few feet away from his failed attempt, there was more of the same.
Formations could be created with anything that made a ‘mark.’ It was usually done with ink or something similar. However, since William had nothing like that available in the room, he had to create physical marks.
It wasn’t ideal, especially in a critical situation, but this was for learning. It wouldn’t make much of a difference.
He finished the formation by dragging his finger to join with a previously made depression. He then tried to direct his Qi into the formation, frowning when he still found himself unable to use neutral Qi.
William had missed how his Qi had changed after he experienced one wave of Heavenly Punishment. He was more concerned about his own health and Kae’s status, but after an elaborately dressed Elder retrieved him and locked him in this room, the change was hard to miss.
His Qi was permanently ‘stuck’ in two elemental states. Lightning and Thunder Qi.
At first, it didn’t seem like a problem, but it wasn’t hard to realize the disadvantages. The most obvious was that Healing Qi was out of reach.
In fact, William was still bruised and battered from the Abyss. For whatever reason, the Elder who left him in this room didn’t bother to call for a healer. He had a few guesses about why this was the case, and most were not good for him.
William was asked minimal questions before he was left alone. His answers were mostly truthful, but it must not have satisfied the Elder since there had been no follow-up since then.
William shook his head to push aside his worries. He had decided to get started on formations to be productive instead of pointlessly worrying about how much trouble he was in. It would be a shame if he let those thoughts intrude on the cusp of successfully creating his first formation.
He refocused on his Qi and called only on Lightning Qi. Thunder Qi felt rather explosive, and using it for a light-emitting formation seemed counterproductive.
William directed the flow of Lightning Qi into the finger in contact with the formation before allowing it to fill it to capacity.
[-150 Spiritual Energy]
He stepped back when the formation started to emit a harsh blue light, with hints of sparks running through the imprints he made into the floor. This definitely wasn’t supposed to happen.
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A proper, successful light-emitting formation let out a soft glow that took minimal Spiritual Energy to power.
William wouldn’t call a hundred and fifty Spiritual Energy minimal, nor would he call what the formation was emitting a ‘soft glow.’ He blamed the usage of Lighting Qi for the differences.
The instructions mentioned that the formation would be active for nearly half an hour when done normally. With how much Spiritual Energy was fueling the formation, William assumed that his version would last for hours.
He made to break the formation by deforming the imprint when it flashed a blinding white.
William flinched, eyes wide, when the Lightning Qi powering the formation lifted, separating and rising into the air. It was a pure, spherical ball of plasma. It buzzed with energy and alternated randomly between flashing blue and orange.
Thankfully, it only lasted a few seconds before the Spiritual Energy powering the strange reaction emptied.
The room fell back to its usual quietness, to William’s relief.
“Congratulations, Wei Liang. Though, I suggest you avoid using Elemental Qi when the formation wasn’t designed for it.”
He flinched in surprise, not just at the unexpected voice in the room but also at the fact that he hadn’t noticed anyone enter. Looked like his cultivation realm still wasn’t high enough to prevent that from happening.
“Elder Yu!” William smiled genuinely. She was the first person he had seen in days. “Are you here to free me?”
“Free? You think you’re detained?” Elder Yu asked with amusement.
“… Am I not? I was left to my own devices after I was brought here. And I haven’t been able to get medical care either.”
“All for your benefit,” Elder Yu walked closer before tilting his head. The injuries you have are not life-threatening, and we need to fix this before anyone else knows you have it.” She tapped the top of his right cheekbone.
It was hard for William to not know what she was talking about. He hadn’t forgotten that his right eye was suddenly a bright, burning red.
“You know what this is,” William stated. The system had told him nothing after the change.
“First, tell me how you got the eye,” Elder Yu said as she studied his right eye closely.
He shifted uneasily during the inspection but didn’t protest because he wanted to know more about it, too. “Is it safe to speak here?”
“Be free with your words. Only the Sect Master and I will know what you reveal.”
William hesitated before slowly nodding. He still hadn’t met the Sect Master, but it wasn’t hard to understand he was the one who used his authority in the sect to allow Elder Yu to offer him help as she pleased. “It was from something that I got from the Shard. I was desperate enough to use it and ended up with the eye.”
Elder Yu narrowed her eyes. “Yet another surprise from the Shard. How many more will you reveal?”
He thought about the two treasures left in his spatial stone as he shrugged.
“I’ll need to know what happened in the Abyss. The Elders in charge tell me that most of the formations holding it together must be repaired before further use.”
William’s mind went to Lord Paddlington’s burning red eyes—different from his own. All the formations in the Abyss had tried—and failed—to burn the turtle from the inside out. It wasn’t surprising that they needed maintenance after such continued use.
Just because he knew all that didn’t mean he should tell Elder Yu every detail. He wouldn’t lie, but names would be left out. She could be trusted, but he had a habit of being careful when beings far, far stronger than him were involved.
Even if Sophia wasn’t technically involved with the Abyss, Lord Paddlington was. That turtle might seem scatterbrained and casual in its interactions with William so far, but he wasn’t going to forget how destruction-happy the turtle was.
Lord Paddlington was more than happy to destroy the sect if need be, and William's presence was the only thing holding its flipper back. Still, even that didn’t seem to have much value.
The turtle had lied to William without hesitation about the danger the corrupted avatar held for him. The claim that he could beat the avatar after ‘leveling up’ on his way to it was hilariously wrong.
The corrupted avatar might have been in the Core Formation Realm, but it had the strength of a cultivator in the Nascent Soul Realm.
William had no chance of ever overtaking it in cultivation or strength. Without Kae accompanying him as an unwitting sacrifice and everything going exactly right, there was no way he would have escaped alive.
Lord Paddlington knew that, yet still lied to his face and let him enter.
He didn’t realize it till long after the turtle had left the Abyss. With Kae as the unwitting sacrifice, he shouldn’t have been needed to enter the dimension at all. The only reason the turtle let him go was as a backup. A backup sacrifice.
Lord Paddlington was not his friend. Certainly not an enemy, but not a friend.
It looked like Sophia ‘choosing’ him only had so much importance in the turtle’s eyes.
“Wei Liang,” Elder Yu shifted closer. “What happened to you in the Abyss? You’re sweating.”