Chapter 381: The Array Activates, Heaven Trembles

Xu Sanyan ignored her, silently listing the materials needed for the formation in his mind.

The Soul-Gathering Brilliance-Preserving Grand Formation was colossal, requiring an immeasurable amount of resources. For instance, carving the formation patterns alone demanded vast quantities of fresh blood—human blood!

According to the formation’s principles, humans were the essence of heaven and earth, their souls the spirit of the cosmos. The formation required human blood as its foundation, divine souls as its framework, earth veins as its channels, and spiritual energy as its cage. When activated, it would shake the heavens and reduce all creation to nothingness.

In Xu Sanyan’s view, setting up this formation was akin to building a house. Both required meticulous, step-by-step construction.

The “human blood as foundation” referred to carving the most fundamental formation patterns, much like drawing up the blueprints for a house. These patterns would serve as the foundation upon which the entire formation would be built.

This step alone required a vast amount of fresh blood to carve the formation patterns.

The “divine souls as framework” involved binding the divine souls of mortals, preventing them from descending into the underworld or dissipating into the cosmos after death.

This step was crucial to the formation’s ultimate purpose: to corrupt the heavenly dao, severing it from this realm so Xu Sanyan could seize the opportunity to refine it.

But how could he corrupt the heavenly dao?

With nothing more than blood qi and resentment!

These two forces were the most corrupting, yet neither could exist without the other.

Blood qi was tangible, while resentment was intangible. Only when they intertwined could the formation succeed.

This step required a massive quantity of soul crystals, causing Xu Sanyan considerable headaches. Soul crystals were precious and far more difficult to obtain than human blood, likely requiring considerable effort to acquire.

The third step, “Earth Veins as Threads,” was self-explanatory: connecting the five cities using earth veins to form a unified whole.

This could be likened to constructing the framework of a house. By this stage, the Great Formation would begin to take shape.

As for what constituted an “earth vein,” it wasn’t the Earth Vein Stone found in the Secret Realm World. Though similarly named, they were fundamentally different entities.

Earth Vein Stones were formed from transformed Divine Bones and weren’t true earth veins. The “earth veins” referred to in the formation were actually earth qi!

Why was the soil fertile in some places and barren in others?

Why did Spirit Herbs grow in some regions while others remained barren?

The answer lay in earth qi!

Abundant earth qi meant fertile soil, while scarce earth qi resulted in barren land.

Yet earth qi was intangible and formless, invisible and untouchable. How could it be harnessed within the Great Formation?

This was where the genius of the four immortal creators of the Great Formation shone through. They devised a solution:

An array-within-an-array!

This wasn’t simply placing another formation within the Great Formation. Instead, they restructured the Soul-Gathering Brilliance-Preserving Grand Formation, adding a secondary formation that integrated seamlessly with the original. The combined structure gained the ability to condense earth qi.

This seemingly simple task was actually incredibly difficult. The Soul-Gathering Brilliance-Preserving Grand Formation was like an immense and intricate machine, its countless formation patterns acting as screws—disturbing one would affect the entire structure.

Yet the four immortals had forcibly inserted a stone into this machine, and it continued to operate flawlessly, without any obstruction. This was an feat beyond the capabilities of ordinary mortals, certainly beyond Xu Sanyan’s current abilities.

With his current cultivation level in the Formation Dao, he couldn’t fully comprehend the underlying principles. But complete understanding wasn’t necessary; he merely needed to follow the established procedures step by step.

This step required a special mineral called the Earth Core Stone, typically found at the heart of mineral veins. Though not abundant, it wasn’t particularly rare either, making it relatively easy to obtain.

The final step, the Spirit Qi Cage, was more straightforward. When the formation activated, it would need to absorb vast amounts of spiritual energy. Xu Sanyan would need to prepare spirit stones—lots of them.

This was arguably the simplest part. If he ran out of spirit stones, he could always steal, rob, or swindle more. There were plenty of methods.

Xu Sanyan silently calculated in his mind. Overall, deploying the Great Formation required human blood, soul crystals, Earth Core Stones, and spirit stones—substantial quantities of each. Working alone, he wondered how long it would take to gather all these resources.

Therefore, his immediate priority was to find collaborators.

Xu Sanyan pulled Wang Zixuan into his arms, intending to entrust her with the task of collecting human blood. After careful consideration, however, he abandoned the idea.

Wang Zixuan lacked the necessary ruthlessness and decisiveness for such a task. He couldn’t trust her with it.

Though the Demonic Seed could influence their thoughts, it couldn’t alter their fundamental nature.

If only Xiang Tan were here…

The woman appeared harmless on the surface, but beneath that facade lay a ruthless and callous heart. After decades of clawing her way through the demonic sect, she had long abandoned any semblance of compassion.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t return to the demonic sect yet.

Another figure surfaced in Xu Sanyan’s mind—someone who might be perfect for collecting human blood…

Chang Yulian!

This woman was cunning and unpredictable, timid yet cruel, and utterly indifferent to human life.

He had planted a Demonic Seed deep within Chang Yulian’s sea of consciousness, extracting secrets about the Chang Family from her.

The Chang Family’s cultivation method was truly sinister, drawing sustenance from human lives. Anyone who practiced such a technique must be utterly selfish and self-serving, viewing human lives as no more significant than ants.

Entrusting this task to her would be ideal.

Her timidity would force her to act with extreme caution, greatly reducing the risk of exposure.

As for collecting soul crystals and Earth Core Stones…

Xu Sanyan’s first thought was Lin Fan. This man possessed extraordinary luck and was exceptionally fortunate, making him the perfect candidate for this task.

However, Lin Fan’s cultivation level was too low, and both soul crystals and Earth Core Stones were highly valuable, making it unlikely he could even access them.

Should I find a way to boost his cultivation level first?

The thought arose in Xu Sanyan’s mind, and he suddenly felt a chill. Why would I even consider such a thing?

Knock, knock, knock~

A series of knocks interrupted Xu Sanyan’s thoughts. Wang Ying’s voice called from outside, “Brother Lin, are you home?”

“Come in.”

Creak—

The gate swung open. Xu Sanyan’s gaze, passing through the garden’s arched entrance, fell upon four figures standing outside.

Two of them were the Wang Family brothers. He recognized the other two as well, having met them once at the Yang Family of Ruler Mountain.

The pair consisted of a man and a woman. The woman was petite and delicate, her hair tied in a bun, barely reaching five feet tall. Her pale pink dress only accentuated her adorable and alluring charm.

Her long skirt concealed her knees, revealing a slender, fair calf. She wore short, cyan boots embroidered with a pair of mandarin ducks.

The young woman shyly raised her head, stole a glance at Xu Sanyan, and quickly lowered her gaze, her cheeks flushing crimson.

This was the same woman who had served Xu Sanyan when he visited the Yang Family earlier.

The man beside her was Yang An, the Eldest Son of the Yang Family. Xu Sanyan had a somewhat sordid history with the Yang Family—he had taken advantage of them without fulfilling his end of the bargain. Yet the Yang Family dared not openly confront him.

“Come, sit,” Xu Sanyan said, pushing Wang Zixuan aside and waving to the four figures in the distance.

“Greetings, Brother Lin,” Yang An said, hurrying forward to bow respectfully, not daring to presume familiarity.

Beneath the stone pavilion stood four stone benches. Xu Sanyan occupied one, the Wang brothers each took another, and Yang An claimed the last, filling all the seats.

Though Wang Zixuan was the matriarch, she stood to the side, while the Yang Family maiden obediently remained behind Yang An.

“Don’t just stand there, come sit here,” Xu Sanyan said with a grin, patting his thigh and warmly inviting the young woman to sit.

(End of the Chapter)