Chapter 27: Comprehending Formations

The development of events was exactly as Lu Yang expected. In the end, Zhao Xuhe sold the [Nine Transformations Dragon Art] to him at the discounted price of 1500 Contribution Points.

People—that’s just how they are when they owe debts.

After obtaining the [Nine Transformations Dragon Art], Lu Yang immediately returned to his Cave Abode. He memorized the content of the technique word by word, sentence by sentence, before putting it away again.

“It’s a pity I can’t cultivate it right now…”

With his body transformed into a Blood Shadow, his cultivation neither increased nor decreased, forever stuck at the Late Stage of Qi Refining. Even if he wanted to disperse his cultivation, it was impossible. So he could only wait for the next life.

Having said that, Lu Yang was in no hurry to commit suicide.

After all, time was precious. Even with the [Book of a Hundred Lifetimes], he wouldn’t waste it lightly. Even if he couldn’t cultivate, there were other areas where he could continue to improve.

Thinking of this, Lu Yang took out Fairy Qing Chen’s [Secret Explanation of Formations and Treasures] from his storage bag.

That’s right, he wanted to learn formations!

Among the Four Arts of Cultivation—Formations, Artifacts, Pills, and Talismans—possessing any one of them immediately made one a high-level talent in the cultivation world, able to do well anywhere.

Take Fairy Qing Chen for example. Lu Yang felt she was truly a talent. Not only did she know formations, but she could also refine formations into Artifacts. Unfortunately, her taste in men wasn’t very good. She successively fell for scumbags who turned hostile and denied her, so her endings in both lives were filled with resentment and death.

Opening the [Secret Explanation of Formations and Treasures], the very first page of the opening chapter made Lu Yang sigh with emotion.

[The so-called Formation-Artifact is to use the formation as the artifact, and the artifact as the formation. The two complement each other. The techniques within are the result of my painstaking research and exhausted efforts…]

[To learn this path, talent and hard work are both indispensable.]

After the opening preface, the second page was filled with densely packed patterns. Each pattern had annotations explaining what it meant.

[The Way of Formations focuses on Formation Patterns. Only by outlining Formation Patterns and copying Heaven and Earth can one borrow the wonders of Heaven and Earth. However, the secrets of the world are endless and difficult to comprehend, let alone transform into Formation Patterns. This requires extraordinary comprehension. Only by mastering Formation Patterns can one have the ability to learn formations.]

[Very good. Now you have a certain understanding of the basic principles of formations.]

[Next, turn to the third page. Let us look at the simple example below and apply the knowledge we just learned into practice.]

On the third page, a pattern complicated and tedious to the extreme entered Lu Yang’s view.

This was a Formation Diagram.

Lu Yang stroked his chin. The so-called “solving a Formation Diagram” was actually identifying the composition of the Formation Patterns within the formation, thereby deducing the function of this formation.

Formation Patterns were the foundation of all formations.

Whether a formation could take effect mainly depended on whether the combination of Formation Patterns was reasonable, whether there were conflicts, and whether they could form a complete circuit to operate.

“Interesting.”

Lu Yang smiled confidently, feeling this didn’t seem particularly difficult. “With my talent and hard work, I am determined to master a mere simple Formation Diagram.”

One month later.

Lu Yang sat blankly on a meditation cushion. Beside him was a large pile of manuscripts, all filled with the results of his calculations. His entire person was decadent to the extreme.

In his hands were Formation Patterns combined one by one.

After an unknown amount of time, a spiritual light suddenly lit up at Lu Yang’s fingertips.

“It worked!?”

Lu Yang stood up instantly, his face showing wild ecstasy. He carefully looked at the Formation Patterns he had pieced together, calculating silently on his fingers for a moment, then revealed a look of confusion:

“Wait, no. How did it work?”

“How is this thing running?”

It was clearly the result of his painstaking efforts over a month, yet he himself didn’t understand why it worked. This feeling simply drove Lu Yang crazy.

After a month of bitter cultivation, he now had a deeper understanding of formations.

simply put, formations were very similar to programming.

The so-called “Comprehending Formation Paths” was extracting usable parts from the mountain of messy code written by God—Heaven and Earth—to compose one’s own code.

However, with formations, if you don’t get it, you don’t get it.

Just like panning for gold in a mountain of shit. People without talent would be just like Lu Yang right now— not a speck of gold panned, but a pile of shit dug out instead…

“Regardless, I dug something out.”

Lu Yang sighed and continued to study, forgetting food and sleep. Just like that, another month passed before he finally solved the pattern in his hand.

“This is an Illumination Formation!”

“Within the range covered by the formation, light shines everywhere. Most means of concealing tracks will become ineffective. Aside from this, it has absolutely no offensive or defensive power…”

Lu Yang looked haggard, his eyes bloodshot, but his face brimmed with excitement. With a full sense of accomplishment, he turned to the third page of the [Secret Explanation of Formations and Treasures].

[Actually, it is normal not to be able to solve it.]

[The problem on the third page is mainly to make you understand how difficult formations are. Approach comprehending formations with a humble heart; do not always bite off more than you can chew.]

Lu Yang: “…”

“Fuck! Fuck!”

Lu Yang stood up abruptly and slammed the book in his hand onto the ground. He was now one hundred percent certain: This was definitely a formation book written by a Saint Sect Formation Master!

After a long while, Lu Yang picked the book up again.

No choice. Some things don’t care whether you like them, understand them, or want to do them. For the sake of livelihood, you still have to brace yourself and do them.

However, after further study, Lu Yang discovered his talent wasn’t as bad as he imagined.

Truly as the book said, that tedious pattern on the third page wasn’t meant for beginners to solve at all, which was why Lu Yang got stuck on it for two months.

But there were benefits too. Now that he switched to some simple and easy-to-understand formations, Lu Yang’s learning speed was visibly faster. Occasionally encountering a sticking point, grinding through it for a few days would pass. This allowed Lu Yang, who had been heavily blow-struck before, to regain his confidence.

Years pass unknowingly in the cave— time flies.

In the blink of an eye, it was twenty years later.

During this period, Lu Yang turned a deaf ear to matters outside the window, focusing solely on reading formation books. He was even too lazy to pay rent for the Cave Abode and moved directly to the Outer Sect.

After all, he couldn’t cultivate now anyway. Without rigid demands, he naturally slacked off and stopped working.

During these twenty years, almost every few years, a Son of Heaven’s Mandate with fortune rivaling the heavens like the Xiao Shiye of the past would suddenly rise in the Outer Sect.

However, after that Son of Heaven’s Mandate obtained some great opportunity known to everyone in the Saint Sect, they would suddenly disappear.

Disappearing along with them was a large batch of unlucky fools who, after discovering the Son of Heaven’s Mandate’s luck, harbored ill intentions and wanted to hug their thighs to mooch off their luck.

“That Senior is fishing again…”

Every time he heard similar news, Lu Yang felt a panic in his heart. After all, with Xiao Shiye as a precedent, he would only keep a respectful distance from any Son of Heaven’s Mandate.

He couldn’t afford to provoke them, so he could only hide.

There was also Zhao Xuhe. Twenty years later, he had already reached the Perfection of Qi Refining and become a famous True Disciple of the Saint Sect. Unfortunately, he failed in his attempt to charge at the Foundation Establishment Realm a few years ago and passed away because of old age.

Regarding this, Lu Yang just sighed once and ceased to care.

What truly brought joy to Lu Yang was that after twenty years of diligent study, he had finally thoroughly mastered the knowledge in the [Secret Explanation of Formations and Treasures].

Inside the Cave Abode, Lu Yang’s entire mind was focused on the Sword Pellet before him. At this moment, he was even powerless to maintain his human form, and his Blood Shadow was incredibly dim.

This was the sign that his lifespan was approaching its end.

The side effects of cultivating the [Heavenly Demon Blood-Dissolving Divine Light] back then had finally caught up with him, causing his lifespan to be exhausted and his lamp to run out of oil at the age of only forty.

However, Lu Yang didn’t care about this in the slightest. He continued to concentrate fully on inscribing the formation. Even reaching the point where he was about to pass away, he still didn’t get up, nor did he attempt any redeeming actions. Because that would only interrupt his inspiration, and he didn’t want to waste precious inspiration.

“I understand! Wait… no, it’s wrong…”

“Oh, right! Right… No, sigh, still wrong… Oh, right, right!”

Just like that, after a long time, finally, in that instant when Lu Yang’s Blood Shadow almost dissipated at the boundary between life and death, Lu Yang abruptly widened his eyes—

“Hahaha! I succeeded!”

Watching the Formation Patterns he had painstakingly outlined piece together around the Sword Pellet and finally operate successfully, Lu Yang laughed loudly, his laughter echoing within the Cave Abode.

He lost his breath just like that amidst his laughter.

“[Book of a Hundred Lifetimes]!”

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