Chapter 94: The So-Called Great Sealing Formation

Ji Yao also caught it: when Yun Fei hesitated, the word he had meant to say was something like mixed or unfocused, and only because he had taken her feelings into account did he change it at the last moment.

In truth, this was something of a common failing among ordinary people in the cultivation world. They always hoped to master more, so that they might survive more easily. The only difference was that others were forced into it by circumstance and had no choice but to do so.

As for Ji Yao, it was merely a habit shaped by more than twenty years of life in a former world. A child without parents to dote on could only rely on herself in everything.

For someone like Yun Fei, whose spiritual root talent was exceptional, no matter what status he had held before, once he entered a sect, his path would surely have been laid out early by his elders. As for learning anything else, that depended entirely on his personal interests.

Ji Yao, too, had received guidance, but as the one who first led her into the cultivation world, Situ Jing had never tried to restrain her habits or ideas. She had provided more in the way of timely guidance and pointers. Even Mo Daoyan later had been the same.

Thus, everything Ji Yao learned followed her own plan. Since the sages had said that the Dao gave rise to one, one to two, two to three, and three to all things, then the Dao born of derivation was not nonexistent; it was simply that no one had ever tried it.

Perhaps the road ahead would be hard, but the path of cultivation was precisely the process of constantly digging into one’s own potential. No matter how outstanding one’s aptitude was, no one could boldly claim they would one day stand at the summit of the Great Dao.

All Ji Yao was doing was searching for her own path from the very beginning.

Together with Yun Fei, Ji Yao finally managed to approach the pillar of light at the center of the secret realm, the breach that, in their understanding, had appeared within the two-layer trial grounds.

Within the pillar of light was only a vast, indistinct whiteness. Nothing could be seen above, yet faintly, countless roars of demon beasts and the clamor of a battlefield could be heard. The secret realm of Cloud Ascension was likely even more perilous and difficult!

Ji Yao could not help worrying about Gu Qiu, who had entered the Rising Cloud Secret Realm before her. She had no idea how his luck was holding up, or whether he had been injured.

In truth, she had never seen Gu Qiu fight for real. He was only at the early Foundation Establishment stage; even if he broke through to the middle stage inside the secret realm, and his combat strength became extraordinary, he would probably still be under greater pressure than the other disciples at the Great Circle of Foundation Establishment.

Since there was no way to see the actual battle, speculation was useless. Thus everyone gathered around the disciples of the Mysterious Mechanism Sect and studied the formation diagram they had laid out.

Only the two from the Soaring Cloud Sect remained apart. One stood where he was and did not come closer; the other came over, glanced carefully a few times, and then yielded his place and left.

Yun Fei did not get involved because he truly was not very skilled. He merely did enough to show that the Soaring Cloud Sect had participated, and memorized the formation diagram by force. He had no desire to stand there and make a fool of himself any longer.

As for Ji Yao, she simply stared dazedly at the misty opening above the pillar of light, as if lost in thought, and did not move.

The others from the various sects, seeing this, merely smiled in understanding and did not make an issue of it. Who among them did not know what the sword cultivators of the Soaring Cloud Sect were like?

One sword to break all methods was the truth they believed in. As for setting formations, that had never been their specialty. Even the two from Azure Sun Sect could not quite hide their sneers.

At that moment, Yun Fei paid no mind to the looks from others. He was used to them already. Instead, he was curious about Ji Yao’s actions. Had she not said before coming that she was a little stronger than he was?

At the very least, she should go up and take a look at the formation diagram. After memorizing it, she could report back to the true person in the sect who understood formations, and a proper explanation would at least make for something substantial. The Soaring Cloud Sect would also gain a better understanding of this sealing formation.

Just as the people from the Mysterious Mechanism Sect were about to begin setting the formation, Ji Yao still had not moved. Yun Fei could not help sending her a reminder by voice.

“Junior Sister Ji, aren’t you going over to take a look? That counts as one of our tasks.”

Only then did Ji Yao draw her gaze back. She nodded to Yun Fei, walked a few steps closer into the crowd, glanced once from a distance just sufficient to make out the formation diagram, then walked back and nodded to Yun Fei again before resuming her dazed stare upward.

The corner of Yun Fei’s eye twitched. He still could not resist asking through voice transmission:

“Did Junior Sister Ji understand it?”

“Mm. The Seven-Star Violet Palace Formation. It chiefly seals and kills.”

Though Ji Yao answered by voice transmission, she still did not look away.

With just that one sentence, Yun Fei did not ask further. He himself had not understood that formation diagram at all; if he pressed on and she explained it in more detail, he would only understand even less.

In truth, the diagram had not even written down its name. To the Qi Refining disciples who knew formations, it was only apparent that it was a seven-star chart conforming to star positions.

Among the Qi Refining cultivators of the Mysterious Mechanism Sect who specialized in arraycraft, they could roughly see that it involved seven of the fourteen principal stars of the Purple Tenuity constellation. Anything beyond that was not something they could comprehend at their current stage.

So at this moment, the people setting the formation were merely following the plan step by step and arranging it according to local conditions.

Though it was called setting a formation, in truth they were only burying pre-carved composite formation discs in the right positions marked on the diagram, while also taking into account the actual terrain. Once all were placed, they would activate them together to create what was known as a sealing formation.

Since they were formation discs, it was destined that the grade of the formation would not be too high. Composite formation discs were even more so, being built from several basic arrays. If they wanted to completely seal it off and have this great formation support itself for a long time, then they would have to begin with the foundation of the discs themselves.

Ji Yao had already stopped studying the opening above the pillar of light. Instead, she was searching through her memory for the key elements of formation nodes recorded in the general principles of arrays she had once read.

Glancing over at the group setting the formation, she could not help narrowing her eyes. She was all too familiar with the material of those formation discs.

Premium spirit jade.

If she was not mistaken, those discs were at least third-tier composite formation discs. Aside from the main formation used to construct the sealing array, they were certainly inscribed with a spirit-gathering array and a spirit-absorbing array designed to accelerate the intake of spiritual energy, so that the formation could continue operating for a long time.

Whether she was right or not would be proven once the sealing formation was finally running.

At present, everyone was marveling at the grand gesture of the Mysterious Mechanism Sect, who actually used premium spirit jade to make the formation bases.

If they knew that every formation disc Ji Yao possessed, even the lowest grade among them, was made from premium spirit jade, one could only wonder what they would think.

Night fell once more. The disciples of the other six sects took turns standing watch, and only the twelve people by the pillar of light were still arguing incessantly over the exact placement of the formation.

By rights, there should have been fourteen of them, but the two from the Soaring Cloud Sect had already been ignored by the other twelve. The pair had simply moved farther away and sat off to the side, staring into space.

Ji Yao merely sat in the grass and watched the show, with no intention of saying anything. Seeing her behavior, Yun Fei also sat down at ease and began wiping his flying sword.

Yun Fei had no patience to listen to that crowd bicker, and he could not even understand them besides. He might as well use the chance to sort through the insights he had gained in the earlier battle.

Ji Yao watched them and inwardly marveled. It was fortunate that she had read so many books, and that she could look through them however she wished. Though she did not understand everything, at the very least her breadth of knowledge should be considerably greater than that of the group of Qi Refining disciples.

Despite all of them being elites from their respective sects, knowledge was still tightly stratified among the sects. Until one reached a certain level of cultivation, some specialized jade slips and texts were not permitted for low-ranked disciples to view.

She wondered how much inheritance Dongfang Shun had received on his side. Looking at the edge of that breach, which was contracting with extreme instability, it was likely that things were still underway over there.

The secret realm still had more than ten days left. Surely they would not have to wait until the realm was about to close before coming out, would they?

At last, the argument on that side came to an end, and everyone very cautiously set down the first formation disc.

Seeing this, Ji Yao’s mouth twitched. It had taken them half a day just to determine the first position. What about the remaining six?

One must remember that in another twelve hours, the next wave of third-tier demon beasts would appear.