Chapter 29: Transmission of Formation Magic

After obtaining the four formation disks, Qu Yi wanted to leave Fire Marvel Peak right away.
Huai Miao pleaded again, hoping to make Qu Yi change his mind and switch to the path of crafting magical instruments. But how could Qu Yi agree? He already possessed the divine technique “Five Energies and Three Flowers,” which allowed him to continue his cultivation on his own. Moreover, he couldn’t learn formation magic or instrument crafting from Huai Miao—after all, there was a God of Instruments in his soul.
Qu Yi firmly rejected Huai Miao’s proposal and then fled with Bai Man on the Golden Crown Heron.
“Qu Yi, this time you must have gotten quite a few good things from Uncle Huai Miao, right?” Bai Man’s delicate face showed a mischievous smile.
Having stayed at Fire Marvel Peak for nearly two months, Bai Man naturally knew that Qu Yi must have acquired something valuable; otherwise, he wouldn’t have wasted time there.
“Hehe, Senior Sister really understands me. Yes, I got four formation disks, which I can use for self-protection in the future,” Qu Yi replied cheerfully without hiding anything.
He didn’t want to hide anything from Bai Man and wanted to share his joy with her.
Bai Man stretched out her hand and gently tapped Qu Yi’s forehead with her rosy fingers, smiling, “Qu Yi, you’ve become mean now—knowing how to scheme too.”
Qu Yi immediately pretended to be aggrieved and complained, “Senior Sister, I wasn’t scheming against Uncle Huai Miao. I just traded with him to get these four formation disks.”
Four formation spells and two pieces of Red Flame Iron Essence—this was indeed a heavy price.
Of course, this was only true for ordinary cultivators. For someone at the level of a God of Instruments, those four formation spells were worthless, and Red Flame Iron Essence was abundant. Obtaining four formation spells in exchange for these two items would ensure a carefree life even for those below the Golden Core stage—so it was quite a good deal.
Bai Man didn’t press further, her face still smiling brightly, mesmerizing Qu Yi.
……
At Wind Listening Pavilion, Qu Yi sat alone on the bed. In his soul, he was conversing with the God of Instruments.
“God of Instruments, when you were at Fire Marvel Peak, you had me trade with Uncle Huai Miao to get these four formation disks. What are their uses?” Qu Yi knew these disks must be powerful, but he still didn’t understand why the God of Instruments had done this.

The inch-sized sphere swayed, and the Voice of the Artifact God rang out: “Qu Yi, each of these four array discs, on its own, possesses an attack power equivalent to that of a Golden Core stage practitioner. Of course, this depends on the number of spirit stones used. Ten lower-grade spirit stones can only achieve the attack power of an early Golden Core stage, a hundred can reach the mid-stage, and a thousand can reach the late stage.”

After hearing this, Qu Yi quickly did some calculations and lamented, “Artifact God, this is too extravagant. Needing so many spirit stones isn’t cost-effective at all.”

The qi level of the early Golden Core stage is equivalent to ten lower-grade spirit stones, that of the mid-stage to a hundred, and that of the late stage to a thousand. So these four array discs essentially extract and release all the energy from the spirit stones.

The Artifact God spoke angrily and shouted, “Qu Yi, you’re really foolish. The path of cultivation is full of dangers. What are these spirit stones compared to? If you possess these four array discs, it’s as if you have four Golden Core stage guardians at your side, ensuring your safety—this is more important than anything else. Moreover, you don’t know yet that these four array discs can also be combined into another formation.”

Hearing this, Qu Yi immediately exclaimed, “They can be combined into a formation? What do you mean?”

The Artifact God said proudly, “The Wind Binding Formation, the Wild Fire Formation, the Golden Thorns Formation, and the Storm Sand Formation—these four formations can be combined into the ‘Fourfold Spirit Explosion Formation,’ which is capable of dealing with those at the early Yuan Ying stage.”

Qu Yi was surprised. He now truly admired the Artifact God’s mastery of formations. So there was such a strategy behind his request to trade with Uncle Huai Miao.

At the early Foundation Building stage, with enough spirit stones, Qu Yi already had the means to deal with those at the early Yuan Ying stage. His cultivation would be much safer from now on.

As for spirit stones, Qu Yi wasn’t worried at all. He had discovered a spirit stone mine in the Misty Demon Mountains, with an abundance of them.

“Artifact God, you’re truly powerful. I now want to learn all your formations,” Qu Yi said sincerely.

Hahaha, the Artifact God laughed even more unrestrainedly.

After the Artifact God stopped laughing, Qu Yi suddenly roared, “Artifact God, you said I should go to Fire Miao Peak to learn formations and observe artifact refinement so I could gain a practical understanding. Now that I’m back at Wind Listening Residence, can you teach me formations and artifact refinement knowledge?”

The inch-world ball stopped immediately at the sound, followed by a flash of green light. The Artifact God emitted a thunderous voice: “Qu Yi, you’re so loud, aren’t you? You dare to shout at me? If my voice isn’t louder than yours, am I still the Artifact God? You want to learn formation magic and artifact refinement, right? If you do, then get your attitude in order…” Qu Yi felt his soul almost shattered by this powerful voice. After the Artifact God’s furious outburst, Qu Yi immediately lost consciousness.

…

A day later, Qu Yi woke up. Just as he was about to speak, he suddenly felt that there seemed to be more in his memory—loads of knowledge about formation magic. “The Artifact God has already implanted the knowledge of formation magic directly into my memory. How insane!” Qu Yi thought to himself. “Who do you call insane? Say that again, and I’ll make you pass out again,” the Artifact God’s voice rang out like thunder once more. Qu Yi immediately fell silent and began to explore the knowledge of formation magic in his memory.

The universe is composed of the five elements of energy, which give rise to countless variations and exist in nature in various forms of energy. However, their attributes are still categorized into metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. Formation magic involves using these five elements to create various shapes, either for attack, defense, or to assist in cultivation—there are countless applications.

The knowledge of formation magic passed on by the Artifact God to Qu Yi consisted of the most fundamental forms of energy in the universe. Since this knowledge was the most basic, its volume was enormous. It could be said that it would take hundreds of millions of years for Qu Yi to master all these basic formation magic techniques, leaving no time to study more advanced ones.

Fortunately for Qu Yi, the Artifact God had not only implanted all the knowledge of formation magic into his memory but also included demonstrations of all these techniques. As long as Qu Yi scanned his memory, he could understand the formation magic taught by the Artifact God. This saved him the time needed to study the techniques, deduce their principles, and verify their correctness.

In terms of time, while it would take others a year to learn the most basic formation magic, Qu Yi could master it with just a glance. This speed was incredibly fast—proof of his great luck in encountering an existence like the Artifact God.

Yet even at such a rapid pace, it would take Qu Yi hundreds of years to fully comprehend the basic knowledge of formation magic, even if he worked non-stop. This shows just how vast and complex this foundational knowledge is.

“When wind arises, there are hundreds of millions of basic formations to demonstrate this natural phenomenon. Good heavens, this is absolutely insane! I haven’t slept in ten days just to scan through all of them.” Qu Yi immersed himself in the ocean of formations and, after finally finishing one type, let out a deep sigh.

Wind arising is one of the most common phenomena in the world, but when demonstrated using formations, it can take many forms—sudden release of metal energy, collision between metal and wood energy, convection of two types of energy, energy circulation… There are hundreds of millions of such formations.

After only learning one type of formation, Qu Yi sighed inwardly. Just who was this Instrument God? How could their research on formations reach such a level? Even if all the sects in the cultivation world combined their efforts to study formations related to wind arising, it would likely be less than one ten-thousandth of what the Instrument God knew.

“Instrument God, you’re truly insane!” Qu Yi exclaimed from the bottom of his heart.

“Qu Yi, die!” The Instrument God’s voice roared again, shaking Qu Yi’s soul.

Unsurprisingly, Qu Yi lost consciousness once more.

…

From then on, Qu Yi devoted himself entirely to studying formations, leaving the cultivation of his internal energy to the Instrument God within the Dimensional Ball. After all, it had been the Instrument God who had arranged his cultivation after reading “Five Energies and Three Flowers.”

Time passed. Three years went by.

At Cloud Chasing Peak, in the Immortal Cloud Hall, there were two people: the sect leader Huai Qing and the senior instructor Huai You.

“Senior Brother Sect Leader, I went to the Abyss of Ten Thousand Demons and found traces of Blood-Sucking Mosquitoes, but I couldn’t capture any of them,” Huai You said, visibly frightened.

The Abyss of Ten Thousand Demons was an extremely dangerous place on the Four Veins Continent of Green Wood Star. It was the territory of abyssal monsters, where various strange and perilous beasts lurked.

Blood-Sucking Mosquitoes possessed the strength of the Foundation Establishment stage in their youth and would reach the Golden Core stage as they grew. In particular, the Blood Mosquito King had the strength of the late Golden Core stage. What was most terrifying was that these mosquitoes were a pack-based monster species that fed on the essence and blood of other monsters. If they encountered cultivators, those would become their targets as well. Under normal circumstances, cultivators who ran into Blood-Sucking Mosquitoes rarely escaped with their bodies intact.

Upon hearing this, Huai Qing was shocked. As the sect leader of the Immortal Cloud Sect, he naturally understood Huai You’s concern. If the Fire Moon Sect, Xuan Yang Temple, or Jade Host Sect captured these Blood-Sucking Mosquitoes, the Immortal Cloud Sect would be in great danger.

The Xianyun Sect had only thirty-six experts at the Golden Core stage. If there were enough mature Blood-Sucking Mosquitoes, it was very likely that the Xianyun Sect would be destroyed.
“Junior brother, it seems I need to discuss this with my uncle and send disciples to the Abyss of Ten Thousand Monsters to capture those Blood-Sucking Mosquitoes,” Huai Qing said worriedly.
Since the Blood-Sucking Mosquitoes posed a threat to the Xianyun Sect, they were just as dangerous to the other three sects as well. At this point, Huai Qing also began to consider taming them.
Huai Qing’s uncle was another expert at the Yuan Ying stage in the Xianyun Sect—Elder Dongzhen, who was at the middle stage of Yuan Ying cultivation.
Soon, Huai Qing went alone to Elder Dongzhen’s cave, which was a full thousand miles away from Zuiyun Peak.