Chapter 38: Stacking

In a narrow sense, formations are various variations derived from the Eight Trigrams. The Eight Trigrams, namely Qian, Kun, Kan, Li, Zhen, Gen, Xun, and Dui, represent heaven, earth, water, fire, thunder, mountain, wind, and lake respectively. As Wen Xu possessed a Wind Spiritual Root, using the Xun Wind Formation granted him a natural bonus from the trigram alignment.

However, formations are highly variable in their derivations. The Eight Trigrams are further divided into Yin and Yang trigrams. Yin and Yang are also known as the Two Polarities, which generate the Four Symbols. Thus, there is a collective term: the Two Polarities, Four Symbols, and Eight Trigrams Formation. Yet beneath this, there are countless other branches and unorthodox schools, such as the Astral, Taiji, and Qiankun arts, categorized into innumerable classifications.

Since cultivators first studied, utilized, and expanded upon formations, their variations have become incredibly diverse and continue to emerge endlessly. Because of this constant innovation, the rate at which formations are updated and replaced is extremely rapid.

Aside from a few basic, commonly used formations, many once-popular formations quickly become obsolete after being cracked. Others fall out of favor because they are too difficult to cast, or their heritage is lost entirely. Many more are limited by a cultivator’s spiritual root and cultivation level, resulting in an astonishingly low success rate when cast.

Prompted by his master’s words, Wen Xu spent the entire night reflecting. The next day, he began immersing himself in the Scripture Library, reading through every formation diagram he could find. Regardless of attribute or category, he wanted to see just how far the predecessors’ understanding of formations could go, and what forms they could take.

Wen Xu had always known how to leverage his strengths. He was excellent at studying, and formation jade slips happened to be a kind of book.

Bian Chunzhou dropped by to visit his friend and was utterly astonished by his reading volume. “It’s only been three days, and you’ve read this much? Can you even understand it?”

“I’m just skimming them. For the diagrams unrelated to my cultivation, I only observe the flow of the formations without studying them deeply.”

…That was still ridiculous. If he had possessed this level of dedication back then, he could have had his pick of Tsinghua or Peking University^[1].

Bian Chunzhou said, “You and Chen Zuizui are both trying to out-compete each other.”

“Chunzhou, you are quite competitive yourself.”

“Not really. At least, if you made me read jade slips like this, I couldn’t do it.” Bian Chunzhou scratched his head. “So, has your brute-force study strategy yielded any results?”

“I have a few minor insights, but it’s not enough.”

“Then keep at it. I won’t disturb you anymore. I’m off to the Spiritual Beast Peak to find Senior Brother for some financing.”

Bian Chunzhou left as quickly as he had arrived. Wen Xu gathered his thoughts and went back to devouring the jade slips. Yonglu Mountain housed tens of millions of formation diagrams; if he truly wanted to read them all, he would probably not finish even by the end of his lifespan.

But a clever person knows how to draw connections and summarize. After spending three months reading formation diagrams in the Scripture Library, Wen Xu went into secluded cultivation to try engraving formations using his own wind-attributed spiritual energy.

Indeed, after studying so many diagrams, he began trying to understand the meaning of wind formations in his own way. This was undoubtedly a very bold and dangerous undertaking. But just as his master had said, if one only parroted others and followed the rules blindly, what was the point of studying formations at all?

If he was going to do something, he would do it to the absolute best of his ability.

First, Wen Xu wrote down his requirements for a wind formation on a piece of paper:

1. It should ideally be cast instantly.

2. It should consume as little spiritual energy as possible.

3. It should not be restricted by the environment.

4. It can be used with either a sword or a fan.

5. It should ideally have high lethality.

These five requirements seemed ordinary, but implementing them was extremely difficult. From the many ancient diagrams Wen Xu had studied, powerful formations required excellent formation cores and formation stones. For instance, the famous Nandou Lingguang Killing Formation and the Four Symbols Xuanwu Formation used renowned natural treasures as their stabilizing anchors.

The preparation for such heaven-defying formations was incredibly vast and tedious, making them impossible to cast by a single person. However, once the formation was complete, almost no one could escape its power.

Given the chance, Wen Xu would love to witness such earth-shattering formations with his own eyes. But focusing on the present, the formation he needed had to be practical for his own combat. At the very least, if he were cornered alone, he could rely on the formation to remain undefeated, or even defeat his enemies and emerge victorious.

Therefore, the layout of the formation could not be too complex, as complexity meant consuming time. Yet if it were too simple, it would easily be broken. How could he strike a balance?

Initially, Wen Xu had no ideas at all. But one day, he suddenly recalled Chunzhou’s theory of water-fire balance, where fire was hidden beneath water, achieving coexistence. Following this analogy, could he also scale down a formation infinitely and hide it within the wind?

At first, he had preconceived notions, believing that a formation required placing a core, drawing formation lines with spiritual energy, and waiting for the lines to connect into a diagram before its power could be unleashed.

But in reality, just as his master had said, this was too rigid. Enemies would not be kind enough to wait for his formation to finish before fighting him. Thus, he had to… adapt!

Who said formations had to appear individually? Who said formations had to be large enough to be visible to the naked eye? Who said formations had to be completely flawless?

Breaking free from his original perspective, Wen Xu’s mind instantly broadened.

While simple formations were indeed easy to break, what if they were stacked? If one was not enough, use two. If two were not enough, use four. As long as he stacked enough of them, their power would continuously double.

He did not need to insist on placing the formation on or around the enemy. He could completely stack the formations onto his Wind-Folding Fan. The enemy would run and attack him, but his Wind-Folding Fan would not!

Wen Xu did not know many wind formations; the one he was most proficient with was the Gale Formation.

The lines of the Gale Formation were very simple. Especially for someone with a Wind Spiritual Root like him, he only needed to place a core at the Xun position, use it as a base point, and expand it slightly outward for a gale to rise out of thin air.

Wen Xu specifically commissioned a batch of low-grade Spiritual Fans from a senior brother at the Refining Peak. Then, he went into secluded cultivation to begin experimenting with drawing formation lines on the Spiritual Fans using spiritual energy. Naturally, this process was… not very smooth, but Wen Xu enjoyed this feeling of conquering high mountains.

It was like a difficult problem, but one that could be solved. As long as he kept trying and failing, he would eventually find the right path, reach the summit, and look back at all the roads he had traveled.

“It’s a success!”

Wen Xu raised the Spiritual Fan in his hand. Its surface was covered in dense arrays of runes. Looking closely, one would find that every spot gleaming with spiritual light housed a tiny, active array. These arrays were closely packed and identical in structure, as if Wen Xu had painted a miniature army of thousands on the fan.

However, due to the limitations of the Spiritual Fan’s grade, these runes could only be used three times at most. If it were the Wind-Folding Fan, they would likely last much longer.

Yet this was only the initial result of his array runes, and it would certainly require many more revisions. Since he had been working behind closed doors all this time, he needed to show his master the results.

Venerable Chengwei was so startled he nearly spat out his spiritual wine. “You did what?”

Good grief. His original intention had only been to get his disciple to shorten the time it took to draw arrays. Who could have known this disciple of his would take a massive leap down an entirely different path?

Setting up a grand array took too much time? Then why not just make countless tiny arrays to perform the classic feat of ants devouring an elephant^[2]?

He had to admit, it was quite a creative idea.

“It’s a good idea, but have you considered whether you can control it if the number of overlapping spiritual arrays grows even larger in the future?”

Wen Xu had naturally considered this. “A friend of mine once said that humans have muscle memory, and spiritual energy is the same. As long as I keep drawing arrays with my spiritual energy over and over, my energy will remember the path of the array. When the time comes, I won’t need to intervene too much; the power of the array will naturally carry over whenever I use my spiritual energy.”

Venerable Chengwei: He suddenly felt a bit sorry for his old friends who conscientiously taught their disciples. If this disciple of his were unleashed upon the world, it would be highly entertaining. 🙂

Well, there was no helping it. Dragons were just that lucky.

“Very well. I see no issues with this. Continue along your line of thinking.”

Having received his master’s approval, Wen Xu tested his first-generation “Array-Stacking Fan” under his master’s supervision. Although the power was not as explosive as he had hoped, he now knew which direction to take for improvements.

Watching his disciple Ah Xu leave in a passionate rush, Venerable Chengwei felt the spiritual wine in his hand suddenly taste much better. He had not taught him to be like this on purpose. Besides, this disciple had been dumped on him by his martial nephew Wufang in the first place. If the old fogies from other sects came knocking on their door in the future, the culprit would surely be the sect master.

Gu Wufang sneezed violently: Who! Who is cursing me behind my back again!

*

“Senior Sister Xia Ying, did you need something from me?”

Over the past three months, his two overachieving friends had been pushing themselves to the limit, one practicing his saber like mad and the other studying books like crazy. Naturally, Bian Chunzhou could only risk his life to keep up with these overachievers. Without neglecting his cultivation, he had somehow managed to set up the basic framework for his hotpot restaurant.

He had even secured a ten-thousand spirit stone investment from his master. Combined with Wen Xuxu’s fifty thousand, plus the ingredients contributed as shares negotiated from Spiritual Plant Peak and Spiritual Beast Peak, and including himself, they made exactly five founding shareholders.

If he were to open a shop catering to cultivators, sixty thousand spirit stones would certainly not even make a splash. Knowing he could not achieve success overnight, Bian Chunzhou decided to start by opening a hotpot restaurant for ordinary citizens. As for the gimmick, having a cultivator as the owner should be enough to attract the first wave of customers.

But to maintain a steady flow of customers, the taste had to be excellent.

Bian Chunzhou’s general cooking skills were average, but he was great at frying hotpot soup bases, a fact both of his companions had acknowledged. With his secret, exclusive dipping sauces, he would surely have them hooked.

So now, everything was ready except for one crucial element^[3].

The shop had been rented and renovated, the manager, waiters, and prep cooks had been trained, and the ingredient supply had been secured. The only thing missing now was a name. Coming up with names was truly difficult.

“I heard that Junior Brother Bian has opened a new eatery in the city?”

Wow, even Senior Sister Xia Ying had heard about it. Speaking of which, this senior sister, who had entered Yonglu Mountain at the same time as him, was also a major overachiever. Ever since she joined Sword Peak, rumors of her various grand achievements had been constantly circulating.

Bian Chunzhou did not quite understand why Senior Sister Xia Ying was asking about this. Did she want to buy shares too? Did his business prospects look that bright?

“Don’t misunderstand, Junior Brother. I only wanted to say that if you need to apply for a Liquor Permit, I can help you.” After saying this, Xia Ying’s expression turned cautious as she spoke again. “I heard that a few months ago, you took a mission and visited Tinghe Villa?”