"Hey, you shouldn't give up on the challenge so quickly, or it will leave a bad impression on Elder Galen. If you at least try, he'd respect it more."
The voice spoke when it saw Ken leave the book and his meditation and go to read other books from the library instead.
"It's fine."
"Really? Then let's move on to the next part of the challenge."
"No, I deserve 20 more minutes, so we will wait. Now stop bothering me, you're ruining my concentration."
Ken's words irked the voice that seemingly came from nowhere specific but from everywhere at the same time.
"Those 20 minutes are meant to learn the RELEVANT formation, not random books you found in the test room!"
"It's just my way to concentrate. You know how you just let something go and think of other things, and that's when you're suddenly enlightened on the former topic? That's what I'm trying to achieve."
Ken spoke some bullshit to make whoever owned the voice get off his back, and sunk back into the world of knowledge written in the books in front of him.
"Twenty minutes passed, you may start arranging the formations now. To watch the process of the elder arranging the formation, just ask for it out loud. The relevant materials are behind you."
"Please do."
Ken watched patiently the whole "video" as he perceived the illusion of the elder. It took Galen of the illusion 30 minutes to set up the whole thing, and now Ken had 2 hours and a half left.
He already grasped enough of the techniques Galen used to be confident enough to successfully arrange the formation.
"You're sure patient. It'd be smarter to watch only part of the illusion and start working since it's difficult to precisely remember all the small details."
The voice remarked, sharing its unappreciated opinion with Ken.
"What do you know? You're not even a Formation Master."
"Hmph, anyone would have to pay a hefty price if they wanted me to arrange a formation for them."
"Nobody would pay some shameless unknown cultivator that tries to praise himself."
"Unknown? Shameless? I was renowned as a great Formation Grandmaster. I was even better than Elder Galen!"
"Right."
Ken stopped the banter and thought about the information he managed to fish out of the voice. He knew now for sure that the voice didn't belong to Galen, and since it belonged to a Formation Grandmaster, it means it wasn't any of the other elders either, as the first elder he met told him that there was only one artisan among them.
Ken continued to take the first set of materials required for the central formation. Only after laying it down so it can act as a base and foundation for the next formations, could Ken start working on the side ones.
He first used a simple water technique to wash the floor from dust or anything else that might compromise the formation. Most formation masters were too lazy to do it since it didn't affect their formations 99.99% of the time, but Ken's suspicious nature made him believe that the 0.01% time will happen to him.
"Good call. Elder Galen dislikes sloppy people, so he spread dust made of a 7th-grade Aerin Gem on the ground. It's a turquoise gem and its dust gets washed easily with water."
This challenge included "integration", and Ken already figured out why when he read the book describing the formation.
Most formations used the materials as they were, and the main difficulties lay in balancing the Qi stream that flowed inside the formation until it activated and in drawing the necessary runes. In contrast, this formation required the usage of Alchemy practices.
Ken extracted the essence of the gems he needed for the formation and imbued them into the runes he drew simultaneously. After finishing, he arranged the woods and Qi Stones around the central part of the formation; the first were meant to boost the heart of the formation while the latter provided it with Qi.
It took him 30 minutes to lay down the formation neatly, and he had to correct his work a few times as he recalled the exact position of every ingredient in the formation the elder made before.
'Now it's time to work on the side formations, let's begin with the one to the east.'
Ken thought to himself as he looked at his work with satisfaction as he went to pick up the materials he needed for the next formation.
"Good job, I didn't expect you to succeed. It only gets more complicated now since one mistake might cause the whole thing to collapse, forcing you to start from the beginning."
Although it showed appreciation for Ken's talent, it still didn't believe in the child's abilities. The difficulty was only going to rise as Ken added more formations to the equation. And like it warned Ken, one mistake in the final steps will ruin everything he had worked for, leaving him without enough time to restart.
Ken, however, simply shrugged and got back to work. He comprehended the way those materials interacted with each other already, so he only needed to avoid making dangerous mistakes. By knowing what wouldn't be too dangerous to try, he had more room to maneuver his attempts.
The next formations were smaller, hence also took less time to build. Ken worked with ultimate focus, following the plan step by step. Within 15 minutes, the second formation was set to go, working perfectly.
The burden increased now that he worked on the next formation; he had to keep channeling his Qi into the eastern formation all the time until he finished building the western one to balance it.
The western formation was an exact reflection of the eastern one; Ken had to build it the same but mirrored. He worked hard on it without stopping his Qi from maintaining the previous formation even for a slight moment.
'Huh, finally finished, now it's time for the other two.'
Ken sighed in relief when he finished building the formation and could stop channeling his Qi as they were now balancing each other from opposite directions.
He did notice the hardest part of the construction of the formations; after activating the northern formation, the delicate balance would be thrown off, and he would have to support three small formations simultaneously while he worked on the fourth one.
'This formation must be impossible to construct for any normal fifth-rank formation master unless they're a powerful sixth-stage cultivator and their mind was improved and enhanced.'
Ken concluded as he worked on the northern formation. This one was slightly different from the eastern one, but after constructing the other two, he could work faster and more confidently. It only took him 12 minutes to finish it, and now he stood in front of the hardest part.
'Luckily, my working memory is already strong enough to hold enough information in it without getting confused, so I shouldn't have a problem pulling it off.'
Ken thought to himself as he started working on the southern formation. Sweat dripped down his forehead and temples, but he ignored everything as he worked with utmost concentration.
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At the same time, everyone in the secret realm raised their heads and listened to the announcement of the mysterious voice.
"Webnovel has added a new feature, and now you can vote for characters once a day as well as gift them. Don't forget to gift Ken or any other character you like!"
'Hmph, they're going to simp for me.' Tiara thought to herself when she heard the voice assuming people will prefer a ruthless child over a stunning ice beauty.
'I'm definitely the best one here. Vote for me, readers!' Ken flared his bloodlust, hinting at the readers what might if they choose wrong.
"By the way, you might have to update your Webnovel app to see the new feature!"
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