'Let's work on opening the door. I can't let those supreme elders know about my little stunt.'
Ken sat on the ground in front of the door and channeled his Qi into the formation to probe it. He could forget about destroying the walls; those were made of materials of a grade he still could not harm in his current stage, and they were built using Immortal Qi.
'I just need to find the nodes by both probing the formation and predicting its structure. Although this formation is beyond my rank, its inscriber is not here. I can destroy it from outside at my own pace.'
Ken said inwardly as he worked. While formation masters of the sixth rank were incapable of making seventh-rank formations, they could still research them and destroy them, albeit slowly. Ken, as a one-of-a-kind genius, was even better than other sixth-rank formation masters.
'According to what I know, seventh-rank formations and above regenerate themselves when a node is broken, and the better ones even move their nodes afterward. It means I can't just destroy them one by one, but I also need to destroy them faster than they get fixed.'
It was impossible to find all nodes at once without knowing the formation's structure at all, so he had to destroy a few nodes in order to find the next ones that held the formation together. Thus, his plan was to find as many nodes as he can before doing the first attack.
After locating 21 nodes forming the shape of a star together, he concluded that he won't be able to find any other weak points before destroying them.
'Now!'
Ken sent waves of Runic Qi to all those spots and destroyed them simultaneously. Next, a race against time began, and the young formation master destroyed every node he found as quickly as he could.
Theoretically, just like any technique could be performed with every type of Qi, he could use any type of Qi to destroy the nodes. However, using the specialized Qi always yielded the best results, and this case was not any different.
As soon as the 21 nodes were destroyed, the star collapsed, and a new shape came out. Ken began locating the nodes again, trying his best to recognize the new pattern to bring it down faster.
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The process of dismantling the formation was repetitive and tiring. Every time he shattered a group of nodes, a new one would surface, and he had to do the same thing again.
The only thing that worked in his favor was that the formation was built in layers, and it couldn't fix the outer layer while more inner ones were destroyed. It meant that whenever Ken managed to take apart one structure, the nodes of that structure couldn't be fixed while he destroyed the next layer.
It didn't mean that the self-fixing mechanism of the formation wasn't a burden; while the young formation master worked on a specific layer, he'd often have to locate the same node twice because it already regenerated while he was busy searching for the other nodes.
'FINALLY, it had been 49 layers, huh…'
Ken heaved a deep sigh in relief as he slumped back on the cold ground to rest. He wanted nothing but to sleep now, he was completely drained and could barely keep his eyes open. At some point, he even had to switch to other types of Qi for a few moments until he produced enough new Runic Qi.
'Even if I'm a sixth-rank formation master, it's not easy at all to break a seventh-rank formation at my stage. My low stage holds me back in many aspects; it's behind in every field including technique mastery, Qi manipulation, Alchemy, and Formation Mastery.'
Ken pondered as a desire to get stronger ignited inside him. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do about it. Rushing his cultivation would only come back to bite him later.
"You don't have much time to rest. In 24 hours, the deadline for our deal will arrive."
Ken heard Edmund's voice, waking him up from his reveries. However, he didn't want to enter the foreign room in his current state. He'd be unfocused, tired, and vulnerable.
He was surprised to learn that so many days passed since he started the project of opening the door. When he entered the Beast Haven, there were 13 days left for the secret realm. The challenge took seven days, which meant he entered the portal that led him here when there were six days left.
Since Edmund claimed there were only 24 hours left until he reports Ken's actions, it meant that Ken spent there around 5 days, and the secret realm only had 29 hours left until it gets closed!
"All right, wake me up in five hours then."
Ken took a Qi Absorption Pill to help himself restore his depleted Qi faster and fell asleep to let his body rest.
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"Rise and shine, it has been five hours since you fell asleep."
Ken opened his eyes groggily and got up on his feet. He still had to eat something as he didn't taste food since he left the Beast Haven.
"Are you sure you have time to eat? You only have 19 hours left."
"Who knows when I will have another chance to eat."
Ken ignored the urgency in the elder's voice and cooked a dish made of fruits and herbs using his new Alchemy cauldron.
"At least hurry up."
"Don't bolt your food; take small bites and savor the flavors," Ken said as he brought out a table and a comfortable chair from his storage ring and sat down to eat.
It was Ken's way to get back the elder who blackmailed him. He could guess how excited Edmund was about getting free after being imprisoned for two thousand years.
"Damn kid."
"All right, I finished. Don't be mad."
Ken stored back the cauldron and the furniture in his storage ring after he finished eating. Stepping forward, he pushed open the door.
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