Chapter 774: One Man, One Formation
The modification of the island was put on hold as Shang Xia dragged Chu Jia back to the Beyond Heavens Pavilion. When they entered the pavilion that shielded them from the senses of the outside world, he described in detail the meaning behind the mutual restraint and amplification of the 5 elements. He also displayed his Five Element Source before speaking about the possibility of laying down a Five Element Formation.
Chu Jia listened to him silently and only after Shang Xia had poured out everything he knew did she reveal a brilliant smile. “This was how you saved Patriarch Kou when he experienced an imbalance in his fate dippers, right?”
“How do you know?” Shang Xia was stunned for a moment.
Glancing at Shang Xia from the corner of her eye, Chu Jia tutted, “You’ve greatly underestimated me. Not only do I know that, I also know that he chose all the fate dippers after that incident with your suggestion. It even affected how Deputy Patriarch Ji and your grandfather choose their fate dippers.”
Putting aside his cultivation at the Martial Dipper Realm, Shang Xia’s status didn't seem too much higher than Chu Jia...
Choosing not to speak about it, Shang Xia continued to ask, “Why don’t you tell me if it’s possible to deploy the Five Element Formation?”
“Taking it from your perspective, it’s definitely possible to create the formation. However, I don’t know if it will be successfully deployed. I will have to try for myself in order to be sure.” Chu Jia chuckled.
Nodding slightly, Shang Xia responded, “That’s true. I was too hasty.”
“From what you said earlier, it’s possible for us to use the Five Element Essence Crystals to lay down the formation. Of those, we already gathered the Fire, Water, and Metal Essence Crystals. We’re missing Wood and Earth Essence Crystals, but we can make some preparations for now. I also need some time to design and refine the formation you came up with.” Chu Jia replied.
Shang Xia knew that he thought about things too simply when he requested for her to create the formation earlier. “Of course!”
After thinking about it for a moment, Chu Jia couldn’t help but add, “If you truly wish to help the preparation process, I suggest that you prepare yourself. This is going to be something completely new and it’s a fresh perspective on the art of formations. You have to be patient and we won’t be able to see much success anytime soon.”
Shang Xia nodded in understanding. “I get it. You should do what you need to and I’ll need some time to find a source for those essence crystals.”
Finally bidding Chu Jia farewell, Shang Xia quickly informed the Protection Division and the Outreach Division to pay attention to the sources of those 2 types of essence crystals.
Unfortunately, he learned that other cultivators would only be able to determine if those essence crystals were of different attributes. He would have to verify if they were of the Wood or Earth Element himself.
It wasn’t difficult to see that he wouldn’t have much time in the foreseeable future. He would have to spend a huge amount of time verifying the type of essence crystals others located.
That was why Shang Xia felt that he had to sort out his current state of cultivation before he started on the task.
Back in the Tianya Pavilion, Shang Xia managed to shorten the time needed to complete one cycle of inner qi circulation to 4 hours. He could shift the yin and yang alignment of the elements as he wished, and the most direct impact of that was that he could gather a fourth set of fate dipper essences.
The refinement process would take a long time, and while that was going on, he would still have to improve his rank five martial arts and better refine his Five Element Ring.
The Five Element Ring might seem perfect for Shang Xia and it possessed frightening power when he faced his enemies, but Shang Xia still had some ideas on how he should use it. There was still a slight misalignment between the weapon and his martial art and his combat ability wasn't at its peak yet.
After entering the Martial Dipper Realm, Shang Xia realized that time would pass extremely quickly whenever he entered seclusion.
In the blink of an eye, the latter half of the 856th year of the Divine Martial Calendar rolled about.
A good half a year had passed, and Shang Xia, who had been in seclusion a majority of the time, managed to refine more than half of his fourth batch of fate dipper essences.
The Protection Division and the Outreach Division sent out their disciples to carry out Shang Xia’s instructions and gathered a certain amount of Wood and Earth Essence Crystals.
After digging around the old battlefield between the two worlds in the northern region of the You Continent, they actually managed to find an Earth Essence Crystal Vein!
They might not have mined a lot of it yet, but they at least obtained a steady source of crystals.
As for Wood Essence Crystals, they could only rely on luck. In the dense Thousand Leaf Mountain Range, cultivators who went out for training or exploration managed to gather a good number of them.
They might have gathered enough crystals, but the greatest limiting factor was Wood Essence Crystals. Shang Xia and Chu Jia couldn’t realistically verify Shang Xia’s idea of creating a stable spatial tunnel using the Five Element Formation. After all, that would be a massive project by itself. Just confirming the idea would be feasible would waste an astronomical amount of elemental essence crystals. However, that only applied to the teleportation formation. They had more than enough to solve the problem with the island they were modifying.
The formation outline had already been prepared and all that was left to do was to place the elemental essence crystals to activate the Five Element Formation. It could greatly reduce the consumption of energy once it is active.
Even though everything was ready, Shang Xia and Chu Jia wasted dozens of elemental essence crystals during the first attempt.
They might have forcefully activated the first Five Element Formation, that was because Shang Xia was present and he directed the flow of energy personally. That was how it could maintain operation for some time. The moment he stopped pouring his dipper qi into the formation, the crystals turned to dust.
Their attempt might have ended as a failure, but there was no trace of loss on Chu Jia’s face. Instead, a smile lit up her face.
She continued to arrange the distance and positions of where the crystals should be placed in the formation before modifying the formation slightly. She drew new paths for energy to flow and everything seemed to change from Shang Xia’s initial idea.
When she was done, she placed the elemental essence crystals in their position and continued to verify the viability of the formation. The process continued and the energy connections became more and more complicated before she eventually simplified them one after another. Eventually, the formation took shape and the most elementary Five Element Formation was created for real.
“This formation isn’t able to sustain itself and it requires a cultivator’s inner qi to continue operating...” Shang Xia seemed a little disappointed by the result. When he thought about the formation, he felt that it would be able to continue the energy circulation on its own.
Unlike the discontented Shang Xia, Chu Jia was a lot more excited. She retorted immediately, “What the hell does a Talisman Grandmaster like you know about formations? Even if it requires someone to maintain the flow of energy, it already reduces the difficulty of powering the island! We would be able to use the power of one man to replace a job that requires 4 to 5 Martial Extermination Realm experts!”
Shang Xia obviously knew that the situation had already improved greatly but he couldn’t help but remind her, “The activation of the formation also has a requirement on the individual doing it...”
Chu Jia didn’t seem to care. “Of course I know that. However, according to your philosophy about the 5 elements, it’s not too difficult to find Martial Intent or Martial Extermination Realm experts who reached the requirement.”
...
They might have completed the most elementary design of the Five Element Formation, but they continued to refine and improve the formation.
If Chu Jia had been working together with Shang Xia earlier in order to develop the formation earlier, his job would have already been done. The person truly in charge of modifying and refining the formation further became Chu Jia, and she was extremely excited to do it.
What they produced was an elementary and crude Five Element Formation, but Chu Jia seemed to have seen an entirely new path of formations within it. It could even be the key to her improvement in the path of formations!
Even if Shang Xia told her to stop researching the Five Element Formation, she would immediately jump out to reject his suggestion.
She had always been someone who worked eagerly when the task was something she was interested in. Now that she discovered ways to improve the Five Element Formation, she was ready to try out all her new ideas on the floating island outside the Beyond Heavens Pavilion.
Shang Xia planned to slow down a little as he felt that they were moving too quickly at the moment. He wanted to take things step by step in order to properly expand the new path of formations and make it less complicated.
To that, he was met with a loud yell from Chu Jia. “Do you know how low the requirements are to start on the path of the elemental formations you created?!”
“Huh? Is it really that easy?” Shang Xia was slightly taken aback.
Casually pointing out several points to the fellow Formation Masters on the floating island, Chu Jia seemed a little too busy to entertain his question. Only after she gave out her orders did she turn around to reply. “It’s pretty easy to pick up, but it’s difficult for anyone to learn the essence of it. I barely started to understand it, but I can already see what it will progress to in the future.”
Clearly, she was even more confident about the Five Element Formation than Shang Xia.
Seeing how Chu Jia placed 10 elemental essence crystals on 5 key spots, that would mean that they already used 50 in that single attempt. Shang Xia couldn’t help but mutter softly, “If this experiment fails, we would have wasted 50 elemental essence crystals...”
Chu Jia sighed helplessly, “Oh great Talisman Grandmaster Shang, you’re a Martial Dipper Realm expert. In our Azure Ascension World, you’re akin to an ancestor-level existence. Can you act a little more like one?! Do you have no balls or something? It’s just 50 elemental essence crystals! Why are you acting so heartbroken?!”
Opening his mouth slightly, Shang Xia didn’t know how to respond.
Chu Jia went off to do her own tasks after speaking earlier and she didn’t expect Shang Xia to reply anyway.
Because Chu Jia already did some work on the floating island, the Five Element Formation could be quickly integrated into the grand formation.
Before that, Chu Jia had to do further experiments with the formation. The Martial Dipper Realm expert who came up with it was obviously dragged into matters as well and he was used as the final layer of protection in case anything blew up.
As Chu Jia activated the complicated Five Element Array she modified on the island, dozens of elemental essence crystals emitted dense spiritual energy and they started to interact with each other according to the principles of the elements. It didn’t take long before the spiritual qi managed to make a complete cycle.
“It... It succeeded?” Shang Xia gasped at the sight.
Glancing at him from the corner of her eye, Chu Jia didn’t bother hiding the look of disappointment in them. “The Five Element Formation might be activated, but the elemental crystals in the formation aren’t being used to their fullest potential. The cycling of spiritual qi isn’t pure enough and a huge amount will still be wasted. The formation won’t be able to sustain itself for long. You should make your move and take over.”
Shagn Xia could feel the dissipation of energy, but he felt that it was a natural occurrence.
With slight suspicion, he started to guide the energy again. He sent a portion of his inner qi into the formation and controlled the flow of energy.
By the side, Chu Jia’s eyelids twitched violently when she saw what he was doing.
“This... This... He became a part of the formation and he’s doing it alone!” Bai Luming who was standing at the side couldn’t help but mutter to himself.
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