It seemed these formations weren’t all guarded against in the same direction.
Shen Yi had recognized the accumulated faith; clearly, that was something usable.
Lady Qinghua had barred Xiang Tianyan a moment ago and hadn’t yet been withdrawn. She glanced sidelong at Shen Yi. “Shall Qinghua go and give it a try?”
Shen Yi mused a moment, then still declined her offer. Usable as accumulated faith was, he hadn’t much confidence in whether a divine spirit could withstand those waves of fire; at most he’d hold it as a last resort. And what was more, there were other options now.
At the thought, Shen Yi looked over at the little scholar in the distance. Everyone else bore burn-marks to some degree, but this one alone — his snow-white scholar’s robe was spotless, let alone any injury.
“Go on,” he said with a nod.
“Eh?” The scholar startled back half a step, pointing at himself with a pained look on his fair little face. “Me?”
They’d only just been eating fruit together — how had it turned so heartless in the blink of an eye?
The others were badly frightened too. This young man had just dealt with two Mixed Origin Grandmasters without so much as lifting an eyelid — never mind a school of small fry like themselves.
“I’m telling you to break the formation.” Shen Yi shot him a look.
“Oh.”
The scholar patted his chest and hurriedly fished out another thick tome, crouching at the bank to investigate while flipping through the volume.
Learning on the spot and selling it right back?
Shen Yi withdrew his gaze, at a loss for words. Never mind — he’d come to look for a spiritual root to begin with, and this medicine hut looked very much like a place for growing heaven-and-earth treasures. A little waiting did no harm.
He hadn’t the Xiang siblings’ worries. The reason was simple. A spiritual root was a thing needed at the Mixed Origin realm, and within the Mixed Origin realm, he ought to count as a figure of no small strength. Should a Spirit-Transformation cultivator come to snatch it, then he wouldn’t mind hauling out the golden body for a showing either.
“Senior, then are we…”
The tall, gaunt man voiced the question in everyone’s heart.
“Do as you like.”
Shen Yi took out another spirit-fruit and bit into it. He’d played along with the Xiang siblings because they had their own set of rules for conduct. But toward these people, Shen Yi was no killing-mad sort; with no grudge or grievance between them, he’d no wish to stain his hands with too much blood — it easily soured his mood, besides.
“Our thanks, Senior!”
Everyone hurriedly bowed. The scene before them was truly too terrifying, and on the spot more than half the cultivators turned and fled. The rest quietly withdrew to a distance, taking no part in this matter of fortune, yet unwilling to leave either.
In a place as orderless as a cave estate, whatever power or backing one had was worth nothing. Following a Mixed Origin Grandmaster who looked at least a touch more normal, their odds of leaving the estate alive would rise a good deal.
“I’ll say — this really is quite useful.”
Shen Yi chewed his fruit-flesh and glanced in passing at the cold light flowing across his fingertips. He hadn’t channeled the Cold Jade Mysterious Silk Hand a moment ago. Yet a fist brought down on a Mixed Origin Grandmaster’s precious sword hadn’t so much as broken the skin — precisely because of the treasure’s own inherent protection.
With that, he walked toward the scholar.
“Your surname?”
“No need for courtesy — my surname’s Xu. You may call me Aqing.” The scholar hurriedly stood, patted the dust off himself, and gave Shen Yi a most polite bow.
“It’s fine, go about your work.” Shen Yi waved a hand, and said offhandedly, “I’m bored with nothing to do. Could you lend me a few books to read?”
“Uh.” Aqing blinked, then took out a copy of A First Explanation of Formations from his waist. “This is all I’ve got on me. If Grandmaster means to pass the time, this one would suit best of all.”
Shen Yi took the volume and flipped idly through it. “Any others?”
“Truthfully this one’s rather hard — without ten days or half a month it’s difficult to learn.”
Aqing scratched his head, but still took out four or five more books. “Right — you’re only passing the time, ha. This one, though, I can’t let you see.”
He clutched the thickest of the ancient tomes and gave a bashful shake of his head.
“No matter.” Shen Yi nodded mildly.
He still remembered getting two Mixed Origin martial texts on formations back in the War Temple. Shoring up the fundamentals first wasn’t a bad thing. As for the one in the other’s hands… take it slow, no hurry. Right now he had no demon lifespan.
“You go on with your work.” Shen Yi found a rock at random and sat down, slowly leafing through that First Explanation of Formations.
Roughly six days passed.
Aqing finally finished drawing out the entire structure of the great formation in his booklet. Shen Yi, too, had successfully committed the whole of A First Explanation of Formations to memory. If he could actually make sense of it, it would presumably be rather interesting.
Recording all five formation books into the panel, he walked over to Aqing and handed the books back. “How’s it going?”
“Should be about ready.”
Aqing checked the color of the sky, then led Shen Yi to a spot that looked utterly unremarkable. “About one more incense-stick’s time of waiting.”
He put away his booklet and said with a smile, “How’s Grandmaster’s reading coming? Anything you don’t understand?”
“Well enough. We’ll talk another time.”
Shen Yi steered around the topic, and Aqing tactfully asked no more — after all, not everyone was interested in formations.
He silently reckoned the timing, then said abruptly, “It’s ready.”
As the words fell, under Shen Yi’s faintly surprised gaze, the man leapt straight toward the waves of fire without the slightest hesitation!
Then he was hauled back by Shen Yi in one grab. “What are you doing?”
“I… I’m going across.” Aqing wasn’t tall to begin with; his slight frame dangling from the other’s hand looked rather foolish. “We’ll miss the window.”
“…”
Shen Yi fell silent a moment, then tried stepping out.
Sure enough — not only did the fire dragon give no reaction, the aura across his own body didn’t stagnate in the least. He cleared the ten-zhang distance in one leap and successfully reached the medicine hut on the far bank.
“A formation can never be perfectly flawless; there’s always some defect. Seize the right time and position, and it’s as good as nonexistent. It’s really quite simple.”
Aqing, dropped onto the ground, stood and dusted himself off. Clearly he had boundless confidence in his own attainments with formations — otherwise he wouldn’t have leapt straight up earlier.
“Mm.”
Shen Yi didn’t much follow, and put him off noncommittally.
The aura-connection in his heart drew ever tighter. He walked toward the medicine hut, pushed open the door — and inside was no room’s furnishings at all, but a pitch-black stone cavern.
The scorching hot air made Shen Yi instinctively knit his brow.
Aqing coughed hard a few times, then said in excitement, “I know it now! It’s Dragon-Flame Jade Fungus! This is a mid-grade spiritual root.”
He pointed toward the deepest part of the stone cavern.
Atop a stone platform sat a palm-sized ball of fiery-red flesh. Upon it, of all things, were things like fleshy sinews, pulsing. A red liquid resembling blood-plasma spread and trickled down from it, flowing along the stone platform into a cramped, narrow channel.
“What a marvelous formation — using the jade fungus to guard itself, and that river of fire outside coming, in fact, from within its own body.”
Aqing hurriedly took out paper and brush and began recording. He’d only just lifted his head when he saw Shen Yi walk over and, with a crisp snap, tear the Dragon-Flame Jade Fungus loose and stow it into his storage treasure.
The scholar’s mouth fell slightly open. “Ah…”
(End of Chapter 259)