Chapter 116: Formation padding and its importance (1/2)
”Cultivate as if your life depends on it!” Layn didn't say those words for no reason.
Right now, the entire group was spread out across the entire, seven-ringed formation. With the magic-infused earth serving as the perfect padding for the formation, Layn managed to turn all of its rings online with a far smaller amount of energy that would otherwise be necessary to break through the restraints of insufficient padding.
'I wonder if it will work?' Layn thought as he continued to activate layer after layer.
Layn's entire idea was based on the fact that even if one loses a part of their body, their cultivation drive should still remain the same. By circulating the energy through the path enveloping their entire, full-body, Layn's disciples could alter how the world around them would perceive them.
By cultivating and pushing their energy through the parts of their body that are no longer present, they could alter what the world would see as
an anomaly.
And Layn didn't need to wait long for the effects of his plan to start showing.
At first, a mercenary who lost his eye suddenly started to suck on the mana that filled the air within the formation sphere of influence like mad. Most likely not aware of it himself, he appeared to just drive his cultivation as usual, completely ignorant to the fact that all the excess magic that he would otherwise be unable to absorb was actively gathering around his wound and slowly rebuilding it.
'In that regard, magic is still a miracle, isn't it?' Layn thought when he noticed what was going on. Even though it was all part of his plan, he relied on nothing more but a hunch.
Even back in his times, Layn was far from understanding the true nature of magic. In a sense, studying it made Layn feel like peeling the onion. Whenever he or someone else would stumble into a discovery that gave others hope that the crux of the magic was finally revealed, some other discovery would quickly prove such hopes wrong.
No matter how much one tried, getting to the bottom of the knowledge well that magic was, appeared to be impossible. In his current situation, without the manpower, tools, and scientific background with all the perks it offered, Layn couldn't even test his theories out.
The only thing he could do was to implement his ideas right as he came up with them. And so far, his ideas appeared to be right.
Once the first man started to shine from all the mana converging over his injuries, the same phenomena started to occur all over the place. Soon, everyone was enveloped by the thicket of mana, even those who never received any serious injuries in the first place.
'I wonder what the hell does that mean,' Layn kept a close watch of the events, ready to stomp at the killswitch of the formation at any given moment. While killing a formation like that was pretty dangerous, allowing a seven-ringed formation to run amok could potentially have way worse consequences.
”Layn, are you there?” Irea suddenly asked, not daring to open her eyes. She was focused on her cultivation, yet from the small wrinkles on her face, Layn could tell just how worried she was.
'Right, I never told her what I was planning,' Layn suddenly realized, only to notice how little he could do. As annoying as it was, he could only use his voice right now as stepping off this crucial part of the formation would bear too much risk for everyone.
”I'm here. Don't worry about anything and just keep cultivating,” Layn ordered, ignoring the fact that he was the only one not heeding his own words. Seeing how Irea obediently calmed herself down and moved all her attention back to the task at hand, a wave of relief made the archmage shrug.
”Everyone, just a little more,” Layn encouraged his people while watching over the formation. And there was a lot to watch out for, given how the magic of the crystal continued to turn more and more ground into formation-suitable padding. But as great as it was for setting up new formations in any place desirable, this process couldn't go on for much longer either.