Chapter: 903 (1/2)

AST 903 – Duality Minutest Formation, The Arrival of the Sky Prison Sect

Qing Shui held onto the last pebble and was reluctant to toss it. This last pebble was like the equivalent of a person’s eyes, its positioning was paramount to the success of the formation. If Qing Shui missed even slightly, the power of the formation would be greatly reduced.

Qing Shui stared at the Nine Palace and Eight Trigrams formation combination and hesitatingly tossed the pebble in his hand into it.

“No reaction?” Qing Shui was waiting for something to happen with the formation, but there were no changes even though he was inside the formation.

“Failed?” Qing Shui was a bit disappointed. Although this was his first attempt, it was nevertheless a time-consuming process, especially when you took into account the time he had spent on researching. Qing Shui felt that his formation shouldn’t have failed.

However, the way it looked, it was indeed a failure. Formations were mysterious. It was like borrowing the divine might of the Heavens and Earth. Qing Shui felt this was similar to one of the realms of the mastery of techniques—providence!

Pausing for a moment and studying the formation, Qing Shui confirmed that this first trial was a failure. However, he was not discouraged. Qing Shui picked up the pebbles from the ground and sat down. He studied the Nine Palace Eight Trigrams Formation, placing more attention on the crucial points of the formation. While doing so, he also practiced his Nine Palace Steps several times.

Then he started tossing the pebbles again. At least, Qing Shui felt he understood what lead to the failure earlier. Every time he tossed the pebbles into position he had the feeling that it was correctly placed, but there was still no effect.

When it came to the Nine Palace Orientation and the Eight Trigrams Orientation, Qing Shui felt that he had a better grasp of it than before. However, he still couldn’t pinpoint the exact reason why no reactions had occurred.

This went on for several days before Qing Shui finally accepted the reality that he could not utilize the Nine Palace Eight Trigrams Formation, nor could he understand the reason why.

After his mind calmed down, Qing Shui spent three days experimenting with the Duality Minutest Formation instead. Now that his earlier thoughts had become a reality, he had to practice the Duality Minutest Formation first before attempting the Nine Palace Eight Trigrams Formation again.

The Duality Minutest Formation was a much simpler formation compared to the Nine Palace Eight Trigrams Formation. Qing Shui spent very little time studying it before starting to set the formation. Once he began, Qing Shui could only smile. Compared to the procedure for the Nine Palace Eight Trigrams Formation, setting the Duality Minutest Formation was a walk in the park.

It seemed that it was true that all formations were tied in one way or another to the Nine Palace Eight Trigrams Formation. Even without mentioning the ones that were simpler than the Nine Palace Eight Trigrams Formation, all the more complex ones required the Nine Palace Eight Trigram as a basis. Although their orientation wouldn’t be overly difficult, there were probably some special requirements to make the formation work.

A short while later, Qing Shui was holding onto the last remaining pebble. His continuous failure had made him a bit perturbed. If the Duality Minutest Formation failed again, then he couldn’t excuse himself.

Placing the pebble at the eye of the formation that was half a meter from his feet, Qing Shui’s heart started to beat rapidly almost instantaneously.

As the pebble fell into place, a gush of majestic Spiritual Qi rose from the ground. The Spiritual Qi then turned into a berserk storm. All the rocks and sand were blown away, including a boulder that was the size of a small pavilion building.

Not only were things hard to recognized through the naked eye, but the sensitivity of his spiritual sense had also been reduced. His abilities also suffered a debuff. The Duality Minutest Formation had opened the Six Gates of Life, Death, Dark, Light, Change and Destruction.

Duality Step!

Once Qing Shui began to cast the Duality Steps, given his familiarity with the Duality Minutest Formation, the atmosphere cooled immediately when he stepped out. Instantly, the immediate surroundings became tranquil, like a secluded ravine. However, just beyond the immediate vicinity, a dust storm was brewing like a raging battlefield but it was still silent.

Once they stepped into the formation, the victim would be immersed in danger and their strength would be greatly debuffed. Furthermore, some areas were rampant with venom and raging infernos which could cause tremendous damage. This was already incredibly deadly and if the victim couldn’t escape from the formation, then they would be trapped till death. More importantly, Qing Shui could also ambush them at any time.

No wonder a formations specialist could fend off so many people by themselves.

The Duality Minutest Formation was already so strong, this made Qing Shui yearn for the power of the Nine Palace Eight Trigrams Formation.

Meanwhile, Qing Shui continued experimenting with the Nine Palace Eight Trigrams Formation but to no effect. Thus, Qing Shui decided to pour his remaining time onto focusing on the Duality Minutest Formation.

Just like that, two months passed. In between, Qing Shui spent some time practicing his Nine Palace Steps and the Ancient Strengthening Technique. In the last couple days, the Ancient Strengthening Technique had two Cycle breakthroughs. However, the increase in strength didn’t feel especially invigorating. After all, the breakthrough difference wasn’t much, especially when compared to every ninth Cycle breakthrough that increased his strength by several folds.

A normal day’s length was equivalent to a hundred days in the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal. The time he had spent was the equivalent of seventy days in the realm, the time he had remaining was about one month. During this time, Qing Shui made preparations for refining materials used in formations.

Pebbles did not carry much power, and jewels were too precious and extravagant. Therefore, Qing Shui decided to use beast skins and beast bones as Formation Flags. The beast skins and the beast bones collected from the Real of the Violet Jade Immortal were of a high quality.

Qing Shui studied a bit on how to make Formation Flags. Surprisingly, beast skins and beast bones required individual quenching, which was similar to the method of quenching used in talisman crafting.

This time, it was relatively easy to craft the Formation Flags. According to the method of crafting, Qing Shui discovered that the Spiritual Qi within them was adequate, and thus he was very satisfied. With a small amount of Spiritual Qi, the little triangular flags crafted would be one foot in height. Crafting was not taxing in terms of material, but it required ten or more days to craft approximate ten thousand little flags.

Looking at the little flags, Qing Shui thought of the eye of the formation. That formation node still required a formation flag, but the main flag should be crafted from a material of an even higher quality.

……

The next day, Qing Shui rose from bed on time. The sky was barely lit and since it was winter, there was still some time before dawn. Qing Shui walked outside the pavilion building to conduct his morning training. Unless there was an emergency, nothing could disrupt his morning training routine.