Read Rise Of The Worm Sovereign Chapter 291 - Range Extension Formation Array? online for free - AllNovelFull
There were different categories for each type of maker which would denote either a location of interest, cultivator, spirit beast, resource, formations, data node, etc. Lin Wu scrolled through them and saw that most of the cultivators were concentrated around the sect as was expected.
Though there were a few markers for spirit beasts in the Frozen Cloud Sect as well. Two of these markers were what caught his attention, particularly as they were the highest ranked.
"Adult stage Nascent Soul realm beasts, huh?" Lin Wu muttered to himself.
He saw their location, which was deep within the Frozen cloud sect. Thankfully, he had the map or it would have been a surprise to him. Lin Wu couldn't estimate how strong these beasts would be or what kind they were, but he reckoned they should be slightly below the Twin Lights Liger king.
Though he could be wrong and he would just have to see it himself.
"I'll have to be careful about those two. If they are tamed beasts or perhaps the guardian beasts of the sect, they may be able to sense me even if the other cultivators cannot." Lin Wu muttered to himself.
But in addition to these Lin Wu saw many more strong cultivators.
"System show me the Nascent Souls realm and Dao Shell realm cultivators." Lin Wu said.
~Ding~
——
MARKER TYPE: Cultivators
1. Dao Shell realm cultivators: 10
2. Nascent Soul realm cultivators: 52
3. Unknown: 2
——
Seeing the large number of high level cultivators, Lin Wu was shocked.
"Hang on a minute… didn't the records say they are a mid level sect? There's no way this is a mid level sect. They got way too many powerful people.
And what's up with the two unknowns, system?" Lin Wu said,
~Ding~
——
ANSWER: The two unknown cultivators cannot be scanned by the system from here. They are under the protection of formation arrays.
——
Lin Wu scrolled on the map and found the location of the two unknown cultivators. One of them was located deep inside a mountain peak while the other one was in a building on top of the tallest peak of the sect.
"Hmm… seeing the one that's hiding deep within the peak, that guy should be an ancestor, maybe? And the second one should be… a grand elder, perhaps?" Lin Wu guessed.
From the records that Lin Wu had seen, the Frozen Cloud Sect officially had 6 Dao Shell realm cultivators. One of them was the patriarch of the sect, while the rest were high elders. He didn't know who the other four were, but he assumed that they must be some secret elders as well.
As for the Nascent Soul realm cultivators, Lin Wu knew those disciples that reached the adolescent stage or the adult stages of the nascent soul realm would be made into elders as well. But these would be the normal elders of the sect that taught others.
As for the core disciples, the number often changed, but the last recorded number was of twenty core disciples.
~phew~
"Man, this is gonna be much harder and risky than I thought." Lin Wu muttered to himself.
Thinking over all aspects of the plan, Lin Wu realized he would have to change a few parts. But another thing that bugged him was that perhaps the Frozen Cloud Sect was much stronger than it was recorded.
"They must have intentionally avoided their rank being upgraded. High Rank sects are those that have eight or more Dao shell realm cultivators while those that gain a Dao treading realm cultivator instantly become a top rank sect.
Those two unknown ones may be Dao Treading realm cultivators…" Lin Wu hypothesized.
Seeing the overall complexity of the matter, Lin Wu decided to verify all the points of his plan multiple times before progressing.
"The key to this would be the formations. As long as I have control over them or just make them not detect me, I'll be fine." Lin Wu reckoned.
Having thought up all this, he proceeded to the border of the formation. The border was ten kilometers away and went all the way around the sect, forming a sphere. There was the biggest formation that Lin Wu had seen till now.
This one was not a barrier or protective formation though, rather it was a range extension formation that allowed the other formations that existed within it to function for longer ranges. It was similar to how the tomb of the Taiji Celestial was.
The formations worked in the tomb itself and Lin Wu would be able to move around in its range without any spirit Qi cost. But to go beyond that he would require spirit Qi.
But if it was just an extension formation Lin Wu would have been fine, but this formation combined a lot of them by the virtue of its function although they won't be active all the time. For example, an identity function.
While Lin Wu would be able to enter the territory of the sect without a problem for now, if anyone did an identity scan, he would be found out. The sect would usually do those scans at regular intervals throughout the day instead of having it continuously active, like the residences of the aristocrats.
This way the efficiency would still be high and they would not have to bear heavy costs either.
"Alright system, analyze and create a virtual interface." Lin Wu ordered.
~Ding~
——
TARGET SELECTED: Analyzing
ESTIMATED TIME OF ANALYSIS: 3 hours 45 minutes 21 seconds
——
~Sigh~
Seeing the time needed for it, Lin Wu sighed again and just decided to cultivate. The time passed relatively quickly after that and the new notification appeared, which only made him sigh again.
~Ding~
——
TARGET ANALYSIS: Completed
CREATING VISUAL INTERFACE: Time required- 6 hours 14 minutes 19 seconds…
——
"Damn, if this keeps up I'll end up exhausting my time in the formations before I even enter…" Lin Wu muttered to himself.
Having no other choice, he continued cultivating until it was finally done.
~Ding~
——
VIRTUAL INTERFACE ESTABLISHED: Range Extension Formation array
Function list: 217 Functions (please check the relevant window)
——
Lin Wu had expected there to be many functions in the formation array but he was still surprised to see them.
He read through the list and saw that most of them were not as important and were operation formations for minor things, such as opening doors, sorting names, listing things. A lot of them were repeats of the same function just for different parts of the location.
The one that Lin Wu considered to be of importance was the one that checked one's identity.
"Hmm… this one requires an identity badge for it to work. Let's see if we can figure something else out." Lin Wu muttered to himself.
He knew his crystals could function as jade slips and should thus work as identity slips too. Though the only thing was he would need an authentic one so that the system could replicate the intricacies of it.
"Let's see if I can find someone willing to donate one to me… Hehe." Lin Wu said, before checking the map.
What he was looking for now, were disciples that were outside of the sect or were heading there. There were many of them going in and out of the sect, but the location they were located in was quite risky for Lin Wu to go to.
That area was the main gateway of the Frozen Cloud sect and had tough security, along with many formations. Even beyond it, the path was quite well-traveled and it was likely someone else would discover him if he went there.
'Gotta prepare a bait I guess…' Lin Wu thought to himself before coming up with an idea.
He brought his tail forward and created a small crystal from it. The crystal was shaped like a pendant and if one saw it, they would think it was a treasure no doubt. But this was not all Lin Wu did.
He touched the crystal and poured some spirit Qi into it. The amount was barely anything to him, but for anyone in the Qi refining realm or core condensation realm, it would probably be worth a lot.
He then went to the area that was near the main entrance of the sect. He didn't go all the way through. He stopped about 3 kilometers from there, which was sufficient for others to not detect him.
Then he placed the pendant on the ground and started releasing pulses of spirit Qi. They were not too strong or too weak, but they would definitely pull the attention of someone that had strong enough spirit sense.
Lin Wu didn't want any tom, dick, and harry disciple from the sect or their identity may not even be good enough for the system to use. Lin Wu knew the system would be able to fake a higher level authority but seeing the experts of the sect, he didn't want to risk getting found out even if the chance was minute.
He sent out the spirit Qi pulses towards the main path every five minutes and waited for someone to sense them. But didn't make the pulses too strong either or if he attracted the attention of some elder, it would only make things more difficult as he wouldn't be able to use their identity for longer.
Lin Wu stayed beneath the ground there like a fisherman waiting with his line cast. The pendant was the bait, and the spirit Qi pulse was the bob. Though his position was inverted where he was below the prey unlike in the case of the fisherman and he was a worm too on top of it.
It took Lin Wu about an hour before he saw someone moving towards his direction on the map. From the marker, Lin Wu could tell that it was a cultivator at the core condensation realm, though what stage that was still unknown.
He didn't change the frequency of the pulses, though. If he did that and the person suspected it was a trap, they may alert the sect. Thus, he patiently waited without doing anything different.
The person who had sensed the spirit Qi pulses did not come there quickly either. Whoever it was, they seemed to be cautious and did not want to either bring attention to this or were scared perhaps.
"Come on, come on, I'm waiting little fishy." Lin Wu said as he watched the person like a hawk.
Eventually, the man came within the range of Lin Wu's spirit sense and he could see who he was.
"Ah, an inner court disciple! Perfect." Lin Wu said before waiting for him to get even closer.
The man was certainly cautious and was looking at his back and sides every few seconds.
"Where are these spirit Qi fluctuations coming from? They're way too strong to belong to a spirit herb and they won't grow here. If they did, they would have already been picked by the sect.
What could it be, then? A treasure? Or did someone drop something?" The man muttered to himself with furrowed brows.
Finally, the man reached the pendant and looked at it. His eyes went wide upon realizing what it was.
"Trea-…" He was about to exclaim, but then shut his mouth with his hand.
His spirit sense spread around as he checked for anyone nearby.
~phew~
"It truly is my lucky day. Looks like someone dropped this here… though looking at the quality and spirit Qi coming from this pendant it must belong to an elder at the very least. If he went past here while flying then it makes sense he dropped it and did not realize." The man said to himself.
Lin Wu nodded his head at the man's guess while thinking. 'Thank you for making up a story on your own and dispelling your own doubts.'
The man didn't pick it up directly though. He first checked it with his spirit sense and verified that it was safe. Seeing that the pendant only had spirit Qi in it, the man bent down to pick it up.
But the moment his fingers touched the pendants, he felt the ground shake.
"Huh?"
Ping Bai was an inner court disciple of the Frozen cloud sect and was relatively average. He came from a rich family of traders and was selected by the frozen cloud sect as a disciple a few years ago.
Thankfully, he was talented enough to directly enter the ranks of an inner court disciple and did not have to struggle much. Though there was still that desire he had in his heart to become greater than he was right now.
For this, he had been practicing hard but his cultivator talent was now proving to be the obstacle. In the secular world back when he was in his clan, his talent was at the very top and there was barely anyone who could compare to him, but in the frozen cloud sect, there were easily thousands of other disciples who were the same as him or better than him.
If he wanted to still improve at a good speed, he needed resources that he lacked. While the sect did provide him with a set amount of resources for being an inner court disciple, it was barely enough for him to cultivate daily. If he wanted to go beyond that, he would have to depend on his own or the natural spirit Qi in the air.
Due to this lack of resources, Ping Bai decided to take up a mission from the sect. If one completed the missions assigned by the sect, depending on the difficulty level they would be given merit points which could then be exchanged for whatever they needed from the sect, whether they be cultivation resources like spirit stones, pills, or other things that improve one's strength like spirit tools or Qi skills.
He was currently heading out for a mission, which was to simply hunt for spirit beasts and bringing back their parts. This was the most common mission that was always available for dispels to take and was also the most popular.
It was also the only mission that did not have a set difficultly level as it would depend on the level of beast one fought. The disciples could decide what type of beasts to hunt and as such, they would be able to change the difficulty level.
Ping Bai here decided to hunt for some spirit beasts in the forest around the sect. It was a relatively safe location and while he would not find any beasts that were too valuable, he would still be able to make up for that in volume.
But he had not expected that just shortly after leaving the sect, he would sense spirit Qi coming from a place near him. At first, he thought it was someone fighting or cultivating nearby that was releasing these fluctuations, but then he found them to be uniform every time.
He reckoned that something like this would probably be caused by a spirit herb or some treasure. Ping Bai also deliberated on the idea that this may be a trap but then thought no one would try something like that so close to the Frozen cloud sect.
Whosoever did that would invite the wrath of the sect and would not have a good end. Thus with this in mind, he built up the courage to check up on the spirit Qi fluctuations.
Alas! His previous guess turned out to be true as it was indeed a trap.
"Huh?" Ping Bai uttered in bewilderment, as he felt the ground shake.
Then it suddenly started to rise up around him and he felt fear. He was just about to shout, but then darkness filled his eyes and he did not feel anything after that.
Lin Wu was currently back in the ground and had gone over the memories of the man who he had just swallowed whole. They were pretty mediocre memories and did not ignite his interest as much. Even for the information about the sect itself, Lin Wu did not get anything substation.
"Ptui~ this guy was a hermit who barely left his residence. No wonder he knows less than I do about the Frozen cloud sect." Lin Wu said as he spat out some pieces of leather from his mouth.
This was nothing but the shoes of the man, along with a few other things like his identity badge and spatial storage ring.
Lin Wu realized that the information that he knew about the sect obtained by the system was way more than this man called Ping Bai. Still, he got the main thing he wanted, which was the identity badge of the man.
"Alright, system. Time to do your magic." Lin Wu ordered.
~Ding~
——
TARGET SELECTED: Analyzing
ANALYSIS COMPLETE: Replicating and adapting identity formations.
NOTIFICATION: Please select an anchor for the identity formations.
——
"Use one of the crystals of my body for it." Lin Wu said.
~Ding~
——
ANCHOR SELECTED: Please wait a moment,
REPLICATION COMPLETED: New identity badge created.
——
Lin Wu then saw a new item appear in his inventory, which was nothing but his fake identity badge. Though it would still work if Lin Wu held it up to the security formations of the sect.
'Hmm… the appearance may be a problem, but as long as I don't appear personally it should still be fine.' Lin Wu thought.
Once this was all done, he quickly went ahead and crossed the boundary of the formation that surrounded the sect. He could feel a faint web spreading over him, but it soon disappeared once it touched the fake identity badge that the system had devised.
"Huh… Neat." Lin Wu muttered at the strange feeling of the formation before proceeding to his next location.
About four days had passed by now, and tomorrow would be the day of Wang Xiong's duel with the core disciple. The place where Lin Wu was currently heading to was the peak on which Wang Xiong resided.
This was one of the smaller peaks in the sect and was used for housing inner court disciples. There were thousands of courtyards on it, and Wang Xiong lived in the middle area somewhere.
"There you are!"
While Lin Wu was near Wang Xiong's residence, he was actually not intending to meet him. He didn't want the man to become careless and make some mistake by thinking that he had Lin Wu to back him up.
Rather, he was gonna wait there and observe him, making sure no one came to do something 'nefarious' before the duel. Lin Wu had read a lot of cultivation novels and thus knew of the various scenarios that could happen.
'No way I'm gonna let some random cannon fodder mess up my plans…' Lin Wu thought to himself.
"Though… aren't these guys living a bit too unfashionably? What's up with these plain residences?" Lin Wu wondered.
The residences of the inner court disciple looked like the houses of villagers. They were plain wooden residences with clay tiles on the roof. Their doors were bare with nary a bit of cinnabar paint on them.
Though when Lin Wu saw the formations, he knew all of this was just prioritizing the function instead of the aesthetic. There were many formations on the residence, such as defensive formations, isolating formation, and spirit Qi gathering formation.
These formations were already plenty to bankrupt any common core condensation realm cultivator, not to mention any Qi refining realm cultivator. Back at the Deer Wood city, Lin Wu had seen the residences of the nobles and they were quite similar to this.
But the difference could be seen from that, as only the rich nobles could afford such things, while here there were already thousands of residences like those. Even the special residence that was given to Shirong did not have a spirit Qi gathering formation attached to it though.
From what Lin Wu had learned, Spirit Qi gathering formations were one of the formations that were needed by nearly any sect. Without spirit Qi gathering formations, it would be harder for the disciples to cultivate.
The sects all had spirit Qi mines and spirit Qi springs under them, which allowed them to gain spirit stones and supply the spirit Qi needed for their cultivation. Without them, the spirit Qi emanated from them would be confined to a very small area and would not be effectively utilized. Some Qi gathering formation could also gather the spirit Qi from the air itself, but their inefficiency depended on their grades.
But transmitting this spirit Qi to multiple places without it dissipating was not possible without the formations. Thus they would become one of the primary formations that a sect needed. These spirit Qi formations were also of many types and grades.
Qi gathering formations were actually an entire subfield in the great field of formation masters.
There were many formation masters who dedicated their lives to making and studying Qi gathering formations. There were simply so many complexities and nuances to a Qi gathering formation that many formation masters that entered it would only be able to learn two or three such formations in their lifetime.
Lin Wu knew there were five categories of the Qi gathering formation.
They were divided into:
1. Tool powering formation
2. City powering formation
3. Sect powering formation
4. Empire Powering formation
5. World powering formation
The one that the Frozen Cloud Sect was using was one of the sect powering formations. The core of the formation array would be located deep within the sect and would gather the spirit Qi from the various spirit Qi mines and spirit Qi springs before collecting it into a large reservoir.
Then from this reservoir, the spirit Qi would be supplied to various smaller spirit Qi gathering formations that were each attached to a place that required it. For example, the residence of a disciple.
This also allowed the sect to control how much spirit Qi was supplied to each location, depending on the importance.
For example, the residence of an outer court disciple would get less spirit Qi than an inner court disciple and an elder would receive more than both of them.
"System the formation that the Taiji Celestial's tomb has… what grade is it?" Lin Wu questioned.
~Ding~
——
ANSWER: The Qi gathering formation that powers the Taiji Celestial's tomb is an Empire Powering formation. But it has been damaged and can only gather a fraction of its capacity which is roughly equal to half of a Sect powering formations' capacity.
——
~Sigh~
"How good it would be if I got that level… though now that I'm here I should be able to remedy that. At least a little bit." Lin Wu said as his gaze went to the map.
There were a few special markers that were used to designate very high level energy sources in the sect. Of these, there were seven that were particularly bright. Three of them were spirit stone mines and were spread across the three main mountains of the sect, while the remaining four were spirit Qi springs that were distributed between the smaller peaks.
Lin Wu was of course interested in them and wanted to get to the spirit stone mines, but couldn't help but stop him.
"Those two secret elders or whatever are there as well… can't risk it." Lin Wu muttered to himself.
The two unknown level cultivators were located near those three spirit stone mines and thus Lin Wu did not want to disturb them by going there and getting found out.
"Though these spirit Qi springs…" Lin Wu said as he looked at the closest one, which was just half a kilometer away from his location.
'Let's take a look.' Lin Wu thought as he made up his mind.
Reaching the spirit Qi springs periphery didn't take him that long, but he had to stop because of the barrier that was surrounding it. Though the thing was, this barrier was not created from a formation. If it were made from a formation, Lin Wu would have been easily been able to cross it with the help of the system.
Lin Wu carefully checked the barrier with his spirit sense and came to a conclusion.
"This is most definitely made from a Qi skill…"
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Lin Wu could tell that the Qi skill was probably cast by a very strong cultivator. It was made in such a way that once it was cast it would become self-sustaining by absorbing the ambient spirit Qi from the spirit Qi spring.
Casting a Qi skill like this was no small task, as not all Qi skills would become self-sustaining like this.
'It must have been some high grade Qi skill.' Lin Wu thought.
But the barrier was not the only thing that was here of course. The formations that connected to it were also here. Though they did not directly interfere with it and only took the spirit Qi that emanated from it.
Lin Wu stayed here for a while thinking before coming up with an idea.
"System check the formations and analyze their functioning in detail. See what can be done to access this spirit Qi spring." Lin Wu ordered.
~Ding~
——
TASK ASSIGNED: Formation array analysis
ESTIMATED TIME OF COMPLETION: 11 hours 48 minutes 17 seconds
——
"This will be really cutting it close… hopefully, it is done before Wang Xiong's duel starts. Though I don't think I'll be able to do anything before the duel, anyway." Lin Wu muttered to himself.
Trying to think of something else, Lin Wu spread his spirit Qi to surround the spirit Qi spring. The spring itself was not that being less than a hundred meters in diameter. The barrier surrounding it was in the form of a sphere as well and selectively allowed spirit Qi to leave and enter it.
The spirit Qi would enter from the bottom, as the spring absorbed spirit Qi from the earth and would then release it from the top, letting the Qi gathering formation to supply it to the main reservoir.
The area around the spring was mostly made of rocks and soil, with the spring itself located in a wide cave. This cave was obviously made by a person and was not natural.
"I should be able to get close enough to see it directly at least." Lin Wu said to himself.
He shrunk his body and dug a small opening near the cave of the spirit Qi spring. He popped his head out and looked around. Thankfully, the area was mostly dark and no one would spot him even if he was here.
"Huh… not a single person here?" Lin Wu spoke upon seeing the empty area.
It was then that he realized the sect could not afford to let anyone stay here. It would be a big problem for them if the person became greedy and tried to do anything to the spring. Besides, with the barrier protecting the spring, they didn't think they would need actual people to guard it.
Now aware of this, Lin Wu simply came to the front without caring to hide. Since no one was here, he had no reason for that anymore.
"Let's get a bit of light here…" Lin Wu said before making his body glow.
~shua~
Even if the barrier stopped his spirit sense and blocked him from entering it, the light from his body was still able to pass through it with ease.
"WHOA!!" Lin Wu exclaimed upon seeing the spirit Qi spring.
The spring itself was transparent like water, but under the illumination of his emerald green light, it looked dazzling. The reflection cast by the walls of the cave made a unique scene, making it seem as if there was no end to the cave.
The spring was nothing but spirit Qi wisps that had been fully converted into a liquid form. But unlike the spirit Qi in a cultivator's Dantian which would quickly vaporize into wisps upon being exposed to open air, this liquid spirit Qi was very stable.
But this was not all that Lin Wu saw there. At the very depths of the spirit Qi spring, he also spotted a translucent crystal. For others, it would have been hard to see it as it would easily blend in with the spirit Qi spring, but for Lin Wu it who had radiation perception it was easy.
While the crystal itself did not release any radiation, it did release spirit Qi from it, which caused the ambient radiation in the cave to move.
"That should be the source crystal of the spirit Qi spring," Lin Wu guessed.
As source crystal was basically the root of the spirit Qi spring. It was what made a spirit Qi spring to form after a long period of condensation. A source crystal for spirit Qi spring would easily take hundreds of years to form and after that, it would take even longer to condense a spirit Qi spring.
It were these very source crystals that a sect would gather and plant in their sects to create their own spirit Qi springs.
This was essential to the growth of a sect. A sect would start by finding a spirit stone mine and building around it. Then the people of the sect would slowly gather more and more spirit Qi spring source crystals and transplant them into their sects.
Then after a few decades, it would turn into a spirit Qi spring. And if more time passed, say centuries or even millenniums, they would finally turn into a spirit stone mine.
Lin Wu was here with the same aim as well. He wanted the source crystal of the spirit Qi spring. But getting it would not be so easy, as if he tried to do anything it was likely the sect would be alerted.
So for this, he would have to make a proper plan such that he gets the source crystal and does not alert the sect either.
While he was waiting, he saw that there was a layer of small stones and rocks surrounding the barrier. These stones were spread around in a circular manner around the barrier and were all loose stones.
"How did these get here? Or did someone place them here?" Lin Wu wondered.
But then incidentally he saw something that answered this question for him.
'No wonder…'
Since the cave was here for a long time and was manually carved out, it was obvious that it would erode from the natural elements after time. Because of this, small pieces of rocks and soil would fall from the ceiling from time to time.
Some of these would fall on the barrier that surrounded the spirit Qi spring. But the barrier would not let them fall inside, because of which they would roll off it and fall around its edges.
While this was a very mundane thing, it gave an important bit of information to Lin Wu.
"Oho, so the barrier does not set off an alarm when it is touched. Though it should depend on the level of impact that is levied on it, seeing as the small rocks do not affect it. A light touch by someone should have the same effect I presume." Lin Wu hypothesized.
'Let's see if my estimation is correct…' Lin Wu thought before extending a very small part of his tail forward.
It was only as big as the rock that had previously fallen and hopefully should not cause any problem.
Lin Wu extended it very slowly and watched it approach the surface of the barrier. His breath was held in his throat as he finally touched it.
He had thought that something would happen, a flicker, ripple or anything; but nothing did. It was as if the barrier was unresponsive.
"Hmm… this is much better than I thought. Let's up it a little bit." Lin Wu muttered before increasing the force.
He doubled his previous force and still nothing had happened. He kept on increasing it little by little, seeing no response. By the time two hours had passed by, Lin Wu was now at twenty percent of his full strength.
~shua~
Finally, he saw a ripple appear on the barrier and spirit Qi fluctuations came from it. He immediately stopped there, and the barrier also stopped whatever it was doing before calming down.
"Huh… the strength needed is a lot more than I expected. And even then it stops if it is withdrawn. I guess the threshold is there in case more rocks fall on it or the roof collapses. Unless something of that level happens the sect would not get alerted." Lin Wu said to himself.
Having understood this, Lin Wu realized that there were a few more things he could try out. He especially had something that he had been wanting to try out.
Lin Wu extended his tail towards the barrier once again, but this time he amplified it with his spirit Qi. This time the undaunted sapphire body art was in full effect and a coating of spirit Qi could be seen around his tail.
As soon as he touched the surface of the barrier, Lin Wu could see that the spirit Qi had actually passed into it partially. But his body itself was being stopped. It was a rather strange combination, and he reckoned he could test more.
Seeing as he had a lot more time till the analysis of the system would be complete, Lin Wu decided to just do this.
And just like that several hours passed and Lin Wu did a slew of different tests with the barrier, always making sure that he did not go beyond the threshold at which the alarm formations would activate.
"Goddamn, it really worked!" Lin Wu exclaimed.
He had done something that he had randomly tried. He never expected it to work, but it did. He didn't know why, but he didn't care for it.
In front of Lin Wu, a small fingernail sized hole had been opened up on the barrier. The edges of this hole glowed with a green-blue light which was nothing but the spirit Qi modified due to the undaunted sapphire body art.
"Ahaha! Now I know what to do. System, record these results and see if they can be extrapolated on a larger scale without the alarm getting activate." Lin Wu said.
~Ding~
——
TASK ADDED: Barrier penetration test
TIME REQUIRED: 5 hours, 48 minutes, 9 seconds
——
"Hmm, this should be enough till we complete the duel." Lin Wu said, before checking the timer for the duel. There was still some time left to it and Wang Xiong was also busy in his preparation.
Lin Wu extended his spirit sense and checked the condition of the man in his residence, finding him to be in the same condition as he had left him. With Lin Wu's long ranged spirit sense, it was easy for him to now keep track of things that were a bit far from him.
He took a look around the nearby area as well and while he was doing so the system gave him another notification.
~Ding~
——
TASK COMPLETED: Formation array analysis
DATA BANKS: Updated
NOTIFICATION: Please check the relevant window for details
——
"Perfect! Just in time." Lin Wu spoke, feeling pleased before opening the window with the new data.
"Oh? This set up seems quite familiar to me…" Lin Wu muttered upon seeing the information about the Qi gathering formation that the sect used.
Essentially, the Qi gathering formation array worked quite similar to how the power grid worked in his past life. The Qi would be gathered from various sources, whether it be the air, spirit Qi springs or the spirit stone mines, and would then be guided to the reservoir.
These sources were like the power plants that generated electricity. And like them, they didn't always operate at their full potential as it would be damaging to the infrastructure instead.
Currently, Lin Wu saw that all of them were operating on fifty percent capacity and this was more than sufficient to supply spirit Qi to the entire sect. And not just this, even the reservoir had enough spirit Qi that it could independently supply spirit Qi to the entire sect for a month before it would get depleted.
This gave him a lot of leeway in making his later plans.
"Hehehe… time for a heist…"
Report chapter
By the time Wang Xiong notified Lin Wu of the duel's starting time, Lin Wu had already made a plan about how he would retrieve the source crystal of the spirit Qi spring. The only thing left for him was the analysis of the barrier that the system would complete in five more hours.
"Senior, the duel will be starting in fifteen minutes at the central battle stage. I'm heading there now." Wang Xiong spoke over the jade slip.
"Mmm, go on and be careful. Just do your best." Lin Wu replied.
"I will not disappoint you, senior." Wang Xiong said in a respectful tone before stopping the connection.
~huu~
"Now to just wait and watch. If trouble really arrives, I'll need to interfere…" Lin Wu muttered to himself before moving towards the location that Wang Xiong had mentioned.
The central battle stage was about three kilometers away from the spirit Qi spring that Lin Wu was at. The central stage was a rather simple name that was given to an entire building complex.
There were multiple stages set up in there, along with seating areas for the audience. It looked quite similar to how the martial arts tournament arenas looked in his past life, except these were much bigger and the materials used were also stronger.
After all, any common cultivator here would split the floor apart with a casual attack if they used the same standard of materials they used in Lin Wu's past life. But this was not the only feature that the central battle stage had a formation array that prevented stray attacks from getting to the audience and also to stop the audience from interfering in the fights.
There were smaller stages that would be used for a longer tournament for the initial rounds, and then one main stage that was the biggest one. This one also had a lot of space for the contestants to fight, along with the audience to sit.
It was in this very arena that Wang Xiong was going to battle. Since he was fighting someone who was quite well known and influential in the sect- a core disciple, there was no way a low leveled stage would be used for it.
Lin Wu saw that a lot of the seats were already filled and even a few elders were in attendance. They had their own seating area and were looking with calm expressions. There was a reefer starting at the edge of the stage who was also at the Nascent soul realm, albeit at the Adolescent stage. Evidently a junior elder.
"Hmm… they have pretty nice infrastructure I must admit…" Lin Wu said upon seeing everything.
"Pity, it's not really effective against the system." Lin Wu said with a chuckle before adding, "system… create a virtual interface for the formation array of the central battle stage."
~Ding~
——
TARGET SELECTED: Central Battle Stage
ANALYZING PARAMETERS: New variables found
CREATING VIRTUAL INTERFACE: Please wait patiently…
VIRTUAL INTERFACE CREATED: Battle stage formation array interface
——
Lin Wu looked over the new interface window and saw that the controls for the stage's formation array were now added there. He would now have no problem if he entered the premises of the central battle stage.
Lin Wu got closer and his spirit sense freely entered the area. He checked all the people in the audience without much trouble even though they felt his spirit sense. But to them, it did not seem like the spirit sense of a cultivator. Rather for them, it was just the central battle stage's formation array doing its regular scan of the area.
Even the elders calmly sat as the spirit sense passed through their bodies. Though a few frowns did appear on some of their faces.
"Hmm… seems like we need to do maintenance work on the formation array soon. It used a much stronger scan than was needed." One of the short bearded elder spoke.
"You think so? I thought it was normal." Another elder that had a crooked back stated.
"No, even I feel that it was a bit stronger than normal. Maybe the calibration got skewed due to the large number of people entering at once. After all, we haven't done a full maintenance on it for a while now." Another elder that had white hair but a smooth unwrinkled face replied.
Lin Wu heard their words clearly and raised his brows.
"I guess, this is just luck." He muttered to himself.
He then looked for Wang Xiong, who he found to be standing on one end of the stage. The man looked to be calmly looking at the stage, or more accurately to the other end. Here another man was standing, a frown present on his face.
'So this is the core disciple that Wang Xiong is going to fight… what was his name? Oh yeah, Niu San.' Lin Wu recalled.
He checked his cultivation as well and found it to be just as Wang Xiong had reported, being at the Infant soul stage of the Nascent Soul realm.
Lin Wu watched as the referee moved up to the stage and raised his hand to calm down the audience.
"Today… we are here to witness a duel." The referee said as he took a look around the audience. "The duel is according to the wishes of the two duelists, and would follow our standard rules of the sect. There shall be no killing, but everything else is allowed." He continued.
~WOOOO~
The audience couldn't help but get excited and shouted out loud. For them, it was not every day that they got to witness something like this and they were looking forward to seeing a core disciple fight.
There were even bets going around on who would win. The odds were of course in the favor of the core disciple Niu San but Wang Xiong had a higher multiplier on him. Still, those who liked to gamble placed their bets on him without hesitation.
"Go on, go on. Place as much as you can… after all, this will all be mine… hehehe!"
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Lin Wu watched on as the two duelists got into their places. Wang Xiong had a relatively calm expression but his opponent Niu San still had a pissed off face. He was also muttering something that could not be heard. But from his expression it was likely to not be anything good.
"The two duelists read?" The referee asked as he looked at them.
"READY!" Both of them shouted in unison.
"FIGHT!!" The referee declared.
~shua~
As soon as he said that, Niu San lunged at Wang Xiong with a sword in his hand. The sword had a gleaming edge and Lin Wu could tell that it was a high grade spirit weapon. Wang Xiong responded by blocking it with his halberd.
~clang~
The two weapons collided, knocking up winds in the arena.
~WOOOO~
"HE BLOCKED IT! HE BLOCKED THE ATTACK OF A NASCENT SOUL REALM CORE DISCIPLE!" The people in the audience exclaimed.
Expression of shock could also be seen on Niu San's face and he was having a hard time believing this. All this time he had thought of Wang Xiong as an arrogant and overconfident junior who should know his place, but now he didn't know what to think.
"YOU!" Niu San said, his voice dripping with anger.
~Clang~
Wang Xiong paid no heed to his words and simply deflected his sword. Niu San, who finally recovered from his shock, recovered from the deflecting and looked serious now.
"Seems like you truly do have some skills to be arrogant of…" Niu San said before flicking his hand.
A white ball of frost was shot out from his hand towards Wang Xiong. The ground below the frost ball started freezing as it passed over it.
"Look it's senior Niu San's Frost Freeze Orb!"
Wang Xiong looked at the approaching attack and dodged it by flying up. Ning San wasn't done here though. He threw out more of the Frost Freeze Orbs and filled the stage with them.
Wang Xiong poured spirit Qi into his halberd and dived down from the air.
~whoosh~
The speed of his drop created a sonic boom and then the halberd hit the ground
~DENG~
~Huala~
A shockwave spread outward from the halberd, knocking all the Frost Freeze Orbs out of the stage. But just as Wang Xiong had done this, he suddenly felt the hair at the back of his head, stand.
~shing~
~drip~
He barely managed to move his neck at the right time as an object grazed past it. A small cut was now left at the back of Wang Xiong's neck.
A frown appeared on his face as he saw the object that had just grazed him. It was a Grey dagger that was also a high grade spirit weapon.
"A mere inner court disciple should know his place. Humph~ daring to challenge me," Niu San said as he looked down at Wang Xiong.
~Wooo~
The audience cheered once again, upon seeing the first injury of the duel.
"Senior brother is indeed worthy of his stays. Wang Xiong is the first to be injured!" One of the lackeys of Niu San said.
There were a lot of supporters of the core disciples in attendance, and even Wang Xiong's companions were here to support him. Still, they all had tensed expressions on their faces as they saw their leader getting injured.
Wang Xiong held up the halberd and spun it before creating a slash of spirit Qi. Niu San raised his palm and shot out more Frost Freeze Orbs, but that was not all as now his spirit sword and the dagger was attacking along with them.
Wang Xiong dodged the Frost Freeze Orbs as he exchanged blows with the two spirit weapons. One could tell that he was being suppressed.
Lin Wu who had been watching all this, felt strange seeing Wang Xiong being suppressed.
"Is he doing this intentionally or what? Why is he so slow and weak?" Lin Wu wondered.
The Wang Xiong he had seen before was much stronger and faster. This was even before he got the inheritance of the Taiji Celestial, which meant that he should have been much better than before.
Niu San kept attacking Wang Xiong and got closer little by little. His attacks were getting fierce by the minute, and Wang Xiong had a hard time keeping up with them.
"You should understand by now you are no match for me or any core disciple at that. You should just surrender and let your female companions come server us." Niu San said.
The companions of Niu San who were in the audience couldn't help but laugh upon hearing this.
"Hahah! Senior brother is absolutely right. It is the honor of those girls that they get to serve senior brother in their lives." They said.
The companions of Wang Xiong gritted their teeth and bore it in silence. They knew there was no use in talking back to them, as it would only get more problematic.
Wang Xiong and Niu San kept on clashing as blow after blow was exchanged. But now over ten minutes had passed and people could tell that Niu San WA intentionally delaying it, letting Wang Xiong get humiliated along with his companions.
"ENOUGH!" Wang Xiong suddenly shouted.
"HYAA!" Wang Song yelled as he threw his halberd towards Niu San.
The halberd was covered with a layer of frost that let out a chill that even the people in the audience could feel.
"What is that? We haven't seen that technique before." Someone from the audience commented.
"That… that's the Glacier splitting halberd art!" Finally, someone recognized the technique.
"Humph! Puny tricks!" Niu San said as he made a few hand seals and created a shield in front of him.
~DENG~
The halberd crashed into the shield and cold Qi started spreading around from it. The shield became covered in ice, along with the entire stage. Even Niu San raised his eyes at the amount of spirit Qi that was contained in the halberd.
'Did he use half of his entire spirit Qi stores in this attack?' Niu San wondered.
"LOOK!" Suddenly someone from the audience pointed.
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On the stage, ice could be seen covering it along with the shield that had been created by Niu San.
But that was not all that was there. Multiple Black and white balls of light could be seen glowing around the stage. The people in the audience were all pointing at them and wondered why they had all appeared here.
"What are those? Another Qi skill?" one of the companions of Niu San asked.
Even the companions of Wang Xiong didn't know what was happening and what those black and white balls were.
Niu San, seeing that the situation was now getting out of his control, decided to give it his all.
~harrumph~
He directly placed his palms against the shield and waves of spirit Qi rose from his body. His infant soul stage nascent soul realm cultivation was now fully on display to everyone who was watching.
Wang Xiong could feel the full pressure off of him but did not falter. Rather he was looking at him with an expectant gaze.
~boom~
Suddenly an explosion happened on the shield of Niu San and the halberd that Wang Xiong had shot got thrown away.
~clang~clang~clang~
The halberd fell out of the stage and hit the ground, getting away. But that was not all as the spirit Qi fluctuations coming from the halberd were also suppressed.
"Now, what will you do? I've sealed your halberd and it won't react to your commands. You will lose!" Niu San declared.
He was still eying the black and white balls, but didn't know what they were. Since they had not attacked yet, he guessed they were some kind of a support Qi skill.
"You should just surrender. Do that and I may just spare your life!" Niu San taunted.
Suddenly, a smile appeared on Wang Xiong's face as he started laughing. "Ahahahahah!"
The people in the audience, along with Niu San looked on in bewilderment as Wang Xiong laughed like crazy.
"Huh? Looks like he's already gone mad from his loss. It will be a mercy from me to kill you," Niu San said.
"DO IT SENIOR BROTHER! Get rid of the useless bug! The sect doesn't need someone like him." Niu San's companions shouted from the audience.
"Very well then. I'll listen to the request of my juniors and be merciful by ending your meaningless exigence. Maybe in the next like you'll know how to behave." Niu San stated before coming towards Wang Xiong, who was still laughing.
"Hahaha! Just as I expected… your arrogance will be the one to spell your defeat!" Wang Xiong replied, when suddenly his hands started to glow.
One of his hands glowed in a white light and the other one with a black shadow. Niu San and the other finally realized that this was a Qi skill Wang Xiong had been meaning to use.
Wang Xiong spread his arms wide apart and then moved them in a very unique manner which left behind a trail of light. When his hands finally stopped, one could see that there was now a symbol formed in front of him.
The symbol was in the shape of a circle and was half black, half white; with there being smaller circles of the opposite colors in each part.
"So he's finally used it. Hmm… his plan was good…" Lin Wu muttered to himself.
The symbol that had just appeared was none other than the Taiji Symbol, which was very well known. Even commoners could easily recognize this symbol, not to mention cultivators who knew it even better.
Once the symbol formed, Wang Xiong looked at Niu San in his eyes.
"UNITY RETURNING FIST! Yin Return!" Wang Xiong shouted.
~shua~
Then, as if his words were some chants, all the black balls that were floating around on the stage started moving. Wang Xiong waved his hand as the black balls reacted with all the ice that was around them.
It was like a magnet had been placed there and this magnet was attracting all the cold Qi in the area. The nice suddenly started pealing from the ground while the frost in the air direly condensed into ice shards.
~pew~pew~pew~
These ice shards and fragments shot towards Niu San, who was in front and suppressed him.
"What! How can this be!" The people in the audience said, unable to believe the flipped situation.
Niu San was caught a bit off guard, and a few of these ice shards pierced into his body. Most of them were stopped by his defensive techniques and the formations that were on his robes, but their numbers were still too much for the defense to be absolute.
Blood started spilling from Niu San's wounds, and he became even more furious.
"Good, good, good. Now you've truly angered me! Not only you but your companions will not have a good end now either!" Niu San said with murderous intent.
"Humph! This is just the beginning. The show starts now!" Wang Xiong said as he then punched out with his right hand which was glowing with white light.
"UNITY RETURNING FIST! Yang push!" Wang Xiong yelled.
The white first emanated some strange kind of energy that reacted with all the ice that was in the area. Even the shards that were impeded in Niu San's body reacted and started humming.
~Boom~boom~boom~
Multiple small explosions occurred as the ice shards became super heated and exploded into steam.
"ARGH!!" Niu San cried in pain as blood spilled from his body.
~cough~
He then coughed out more blood as the tattered robes fell from his body. It was evident that his lungs had been injured and the defensive formations on his robe were unable to stand any more attacks.
The audience watched on with their jaws wide opened. They felt like they needed to slap themselves and check if this was a dream or not.
"Oh? He already found a different application of the Unity Returning fist? This man is good…" Lin Wu said upon seeing the entire thing.
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The people were stunned upon seeing the absolute reversal of the entire situation. Not only had Wang Xiong flipped the odds, he had also managed to greatly injure Niu San. And he had not stopped there. He kept on using his new Qi skill and attacking Niu San.
"Yin Return!"
"Yang Push!"
"Yin Return!"
"Yang Push!"
"ARGH!" Niu San spat out more blood.
The black and white orbs kept on moving in and out, making everything difficult for Niu San to dodge. He couldn't block either, as the attacks were too fast and came from every direction.
The elders who were watching it were bewildered as well.
"What is that Qi skill Wang Xiong's using? Do we have something like that in our sect?" One of the elders questioned.
"No… doesn't seem like it. Though it looks similar to Frost Heart Techinque, or rather a variation of it. The way he can manipulate ice to move is similar to that but converting it to hot steam is not." The other elder replied.
"Why have we never seen this junior before? He seems rather talented," The third elders asked.
"I've seen him before. He even participated in the examination for the core disciple selection but never got past the first stage." Another elder said.
The conversation of the elders was unheard by everyone, but a few people did notice that they had their attention on Wang Xiong now. But then they looked back to the battle as a shout was heard.
"Take my final attack, Yin-Yang reversal! Return to one!" Wang Xiong shouted as he brought his hands together.
The white and black lights mixed before turning his fists Grey in color. The light looked quite unstable, but the power contained in it was massive.
The companions of Niu San were tense and rage filled their bodies as they looked at him getting beat up. They looked at each other and nodded.
"STOP!" They suddenly jumped into the ring.
The people in the audience were surprised by this and had not expected this.
"HALT! What do you think you two are doing!" The referee questioned.
Even the elders looked on with frowns on their faces. But they did not interfere yet, wanting to see what their angle was. Even as elders, they had to be careful with core disciples. The difference between them was only that of one or two stages and they could not order them around as easily as they could with the inner court or outer court disciples.
Another thing was these core disciples were quite likely to become elders themselves and some of them would have already become elders had it not been for them intentionally holding back their breakthrough so that they could stabilize their foundations.
The two companions of Niu San straight up ignored the words of the referee and just stared at Wang Xiong.
"Oh, so they finally decided to act, huh? That too in front of everyone… so cliche." Lin Wu muttered upon seeing it.
But he didn't just stay there idly and moved closer to the stage. He was underground, thus no one could see him and the fomentation array was also under his control, for the time being, so he had no problem on that end either.
"What do you two want?" Wang Xiong asked, as his gaze turned tense.
While he was confident of fighting Niu San, he had already depleted quite a fol of his spirit Qi stores. The Unity reversal fist used up a lot of spirit Qi and him using it in a new manner took up even more spirit Qi than that.
Wang Xiong was unsure if he would even be able to last for more than a couple of minutes if anyone of them decided to attack. He then saw one of them pulling out a command token from his spatial storage treasure.
"With my authority as a disciplinary pavilion method, I command you to surrender and come with me so that your crimes can be assessed." The man said.
Wang Xiong was now confused as to what they were talking about. He looked up at the elders and saw that event they were unaware of this. One of the elders actually stood up and flew to the front.
"What is the problem here?" He asked.
"You need not interfere, elder. I suspect that this Wang Xiong has used a demonic technique to attack Niu San. There is no way he would be in this state otherwise, as far as I know, our sect does not have any Qi skill like their either." The man with the token said.
"Even if the sect doesn't have it that doesn't mean that it is a demonic technique." The elder stated.
~tch~
"That is what I want to verify. So Wang Xiong will come with us." The man with the command token said.
"Yeah, this match is also unfair and Niu San is the rightful winner being able to last this long against a demonic technique." The second companion of Niu San added.
Hearing all of their words only made Wang Xiong angry.
"Shameless dogs, both of you!" he spat out.
"Watch your tongue! If it were not for the rules of the sect, I would skin you right now!" The man with the command token said, not caring for the others.
He knew that with his authority there weren't many that would question it. Even the elders that were present here would not be able to do much as the domain of the Disciplinary pavilion was independent and could not be interfered with by them.
Only the head elder of the disciplinary pavilion could do it and that elder was his father.
"YOU!" Wang Xiong uttered, not knowing what to do.
He was suddenly reminded of the words of Senior Lin Wu.
'Remember, they will definitely try to pay unfair when the situation turns sour. Just defeating one of them will not work.'
"Senior was right…" Wang Xiong muttered under his breath before looking straight at the two of them.
"SCUM LIKE YOU NEED TO BE ELIMINATED!" Wang Xiong declared.
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