Chapter 481: Formation

She had originally believed Stan had brought her here simply because he wanted to show her a strange place.

Now she realized that this chamber was connected to something far older and far more powerful than she had imagined.

The enormous concentration of Qi suddenly made sense.

It could have been deliberately accumulated here to nurture the inheritor.

The strange spatial laws surrounding the chamber could be remnants of the Void Sovereign’s understanding.

Even the ancient inscriptions might contain fragments of his comprehension.

And then there was the most obvious detail.

Stan.

He could move through this place effortlessly.

The chamber recognized him.

The space responded to him.

Yet he had never once behaved as though any of this were particularly remarkable.

Camilla narrowed her eyes. ’Just who exactly are you, Stan?’

Her curiosity deepened.

She had already known that Stan was extraordinary. She had simply never realized how deep that extraordinariness might go.

If this truly was the Void Sovereign’s inheritance, then whatever secrets Stan was hiding were probably far greater than she had imagined.

Camilla glanced at him once more.

He remained completely immersed in cultivation, his breathing slow and steady as faint spatial distortions continued to ripple around his body.

She folded her arms and quietly watched him.

For the first time, she found herself genuinely eager to discover what would happen when he eventually opened his eyes.

Camilla couldn’t help but find the contrast almost ridiculous.

She was standing inside an inheritance belonging to an existence whose very title had made her instinctively cautious, yet Stan sat beside her as though they were simply spending an ordinary afternoon together.

If he really was the Void Sovereign, then just how deep did his secrets go?

And if this chamber was merely one of the inheritances he had prepared for a future successor, how many other places like this existed?

Camilla’s gaze lingered on the words displayed across the screen.

For the first time, she seriously wondered whether she had underestimated Stan by far more than she had ever realized.

Her attention eventually returned to him.

Stan remained perfectly still, his breathing slow and controlled. Yet a faint distortion had begun to form around his body.

It was subtle enough that an ordinary person would never have noticed it, but Camilla’s heightened perception allowed her to clearly see the space surrounding him gently warping.

There was no violent surge of energy.

No uncontrolled eruption.

Reality itself simply seemed to be responding to his presence.

Camilla’s pupils narrowed.

"He’s affecting space without even consciously controlling it..."

She instinctively took a step backward.

A faint chill ran down her spine.

The phenomenon was unsettling precisely because Stan wasn’t deliberately doing anything. His comprehension of space had apparently reached a point where his very existence was beginning to influence his surroundings.

Yet despite the danger such a phenomenon represented, Camilla couldn’t deny that she found it fascinating.

She continued watching for a while longer.

Then Stan’s aura changed.

The distortion around his body gradually faded, and his breathing slowed until it was almost imperceptible. The turbulent flow of Qi within the chamber settled with him, and an unnatural silence descended over the entire space.

Even the enormous projection of Earth seemed to respond.

Its rotation slowed.

The seven anchor nodes ceased their irregular flickering.

For a brief moment, it felt as though the entire chamber had fallen into a state of absolute stillness.

Then Stan opened his eyes.

Camilla froze.

For the briefest instant, she felt as though she wasn’t looking into human eyes at all.

An endless void seemed to be reflected within them, an immeasurable expanse where distance itself had ceased to have meaning. There was no beginning or end to that darkness, only an overwhelming depth that made her instinctively hold her breath.

Then it disappeared.

Stan blinked once.

His expression returned to normal, as though nothing unusual had happened.

"How long?"

Camilla stared at him for another moment before answering.

"Several hours."

Stan looked genuinely surprised.

"That long?"

Camilla gave him an incredulous look.

"You didn’t notice?"

"No."

She sighed and shook her head.

"Of course you didn’t."

Stan ignored the remark and turned his attention toward the enormous formation surrounding Earth.

Something had changed during his meditation.

The formation was still impossibly complex, but the ancient Dao inscriptions that had once appeared almost incomprehensible to him were no longer completely beyond his perception.

His cultivation had deepened his understanding of the Dao of Space, while the information recently provided by the system had also given him a basic foundation in formation theory.

Together, the two improvements allowed him to see the formation from an entirely different perspective.

He still couldn’t decipher everything.

In fact, he suspected that what he understood amounted to only a small fraction of the formation’s true structure.

Its age alone made it extraordinarily difficult to analyze, while the countless energy pathways and ancient inscriptions intertwined in patterns far beyond his current realm.

But he no longer saw an incomprehensible mass of information.

Patterns were beginning to emerge.

He could distinguish several major energy pathways, identify repeating structures, and recognize some of the fundamental principles governing the formation’s operation.

Most importantly, he could now see how its different sections depended on one another.

Stan’s eyes narrowed.

"The formation has seven primary anchors."

Camilla, who had been standing a short distance away, immediately approached.

She raised her head and followed his gaze toward the enormous projection.

"Yes."

Her eyes moved between the seven brilliant nodes.

"Each one stabilizes a different section."

Stan nodded.

That was precisely what he had discovered.

The seven anchors were far more than simple sources of energy. They formed the structural foundation of the entire formation, distributing power throughout its countless pathways while keeping the enormous network stable.

If one anchor suffered severe damage, the surrounding sections would be forced to compensate.

That additional burden would then be transferred throughout the formation, placing greater strain on the remaining anchors.

It explained the accelerating deterioration he had observed earlier.

Camilla studied the projection for another moment before turning toward him.

Her expression became serious.

"Can they be repaired?"

Stan didn’t answer immediately.

His eyes moved from one anchor to another, carefully examining the flow of energy around each node. He compared their current condition, searched for damaged pathways, and traced the connections linking them to the rest of the formation.

His understanding had improved considerably.

But understanding the structure was one thing.

Repairing it was another.

Even identifying a damaged component didn’t mean he possessed the knowledge or power required to restore it without destabilizing everything connected to it.

After several seconds, Stan finally shook his head.

"Not immediately."