Chapter 564: Star Pivot’s Discourse on Formations III

Qin Yi watched the spirit marten frolicking inside the array, his gaze full of affection. “I use formations to comb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, transforming it into the purest life force. When spirit beasts cultivate inside the array, the impurities and excessive violent spiritual energy they shed are absorbed by the formation, which in turn nourishes the formation lines themselves.”

He lifted his head and looked toward Xuanheng.

“Ever-renewing, cycling without end. This is my path of beast taming, and this is also my path of formations.”

On the main seat,

Xuanheng looked at the emerald-green formation radiating vigorous life on the ground, and at the second disciple whose smile was warm and gentle.

For once, the wrinkles at the corners of the face that was usually as calm as an ancient well relaxed. A faint, faint smile flickered and vanished at the corner of his eyes.

Qin Yi waved his hand and slowly dispersed the emerald-green formation that had been emanating abundant life from the black obsidian.

The spirit marten seemed reluctant to leave. It rubbed against the obsidian slab twice, then condensed into a streak of white light and shot back into Qin Yi’s sleeve pocket. Qin Yi turned, respectfully bowed to Xuanheng, and then walked back to his place with steady steps.

The moment Qin Yi’s footsteps came to a stop, Luo Feng, who was standing beside Su Ming, suddenly inhaled a huge breath.

He didn’t look at anyone; his eyes even went a bit unfocused. He stood up straight and walked toward the center of the platform. He moved extremely fast, his steps striking heavy echoes on the shattered star stone. His messy hair swung wildly in the air, the scorched black patches on his robe from years of experiments looked particularly glaring, and the wide sleeves were full of stiff creases from him having nervously gripped them moments before.

Su Ming watched Luo Feng’s almost rigid back, a faint sliver of concern flashing across his eyes.

“Senior Brother.”

Su Ming’s voice was very low, but in the silent hall it came through with unusual clarity. “Steady.”

Luo Feng’s body stiffened briefly halfway. He didn’t turn back; he gave a muffled “hm” in his throat, and his pace slowed by half a beat. The near-uncontrollable impatience that had been driving him was forcibly suppressed, if only a bit, by those two words.

Luo Feng finally stopped at the center of the platform.

“I’m different from Eldest Senior Sister and Second Senior Brother.”

His speech was rapid, carrying an almost mad excitement. “Eldest Senior Sister kills with sword intent, Second Senior Brother cultivates beasts with life force. My Dao is the formation Dao itself!”

His hands plunged into his sleeves and, without any grace, began frantically pulling things out.

Clang!

Three palm-sized formation plates, their surfaces covered with complex and violent red patterns, slammed heavily onto the obsidian platform.

Then he ripped out a formation diagram whose edges were already burned black and curled, carelessly spreading it beside the plates. Finally, he held two somewhat cloudy low-grade spirit stones precisely between his fingertips.

Luo Feng’s eyes stayed fixed on those three plates; veins showed on the whites of his eyes. “Master once said formations borrow the laws of heaven and earth. But I think the essence of a formation’s destructive power is the instant when spiritual energy goes from ordered to extremely chaotic during an explosion.”

He thrust one low-grade spirit stone into the recess of the first formation plate.

Hum—

With Luo Feng’s violently forced injection of fire-attributed spiritual energy, that plate instantly flared with a blinding red light. The plate’s surface heated and glowed red at a speed visible to the naked eye, and an unnerving aura of annihilation surged crazily from those complex red patterns.

Under Su Ming’s sleeve, his fingers had already quietly formed a water-style “Unload” hand sign.

Boom!

A deafening explosion ripped through Star Pivot Hall.

The first formation plate couldn’t withstand that violent backflow of spiritual energy and detonated into a blazing fireball. Countless burning high-temperature fragments shot out in all directions.

However, in the extremely short instant when those fragments flew out to about three feet from Luo Feng’s body—

Sss—

A piercing sound of spiritual energy friction suddenly rang out.

Around the periphery of the explosion, a faint but extraordinary tough pale-blue restraining formation line lit up without warning. The fragments that could have pierced the protective spiritual light of a normal Foundation Establishment cultivator struck that restraining line as if hitting an invisible iron wall and were locked motionless in midair.

The terrifying heat and shockwave generated by the blast were precisely confined within a half-zhang radius around Luo Feng.

“Not finished yet!”

Luo Feng paid no mind to the firelight frozen in place. He slammed the second low-grade spirit stone into the recess of the second plate with ruthless force.

The violent energy intercepted by the restraining lines during the previous blast did not dissipate. It funneled, through several nearly invisible spiritual-energy conduits, like rivers converging, violently back into the second plate.

The second plate required no further input from Luo Feng.

The destructive energy from the first explosion had been perfectly converted into the energy needed to activate it.

Boom!

The second explosion followed. Its light was even more dazzling than before, and the explosive power increased geometrically. Yet again, at the instant the blast traveled out three feet, the pale-blue restraining formation lines reappeared and locked this even more terrifying force in place.

Luo Feng stood between the two huge fireballs now locked in stasis, hair whipping, eyes burning with near-frenzy.

“Chain reaction!” his voice came out hoarse. “One lowest-grade spirit stone as a primer. Minimize the energy loss of each explosion and channel it into the next node.”

He suddenly raised his hand and pointed at the two fireballs that were still churning violently. “With this one low-grade spirit stone, I can now produce the power of a mid-grade explosive talisman!”

Inside Star Pivot Hall, aside from the two fireballs sizzling within their restraint circles, there was no other sound.

Luo Feng stood there, his chest heaving violently.

He slowly lowered his head and looked at the third plate on the platform that had not been activated. When his fervent gaze touched that plate, it was as if a bucket of cold water had been poured over him; his excitement abruptly reined in.

He bent down slowly and tucked the third plate back into his sleeve.

“Master said last time that I—”

His throat worked and his voice turned a little dry. “He said I always waste the sect’s resources. I thought about it a long time after I returned.”

He straightened, looking at Xuanheng on the main seat. The fanaticism in his eyes was replaced by a weary clarity. “I think Master was right.”

He extended a finger, pointing at the two layers of restraining formation lines that were still barely containing the explosive aftereffects.

“I used to only pursue louder blasts and greater power. I never thought about how to recover these forces. If this were on a battlefield, I wouldn’t even know how far this formation would blow.”

Luo Feng gave a bitter laugh and scratched his unruly hair. “So this time, I abandoned the pursuit of stacking maximum power. I put most of my effort into this restraining ring. I want to keep the explosion within the range it ought to be controlled in.”

He took a deep breath. “Although this restraint isn’t perfect—sometimes it can prematurely detonate under excessive internal pressure—at least… at least when I go fight other people in the future, I won’t start by sending my own ashes flying.”

Having said that, Luo Feng didn’t wait for Xuanheng’s appraisal. He performed a proper deep bow, then silently retreated back to his spot.