Chapter 27
Chapter 27
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 27
Chapter Title: Understanding Formations
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Events unfolded just as Lu Yang had anticipated. In the end, Zhao Xuhe sold the *Nine Transformations of the Dragon Art* to him for the paltry sum of 1500 contribution points.
That's just how people are when they're in debt.
After obtaining the *Nine Transformations of the Dragon Art*, Lu Yang immediately returned to his cave residence. He committed the entire technique to memory, word for word, before carefully putting it away.
"Unfortunately, I can't cultivate it right now."
His body was a blood shadow, his cultivation stagnant, permanently fixed at the late Qi Refining Realm. It was impossible to even disperse his cultivation, so he could only wait for his next life.
That being said, Lu Yang was in no hurry to kill himself.
Time was precious, after all. Even with the Book of a Hundred Lives, he wouldn't waste it recklessly. Though he couldn't cultivate, there were other ways for him to progress.
At this thought, Lu Yang took out Fairy Qingchen's *Mysteries of Array Treasures* from his storage bag.
That's right. He was going to study array formations!
The four arts of cultivation—formations, artifacts, pills, and talismans. Mastering even one of these skills would instantly make someone a high-level talent in the cultivation world, sought after wherever they went.
Take Fairy Qingchen, for example. Lu Yang felt she was a truly talented individual. She not only knew formations but could also refine them into magic treasures. It was just a shame her taste in men was terrible. In both lives, she fell for heartless scoundrels who betrayed her, leading to her dying full of resentment.
Opening the *Mysteries of Array Treasures*, Lu Yang couldn't help but feel a surge of emotion as he read the first page.
[The so-called array treasure is to treat the formation as a treasure and the treasure as a formation. The two are complementary. The art within is one I have poured my heart and soul into developing.]
[To learn this Dao, both talent and diligence are indispensable.]
After the preface, the second page was covered in dense, intricate lines. Each line had an annotation explaining its meaning.
[The Dao of formations is centered on formation lines. By sketching these lines, one can depict Heaven and Earth, thereby borrowing their profound power. However, the principles of Heaven and Earth encompass all the world's mysteries and are difficult to comprehend, let alone translate into formation lines. This requires an extraordinary level of understanding. Only by mastering formation lines can one be capable of learning formations.]
[Excellent. You now have a basic understanding of the principles of formations.]
[Now, turn to the third page. Let's look at the simple example below and put what we've just learned into practice.]
On the third page, a pattern of extreme complexity and intricacy met Lu Yang's eyes.
This was a formation diagram?
Lu Yang stroked his chin. Deciphering a formation diagram meant identifying the composition of its formation lines to deduce the formation's function.
Formation lines were the foundation of all formations.
A formation's effectiveness depended on whether the combination of lines was logical, free of conflicts, and could form a complete, operational circuit.
"Interesting."
Lu Yang smiled confidently, thinking it didn't seem too difficult. "With my talent and diligence, conquering a mere simple formation diagram is a certainty!"
One month later.
Lu Yang sat in a daze on his meditation cushion, surrounded by piles of manuscripts filled with his calculations. He looked utterly dejected.
In his hands, he held a series of combined formation lines.
After an unknown amount of time, a spiritual light suddenly flared at Lu Yang's fingertips.
"It worked!?"
Lu Yang shot to his feet, ecstatic. He carefully examined the formation lines he had assembled, made a few quick calculations with his fingers, and then his expression turned to one of confusion.
"That's not right... How did it work?"
"How is this thing even running?"
It was the fruit of his own painstaking labor for a month, yet he had no idea why it worked. The feeling was enough to drive Lu Yang mad.
After a month of arduous study, he now had a much deeper understanding of formations.
Simply put, formations were a lot like programming.
The so-called "comprehending formation paths" was akin to sifting through the mountain of spaghetti code written by Heaven and Earth, extracting usable parts to assemble one's own code.
But with formations, if you didn't get it, you just didn't get it.
It was like panning for gold in that mountain of code; someone without talent, like Lu Yang right now, wouldn't find a single speck of gold, but would instead end up with a pile of crap.
"Well, at least I managed to pan out something."
Lu Yang sighed and continued his research, forgoing food and sleep. After another month, he finally deciphered the pattern.
"This is an illumination formation!"
"It bathes the area it covers in bright light, nullifying most means of concealment. Beyond that, it has no offensive or defensive capabilities."
Lu Yang looked haggard, his eyes bloodshot, but his face was filled with excitement. Brimming with a sense of accomplishment, he opened the *Mysteries of Array Treasures* to the third page.
[In truth, it is normal to be unable to solve it.]
[The purpose of the problem on the third page was to make you understand how difficult formations are, so you would approach them with a humble heart and not be overly ambitious.]
Lu Yang: "..."
"You bastard! You absolute bastard!"
Lu Yang shot up and slammed the book onto the ground. He was now a hundred percent certain this book was written by a formation master from the Primal Saint Sect!
After a long moment, Lu Yang picked the book back up.
There was no other choice. Some things in life don't care whether you like them, understand them, or want to do them. To survive, you just had to grit your teeth and press on.
But as he continued to study, Lu Yang discovered his talent wasn't as bad as he'd thought.
Just as the book said, the intricate diagram on the third page was never meant for a beginner, which was why he had been stuck on it for two months.
But there were benefits. Now that he had moved on to simpler, more understandable formations, his learning speed increased visibly. When he occasionally got stuck, a few days of intense study were enough to overcome the obstacle. This helped Lu Yang, who had been dealt a heavy blow, to regain his confidence.
In the cave, one loses all track of time. The years flew by.
In the blink of an eye, twenty years had passed.
During this time, Lu Yang completely ignored the outside world, focusing solely on his formation books. He didn't even bother to pay rent on his cave residence, moving directly into the outer sect.
After all, since he couldn't cultivate, he had no urgent needs and naturally stopped working, content to just let things be.
Over those twenty years, a new Child of Destiny with heaven-defying luck, much like Xiao Shiye of the past, would rise from the outer sect every few years.
But after that Child of Destiny obtained some great, widely-known opportunity within the sect, they would suddenly vanish.
And disappearing along with them would be a large batch of unlucky souls who, upon discovering the Child of Destiny's fortune, had tried to latch on and leech some of that luck for themselves.
"That senior must be fishing again..."
Every time he heard such news, Lu Yang's heart would pound. With the cautionary tale of Xiao Shiye, he knew to keep a wide berth from any so-called Child of Destiny.
He couldn't afford to provoke them; he could only hide.
As for Zhao Xuhe, twenty years later he had reached the peak of the Qi Refining Realm and become a famous true disciple of the sect. Unfortunately, a few years ago, he failed in his attempt to break through to the Foundation Establishment Realm and passed away.
Lu Yang simply sighed at the news and gave it no further thought.
What truly brought Lu Yang joy was that after twenty years of diligent study, he had finally mastered all the knowledge within the *Mysteries of Array Treasures*.
Inside his cave residence, Lu Yang's entire being was focused on the sword pellet before him. He could no longer even maintain his human form, and his blood shadow had grown incredibly faint.
It was a sign that his time was up.
The side effects of his past cultivation of the Divine Light of the Blood-Transforming Heavenly Demon had finally caught up to him. At only forty years of age, his lifespan was depleted, his lamp of life extinguished.
But Lu Yang paid it no mind, remaining completely engrossed in inscribing the formation. Even as he was about to pass away, he didn't move, nor did he make any attempt to save himself. Doing so would only interrupt his inspiration, and he refused to waste this precious moment.
"I understand! Wait, no, that's wrong..."
"Oh, it's right! It's right... No, wait, that's not it either... Oh, it is right, it's right!"
A long time passed. Finally, at the very instant Lu Yang's blood shadow had nearly dissipated, on the threshold between life and death, his eyes shot wide open—
"Hahaha! I've succeeded!"
Watching the formation lines he had painstakingly inscribed connect around the sword pellet and begin to run successfully, Lu Yang burst out laughing, his laughter echoing throughout the cave residence.
And just like that, amidst his laughter, he breathed his last.
"Book of a Hundred Lives!"