The Ancient Script of the Formation Manual
The Formation Atlas, listed in the Wuming Pavilion’s grand auction, was a collection of items that had long failed to find a buyer on the marketplace bulletin board, eventually relegated to the status of stagnant inventory. The Wuming Pavilion, run by an anonymous cultivator, would personally collect these items, appraise them, and put them up for official auction. The users of Moomyeongbang didn't need to worry about being scammed by fraudulent posts or gambling their spirit stones away; everything listed under the Wuming Pavilion’s name was thoroughly verified and authentic. They even kindly provided the detailed history and hidden aspects of every item.
“Wuming, you bastard!!!”
A desperate shriek erupted from Baek Cheong’s lips. She was suddenly reminded of the mysterious Five Elements Banner she had purchased not long ago, having dumped ten premium spirit stones into it based solely on the firm belief that it belonged to a user with a five-element spiritual root who had recently ascended.
‘If I’d just waited a few more days and bought it after it was verified by the Wuming Pavilion, I wouldn’t have been scammed!’
But the water had already been spilled, and she could only curse the instincts that had led her to make such an impulsive purchase. Besides, the grand auction was already underway, and with the time limit restricted to a mere twelve shichen, she had no time to dwell on past mistakes.
‘I have to make up for it here!’
Clutching her aching stomach, Baek Cheong quickly entered the marketplace bulletin board. The landscape of the board was drastically different from usual. All the miscellaneous sales posts from the users had vanished, and the board was packed exclusively with auction listings bearing the solid name of the Wuming Pavilion.
“Let’s see... there are over a hundred of them.”
The sheer number of items was overwhelming, but the details of the items she checked one by one were truly astonishing.
Most of these were incredible treasures that would make even the great experts of the Nascent Soul or Transformation stages drool. The starting bids alone boasted dozens of premium spirit stones. Even so, as soon as an auction post went up, hundreds of bidders would flock to it, sending the price skyrocketing by hundreds of units in a frenzy. Even items with a relatively modest starting bid of a single premium spirit stone would quickly turn into a battle of pride among the users, inevitably ending up with a price tag of dozens of premium spirit stones.
‘Are there really this many great experts on Moomyeongbang?’
Baek Cheong felt herself shrinking back as she realized the presence of these great experts. The Wuming Pavilion’s grand auction was essentially a playground for the great experts across the entire Lower Realm.
“I’ll just watch for now...”
Deciding to at least enjoy the spectacle, she browsed through the auctions of these monumental items. Occasionally, she found relatively modest items starting from middle-grade spirit stones, but even these saw fierce competition, with bids jumping into the premium spirit stone range in no time. As she was browsing the marketplace with interest and scrolling down to the next page, she discovered a single, shabby auction post that was the only one still hovering in the low-grade spirit stone range.
“Huh?”
Baek Cheong tilted her head as she checked the post. Unlike the auction items she had seen so far, it had a concise description and a trivial price of ten low-grade spirit stones. It was treated as if it were something rolling around in a village smaller than Seonseong. Even so, there were traces of a few bids, and the price had risen slightly to two middle-grade spirit stones.
‘A formation introductory manual... Is it like one of those basic books scattered all over the Baekgyeonggak?’
Suddenly, the existence of the Five Elements Banner crossed her mind. She felt she might need the help of formation theory to figure out how to use it. Besides, her storage pouch was overflowing with middle-grade spirit stones she’d received as pocket money from her relatives, along with the proceeds from selling the Spirit-Gathering Pills. Since the price wasn't burdensome, and since the Wuming Pavilion had gone out of its way to include it in the grand auction, she had a slight expectation that there might be something special hidden inside, contrary to its appearance.
‘Nothing ventured, nothing gained.’
Baek Cheong clicked the bid button with a light heart.
User (913.14) has placed a bid.
Bid: 3 middle-grade spirit stones.
Just as she was about to relax and click the back button after completing the bid:
User (33.3) has placed a bid.
Bid: 4 middle-grade spirit stones.
As soon as Baek Cheong bid, someone had updated the price without a moment's hesitation, as if they were tailing her. Baek Cheong felt a surge of irritation, but she calmly suppressed her emotions and called out the price again.
User (913.14) has placed a bid.
Bid: 6 middle-grade spirit stones.
User (33.3) has placed a bid.
Bid: 7 middle-grade spirit stones.
The opponent, as if they had been waiting, raised the bid by a narrow margin again, covering her bid. Baek Cheong, whose irritation was boiling over, doubled the price this time.
User (913.14) has placed a bid.
Bid: 14 middle-grade spirit stones.
User (33.3) has placed a bid.
Bid: 15 middle-grade spirit stones.
User (33.3) was still persistently following her, adding just one middle-grade spirit stone. At this point, regardless of the item's value, she wanted to crush this annoying user who was scratching at her nerves with her sheer wealth.
“How dare you!!!”
Baek Cheong’s eyes blazed as she slammed the price into the bid input field.
User (913.14) has placed a bid.
Bid: 1 premium spirit stone.
In an instant, the price had jumped several times over. It was madness to pour that much into an introductory formation manual, but the sense of superiority was undeniable. User (33.3), who had been persistently following her with ruthless capital, seemed to have lost their nerve, as they didn't raise the bid any further. After a peaceful amount of time passed, the auction end notification finally appeared.
User (913.14) has won the auction.
Final bid: 1 premium spirit stone.
“Keep playing around.”
Baek Cheong snorted triumphantly, wondering how a poor user dared to follow her. Before checking the Formation Atlas transferred to her storage, she left the auction post and moved to the general discussion board to write a post. At the same time, a post by User (33.3) at the very top of the board caught her eye.
Baek Cheong’s face flushed red the moment she confirmed the mockery. They had deliberately raised the bid to tease her and bait her into it. “You... you bad person!” Baek Cheong was so furious she wanted to write a reply filled with profanity, but she stopped her divine sense. On the off chance, she took out the Formation Atlas transferred to her storage and unfolded it. Inside the worn, thick parchment scroll, just as User (33.3) had mocked, there wasn't a single line of explanation or kind commentary. It was just thousands of geometric and difficult ancient character-patterns listed densely. It was like listing only consonants and vowels. Just as knowing the alphabet doesn't mean you can speak a language fluently or understand complex literature, memorizing this table of character-patterns was like trying to pluck stars from the sky.
“Ah... I’ll show you.”
Baek Cheong stared blankly at the character-patterns in the Formation Atlas with a look of despair. Character-patterns containing fire energy, character-patterns that distorted space, character-patterns that bound energy, and so on. She tried to draw a formation by combining a few character-patterns that looked simple among the meaningless characters. But just as User (33.3) had mocked, it wasn't easy. The character-patterns didn't assimilate with the flow of energy at all and just scattered meaninglessly.
‘Ugh, I’m crazy. Why did I buy this trash because I was angry...’
Just as she was about to close the Formation Atlas in self-reproach, a strange sense of déjà vu flashed through her mind.
‘Wait, these characters... the way they’re arranged and combined feels incredibly familiar?’
Baek Cheong frowned and stared intently at the character-patterns in the Formation Atlas, falling into deep thought. Thousands of ancient character-patterns, each with its own unique property and power. And the principle of combining and weaving the characters to manifest a complete phenomenon. “...Huh?”
Baek Cheong stood up as she realized something. She then realized the source of her déjà vu and spoke aloud. “Ah, Spell-Casting Thousand Character Classic!”
It was similar to a learning manga she had enjoyed as a child in her previous life. It was identical to the principle of a famous manga where one would cast spells by shouting the meaning and sound of Chinese characters. Although, if you compared them directly, it felt like the difference between 'a' and 'o'.
“Heh, then there’s nothing to it, right?”
Baek Cheong couldn't stop the laughter leaking out as she clutched the Formation Atlas. The manual she thought she’d been tricked into buying was nothing more than a toy to her.