The Genius Who Masters the Language of Formations
“Ah~ I really did it!” Baek Cheong rolled around on her bed, unable to contain her joy. Her heart swelled with such excitement that she couldn't stay still. She clutched the Jinmundohae in both hands and stared intently at the dense, geometric character-patterns (jahyeong) inscribed within. ‘No matter how I look at it, it’s exactly like the Spell Thousand-Character Classic.’
At first, it had looked like nothing more than a jumble of incomprehensible ancient characters. But once she realized it followed the same principles as the Spell Thousand-Character Classic, the thousands of esoteric patterns began to resolve into a single language, each possessing its own unique attributes and properties. A circular pattern that wrapped around something, a pattern that extended outward, a pattern that fixed things firmly in place. The patterns in the Jinmundohae were clearly characters meant to manifest specific phenomena.
‘Still, I shouldn’t be too hasty. I might end up in trouble if I’m wrong.’ Baek Cheong took a deep breath to calm her excitement. She sat in a cross-legged position and began the verification process in earnest. She drew up her energy and manifested one of the most basic patterns from the Jinmundohae. The moment she formed the pattern with her energy, she could sense a specific feeling from it. A cold, supple, undulating sensation. ‘Water attribute.’
Remembering the pattern’s nature, she manifested the next one. This time, a dynamic sensation of warmth, heating up and expanding outward, was transmitted. ‘Fire attribute.’ She manifested another complex-looking pattern. This time, she felt a stifling sensation where the energy couldn’t extend outward but instead bunched up and bound itself tightly in place. ‘A property that binds and traps energy.’
After a few more tests, her guess hardened into certainty. Each and every pattern in the Jinmundohae was a character containing the providence of heaven and earth, implying specific properties. ‘So, one pattern contains one property, and if you combine them according to rules, a formation is completed.’ Just as consonants and vowels gather to form words, and words weave together to form sentences, arranging patterns according to specific rules finally manifested a single formation. While they possessed a special power on their own, they were too weak to manifest anything significant in isolation.
‘The problem is that I don’t know those rules—the method of constructing the formation.’ It seemed the reason the users on Mumyungbang treated the Jinmundohae as malicious dead stock was because they couldn’t manifest the formations. Following the outer shape of the patterns for a hundred days would be nothing more than meaningless, empty hand-waving. ‘So that’s why formation masters just memorize the entire formation formula.’
However, Baek Cheong possessed an overwhelming advantage that no other formation master in the cultivation world could have. It was the memory of the Spell Thousand-Character Classic, which she had read until it was worn out during her childhood in her previous life. ‘What was the most important thing when casting a spell in the Spell Thousand-Character Classic...’ Baek Cheong utilized the memory that had become vivid after she became a cultivator. Clearly, a spell wasn’t completed just by stringing characters together randomly. Each character had to be assigned a clear role.
‘The formation structure is likely similar.’ Baek Cheong spread a blank sheet of paper on the table and picked up a brush. She carefully selected the four patterns she had found in the Jinmundohae and drew them on the paper. Source, Main Body, Boundary, Anchor. It was an extremely simple composition. The purpose was also modest—to gather the surrounding spiritual energy of heaven and earth into a small space the size of a palm. It was a basic, rudimentary energy-gathering formation that one would be embarrassed to even call a Spirit-Gathering Formation.
‘If this fails, I’ll just be a stupid sucker who wasted a premium spirit stone, and if it succeeds, I’ll be doing something that even the users of Mumyungbang couldn’t.’ Baek Cheong bit her lip and poured energy into the first pattern, the Source. But nothing happened. The ink on the paper was just a dead trace. It didn’t cause any spiritual reaction.
“...Was there not enough energy?” This time, she drastically increased the amount of energy and pushed it in forcefully. But the result was the same. The patterns remained silent on the paper. ‘In the Spell Thousand-Character Classic, the spell just came out if you shouted it with your mouth...’ Baek Cheong put down the brush and rested her chin on her hand. The profound principles of formations were fundamentally different from voice-activated spells. She pondered for a long time, searching for the cause.
‘Could it be that the property of the pattern and the property of the spiritual energy I’m pouring in must match perfectly?’ Since she had ignorantly poured Five Elements energy into a Source pattern that possessed the property of the water attribute, it was only natural that there was no reaction. It seemed to be a structure that only responded when the energy of the unique attribute held by each pattern was matched precisely. ‘If my guess is right, this is where most people get stuck and give up.’
If a cultivator possessed a single or dual spiritual root, it was fundamentally impossible for them to activate other patterns that didn’t match their attribute. But as a Five Elements root user, she could handle the energy of the five elements, so tricky restrictions couldn’t hold her back. ‘Let’s do this.’ Baek Cheong focused her Divine Sense on the patterns on the paper again.
She poured clear, cold water-attribute energy into the water-attribute Source pattern. Into the Main Body pattern, which had the property of gathering, she poured wood-attribute energy to suppress the property of wanting to extend outward. Into the Boundary pattern, she poured metal-attribute energy to condense the outer wall firmly. Finally, into the Anchor pattern, she poured earth-attribute energy to heavily weigh down the formation. With her vast Divine Sense, she divided the Five Elements energy and poured it precisely into the patterns on the paper.
Whoosh! At that moment, a faint light rose from Baek Cheong’s fingertips. At first, it was a very faint and slender ray of light. But one by one, the patterns on the paper awakened, emitting light, and an invisible flow formed, connecting each other’s energy. Finally, a small formation the size of a palm was completed, emitting a pale light. Soon after, the spiritual energy scattered in the room was drawn to it like a magnet. She could see it being sucked into the formation, enough to be felt by her Qi sense.
“...Wow.” Baek Cheong let out an exclamation without realizing it. The space inside the crude patterns she had just scribbled with ink was being filled with a larger amount of spiritual energy than the outside. ‘I did it.’ Only then did she relax, letting out the stuffy breath she had been holding. She stared blankly at the shining patterns and burst into a giggle. “Hehehe.”
It was the Jinmundohae that had been rolling around as malicious dead stock on Mumyungbang and mocked, the esoteric patterns that countless users had given up on and thrown away—and she had succeeded in handling them. “But I won, didn’t I?” Baek Cheong hugged the Jinmundohae to her chest, savoring the joy. The Spirit-Gathering Formation she had just created was at a level of no use whatsoever. But the fact that she understood the fundamental language structure of formations was what mattered.
‘In a way, is this similar to coding?’ It would certainly be easier to learn or use a completed formation. But if she knew how to handle the language of formations, she could unfold infinite formations, so it was bound to be better in the long run. ‘But...’ Baek Cheong gently dropped the Jinmundohae from her chest. It was absolutely not because she was bored or annoyed. It was to prove it to that annoying User (33.3) who had laughed at her, calling her a sucker.
She tucked the Jinmundohae away in her Storage Pouch and logged into Mumyungbang. She rummaged through the general discussion board and found the post User (33.3) had written.
Dozens of replies were hanging off the post.
Baek Cheong leisurely appreciated the replies of the users mocking her. Then, stretching her body lightly, she focused her Divine Sense to leave a reply.
Long, pathetic explanations or evidence were unnecessary. A concise reply was enough. Soon, replies were posted to her reply in a terrifying manner.
As expected, replies were posted to her reply in a terrifying manner. But Baek Cheong did not answer the replies. “The secret art of forum-ing.” Making them die of curiosity.