Path of the Ascendant

The introductory manual could not be called anything other than a gigantic tome – it looked to have no fewer than two thousand pages and was most certainly heavy enough to be used as a low-tier heavy weapon. It would most certainly be more effective than any regular brick.

Still, Yi Wei remained undaunted, and immediately flipped it open.

‘The Introduction to Formation Array Arrangement, Understanding and Mastery, by Master Yi Yi… hold on, Master Yi Yi… no way… No way!’ she looked up at the man before her, who looked as if he was a commoner worker being examined by an emperor, “Are you related to that Master Yi Yi, the one that created one-star formations powerful enough to defeat someone of the Active Core realm?”

“That great man is my grandfather,” he said with pride, “I, and my father before me, have been working to create a technique to rival his own Prime Star Arts, to receive his inheritance, but our art, the Excellence Art, has been unable to reach the point of completion so far. As soon as I reach the fourth realm, Active Core, I will be able to perfect it, and… sorry. Where was I?”

“No, that’s enough, thank you,” Yi Wei said, lowering her head to focus on the book once more, ‘What an interesting coincidence. I get some fire planar energy, and some tired old man comes out to teach me talisman making. I decide to display my water planar energy, and another unique figure emerges from the streets of Yi City. If this trend somehow continues, I must make the most of each opportunity while I continue to receive them.’

She did not speak for a long time, her entire mind focusing on the book before her. With each passing minute that Yi Wei spent in intense concentration, the look of joy grew on Yi Yi’s face.

‘I was right! My guess was right! Even if she understands nothing from that book, and doesn’t see the traps within, just the raw knowledge within can take her to a three-star formation master, and that planar energy she cultivates could bring her up to the very peak of three stars!’

Contrary to both of their expectations, Yi Wei could no longer stomach the book after only reading a third of its content.

“Master Yi, are you sure that this is a book on formation arrangement, and not blacksmithing?” her head snapped upwards as she slammed the tome shut, “Half of the things discussed were the crafting of materials and the melting points of pure metals and alloys, none of which were then mentioned again!”

The formation master did not lose his smile, and it might have grown even larger, “That’s right, that’s exactly right! You figured it out! Praise the heavens for sending such a wise disciple to me! Let me explain: your observation is correct, and is, in fact, intentional. This book is a sort of designed by my grandfather, to find those who possess an aptitude for formations. Those that do will have an automatic ability to unravel any matter, regardless of its complexity, into its simplest parts, and will then be able to remove extraneous elements and execute it in the most efficient manner possible. Do you know what the key element of formations is?”

“According to the seventh page, paragraph 15, the core component of a successful formation is efficiency, and minimized redundancy. The fewer nodes a formation array has, the more powerful it can be, and the better it accommodates the natural flow of planar energy, the more energy it will have to work with,” she said in one breath, “Is that about right?”

“It’s exactly right! In-”

“It shouldn’t be, since the book said that on paragraph 14, and it specifically stated that accommodating the natural flow of energy would primarily affect the absorption of natural energy, the efficiency of the flow of planar energy within the formation and will increase the total pool of energy it can access, but do go on.”

“…”

His expression was complicated, to say the least. On one hand, he was even more excited to learn that his new student was able to not only remember his grandfather’s work, but also memorise it better than him, but on the other, it was a little embarrassing to be fooled that easily, even if she might not have had any malicious intent to her actions. Just to be sure, he glanced at her expression and felt even less certain.

Thankfully, Yi Wei also realised what she had done, and lowered her head in apology, “Sorry, I got carried away. Please, do continue.”

“Right. Well, that is the reason why your ability, to notice just how extraneous most of the material within this book is, is so important. It means that you will be able to apply a similar skill when examining or creating formation arrays, and then be able to minimize the number of nodes, place them more efficiently, and create far more powerful arrays than a common formation master.”

‘I see. That makes sense, and the best procedures to process certain materials are bound to be helpful if I end up getting into blacksmithing as well,’ she decided, focusing back on the book.

She completed her reading in a single day, at the expense of a terrible ache in her neck. It was soothed slightly by her planar energy, with the water element significantly increasing the natural healing ability of her body, and she was able to give the tome back to Master Yi Yi, who had gone off to study on his own at some point.

“You finished all of it?” he asked, despite having seen the entire process himself.

“I have.”

“Do you remember it all as well as paragraph 13 on the seventh page?”

“It was paragraph 14,” she corrected him, “but yes, I can recall it just as clearly.”

He sat silently for a moment, “You have a very impressive memory… So, how much must I pay you? A thousand two-star resources? Two thousand? No, you’re clearly worth far more than that, so-”

“You don’t need to pay me. You’ve already promised to teach me formation arrays, didn’t you? So it’s fine. I can survive with just a few pills to assist me in cultivation, and a few that can help develop body techniques.”

“That’s… that’s all you want?” he asked, with an eyebrow raised – would someone with a perfect memory like hers be willing to learn from someone as useless as him?

It was difficult for Yi Wei to imagine that such a weak character could have ever become a three-star master in any art, so she nodded, and stared him straight in the eyes, “Yes, that’s all. Master Yi Yi, you should have a lot more confidence in yourself, especially when speaking with someone as minor and insignificant as me. Even if I ever outdo you, I will still be thankful for your support, and will not think of your existence as a burden.”

“…” he stared back at her, his mouth moving even though no sound came out. Finally, he turned away and spoke softly, “Please leave me for today. You can return whenever it is convenient, and I shall personally introduce you to the practical side of formation arrays.”

The red-haired girl nodded and left. For Yi Wei, this action was small, insignificant, and required no effort, but it clearly mattered to Master Yi Yi, so she didn’t hesitate to do it. After all, formations were one of the great arts, and merely understanding the basics of formation arrays would raise one’s status by a small notch, regardless of their other abilities. Therefore, the knowledge she had already gained could prove invaluable for the rest of her life, and she would do quite a lot to repay the man that gave it to her.

Her journey back to her home was made in darkness, through empty streets. She did not enter the shack once she arrived, but instead collected a number of rounds rocks and began laying them out in a strange pattern.

‘To create a proper formation array, I would need formation flags, or some sort of energy-conductive material to create the formation nodes. However, an imitation can be made up of any random garbage, so long as every node is made from a similar material,’ was what she had learned from the tome.

The stones were placed at certain points around her shack, some close to the walls, others far away, at the very edge of her property. Despite their disordered appearance, each rock that was placed made the air somewhat… more pleasant, as if it had been infused energy and pleasant memories from one’s life.

This was the weakened effect of a Planar Condensation Array, a one-star formation that draws in planar energy and increases its concentration in a limited area. Without any proper nodes or materials used in the construction, it could only display one fiftieth of its typical effect, but even that was enough for her to feel as if her home suddenly became much more homely, warm and inviting. However, the expression that appeared on her face was a deep frown.

‘This isn’t right. The massive change in aura shouldn’t be happening just because of an imitation array,’ Yi Wei thought, ‘It can happen if, by putting up a contradictory array, I destabilised and thus dispelled something that was already in place…’

She entered her shack silently, went down on her knees, grabbed a part of the wooden floor, and pulled it out, throwing it out of the open doorway. Then, she grabbed the next plank, and did the same, continuing to do so until half of her floor was thrown out.

Beneath the floor was a mass of tightly packed dirt, with nothing seeming to be out of place.

‘Whatever this is, I wouldn’t have noticed it if I didn’t have my purified dantian, refined planar energy and the mysterious characters at the same time, meaning that the array is undoubtedly of high quality. The only reason that my imitation array has any effect on it is that it was never meant to be interfered with,’ she suspected, digging into the dirt with her bare hands.

It took an hour of digging to reveal a small, only half a metre in diameter, buried array plate. It was cast from a golden metal, and it curved and weaved into esoteric shapes and patterns.

To those who are completely unfamiliar with formation arrays, this would seem like a meaningless decoration, but Yi Wei happened to have read about something similar in the enormous ‘Introduction to Formation Array Arrangement’.

‘A Potential Draining Array, combined with a Planar Corruption Array, a Mental Distortion Array and a Dantian Clogging Array,’ she guessed, recalling several mentions of each in the ‘Introduction’. ‘This… this is serious. The lowest of these is a three-star array, and the highest is a peak four-star… Wait a moment! When I was inspected by an elder of the family after I was unable to advance to the first stage in half a year, he muttered something along the lines of “her even being able to cultivate with such a low-grade planar aperture is impressive”.

‘Then, that means that the array has been placed here before I began cultivating, and depending on how quickly it works, it might have been here before I even moved in. That’s why, when I broke through, there was such a great change in my sensory abilities – the planar energy wiped away the years of the Dantian Clogging Array’s effects, and it might also be counteracting the other three.’

She examined the array plate from top to bottom, to make sure that she observed every little detail she could. As soon as she was sure that there was nothing else to see, she gripped either side and, with some effort, broke it in two.

Instantly, the pleasant atmosphere that arose upon her arranging the imitation array increased so significantly that the very colours around her changed, becoming warmer and lighter, as if someone had wiped away the gloom.

Without wasting any time, Yi Wei threw the two pieces of the array plate under her bed and buried the dirt back where it previously was, covering it as well as she could with pieces of the wooden floor.

All through that task, she couldn’t shake the feeling that someone, or something, was observing her, but no matter how much she looked, she could find no one, and moved on to her next objective, which was creating her own body technique.

Unlike the body cultivation techniques within the library, her idea, which she had decided to call the Condensed Formation Body, relied on generating a formation array within her body, which would channel her planar energy alongside her technique’s effects, allowing for hundreds of different elements to coexist at the same time. To her knowledge, this was something that no one had ever attempted before, and for good reason.

It was completely impossible for a regular cultivator.

“An array requires a stable series of nodes, created from a material that conducts planar energy,” Yi Wei recited, sighing, ‘For most, even those two things are ridiculous to achieve. The human body is in constant motion and activity, which makes it rather difficult to set up a stable array, not to mention the fact that the only remotely conductive element of the body is the dantian… Wait…’

Her spiritual will dove right into her dantian, where her planar energy was calmly churning in place. There, near its walls, she saw clouds of small shards of white material that were floating there since her planar energy purified it.

‘… Huh,’ she struggled to keep her face still, ‘Seriously, my luck… isn’t it a little too good? Based on my understanding of the techniques, these seventy-four pieces should be enough to create a foundation for the body cultivation method. Additionally, since they are this small, each one can likely be refined much quicker than the dantian as a whole, thus allowing me to improve the technique without doing anything at all.’

Biting her lip to prevent a smile from forming, Yi Wei shook her head, ‘I should focus. The quicker I can get this done, the quicker I can relax and go to sleep.’

Using her planar energy, she enveloped every shard and pushed them out of the dantian, causing a slight burning sensation to appear inside her abdomen. Recognising the feeling as her body attempting to reject her work, she stabilised her breathing and sped up, controlling as many pieces as she could at a time.

The burning got stronger with every second, but she was able to complete the placement of half of the dantian shards before it started to become an issue. Every piece, regardless of its place, seemed to have changed into a brightly burning coal, and they were still heating up. Although she could not be certain about the exact time she had left, she was confident that what she had would likely be insufficient at her current pace.

‘At least I won’t have to wonder what it feels like to eat a hot coal,’ she joked, getting up, ‘Since my first plan isn’t going to work, let’s try the other one.’

Quickly considering the remaining shards and where they had to end up, Yi Wei crouched down and channelled all of her energy, planar and otherwise, before punching down with all the force she had.

Her body felt as if it was about to explode, but it stopped mere moments from actually doing so – more importantly, a set of dantian shards was forced into place. As soon as she confirmed that they were in the right place, she stood up straight, ignoring the faintness in her vision and her quivering muscles, and struck her stomach.

“Ugh… That hurt…” she said, then saw that one piece from the group was still out of place. She was forced to strike herself again to force it into place.

“Only ten more to go…”