407: Chapter 417 Three Thousand Questions on the Dao of Array Formations

Su Ming silently recited the creed Lin Yu had once taught him in his heart.

He forced himself to calm down. Master was only in a deep sleep, not gone. He had to prove during these days without Master's protection that he was no longer that mountain boy who needed constant guidance.

He took a yellowed ancient book out of his Storage Pouch.

This was a manual he had borrowed from the second floor of the Formation Peak's Library before leaving, and it was also the first basic core text on the reading list bestowed by Revered Master Master Xuan Heng—"Three Thousand Questions of the Dao of Formations: Introductory Chapter."

He sat cross-legged on the deck of the wooden boat and flipped open the pages.

The wooden boat traveled steadily through the clouds. Below, the vast earth was like a slowly unfolding scroll.

Su Ming immersed his entire attention into the pages.

His Divine Sense was extremely powerful, and his reading speed was incredibly fast. This book did not teach profound killing Formations; instead, it started from the most basic flow of spiritual power to explore the origins of Formations.

"The world gives birth to the Two Poles, and the Two Poles transform into the Four Symbols. The beginning of a Formation is not man-made, but the natural trend of the heavens, earth, mountains, and rivers..."

As Su Ming looked at the words in the book, the two hundred basic runes he had mastered automatically surfaced in his mind.

He could now use the major categories of runes like "Gather," "Defend," "Solidify," "Flow," "Conceal," and "Balance" as easily as his own limbs. He constructed micro-models in his mind, attempting to use the theories in the book to explain why these two hundred runes turned this way or were sketched that way.

Time passed bit by bit.

Su Ming occasionally looked up to glance at Elder Qingquan ahead.

The Elder's back was always toward him as he sat cross-legged at the bow. He wasn't meditating to Cultivate, nor was he controlling the flying boat; he just stared motionlessly at the sea of clouds ahead, occasionally rubbing the Red Clay Wine Gourd in his hand, looking like a statue that had weathered many storms.

He clearly hadn't said a single word.

But looking at that slightly hunched back in grey cloth, Su Ming suddenly felt that although this rule-breaking Nominal Master was pitifully quiet, the "sense of security" he provided was incredibly solid.

That solidity wasn't because of how high the Elder's cultivation was, but because his presence there was like a stabilizing pillar, firmly nailing this small boat speeding through the high skies between heaven and earth.

Su Ming withdrew his gaze and looked back at the ancient book in his hand.

Under the refraction of the sunlight, the ink on the pages seemed to come alive, turning into dancing runes that were constantly deconstructed and reorganized in his Sea of Consciousness.

Without his Master's direct feeding, he had to learn to chew on these obscure principles of the Dao of Formations himself.

The sea of clouds was boundless, and the wooden boat was like a lonely falling leaf, silently descending toward the bustling Mortal World.

...

The flying boat traveled above the clouds for an entire day.

During this day, the wooden boat was terrifyingly quiet. Elder Qingquan was like he was in a trance; he hadn't even changed his posture.

Su Ming was completely immersed in the world of "Three Thousand Questions of the Dao of Formations: Introductory Chapter."

Losing Lin Yu, the "cheat code" who could answer doubts at any time, made Su Ming's research process exceptionally difficult.

In the past, when he encountered rune combinations he didn't understand, Lin Yu could always use the simplest explanations—even with complaints involving modern physics concepts—to point out the crux of the problem with pinpoint accuracy. Now, Su Ming could only rely on himself.

"'Flow' runes dominate the conduction of Spiritual Qi, while 'Balance' runes dominate the stability of nodes... But when constructing the 'Lesser Heavenly Cycle Water Rhyme Formation,' why does spiritual power congestion occur if these two runes are superimposed at the kan position?"

Su Ming's brow was tightly furrowed, and his finger unconsciously traced patterns in the air over his knee.

In his mind, two faintly glowing runes were attempting to force a Fusion. Every contact triggered a violent repulsion, like water and fire being incompatible.

"Master, what exactly is going on..."

Su Ming subconsciously called out in his Sea of Consciousness.

Before the words fully left him, he suddenly snapped back to reality. His Sea of Consciousness was empty; only the faint blue light brought by the Ruoshui Art was slowly circulating. The ring remained dead silent, without any response.

Su Ming's finger froze in mid-air.

He gave a bitter smile, shook his head, and forcibly extinguished this sense of dependence. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and mobilized all two hundred basic runes he knew by heart.

"No, it's not a problem with the runes, it's a problem with the medium. 'Flow' governs movement, 'Balance' governs stillness. Movement and stillness cannot collide directly; there must be a buffer."

Fine beads of sweat broke out on Su Ming's forehead. His Divine Sense was frantically calculating on a microscopic level.

Once, ten times, fifty times.

It wasn't until the thousandth calculation that he tried adding an extremely obscure variation of the "Conceal" rune between "Flow" and "Balance" to serve as an energy lubricant.

Hum—

In his Sea of Consciousness, the three runes fit together perfectly, forming a stable spiritual power triangle. The problem that had plagued him all day was suddenly resolved.

Su Ming let out a long breath of turbid air and opened his eyes. This kind of insight, achieved entirely by gritting his own teeth, was a hundred times deeper than what others directly instilled.

Just then, the previously silent Elder Qingquan ahead suddenly spoke up indifferently.

"The path of Formations is like blind men feeling an elephant. The elephant's leg others tell you about is ultimately someone else's. Only the mud all over your hands that you've felt for yourself is your own Dao."

Elder Qingquan didn't turn around. His voice mixed with the wind at high altitude, sounding somewhat ethereal.

Su Ming's heart jolted.

Although the Elder hadn't looked at him just now, he had clearly sensed the disorder and final stabilization of his spiritual power fluctuations. This old man seemed to ignore everything, but in reality, everything was under his nose.

"I will keep your teachings in mind, Master," Su Ming answered respectfully.

Elder Qingquan didn't speak again; he just raised his wine gourd and shook it, seemingly satisfied with Su Ming's Comprehension Ability.

On the morning of the second day, the surrounding environment began to undergo extremely significant changes.

The sea of clouds gradually thinned, and the earth below was no longer verdant mountains and forests. Instead, large patches of cultivated farmland, crisscrossing official roads, and villages and cities as dense as ants appeared.

Even more obvious was the change in Spiritual Qi.

Su Ming clearly felt that the free-floating spiritual power in the air, which was previously easy to capture, was diminishing at a cliff-like speed.

In its place was a turbid "Mortal World Qi" mixed with cooking smoke, sweat, blood, and the countless emotions and desires of Mortals.

For an immortal Cultivator, this aura was like being placed in a swamp. The circulation of liquid spiritual power in his body began to become sluggish, as if covered by an invisible shackle.

This was the natural suppression the Mortal World had on Cultivators.

Without any hesitation, Su Ming immediately operated the Breath Concealment Art with all his might. He bit by bit contracted that spiritual power belonging to a Foundation Establishment Stage Cultivator, finally locking it tightly within the small space of his Dantian.

From the outside, his current aura wasn't even as strong as an ordinary Third-level Qi Refining practitioner; at most, he could be considered a Jianghu swordsman who had practiced some superficial Internal Skill for a few days.

The Way of Cautious Survival rule: When on a certain mountain, sing that mountain's song. Posing as a True Immortal among a crowd of Mortals brings no benefit other than becoming a sitting duck.