146: Repairing the formation, Zhao Lie's reminder

Fifteen minutes later, the two arrived in the depths of the grotto.

Zhao Lie pointed at a magma pool. "That Rank 4 Crimson Flame Demonic Ape has become increasingly restless lately. It charged the Formation once a few days ago. Although we suppressed it, several nodes of the Formation ended up with cracks."

At this moment, bubbles were boiling violently on the surface of the pool. The dark red aura of fire baleful energy was even denser than before, and the muffled roars from the bottom of the pool could be faintly heard.

Su Ling followed his gaze and indeed found several subtle flaws in the Formation's light barrier near the magma pool.

The spiritual light of the Formation Flags and Formation Plates hidden around also showed obvious fluctuations.

“Senior Brother Zhao, do you want me to assist in repairing the Formation?”

“Exactly.”

Zhao Lie nodded and handed over a jade tablet engraved with Formation patterns. “This is the diagram for the Thunder Suppression Array. Familiarize yourself with it first. Since you're skilled in soul control, your Divine Soul perception must be excellent, allowing you to precisely locate the cracks. I've already had someone prepare the Thunderous Crystals needed for the repairs; they'll be brought over shortly.”

Su Ling took the jade tablet and swept his Divine Sense into it, quickly mastering the structure of the Formation nodes.

This Thunder Suppression Array could not only defend against external enemies but also disperse fire baleful energy and suppress the demonic ape.

However, due to the demonic ape's impact, the flow of spiritual energy in some nodes had become sluggish.

What he needed to do was refine and repair those nodes with pure lightning-attribute mana.

“I understand. I'll find the problems first...”

Su Ling walked to the edge of the magma pool, his Divine Sense spreading out. He quickly used his mana to mark the areas needing repair.

Either the Formation Flags had shifted, or the Formation Plates had developed cracks... A moment later, a Cultivator hurried over and handed dozens of blue-purple Thunderous Crystals to Su Ling.

Thunderous Crystals were merely lightning-attribute crystals with very average hardness.

An ordinary Core Formation Cultivator could refine them with mana, with no need for core fire or spiritual fire.

Su Ling took the Thunderous Crystals and immediately refined them using his Azure Firmament mana.

Then, he controlled the liquefied Thunderous Crystal to slowly merge into a nearby Formation Plate.

The cracks on the Formation Plate actually healed at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Zhao Lie watched from the side, a look of approval in his eyes. “Your spiritual energy control is very precise, much better than the lightning Cultivators who came before.”

Every time the Crimson Flame Demonic Ape charged, the Formation nodes would develop some issues.

In the past, several lightning Cultivators skilled in Artifact Refining were responsible for the repairs, but Zhao Lie always felt something was lacking.

He hadn't expected that a sudden thought would lead him to discover the Azure Thunder Demonic Cultivator, 'Han Yu'.

People had long speculated that the ten thousand souls banner in his hand was extraordinarily powerful, so he must surely understand the path of Artifact Refining himself.

As it turned out, 'Han Yu' did indeed know the art of Artifact Refining.

“Senior Brother Zhao, you overpraise me. It's just repairing Formation Plates; one only needs to be focused. It's not some profound technique.”

Su Ling shook his head, dragging a large glob of liquefied Thunderous Crystal toward another Formation Plate.

Most of these lightning-attribute Formation Flags and Formation Plates were made with Thunderous Crystals.

Many people could perform simple repairs. The difficult part was using lightning-attribute mana to redraw the broken parts of the Formation patterns.

After repairing three nodes in a row, Su Ling couldn't help but curl his lip.

These Formation Flags and Formation Plates were clearly not made by the same person.

The Formation patterns engraved within them were extremely uneven, which actually reduced the power of the entire Thunder Suppression Array by several degrees.

Su Ling had been setting up the Nine Palaces Lightning Descent Array for years and had quite a bit of research into lightning-attribute Formations.

However, the power of the Nine Palaces Lightning Descent Array was small and only suitable for individual use.

The Thunder Suppression Array was different; it had a wide range, great power, and required many nodes to be set up, making it suitable for large mountain gates and fortresses.

The two were distinguished by their uses, but in terms of rank alone, they were about equal.

Zhao Lie watched Su Ling repair the Formation patterns in silence. Suddenly remembering something, he added, “By the way, after you finish repairing the nodes, you can go to the outskirts of the volcano to participate in patrols. The Yangquan Faction has been a bit restless lately. With your strength, staying inside the grand array is truly a waste.”

While repairing a node, Su Ling replied, “Thank you for the reminder, Senior Brother Zhao. However, I have one more thing to ask... Has the Yangquan Faction shown signs of large-scale movement recently?”

Zhao Lie's expression darkened. “According to intelligence, the Yangquan Faction has recently gathered many Cultivators and even invited a Nascent Soul Cultivator skilled in breaking Formations. They probably want to take advantage of the demonic ape's restlessness to attack from both inside and out and seize the Yangyuan Cave.”

He looked at Su Ling. “You once killed a Body-Refining Nascent Soul in the Wuwang Bone Forest. All the major factions have heard of this... During this time, it's best not to use the ten thousand souls banner to avoid being targeted.”

“Oh?”

Su Ling was slightly curious. “Is there still contact between the seven major factions?”

“For Loose Cultivators, this National War is a dragon gate to leap through... but for some, it's just a shortcut to accumulate resources.”

A self-deprecating smirk touched the corner of Zhao Lie's mouth as he said half-jokingly, “You killed so many Cultivators at once, and your harvest was incredibly shocking. In their eyes, aren't you just a tempting target?”

Su Ling fell silent upon hearing this.

Loose Cultivators participate in the National War to fight for a bright future.

But the true Prodigies of the Seven Sects have long since advanced to the Nascent Soul or even Soul Transformation stages; why would they participate in a National War?

Most of those who could come to participate were just the group of people who were somewhat frustrated and unsuccessful within their Sects.

“You carry on for now; I have to go back and preside over the underground.”

Seeing the atmosphere had become somewhat heavy, Zhao Lie stood up to take his leave.

The reason he said so much to Su Ling was mainly because he felt it was highly likely Su Ling would enter the Bitao Sect after the war.

Giving a deliberate warning was merely to plant a seed of goodwill in advance... It took Su Ling three days to completely repair the Formation, earning just over a thousand points.

Compared to hunting down Cultivators from the enemy faction, this method of obtaining points was truly slow.

And it wasn't always available; one might only encounter such an opportunity once every month or two.

Its only advantage was safety.

Su Ling was clearly more willing to go out and perform other missions rather than cowering inside a Formation.

After finishing the handover, he took on a scouting mission and headed out alone.

With his current strength and the concealment methods he possessed, moving alone was actually better than teaming up with others.

Driving the soaring wing boat, he traveled rapidly for over a thousand miles before quickly descending.

Within the area ahead, there was a warning Formation specifically set up by the Bitao Faction.

It was used to monitor the surrounding area to avoid being caught off guard.

Such Formations were spread across a two-thousand-mile radius around the resource points.

But the surroundings were all volcanic zones with numerous underground melting caves, which nurtured a large number of fire-attribute Demon Species.

Over the years, the Bitao Faction Cultivators had never been able to clean them out completely.

From time to time, Demon Species would trigger the Formation, causing an alarm.

Therefore, personnel had to be frequently sent out to investigate and repair the Formations.

Su Ling's mission this time was to investigate several warning Formations covering a hundred-mile radius.

The moment he landed, he activated his entire breath-concealing trio.

His Divine Sense quietly spread out along the ground as he crept toward a Formation node.