Lady Cultivator

Chapter 237: A Mutated Formation

Chapter 237: A Mutated Formation

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

The water surface was extremely calm, glistening under the sunlight with breezes blowing softly above. This scene made Mo Tiange recall the sea she saw when she first arrived in Linhai.

Nevertheless, she knew this was only an illusion. Once they were angry, the waves would surge, instantly engulfing everyone around them.

Previously, Luo Fengxue already explained this so-called Five Spirits Killing Body to her. It had five kinds of spiritual aura which were each embodied in a formation. Metal, wood, water, fire, soil—it was only after one passed all five kinds of formations that they could be considered to have passed the first test. There was a very small possibility of the Five-Spirits Formation having a mutation in which two to five kinds of spiritual auras would merge and form a new formation.

Mo Tiange’s luck was very good. There was no mutation in the formation before her—it was simply an ordinary water element formation.

But... how should she break this formation?

Metal supported water, water supported wood, soil subdued water, water subdued fire. Based on these principles, she mustn’t use anything related to metal and fire elements—she ought to use wood or soil element spells or magic weapons.

Mo Tiange debated her options for a moment. Among the magic weapons she had, there wasn’t one with a clear-cut elemental attribute, so she might as well use talismans directly.

After deciding upon her next move, she immediately took out soil element talismans then flew high up the sky.

As she looked down from high above, she discovered this body of water was endless but had no waves whatsoever on its surface; it indeed didn’t seem dangerous in the slightest. Nevertheless, the more peaceful it seemed, the stranger it appeared. How could a formation used specifically to test people’s abilities in fights of magical power be peaceful?

Mo Tiange cast an art, causing several talismans to smash down on the water. The moment they came into contact with the water’s surface, they instantly emitted ear-splitting rumbling noises.

The water finally began to surge. Sky-high billowing waves emerged on the water which was very serene just a moment ago. The waves nearly swept her up inside them. The raging spiritual aura felt like it was trying to break her into pieces...

Mo Tiange stopped in midair, guarding and steadying her mind. This formation was the first test after she entered the Ten Thousand Laws of Nature Formation, so it wasn’t that hard to handle; under successive attacks of her soil element talismans and spells, the surging waves quickly lost their power and gradually settled down.

The water below started to become fuzzy, causing a smile to appear on Mo Tiange’s face. She had a bit of confidence in herself when it came to the Law of Formations. This Ten Thousand Laws of Nature Formation was massive, so she still couldn’t understand it. A trivial Five-Spirits Formation, however... what was so terrifying about it?

Right after that thought flashed across her mind, a new formation was already generated. The smile on her face suddenly froze.

A while later, she showed a bitter smile and heaved a sigh. Sure enough, one must never speak too contentedly. Before her eyes, gales were wreaking havoc, thunder struck across the sky, the earth was surging, and blazing fires were raging all over... She’d obviously hit a jackpot—metal, wood, fire, soil... it was a four-element mutated formation!

This time, she didn’t get the chance to mull over how she should break the formation. The violent gales, the thunder, and the spiritual light formed from the four kinds of spiritual auras were all going straight towards her.

The White Silk Handkerchief was launched, but instead of turning into a brick wall, it gradually swelled then wrapped Mo Tiange inside it as if it was a huge cotton cloth. This was a method of using the White Silk Handkerchief that took Mo Tiange ten years to come up with while she was inside the Dao-Achieving Pagoda. Although this method wasn’t more powerful than the original method in which it changed into defensive brick walls, this method was much more flexible.

Right afterward, she fumbled around in her Qiankun Bag from which she then flung out two things—they were actually the two stone sculpture puppets!

Upon entering her possession, the two puppets went through a round of re-refining and purification, so she could use them as she wished. Right now, they were perfect for breaking through this Ten Thousand Laws of Nature Formation.

Once the two puppets landed, they brandished their gigantic swords towards the surging earth. Their strength was extraordinary; within a short period, the sword auras they brandished already ripped the surging sand and stones apart. Even the inferno had to make way for them.

But this wasn’t enough. Thunder came from metal, wind came from wood, soil supported metal, wood subdued soil—these two puppets were of the wood element, so they weren’t that effective against thunderbolts and gales.

Mo Tiange pondered the matter then opened her Spiritual Beast Pouch to release Xiaohuo.

Xiaohuo was already a peak stage third rank spiritual beast now. It was no longer a first rank beast that could only provide her with concocting fire like when she first caught it. With its Sun Real Fire power, it had long possessed the capability of a fighting spiritual beast.

It was precisely because of this that Mo Tiange intentionally put Xiaohuo into a Spiritual Beast Pouch and carried it with her instead of letting it grow in the Virtual Sky World like it used to. Now, it finally came in handy.

She and Xiaohuo already established a master-subordinate contract, so their thoughts were linked. Without needing Mo Tiange to say anything, Xiaohuo already leaped down, opened its mouth and spouted Sun Real Fire to fight against the gales and thunderbolts.

Mo Tiange hovered in mid-air, commanding the stone sculpture puppets and Xiaohuo through her divine comprehension.

After advancing to the late stage of the Foundation Building realm, the numerous treasures she had and her strength allowed her to fear no one under the Core Formation realm. Considering her proficiency in formations, even formations left behind from the Middle Ages era also weren’t intimidating to her.

Before long, under attack from the stone sculpture puppets and Xiaohuo, the thunderbolts grew increasingly weaker, the fires gradually died out, the gales started to cease, and the surging earth also calmed down.

Just as Mo Tiange was about to sigh in relief, she saw the four kinds of spiritual auras on the ground gradually converging into one. Soon afterward, the ground slowly bubbled up as if it was alive, gradually forming the shape of a stone man.

Mo Tiange’s expression turned grave. This stone man had sand and stones composing its body, fires as its eyes, and its arms were made of wind and thunder—it was obviously formed from the combination of the four elements.

Sure enough, Middle Ages formations indeed weren’t simple!

She made a beckoning movement, causing Xiaohuo, who was glaring at that stone man, to immediately run back to her embrace. Mo Tiange patted its head then said, “Don’t act rashly—attack when I tell you to.”

Xiaohuo let out several “wuwu” squeaking noises and obediently curled up next to her feet.

Mo Tiange sent out her divine comprehension. The two stone sculpture puppets both brandished their stone swords at the stone man.

The fires inside the stone man’s eyes flared up for an instant. Immediately afterward, its head turned towards the two puppets.

Mo Tiange had personally experienced the strength of these two stone sculpture puppets—it wasn’t an exaggeration to say their strength was extraordinary. At this moment, their stone swords were ruthlessly swinging at the stone man and yet, instead of dodging them, the stone man went to face them head-on.

“Bang!” A heavy banging noise rang out. The stone sculpture puppets withdrew several steps—they were actually beaten back by this stone man!

Mo Tiange’s face became even graver. Fortunately, these stone sculpture puppets were made of special materials, so although their strength fell short of the stone man’s, they weren’t damaged.

She took a moment to ponder then patted Xiaohuo’s head. “Xiaohuo, attack it, but keep your distance—don’t let it run into you.”

Xiaohuo made another “wuwu” noise in reply then leaped up from its position next to her feet. Fire element magic was launched towards the stone man’s body.

The stone man’s movements were slow. When it saw Xiaohuo’s oncoming magic, it didn’t try to dodge—it just turned around, using the stones and sand in its body to confront Xiaohuo’s Sun Real Fire. Nevertheless, it actually managed to block Xiaohuo’s Sun Real Fire!

Stones came from soil. Fire supported soil. The stone man, which was the materialization of the four elements, surprisingly had this kind of rudimentary knowledge!

Mo Tiange couldn’t help but raise her eyebrows. This was her first time seeing such a formation.

This stone man was a combination of four elements, so the principle of reinforcement and neutralization between the five elements was useless in exterminating it. It was also incomparably hard and extremely strong. Furthermore, it didn’t have any divine sense at all... All of her attack methods were actually useless!

Because she was hovering in midair and the stone man couldn’t fly, it could only hurl one beam of wind and thunder aura after another to attack her. Mo Tiange, despite being protected by the White Silk Handkerchief, moved all over to dodge while racking her brain.

Magic wouldn’t do, weapons wouldn’t do, even the Soul-Refining Art also wouldn’t do... What other methods did she have? Oh, right! Trap! She could use formations to break this formation!

Once she decided on this, Mo Tiange fumbled around in her Qiankun Bag. A moment later, she raised her hand, throwing several formation flags downward. These formation flags were full of formation veined patterns that were drawn using special beast blood. After all the formation flags landed around the stone man, Mo Tiange took out the biggest formation flags and gathered some spiritual aura at the tips of her fingers. Then, in lightning-quick movements, she pointed her fingers at the big formation flag. In an instant, the formation flags arranged around that stone man stood up.

Mo Tiange waved the formation flag in her hand. The formation flags around the stone man suddenly emitted beams of light which unexpectedly interwove together, forming a net that trapped the stone man inside it.

The fire in the stone man’s eyes flared up again. Its wind and thunder arms moved discreetly, exerting countless wind and thunder element magic in an unending stream. However, it failed to sense Mo Tiange’s presence.

The stone man had no consciousness or emotions; it only had rudimentary knowledge. When these formation flags fell around it, it just stood there foolishly instead of retreating from the scope of the formation. Now, Mo Tiange’s formation had been completely laid, so it could no longer sense her position. It could only use the simple knowledge provided to it by the people who laid this formation to use wind and thunder attacks to break out of the shackles that trapped him.

If her formation was only an ordinary formation, it might’ve broken under its wind and thunder attacks. As it happened, however, this formation was a modified formation she came up with after studying the Xuanji Formation Book and other related books inside the Virtual Sky World. As the stone man’s wind and thunder attacks lashed around inside the formation, the formation flags wavered, but they didn’t collapse.

Mo Tiange continuously inserted spiritual aura into the formation flags, firmly trapping the stone man inside her formation.

This was a foolish method. Considering several hundred to a thousand high grade spirit stones were needed to activate this gigantic formation, it was very obvious how much spiritual aura this formation needed. There were about three hundred of them who entered this formation, and each of them had to go through the test alone. That being the case, the test they each went through definitely had spiritual aura limitations or other people’s tests would otherwise be affected. As long as she could hold on for some time, consuming the spiritual aura until the limit, her test would naturally end.

Mo Tiange was helpless. Although she was already in the late stage of the Foundation Building realm and didn’t fear any cultivators below the Core Formation realm, this was a formation from the Middle Age era after all, and she was also unlucky enough to run into a four element formation—this foolish method to break the formation was the only method she could come up with, and she came up with it only because she was proficient in formations.

Time gradually passed by. The sounds of wind and thunder from the stone man’s body slowly faded until, in the end, the stone man itself collapsed with a loud bang. On the ground, the formation flags, which had been enduring the stone man’s violent attacks, also fell as if they lost their strength.

Mo Tiange sighed. Fortunately, she made the right move.

Unfortunately, this stone man was indeed terrifying—her Xuanji’s Disorienting Formation could be considered destroyed.

As she picked up the Disorienting Formation’s broken formation flags from the ground and put them into her Qiankun Bag, she saw the scene around her slowly changing. The wild landscape a moment ago gradually disappeared and started to show its original appearance—it was just a cave! Nevertheless, the terrifying thing was that after going through such a battle, there wasn’t even the slightest trace of the battle on the surrounding rock wall.

She pondered the matter. This formation was indeed powerful beyond her expectations. The various talismans she used inside the formation, the tremendous strength of the two stone sculpture puppets, and also Xiaohuo’s Sun Real Fire... All of them unexpectedly didn’t leave any traces on the rock wall at all. Obviously, this formation was able to eliminate all kinds of power inside it completely.

Xiaohuo’s “wuwu” squeaks rang into her ears. Mo Tiange turned towards the direction the squeaks came from, only to see it salivating at a spiritual plant growing in a certain nook in the cave.

With a smile, she picked Xiaohuo up. “Don’t look anymore—it won’t be yours even if you continue looking at it. If you want spiritual plants, you can enter the Virtual Sky World after we finish the task—at that time, you can eat whatever you want. This one, however, can’t be yours.”

Xiaohuo dejectedly answered with a “wu” but stopped struggling.

After putting Xiaohuo down by the side, Mo Tiange took out a medicine purse meant for keeping spiritual panaceas. She then started to choose and harvest the mature ones from among the spiritual plants that flourished on the rock wall and in the nooks, putting them into the medicine purse. As for those that were still saplings or weren’t old enough, she let them be so they could continue growing.

Once she finished everything, she put the medicine purse into her Qiankun Bag, took Xiaohuo and proceeded towards the depths of the cave.