Molting the Mortal Coil

Chapter 381: Maze Formation

Chapter 381: Maze Formation

Just because someone else couldnt do it, didnt mean he couldnt. Wasnt it simply limiting complexity to different levels? He quickly thought of a dozen different ways to do it, but the issue was mainly with how to apply that to an Array Formation. He understood the difficulty of such a task now, because the vast majority of Array Formations were unique. That is to say, they were not created in multiple levels. At least, the ones that were available to most people. Each array had a perfect form, and dozens of variables were taken into account when they were built. The position of astral bodies, the time of year, local weather patterns, the topography of the land, significant events that happened in the past, and even the current as well as future purpose of the location were all factored into a formation.

As complex as they were, it was already difficult to recreate the perfect conditions to maximize the durability, duration, and strength of an Array Formation. Only the most skilled Formation Masters could create simplified versions of arrays, and only those at the pinnacle of power would dare to create more advanced versions. Even so, those sets of Array Formations would only be passed down to their disciples. The amount of effort involved meant it was a task undertaken only upon a Formation Masters pinnacle array formation. By creating simplified versions it lets their disciples more easily understand the more powerful version. It laid out a legacy for them to follow. Spreading that knowledge to other groups would also mean telling the weaknesses of your greatest accomplishment to others. Worse yet, it would be a simpler and easier to understand guide to unraveling your greatest creation. At the highest levels, Formation Masters were treated as lock, vault, or safe makers. Their formations were used to guard treasure, protect Sects, and ensure the safety of others families. Who would be foolish enough to share the manual to their locks?

Sage had a few multi-level formations, but they were passed down from the Timeless Masters Library. At the moment, he didnt have access to them since the Universe Ring was still in Guan Zhenyans hands. This fact reinforced to him that his greatest valuables should be kept in his Inner World and not the Universe Ring. Additionally, he should have backups of all the most important information. It was no wonder there were so many hidden legacies out in the wilderness. Even if a cultivator wasnt seeking a future successor, it was reasonable to keep a backup of ones most important information and techniques. There was no telling what sorts of things might happen in the cultivation world. What if ones mind was partially wiped? What if the manual you were practicing was stolen? It seemed a terrible risk not to create a backup for any eventualities.

Even without access to the library, Sage had another option. The Formation Machine. In essence, he adapted an Array Formation that controlled other Array Formations into a state machine. To increase complexity, he merely had to swap out the arrays in the machine. That said, the Infinite Immaterial Seat was not a Formation Plate. He was pretty sure that if he built formations into it, there was no changing them out. From what he ascertained, the structure had to remain as it was, and more details were added to it later. There really wasnt a mechanism for him to swap things out. Of course, even without changing out formations, it didnt seem too impossible to leave gaps within a larger array that he could then fill with smaller arrays in the future.

If that was his only idea, he was sure he could get it to work, but instead Sage had another idea to try. At the idea of a maze, Sage couldnt help but to think of how to create one as a program. In that sense, there were two approaches. A two-dimensional array, a matrix, where each cell contained information on which directions had walls, or doors. It was very efficient for storage, but it only easily represented standard square mazes with straight lines and right angles. The other method was to create a data structure known as a graph. In this situation each room of the maze was stored as a node and it contained pointers, or paths, towards the other rooms it was connected to. The graph is far more adaptable and the paths could have different distances, the nodes could be given coordinates, or the paths could even be easily rearranged by just changing where they point.

Of course, Spirit Cultivation was not a program. It couldnt make calculations or change itself over time. It was completely up to him to control and also a static creation. In the future he could only choose to continue training and strengthening it, or break it all down and start over. As such, he could only use those concepts as inspiration. Instead of thinking of a maze as a way to confuse and create as many long and winding paths as possible, he broke it down into components. With the graph as a guide, he separated a maze into chambers and halls. By chamber he merely meant a crossroads, a place where there was a choice to be made, while halls were of course the paths where one could only move forward or back the way they came.

Establishing this point, he decided that he would create large chambers with many entrances and exits. Later, he could divide the large chamber into smaller chambers, which reduces the choices more like a normal maze. Really, it wasnt anything remarkable or profound, but it was merely a way to organize where the static portions of the maze would be. With this idea in mind, the specific shapes and symbols of each Array Formation could make up the space between the static and unchanging hallways. Then between the arrays, he could leave large chambers with many doorways. In the future he only needed to further subdivide those large chambers to drastically increase the mazes complexity. It was slightly counterintuitive, as most would think the simplest way would be to put the arrays within the rooms of the maze and connect them with hallways. The real trap would be to form an array with the shape of the maze entirely, because without having a multi-level formation to base it upon, future advancement would be impossible. Even with a multi-level formation, it would be quite difficult to make alterations like adding halls and doorways without disrupting the already existing array.

With a plan in mind, the issue now was to figure out which array to use. The Infinite Immaterial Seat built a maze upon the island in his Spiritual Sea, but what purpose was that? A mental library seemed self explanatory, the building would sort and catalog knowledge for his future use. Vault like structures likely protected his thoughts from being taken or affected. What about the maze? After reviewing the technique again and also asking Guan Zhenyan to be sure, the maze was in fact meant for battle. Sages consciousness, in the future, would be normally located at the center of the maze. If someone wanted to assault him mentally, they wouldnt just need a proper technique theyd also have to defeat the maze to complete their attack. Creating such a large delay in combat would be sufficient for many things to happen, he could use that time to properly identify his enemy, to flee the area, or even attack the foe physically to disrupt the mental attacks.

If he were to just try and build walls, the foe only needed to focus their strength and break through. What if there were multiple enemies? Could he stand up against them all for long? On the other hand, even if you expend effort breaking a wall in a maze, would that get you to the center? With multiple enemies they could of course spread out and defeat the maze much faster, but it also meant Sage would then only have to battle with one or two at a time as the rest were left floundering in the maze. He sacrificed some other benefits, but overall it was a pretty good method. On the downside, it was not an offensively oriented Spirit Cultivation. Even so, hed much rather have a great defense and weaker attacking Spirit Power. He had plenty of other ways to attack if Spirit Power Techniques couldnt do the trick.

Now to pick some arrays. Unfortunately, the arrays that affected Qi and created physical defenses were pretty pointless in a battle of consciousness. Many defensive shielding formations could also extend to protect against Spirit Power, but it was also inefficient to expend so much energy defending against everything instead of just Spirit Power. Lacking the Universe Ring he could only rely on the formations he knew extremely well, which was also a bonus as theyd be sticking around for quite some time. For these reasons he kept things somewhat simple. He used only two different arrays, repeating them multiple times. On the outside of the maze, he employed the Four Cornered Forgetfulness formation. It was a simple bewildering array, but it affected the mind, inspiring an absent mind and making a person forget what they were doing till they wandered back towards the center. This way, those trying to breach his maze would take much longer to move from the outer portion of the maze and into the inner area.

Secondly, Sage employed the Magnifying Wheel array. Just like in the past, hed altered it into Soul Magnifying Wheel, this time he tried for a Spirit Magnifying Wheel. The main structure of it consisted of one large circle with a large and small ring inside it. Its purpose was to focus energy from the large ring and concentrate it, focusing it into the small ring. The small ring was of course going to be the center of his maze, which would then hopefully empower his consciousness.

Sage used the largest outer circle as the outline for his mental foundation, turning it into a perfect circle. Then, he used the large ring as the area for his maze, filling it with Four Cornered Forgetfulness formations as hallways with large open chambers between them. As an added bonus, the two rings, large and small, didnt completely fill the island and Sage made a few extra chambers in there. They added some redundancy, and perhaps he could learn how to store knowledge in them later.

He finished his design and was planning on starting to cultivate it, but he was interrupted by Guan Zhenyans weekly visit.