Chapter 68
Dao Friend (33.3) left another reply.
It was already the seventeenth one.
└Dao Friend (33.3): Hey, answer me.
└Dao Friend (33.3): Hey.
└Dao Friend (33.3): Hey, Dao Friend (913.14).
Baek-Cheong watched with a pleased expression, half-lying on the bed.
They had been fixating on the single reply she had tossed out for over Half Shichen.
Between Dao Friend (33.3)'s desperate replies, onlookers excitedly chimed in.
[Dao Friend (22.938): But if they really learned it, isn’t that insane? There’s a saying that the Formation glyphs in the Jinmun Formation Diagram are the Language of Formations. If this is true, doesn’t it mean they can instantly create any Formation they want just through Glyph Combination?]
└Dao Friend (33.3): If that were possible, I would have done it.
└Dao Friend (22.938): You can’t bid on your own item.
└Dao Friend (33.3): I used to own it a long time ago. I studied it for fifty years but failed to learn it, so I resold it.
└Dao Friend (22.938): So you’re saying a Qi Condensation cultivator solved in one day what you couldn’t solve in fifty years.
└Dao Friend (33.3): …Which is why I’m saying it makes no sense.
Among them, Dao Friends claiming to be Formation Masters also appeared.
[Dao Friend (899.1): I’m a Formation Master, and if the Jinmun Formation Diagram really contains all the Formation glyphs representing the Language of Formations, it’s practically a fortuitous encounter. The problem is that you need comprehension to understand the Formation Structure, because even if you learn the Formation glyphs, combining them to instantly deploy a Formation is a different story.]
Baek-Cheong wiggled her feet under the blanket, feeling satisfied.
She was simply grateful that the Dao Friends were using their imaginations to inflate the situation on their own.
While she was enjoying the spectacle, a new reply from Dao Friend (899.1) caught her eye.
[Dao Friend (899.1): By the way, if you can combine Formation glyphs on the spot to create a Formation, what would happen if you linked it with a Formation Artifact? If you could imbue the Glyph Principle into something like a Banner, wouldn’t it theoretically become a moving Formation?]
└Dao Friend (13.988): No matter how well you learn the Language of Formations, it’s theoretically possible if you can move the Formation and calculate and respond to Myriad Changes. But if someone could do that, they would have more than enough to achieve ascension just with formations…
[…Five Elements Banner.]
She had completely forgotten something important.
Being distracted by Pill Refining for the Inscribed Pill, getting swept up in the Nameless Pavilion Grand Auction commotion, and immersing herself in Deciphering the Jinmun Formation Diagram…
The existence of the Five Elements Banner, which she had shoved deep into her Storage Platform, had entirely evaporated from her mind.
“This is no time for this.”
Baek-Cheong exited the Nameless Forum and jumped up from the bed.
Then, she took out the Five Elements Banner she had stashed in the Storage Platform.
The Five Elements Banner was still as unsightly as it had been a few days ago.
It looked like faded Five-Colored Cloth hanging limply from an old Wooden Staff.
“Surely…”
She placed the Five Elements Banner on her lap and laid the Jinmun Formation Diagram next to it.
Cyan Cloth. Red Cloth. Golden Cloth. White Cloth. Black Cloth.
Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water.
The Five-Colored Cloth matched the five elements without a single discrepancy.
[If so.]
The Formation glyphs of the Jinmun Formation Diagram are activated only when infused with energy matching their respective properties.
Furthermore, each cloth of the Five Elements Banner is divided into the five elements.
[Could it be that the Five-Colored Cloth takes on a Positional Role that makes up a Formation?]
The Source that draws in energy.
The Main Body that connects the flow.
The Boundary that contains the effect.
The Anchor that secures the structure.
And the Auxiliary Position that handles the supplementary flow.
[It’s entirely possible.]
Baek-Cheong’s eyes sparkled as she skimmed down the first page of the Jinmun Formation Diagram.
Countless Formation glyphs appeared densely packed, and the lines and dots contained within the Formation glyphs were Embodied Characters of the providence of heaven and Earth, harboring specific properties.
[What if I try infusing the appropriate energy into each of the Five-Colored Cloth while keeping the Glyph Form in mind?]
Baek-Cheong mentally pictured the forms of the Formation glyphs that made up the Spirit Gathering Formation.
Then, firmly holding onto the forms with her Divine Sense, she sequentially infused the corresponding Five Elements Qi into each of the Five-Colored cloths of the Five Elements Banner.
At that, the unsightly Five-Colored Cloth absorbed the energy and emitted a faint light.
However, the Five-Colored Cloth only glowed individually.
The phenomenon of their energies fusing or extending outward did not occur.
As a result, the Formation lingered within the Five Elements Banner without outward Deployment, before eventually fading away.
[I definitely matched the elements and kept the Glyph Form in mind.]
Baek-Cheong rested her chin on her hand and stared intently at the now-quiet Five Elements Banner.
The Formation glyphs had emitted light, but the organic flow connecting them was missing.
It was like having all the parts gathered but lacking an assembly manual.
[They aren’t connecting.]
A thought she had just a moment ago flashed through her mind.
[…Even if the Five-Colored Cloth takes on the roles, does simply engraving the Formation glyphs not solve it?]
The role of the Source required her to carry the Converging Flow itself - which pulled in the Spiritual Energy of Heaven and Earth from the outside and gathered it inward - and transmit it in order.
Only then would each cloth recognize the others' roles and interlock to form the shape of the Formation.
Knowing the outward appearance or properties of a Formation Glyph was a completely different matter from having an Intuitive Understanding of its Essential Meaning - which direction the Formation Glyph needed to guide the energy within the Formation Structure - and sending it on the energy.
[It’s harder than I thought, but…]
This was the reason why, even if one memorized the Formation Glyph tables by heart, one would never be able to deploy a Formation in one’s entire life if one couldn’t grasp the providence of heaven and Earth and the flow of roles contained within.
[Well, it’s not hard once you know the principle.]
Baek-Cheong closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
She slowly cleared her distracting thoughts, refined her Divine Sense, and drew up her energy.
Then, she began to infuse Fire Elemental Energy into the Red Cloth.
But this time, she didn’t just imbue the hot Fire Element.
She mentally pictured the three-dimensional form of convergence - strongly pulling in energy from the outside and gathering it into one place - and sent it flowing into the Red Cloth, carried on the Fire Elemental Energy.
At that, it emitted a completely different light than before.
[Next is the Main Body.]
Without breaking the flow, Baek-Cheong sent the role of the Main Body carried on Wood Elemental Energy into the Cyan Cloth next.
Then, an invisible Spiritual Flow connected tautly between the Red Cloth and the Cyan Cloth, resonating.
[Quickly, to the next…]
Gaining momentum, she poured energy and roles into the remaining cloths sequentially.
Flash!
The Five-Colored Cloth simultaneously emitted a bright, dazzling Five-Colored light and fluttered radiantly.
The Formation glyphs imbued in the Five Elements Banner awakened and intertwined one after another, and in an instant, a Spirit Gathering Formation expanded from the Wooden Staff, encompassing the entire room.
“Ah…”
Baek-Cheong stood with her mouth open, unable to speak for a while.
Its power and scale were completely incomparable to the palm-sized Formation she had barely managed to create by struggling to draw Formation glyphs on paper with a brush.
“So this is the Five Elements Banner…”
With trembling hands, she withdrew her energy and deactivated the Formation.
The performance of the Five Elements Banner was better than she had thought.
Since she could instantly create a Formation simply inserting Formation glyphs, it could be called an artifact and a fortuitous encounter beyond imagination.
“No.”
It would have been impossible if she hadn’t had the Jinmun Formation Diagram, if she hadn’t understood the Formation glyphs, if she hadn’t been able to handle the Formation glyphs, if she hadn’t recognized the Language of Formations, and if she hadn’t realized how to handle the Five Elements Banner.
“This is because I did well.”
Baek-Cheong considered it an effort won through her own abilities.
Therefore, she couldn’t acknowledge it as a fortuitous encounter.
A true fortuitous encounter should allow you to get something for nothing.
“As expected of me.”
Soon, she developed a taste for deploying Formations with the Five Elements Banner.
Thus, this time, she tried reversing the roles imbued in the cloths of the Five Elements Banner.
She reversed the direction of the Source, changing it to a Repulsive Flow that strongly pushed outward instead of gathering energy.
The spiritual energy in the room clumped strongly around the Five Elements Banner, then emitted a sense of pressure in all directions, pushing away the space itself.
It became a Repulsion Formation that blocked external approaches.
“Hehe…”
With a face full of joy, Baek-Cheong withdrew her energy and twirled the Five Elements Banner in her hand.
There was no need to newly construct a Formation core or draw the Formation glyphs one by one.
As long as she mentally combined the Formation glyphs and roles to be imbued into the Five-Colored Cloth of the Five Elements Banner and infused them with energy, the desired Formation would deploy in an instant.
To maintain the Formation for a long time, she would need sufficient spiritual energy or spirit stones, but everything from its range to its strength and movement could be controlled freely.
[But what do I do now?]
Even though she had gained deep enlightenment in Formations, she had nowhere to use it.
The Spirit Gathering Formation and Repulsion Formation were simple formations, so they weren’t difficult, but she lacked the learned Formation glyphs to handle a Complex Formation like the Illusion Formation protecting the Yeonha Baek Clan.
“Ugh, I hate studying.”
Baek-Cheong felt her swelling pride subside.
Just as she was about to sneakily put the Five Elements Banner and the Jinmun Formation Diagram into the Storage Platform.
[These alone are 11 High-High-Grade Spirit Stones…]
10 High-High-Grade Spirit Stones were used to purchase the Five Elements Banner.
1 High-Grade Spirit Stone was used to purchase the Jinmun Formation Diagram.
If she gave up on studying and left them as they were, they would be reduced to a Portable Spirit Gathering Formation Banner and a book with a nice thickness to use as a headrest.
“…”
For a while, Baek-Cheong silently looked back and forth between the quiet Five Elements Banner and the Jinmun Formation Diagram, falling into agony.
Even for her, throwing away 11 High-High-Grade Spirit Stones was too much.
“Haa…”
In the end, with a long sigh, she irritably picked up the Jinmun Formation Diagram.
She hated studying so much that she wanted to tear them up right then and there, but she reluctantly continued to learn the Formation Glyphs.