Under Min Longyu's command, the Five Elements squads of the Luotian Association began launching exploratory attacks against the Bronze Wall and Iron Bastion Array from different angles.
With every probing strike, Min Longyu also imparted foundational formation knowledge to the cultivators under his charge.
It was not that he was particularly generous.
Rather, only once they grasped basic spatial and directional concepts could these cultivators be deployed to the greatest effect.
"First, understand the positions corresponding to the Eight Trigrams: Qian is one, Dui is two, Li is three, Zhen is four, Xun is five, Kan is six, Gen is seven, and Kun is eight.
"Qian and Kun represent Heaven and Earth...
"Gen represents Mountain, while Dui generates Lake. Fire squad, strike the Dui position to test the balance of water and fire there!"
Hearing Min Longyu's command, the newly designated fire squad immediately unleashed fire-attribute spells, bombarding the Dui position in unison.
Under the clash of fire and water, golden ripples spread across the grand formation's light barrier.
Seeing this, a thoughtful look appeared on Min Longyu's face.
"Strong water implies that the metal is stronger still. This formation relies primarily on metal and earth, with its might concentrated on the metal element while the earth element merely acts as a foil.
"Water squad, cast the Billowing Waves Technique and see how it responds!"
The nineteen cultivators of the water squad formed hand seals together and unleashed their magic.
Wave after surging wave rolled forward.
Provoked by the assault, the golden barrier flared with brilliant radiance.
Faintly, streams of molten gold seemed to flow across it, and the barrier appeared to grow even more formidable.
Earth generates metal, and metal generates water.
The three elements reinforced one another to forge a bronze wall and iron bastion—hard, resilient, and utterly impenetrable.
If anyone tried to force their way in through pure physical strength, they would instantly be subjected to boundless crushing pressure.
Even an accomplished body refiner like Wang Yuan would find it impossible to withstand the array's immense pressure!
While Min Longyu directed the probing attacks to seek out vulnerabilities in the Bronze Wall and Iron Bastion Array, Luo Chen did not remain idle either.
He stood to one side, watching with rapt attention.
At the same time, he committed the foundational knowledge Min Longyu tossed out so casually to memory.
*Back when I was trying to crack Duan Qiankun's storage bag, I learned a fair number of restriction techniques from Duan Feng.*
*Later, while opening Huo Hu's storage bag, I picked up quite a bit more.*
*Restrictions are the building blocks of formations. If I can grasp the fundamentals of formations, even if I never specialize in the craft, I'll still be able to understand what I'm looking at when I encounter one in the future, saving me from straying down the wrong path.*
Luo Chen had already experienced firsthand the marvelous uses of restrictions.
When he first began refining the two magic treasures in his possession, progress had been agonizingly slow.
Later, he had imitated Duan Qiankun, constructing restrictions with his spiritual sense and tirelessly inscribing them onto the treasures.
Over the years, he had achieved minor success in refining those two magic treasures.
He simply had not found the right opportunity to test them yet.
Otherwise, he truly would have liked to see just how sharp his Mystic Fire Sword was.
...
On the first day, Min Longyu used the Five Elements squads like individual fingers, methodically testing every strongpoint and vulnerability of the Bronze Wall and Iron Bastion Array to analyze its composition.
On the second day, he forged those squads into a clenched fist, alternately dispersing and concentrating their power to repeatedly batter specific nodes of the barrier.
Then came the third day!
He was no longer content to merely throw punches; he was ready to draw his blade.
And Wang Yuan was the sharpest blade he had!
"I know you've pulled off the feat of breaking formations single-handedly twice in the past," Min Longyu said with a solemn expression, standing before the grand formation.
"However, those were damaged arrays without a Foundation Establishment True Cultivator presiding over them in person. This time is different. You must proceed with absolute caution."
Wang Yuan nodded, harboring not the slightest shred of complacency.
Min Longyu pointed toward the upper reaches of the barrier.
"Attack that spot—the Qian position. That is 'Lake over Water, Oppression,' where sharpness cannot extend. If you encounter a counterattack, retreat at once. If you are too slow to retreat, strike the spot right beside it immediately. That is the weakest point, lying just outside 'Thunder over Lake, Marrying Maiden.'"
Touching upon specialized technical knowledge, Wang Yuan listened with exceptional care.
He was no longer a complete novice himself.
In order to study the Blood Fiend Spirit Seizing Formation, he had absorbed a great deal of formation lore from both Duan Feng and Min Longyu.
Identifying two positions was well within his capabilities.
With everything prepared, Wang Yuan stepped forward, rising toward the highest point of the light barrier.
Without the slightest hesitation, he rallied every shred of his vitality and blood, coating his fist in a thin layer of manifest power.
*Boom!*
A punch smashed down!
Triggered by the blow, the golden barrier quivered violently.
A hazy golden light abruptly burst forth.
Its intent was heavy, yet its momentum razor-sharp.
Wang Yuan's face shifted drastically. *This is what you call 'sharpness cannot extend'?!*
In a flash, he retreated madly.
Yet that hazy golden light pursued him relentlessly, like an enraged beast snapping at his heels.
If it struck him, the sheer might of the grand formation would severely wound him in an instant.
*No good!*
*I can't dodge it!*
*Borrow force to counter force—strike the Eight Trigrams Zhen position in the Qian palace!*
Without a second thought, Wang Yuan twisted his body and unleashed an almighty palm strike, slamming into another section of the barrier.
Provoked anew, another beam of hazy golden light surged forth.
In that split second, the two golden lights collided, annihilating each other into nothingness.
Wang Yuan seized the opening to pull back immediately.
Back on the flying boat's deck, Luo Chen asked with concern, "Are you all right?"
A rare look of lingering fear showed on Wang Yuan's face.
"Wasn't this supposed to be a purely defensive formation? Why was its counterattack so terrifying?!"
Luo Chen turned his gaze toward Min Longyu.
A faint smile played across the formation master's lips.
He let out a laugh. "The best defense has always been offense. A defensive array without a counterattack is nothing more than a tortoise shell waiting to be battered. Elder Wang, surely you understand this principle better than most!"
Wang Yuan was taken aback.
He was reminded of the Luotian Association's own mountain-protecting array—the Seven-Colored Danxia Array.
The seven-colored lances it conjured possessed peerless offensive power, capable of slaying an early Foundation Establishment cultivator with effortless ease.
While Wang Yuan stood in stunned silence, Min Longyu pressed a hand firmly against his compass.
"Association Master, I have found the way to break the array!"
Luo Chen's eyes lit up instantly.
"How will you break it?"
"By using an array to counter an array! In seven days at the latest, it will fall!"
...
Inside the Divine Craft Sect, hundreds of cultivators were divided into several teams, patrolling day and night.
Furthermore, twenty-one late Qi Refinement cultivators sat arranged in a triangle, gathered behind a single figure.
That person was none other than the Great Elder of the Divine Craft Sect.
It was precisely because he presided over it in person, supported by those twenty-one cultivators, that the Bronze Wall and Iron Bastion Array could be kept operating continuously.
Fei Changqiu walked over from outside, his laughter ringing out before he even stepped through the doorway.
"Great Elder, you truly are the foremost formation master of our Divine Craft Sect!
"The rumors outside praised Wang Yuan's single-handed formation-breaking feats to the heavens, yet he nearly lost his life at your hands."
Standing before the Great Elder, Fei Changqiu beamed with delight.
"From where I stand, that Luotian Association rabble are nothing more than a bunch of frauds!"
The Great Elder stroked his beard, his weathered face flushed with pride.
"The Sect Master overpraises me!
"I merely relied on the power of the grand formation; it is hardly worth boasting about."
Fei Changqiu waved his hand. "There is no need to be modest.
"After these past few days of probing, how long do you think we can hold out with this grand formation?"
Just as the Luotian Association had been testing the formation's defenses, the Divine Craft Sect had been using the opportunity to gauge the strength of their attackers.
The Great Elder reined in his smile and hesitated before replying, "That Fire Spirit Lord has yet to make a move, so it is difficult for me to say with certainty. But if the attacks remain at their current intensity, I can hold out for at least half a year!"
*Half a year, is it?*
Fei Changqiu pondered the thought.
*That's more than enough!*
Even if Luo Chen went all out, they could easily hold for at least three to four months.
Such a prolonged stalemate would be plenty of time to stir up ideas in certain people's minds.
He refused to believe Luo Chen would be able to keep his full attention pinned here indefinitely.
Perhaps, after Wang Yuan's failure to breach the array, the Luotian Association was already contemplating a retreat!
If he seized this window to establish contact with the outside world, he might just be able to turn the tables and force the Luotian Association to withdraw its forces entirely.
Just as Fei Changqiu was indulging in his wishful thinking, a disciple urgently requested an audience outside the hall.
"Sect Master, the Luotian Association is making unusual moves!"
Fei Changqiu's expression shifted slightly, and he hurried outside.
Before long, he stood at the highest vantage point in the Divine Craft Sect, gazing out at the situation beyond the valley.
The figures outside were no longer attempting to attack the barrier.
Instead, they were bustling back and forth across an open clearing directly to the east.
"What in the world are they doing?"
...
From atop a small mound, Luo Chen looked down upon the bustling construction site before him.
Min Longyu was barking orders, directing the disciples to use spiritual power to alter and mark the terrain.
At the same time, he pulled a thick bundle of formation flags and an assortment of strange, peculiar stones from his storage bag.
Curious, Luo Chen asked, "What are those stones?"
Min Longyu turned around to explain, "Constructing a large-scale formation usually requires harnessing the power of mountain veins and earth ley lines. But under certain circumstances, the terrain simply isn't suited to the formation you wish to lay.
"In situations like this, formation masters like us must use our own methods to temporarily construct the required landscape.
"Ancient grandmasters typically used fifth-tier Restriction-Breaking Stones or fourth-tier Mountain-River Stones for the job. Naturally, I have nothing of the sort, so I'm using the most common second-tier material: Five Elements stones."
As he spoke, he handed a stone to Luo Chen.
It was clearly an artificially crafted material.
The moment Luo Chen touched it, he felt a dense concentration of fire-attribute spiritual power.
"Oh?"
Rubbing the stone, Luo Chen was surprised to find that it contained trace qualities of raw spirit stone ore.
While his curiosity was piqued, the construction of the formation never ceased for a single moment.
Min Longyu took the opportunity to explain the array he planned to deploy.
Based on his exploratory attacks, he had concluded that the Divine Craft Sect's Bronze Wall and Iron Bastion Array suffered from an elemental imbalance: its earth aspect was neglected, while its metal aspect was overemphasized.
To exploit this weakness, he planned to erect the Nine Transformations Flame Dragon Array.
A purely offensive, second-tier fire-attribute formation!
Fire conquers metal!
He would use the Nine Transformations Flame Dragon to shatter the Bronze Wall and Iron Bastion.
To that end, he had asked Luo Chen for five hundred medium-grade spirit stones in one breath to serve as the energy source—a staggering sum equivalent to fifty thousand low-grade spirit stones!
Not only that, he was also employing the damaged magic treasure, the Eighteen Wandering Formation Disks, as the central hub to govern the entire array.
A full day and night passed.
Across the vast clearing outside the Divine Craft Sect, an undulating formation had taken shape.
Numerous formation flags were planted in every direction, unfurling in the gentle breeze.
"Is it finished?"
Seeing Min Longyu walk toward him with an excited grin, Luo Chen asked with anticipation.
Min Longyu flashed his white teeth in a brilliant smile. "We're still missing one crucial thing!"
"Oh? What is it? If you need something, I'll obtain it for you immediately!"
Luo Chen gave Min Longyu his unconditional backing.
It was not merely to annihilate the Divine Craft Sect; it was also because, with the prolonged stalemate, cultivators from Tianlan Immortal City had gradually begun to gather in the area.
They lingered seven or eight li away, watching the spectacle from afar.
Luo Chen had even spotted people setting up roadside stalls along the major thoroughfares, peddling spirit fruits and spirit wine.
And those were just the onlookers.
One could easily imagine that if this dragged on any longer, someone would inevitably harbor wicked intentions and attempt to raid the Luotian Association's home base.
Min Longyu understood this just as well, which was why he showed no hesitation when asking for what he needed.
"Association Master, I need your flying sword magic treasure!"
Luo Chen's brow arched.
"The Mystic Fire Sword?"
"Yes!" Min Longyu pointed toward the inactive formation and spoke plainly. "After all, it is an array arranged in haste, so its inherent might has its limits. Therefore, I need a true treasure capable of suppressing the grand formation to serve as its formation eye!
"It will both stabilize the foundation and amplify the formation's destructive power!"
Having crammed formation lore over the past few days, Luo Chen now had a decent grasp of the art.
Restrictions, formation bases, energy sources, formation flags, formation disks, formation nexuses, and the formation eye itself.
For a grand formation to be truly formidable, its base had to be solid, its energy supply abundant, and its nexus flexible and responsive.
And the formation eye was the most vital element of all.
More often than not, when a grand formation fell, it was because its eye had been breached, tearing open a fatal flaw.
Thus, the eye of any powerful formation had to be exceptionally resilient, which was why formations were so frequently anchored to mountains and earth veins.
When tying into the landscape was not an option, one had to rely on a sufficiently powerful treasure to suppress and ground the unstable formation eye.
*Whoosh!*
Luo Chen raised his hand, summoning a crimson longsword into his grip.
The moment Min Longyu saw the sword, his eyes lit up.
"With the Mystic Fire Sword suppressing the formation, the Eighteen Wandering Formation Disks controlling the nexus, and the Nine Transformations Flame Dragon Array directing the power, shattering this bronze wall and iron bastion will be child's play!"
He received the Mystic Fire Sword and inspected it briefly.
The smile on his face grew brighter still.
"Although this sword is merely an ordinary low-grade magic treasure, it bears no extraneous enchantments whatsoever; its entire design is dedicated solely to amplifying the output of fire-attribute spiritual power.
"Wang Haichao was truly out of his mind to purchase this at any cost back then!"
Wang Haichao had practiced a pure water-attribute cultivation technique.
Spending a fortune to acquire a fire-attribute magic treasure had indeed seemed foolish.
However, considering the circumstances at the time, the treasure had not been meant for his personal use.
As such, calling him insane was perhaps an exaggeration.
"Association Master, your refinement of this magic treasure seems rather impressive!"
Luo Chen smiled modestly. "It's decent enough, barely acceptable."
Cradling the Mystic Fire Sword, Min Longyu suddenly remarked, "Though the Nine Transformations Flame Dragon Array is a purely offensive formation, it inherently carries an aspect of refining and smelting."
Smelting and refining was, after all, an attribute of offensive destruction.
Luo Chen was puzzled as to why he brought this up.
"Association Master, if your divine soul foundation is robust enough, then once the formation is activated, you can borrow a portion of its might to forcibly refine this sword.
"If you succeed, it may help you attain a far more flawless mastery over this treasure."
Hearing this, Luo Chen was genuinely astonished.
*The Nine Transformations Flame Dragon Array can even produce such an effect?!*
He immediately asked Min Longyu for the relevant refining technique.
Naturally, that was merely a secondary endeavor.
The true priority remained breaching the enemy formation!
Once all preparations were complete, Min Longyu climbed onto the elevated platform.
Beneath his feet lay the sprawling array, where formation flags fluttered, Five Elements stones stood in jagged formations, and medium-grade spirit stones pulsed with copious spiritual energy.
Two li ahead of him stretched the shimmering golden light barrier.
Grasping the sword in both hands under the watchful eyes of the crowd, he flung it backward.
The Mystic Fire Sword radiated a brilliant crimson glow before embedding itself deeply into the rear of the grand formation.
"Array, activate!"
At some point, he had sat down cross-legged, a massive formation disk already unfurled before him.
Though parts of it were damaged, it emanated the terrifying, intricate aura of hundreds of thousands of restrictions.
Under the pull of the nexus, every formation flag began to flutter without the aid of wind.
At key nodes throughout the array, the medium-grade spirit stones trembled simultaneously, releasing torrents of surging spiritual energy.
Furthermore, the Five Elements squads, numbering over a hundred cultivators, stood arranged in five directions. Under Min Longyu's orchestration, they channeled their own spiritual energy into the array.
The moment the formation locked into place, a low draconic roar faintly reverberated through the air.
In the surrounding lands, countless eyes watched the unfolding scene.
Luo Chen and Wang Yuan stood guard in separate positions, shielding the array from interference.
Seated at the center, the excitement in Min Longyu's eyes burned hotter and hotter.
Suddenly, he raised his arm.
"Nine Transformations of the Flame Dragon, heed my command!
"First Transformation: Crouching Dragon Leaves the Mountain!"
His shout rang out across the valley.
In the next instant, boundless spiritual energy converged, and a colossal flame dragon stretching dozens of zhang long surged majestically out from the formation.
Its body was ethereal rather than solid, its scales indistinct.
Yet its head bore imposing horns, exuding an aura of majestic might.
"Go!"
At Min Longyu's command, the massive flame dragon spewed blazing fire and lunged relentlessly toward the golden light barrier without looking back.
Chapter 294