Formation Cores

Water Cloud City wasn't just some common small city you'd find just lying around anywhere. It was actually in an extremely unique situation.

Because the city sat on the borders of the Mainland, when invaders from the Savage Land popped up one of the first places they'd attack was this city. But it wasn't like these cities didn't have any defenses.

Most, if not all, of the cities lying on the border of the Mainland were actually controlled by the Immortal Families.

The Immortal Families were the first to raise their blades when war broke out and because of that they were also the first to get a split of any and all land they obtain from the battle. This allowed their territory to grow to be the second largest territory in the mainland. Second only to the Northern Empire, who's territory is only the largest because they were the first super power to appear in the mainland.

And although the Northern Empire had more land mass than the Immortal Families, the resources the families gained from their land was far greater than the other two super powers.

And although this caused greedy eyes to glance at them ever so often, because no other group dared to take over the area that was most prone to war, the Northern Empire and Four Great Sects ignored this difference in resources and allowed the current land split to stand.

Because of how much the Immortal Families cared about the resources in these areas, they gave each city a way to defend themselves especially in a hazardous situation such as this.

A special defensive formations set around the entire city that would block them from most harm.

This formation created a sort of impenetrable field around them that no one could penetrate.

Only those of the core forging stage or above could get through, foundation establishment experts and below would have a hard time working around this.

But due to the high consumption of resources the formation took to activate, it would only be used in the most dire of situations.

And right now was such a situation.

Based on the recent reports that were just received, some of the creatures that were a part of the beast wave were at least ninth level qi refiners. Even a tenth level one had appeared, leading the group as the wave's head.

Although they had enough manpower to handle such threats, the number of beasts basically made it difficult to defend all of the inhabitants while fighting off the high level monsters.

Luckily the number of beasts charging at them had reached a stopping point as it appeared that the demonic beasts were not using the lower level animals in the wave. Instead the demonic beasts would capture those creatures to use as food.

But the main force was still standing strong and coming at them. Being only a few hours away they had no choice but to prepare themselves for what was to come.

Laying the map of the city down onto the table, Zhou Wei glanced at each of the people gathered with a serious expression. These were the strongest experts of the city and several interconnected organizations, including the hunter's guild.

"The scale of the beast wave is much greater than previously anticipated. If we took this lightly then it might lead to the city's downfall. I suggest activating the full power of the formations!"

This caused a murmur to shuffle around. The price they'd have to pay for activating the formation's full power was not something they could afford.

"City Lord, while I understand where you're coming from, we don't nearly have enough spirit stones and natural treasures to power the city defense to that extent."

"What the guild leader said is right, the immortal families haven't restocked our supplies yet and because of this we are probably at our weakest right now." Even Wang Mu couldn't see how they could possibly go with Zhao Wei's suggestion.

The others agreed with similar reasoning, but Zhao Wei's next words silenced them all.

"Leader of the hunter's guild, it is time for you to use the converter."

While most of the people present had no idea what Zhao Wei was talking about, Wang Mu and the guild leader both glanced at the city lord like he was a madman.

"If I brought out that treasure, then who'd be willing to take the risk…"

"I'll step up." Wang Mu immediately worded out his participation under the curious gazes of all those present.

Zhou Wei was surprised by Wang Mu's offer and gave him a peculiar look.

Then, he suddenly turned to the others and explained the situation.

"The hunter's guild has been keeping a magical treasure stored as a last resort for our city. Usually it would be used during large invasions from the Savage Land, but it appears this would be a good opportunity to use it as well. It takes the true cultivation base of the user and converts it into tangible power. This power can be used to enhance a persons cultivation base temporarily, but in this case we plan to use it to power our formation. But the cultivation base used by this magical treasure is lost forever, in other words you'll have to recultivate your lost powers after this is all over."

Now they all understood why Zhao Wei seemed so surprised by Wang Mu's willingness to participate in this plan. He was one of the strongest experts of the city, and he had an extremely bad reputation among the inhabitants. Yet he was willing to step up when it called for it.

Although in reality Wang Mu actually knew that he was reaching the limit of his lifespan, it was most likely he'd never surpass Zhou Wei in this lifetime. Then if his sacrifice could buy his family some time, he was sure that as long as his son Wang Dong returned then no one would look down on them in ten years.

And he wasn't just going to let this stage he prepared for his son to disappear like that!

Wang Mu spoke up, "The formation is powered in two areas, the formation cores. This will most probably be the most dangerous areas as they are set outside of the city formation radius. We need someone else who is willing to risk their lives to power the second formation core."

The permanent loss of cultivation was bad enough, but now to hear how dangerous activating the formation was, it made everyone around want to reject the position even more.

Seeing the position of the batch, Zhao Wei offered an incentive, "Anyone who participated in this operation shall be reward with enough fire elemental energy to return them back to their previous strength as an elemental cultivator."

This deal was actually very tempting. Although their elemental cultivation would be the same level as their current one, who didn't know that an elemental cultivator was several times more powerful than the average cultivator.

This was the equivalence of helping them to break through two or three normal cultivation levels!

But even so they needed to be alive to enjoy that privilege. If Xue Chang's current predicament wasn't so unique, even he'd be tempted to accept the offer.

Finally someone spoke up, "I'll take that last position." And once more to everyone's surprise another member of the Wang Family stepped up.

Wang Fan proudly stepped forward with his chest pumped out.

Everyone had to admit that they underestimated the Wang Family. Who knew they'd be such honorable people to risk their lives for the city.

Everyone present looked at them in a new light.

Even Zhao Wei gave them a nod of gratification.

"Then everything is set, but we still need more help. We must still try to stop the beast wave as much as possible. We can't risk the cores getting attacked by the beast wave causing the formation to break. As such we shall separate into three groups. One to intercept the demonic beasts trying to invade the city, one to defend the civilians from any beasts that are able to get into the city before the formations are activated, and one to defend the formation cores from attacks."

It was obvious that the riskiest position of the two were the intercepting team and the team that defended the formation cores. Most people wanted to defend the interior of the city behind the safety of the formation but everyone knew that this was unacceptable.

Luckily Zhao Wei made a declaration. He and most of the city guards would be at the forefront of the interception squad. They'd work together to try and stop as many demonic beasts as possible. Wu Jie would be leading the interior defense squad, which many people signed up for.

But that left only the formation core protection team empty. Yet someone still decided to enter into this squad.

"I'll protect a formation core." Yong Heng stepped forward and volunteered to protect the formation core. Along with several other young men, a small group was formed.

But this didn't sit well with some people. Many still found Yong Heng's identity to be suspicious. And with the news that a traitor to the city becoming more prevalent, they couldn't help but speculate that maybe this strange warrior could be it.

Thankfully Wu Jie vouched for him. And with one of the city's greatest expert guarantees, the complaints died down slowly.

With everything settled Zhao Wei nodded as he declared their course of action. And without further hesitation everyone immediately set out to begin their preparations.