Chapter 26 "Appearance"

Chapter 26 "Appearance"

Senior Apprentice Jiujie is truly... too perfect.

Transforming into a wisp of green smoke, swiftly drifting downward through the winding narrow crevices, Li Changshou felt the array of formations he passed by, and a slight sense of satisfaction welled up in his heart.

Why mention 'perfection'?

Senior Apprentice Jiujie doesn't understand formations, his cultivation is in the realm of true immortals, not far from the celestial realm, his foundation is solid, his immortal power is extremely pure, and his control over immortal power is unexpectedly strong;

Most importantly, he allows himself to be manipulated by a junior like this!

To say "manipulated" may be a bit excessive, Li Changshou admits. There's an element of "deception" on his part, but both parties are willing, and that's a beautiful thing.

Senior Apprentice Jiujie really helped him a lot this time.

Thanks to the Elder of the Punishment Hall who punished Senior Apprentice Jiujie for drinking;

Thanks to Senior Apprentice Jiujie's senior brother, Jiuwu, who threw him into the wine vat to bathe when Senior Apprentice Jiujie was young;

Thanks to the few pieces of tattered parchment he found on the shelf outside the Daoist Scripture Hall, and successfully 'tested' out the 'main battle' drugs including Immortal Drunk and Soft Immortal Powder.

The wisp of green smoke sank about a hundred feet and stopped in a narrow crevice in the rock, reverting to human form.

Li Changshou took out the jade plaque that controlled the formation, and his fingers gently slid across it a few times, causing slight changes in the patterns on the jade plaque;

At the same time, the rock in front of him began to ripple like water, and Li Changshou stepped into it. The rock immediately returned to its original state.

Li Changshou walked a few steps in this large rock, and a small wooden door suddenly appeared in front of him. After pushing it open, he entered a three-zhang-square room and walked straight to his wooden table.

Taking out the jade plaque and gently rotating it, the peripheral formation underwent slight changes, and this underground shack disappeared completely into the various formations.

No matter from which direction, even if the celestial beings intentionally searched, they could not detect the existence of this secret room without destroying the outer formations.

A man always needs a secret space.

In the secret room, there are two bookshelves filled with ancient scrolls;

Li Changshou sat directly behind the desk, took out the dozens of pieces of parchment, examined them carefully for a while, then took out the jade plaque and held it in his hand. Then he closed his eyes, and a complex three-dimensional structure appeared in his mind.

Like a skyscraper he often saw in the city in his previous life, but this 'skyscraper' is embedded in the Small Qiong Peak.

Heaved a sigh of relief.

It's been a long time since he felt this reassuring sense of security...

"Ah," Li Changshou smiled slightly, "it wouldn't be bad to take a bath here.

Joking. Let's continue checking the arrangements of the main formations."

Fortunately, Senior Apprentice Jiujie has profound cultivation, which allowed him to realize the plan he had been preparing for decades—

The three-dimensional composite combination formation.

Using Senior Apprentice Jiujie's hands, Li Changshou gradually realized his ideas about the way of formations step by step;

In Senior Apprentice Jiujie's understanding, she helped Li Changshou set up hundreds of medium and small formations, and these formations are interconnected, forming a 'natural-like formation' that covers a radius of thirty miles around the alchemy room.

The combination of Li Changshou and Senior Apprentice Jiujie is equivalent to a powerful true immortal setting up such a big formation, which cannot be broken without a celestial being.

And it must be a celestial being who has a certain understanding of the way of formations.

However, Senior Apprentice Jiujie only knows the surface, but not the deeper levels...

The mainstream formations use various treasures, spirit stones, and specially refined treasures as the formation base, and when the formation bases are connected, they can form different effects.

The way of formations is vast and profound, and Li Changshou knows that he doesn't have many formations mastered, nor are they particularly profound.

But his mind always has some wild ideas, and he will repeatedly verify and realize these ideas one by one.

About sixty-seven years ago, when Li Changshou was practicing, he studied the formations left by the Immortal Sect. He accidentally discovered that the distribution of the formation bases of the mainstream formations in the Primordial World is mostly on a horizontal plane;

What if the formation bases are distributed vertically? The effect is actually the same.

Take the circular mountain protection formation as an example, if the formation bases are distributed vertically, the resulting half-circle protection will also rotate ninety degrees;

Naturally, most of the mountain protection formations rely on the power of the earth veins, and it is impossible to arrange them vertically.

But for non-protective formations like maze formations, trap formations, and killing formations, the direction can be freely adjusted.

Based on this, what if the formation bases are distributed diagonally?

What if several large formations have their bases intersecting horizontally and vertically?

If two large formations, one vertical and one horizontal, share one-third of their bases, when the horizontal formation is activated, the vertical formation is closed; when the vertical formation is activated, the horizontal formation is closed, thus achieving 'interference-free switching between large formations'.

As Li Changshou continued to explore, he gradually solved the problems of spiritual power circulation within formations and the 'applicability' of different formation bases...

Until today...

Divided by the horizontal formation, the formations here are divided into three layers, and what Senior Apprentice Jiujie knows is only the top layer, the formations around the alchemy room, which include more than a hundred trap formations and maze formations.

What Senior Apprentice Jiujie doesn't know is that there are more layers deeper into the mountain, and the core formation bases of the middle and lower layers were also buried with the help of Senior Apprentice Jiujie.

But this is only the situation when the formations operate horizontally; these formation bases also contain many vertical and diagonal schemes, including many killing formations...

The secret room where Li Changshou is now located is at the center of all formation bases; only when several vertical formations are activated or several horizontal formations are reversed will this secret room appear in the rock layer.

To reach this place, even if one achieves perfection in earth escape, without the jade plaque and special control methods in Li Changshou's hands, the only way is to directly split the Small Qiong Peak.

If there really comes a day when the mountain is split, it is estimated that the Immortal Sect is already at a critical juncture of life and death, and before that, Li Changshou is ninety-nine percent...

Cough, it's meaningless to coexist or perish with the sect. It's better to keep oneself useful and seek revenge for the sect!

By the way, the main function of the lower layer formation bases is actually to absorb the power of the earth veins.

In order not to absorb too much spiritual power from the earth veins, and thus be discovered by the alchemists of other peaks or noticed by the senior members of the sect, Li Changshou actively avoided all spiritual veins and directly absorbed the 'turbid' power of the earth, and then used the 'return to clarity formation' to filter the spiritual energy.

Although this will slightly reduce the power of the killing formations, it is more secure.

Moreover, even if someone inside the sect notices the many formations he has arranged on the Small Qiong Peak, as long as the vertical and diagonal schemes are not activated, they are just trap formations and maze formations, without violating any sect rules.

In the past, he used ordinary methods as a disguise, which belonged to 'passive disguise'.

Because now he needs to refine pills in the alchemy room, he can only reluctantly operate the shop, and make the 'active disguise' reach the extreme of his current stage.

The direction of future development...

Based on the formation bases below the alchemy room, slowly expand outward, and turn the Small Qiong Peak into an inconspicuous stronghold within the sect.

Life only comes once, and the Primordial World is so wonderful.

As cultivators, we should seek longevity and enlightenment, and appreciate the beauty of the three thousand worlds.

"At last," Li Changshou rubbed his hands, put away the parchment scrolls and the jade plaque, took out several storage treasures, and poured out several storage magic treasures from them.

The unexpected gains from the trip to the Northern Lu Continent, waited for two years, and finally can be inventoried.

"Let's see how poor this immortal Yuren is."

Li Changshou smiled lightly, took out two paper figurines, turned them into avatars, let these two avatars hold two storage magic treasures, and began to slowly refine them in the corner.

Half a day later, when the paper avatar guarding the pill furnace was about to run out of mana, Li Changshou also finished sorting out the spoils of war and got up to leave the secret room.

He held a brocade box in his hand, in which two dormant 'beetles' were placed.

If he guessed correctly, this thing should be...

The Love Insect.

"What a good thing," Li Changshou exclaimed, "but unfortunately it's not useful for now.

Keep it for later.

If the immortal birds and beasts I raise don't have the urge to breed, I can use this thing to catalyze them, increase the yield of offspring, and save some rare breeds."

...

On the day of the agreed upon alchemy assistance.

Jiujie yawned, wearing a linen short shirt that had been cleaned by some unknown senior sister, sleepily sitting on a big gourd, and floated towards the Small Qiong Peak.

As the main force true immortal in the sect, with powerful support behind her, she was not restricted when flying, except for forbidden areas.

"Today is the twentieth day, right?"

Jiujie counted with her fingers, feeling a bit sleepy;

Previously, in pursuit of excitement, she took a sip of the 'original liquid' of the Immortal Drunk, and ended up sleeping for five or six days...

She didn't deliberately spread out her immortal consciousness when flying, so she didn't notice the cloud of mist floating above the forest below.

When Jiujie arrived at the Small Qiong Peak, two heads emerged from the mist below, the person on the left was the short Taoist Jiuwu, and the person on the right was a girl who looked only sixteen or seventeen years old.

Although she looked like a girl, with a beautiful face and exquisite curves, full of youthful vitality, in fact, these two people were almost the same age, both over two thousand years old.

The girl's daoist name is Jiushi, she is the fourth disciple of Forget Emotion, Jiuwu's dao companion, and the immortal that Jiuwu often secretly observes with the three-headed heavy pupil spider...

Jiuwu whispered, "Is it not good for us to act like this? After all, this is the Small Qiong Peak."

"What's there to be afraid of? If you don't agree, just fight with the Peak Master here!"

The girl retorted impatiently, then squinted her almond eyes slightly, "You just woke up and rushed over here. There must be a problem. When did you ever see Xiaojue being so diligent? I want to see today if this Junior Brother Qiyuan has grown three heads or six arms, and why he can make Xiaojue come here every day."

Jiuwu smiled bitterly and suddenly raised his thick and short eyebrows, "Is there still a formation here? I can't sense Xiaojue's aura."

"What are you afraid of with formations? Haven't we all learned about them?"

With a sneer at the corner of her mouth, Jiushi grabbed Jiuwu's collar and, without saying a word, hid their figures and breaths, turning them into two shadows flying towards the forest of the Small Qiong Peak.

"We're two half-step celestial beings. Are we afraid of formations set up by someone who hasn't become immortal yet?"