Life as a Rogue Cultivator

Chapter 279: The Deep Pit

Actually, the thing about whether he had enough cultivation was something Liu Xiaolou genuinely wanted to test.Some formation disks had extremely high activation requirements. Take the true mountain-guarding formations of the major sects. The main formation came with dozens, sometimes hundreds of sub-formations. You needed at least Golden Core level, or even Nascent Soul, just to have the strength to start and control them.

Even the smaller mountain-guarding formations, or the larger manor-protecting ones, required Foundation Establishment to get them running.

There were even special small formations like the deathtrap formation he'd helped the Siming Sect refine back at the Chicheng Mountain marketplace. Without Foundation Establishment, you just couldn’t handle it.

So there was no guarantee this Sect Leader’s tokens formation would be any different.

With that in mind, Liu Xiaolou could only be straightforward. “Senior He... you’re well versed in formations, and your cultivation is clearly extraordinary. You must know that some formation disks have quite specific requirements for one's cultivation level and innate talent... If I may ask something presumptuously, what is your cultivation stage?"

Peak Lord He had no choice but to answer honestly, “Mid Foundation Establishment.”

Just as expected, mid Foundation Establishment. Add in He Taichang, who was at the peak of Qi Refinement... and all those disciples from Second Peak who’d run to join the He family… trying to slip away wasn’t going to be easy.

Liu Xiaolou took a quick measure of the situation. “For a single formation disk like this,” he said, “it shouldn’t have nested formations. Mid Foundation Establishment should be more than enough.”

Peak Lord He thought it over. “Then it comes down to innate talent? What kind of talent does it take to activate this formation?”

Liu Xiaolou shook his head. “It’s hard to guess. We need to look at the disk itself. Senior He, if you’re willing, I’d like to take it apart and rerefine it the way you would with a disk key.”

“Uh…” Peak Lord He looked uneasy. He was really worried that the little thief in front of him might end up wrecking it.

“Senior He, you’re a formation master. You can tell at a glance that this formation disk was far easier to refine than the disk key. If I can restore the key, this formation disk is no problem. Like I said, if I do mess it up, my own head’s ready to pay the price.”

“Fine… I’ll trust you one more time. But if you mess this up, you’ll pay for it!”

Liu Xiaolou took the formation disk and set it over the earth-fire to heat it up, then held out his hand. “Senior He, the spirit stones, please.”

All eighteen spirit stones had already been used; there was no reason to let all that effort go to waste. Lord He’s face darkened like water, and he had no choice but to hand over more spirit stones.

The five Sect Leader tokens had been simply merged together. Lord He could tell that with his limited knowledge of formations. Still, hope is a dangerous thing. Once you have it, expectations grow. And those expectations make you believe things you probably should not.

Right now, Lord He had high hopes for Liu Xiaolou’s skill with formations. So he chose to trust him. He watched as Liu Xiaolou carefully took the formation disk apart, removed the five tokens one by one, and then, using a method Lord He did not understand, reassembled and rerefined them.

His hope only grew. After eighteen more days passed, he fished out six more spirit stones.

In that time, Liu Xiaolou worked his way through twenty-four acupoints. From Huiyang to Chengshan.

“Feels like something’s missing,” Liu Xiaolou said, tilting his head as he thought.

“Not a question of my cultivation? Not some talent I’m missing?” asked Lord He.

“No…” Liu Xiaolou said, his eyes turning serious. “This formation disk is something you can control completely, Lord He. There’s no special talent requirement at all.”

Lord He let out a breath of relief. “You just said something was missing?”

Liu Xiaolou closed his eyes for a moment, then suddenly brightened. “Got it. It’s missing a Three Wonders Sub-Formation.”

Lord He blinked. “So you need to refine a new formation disk?”

“That’s right. My guess is that this formation disk is meant to open a tear in the void and draw in spiritual energy. To do that, it needs the sun, moon, and stars 'Three Wonders' sub-formation to come together. That's the only way it becomes a complete formation. Senior He, I’ll need three pieces of spirit jade and twelve kinds of spiritual materials. Please get them ready.”

“What materials do you need?”

Liu Xiaolou rattled off twelve types of spirit materials. He Taichang was called over, instructed in person, and then hurried off to gather them.

“We need to move fast. I’ll start carving the talismans first… Senior He, spirit stones!”

“Alright…”

Three stones at a time. Then another three. And another three…

The spirit stones that Peak Lord He emptied his spirit stones in batches, and by now there was no stopping him. He was saying yes to everything, pinning all his hopes on Liu Xiaolou finishing the Three Wonders Formation Disk as fast as possible.

Liu Xiaolou really did refine one. And while doing it, he also managed to open the last ten acupoints of the Foot Greater Yang Meridian.

Before he knew it, he had already cultivated all the way to the peak of Qi Refinement right under Lord He’s eyes. If he lacked anything at all, it was only that he hadn’t had enough spirit stones to convert. His true qi was a little short, and a few of his primordial pools didn’t have much stored up.

Those issues could be fixed later. Peak was peak. He could already start looking for a chance at the Foundation Establishment.

By now, Peak Lord He had handed over most of his spirit stones to Liu Xiaolou. He was like a gambler who’d lost himself in the game, pushing all his chips onto this one last hope.

Two months later, Liu Xiaolou successfully refined the Three Wonders Sub-Formation Disk. While explaining its features to Lord He, he merged it into the Sect Leader tokens formation disk.

Early that morning, the mountain rain had eased, and thick mist rolled over every peak of Miaofeng Mountain. At the mouth of the earthfire, Liu Xiaolou shuddered all over and finally finally finished his work.

Lord He, sitting cross-legged with his eyes closed, snapped awake. He was tense and anxious. “Well?”

Liu Xiaolou let out a sigh. “I’m more and more certain the original formation disk was incomplete. This set is actually made of two parts. The lower piece is the Earth Disk, and the upper piece is the Heaven Disk. The Three Wonders Disk I made is the Heaven Disk. It sets the order of operations so the formation can run smoothly.”

Peak Lord He pressed him. “So did it work or not?”

Liu Xiaolou grinned and tossed the disk to him. “See for yourself, Senior. It’s done.”

Peak Lord He caught the newly refined disk and turned it over in his hands, examining the freshly formed two-piece set. Compared with the crude, improvised version they’d had before, this one really did look far more refined.

After watching over the process for nearly half a year, he finally saw hope. He couldn’t wait to test it. “Can we deploy it?”

He infused the disk key into the disk.

Once they returned to the peak, Peak Lord He carefully set the disk into a gap in the stone and activated the key. The key linked with the disk. He pushed his true qi in, and his divine sense followed right after…

The formation disk took a moment to start up, just a slight delay. It felt half a beat slow.

It was probably just a little resistance in how his divine sense controlled the disk. Other than that, everything seemed normal. A bit of hesitation wasn’t surprising anyway. The disk had been rerefined and now had an added Heaven Disk…

Under his control, the formation disk burrowed into the crack in the stone. It drilled down about three zhang when he heard a soft click, then it stopped.

Peak Lord He’s face changed at once. He shot Liu Xiaolou a fierce glare. “It failed?”

Liu Xiaolou was stunned. “How? That shouldn’t happen…”

Peak Lord He took a few quick steps forward to check the crack. The moment he looked down, his vision blurred. The narrow gap suddenly widened into a huge pit, and it pulled him straight in. He was falling fast toward the pitch-black bottom!