Chapter 1734. Formation Plaza and Zhuo Shuyun’s Rival.

Inside the Zhuo family house, Old Man Zhuo Lianyu sat in his room, not practicing formations at all. This caused some of his disciples and other family members to become worried.

“Master, how about creating a few formations? It has been a while, hasn’t it?”

Zhuo Lianyu snorted and rubbed his beard. “Of course I want to. However, what if I start drawing formations, get too deeply immersed, and miss Master Angel’s show? It would be a loss of a lifetime!”

‘Who is this Master Angel he has been talking about? There are no formation Masters with that name!’

Zhuo Shuyun, one of the top five beauties, walked over, intrigued. “Grandpa, did you just say Angel?”

Zhuo Lianyu looked at her and asked. “Oh? Do you know about her?”

Shuyun laughed, opened a folded fan, and covered half her face. Her scholarly beauty made that gesture lethal. “Of course I know. Madam Angel is Madam Yasenia’s wife, isn’t she? Short, blonde, extremely cute, but with a seductive body. I did hear from Madam Yasenia that she practices formations, but I didn’t expect grandpa to hold her in such high regard.”

“High regard?” Zhuo Lianyu sighed wistfully. “I feel as if I’ve gone back to my student years. You are also a formation master, one near the very top. You should come with me when Master Angel comes.”

Since Shuyun had been wanting to meet with Yasenia again, she nodded. “Alright. Let’s go together. Also, wasn’t there another formation master named Tatyana?”

Zhuo Lianyu paused and looked out of the window. “To be honest… I looked at her work once, and then I didn’t dare look any further. She is Master Angel’s Master, and it shows. I felt that if I kept looking, I’d feel as if all my years of formation building would’ve been for naught. So, I cowardly looked away.”

Everyone in the room became paralyzed. Zhuo Lianyu was a formation master known across the entire world, and at the very top of the profession. If he said he was in the top fifty, few would dare put themselves in the same top group.

Thankfully, for them, it didn’t take long for Angel’s group to come knocking. “Master! Madam Angel is here!”

Zhuo Lianyu stood up, spilling all the tea on the table. Zhuo Shuyun looked at the mess with a touch of hurt. ‘That was expensive and rare tea…’

She, of course, stood up as well and followed. When she arrived outside, she scanned the surroundings to see if Yasenia had come with them. ‘What a shame. She isn’t here.’

She had clicked quite well with her during the First Princess’ gathering, so she wanted to see her again. She didn’t have romantic feelings, just goodwill.

When she arrived, she saw Zhuo Lianyu shaking Angel’s hand up and down with excitement. The girl jiggled with the movements. “Haha! It is good to see you, Master Angel! I have been waiting for you and Madam Tatyana to come.”

Angel answered, her voice vibrating as she shook back and forth. “L-Lord Lianyu, s-stop! I am getting dizzy!”

Lianyu blinked and let her go, somewhat ashamed. “Ah. My bad, my bad. This old man was excited to see you.”

Old Man Zhuo didn’t realize he had caused quite a bit of trouble. Angel, after all, rarely put on underwear to keep her curves still. The dresses Evelyn created were good enough to support her while walking and such, so she didn’t really see any need to wear stuffy underwear.

Shuyun shook her head with a sigh and clapped her hands with a touch of energy. “Alright, snap out of it. Have you never seen a woman’s body before, you millennium old virgin?”

Clap!

Everyone who had been mesmerized snapped out of it. Angel looked over and showed a touch of surprise. “You must be Zhuo Shuyun. I’ve heard Yasenia speak about you before.”

“Oh?” Shuyun smiling. “Am I that recognizable?”

Angel chuckled. “Few can compare in looks to you, Lady Zhuo. Are you also a formation master?”

Shuyun opened her fan and approached. “That’s right. Our Zhuo Clan is one of the Twelve Noble Families, and we specialize in formations. Only the Heavenly River Sect, a supreme righteous sect, can compare to us.”

“Bah!” Old Man Zhuo snorted. “What can those old folks do? They are good competition against me, but they are far behind the true essence of formation building! Either way, let’s stop talking about boring things. Master Angel should’ve come to participate in the Plaza Ranking, right? Hehehe. Let me call those old fogeys so that Master Angel can broaden their horizons.”

Without waiting for anyone, the old man summoned several communication talismans and burned through all of them.

Qinqin looked at Angel and asked, giggling. “Feeling pressured?”

Angel shook her head lightly. “None at all. I just need what I usually do. There is nothing more to it.”

Shuyun laughed. “That’s the composure of a master. I am looking forward to it.”

***

After that, they gathered and moved toward the Formation Plaza. The place was enormous. It was called a plaza, but one could mistake it for an open field paved and divided into sections.

There were almost no buildings, and those that existed were massively tall pagodas, piercing the sky in a certain pattern. Angel’s blue eyes flashed. “Oh? The pagodas and this whole zone create a formation that allows for formation practice? Complex and intriguing.”

Shuyun and Old Man Zhuo looked at Angel with surprise. “Where did you hear about that, Madam Angel? That’s a secret only the top formation experts know.”

“Secret?” Tatyana laughed and spoke for the first time. “The entire place does have a concealing formation, but it is far too sloppy. Applying shockwave principles, energy manipulation, and node illumination, along with Feng Shui pattern distribution… I could snap my fingers right now and create a chain reaction that would reveal the entire thing.”

Shuyun and Lianyu became serious as they pondered over Tatyana’s words while looking around. As for their disciples… none of them could even follow.

As everyone fell silent, pondering Tatyana’s words, a woman in a white dress with a cold yet slightly haughty face approached. “Shuyun! You’ve come. Today is the day I defeat you once and for all.”

Zhuo Shuyun snapped out of her concentration with a slightly annoyed expression. She was about to grasp something from Tatyana’s speech, but ultimately failed to do so because of her shout. “Guan Luan, nobody would think you were mute if you kept your mouth shut! Couldn’t you see that I was in the middle of meditation? I got distracted because of you!”

Guan Luan landed in front of them and smiled. “Whatever. It probably wasn’t anything special. Either way, I challenge you. Today I’ll represent my Heavenly River Sect and defeat you, proving that I am the top talent of our generation.”

Angel thought. ‘Wow. What an arrogant woman. If Yasenia were here, she might’ve slapped her face with her tail.’

Naturally, Shuyun completely ignored her. “Forget it. You and I are nothing but specks of dust trying to appear like glimmering stars. Today is the Dravory Family’s turn to showcase their skills…” Her eyes turned a touch shrewd. “Of course, if you can defeat Madam Angel, I wouldn’t mind accepting your challenge.”

Guan Luan blinked. “Who? I don’t know any Dravory-surnamed clans. Did a new clan rise to the Twelve Noble Families’ position?”

“They didn’t.” Shuyun pointed at Angel. “It is she who will be competing.”

Guan Luan was quite tall, so she had to look down to glance at Angel. “...Her?”

It wasn’t just Angel’s appearance that made Guan Luan show a trace of shock. The Heavenly River Sect practiced many orthodox practices, and among them, there were some that allowed you to faintly perceive how old someone was.

Guan Luan looked at Shuyun with anger. “Are you mocking me, Shuyun? How could this child who isn’t wet behind her ears participate here? This girl isn’t even 1,000 years old yet.”

Everyone froze for a moment. Zhuo Lianyu naturally knew that Yasenia was young. He had heard during the conversation that Yasenia was only around 250 years old. However, he had never imagined that it wasn’t just Yasenia.

The maids and girls were all below 1,000 years old. The oldest, aside from the seniors, was Cai Xue. Cai Xue was around 9,000 years old, with Star Forge right behind at about 7,000. Then you had the other two maids from the Blue Pearl World, Tai Qingzhe and Mo Yun. They were 3,400 and 5,000 years old, respectively.

The next oldest was one of Yasenia’s maids, at around 800 years old. Everyone else was below that age.

So, their group was incredibly young in cultivation measurements as a whole.

One of the top five beauties almost fainted right there and then. Shuyun finally reacted and looked at Angel. Angel blinked her large, blue eyes innocently and smiled. “Hehe~.”

“...Don’t ‘Hehe’ me! Tell me, how old are you really?”

Angel hummed and winked cutely. “It’s a secret~. I might be using something to hide my bone age, or I might be 264 years old. Who knows! Hehehe.”

Shuyun gulped. “...That’s an oddly specific number.”

Angel blinked prettily again. “It’s just a random number. No need to overthink it. “

“Right… For my sanity’s sake, I’ll believe you.”

Zhuo Lianyu was now looking at Angel with a blank face. Angel approached the old man and patted his shoulder twice. “Come on. I feel generous, so I’ll teach you some things.”

“Puahaha!” Guan Luan burst into laughter. “Child. Do you know who you just patted on the shoulder? There is a limit to how high one’s arrogance can be. Alright, Shuyun. You wanted to teach this bratty kid a lesson, right? I’ll become her competition, then.”

Shuyun looked at Guan Luan with pity. “To think that my rival would end up broken so suddenly and without any warning. Fate is truly willful.”

Guan Luan turned around, her white skirt moving along. “Follow me. This place is for beginners. Do you see the tallest central formation pagoda?”

Angel walked beside Guan Luan. She was arrogant and haughty, but since she had the decency to explain it to a random junior she'd met for the first time, Angel could tell her heart wasn't evil.

It was the usual case of a genius’s ego being over the clouds. Guan Luan proceeded to explain the Formation Plaza in detail. “The arenas to compete are divided into hexagonal formations spreading out from the very middle. It’s a grid-like arrangement that spreads outward from the center. The closer to the center, the more expensive the items within the pagodas are, and the stronger formations the practice arenas allow.”

Angel asked, curious. “Oh, so those formations aren’t just there to be formation nodes?”

Guan Luan blinked twice. “...Did Shuyun tell you about it? Then you must be a promising talent. Anyway, yes. Most people know about these pagodas as shops. The control over who places items in which pagoda comes with centenary rankings. Sadly, the last time it was the Zhuo family who won. Zhuo Shuyun beat me and won the central Pagoda for her family.”

Guan Luan grumbled. “I hate to admit it, but back then, she won fair and square. I was outclassed. Not anymore, though. I’ve practiced for the last thirty-four years to get better, and now I am sure I can beat her!”

Angel clapped lightly. “Senior Guan is so cool! Very few people can admit their losses so coolly!”

Guan Luan smiled widely, flattered by the quite unique but genuine praise.

Meanwhile, the Zhuo family behind almost spat blood from frustration. ‘Who are you calling senior, you formation master monster!? That Guan girl should be doing nine kowtows and prayers just for the fact that she is talking to someone at your level!’