Immortal Path to Heaven

Chapter 651: Studying A Formation Board

“Formation board, formation board…”

As Ou Yangming mumbled, he quickly carved a peculiar ore into a round board.

After being ambushed and countering the ambush, he had a clearer understanding of formation boards.

Formation masters were a profession rarer than blacksmiths. Their biggest reliance was formation boards, where formation maps that were engraved inside had enormous powers that allowed weak parties to dominate and challenge opponents of higher ranks.

Although formation masters had notable powers that could turn everything around, their potency was the reason they were rare.

Ou Yangming had not met a real formation master in the lower realm. Elder Universe had only scratched the surface from numerous ancient manuals because he lived long enough and had sufficient knowledge.

Even so, the superficial knowledge that the elder had introduced Ou Yangming to the field, where he gained some understanding of formation masters. Moreover, he also began to derive formation maps through Skill Runes and his knowledge.

Until today, Ou Yangming somewhat had little insight, which was why he could create formation boards and use them against his opponents.

Yes, if those round boards could be considered formation boards.

As compared to real formation boards that could be used multiple times according to legend, Ou Yangming’s round boards were as crude as they could be. Furthermore, they were also one-time consumables.

Nevertheless, the round boards worked together with the spiritual world that Ou Yangming released and unleashed their greatest potentials.

Lu Zhenxie and the 4 spirit lizards were captured by the formation’s mightiness just like that. They were then attacked by Ou Yangming and Big Yellow, and they ended up dying without peace.

Without the formation map’s assistance, even if Ou Yangming released the lazy turtle, he could not have killed his enemies easily.

Now, Ou Yangming set his target on high-rank spirit beasts, which were even more powerful. Therefore, he had higher demands for formation boards.

“Woosh…”

As Ou Yangming’s fire burned intensely and enveloped the round board, he slowly created rune paths that belonged to him on it.

He was already very familiar with the process, such that he would not make any mistake even if he closed his eyes. Nonetheless, the young fellow was not quite satisfied with his work. This was because he knew he was not carving a formation, but a Skill Rune.

Besides, if he carved runes on such raw ores, once they were activated, the forceful powers would destroy the runes.

Ou Yangming could not help but sigh when he sensed the rune slowly taking form.

Big Yellow blinked and asked in shock, “Lil’ Ming, what are you unhappy about?”

The young fellow shook his head and said, “I just find something odd—if I use these ores to smith a piece of equipment, why won’t the equipment’s skill destroy it? On the other hand, if I refine a round board with these ores, the skill that’s activated will ruin the board.”

Big Yellow’s eyes flickered. Ou Yangming’s question was undoubtedly obscure to it.

Despite that, it tilted its head for some time and blurted, “Perhaps it’s because they have different shapes.”

Ou Yangming could not help but laugh but on second thought, he seemed to have vaguely comprehended something.

A Skill Rune on a piece of equipment could only be incited at the cost of the user’s spiritual power, whereas a round board that was carved was not driven by spiritual power. Instead, its mightiness was the result of the power of the rune attached to it.

Ou Yangming’s eyes glowed unusually as he seemed to have grasped an important piece of information.

He turned his wrist and retrieved a real formation board.

This was the formation board that he stumbled upon before he entered the Wutong Tree’s secret realm. Once Xia Zizhen and Poisonous Saber Gentleman died, it naturally belonged to him.

As he inspected the formation board carefully, the lusters in his eyes changed unpredictably.

The ends of the rune paths on the formation board were connected, hence amateurs would not be able to notice anything.

Without pointers from a real formation master, other people could not spot anything even if they knew Rune Secret Techniques.

The formation board had been in Ou Yangming’s possession for some time, and he took some time to observe it almost every day. However, the closer he observed, the more he saw, and the more appalled he was. This was because he could not record the complicated rune paths.

It was nearly impossible. Even when his mental power was so remarkable, he could not remember even a part of the rune paths.

The only explanation would be the formation map was being resisted by a wonderful effect that it had.

Ou Yangming’s mentality was entirely different when he held the formation in his hand at the moment.

Big Yellow’s unintentional words seemed to have overthrown an invisible wall, allowing him to see the formation board from a new perspective.

‘Formation board, formation board. This is a treasure carved by a formation master, and it’s given a mysterious color.

‘In other words, can this formation board be treated as a formation master’s equipment?’

With half-squinted eyes, Ou Yangming fully released his mental power and became immersed in studying the formation board.

Before this, he regarded the item as an imperceivable treasure, where he was in awe when he observed it. Even when he occasionally carried out experiments, he only scratched the surface and dared not dive deeper.

This was because he was afraid of the formation board being ruined, then he would have nothing to study anymore.

At this point, he finally cast his worries aside.

‘Isn’t this just a formation master’s equipment? I might not understand formations, but I know pieces of equipment very well. With help from the Heavenly Phoenix Fire, I don’t believe that I can’t even apprehend a piece of equipment.’

Ou Yangming completely focused on the formation board. His eyes were gleaming in ordinary lusters.

‘Equipment, equipment—this is an equipment…’

The young fellow searched the formation board patiently. He no longer regarded it as a mysterious and unpredictable treasure. Instead, he treated it as a queer piece of equipment.

He had smithed pieces of equipment for himself, Big Yellow, and other beasts.

Pieces of equipment for humans could be put aside as they were still similar even if there were slight differences between them. On the opposite, pieces of equipment for beasts were totally different. Even among the Walking Beasts, there were countless strange pieces of equipment.

The elephants, the Antelopes, the Wolves, and the other races had pieces of equipment with dissimilar traits. Without being experienced enough, ordinary blacksmiths would not be competent enough to smith them.

Other than the Walking Beasts, pieces of equipment for the Birds and the Insects were also eccentric, and they could not be treated normally.

As at this moment, Ou Yangming handled the formation map as if it was the strangest equipment.

Eventually, Ou Yangming appeared to be agitated. Once he treated the board as a piece of equipment, he found some clues indeed.

The rune paths on the formation board seemed to have come alive and fluctuated, whereas Ou Yangming’s mental power in his sea of consciousness surged as it wanted to imprint the fluctuations in his spiritual world.

Yes, his spiritual world—the exceptional world that was identical to the world’s origin and could turn something imaginary into something real in his subconscious.

Ou Yangming’s eyes began to look hollower. Upon noticing this, Big Yellow shook its body on the side as it somehow sensed an aura that made it shudder with fear.

It was deeply puzzled because the aura released by Ou Yangming seemed to have exceeded the achievable limit according to his cultivation base.

The aura was not borrowed from the power of the dragon and the phoenix’s appearance; it came from his abilities. That said, the pressure generated by the aura was much more intense than that of the middle-rank lizard, so much so that there was a substantial difference.

Ou Yangming’s fire scorched in his sea of consciousness at this time. Amidst the endless sea of flames, runes were slowly formed one after another. The biggest characteristic of the runes was their similarity with the runes on the formation board, by which they did not have obvious starting and ending points.

It was as though the runes were an inseparable unit the instant they were born.

They started from the same spot and ended on the same point.

Every rune path was intertwined as if they could become one with the world.

Ou Yangming’s body trembled slightly, and his breathing became hurried yet powerful.

“I see, I… See!’

The young fellow suddenly withdrew his mental conception from his sea of consciousness, and it was clear through his eyes that he was elated. He lifted his head and laughed out loud to express his wild joy.

Big Yellow widened its eyes. It could not understand why Ou Yangming went from pulling a long face to being so mad.

Ou Yangming stopped after some time and slapped Big Yellow hard. “Big Yellow, I did it!”

The big yellow dog’s eyes lit up. “Really?”

“Of course.” Subsequently, Ou Yangming retrieved enough materials from his interspatial bag and said, “I’ll make an attempt. If I succeed, we should start acting.”

Big Yellow nodded eagerly. It was surprised yet overjoyed.

Following that, Ou Yangming grunted and released his fire to envelope an ore, then he quickly changed its shape.

It took only a brief moment for a round board to appear in his fire. Nevertheless, this time, instead of only looking impressive, the round board emitted a peculiar luster as soon as it was formed.

Afterward, the luster grew brighter and was almost on par with Ou Yangming’s fire.

The young fellow exhaled deeply after 15 minutes. When he curbed his fire, the luster on the round board disappeared at the same time.

Ou Yangming carried the round board and sensed the thin paths on it.

There were no beginnings and ends for the paths, where the starting and ending strokes could not be seen. This was because the paths and the round board appeared at the same time. Instead of being carved separately, they were presented as a whole.

Distinctive energy was released from the round board, causing it to emit a mysterious luster.

Ou Yangming smiled brighter as he was happier.

It turned out that the formation boards refined by formation masters were not carved, but were molded through ingenious workmanship.

This was a layer of glass paper. If it was not broken at all, most people would never have guessed the truth.

Since Ou Yangming grasped it by accident, he could learn by analogy and display what he learned as much as possible.