Chapter 559: All Things Are Formations

Su Ming stood up, smoothed out the slightly wrinkled True Disciple Purple Robe on him, and formed a hand seal.

The heavy stone gate rumbled as it slowly rose, the grinding sound echoing.

The cold morning wind, carrying the scent of pine resin, surged instantly into the cave dwelling.

Su Ming stepped onto the protruding green rock of Gazing Star Cliff, his hands hanging naturally at his sides, his body stretching out extremely slowly toward the vast sea of clouds.

He didn't deliberately release his divine sense, yet in his eyes, the entire world underwent an earth-shattering transformation.

The sharpness of his five senses had been amplified to an inconceivable degree.

He could not only feel the chill of the mountain wind brushing against his cheeks but could even clearly distinguish the tiny vortices created as the airflow passed through the gaps between pine needles.

On the rear mountain of Formation Peak, a full thousand zhang away from Gazing Star Cliff, a waterfall cascaded down, its currents crashing against moss-covered rocks. The crisp sound of fine water droplets shattering was distinctly audible to his ears.

Deep within the sea of clouds in the far distance, two Spirit Cranes were chasing and playing. Su Ming's gaze pierced through layers of mist, allowing him to see even the tiniest white feather dander shaken loose from the gaps between the crane's feathers as it flapped its wings.

Water currents, wind sounds, birds, clouds and mist.

Every movement was filled with an extremely strict kind of rule.

"Understand now?" Lin Yu's voice drifted faintly into Su Ming's ears. His Soul Body hovered in the shadow at the cliff's edge. "All things are within the formation."

Su Ming's gaze was as deep as a well as he nodded slightly.

"The waterfall's torrent is a natural Gathering rune, and the mountain wind's vortex is an invisible Lead rune," Su Ming said, his voice extremely low, as if talking to himself. "Formations are never independent of this heaven and earth. They simply take the laws that already exist in nature and forcibly cut them out, piecing them together in the form of runes. Formations originate from nature."

At that moment, the seven hundred and fifty basic runes in his mind were no longer dry lines. They had transformed into a drop of water, a gust of wind, a stone.

Meanwhile, beyond this tranquil Gazing Star Cliff, the entire Cloud Hidden Sect was already in an uproar.

Su Ming, the True Disciple of Formation Peak, had secluded himself for three days and successfully formed his Golden Core.

This news, as if it had sprouted wings, swept through every corner of the sect with terrifying speed.

Outside several Pill Refining Rooms on Pill Cauldron Peak, a few inner disciples in gray robes gathered together, talking in low voices.

"Did you hear? That one from Formation Peak formed his Core."

"How could I not have heard? That day when Elder Qingyang lit the furnace, the sky was filled with gray-black Pill Fiend energy, suffocating the entire mountain peak. That was a death trap! He survived it at Foundation Establishment, and then he turned around and formed a Core? Is his physical body forged from Mystic Iron or something?"

By the melting caves of Artifact Burial Peak, several bare-chested burly men swung iron hammers, quenching metal as they shouted among themselves.

"My shishu said that day he used Star Pattern Steel fragments to isolate the pulse of the earth fire. With that kind of eyesight and guts, he's practically a monster. Now, not only did he not die, but he's also ascended to become a Golden Core True Person in one step. From now on, when our Artifact Burial Peak goes to Formation Peak to get formation plates repaired, we'll probably be queuing until next year."

Even on Heavenly Sword Peak, which was always arrogantly focused solely on the way of the sword, many sword cultivators, while sparring, cast their gazes toward Formation Peak. A formation cultivator with such a terrifying heart and a foundation so solid it was maddening—even if he didn't hold a sword—was enough to earn the attention of any cultivator.

Su Ming wasn't entirely unaware of the commotion outside. The intelligence network he had set up in the External Affairs Hall and Repair Hall had long since collected these fragmented pieces of information and transmitted them to his jade slip.

Su Ming turned and walked back into the cave dwelling, sitting down by the stone table.

On the table lay a deep blue Communication Jade Slip, quietly. The surface of the jade slip had no ornate patterns, only the unique spiritual energy mark of Formation Peak's Peak Master.

Su Ming extended a strand of his divine sense into it.

Inside the jade slip, there were no unnecessary pleasantries, only a single sentence from his Master Xuanheng, spoken in an extremely steady, emotionless tone:

"Three days hence, Star Pivot Hall, discuss the Dao."

Su Ming withdrew his divine sense, gently clasping the jade slip in his palm. The light of the everlasting lamp in the stone chamber cast its glow on his calm, unmoved face.

He understood the true meaning of this sentence all too well.

Among the True Disciples of Formation Peak, seniority of entry didn't matter—only the realm and strength of the path of formations mattered. Although he had long been accepted as Xuanheng's True Disciple, that was merely a title. Only by stepping into the Golden Core stage and demonstrating enough value in this extremely internal core discussion at Star Pivot Hall could he truly secure that seat and share in the most central resources and authority of Formation Peak.

Su Ming's fingers tapped rhythmically on the table.

The news of his Core formation had already stirred up a storm throughout the sect. Standing out too much was by no means the Way of Survival. If he performed too mediocrely and failed to show Xuanheng enough potential, he would lose the Peak Master's most absolute protection. He might even be marginalized as a fringe figure, and the favor he had previously earned for the Heaven-Mending Pill would turn into a bad debt.

The tapping stopped abruptly.

"So, I don't need to fight for the sharpest spear," Su Ming's gaze turned to the Xuantian ring, his voice steady. "I just need to tell them that I am a shield that can never be broken, and at the same time, a perfectly functioning precision mechanism. That's enough."

He stood up and walked back to the cold jade bed, sitting down cross-legged again.

With a full two days left before the discussion, Su Ming did not peruse the high-level formation path scriptures Xuanheng had bestowed upon him, nor did he deduce any devastating compound grand formations. Instead, he took the seven hundred and fifty basic runes he had long mastered and, from beginning to end, extremely slowly, reorganized them once more.

The 'Perceiving the Minutest Detail' vision was fully activated.

With the enhancement of his Golden Core stage divine sense, he found that he could understand these runes from a more fundamental level than ever before.

Before, when he drew a 'Solidify' rune, he only memorized its spiritual energy flow and nodes. But now, he could see the attraction and repulsion between each strand of spiritual energy thread within the 'Solidify' rune, and could even perceive the extremely tiny phase difference created when it resonated with the earth-element spiritual energy of heaven and earth.

"Water has no constant form, but formations demand an absolute framework."

"Rumble…"

Just then, an intense spiritual energy fluctuation came from outside the stone gate of the cave dwelling.

Su Ming frowned and deactivated the formation.

The stone gate had only risen halfway when a cyan figure impatiently slipped inside.