Splitting the Heavens

Chapter 1188: Rank Six Grand Formation

Shang Xia barely returned to the institution from Hai Min’s place when he was intercepted by Formation Grandmaster Chu Jia.

“Have you been resting well these few days?!” Chu Jia’s gaze seemed to be hiding something, but when he looked closer, he couldn’t discover anything.

Shang Xia revealed a strange expression and he muttered, “I heard that Patriarch Kou brought back a batch of Formation Masters from the Azure Oddity World. Why hasn’t our rank six grand formation been making much progress?”

Chu Jia knew that Shang Xia was changing the topic on purpose, but she still explained, “No matter what, those Formation Masters came from another world. They would be suppressed by our World’s Will if they remain here. For now, they have been arranged to stay in the Elysium. They’re working with Gu Qing, the Formation Grandmaster, to restore the Essence Refining Void Returning Formation.”

Slapping his forehead, Shang Xia realized he had forgotten how sensitive the identities of cultivators from other worlds were. In order to avoid drawing too much trouble to themselves, the institution wouldn’t allow them to easily reveal themselves. If they wanted to head out into the Spirit Luxuriant World in the future, they would probably have to change their appearance completely...

Also... Since Chu Jia was in charge of the rank six grand formation that would protect the Tongyou Institution, she could only make use of those she had absolute trust in. After all... The safety of the institution couldn’t be compromised.

“So... Our guys in the Formation Hall are the ones working on the grand formation?” Shang Xia raised an eyebrow, but he nodded slowly to indicate his understanding.

However, he quickly got back on track and he looked at her with a look of confusion to ask what he wanted to ask when she first arrived, “Why did you come all the way here to stop me anyway? I don’t know how to lay down formations... I can’t help you.”

“We’re basically done with the general outline of our rank six grand formation...” Chu Jia explained.

Even though he knew Chu Jia had more to say, Shang Xia still congratulated her in high spirits before she could continue, “That’s great!”

“... But... We only managed to complete the foundations of the grand formation with the help of the Five Element Ring. Right now, we need to activate the formation so that I can verify my ideas will work and look for places we need to work on. There’s also the matter of refining several parts of the formation.”

Shang Xia blinked once and wondered out loud, “Isn’t it just the foundation of the formation? How can you already activate it? Also... Don’t you have to ensure your idea will work before starting to lay down the formation?!”

“The foundation of the formation is like its skeleton. The grand formation is basically complete when I say that the foundations have been laid. We should be able to activate it if we try. It’s just that it’s going to be extremely difficult, and we will need to pay a huge price to do so. Regular Formation Masters won’t be able to withstand the consumption, so...” Chu Jia explained, but her voice got softer and softer at the end.

Shang Xia felt a headache coming and he muttered, “But I’m no Formation Master! In fact, I don’t know anything about operating one!”

Chu Jia quickly continued, “Just relax. Don’t forget, the core of the formation lies in the Formation Divine Artifact now.”

“Doesn’t the Five Element Ring belong to you already...” Shang Xia wanted to continue making excuses to not help, but it was futile.

“Argh! What the hell, why are you being so annoying right now?! Are you going to help me or not?!” Chu Jia rolled her eyes suddenly and raised her voice.

Lowering his head immediately, Shang Xia mumbled, “Of... Of course I’ll help. Since you’re not afraid I’ll mess things up, why should I care?”

Shang Xia naturally wasn’t afraid that helping them would use up a lot of his inner qi. Since it was just the foundation of their rank six grand formation, it would require a lot of energy to activate. Moreover, it would require constant adjustment since the formation wasn’t complete and they couldn’t use a fixed energy source. That meant that they couldn’t draw energy from the World’s Will Source, from their Elysium, or use a ton of essence crystals. As such, they could only invite a True Immortal over to assist them.

... That very day they activated the formation, the Tongyou City, and even the cultivators roaming the You Continent, saw a brilliant and majestic scene as 5 pillars of light rose into the skies before tearing through the heavens to arrive at the heavenly screen. A portion of the powerful lights escaped, but the others started to intertwine and interact with each other, eventually turning the skies above into a five colored space.

Even though everything happened so quickly and the five colored lights scattered into the void not too long after it appeared, almost everyone who saw what happened could tell that the Tongyou Institution’s rank six grand formation was near completion.

In a secret spot in the Tongyou Institution, Shang Xia couldn’t help but heave a sigh of relief. He deactivated the formation but in the short time it had been active, Shang Xia discovered he used up enough energy to create 2 clones. It was no wonder Chu Jia got him to activate the formation.

“How is it? Are there any problems?” Shang Xia asked with some concern.

After thinking for a second, Chu Jia replied, “It’s a little better than I expected. The foundation of the grand formation seems alright and we probably completed the most difficult part. All that is left to do is to finish the rest, and that’s just a matter of time.”

Shang Xia chuckled, “Looks like I have to congratulate you, and your Formation Hall in advance then. Our institution is only able to obtain our rank six grand formation because of all your hard work. The patriarch and I no longer have to be as sneaky as before and ensure no one sees us when we leave the world while also leaving a clone behind.”

Pressing her lips together, Chu Jia sighed, “It’s still a little too early to celebrate. I estimate that we’ll need 3 to 5 years in order to complete the rest of the formation. Moreover, my final goal is to replace the Five Element Ring with something else as the core of the formation without affecting its operations...”

“Why do you want to replace it?” Shang Xia wondered.

Rolling her eyes, Chu Jia sighed, “When I’m able to replace the Five Element Ring with something else and maintain the rank six grand formation... That will be the day I become a rank six Formation Grandmaster!”

...

Several more days passed since Shang Xia left Chu Jia’s place, and when he returned to the Talisman Pagoda, his clones also came back to regroup.

The Talisman Hall was developing normally, and because they had a monstrous existence who reached the Martial Void Realm and subsequently became a rank six Talisman Grandmaster, they were never lacking in resources. Naturally, they would be able to constantly take in talented disciples from the institution without much instruction.

In recent years, the Talisman Hall had grown stricter when it came to choosing disciples. However, there were more and more new Talisman Masters and several good seeds among them.

The only thing Shang Xia found a pity was that a second rank five Talisman Grandmaster hadn’t been produced. Fortunately, they had 7 rank four Talisman Grandmasters...

It was a shame highly experienced rank four Talisman Grandmasters like Fan Yuanhui and Lou Zizhang had already reached the limit of their martial journey or the dao of talismans. Originally, those 2 who had the most potential to become a rank five Talisman Grandmaster had already exhausted their potential. They had already started to turn their attention to nurturing future generations of Talisman Masters.