To Avoid Effort, She Worked Hard

"...," Wuchen was speechless. Though he didn't quite understand Bulma, he'd grasped the main point: she wanted a shortcut and didn't want to work hard at cultivation anymore.

And from what she'd said, she'd already tried. Because she didn't want to work hard, she'd worked hard to invent these devices.

Forcing spiritual energy straight into her meridians without drawing it along with her qi and blood was practically suicidal!

Fortunately, the pills he'd refined were exceptionally pure and mostly designed to strengthen one's foundation. They also helped warm the meridians and nourish the channels. Besides, the medicinal ingredients were not very old, so they contained little spiritual energy and their effects weren't strong.

Otherwise, if Bulma had done this, she might have ended up with every meridian shattered—even if it hadn't killed her!

And perhaps Bulma's cultivation had progressed so slowly because she'd spent all her time tinkering with these things.

"Forget it. This is impossible!" Faced with Bulma's hopeful gaze, Wuchen replied without mercy.

"Let's not even get into whether spiritual energy can be refined in advance. Even if it can, everyone's constitution is different." Seeing how recklessly Bulma had acted, Wuchen decided to give her a refresher on the basics of cultivation.

"If you don't use your own qi and blood to guide it through your meridians and acupoints, you can't tame its nature and make it one with yourself. Force it into your dantian, and at best you'll destroy the pill and ruin your cultivation path; at worst, your abdomen will explode and you'll die!"

As he spoke, Wuchen sent a wisp of pure spiritual power into the meridians in Bulma's arm.

In an instant, Bulma's whole arm went weak. It felt a little swollen and numb, then gradually began to hurt, as if she were being pricked by needles.

"Ahh, that hurts! Stop, I know I was wrong..." Bulma begged, and Wuchen immediately stopped.

She shook her arm vigorously, looking dejected. "So all that work was for nothing?"

"Not exactly. You were lucky—you got away with your life." Wuchen spoke bluntly, then began carefully examining the 'automated cultivation device' Bulma had made.

"I know I was wrong." Bulma lowered her head, but still muttered softly, "Was it really that serious?"

Though he heard her mutter, Wuchen didn't comment. Instead, he pointed at the device. "Actually, it's not completely useless."

"Hm? You can help me improve it?" Bulma brightened at once, but Wuchen doused her hopes.

"Forget about using it to cultivate. You have to take things step by step; there are no shortcuts. But you might be able to find another way to improve your combat strength."

"Uh, then never mind. I don't like fighting. I only started cultivating because you said that if you trained to a certain level, you could stay young forever." Wuchen's suggestion didn't interest Bulma much.

Wuchen acted as if he hadn't heard her and continued, "There was an explosion here, wasn't there?"

"Yeah. The materials I used before were faulty. Once I melted down the pills, they couldn't contain the spiritual energy, so they exploded and destroyed the original device."

Bulma answered honestly, still a little shaken. It hadn't been a particularly big explosion, but it had happened so suddenly. There hadn't been the slightest warning; it had just blown up out of nowhere, giving her no chance to prepare.

"Do you still have the destroyed device?" Wuchen asked.

"The destroyed one's gone, but I have a few unused ones. After the accident, I put them all away, but I haven't gotten around to disposing of them yet. Wait here. I'll get them for you."

Before long, Bulma took out a Hoi-Poi Capsule and tossed it on the ground. It produced several brand-new pillar-shaped devices for melting down pills.

Wuchen also took out a Hoi-Poi Capsule and produced a small box. Inside were a dozen or so milky-white crystals, each brimming with a spiritual aura.

"What are these?" Bulma picked up a crystal, full of curiosity. She could sense spiritual energy now, and this crystal was saturated with it!

"Spirit Stones." That was right; these crystals were Spirit Stones. Of course, they hadn't formed naturally. Wuchen had taken some time to condense them. He'd originally planned to store them for use in a formation later.

The formation he'd set up at Mount Fry-Pan last time had been built from specially made formation flags, so it couldn't last for long. Such formations were usually temporary, meant for use against an enemy. Once the spiritual power stored in the flags ran out, the formation became useless.

That was why Spirit Stones were needed for specific formations, such as mountain-protecting formations, spirit-gathering formations, and sealing formations.

"Open them up, then put in the Spirit Stones." Wuchen planned to use Bulma's device to try setting up a formation.

"They'll explode!" Bulma was startled. About a month ago, she'd experienced an explosion firsthand. Fortunately, it hadn't been serious. And just yesterday, there had been another minor mishap.

This time, the Spirit Stones Wuchen had brought out were packed with spiritual energy. If something went wrong again, she had no idea what might happen.

"Don't worry. Just stand behind me in a moment." Wuchen reassured Bulma, and that really did put her more at ease.

"You're not the reckless type, are you?" So Bulma helped Wuchen load the Spirit Stones. Then Wuchen began adjusting where the devices were placed.

There were seven pillar-shaped devices in all. Wuchen arranged five of them into a ring, forming two opposing triangles. Then he added one pillar to each of the gaps on the left and right to serve as the formation's supports.

"Step back and stand behind me. Start the devices." Once they had finished setting everything up, they began the test.

Bulma pressed the remote control. All seven pillar-shaped devices started up at once, and spiritual mist slowly poured from them one by one.

At the sight of it, Bulma's earlier confidence began to waver. This was just what had happened before: smoke first, then an explosion!

Sure, she was standing behind Wuchen. But he was two or three heads shorter than her and couldn't even block her view. There was no way she could feel at ease.

Fortunately, there was no explosion.

The spiritual mist spread out, but seemed to follow some kind of order. It gradually formed a hemispherical barrier of light. The glow was faint and pale yellow, then eventually vanished completely.

"Hm? Where did it go?" Bulma was naturally curious. She stepped forward, only to bump into an invisible barrier that stopped her.

Patterns of light appeared and spread, faintly outlining a shape like the hemispherical barrier from before.

Seeing this, Wuchen smiled. His guess had been right: Bulma's devices could indeed be used to set up formations.

The formation's power might be weaker, but it would save on labor, and ordinary people could set one up with ease. There'd be no need for cultivators skilled in formations to stay and maintain it, sparing them a great deal of trouble.

And when it came to the formation's power, once this method had been perfected, it was still too early to say which approach would be stronger.

"How amazing! How does it work?" Following the outline, Bulma felt a kind of sensation she'd never experienced before as she touched it. She found it utterly fascinating.

Wuchen didn't hide anything from her. He gave her a general explanation of what a formation was.

As Bulma asked questions, Wuchen patiently answered them.

He even asked Bulma for paper and a pen, then drew two simple formation diagrams without any variations and labeled them in detail.

One of the two diagrams matched the arrangement of the devices in front of them.

It was called Jia, meaning the place where two mountains met. It could form a formation on its own, but it didn't count as a true formation. It was mostly used as a formation component in earth-element defensive formations, much like a term in an equation. (If "1+2+3" is considered a formation, Jia is equivalent to "1," "2," or "3.")

The other was called Kun. It couldn't form a formation on its own. It was mostly used as the axis of earth-element defensive formations, linking their "components" together, much like a symbol in an equation. (If "1+2+3" is considered a formation, Kun is equivalent to "+.")

After explaining the diagrams, Wuchen took out another Hoi-Poi Capsule and the Dragon Radar from inside his robe.

"Bulma, Goku and I came here especially to return the Dragon Radar. There are some pills inside this Hoi-Poi Capsule. The round bottles contain pills that help with cultivation, and the faceted bottles contain pills for beauty and longevity."

"Don't use them for experiments again. Wait until you've made progress in your cultivation and gained a deeper understanding of spiritual energy and vital force before you try anything."

"Beauty?" Sure enough, after hearing that word, Bulma's eyes—which had been fixed on the formation diagram in her hand—remained pointed in the same direction, but her focus shifted to the capsule. "I... Thank you, Wuchen."

Wasn't that exactly why she'd gone to all this trouble? To preserve her beauty.

Having completed the purpose of his visit, Wuchen prepared to leave. He still had something important to discuss with Master Roshi.