Formation Fluctuations, a Test

"Let's call this killing formation the Gale Formation."

The formation set up in the Void Ground was a fragment of a formation diagram Lu Qing had obtained from the diagrams presented to him.

Lu Qing had been curious as well. After working through ordinary formations, he'd developed quite an interest in incomplete formation diagrams.

He might as well take this opportunity to use Spiritual Power to alter several Formation Eyes. Otherwise, since it was called an incomplete formation diagram, it was naturally incomplete, and an incomplete one would be difficult to replicate exactly.

Lu Qing could tell that this remnant formation had originally been combined with other formations into one great formation. But since it was incomplete, he shifted several Formation Eyes and turned it into a smaller, weakened killing formation.

If it had been a complete formation, Lu Qing naturally wouldn't have been able to alter it at present. But with a remnant formation, the difficulty plummeted. Besides, he wasn't restoring it—he was coming up with something original and merging in other formations.

"The Gale Formation. A gale is swift, shapeless, and traceless. Once one falls into the formation, entering the wind means being refined away. There are seven Formation Eyes. To break it, either use force to shatter it, or speed to outrun it."

Lu Qing looked at the formation in the Void Ground before him with satisfaction. In his eyes, he'd spent three days tinkering with it before finally producing it. It killed without leaving a trace; after death, even corpses and souls would be weathered away by the wind. Soul-searching or soul-tracking would both be impossible.

"Have all my talents been invested in sneak attack techniques?"

Lu Qing pondered for a moment, then decided to pretend he hadn't noticed. This formation could remain here and operate alongside the Cloud Mist Formation. They were simply made for each other.

Suddenly, his gaze turned toward a certain place.

Just now, an invisible fluctuation had appeared deep within a mountain range.

"Spatial fluctuations."

There was no delight in Lu Qing's eyes, only a trace of relief that it had finally come.

He'd actually been quite curious about what existed in this Spirit Terrace County, which had never appeared in his divinations.

He swept his gaze toward the spatial fluctuations. The aura they emitted belonged to the Foundation Establishment realm.

He didn't rush over immediately. Instead, he activated his eyes and stared at the location of those spatial fluctuations.

"So there's a hidden formation here as well."

Once he focused his attention there, Lu Qing noticed something strange.

There was a formation there.

But the power within it was weakening with every passing second.

Either it had existed for far too long and time had worn away its power, or the formation itself had lost its Spiritual Power supply.

Countless thoughts flashed through Lu Qing's mind, though only an instant passed in the outside world.

He activated the Cloud Mist Formation and merged his figure into the breeze as well.

Continuing deeper into Spirit Terrace Mountain, countless mountain branches of varying sizes sprawled across the land.

A wisp of breeze brushed past the treetops, swept over a stream, and finally stopped beside an ancient tree.

At the same time, that wisp of breeze silently pushed open a formation.

Soon, crackle, crackle—sounds like thunder and lightning erupted.

Out of nowhere, thunder appeared in broad daylight. The muffled rumble was buried deep in the mountains and never reached beyond them.

Rumble.

It sounded like distant thunder.

A cloud of dust spread outward.

Only after a long while, when there was no more movement,

did Lu Qing slowly transform from another breeze on a distant peak and arrive here.

His Calamity Avoidance Talent hadn't activated in the face of this unknown situation, which meant there was no fatal danger.

Still, Lu Qing was used to wrapping himself in several layers of protection before approaching. His Divine Consciousness could now cover the entirety of Spirit Terrace County.

Controlling formations from afar was no problem.

Of the killing formations he currently possessed, the most lethal was the Gale Formation.

Since there had been formation fluctuations here, and considering what that implied, there was a high chance a Cultivation Cave existed here.

He released the Gale Formation. The two formations collided, directly destroying the mechanisms arranged around the outer perimeter.

His eyes lit up as he immediately saw a Cultivation Cave revealed after the formation vanished.

After cultivating for a year, Lu Qing truly had never encountered a senior's Cultivation Cave.

Once it lost the concealment of the formation, the exposed area of this valley also changed in appearance.

This valley had previously been overgrown with wild grass.

But now, Lu Qing saw several dozen Spirit Fields here. Beside them stood a thatched hut, with wooden fencing surrounding it. The thatched courtyard and the nearby Spirit Fields had long since fallen into desolation.

No matter how he looked at it, it didn't resemble the secluded Cultivation Cave of some senior expert, nor an inheritance cave.

Lu Qing narrowed his eyes and inspected the place inside and out with his Divine Consciousness. He found nothing strange, nor any living people.

After thinking it over, he walked inside. Since there was no fatal danger, this place was still worth exploring. Of course, Lu Qing's main purpose was to verify an idea about his skill.

If choosing in reverse meant seeking fortune, wouldn't that mean he could also find harmless opportunities? The thought flashed through his mind, but Lu Qing quickly suppressed it.

For now, he should first see what was unusual about this thatched hut.

Normally speaking, a cultivator—especially a Foundation Establishment cultivator—wouldn't enjoy living in such a crude thatched hut, would they?

The room had been cleaned thoroughly. Several white bones lay piled atop a meditation cushion. Aside from that, there was only ordinary furniture. The wooden window stood open, and a desk faced the windowsill.

"At least a hundred years."

Clearly, those white bones were what remained after the owner of this place had died.

Lu Qing detected no wounds, only an air of time's twilight.

Ninth Layer of Foundation Establishment.

Just one step away from a breakthrough, yet he had still died.

Lu Qing reconstructed the manner of the former owner's death in his mind.

Lu Qing's eyes were no longer what they once were. There was nothing unusual here. As a cultivator, the owner had possessed little besides jade slips and some books.

The paper was fragile. Once the formation disappeared, those books turned into drifting dust and scattered away.

"I am Carefree Master... Alas, cultivation is difficult, difficult, difficult."

There was nothing else here. Perhaps knowing his lifespan was nearly exhausted, Carefree Master had recorded his life story.

As Lu Qing read on, his brows rose. This Carefree Master wasn't from the Profound Heaven Domain. According to his account, he had originally been a Lineage cultivator in the Grand Heaven Domain. But his Lineage had been destroyed when he was young, leaving him displaced and homeless. Later, he obtained an inheritance from a predecessor's Cultivation Cave. Relying on the inherited cultivation method, he successfully entered Foundation Establishment and directly cultivated to the Ninth Layer of Foundation Establishment, then slaughtered every enemy responsible for destroying his Lineage.

But after remaining at the Ninth Layer of Foundation Establishment for many years, he had squandered away his time until little of his lifespan remained.

In the end, he could only die with regrets.

Lu Qing was only half-convinced by this account.

As for the inherited cultivation method, Lu Qing was only mildly curious. More than that, he felt that cultivating a Rogue Cultivator's method was inferior to spending contribution points to exchange for a top-tier cultivation method. Methods tested by countless people in major sects were more reliable than some unknown method acquired halfway through one's journey. Even if he obtained it, Lu Qing wouldn't cultivate it lightly.

Most of the jade slips recorded miscellaneous anecdotes and strange tales, including quite a few matters concerning the Grand Heaven Domain.

The Grand Heaven Dao Sect held the same status there as the Profound Heaven Dao Academy did here.

However, the Grand Heaven Dao Sect was undoubtedly a true sect. Its cultivators entered the world and left it behind, while the Grand Heaven Domain was governed by the Grand Heaven Immortal Dynasty, which stood in a subordinate-superior relationship with the Grand Heaven Dao Sect.

Lu Qing read with great interest. It could only be said that every great domain seemed vastly different.

The paths they walked were also quite different.