Daoist Lin signed the dharma covenant here. Though it appeared he had been forced into it, it was not without benefits. King Xi was much more reassured about him and entrusted all matters concerning the formation restrictions to him. To demonstrate his trust, he even withdrew the usual oversight.
This gave Daoist Lin tremendous convenience, for the formation restrictions actually required certain tampering. Previously, he could only make arrangements in utmost secrecy using the Square-Shifting Tablet, but now he could boldly add his own designs into them.
After another two months had passed, Daoist Lin had nearly finished constructing the entire grand formation. In roughly another month, it would be fully completed.
Though he had considerable confidence in this grand formation, the Dao techniques displayed by the formation opposite were likewise exceedingly profound. After that manifestation of the Patriarch's painted image, he had been certain that he could perceive Dao techniques leading to the Upper Layer from within the formation. Yet although he had observed it several more times afterward, he still could not obtain much from it; every time, he had been forced to break off.
And this was merely what he had seen from observing the workings of the formation. There might well be even deeper transformations within it. If they clashed and he failed to take it down, whether he could fulfill King Xi's orders would be secondary. If his own grand scheme failed as a result, all this hard work would have been for nothing.
After pondering deeply, he formed a plan.
He first sent a letter to King Xi requesting permission, stating that the grand formation was now largely complete but still needed some harmonizing. He therefore requested to test the formation's workings by launching one attack against the other side. If the test revealed