Scarlet Radiance Formation

The bright moon hung high.

Above the Miscellaneous Books Pavilion, crammed with disorderly ancient scrolls and books of every kind, stood a tiny attic.

Before Kong Jiao came, this area had been used to pile up sundries.

Two years ago, he had tidied it up and turned it into his residence. Aside from a simple bed, there was nothing else.

That was also why his complexion was so pale. Over the past two years, he had scarcely left the Miscellaneous Books Pavilion.

Pale moonlight streamed through the wide-open window into the attic, falling precisely upon Kong Jiao's profile as he sat cross-legged on the bed.

Having rarely been exposed to sunlight, his already pale face became even more sickly white beneath the moonlight.

Kong Jiao was doing something he had never neglected for a single night in the past two years.

Cultivating!

Visible strands of spiritual energy were drawn out of the pitch-black night by his cultivation technique.

They then split into two streams, entering the Yongquan Apertures in his feet and the Tianchi Aperture in his chest.

These two apertures were among the Nine Spirit Apertures, located respectively in the feet and chest.

Refined by the Frostfall Wheel-Nourishing Scripture, the wisps of spiritual energy eventually transformed into deep azure spiritual power and flowed into his dantian.

His consciousness sank into his body.

He could see that the endpoint of the spiritual power's flow was a dim-colored Spirit Wheel at the center of his dantian.

Nourished by the azure spiritual power, the Spirit Wheel gave off a faint blue glow.

The purpose of the Wheel-Nourishing Realm was to nurture this round Spirit Wheel within the body until it became as smooth as jade and capable of bearing true essence. Only then could one break through to the next realm.

The Frostfall Wheel-Nourishing Scripture was exceptionally suited for cultivation at night.

Compared to daytime, it could absorb spiritual power roughly twenty to thirty percent faster at night.

Especially on a night like this, when the moon shone bright and white.

The moonlight was like frost, faintly echoing the word "Frostfall" in the Frostfall Wheel-Nourishing Scripture.

Kong Jiao had cultivated to the third stage of the Wheel-Nourishing Realm in two years not only because the technique suited him perfectly, but also because of these advantages to his cultivation.

The cultivation process was comfortable.

As the spiritual power refined by the Frostfall Wheel-Nourishing Scripture flowed through the meridians throughout his body, it brought an unusual sensation of coolness.

Even the flow of blood through his body seemed to slow, leaving Kong Jiao as calm as still water.

Ordinarily, he would cultivate the entire night.

But tonight, he was destined not to pass the night peacefully.

Because of his daytime agreement with Shangguan Yuzhou, Kong Jiao opened his eyes halfway through his cultivation.

"Huff!" He exhaled a long breath of white mist.

The breath possessed an intensely cold quality. Wherever it passed, it was piercingly frigid. When it finally fell upon a section of the attic's already dilapidated wall, it directly coated it with a layer of white frost.

Even the temperature in the attic dropped slightly.

"Cultivation is getting slower and slower! At this rate, it'll take at least a year to break through to the fourth stage of the Wheel-Nourishing Realm." Kong Jiao climbed down from the bed and stretched his limbs. Looking at the wall ahead, frozen over with white frost by his cold breath, his expression was helpless.

He was already progressing this slowly. Those disciples with only two Spirit Apertures were probably even slower.

Trying to catch up to a genius like Shangguan Yuzhou would be difficult!

But Kong Jiao possessed something Shangguan Yuzhou did not.

He had the Cloud-Pattern Stele, which could capture fortune.

"I hope the opportunity I gain tonight doesn't disappoint me. I've waited a full two years for this." At that thought, Kong Jiao's eyes gleamed like snow.

If he had harbored doubts about the Cloud-Pattern Stele before, today's experience had dispelled every uncertainty he had accumulated over the past two years.

The Cloud-Pattern Stele truly was a divine artifact.

Kong Jiao's own fortune was poor. Encountering an opportunity was harder than ascending to the heavens.

Yet the Cloud-Pattern Stele had found another path, allowing Kong Jiao to rely on Shangguan Yuzhou's fortune and obtain opportunities.

"If I can obtain an opportunity this time, I'll gain another five opportunity points. That'll raise my fortune to another level."

"Relying on their fortune is not a long-term solution. Sooner or later, I'll obtain opportunities that belong to me through my own strength."

As he spoke, Kong Jiao narrowed his eyes and began analyzing the information Shangguan Yuzhou had given him.

The place they were heading to tonight was an underground cavern.

The cavern passage had been blocked by an array, and he and Shangguan Yuzhou were going there tonight to break it.

The reason Shangguan Yuzhou had sought out Kong Jiao seemed to be because Kong Jiao's Frost Breath Technique would help break the array.

"My Frost Breath Technique restrains fire-element Dao arts. That array is probably fire-based." From those few brief words, Kong Jiao roughly deduced the nature of the array.

He then went beneath his bed and pulled out a large black gourd.

It stood nearly as high as his waist, with a round bottom.

When Kong Jiao lifted it, the sound of water sloshing inside was obvious.

This single gourd held at least a hundred jin of water.

Yet Kong Jiao lifted it with ease and strapped it to his back.

"Mm, other than being a little ugly, it has no flaws." Having finished all this, Kong Jiao nodded in satisfaction.

The gourd contained nothing but ordinary mountain spring water.

The gourd itself was also an ordinary gourd.

It was so large solely because spiritual energy was abundant within the Cangwu Sect, and even the wild gourds growing in the mountains were astonishingly huge.

When Kong Jiao had cultivated the Water-Drawing Formula a year ago, he had deliberately gone into the mountains to select the largest one, just in case.

At present, Kong Jiao knew only two Dao arts.

One was the Frost Breath Technique that came with the Frostfall Wheel-Nourishing Scripture.

The other was the Water-Drawing Formula.

He had cultivated the Water-Drawing Formula specifically for the Frost Breath Technique. When the two arts were used together, they possessed unexpected power.

Having finished everything.

Cough!

A timely cough sounded outside the Miscellaneous Books Pavilion.

In the stillness of the deep night, even the slightest sound was exceptionally clear to Kong Jiao.

The corner of his lips lifted slightly. Then he lightly leaped from the attic's open window.

His body swept through the moonlight from the nearly two-zhang-high attic before landing steadily on the ground.

He looked toward the entrance of the Miscellaneous Books Pavilion, where Shangguan Yuzhou stood.

The two exchanged a smile. No words were needed. After Shangguan Yuzhou nodded, he took the lead and vanished into the night.

Kong Jiao followed soundlessly.

Half an hour later.

Within a shadowy forest beyond the reach of moonlight.

Two figures, one before the other, flitted through the darkness like ghosts.

When they had first set out, Shangguan Yuzhou had occasionally glanced back, afraid Kong Jiao would fall behind with that huge gourd on his back.

Yet Kong Jiao remained steadily on his heels.

The sight made Shangguan Yuzhou nod to himself.

I heard Junior Brother Kong Jiao has only two Spirit Apertures, yet both his cultivation speed and his strength far surpass such talent. It seems the intelligence was wrong, Shangguan Yuzhou thought.

As for the gourd Kong Jiao carried on his back, he did not ask about it.

After years of spending time together, the two had already developed an excellent tacit understanding.

Kong Jiao had no idea what Shangguan Yuzhou was thinking. He was actually struggling to keep up, and sweat had nearly soaked through his clothes.

After all, the water in that gourd weighed over a hundred jin. Carrying it while moving as swiftly as the wind was no easy task even for someone at the third stage of the Wheel-Nourishing Realm.

But he could not show it.

Especially with the two about to cooperate, he could not display strength that was too weak.

Fortunately.

They were already not far from their destination.

Before long, Shangguan Yuzhou stopped at a stretch of Chaotic Stone Grounds.

After standing still and identifying the direction for a moment, the two walked to the overlapping point of two massive boulders at the northeastern edge of the Chaotic Stone Grounds.

At the junction of the rocks was a crack that appeared only large enough for a child to pass through.

With Kong Jiao's and Shangguan Yuzhou's builds, there was absolutely no way they could fit through.

Yet Shangguan Yuzhou remained especially calm.

He strode directly toward the gap.

"An illusion?" Kong Jiao's eyes flickered in surprise. He then seemed to understand something and followed with the gourd on his back.

The two appeared about to crash into the boulders.

But the gap widened at a visible rate, becoming large enough for both of them to pass through.

As Kong Jiao stepped into the gap, he glanced back at the entrance, which had returned to normal behind them, and said in a low voice, "It doesn't look like an illusion. It should be a simple array modified from an illusion array."

"Mm. The person who set up this array isn't highly cultivated, but their understanding of arrays is indeed extraordinary." Shangguan Yuzhou rarely praised others.

As they exchanged a few words, the two gradually ventured deeper into the underground cavern.

The passage sloped down toward the depths of the earth.

The farther they went, the more Kong Jiao could feel the coldness of the underground air.

Fortunately, the cultivation technique he practiced did not reject such an environment. It even seemed to enjoy it.

Suddenly.

Shangguan Yuzhou, who was leading the way, stopped and made a gesture for him to halt.

Kong Jiao immediately stopped as well.

"One more step, and we'll enter the attack range of that array." In the darkness, Kong Jiao could not make out Shangguan Yuzhou's expression, only a vague outline.

But from his voice, Kong Jiao assumed his face had turned grave.

The next moment, Kong Jiao saw Shangguan Yuzhou reach into his robes and take something out.

It was a night pearl, its gentle radiance illuminating the cavern passage.

It revealed the environment inside the underground cavern.

The surrounding passageways were covered in uneven rock surfaces, pitted and hollowed as though they had been carved by human hands.

Less than two zhang ahead, the ground and rock walls bore clear traces of having been scorched by flames, blackened and charred.

"As expected, it's a fire-element array!" Seeing this, Kong Jiao nodded to himself. The situation here matched his guess.

"To be honest, Junior Brother Kong Jiao, I've tried entering the array twice."

With the light, Kong Jiao could see the bitter smile on Shangguan Yuzhou's face as he said this.

"Although the person who set up the array isn't highly cultivated, the array itself is truly fierce. I can't swallow this opportunity alone."

As he spoke, he shrugged.

"But I don't dare seek out those senior brothers with higher cultivation. You know how it is. Even among outer disciples, there are such sordid dealings. Who knows whether someone might kill me here?"

"I don't have many friends among the outer disciples, and I enjoy fighting, so I have even fewer friends. You're the only one, Junior Brother Kong Jiao."

Shangguan Yuzhou's explanation coincided perfectly with Kong Jiao's own deductions.

Kong Jiao's cultivation was far below his, so Shangguan Yuzhou had no need to worry that Kong Jiao would turn on him.

If anything, Kong Jiao was the one who should truly be worried now.

Shangguan Yuzhou had long considered this as well, and immediately added with a solemn expression, "When Junior Brother Kong Jiao agreed to come with me, I was quite moved. After all, trust is a luxury among outer disciples like us. Thank you for trusting me."

"I won't take advantage of you either. After we break the array, we'll split whatever is inside equally."

Kong Jiao smiled. He understood Shangguan Yuzhou's unspoken meaning and replied evenly, "What should I do?"

What a joke. He had waited two years for this opportunity. How could he possibly not come?

Besides, if he wanted to cultivate in this world, cooperation with others was something he would have to experience sooner or later. With his own strength alone, he could never handle every situation.

Kong Jiao understood this deeply, which was why he had taken the risk to come.

If he did not even dare cooperate with Shangguan Yuzhou, a senior brother he had spent two years with, then he would likely have even less chance of cooperating with anyone else. The opportunities ahead would probably have nothing to do with him either.

Of course, another reason was Kong Jiao's confidence in his own strength.

He did not dare claim he could defeat Shangguan Yuzhou, but escaping would definitely not be a problem.

His hand casually brushed the black gourd on his back. Kong Jiao's expression remained calm. He had not idled away these past two years in the Miscellaneous Books Pavilion.

"The array before us is called the Scarlet Radiance Formation. Once it is activated, fire-element power will erupt from the Xun and Li positions."

Shangguan Yuzhou had clearly put considerable effort into breaking the array before them.

He laid out his understanding of the array in detail, as though reciting family treasures.

He then added his plan for breaking it.

"In a moment, I'll charge in. Junior Brother Kong Jiao only needs to follow closely behind me."

"I can't resist the fiery radiance energy from two directions at once. I hope Junior Brother Kong Jiao can use the Frost Breath Technique to block the attack from the Xun position for me. It won't take long. Five breaths will be enough for me to find the array's core."

As he finished speaking, Shangguan Yuzhou clenched his hand, looking utterly confident.

"I've already figured out the Scarlet Radiance Formation's core. Once I break it, the formation will collapse on its own."

Listening to Shangguan Yuzhou's steadily laid-out plan, Kong Jiao nodded silently.

Now this was the attitude one should have when seizing an opportunity.

Kong Jiao was not too worried about being asked to hold out for five breaths.

The Scarlet Radiance Formation was merely one of the most basic arrays of the Wheel-Nourishing Realm. His Frost Breath Technique was exceptionally effective at resisting it.

With the Water-Drawing Formula to assist him as well, there should be no problem.

Having considered this, Kong Jiao nodded seriously and replied, "Leave the Xun position to me. Senior Brother Shangguan, break the array without worry."

"Ha ha! Good! Get ready, I'm entering the array." Shangguan Yuzhou laughed heartily, his bearing bold and unrestrained.

Amid his loud laughter, he stepped into the formation.