Zhao Jiang stood where he was, silent for a long while.
Yesterday, Lin Yuan had said the first version was outdated.
They had revised it overnight.
Today, they had only just used the second version to drag themselves out of a dead end.
Before they could even sit down and drink a mouthful of water,
the third version was already on the agenda.
"Junior Brother Lin."
Zhao Jiang's tone was complicated.
"If the enemy learns about this habit of yours someday,"
"they'll probably never dare come break our formations again."
Lin Yuan looked up.
"Why?"
"Break it once, and you learn something."
"Break it again, and you improve it some more."
"We're fighting for our lives inside."
"While you're secretly furthering your studies outside."
"Who could stand that?"
Lin Yuan thought about it seriously.
"Senior Brother."
"When you put it that way, I sound like I have cheats."
Zhao Jiang: "?"
What was a cheat?
Qin Wan and the others were soon summoned over.
With Heaven-Severing Formation Insight and the Earth Inferno Formation Insight he had just obtained, Lin Yuan was clearly much bolder this time.
The core of the first version of the linked formation had been "nine formations lending power to one formation."
The second version had added auxiliary paths and position swaps.
The third version went a step further.
The Formation Eyes began to move within limits.
In the past, although each of the Ten Ultimate Formations was unfathomably changeable, the most crucial core nodes would not shift easily.
The Elucidation Sect possessed formation-observing treasures.
As long as they kept watching, they would find the core sooner or later.
Lin Yuan simply changed two fixed Formation Eyes into roaming nodes.
They did not need to move constantly.
When the enemy pinpointed their locations and prepared to strike a killing blow, moving them once would be enough.
"Here."
Lin Yuan pointed at a core formation position within the Wind Roar Formation.
"If Senior Brother Dong encounters a powerful enemy locking onto the Formation Eye, you can borrow a surge of power from the Earth Inferno Formation and directly push this Formation Eye thirty zhang to the northwest."
Dong Quan's eyes grew brighter and brighter as he listened.
"How far can it be pushed?"
"For now, only thirty zhang."
"That's enough!"
When immortals fought.
If a killing move missed by thirty zhang, it was little different from striking empty air.
The third version of the Ten Ultimate Linked Formation was quickly adjusted.
This time, there were not even many explosions.
The Ten Heavenly Lords found that somewhat unfamiliar.
Gao Yougan stood in the distance watching the spectacle. After waiting half the day without hearing any explosions, he even came over on his own.
"Why hasn't anything exploded today?"
Zhao Jiang's face darkened.
"Are you disappointed?"
"A little."
"Scram."
The next day.
The Elucidation Sect continued breaking the formation.
This time, they had clearly been stirred to genuine anger as well.
Dong Quan's Wind Roar Formation was the first to be singled out.
The person entering the formation held a wind-calming treasure.
From the very beginning, it suppressed more than half of the Wind Roar Formation's fiercest astral winds.
According to the old formation.
Dong Quan would soon have been forced into passivity.
But now, the instant the Wind Roar Formation came under suppression.
The Golden Light Formation had already sent over a surge of power.
Golden radiance filling the sky suddenly shot forth amid the wind blades.
The opponent had expected this.
A defensive treasure unfolded.
Clang!
He had grown smarter over the past two days as well.
He knew the Ten Ultimate Formations would borrow moves from one another.
Simply preparing a single countermeasure was useless.
So this time, he carried several defensive items on him.
"Thoroughly prepared."
Lin Yuan observed from outside the formation.
But Qin Wan smiled.
"The more he brings,"
"the greater the consumption."
Inside the formation.
Dong Quan was in no hurry to kill his opponent.
When the wind was suppressed, he borrowed golden light.
When the golden light was blocked, he borrowed ice.
Every time the opponent broke through one layer.
He switched to another.
The greatest advantage of the Ten Ultimate Formations finally began to reveal itself in full.
Behind one formation stood nine more.
Even if the borrowed special power could only last a few breaths.
It was enough to keep disrupting the opponent's rhythm.
That Elucidation Sect cultivator fought for a long time.
At last, he seized an opportunity.
His immortal sword stabbed straight at the core of the Wind Roar Formation!
"Found it!"
Sword light descended.
The Formation Eye that should have been pierced suddenly "ran away" on its own.
Boom!
The sword light cleaved into empty space.
The person inside the formation froze completely.
The Formation Eye... could move house too?
In that brief instant.
Dong Quan had already turned his hand and activated the Wind Roar Formation.
The astral winds that had been suppressed for so long suddenly erupted from another direction.
Rumble!
The opponent was swept head-on.
His Protective Immortal Radiance shook violently.
Dong Quan took the opportunity to escape his original Death Node.
The system sounded for the third time.
[Fate Reversal successful!] [Obtained—Wind Roar Formation Insight!]
Lin Yuan's gaze outside the formation changed once again.
Wind.
Flowing.
Changes in the formation's momentum.
A vast amount of new understanding merged into him.
When he adjusted formations in the past, he had focused more on how power was transmitted.
Now, he truly began to consider—
Why did the Ten Ultimate Formations have to remain in fixed positions?
What if parts of the entire formation's outer perimeter could move as well?
"Junior Brother."
Qin Wan noticed that Lin Yuan had crouched down again.
A powerful premonition suddenly rose in his heart.
Sure enough.
Lin Yuan's first words were:
"Senior Brother Qin."
"I have an idea."
Qin Wan took a deep breath.
"Say it."
Over the next several days.
The Ten Ultimate Formations changed almost every day.
Yuan Jiao's Ice Formation came under fierce attack.
Using Wind Roar Formation Insight, Lin Yuan readjusted every originally fixed outlet of icy energy.
The opponent had prepared a blazing sun treasure specifically for melting ice.
Yet the icy energy did not emerge from its original positions at all.
Yuan Jiao safely passed through his death tribulation.
Ice Formation Insight was obtained.
After that.
Golden Light Holy Mother entered the formation to face the enemy.
Her opponent used a light-obscuring treasure to seal off the golden radiance.
By then, Lin Yuan was already able to use the previous pieces of formation insight to have the Wind Roar Formation push the golden light and bend its direction.
The golden killing intent, which had originally charged straight ahead.
Was forcibly made to turn half a corner.
The West Qi cultivators were dumbfounded on the spot.
"Why can golden light turn corners?!"
Outside the formation, Gao Yougan laughed so hard he kept slapping Wang Mo.
"Good question!"
"Keep thinking!"
Golden Light Holy Mother's death tribulation was resolved.
Another piece of formation insight merged into him.
Sun Liang then entered the Blood-Transforming Formation.
The opponent had already been driven to stop targeting the formation itself.
He directly sacrificed a high-grade magic treasure to suppress it by force.
A head-on clash.
In theory, it could indeed break the formation.
Yet the power of nine formations surged in at once.
When Sun Liang could no longer hold on.
Lin Yuan switched three channels of spiritual power on the spot.
The power that had originally been fed in separately converged at a single point.
He forcibly drove that strike back.
Sun Liang withdrew safely.
The fifth new formation-path ability arrived.
After several consecutive days.
Not to mention the Elucidation Sect.
Even the Ten Heavenly Lords themselves began to look at Lin Yuan differently.
At first, they had regarded Lin Yuan as the one who proposed the idea.
Later, he became a fellow disciple who researched formations alongside them.
And later still...
Qin Wan held a new formation diagram and remained silent for a long while.
"Junior Brother Lin."
"How about you sit in the middle?"
"Why?"
"Because before altering a formation now, our first instinct is to ask you."
Zhao Jiang, beside him, deeply agreed.
"Back then, the Ten Ultimate Formation was set up by the ten of us."
"Now it feels like the ten of us are responsible for providing the formations."
"And Junior Brother is responsible for updating the version."
Lin Yuan coughed.
"It's mainly because all you senior brothers and sisters laid such solid foundations."
"I merely optimized it."
Gao Yougan added the finishing stab from the side.
"To translate that."
"You built the house."
"He's responsible for tearing out all the doors, windows, and walls, then reinstalling them."
The Ten Heavenly Lords: "..."
That description.
Was inexplicably fitting.
Meanwhile, the pressure on West Qi's side was growing greater and greater.
They had been breaking formations for days on end.
Yet the formations remained unbroken.
Not a single Heavenly Lord had died.
Instead, after every clash, the Ten Ultimate Formation became even more unfamiliar the next time.
Guangchengzi stood atop the distant clouds, looking down at the ten great formations below.
His brows had been knitted for a long time.
A second-generation disciple of the Elucidation Sect beside him said quietly:
"There's little point in letting ordinary disciples and affiliated Qi Practitioners keep testing them."
Guangchengzi slowly nodded.
"They're using us to test their formations."
"Especially that Lin Yuan."
"With every battle."
"His control over the Ten Ultimate Formation grows stronger."
Jade Clarity Immortal Light rose behind them.
More than half of the Twelve Golden Immortals had already arrived.
Guangchengzi looked toward the Ten Ultimate Formation.
"Since we can't break them one by one."
"Then we'll do it together."
Before you continue