You Break One Formation, I Borrow Nine

Once the ten formations were fully linked together, it proved more troublesome than imagined.

Between two formations, only a single channel for power needed to be handled.

But with ten formations, whenever any one formation came under attack, they had to consider how the other nine should support it.

Too much support

could make the formation itself unstable.

Too little support,

and the effect would not be obvious.

Especially with formations like the Ice Formation and the Earth Inferno Formation, whose attributes clearly clashed—one slight misstep, and their powers would cancel each other out during transmission.

The next ten days passed in full.

From time to time, thunderous booms rang out ahead of the Shang Camp.

At first, the soldiers thought West Qi was launching a sneak attack.

Later, after hearing it often enough,

everyone got used to it.

Even patrolling soldiers would hear an explosion in the distance and merely lift their heads for a glance.

"Blew up again?"

The old soldier beside him did not even raise his head.

"Mm."

"How many times today?"

"The third."

"Then that's not bad."

"The day before yesterday, it blew up six times in half an hour."

"..."

Lin Yuan happened to be passing by.

The corners of his eyes twitched as he listened.

Before the Ten Ultimate Formation had even let the Explanatory Sect experience its terror,

it had first trained everyone in their own camp to be harder to frighten.

Fortunately, their efforts had not gone unrewarded.

On the twelfth day,

the first version of the linkage between the ten formations was finally complete.

Nine Supreme Clarity Formation Talismans had appeared around the outer perimeter of the ten formations.

These talismans were not meant to kill enemies themselves.

They had only one purpose.

To transfer power.

Qin Wan stood within the formation.

His expression was far more solemn than usual.

"Try it."

Zhao Jiang and the other nine nodded at once.

The next moment,

the Heaven-Absolute Formation fully activated.

Boom!

Thunder rolled endlessly within the formation.

Killing intent pierced the heavens.

Lin Yuan took the initiative to step to the edge of the formation.

Naturally, he would not gamble with his life.

He merely threw an ordinary dharma sword into the Heaven-Absolute Formation, then controlled it to continuously strike at one formation node.

Qin Wan deliberately lowered the formation's power as well.

Under normal circumstances,

after the formation node suffered repeated attacks, the surrounding formation patterns had already begun to tremble slightly.

"Borrow!"

Qin Wan shouted lowly.

Bzzz!

The Earth Inferno Formation lit up first.

Ten percent of its power swiftly entered the Heaven-Absolute Formation through the talismans.

Immediately afterward,

the Wind Roar Formation.

The Ice Formation.

The Golden Light Formation...

The nine great formations sent over a portion of their power in succession.

The formation node that had just begun to shake instantly stabilized.

It was even a few degrees steadier than before.

Lin Yuan's eyes truly lit up.

It had worked.

"More!"

Qin Wan had clearly gotten carried away too.

The power borrowed from the nine formations rose again.

Ten percent.

Fifteen percent.

Twenty percent.

When it reached twenty percent,

the Heaven-Absolute Formation began to show faint instability.

Qin Wan immediately stopped.

"That's enough."

"Stabilize it at ten percent first."

Zhao Jiang burst into laughter.

"Ten percent isn't low."

"One formation lends ten percent."

"All nine lend it over at once."

"That's equivalent to nearly an entire additional great formation's worth of dharma power support."

Golden Light Holy Mother shook her head.

"It can't be calculated that way."

"The power loss between different formations is severe."

"If we can ultimately increase its stability by thirty or forty percent, that would already be quite good."

After hearing this, Lin Yuan became even more satisfied.

Thirty or forty percent was little?

In a true life-and-death battle of dharma arts,

even half a percent more room for error could decide life and death.

Not to mention that they had only completed the first version so far.

"Don't keep modifying it yet."

Qin Wan quickly made the decision.

"Testing it a hundred times on paper cannot compare to having someone truly enter the formation once."

Everyone agreed with this.

That very day, Wen Zhong sent someone to deliver a message to West Qi.

The Ten Ultimate Formation had been established.

If they wanted to break it,

they could come at any time.

West Qi responded quickly as well.

The next day,

several qi refiners arrived before the formations.

They were not among the Twelve Golden Immortals.

Clearly, they had merely come to test the formations.

Qin Wan was the first to step out.

"I am Qin Wan."

"This formation is called Heaven-Absolute."

"Who will enter?"

A West Qi qi refiner took the initiative to enter the formation.

This person's cultivation was not weak.

Moreover, he had clearly researched some intelligence on the Heaven-Absolute Formation beforehand.

Upon entering, he did not rush about recklessly.

He first brought out a defensive dharma treasure.

Then he continuously probed the operational patterns of the killing intent within the formation.

For the first dozen exchanges,

Qin Wan did not borrow power from the other nine formations.

The opponent gradually figured out one formation node of the Heaven-Absolute Formation.

A smile finally appeared on his face.

"Found it."

A long sword suddenly shot forth.

Straight for the formation node!

Outside the formation,

Lin Yuan stood amid the Ten Heavenly Lords.

Seeing this, he did not panic.

Zhao Jiang beside him had already raised a hand.

The Earth Inferno Formation lit up.

The other formations followed close behind.

Nine streams of power transformed through the formation talismans rapidly poured into the Heaven-Absolute Formation.

The opponent's sword struck at exactly that moment.

Boom!

The formation node that should have loosened stood as firm as if welded shut.

Instead, the sword itself hummed from the formation's backlash.

The man inside the formation froze.

"What's going on?"

He refused to believe it.

He changed directions again.

Searching for a second weak point.

This time,

before he even drew his sword, Lin Yuan noticed that several of the Ten Heavenly Lords had already started smiling.

"Planning to borrow again?"

Gao Yougan asked.

Zhao Jiang shook his head.

"What's the rush?"

"Let him first think he's found the right spot."

Even Lin Yuan laughed when he heard that.

Well, well.

They had learned bad habits quickly.

The qi refiner inside the formation probed again and again.

At last, he found a second position he believed he could break through.

His dharma power erupted at full force.

He slammed down heavily.

Bzzz!

The power of the nine formations poured in again.

The formation node did not budge in the slightest.

Immediately after.

Qin Wan suddenly altered the operation of the Heaven-Absolute Formation.

The killing intent that had been hidden on the other side erupted without warning.

Boom!

Thunder and fire intertwined.

That Qi Refiner's face changed drastically.

His protective artifact shook violently from the blows.

Only then did he understand.

His so-called "figuring out the formation" had amounted to absolutely nothing.

The normal Heaven-Absolute Formation truly worked that way.

But behind this Heaven-Absolute Formation stood nine other formations.

"Retreat!"

He no longer cared about breaking the formation.

Braving injury, he charged out through the formation gate.

The moment he emerged.

He was already bedraggled and covered in soot.

Part of his Daoist robe had been burned black.

Several companions from West Qi hurried forward.

"How was it?"

The man glanced back at the Heaven-Absolute Formation.

His expression was ugly.

"The formation doesn't match the intelligence."

"Inside the Heaven-Absolute Formation..."

He paused.

Even he was somewhat uncertain.

"It seemed there was power from other formations as well."

The people beside him froze.

"What do you mean?"

"I entered the Heaven-Absolute Formation."

"But while breaking it..."

"It felt as if the other nine formations were helping it too."

When those words reached the Shang Camp.

Gao Yougan could no longer hold it in.

"Hahaha!"

"So you finally noticed!"

Qin Wan stood before the formation gate, equally delighted.

In the past, the Ten Ultimate Formation's greatest source of confidence had been the lethality of each individual formation.

Now that someone had truly entered one for the first time, he finally understood firsthand just how satisfying Lin Yuan's idea was.

The enemy had clearly found the correct weak point.

Under normal circumstances.

Qin Wan would have had to immediately mobilize power to patch it up.

But now?

He did not need to patch it himself at all.

The nine people behind him each handed over a helping hand.

That weak point was directly welded into an iron plate.

That feeling could be summed up in only two words.

Worry-free.

West Qi quickly sent another person into a formation.

This time, the choice was the Earth Inferno Formation.

Zhao Jiang presided over it.

The opponent had likewise learned from the previous man's experience.

The instant he entered, he was extremely cautious.

Yet as the fight dragged on, he still discovered.

Something was wrong with the Earth Inferno Formation.

He had clearly exhausted part of the formation's power.

How had it been replenished again in the blink of an eye?

Even more outrageous.

Just as he prepared to use a water-aspect artifact against the earthfire's weakness.

A bone-chilling force belonging to the Ice Formation actually surged along the formation's flow.

The water vapor had only just gathered.

When it was frozen solid first.

Then the earthfire erupted.

Boom!

Ice and fire exploded together.

The man who had entered the formation was blasted so badly that even his hair curled.

Outside the formation, not a sound could be heard.

Lin Yuan watched that disheveled figure flee the formation.

Silently feeling sorry for him for half a second.

He had agreed to enter the Earth Inferno Formation.

Yet the Ice Formation had been secretly stuffed inside as well.

It was rather like hanging a sheep's head while selling ten platters of dog meat.

After West Qi tested three formations in succession.

They finally stopped sending people in.

Because there was no longer any point in sending ordinary Qi Refiners inside.

A cultivator who had just exited a formation returned to the army with an ugly expression.

"The Ten Ultimate Formation has changed."

"We must invite true experts."

In the distance.

A beam of Jade Clarity Immortal Light slowly rose at that moment.

Lin Yuan's Innate Spiritual Perception trembled faintly.

Compared with those earlier formation testers.

This aura.

Was on an entirely different level.