Time flowed like water, slipping quietly away.
Within several months, Jing Wen had achieved minor mastery of the Concealment Technique.
It differed from the Breath-Concealing Art-the latter focused on drawing in and transforming spiritual power, allowing cultivators to disguise their cultivation, the strong appearing weak and the weak appearing strong.
The Concealment Technique went a step further, completely masking both the body and spiritual power. Its practitioner moved without sound or a trace of aura, as though one with heaven and earth.
One day, Jing Wen visited Qi Yunxiao's artifact workshop, deliberately testing the effectiveness of his Concealment Technique.
He concealed his aura and approached silently, his figure like a shadow.
-Only when he came within ten feet of Qi Yunxiao did the cultivator, absorbed in crafting an artifact, suddenly notice him, nearly dropping the engraving knife in his hand.
"S-Senior?!" Qi Yunxiao's eyes widened, his chest rising and falling slightly. "When did you get here?"
The corners of Jing Wen's mouth lifted as he revealed himself. "Not long ago. You were concentrating on your work, so I didn't interrupt."
Qi Yunxiao patted his chest and smiled helplessly. "Appearing so silently is far too frightening. Out in the wild, someone might take you for an assassin."
Jing Wen smiled without answering, but inwardly, he was quite satisfied.
-Although Qi Yunxiao was only at the Qi Refining Fifth Layer and had been completely unguarded, approaching this closely without a sound was enough to prove the technique's worth.
Those five hundred Spirit Stones were well spent.
During this period, Jing Wen often met with Xin Ruoyin and Qi Yunxiao to exchange insights into formations.
By now, he had grasped most of the fundamentals. Though he still could not independently set up advanced formations, he could at least understand the flow of formation