The morning dew in the Green Bamboo Courtyard had yet to dry when Han Li received the second letter Zi Ling had sent through a disciple. The note contained only a few words: "Three days from now, Star-Shift Platform. The new formation is ready. I await you." The handwriting raced across the page, with a crooked Star-Moon Hairpin sketched at the end. Clearly, she had written it in haste.
Han Li tucked the note into his Storage Bag and looked out the window toward Medicine King Valley. Half a month had passed since the Star Palace Grand Tournament, and Zi Ling's challenge to use her newly created Stars Shift and Dipper Turn Formation next time had finally come to fruition. Stars Shift and Dipper Turn Formation... The name alone suggested a Spatial Displacement formation derived from the Starfall Grand Formation. It was entirely different from the blend of illusion and reality in the Illusory Moon Lost Track Formation she had displayed during the tournament; this one seemed to follow a forceful, hard-hitting path.
"Formations and pills share one source; strength and softness complement each other," Han Li murmured, taking out the Jade Slip of the Two Principles Array-Pill Art that Elder Sun had mentioned. This art focused on how formations and the Pill Dao complemented one another. Its opening passage declared, "Formations are the bones, pills are the blood. Only when bone and blood unite can the Great Dao be attained." Spiritual power flowed through his fingertips, and the methods for "activating formations with pills" and "guiding pills with formations" emerged one after another within the Jade Slip. His confidence in the coming spar grew.
Three days later, at the Star Palace's Star-Shift Platform. The platform stood east of the training grounds, its surface covered in patterns depicting the shifting