Chapter 895: Small Positive and Negative Sumeru Nine Palaces Formation

As soon as Zhuang Jialan disembarked from the plane, she noticed that all the Immortal Sect officials from Wunaicheng were waiting for her at the airport. Not far away, a large banner fluttered, proclaiming: "Welcome Secretary-General Zhuang Home!" Many onlookers had noticed the scene, raising their phones, while numerous media outlets were poised with their cameras.

Zhuang Jialan experienced an indescribable mix of feelings, perhaps a touch of embarrassment, yet also a sense of honor deep within. She was quickly surrounded. Nie Mengyan, the Lord of Wunaicheng, expressed with an honored look that her hometown was proud of her. He even asked if she planned to return to lead a region and develop her hometown.

Zhuang Jialan naturally shook her head in refusal. Although she was merely an ordinary secretary and a Kaiyuan Hall Councilor in the Wangwu Grotto-Heaven, even the Lords of the Three Great Halls would greet her courteously. Having grown accustomed to the prosperity of the Immortal Sect's capital, she would no longer allow herself to be confined to the small backwater of Wunaicheng.

At this moment, another person approached Zhuang Jialan, greeting her with the most radiant smile. This was Guo Shaocan, the senior councilor from Huayang Grotto-Heaven, who had been her superior when Zhuang Jialan served as the president of the Talisman Masters Association in Wunaicheng. The two had often experienced unpleasantness during their work together. This time, he had specifically come to apologize in person because he had almost blocked Zhuang Jialan's records, preventing her from going to Wangwu Grotto-Heaven.

Guo Shaocan had already prepared to resign after apologizing, but he never expected Zhuang Jialan to respond so lightly with a simple remark: "It was all just for work." So, as soon as news of Zhuang Jialan's return home broke, Guo Shaocan was sent to her. After his apology, a light sweat broke out on Guo Shaocan's forehead. At Zhuang Jialan's level, such minor grievances had long been disregarded. However, even if she didn't explicitly forgive him, those below her would remember her words for a lifetime, living in perpetual fear. As Chen Mobai's closest secretary, Zhuang Jialan could easily find an excuse; even the president of the Huayang Grotto-Heaven Talisman Masters Association, a Golden Core cultivator, could be implicated and "retired to their hometown."

Chen Mobai, who was currently flipping through a Kunpeng Dao Academy formation textbook, spoke with some surprise when he saw Zhuang Jialan come to report. "Why are you back so soon?"

Zhuang Jialan replied with a smile and then presented Chen Mobai with a box of local specialties she had brought from her hometown. "Why be so polite..." Chen Mobai said this, but had already taken the box and opened it. His maternal grandfather had taught him from a young age that accepting gifts could strengthen relationships among allies. "These are Wunaicheng's specialty talisman paper and ink..."

"In a while, a friend of mine will be coming to Wangwu Grotto-Heaven. She's here to exchange for a Water Element Golden Core Elixir. My identity is somewhat special, making it inconvenient for me to appear in public, so I'll trouble you to pick her up on my behalf then." Chen Mobai was referring to Yan Bingxuan. Zhuang Jialan was meticulous in her work, so he felt more at ease entrusting her with this task.

After a night of tumultuous waves, Yan Bingxuan lay in Chen Mobai's arms, feeling a lack of confidence. "Do you think I'll succeed in forming my Golden Core this time?" Yan Bingxuan also felt it was a bit inappropriate to ask that question, so she changed the topic to more positive remarks.

"I'm sure you can do it," Chen Mobai said, holding her hand and encouraging her.

"Yes, with the Water Element Golden Core Elixir, plus the Water Spirit Pearls you gave me before, and the Sky Blue Ice Jade, if I still don't succeed, I'll have truly let down all your efforts." This item, which can increase the probability of Ice Spiritual Root cultivators forming a Golden Core, also exists in the Immortal Sect. It is a specialty from the deep sea, known as Sky Blue Ice Jade. Chen Mobai had given it to Yan Bingxuan a long time ago. She had been nurturing it with her spiritual energy for years, waiting to refine it into her body when forming her Golden Core.

"I've also prepared another gift for you. I'll give it to you once you obtain the Water Element Golden Core Elixir." As she spoke, she moved her divine sense, and the Ice Marrow Pure Jade that Chen Mobai had given her earlier descended from her domain.

Chen Mobai took the Ice Marrow Pure Jade from Yan Bingxuan's hand. As he spoke, his hand suddenly slipped, and the beautiful jade fell from his palm, sliding along her delicate, smooth, icy skin into a deep crevice, disappearing from sight in an instant. With a gasp, Chen Mobai reached in, fumbling with great difficulty until he finally managed to retrieve the Ice Marrow Pure Jade. At this moment, Yan Bingxuan's snowy cheeks were flushed crimson.

Chen Mobai also proactively visited the Natural Academy, ostensibly to consult Venerable Yunhai on fifth-tier formation knowledge from Kunpeng Dao Academy. In reality, it was mainly to discuss this matter with Yan Bingxuan, who expressed her understanding.

After speaking, Zhuang Jialan left the airport, surrounded by the crowd. Upon returning home, since her parents and close relatives had passed away long ago, only a few cousins and their children and grandchildren came to visit. Facing Zhuang Jialan, they were visibly nervous.

Zhuang Jialan spoke gently and kindly to a seven- or eight-year-old grandniece, who possessed the best talent. Under the guidance of her parents, the girl nodded innocently. "Study hard! Strive to get into a Dao Academy or Xuegong in the future. A good university can change your entire life!" This was Zhuang Jialan's most profound realization in her life. She owed her current success entirely to being admitted to the Wuqi Dao Academy. It was precisely because of this that she believed the Immortal Sect's propaganda—that studying could defy fate and change one's destiny—was the most accurate truth. Zhuang Jialan suddenly had an epiphany, wondering if this was the true essence of power.

The reason Zhuang Jialan primarily studied talisman crafting at Wuqi Dao Academy was due to the strong talisman crafting atmosphere in her hometown. Her parents worked in a talisman factory, similar to Chen Mobai's situation, except that she had already been practicing talisman crafting with flawed talisman paper and ink since childhood. "My hometown is quite small, and I don't have many relatives, so three days was just about enough," she said.

After the New Year, the Immortal Sect's Three Great Halls suddenly transitioned from their previous relaxed state to one of intense busyness. After the announcement of the expansion war last year, regardless of the bordering alternate worlds, the Immortal Sect had to prepare for wartime. The military department of the Zhengfa Hall was particularly active in this regard.

Chen Mobai inspected each of the Ten Great Military Regions, which were also the ten crucial hub nodes of the Sky Screen Earth Net Grand Formation. After close observation, his knowledge of the Immortal Sect's fifth-tier formations began to integrate and flow together. At this point, he could be considered a formation master second only to Patriarch Qianxing and Venerable Yunhai in the Immortal Sect. Even if he were to take the fifth-tier formation master examination, he likely wouldn't be able to solve only the last major problem, but he was confident in scoring full marks on the rest. Of course, even though he had mastered it, he would still visit the Natural Academy whenever he had free time to consolidate his knowledge with Venerable Yunhai.

After his great achievement in formation mastery, Chen Mobai also immediately returned to Donghuang. He first needed to reconstruct the grand formation of Beiyuan City. He didn't completely dismantle it, as the Sumeru Nine Palaces Formation had, after all, consumed a lot of resources from the Five Elements Sect. An excellent formation master needs to design and deploy formations based on local conditions, rather than spending vast amounts of manpower and resources to completely alter the terrain just to rigidly follow a template.

It was only after becoming a fifth-tier formation master that Chen Mobai realized how many loopholes and flaws existed in the Sumeru Nine Palaces Formation, which had previously brought peace of mind to all cultivators in Beiyuan City. He upgraded and transformed it using the Immortal Sect's concept of the fifth-tier Positive-Negative Nine Palaces Formation, combined with Beiyuan City's terrain. Due to the limitations of the spirit veins and the lack of a core fifth-tier spiritual item, Chen Mobai only completed the blueprints for upgrading it to a peak fourth-tier formation. This upgraded city-protecting grand formation, based on the original Sumeru Nine Palaces Formation, incorporated the Immortal Sect's Positive-Negative Nine Palaces Formation. Thus, he named it the "Minor Positive-Negative Sumeru Nine Palaces Formation." If conditions allowed for it to be upgraded to the fifth-tier in the future, it could then expand from minor to major.

After the blueprints and theory of the "Minor Positive-Negative Sumeru Nine Palaces Formation" were completed, practical implementation was required. This would also serve as an opportunity to see if the sect's formation masters were worth cultivating. Thinking this, Chen Mobai immediately summoned Yi Shaoqing from the Formation Department. Over the years, Yi Shaoqing had shown the highest talent in the Dao of Formations, and he was also diligent and hardworking, never complaining.

As soon as Yi Shaoqing saw this formation, his eyes widened. He had studied formations his entire life but had never seen such a precise and detailed blueprint. He couldn't understand some of the marked characters and symbols, but this was undoubtedly an advanced formation legacy, the highest secret of the sect. So, since Chen Mobai didn't explain, Yi Shaoqing didn't dare to ask.

"This is the city-protecting grand formation I've modified. Take a look and ask quickly if there's anything you don't understand. After we discuss this, we'll go look at the other major immortal cities and academies in Donghuang and try to produce their formation blueprints in the shortest possible time." As soon as Chen Mobai spoke, Yi Shaoqing's long-held questions poured out incessantly.

After studying the blueprints of the "Minor Positive-Negative Sumeru Nine Palaces Formation," Yi Shaoqing actually entered a state of sudden enlightenment on the spot. He sat atop Beiyuan Mountain, overlooking the dazzling spiritual light and brightly lit immortal city below. The blueprints in his mind materialized in his pupils from virtual to real, like twisted, straight, or curved dashed lines falling upon various parts of the immortal city. Where the lines intersected, there were spiritual hubs, which were also the locations for burying formation flags. And the center where all the lines ultimately converged was the summit of Beiyuan Mountain, where he was located.

But Yi Shaoqing knew that this formation had two cores: positive and negative. It was just that the positive and negative cores were currently overlapping, so only one point was visible. He couldn't help but stand up and request the core formation plate of the Sumeru Nine Palaces Formation from Chen Mobai. The latter smiled and gave it to him, and Yi Shaoqing immediately left Beiyuan City with the formation plate.

At this moment, the two previously overlapping positive and negative cores began to transform. The fourth-tier Longevity Wood, where the positive core was located, remained suppressing the summit of Beiyuan Mountain. And the formation plate for the negative core, the one in Yi Shaoqing's hand, moved with him. During this movement, the lines extending between the two major positive and negative cores continuously shifted, causing the "Minor Positive-Negative Sumeru Nine Palaces Formation" to also change unpredictably. This meant that even if the complete blueprints of this formation fell into the hands of the Five Elements Sect's enemies, they would be unable to follow the diagrams and thus crack the "Minor Positive-Negative Sumeru Nine Palaces Formation." Could the Dao of Formations really be so exquisitely intricate and bizarre!? Yi Shaoqing's horizons were completely broadened.

After returning to Beiyuan Mountain summit with the formation plate, he immediately performed a grand bow to Chen Mobai. "Thank you, Sect Master, for guiding me into the true gateway of the Dao of Formations." At this moment, Yi Shaoqing realized how simple and crude all the formation knowledge he had learned previously was.

"Rise. Your talent is indeed remarkable to have become a third-tier formation master in an environment like Donghuang." Chen Mobai was also pleased to see that after just one explanation from him, Yi Shaoqing had drawn inferences from other cases and entered the threshold of the Immortal Sect's Dao of Formations. He couldn't teach the formations from the Immortal Sect, but he could mention the fundamental knowledge contained within them when explaining the blueprints. However, Yi Shaoqing's ability to comprehend it greatly surprised Chen Mobai, as it required extremely high talent and comprehension. One could only say that the scarcity of knowledge in Donghuang had buried many talents here. If this were in the Immortal Sect, Yi Shaoqing's achievements would be no less than Yun Yangbing's.

"Sect Master, I have some new questions I'd like to ask you." At this moment, Yi Shaoqing was completely immersed in the newly comprehended Dao of Formations. He took out paper and pen and began to describe why the lines in the "Minor Positive-Negative Sumeru Nine Palaces Formation" had to coil and weave when combined with Beiyuan City during his recent enlightenment.

"Aren't there many houses built there? If we don't go around them, we'd have to demolish them, and the owners probably wouldn't be willing. Plus, that would certainly cost a large sum of spirit stones," Chen Mobai explained, still unable to escape the mindset of the Immortal Sect. As is well known, the most troublesome aspect of land acquisition in the Immortal Sect is demolition. As long as the people are unwilling, even if the Lords of the Three Great Halls arrive, they cannot demolish.

"Sect Master, if our Five Elements Sect wants to demolish, who in Beiyuan City would dare to disagree?" Yi Shaoqing said strangely. Every time a formation line curves, the difficulty of deployment increases. That's why Chen Mobai's newly designed city-protecting grand formation had many twists and turns in the main urban area. In his view, these were all unnecessary.

"It seems you're right." After being reminded by him, Chen Mobai also realized. This was Donghuang, not the Immortal Sect. Why was he being so considerate of the common people? If he said to demolish, it was estimated that even if the entire Beiyuan City were torn down, no one in Donghuang would dare utter a word of disagreement. However, he couldn't be blamed. The principle of "people-oriented" was always written into the guidelines of the Immortal Sect's formation knowledge, and he had been studying it recently, leading to fixed thinking. He had forgotten that here in Donghuang, he was the ultimate authority!