771. Fight the Formation (Patreon)

Locked in the formation, Hui shifted a little, trying to sit up, but the weight locked his shoulders down and held him flat against the altar. As I thought, I can’t just sit up and walk away. Well, it would be a shitty formation if the victim could just walk out of it.

Hui quietly probed the spell around him, searching it for an entry point. The formation moved constantly, shifting beneath his touch. He drew out his phoenix fire, changing a few of the songbirds to death qi, then touching the formation with the thin tendrils. The formation stood firm, completely unbothered.

“Don’t even try. You can’t comprehend it,” the Golden Immortal scoffed.

“If that’s the case, what’s the harm in me trying? Or could it be? Is Senior worried?” Hui asked.

“You’re the one who should be worried. I’m using you to call your world to this one, you know,” the Golden Immortal informed him.

“Then let me do the worrying, Senior, and you focus on your formation,” Hui responded, still focused on the spell.

The Golden Immortal shook his head. He turned away, focusing on some other part of the spell.

Turning all his attention to the formation around him, Hui went back to probing it. Now that Senior thinks that I can’t destroy this formation, let’s get to work! After all, what are formations but barriers that do other things at the same time? And I already have barriers that also do other things.

I wasn’t expecting the death qi to work. It hasn’t worked on its own in a while. Let’s get deeper into the formation, and see what damage I can do.

From the inside, he extended his qi and watched it move for a while, tracing the inner workings of the formation. It’s a very mobile formation. Everything is in constant motion. That means it’s hard for me to lock down any part of it and get to work on picking it apart. He latched onto one small part of the formation’s workings, and that part immediately crumbled in his hand. The formation went on turning, and the part that had crumbled healed itself.

There’s that self-healing again. It isn’t using the character-based technique, which is a pity, but I know that I can attack that self-healing and destroy the entire formation, as long as I figure out a way in. He considered the array for a moment, thinking to himself. After a moment, he reached out and grabbed another segment. Once more, it crumbled in his hand and healed.

If I could grab enough of the formation… Hui glanced around him. In this three-sixty lockdown spell? I’ve got a lot of formation to grab. And the layers mean that even if I grab the entire inner layer, I almost certainly won’t be able to grab enough of the second layer to matter before the first layer heals itself.

He grabbed a thread of life qi and tried twisting it into the formation, but before he even fully corrupted a section, the section crumbled, refusing to give him a hold. He frowned, a hand on his chin. Is the play here to kill myself and rely on the lotus clones?

Well, no. Let’s keep trying to break the barrier…ahem, formation. For now, it’s better to be inside than outside. True, it’s a formation that’s meant to lock me inside, but on the other hand, formations don’t usually consider the possibility of the victim dismantling them from within, while they do usually block out help from outside. If the formation starts activating and I’m still unable to make headway, that’s when I start thinking about clones.

I guess if I could sandwich the formation with me and a clone…

No, I still think it’s better to not start with clones. Clones are a thought to keep in mind, but they’re a desperation play, not the go-to.

Outside the formation, the Golden Immortal worked at the ground, carving ancient characters into the raw dirt. With a wave of his hand, he called forth boulders buried deep in the small patch of land they had. The boulders emanated a firm, ancient aura, a heavy sense of permanence.

Hui glanced over, surprised. Those things are different. They aren’t just stones, are they? They have to be something like the cornerstones of this Immortal Realm. Using those to summon a portal to my world… no. To link my world to this one, using those stones… he’s really fully committed, isn’t he?

Though, to be fair, if it fails, he can roll back time, no harm, no foul. I need a full counter to his time reversal strategy. A stronger comprehension of time.

But how? He’s had way too long to learn about time, and I constantly get reset. It’s…

It’s something I can’t control, so let’s not worry about it. I’ll struggle as hard as I can, and eventually, I’ll figure out a way to defeat him.

If I can nullify this formation, though, I might have a chance to win. So let’s not give up!

He pursed his lips, then pushed a solid thorn of qi up into the formation. The formation crumbled away before it, and healed after it, like a wall of water, easily parting and reforming again. As it did, it eroded at his thorn of qi. In the space of a blink, the formation destroyed his thorn.

Well, well, well. Interesting. I can’t crumble the whole thing, but I can push a small qi structure through. If I can reach to the outside world without having to access the void or the Underworld… Or perhaps…

Creating a ring around himself, Hui hardened the qi structure, making it as dense as possible. He slammed the ring into the formation. The ring cut through the first layer, the second layer, then petered out at the third layer. He put a hand on his chin, thinking. It was a good try, but I’d need much more qi than I currently have or can gather to make that work. Hmm. If only there was a way to put my qi into the formation. The fundamental problem is that it rejects my qi, and crumbles whenever I try to affect it with my qi. I don’t have enough qi to use that crumbling to my advantage, so instead, I ought to focus on overtaking the formation. But then I’m back to the start: I can’t infect the formation, so I can’t overcome it.

Put my qi into the formation… but how?

The Golden Immortal loomed over him. “Have you enjoyed picking at the formation? As I told you, struggling is futile.”

“I suppose so,” Hui said.

“And yet, you’re still so calm,” the Golden Immortal said.

Hui shrugged. “It’s hard to care too much when your opponent can undo everything you do by turning back time. You want me to be worked up, so I can’t think clearly, so why should I be? I need to have a calm mind, and you’re outside of my power to control. Better to focus on what I can do something about.”

“You’re about to be unable to do anything, ever again,” the Golden Immortal grumbled. He raised his sword.

“Unless you fail, and then we return here, right?” Hui asked. He eyed the sword. I’m tied to an altar. Not hard to figure out what we’re doing here. He cycled his body to its plant form and waited.

“Right. So give up. You cannot do anything but die.” He paused. “I’ll give you one last chance. Cooperate, along, and the two of us can enjoy the combined world I create, together. Surely cooperation is better than death.”

“Although this small cultivator hates death, I have to turn Senior down.” After all, I can do a great many things about death, and not much about de-combining two worlds!

The Golden Immortal snorted. “Then die.” He plunged the sword downward.

“Er, Senior, wait, wait.”

The Golden Immortal paused. “What?”

“Could I ask? Why did you wait this long to simply drag me here and tie me up? Er, I mean… bind me to this altar and pierce me through… no, wait—” Hui bit his lip. Is there even a non-sexual way to describe this?

Unaware of Hui’s troubles, the Golden Immortal sighed. “I can force you to comply, but it almost always fails. You know how troublesome you are.”

“True, true,” Hui agreed, nodding.

“I need you awake and alive so you can knowingly die for the formation to work, and that means fighting your interference the whole time while trying to work an incredibly delicate formation with a high failure chance at the same time. Do you think I didn’t already try this? I gave up after the first ten tries.”

“Oh,” Hui said. Huh. Good thing I don’t remember those loops.

“But since then, I’ve spent years and years strengthening my formation. Don’t think it’ll be so easy to destroy now!”

“Yes, yes, Senior’s formation is indeed intimidating!” Hui agreed, widening his eyes. Explains why it isn’t like his barriers. Damn you, past me!

On the other hand, I know my habits. If I find an easy way to smash a spell, I won’t bother going any deeper. Which means that my current plan still has a decent chance of success!

“Die obediently, and feed the formation with your lifeblood!” the Golden Immortal declared, plunging the sword down.

As it fell, Hui grinned, just a little. Sacrificing me to the formation? Ha-ha, doesn’t that sound like a way to put my qi into the formation? I’m looking forward to it!