Chapter 616: Formations and Daos
Pei Bai did not wait for Hui Yue to answer. Instead, he instantly stood up and started walking through the Formation Palace.
The Formation Palace was far from the biggest building in the Celestial Sword Sect, but when Pei Bai walked through it, Hui Yue found that it was massive inside. There were rooms everywhere; some were living quarters, others were for training. The only thing every room had in common was that they were filled with dust and there were no signs that anyone had used them for a very long time.
"This place is very empty. Formation Masters are an essential part of a sect, but the requirements to become a master are simply too high."
"Because of this, there are never enough Formation Masters, especially not in sects like the Celestial Sword Sect where we cannot invite outsiders to join."
Pei Bai shook his head in disappointment, and Hui Yue understood that this elder truly cared about the Formation Masters of the sect.
"Let me explain formation ranks to you in detail," Pei Bai offered. "First are the apprentices. One is an apprentice until they have compressed one hundred seals after which they are considered formation apprentices."
"Only after five hundred seals can you be considered a true Formation Master and after a thousand seals you are referred to as a Formation Grandmaster."
"I am currently at nine hundred and seventy-six seals. I am able to use a hidden skill to create thousands of seals, but its power is shaky and I cannot control it for long," Pei Bai said proudly and nodded his head. "But the elder from the Heavenly Dragon Gate also happens to be very close to the grandmaster rank."
"Currently there are no Formation Grandmasters. It has been countless years since the last grandmaster died. Sadly it was from the backlash of one of his formations while he was practicing. Grandmaster formations are incredibly complex and dangerous. They have the ability to unleash a simply frightening level of power!"
"Formations are marvelous. They can be used for attacking, for defending, and for traps. Formations are outstanding in every possible way. They can save your life in more than one way. Every proper group of experts should have a Formation Master with them if they want to survive traveling the galaxy."
"Formations are necessary as well when one forms worlds. Though everyone who is not skilled in the formation arts has to hire Formation Masters for this, it is always best if one can form the formation themselves. This is because the person who made the world knows it best, and thus they are the most suitable person to make a formation for the creation of the world’s essence of the heavens and the earth. This essence is the life of the world; it allows for creatures to survive on a world, and also determine how strong such a world is."
"But let me tell you a secret," Pei Bai said with a smile. "Way back when I was younger, soulforce was not so rare. When the galaxy was newly formed, everyone had soulforce. Soulforce is not a bloodline power, but it is very similar. The more generations that go by, the rarer soulforce becomes. This also means that in the elder generations there are many more Formation Masters than there are amongst the younger generations."
"It is just bad luck that our sect does not have more masters, or even just more soulforce users... Sadly all who had reached the grandmaster rank of our art have long since blown themselves to bits while experimenting with formations. That seems to be the fate of Formation Grandmasters," he sighed, but Hui Yue sensed no fear in his voice.
A God could die at any moment. Although they lived for an eternity, their lives were filled with dangers. One never knew when war would come for them. One never knew when they would suddenly be attacked while roaming the galaxy. It was true that they were somewhat safe within the sect, but even here were eyes and ears that wanted the death of Hui Yue and others.
"This galaxy was formed countless eons ago, and even our ancestor, the Great Roc, was amongst the creatures created during the birth of our galaxy. The Great Roc roamed the newly formed galaxy for an eternity before he finally settled down after more than a hundred thousand years of adventuring. By then the galaxy was no longer young as it had once been, but instead developing at a steady pace."
"Formations are an ancient technique that have been passed down since the beginning of our galaxy. Although new formations are constantly being created, many formations are as old as the galaxy itself. Being able to have the chance to study formations is something you should take pride in!"
Looking at Pei Bai, Hui Yue saw the reverence the elder had towards formations and their history. His eyes seemed to blaze and his lips curved in an intoxicated smile. It was clear that for this elder, formations were the most important thing in his life; they were his reason for existence and the path he walked down.
"Do you live here in the Formation Palace?" Hui Yue suddenly asked, and Pei Bai nodded his head. "I haven't found a partner and have no descendants. For me, having kids is not the most important task, no, guiding those youngsters with soulforce is the purpose of my life!"
"I would fear to have children," Pei Bai had paused for a moment before he sighed and said what he had in mind. "Imagine that I got a son who lacked soulforce. I would love him all the same, but wouldn’t he feel inferior because he cannot share in my greatest obsession? Would he not feel useless because he would never be able to inherit my legacy?"
Hui Yue looked at Pei Bai with pity. He could understand why he would feel so worried about this. He knew how much it had troubled his previous life, the one of the celestial wings, to not be able to live up to his father's great name.
"I am not entitled to take you on as my disciple," Pei Bai changed the subject quite quickly, not wanting to make Hui Yue feel uncomfortable about the previous subject. This was also something that had been on his mind for a long time.
"Your talent is peerless, and it is only a question of time before you overtake me. With your current performance, I have no doubt that you will one day become a grandmaster."
"Because of this, I would be embarrassed to take you as my disciple; a disciple who is much more talented than his master can never show off that talent if he is weighed down by an incompetent master."
"But, if you do not mind, then I would like to assist you in your pursuit of formations!"
"The next half year, before we leave the sect for the debate, you should stay here in the Formation Palace with me. I will focus on you and your potential, and we will see just how much you can learn."
Hui Yue saw a kindness in Pei Bai's eyes, and he nodded his head before he even realized what he had done.
"I will need one day a month to go to the City of Endless Clouds," he said, and Pei Bai nodded his head. "That’s no problem, just because you will be spending your time here cultivating does not mean that I plan to hold you captive. Now, follow me."
Pei Bai once more walked through the many halls and corridors before they reached a corridor which had a gentle light illuminating three doors.
"This is where I live," Pei Bai said as he opened a door and pointed to a room. The room was filled to the brim with scrolls everywhere, and there were quite a few signs of formations that had backfired.
"I have two other rooms, but I never use them. You take one of them and get settled in, then I will go tell your father that you are going to be staying with me for the next half year," he said, and before Hui Yue could say anything, Pei Bai had already vanished into the distance.
Shaking his head, Hui Yue could not help but laugh a little before he opened the door next to the one leading into Pei Bai's room.
The room he saw was similar to Pei Bai's. There was no dust in this room, but more than anything, there were no scrolls spread all across the floor.
Hui Yue got himself familiar with the room and noticed that there was a meditation room right next door making it easy for him to train his formations.
After having looked through the rooms, Pei Bai had not yet returned; thus he decided to sit down and start compressing more seals.
He understood that right now the most important thing was to fully focus on formations. He did not have time to meditate on the daos any longer; he was pressed for time as it was already. He needed to become much stronger than he was now if he did not wish to shame the Celestial Sword Sect when they went to the Formation Masters debate.
When Pei Bai returned, his eyes showed appreciation as he saw that Hui Yue had started compressing seals right away instead of spending more time examining the rooms. Instead of interrupting Hui Yue, Pei Bai entered his room and looked through the many scrolls and books seeking formations that would be of use to Hui Yue.
"He is a descendant of the Great Roc so he should have some skill with the dao of wind," Pei Bai mused to himself as he looked at the scroll in his hand. "But he did mention some time ago that he was very pleased with the Blazing Tiger. He has not been in the sect for a long time, could it be that he is more familiar with the fire-related daos?"
Pei Bai was at a loss, and eventually, he found all the formations he could that contained a hundred or fewer seals.
"My daos?" Hui Yue was confused at first, but when he saw all the formations in Pei Bai's hands, he understood the question. Since he had thought of merging daos with formations, obviously others had thought of such a thing too. It seems this was a rather common occurrence for Formation Masters to do.
"I need anything you have dealing with fire," Hui Yue said right away full of excitement. He needed fire formations as they could be merged with the daos Lan Feng had comprehended.
"I have access to four daos of fire, the dao of gale, the dao of devouring, the dao of sword, the dao of gravity, and I can also be considered someone who is comprehending the dao of space."
Although Hui Yue did not have full access to the dao of space, he understood that if he could merge the dao of space with a formation, he would become almost impossible to defeat.
Pei Bai's eyes widened more with every mention of a dao. His head suddenly cocked to the side, and his mouth went ajar.
"All... All of those?!" he said stuttering, and Hui Yue cleared his throat embarrassed as he scratched the back of his head. "I know it is a few, but I did have the help of some Pills of Clarity," he tried to explain, but Pei Bai was no idiot. He knew that there had to be quite a few lucky encounters to make it possible for someone to comprehend so many daos in the short while he had lived.
"Hell, kid, you have comprehended more daos than I have!" Pei Bai exclaimed shocked, but Hui Yue just smiled at him and said nothing. He was not going to tell anyone about his secrets, and Pei Bai did not ask any questions either as he finally calmed down.
"Well I will get formations that can integrate with those daos," he finally said. "And while I do so, you will have to compress as many seals as possible! We do not have much time; we really need to rush together, the two of us."