"The formation is the foundation of the sect, and the formation pattern is the basis of the formation. You have been practicing the formation for a year, and today we will start carving the formation pattern."
"In some respects, seal-carving patterns have many similarities with painted talismans. However, talismans inspire spells, while patterns are used to control spells."
In an underground stone chamber in the Lingdao Academy, Xie Yongtai, the martial arts master, stood on the stage and talked.
The stone room is spacious and clean, with walls and floors made of large bluestones. The lighting design is very clever, bringing in natural light from the ground, making it bright and clear even without lighting during the day.
Xie Yongtai is a skinny old man with dark skin and gray hair. He is the oldest among the brothers who teach Kung Fu.
There were six disciples sitting under the stage, each with a stone table in front of them. On the table were black armor, array pattern knives, grindstones, ink silver and other tools for carving array patterns.
Zhao Lin rubbed the black armor on the table and thought to himself: "This thing is shiny and shiny. I don't know how many years it has been used."
Although he had never carved formation patterns before, he knew the uses of these tools very well.
Formation patterns can be engraved on formation stones, formation flags, magic weapons, heavy iron wood, monster bones and other objects that can store spiritual energy. Xuanjia is a more common one.
Xuanjia is the back armor of a kind of beast called Xuanjia. This monster is shaped like an old turtle, with a hard bone shell covering its back.
The back of the black armor beast has natural textures. Once attacked, these textures will form a defensive spell, which is the most primitive magic circle.
The early monks discovered the magical effects of array patterns from the black armored beasts, and then derived a wide variety of arrays with different functions.
The black armored beast is a first-level monster with a large population, so its back armor is often used as a training tool for first-time formation disciples.
Zhao Lin picked up the array pattern knife and felt that it was quite heavy. After injecting a little spiritual power, he could see a ray of spiritual light flowing continuously on the blade.
The array pattern knife is made from a variety of materials such as fine gold, spirit beast essence and blood, and black spar. It is specially used to draw array patterns. It is about seven inches long, shaped like a judge's pen, and has an extremely sharp tip.
For the formation master, a good formation knife is equivalent to the weapon in the hands of mortal soldiers, and can be a great help.
However, formation knives are just like weapons. They need to be repaired and replaced after being used for a long time.
The grindstone is used to polish the material. If the drawing fails, the pattern is erased and re-engraved.
Ink silver is a special material. Once the formation pattern is successfully drawn and then covered with ink silver, outsiders will not be able to see the original appearance of the formation pattern.
"Today we are going to draw the Spirit Sealing Formation, one of the oldest magic formations in the world of immortality."
Xie Yongtai glanced at the audience and asked, "Who knows the purpose of this magic circle?"
Upon hearing the question, several disciples immediately raised their hands.
Xie Yongtai clicked on one of them, "Zhong Mao, tell me."
"yes."
Zhong Mao stood up and replied: "The function of the spirit-sealing array is to seal the spiritual energy in spiritual objects, such as magic weapons, spiritual stones, and storage bags."
"It prevents the spiritual energy from dissipating outwards, and it can maintain its grade even if it is not used for a long time."
"good!"
Xie Yongtai stretched out his hand to let Zhong Mao sit down and said with a smile: "The Spirit-Sealing Array has a wide range of uses. Almost all magic arrays contain the spirit-sealing array's patterns. The second-order spirit-gathering array is also developed on its basis. of."
"There are a total of sixteen patterns in the Spirit Sealing Formation. Today we will learn the simplest one among them."
After speaking, he waved to the disciples in the audience, "I'll demonstrate it again. Come over and take a closer look."
All the disciples came on stage one after another and gathered around Xie Yongtai.
"The formation pattern originates from the monk's understanding of the way of heaven. The thickness, length, and arc of each stroke are different, and the amount of mana required to be injected is also different."
"So when carving, you need to concentrate on it, so that you have the formation pattern in your heart and follow the way of heaven. You must also control the blade and mana very carefully."
"The seal carving pattern must be completed in one go without any interruption, otherwise even the last stroke will be in vain."
As Xie Yongtai spoke, he poured spiritual power into the formation knife and quickly carved out a zigzag, criss-crossing formation pattern on the black armor.
Then he picked up the pen and said with a smile, "Okay."
As soon as he finished speaking, a flash of silver light flashed, and the formation pattern originally engraved on the black armor floated into the air, with a faint flow of brilliance, as if it came to life.
After a while, it gradually disappeared.
"What a skillful technique, so smooth!"
"Thank you for your superb skills, senior brother. I admire you."
The disciples praised loudly.
Zhao Lin also agreed casually, but his mind was attracted by the changes in the spiritual map in his mind.
When the formation pattern was completed, three words appeared in the eighth grid of the spiritual cultivation map: Spirit Sealing Formation!
Next to the font, there is a tiny petal.
"It turns out that you have to touch the array pattern to capture the array!"
Zhao Lin understood that when he was in other magic circles in the past, the spiritual map could also show the name of the magic circle, but the petals would not appear.
Observe carefully, this petal is much smaller than the previous one, slender and slender. It takes about a dozen petals to form a complete flower.
"Why is that? Is it because the petals have increased?"
Zhao Lin was confused, and after thinking for a moment, he immediately figured it out.
There are six levels of spells: entry, proficiency, minor success, proficiency, mastery, and perfection, so there are six petals.
The magic circle does not have these levels. If you can, you can, and if you can't, you can't.
There are sixteen types of formation patterns in the Spirit Sealing Formation. When a formation pattern is captured in the spiritual cultivation map, a petal will appear.
Based on this, after capturing another fifteen formation patterns, the petals of the entire flower will be complete.
"I see. I wonder how many spiritual stones it would cost to master this formation pattern?"
Zhao Lin thought secretly.
"Okay, you all go back to your positions and start practicing."
Xie Yongtai drew it again and turned to everyone.
The disciples became interested and returned to their seats one after another, picked up the formation knives, and started carving on the black armor.
For a while, the room was extremely quiet, with only the sounds of breathing and carving.
Zhao Lin breathed a sigh of relief, recalled the formation pattern, then injected spiritual power into the formation pattern knife, and landed it on the black armor!
Although the spiritual cultivation chart could capture the array patterns, he decided to try hard.
I have already mastered a lot of formation knowledge, and I am quite familiar with the Six Yao Bagua and the Five Elements.
If you can carve formation patterns with your own abilities, you can save one grid and practice one more spell.
Unexpectedly, after carving two strokes, the spiritual power on the formation knife disappeared.
"It's the first time, it's normal."
Zhao Lin shook his head slightly, changed his position and continued to draw.
As the saying goes, it's easier said than done. See how easy Xie Yongtai is to carve, but it's not until you actually get started that you realize that drawing formation patterns is completely different from copying paintings.
If there is a deviation in the spiritual induction, even if the carving is perfect, it will not work.
Although the writing position is exactly the same, the formation pattern carved out has no trace of spiritual power.
Zhao Lin made mistakes ten times in a row and found that there was no space left on the black armor, so he had to pick up a grindstone and polish the black armor flat again.
An hour passed before I knew it...
Suddenly someone said "ah".
Then a disciple stood up and whispered in a tone of uncontrollable surprise: "Thank you, senior brother, I'll carve it!"
Everyone looked up in surprise and saw that the person speaking was none other than Zhong Mao, who had answered the question before.
"No way, it was carved out so quickly?"
"It's so neat, it's the same as Senior Brother Xie's formation pattern!"
"Oh, I carved it the same way, why doesn't it have aura?"
Many disciples stopped what they were doing and walked to Zhong Mao's position to watch.
Zhao Lin was sitting in front of Zhong Mao. He looked back and saw a formation pattern on his black armor. The spiritual energy was flowing, and it was clearly completed.
Zhong Mao's cultivation talent was average and he was not outstanding among the third-year disciples. He didn't expect to learn formations so quickly.
Xie Yongtai was also surprised. He raised his eyebrows and said, "It's not easy to draw the formation pattern in one hour. Let me try it again."
Zhong Mao agreed, picked up the array pattern knife and started carving.
Under the gaze of everyone, I couldn't help but feel a little nervous, and made a mistake halfway through the painting.
"Drawing array patterns is not slower, the better. A little faster will make it smoother."
Xie Yongtai reminded.
"yes."
Zhong Mao composed himself and tried again, but he succeeded.
All the disciples were stunned, Xie Yongtai laughed and praised: "Very good!"
Zhao Lin stopped reading and returned to the stone case, engraving it over and over again.
"Okay, that's it for today."
At noon, Xie Yongtai said in a deep voice, "It takes a lot of hard work to carve the formation patterns. You can't work too long. You guys go back and rest. Come back tomorrow."
Zhao Lin felt dizzy and exhausted. Knowing that he could not continue, he packed up the items on the case, got up and left the stone room.
The next day, disciple Lu Ziming carved the formation pattern.
On the third day, two more disciples carved formation patterns.
On the fourth day, Zhong Mao, who had made the most progress, had already mastered two formation patterns and began to learn the third formation pattern. Only Zhao Lin and another disciple were still carving the first formation pattern.
"Do I really not have the talent for this formation?"
Zhao Lin sighed in his heart. Carving formation patterns was different from carving words on stones. It was almost impossible to rely on practice to make perfect.
Without talent and understanding, at most you can only become a craftsman, but you can never become a master.
"Try again tomorrow. If it doesn't work, you can only use the spiritual chart."
On the fifth day, Xie Yongtai did not let everyone practice, but asked a question first.
"The Spirit-Sealing Array is not the simplest array. Do you know why it is used as an entry-level array?"
Everyone shook their heads to express their ignorance.
"Because the formations are obscure and difficult. If it takes seven or eight days, or even longer, to learn one formation, it means you don't have the talent in this area."
"You must know that there are a total of sixteen types of formations in the Spirit Sealing Formation, each one is more difficult than the last. The most difficult formation is ten times more complicated than the first formation. How long will it take you to complete the entire formation?"
"If you still can't carve the first formation pattern, you may want to consider changing to another art."
Xie Yongtai glanced at Zhao Lin meaningfully and continued: "There is no need to worry about wasting a year. The knowledge of formations can also be used in other aspects."
“But if we study it further, it won’t be worthwhile.”
(End of chapter)
