One day a few months later.
In the afternoon of this day, Zhang Yao was packing things in the store, checking the accounts, and preparing to close the store as usual.
In the past ten years, he has devoted a lot of time to hard work every day, and the number of talismans he produced has inevitably decreased greatly. Basically, he sells out early every day.
At this moment, two monks, a man and a woman, came to the store.
The man is in his forties and has a dark face; the woman is in her thirties and has a graceful appearance.
"Um?"
Zhang Yao raised his head and said with a hint of apology:
"Boy, I'm sorry, the magic talisman has been sold out."
"Why don't you two come back tomorrow?"
"No, boss."
The dark-faced middle-aged monk shook his head and said:
"We're not here to buy magic charms."
"We heard that you are the most famous formation master in the area, and your formation attainments are second to none in the world of Immortal Cultivation in Li Kingdom."
"Don't dare to take it seriously."
Zhang Yao waved his hand and said humbly:
"Comrades in the community are just giving me a little face and complimenting me. Zhang cannot deserve such high praise."
"With Zhang's level, he would never dare to claim to be the first person in Li Guo's formation skills."
The pretty female monk smiled and her voice was as gentle as an oriole:
"Master Zhang is so humble. Based on your reputation over the years, in terms of formations, even if you are not the number one in the Li Kingdom, you can at least be ranked among the top three."
"We came to you today because we want to ask you for advice on some formation matters..."
"oh?"
Zhang Yao's expression moved slightly and he said:
"I see, you two, please wait a moment."
After he invited the two of them to sit down, he personally brewed a pot of spiritual tea to entertain them.
The business of consulting formations is usually not a small business, and it often costs hundreds or even thousands of spiritual stones, but he still takes it seriously.
"Master Zhang."
After a few pleasantries, the middle-aged monk took out a jade slip and handed it to Zhang Yao:
"This is a partially broken formation diagram we got by chance. I would like to ask Master Zhang to help me with the details."
"alright, please wait."
Zhang Yao took the jade slip and poured his magic power into it.
What was burned into the jade slip was indeed a relatively complex spiritual pattern formation, and many of the connections were obviously incomplete.
"Um……"
He scanned the circle with his mind, and immediately made a judgment in his heart, and immediately fell silent.
"Master Zhang, how about it?"
The two waited for a while, and the female monk was the first to be unable to restrain herself and asked:
"Master Zhang has some insights into this broken formation."
Zhang Yao touched his chin and said:
"The formation map recorded in this jade slip should be part of some kind of composite formation."
"Judging from some of the spirit pattern veins, there are at least three different formations embedded in them. The main functions seem to be protection and sealing, and the level is very high..."
After hearing his words, the middle-aged monk and the female monk looked at each other and suddenly showed a hint of joy.
The female monk couldn't wait to ask:
"Does Master Zhang have a way to crack it?"
Zhang Yao waved his hand and said:
"I'm afraid you two don't know much about the way to fight."
"In any formation, the spiritual pattern formations within it are connected, influenced, and superimposed on each other to form a perfect whole. It can be said that one move affects the whole body."
"It's impossible to figure out how to break the formation from a partially incomplete formation diagram. It's difficult for even the most skilled formation master to do it."
As he spoke, he paused for a moment before continuing:
"Unless I can get the complete formation diagram, I have no way to crack it."
When the two heard this, they couldn't help but show a hint of hesitation.
After chatting for a few more words, the two stood up and left, saying they would visit again in a few days.
After Zhang Yao sent them away, he returned to the store and was silent, showing a hint of thinking:
"This formation is unusual..."
Judging from the broken formation diagram, he suspected that the corresponding formation was probably of the second level.
There are very few second-level formations in the entire Li Kingdom cultivation world. Only the mountain gate formations of Mangshanfang City and Tiandu Sect are of this level.
"It seems that there is quite a secret behind this formation."
"But it doesn't have much to do with me. Anyway, I just use money to do things. I'll see what happens in a few days."
Zhang Yao didn't take it seriously. After closing the store, he went straight back to the cave he rented.
A few days later.
Zhang Yao was in the shop, receiving several customers who were choosing spiritual talismans, when suddenly a young monk in red robes came.
"Fellow Daoist Li? What a rare visitor."
Zhang Yao was a little surprised and took the initiative to say hello.
The young monk in front of him was a monk from the Mangshanfang City Management Office and a member of the Li family. He had met him several times.
"Master Zhang, long time no see."
The red-robed monk bowed his hands politely and said:
"Is such that."
"I have been ordered by the master of the family to ask Master Zhang to come over. I have some questions about formations that I would like to ask for advice."
"So that's it."
Zhang Yao's expression moved slightly, he nodded and said:
"Then please wait a moment, Fellow Daoist Li. After I see off these guests, I will go with Fellow Daoist Li."
"good."
The red-robed monk nodded and waited patiently.
Soon, after Zhang Yao sent several customers away, he closed the store and went to the top floor of Mangshanfang City with the red-robed monk.
The uppermost level of the Mangshan Spirit Vein Ground, which is also the place with the most spiritual energy, is the Li family's residence. It occupies a vast area and is home to hundreds of monks.
"Master Zhang, please."
The red-robed monk led Zhang Yao all the way into the depths of the Li family mansion.
In the hall, an old man wearing a dark red robe and gray hair sat on the main seat.
When Zhang Yao saw this person, his heart suddenly trembled.
The other party's aura was as deep as a deep pool, and his energy was ups and downs. Even though his face was kind, it still gave him a faint sense of oppression.
He instantly judged that this was a monk in the foundation building stage!
"Didn't I say that the head of the Li family invited me here? Why is it that he is an ancestor of the Li family in the foundation building stage..."
Zhang Yao was wary in his heart, but on the outside he was surprised:
"Fellow Daoist Li, this senior is..."
"Ninth uncle."
The red-robed monk first bowed respectfully to the old man and then introduced him:
"This is my ninth uncle 'Li Changlin', one of the foundation-building ancestors of our Li family."
He explained: "The head of the family asked me to invite Master Zhang to come over, and he also followed the instructions of the ninth uncle."
"It turns out it's Senior Chang Lin, Zhang is polite."
Upon hearing this, Zhang Yao immediately bowed.
"Master Zhang, please take a seat."
Li Changlin nodded with a smile and motioned for him to sit down.
After Zhang Yao sat down, the red-robed monk resigned wisely, leaving only Zhang Yao and Li Changlin in the hall.
"Master Zhang, I have admired your name for a long time..."
Li Changlin's attitude was quite friendly. The two chatted for a while, and Zhang Yao took the initiative to ask:
"Senior, I don't know why you came to me?"
"Master Zhang, please be patient."
Li Changlin raised his hand and said with a slight smile:
"I am inviting others this time. After everyone is here, we will discuss it in detail."
"good."
Zhang Yao nodded and waited patiently, while secretly thinking:
"It can't be the man and woman from a few days ago..."
The reason why Zhang Yao thinks this way is a reasonable inference:
If you want to consult the dignified Mangshan Li family about the formation, it must be a second-level formation.
Second-level formations are rare in the world of immortal cultivation in Li Kingdom, and it is impossible for one to appear out of thin air.
A few days ago, the man and woman came to his door; a few days later, the Li family's foundation-building monk came to invite him. How could it be such a coincidence?
"Either that man and woman, who are actually members of the Li family, came to test my skills."
"Either they are really hiding some secrets, but they are not keeping secrets, and the Li family has taken advantage of them..."
Thoughts flashed in Zhang Yao's mind, and he was calculating secretly.
He is currently more inclined to the second guess. After all, the Li family is the owner of Mangshanfang City, and he has to come here obediently. There is no need to engage in such testing methods.
It has been almost 20 years since he opened a shop in Mangshanfang City. His reputation as a master of formations is well known, and it is impossible for the Li family not to know about his level.
"We'll find out later."
Thinking of this, Zhang Yao calmed down and waited silently.
After a while.
An old man wearing a purple-red robe and a maroon complexion walked in with his head held high and bowed to Li Changlin:
"Uncle Nine!"
"Um."
Li Changlin nodded slightly and said:
"Yuan Hui is here, you sit down first, everyone will be here later."
"Yes, Uncle Nine."
The red-faced old man known as Li Yuanhui nodded in agreement and sat opposite Zhang Yao.
Zhang Yao looked at the other party and found that Li Yuanhui was also looking at him secretly, with a trace of disdain in his eyes.
"It seems that this person should be the formation master trained within the Li family..."
Zhang Yao understood clearly.
As a foundation-building force, the Mangshan Li family must have trained formation masters of extremely high level, otherwise they would not even be qualified to maintain second-level formations.
However, as a core member of the Li family, Li Yuanhui does not have much fame in the outside world and can be considered unknown.
It's not like him. After taking advantage of opening a shop, he arranged complex formations for others several times and became famous, and he was praised as the first person in the world of Li Guo's cultivation of formations.
A person who is probably not as good as himself is touted as the number one in formation. Who can be convinced by this?
"As the saying goes, peers are enemies."
"We are all formation masters. There is no real competition. Who can be willing to admit that others are number one?"
Zhang Yao felt relieved when he thought of this.
After waiting for a while, a bald old man hurried over and confessed:
"Senior Li, please forgive me! I had something to do and was delayed for a while. It's really..."
"It doesn't matter."
Li Changlin waved his hand and said with a smile:
"Since Master Zhuo is here, please take a seat."
"Okay, thank you, senior Haihan."
The bald old man breathed a sigh of relief and quickly sat down beside Zhang Yao.
"It turns out it was him..."
Zhang Yao heard his last name and immediately determined his identity.
This Master Zhuo was also a formation master who had been famous for decades. He was a casual cultivator and had served in the Wanhe League. Zhang Yao had heard of his reputation more than once.
It's just that after Wanhe Tao died and the Wanhe Alliance fell apart, this man found a place to live in seclusion and disappeared for many years. Unexpectedly, he was invited over by Li today.
"Now that everyone is here, I'll get straight to the point."
Li Changlin looked around and said:
"Except for the guarding elders of the Tiandun Sect, Master Zhang, Master Zhuo and the inferior nephew Yuan Hui should be the people with the highest attainments in formations in the Immortal Realm of Li Kingdom."
"I have an incomplete formation diagram here. I hope some of you can take a look at it and try to figure out how to crack it."
"There is no need for complete cracking steps, even just some ideas will do."
As he spoke, he waved his sleeves, and three jade slips flew out and stopped in front of Zhang Yao and the other three.
Zhang Yao, Taoist Zhuo and Li Yuanhui did not dare to neglect, and quickly took the jade slip and entered the magic power to examine it carefully.
"As expected!"
Zhang Yao's thoughts swept away and he was certain in his heart.
About 30% to 40% of the formation diagrams burned into the jade slips were ones he had seen a few days ago.
Although many new parts have been added, making the entire array more complex, it is still incomplete as a whole.
"Not three formations, but at least six formations..."
After Zhang Yao made a further judgment in his mind, he felt more and more troublesome.
The formation corresponding to this formation is probably much more powerful than the formation in Mangshanfang City. Even if he gets the complete formation, he doesn't have much confidence that he can crack it.
"This formation..."
He glanced around with his peripheral vision and found that Li Yuanhui and Zhuo Taoist were both frowning, obviously they also felt troubled.
"You don't need to stress."
Li Changlin also discovered this and immediately said:
"I said, you don't need a complete method to break the formation, just a general idea."
"...Then this junior will show his disgrace!"
Taoist Zhuo bowed his hands and took the lead in mobilizing his magic power to try to analyze and resolve the broken formation diagram in the jade slips.
Zhang Yao also carried out the same work as him, but deliberately hid his true level and used only the first-level knowledge of formations.
Half an hour later.
The three of them handed over the jade slips one after another. After Li Changlin thanked them politely, he ordered people to send Zhang Yao and Zhuo Taoist away from the Li family mansion.
Before leaving, Li's manager gave each of them five hundred spiritual stones as a reward, saying that they might be invited again in a while.
Zhang Yao, like Taoist Zhuo, agreed wholeheartedly and then returned to his cave.
Inside the cave:
Zhang Yao closed the door tightly, looked solemn, took out a jade slip, and poured his magic power into it.
This is a set of 'Thinking Test Files' that he compiled based on some superficial psychological knowledge from his previous life and two hundred years of experience and insights in this life, specifically to measure his own thinking and memory.
Once bitten, twice shy.
His experience in Qingyunfang City that year really made him suffer a lot, and he still remembers it fresh. He is afraid that one day he will accidentally repeat the same mistakes and be secretly influenced by high-level monks' spells to influence his sanity.
To this end, he conceived various protective measures. This set of thinking test files is one of the means to verify afterwards and prevent mistakes.
Although it is still unknown how effective this dossier is, it is better than nothing.
"call……"
After a while, Zhang Yao withdrew his magic power, compared it with another jade slip that had been burned in advance and recorded the normal answer, and couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief.
"Judging from the results, the memory is accurate and the possibility of thinking being distorted is extremely small."
He looked at the two jade slips in his hands and suddenly smiled bitterly:
"I'm really suspicious..."
There should be very few foundation builders in the world who are proficient in soul magic.
Moreover, it is impossible for a normal foundation-building monk to indiscriminately attack a stranger he meets for the first time.
But he was still afraid of it, so after meeting Li Changlin, the first thing he did when he came back was to test his memory and thinking.
"Hmm...there's something wrong with this."
Zhang Yao recalled the scene in the Li family mansion, got up and paced back and forth in the cave, frowning.
The Li family invited him to learn more about the formation. This was originally a normal thing, but the level of the formation was too high, which made him feel a little uneasy.
Although as a formation master, there is not much danger in participating in breaking the formation, but it is difficult to guarantee that the interests involved will be too great, and he will be punished and killed afterwards.
"Then why not just leave!"
Zhang Yao suddenly stopped, thoughts flashing in his mind:
"While no one is paying attention to me now, I can leave Li Country directly and go north to Dali."
"By then, no matter how big the risk is behind this formation, it won't affect me..."
(End of chapter)
