Chapter 161: The grand play

(A/N: Join the discord, to have intellectual conversations with your fellow cultivators! We have graphs and stats on the cultivation worlds there! Plus you can actually cultivate and go to closed-door cultivation.

Link: discord.gg/SC9HNKVj5e

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——(POV third person)——

“Master Tu, do you think it is wise to do something like this?” Asked a formation master who was looking At Li Huang. Li Huang had just entered the warding illusion formation and he was not sure that it was a good idea to throw someone in such formation without giving them any heads-ups.

On the other hand, master Tu was not impressed by how he was being questioned for something that should be obvious.

“Master Xinyi, you seem to be too young to understand my intention.” Master Tu said as he was shaking his head side to side.

“…What do you mean master Tu? How can this be justified?” Master Xinyi asked back. He couldn’t let others mock him just because he is younger.

Master Tu nodded and looked at master Xinyi and spoke.

“Grandmaster Huili is really talented in the art of formations, but she is too young. What if this Li Huang has some bad intentions? Are we going to act when it’s too late? Isn’t it better to check this Li Huang now that we have a chance and before anything has happened? I would much rather face scorn from the grandmaster, to see her feeling betrayed and played with.” Master Tu said and looked at master Xinyi to see if she has anything to say.

Master Xinyi couldn’t argue with the point as he too agreed with it, but he was not okay with the way this was getting executed.

“I understand, but this is not something that we should handle casually. What if something were to happen to him? To an heir of the Li family? Are we going to ruin the grandmaster’s reputation by harming the guest that she invited personally?” Master Xinyi said and others in the room who were uncaring about this argument felt that it was fair to say that it would be bad for grandmaster Huili’s future if something were to happen to her guest.

Unlike them, master Tu didn’t feel the same and waved his hand dismissively.

“No such thing would happen if he is true to his words about those schematics.” He said. If Li Huang really had the schematics for the rings, he would naturally have to have a good understanding of formation arts and thus this would be a worthy test for him.

But if Li Huang doesn’t have the schematics…

“Otherwise, we have made the right choice when we tested him because he would be looking to trick the grandmaster.” He said and before master Xinyi could voice his question, he answered it.

“We can always blame the guard for not conveying the message about his arrival to us.” Master Tu said and master Xinyi was lost for words. He decided to stay put for now and only interfere when the situation calls for it.

‘Nothing will happen.’ Master Xinyi said to himself and looked at Li Huang who seemed to figure out that this is an illusion.

…

Li Huang could somewhat guess the thought process that they had when they decided to test him, but still, he didn’t find this acceptable. The only one who was allowed to make him partake in stupid tests was his grandpa as he was strong enough to do so and Li Huang had no real way of stopping him, but to let others do so too, was unacceptable to Li Huang.

‘Let’s see who is testing who…’ Li Huang thought and internally smirked.

Taking a deep breath, Li Huang sat on the ground in the lotus position with his eyes closed. He then took out a few high-grade spirit stones from his storage ring and afloat them around his body.

As the next step, he meditated for 10 minutes without moving a muscle. The only thing he did was create the ‘illusion’ that the spirit stone was vibrating in the air when he was actually the one who was moving them with his Qi.

‘Enjoy the show…’ Li Huang thought. He was sure that the ones who were controlling the formation were looking at him with a method so he decided to put up a show.

…

“What is he doing?” one of the masters said when Li Huang sat in the lotus position in the illusion.

The next instant, Li Huang started floating tens of high-grade spirit stones around his body.

“Is… he creating a formation?” One of the masters said as he was in denial. Because they were watching Li Huang through the [Formation eye], they couldn’t detect that Li Huang was using Qi to move the spirit stones and thought that he was controlling them with a small formation.

“But it is almost impossible to create a formation when there is a formation in place there.” Another master said as he couldn’t believe his eyes.

Master Tu who saw his colleagues were acting Like idiots couldn’t stop himself and spoke.

“What kind of nonsense is this? Do you think he is grandmaster Huili to do such things?” Master Tu said with anger in his tone.

Hearing him everybody nodded in understanding. They were so used to grandmaster Huili doing impossible feats that they forgot that not everybody is like her. Now that they knew this, they didn’t jump to any more conclusions.

Minutes passed and Li Huang was still in meditation and the high-grade spirit stones would vibrate from time to time.

“Maybe he is meditating there as he can’t find the way out and he doesn’t want to risk his life by moving around too much.” Some of the masters were thinking that Li Huang might just be meditating as nothing has happened so far other than the spirit stones moving around a little.

“Didn’t I tell you so?” Master Tu shook his head and said. He couldn’t understand why they thought that he could be creating a formation in the first place.

Just as he said this, all the high-grade spirit stones around Li Huang turned to dust right there.

Everyone was taken aback as this phenomenon was the same thing that would happen when you activate a formation. The spirit stones would turn to dust as they have lost all their power.

Li Huang used his sword Qi to cut the spirit stones so small that they would turn to dust. He did this to give the illusion that he had created a formation right there.

When the other masters were in awe of this, master Tu tried to talk some sense to them.

“He has clearly used some Qi method to crush the spirit stones, or else what kind of formation would use this many spirit stones to activate?” Master Tu said but at this point, other masters wouldn’t believe a word that he was saying. Some even thought that master Tu might be doing all this because the grandmaster is interested in this Li Huang, but none dared to voice such thoughts.

No one answered him as Li Huang stood up and started walking with his eyes closed.

“Heavens! I—Is he walking toward the secret exit?” Master Xinyi said. The secret exit is an unconventional exit that is placed in most formations as a signature from its creator. If one were to use it, they can exit the formation unconditionally but as the path to it is very specific and you need to walk in a predefined pattern, it is hard to do so even if you know how to do it.

No one said anything as they were fixated on Li Huang’s movement to see if he can exit the formation from the secret exit with the help of that mysterious formation that he created earlier.

Li Huang was indeed getting help from a mysterious formation, that was the peeping eye of heaven. He wasn’t meditating in those minutes, he was examining the formation to find its weak points and these weak points were the path that you needed to walk to go through the secret exit.

Li Huang kept walking and got closer and closer to the secret exit. With each right step that Li Huang would take, the formation masters would be more amazed by his methods.

This walk continued until Li Huang had only one step to take and exit the formation but he wasn’t moving. The formation masters thought that he was calculating the right direction to take.

After a few seconds, Li Huang turned but it was in the wrong direction. The formation masters thought that he was going to take a step but he did something that make every one of the formation masters gasp in shock.

He looked directly at the [Formation eye] with his eyes closed, he looked at them.

The next moment Li Huang walked in the correct direction and exited the formation.