Cultivating in Reverse: My Sign-In System Wants Me Dead

"Your master and I were already discussing those factions before Huo Yan came for us."

Shen Youran placed the jade slip back on the table, but her fingers did not leave it immediately.

"Your report concerning the demonic cultivators is a separate matter. There is currently no evidence connecting the two."

Her gaze moved across the remaining slips.

"These, however, are useful."

That was enough.

Everyone in the room understood what it meant for Radiant Sky Sect to possess the guarded cultivation methods of another major force, especially one that might eventually stand against them.

Shen Youran continued without any change in expression.

"Their existence stays within this room. No copies are to be made without approval."

Lu Canghai nodded.

"If word gets out, those factions will not care how we obtained them."

Shen Youran’s gaze remained cold.

"They would have every reason to destroy the copies, everyone who studied them, and preferably Radiant Sky Sect along with them."

Nobody treated that as an exaggeration.

Shen Youran’s fingers finally left the jade slip.

"I’ll handle who is allowed to study them."

No one objected.

Su Bai was about to gather the remaining jade slips when his hand paused.

Something Shen Youran had said had reminded him of another matter.

’If the existence of these methods was discovered, Radiant Sky Sect could become a target.’

Considering everything happening outside already, that possibility was hardly comforting.

However...

Su Bai looked thoughtful for a moment.

The others noticed.

Lu Canghai knew that expression far too well by now.

"What is it, my Disciple?"

Su Bai raised his head.

"Master, Martial Aunt, Martial Uncles... perhaps we don’t need to worry too much about someone attacking the sect."

Silence followed.

Huo Yan stared at him.

After everything they had discussed, Su Bai’s confidence sounded suspiciously specific.

Before anyone could ask what he meant, Su Bai reached into his System Inventory and brought out a blank sheet of parchment, along with a brush and ink.

He cleared a section of the stone table and arranged them carefully.

Huo Yan’s eyes narrowed.

"What are you doing?"

"It will be easier to show you."

Su Bai activated the Dao-Shattering Jade. A faint purple mark appeared on his forehead, drawing the attention of everyone around the table, but no one interrupted him.

He dipped the brush into the ink and lowered it onto the parchment.

At first, the lines were simple.

A few formation nodes appeared, followed by connecting pathways and several familiar locking structures. Huo Yan watched without saying anything, while the others merely observed the increasingly complicated diagram taking shape beneath Su Bai’s hand.

Several breaths later, Lu Canghai spoke.

"A formation array?"

Huo Yan leaned closer to the table.

"A suppression formation, I think, but something about it is strange."

That immediately gave the others a clearer idea of what they were looking at.

Formation diagrams were common enough within a sect. Defensive barriers, gathering arrays, suppression formations, and isolation arrays all relied on similar principles, even if their complexity varied greatly.

What Su Bai was drawing began with those familiar foundations.

The strange part was what came afterward.

Huo Yan’s eyes followed the movement of the brush as new layers appeared between the original formation nodes. Instead of allowing the entire array to operate as one continuous structure, Su Bai was dividing it into interconnected sections.

Each section could support the others, but it could also be separated without causing the whole formation to collapse.

Huo Yan’s expression gradually became serious.

Mo Shanyue noticed.

"What is different about it?"

Huo Yan pointed toward one portion of the unfinished diagram.

"Most suppression formations spread their effect across everything within their range. If you want to strengthen the suppression in one area, you usually have to adjust the formation as a whole."

His finger shifted slightly.

"This one doesn’t."

Mo Shanyue looked more closely at the parchment.

Huo Yan continued, his attention never leaving Su Bai’s brush.

"He’s arranging the formation so individual sections can be controlled separately. If something happens here, the suppression can be concentrated here without forcing the rest of the array to change with it."

Another set of lines appeared.

Huo Yan fell silent.

The more Su Bai drew, the less the formation resembled anything Heavenly Forge Peak normally used.

Su Bai himself no longer paid attention to the conversation.

His thoughts were entirely focused on the structure before him.

He had no intention of copying one of the Myriad-Heaven Anomaly Court’s actual sealing formations.

Those formations were not merely difficult to reproduce. Some clearly belonged to the Court’s internal inheritance, and Su Bai had no idea what consequences might follow if such recognizable methods appeared in the Human Realm.

Even if no one noticed immediately, leaving behind something that could eventually be traced back to the Court was an unnecessary risk.

There was also the practical problem. Many of those formations relied on powers, materials, and concepts that current cultivators could not reproduce properly.

So Su Bai took the safer path.

He kept only the principles he understood and stripped away anything distinctive enough to identify its origin.

What remained was rebuilt entirely through formation methods belonging to the current cultivation world.

The Dao-Shattering Jade made that process much easier.

Under its effect, complicated structures separated naturally within his mind. He could compare the Immortal sealing principles with the formations he already understood, discard anything unsuitable, and reconnect the remaining parts into something far simpler.

The formation on the parchment gradually expanded.

Huo Yan occasionally shifted closer to inspect a section before Su Bai’s brush moved on, but he stopped explaining after a while.

There was no point trying to describe something that was still changing in front of him.

Eventually, Su Bai slowed.

He completed the final connection, studied the entire diagram, then corrected two small sections near the outer formation nodes.

Only after he was satisfied did he set the brush aside.

The purple mark on his forehead faded as the Dao-Shattering Jade became inactive.

Su Bai looked up.

Everyone around the table was staring at the parchment.

He glanced down at it again.

Compared with the Immortal sealing formations he had studied, this version was crude.

Compared with the formations normally available in the current cultivation world, it was considerably less ordinary.

Su Bai pushed the parchment toward Huo Yan.

"I haven’t decided on a proper name yet, but Sect Suppression Array seems suitable for now."

Huo Yan immediately spread the parchment flat and carefully swept his spiritual sense across the completed structure, making sure he missed nothing.

Su Bai pointed toward the central formation nodes.

"It can be linked to the sect’s existing defensive formations instead of replacing them. If an enemy enters a designated area, the formation can restrict movement and interfere with Qi circulation within that section."

His finger moved toward another part of the diagram.

"If the breach becomes more serious, that section can be isolated while the rest of the sect’s defensive formation continues operating normally."

Lu Canghai’s expression grew more serious.

That function alone gave the formation considerable value.

A sect formation normally protected an enormous area. If a breach occurred inside, disabling or restructuring the entire defense simply to contain one section could create even greater weaknesses elsewhere.

Su Bai’s design avoided that problem.

Huo Yan examined the completed diagram for several more breaths before his expression gradually changed.

This formation did not rely on materials or methods that Heavenly Forge Peak had no hope of reproducing.

He traced one of the outer anchors with his spiritual sense, then followed the connection toward the central structure.

"This can actually be built."

Su Bai nodded.

"I adjusted it around formation methods and materials we already understand."

That was all Huo Yan needed to hear.

His attention immediately returned to the parchment, already considering how the anchors should be forged and which parts Heavenly Forge Peak could begin preparing first.

Yao Ding and Mo Shanyue moved closer to inspect the parchment themselves, while even Shen Youran’s attention remained on the formation longer than before.

Huo Yan’s expression changed as he finished tracing the completed structure.

"High-Grade... and Large-scale Formation."

The others immediately understood the weight of that assessment.

A High-Grade Large-Scale Formation was already something that demanded significant knowledge, resources, and preparation to construct properly.

Su Bai had drawn one in front of them because a conversation about enemies attacking the sect had reminded him of it.

He noticed their expressions and glanced back at the parchment.

"This version is still limited."

Several gazes immediately returned to him.

Su Bai pointed toward the outer structure.

"The larger the formation becomes, the harder it is to keep every section stable while allowing them to operate independently. If I spend more time on it, I should be able to expand this into a Sect-Scale Formation."

Huo Yan stared at him.

Su Bai continued as though he had merely mentioned a minor inconvenience.

"The materials shouldn’t be a problem either. There should be enough among what I brought back."

Nobody answered immediately.

Outside the forging chamber were several hills of ancient materials.

On the table were Supreme-Grade cultivation methods and techniques, along with guarded inheritances from potentially hostile factions.

Now Su Bai had placed a High-Grade Large-Scale Formation beside them and apologized because it could not yet cover the entire sect.

A faint sound broke the silence.

Shen Youran had sighed.

It was so slight that Su Bai almost thought he had imagined it.

Everyone else had clearly heard it.

Their heads turned toward her almost at the same time.

Shen Youran looked back at them without any visible change in expression.

Lu Canghai’s face slowly brightened.

"My disciple."

Su Bai looked toward him.

Lu Canghai stroked his beard, the amusement in his eyes impossible to hide.

"To make the Old Witch sigh, you are only the second person I’ve ever seen accomplish it."

Huo Yan’s mouth twitched.

Mo Shanyue lowered his gaze.

Yao Ding suddenly became extremely interested in the formation parchment.

They all knew who the first person had been.

Shen Youran turned her eyes toward Lu Canghai.

The smile on his face stiffened.

Whatever amusement had begun spreading through the chamber disappeared almost immediately.

Lu Canghai cleared his throat.

"The formation is excellent."

No one mentioned Su Qingshan.

Huo Yan laughed and quickly returned everyone’s attention to the safer subject in his hands.

"High-Grade Large-Scale now, and you think you can push it to Sect-Scale with enough time. At this rate, should I start asking whether you can make a Region-Scale Formation too?"

He was clearly joking.

Unfortunately, Su Bai actually considered it.

Region-scale.

His thoughts returned to Fallen-Star Sanctuary.

The sealing system surrounding that enormous forbidden land operated on precisely that level. The inheritances he had received contained principles reaching even farther, including formation structures whose scale went beyond anything the current cultivation world normally attempted.

Understanding those records and reproducing them were two entirely different matters.

A Region-Scale Formation would require an enormous number of anchors, vast amounts of material, careful use of the surrounding terrain, and enough capable formation masters to construct each section without introducing fatal flaws.

It certainly could not be completed casually.

But if the question was whether it was possible...

Su Bai thought for several breaths.

"With enough resources, enough time, and enough people capable of building the individual sections, I think so."

Huo Yan’s smile disappeared.

Mo Shanyue slowly turned toward Su Bai.

Yao Ding stopped examining the parchment.

Even Lu Canghai’s expression became peculiar.

Only then did Su Bai realize that Huo Yan had not expected an actual answer.

He looked around the room.

"Was that not a serious question?"

Huo Yan stared at him.

A Region-Scale Formation could cover territory vastly larger than an ordinary sect formation. Constructing one would be an undertaking measured in enormous resources, manpower, and years of preparation.

Yet Su Bai had not said it was beyond him.

His main concerns had been whether they had enough resources and enough people to build it.

Huo Yan slowly turned toward Lu Canghai.

For the first time in many years, Huo Yan found himself genuinely resentful of seniority.

He looked at Su Bai, then at the High-Grade formation blueprint in his hands.

A ridiculous thought surfaced.

If not for the difference in age, status, and generation, he might have seriously considered asking Su Bai to teach him.

Huo Yan’s expression became complicated.

Why did this brat have to be his Martial Nephew?