Chapter 261: Life 73, Age 50, Martial Master Peak
To construct the primary control node of the illusory sky formation, I used a combination of marble, kyanrolite, and rhyolite. The inscriptions for creating and controlling illusions were carved into marble, and I used kyanrolite for the inscriptions related to regulating and controlling the grand formation’s ancillary nodes. Finally, I used rhyolite as an insulator to prevent energy from bleeding from one inscription to another. With so many large, complex inscriptions crammed together, this was the only way that I could ensure they wouldn’t interact with each other in unexpected ways.
If all I had needed to do was carve inscriptions into stone, I would have been able to do that with wood qi or a spirit fire. However, because I was using a mix of stones in a complex lattice, I needed to use earth qi to bind everything together seamlessly so that the torrent of energy involved in this formation could flow smoothly from one inscription to the next.
The primary control node alone took me over a month to complete. While I could have used some of that time to advance to Grandmaster instead, making the process of melding stones together both easier and faster, the dantian created by the third Rank of the Wood-Burned Earth technique was rather unique, and I would need time to fully understand it. So, while crafting this formation as a Martial Master might have been a bit inefficient, I pushed forward and did it anyway. My time was limited, and by taking this path, I could guarantee that I would be able to finish before the world collapsed around me.
After completing the primary control node, I spent the next two months crafting eight ancillary nodes. These nodes were mostly marble and only contained small pockets of kyanrolite, so crafting them was much easier than crafting the control node had been. The main time sink here was ensuring that all eight nodes were identical and balanced.
Once everything was finished, I placed the control node in the bubble at the center of my storage space’s ceiling. Then, the ancillary nodes were placed in a square-shaped pattern around it.
Each of these nodes would need a copious amount of both light and dark qi to function properly, and my storage space didn’t have either. So, I placed a horde of spirit stones in each bubble and then added copies of the Gloomy Shadow Fire and the Halcyon Illumination Fire to convert these stones into dark and light qi, respectively.
Relying on spirit stones indefinitely wasn’t exactly economical, but it was good enough for the moment. I could look at other ways to fuel the formation in the future.
When it was all done, I took a deep breath and manipulated a thread of light qi to kickstart the inscriptions in each of the nodes.
Puddles of blue spread from nine locations in the sky of my storage space, casting an azure hue over everything below. Then, slowly, nine small suns appeared.