Battle Tower

Fifth floor of the Battle Tower.

At the weapon selection Zhang Wuji excitedly picked the formation building materials option. He was the first to have beaten the fourth level of Battle Tower using formations. He couldn't help but feel a lot proud.

Choosing formation building materials gives the challenger thirty minutes of preparation time which at body refinement realm is not worth anything to a formation master. An average defensive formation built in this time takes a qi condensation realm cultivator a third of the time to break.

With the array materials, Zhang Wuji built a defensive array six meters in diameter. He had the array map in mind and just had to place the material in the right position. Most of the time is spent on checking the spiritual energy flow on the compass. He took half the time he had to build the array. The result being a weak dome of light that might not even last a minute under the barrage of the opponent.

The remaining time he spent drawing a pattern each in the eight directions several meters from the defense formation. He also lay a mist flag array within the formation. The base token for the flag had a light green double ended sword like structure. It was made of a material that helped hide it's energy fluctuations. Very costly on the market and his first time using it. He drew a complex pattern on it and planted it where he needed and continued preparing for the opponent.

Not long after with a red flash of light, the black robed man appeared.

"Formation?, really? You think you can do what no one had done before and beat the fifth level with a formation?"

"I beat the fourth, didn't I?"

"You beat it using formations? Wow, that is unbelievable. I better record this." He closed his eyes for a second. When he opened them, Zhang Wuji felt like their were eyes all around him.

"Don't worry, it will pass in a second." Seeing him get all jittery, the black robed man said.

"Alright, it's done. I am inner disciple Wu Dianshi, what's your name kid?"

"Junior Zhang Wuji pays his respects to senior brother Wu." He cupped his fists and said.

"Zhang Wuji huh, beating a qi condensation realm cultivator at body refinement is quite an achievement, even if it is just an illusion. That in itself is enough to alert the upper echelon of the sect.."

Zhang Wuji started the mist formation hoping to get a head start.

"That's a bit rude. But I can understand your intentions. Unfortunately you won't get any extra time from me. Let's start then." Wu Dianshi bent his knees a little and launched himself at the defensive formation. By the time Zhang Wuji noticed the change in position, he had already unleashed a barrage of attacks on the formation. Soon the formation started to dim and with a glass shattering sound it broke down.

The mist had not covered even half the formation but had hidden Zhang Wuji completely. Wu Dianshi didn't pause and jumped into the mist. He landed where Zhang Wuji was supposed to be seated. There was no sign of him. Wu Dianshi activated his energy sense and soon detected Zhang Wuji running eastward.

'4, 5,...' Zhang Wuji kept counting under his breath. Simultaneously he kept making and throwing talismans. They flew in the eight directions like they knew where to reach.

'7' He took a talisman and threw it behind him.

Wu Dianshi got out of the mist and saw Zhang Wuji in the distance. He also saw talismans flying everywhere and the mist increase in density. He took a firm step and shot like an arrow towards Zhang Wuji. Midway a talisman flew at him. He sidestepped intending to dodge the talisman. Half a meter away from him the talisman exploded with blinding light.

He covered his eyes with his hand out of reflex. All of a sudden his hair stood on end and he rolled to the ground. A fiery explosion threw him off balance, but he was unhurt.

The mist grew heavy and he lost sight of Zhang Wuji again. With the help of energy sense he once again chased after him. He was soon met with another talisman. This continued a few times before he noticed something wrong. There were Zhang Wuji's qi signatures all over the place. They were faint compared to the his person but were growing gradually. Soon he wouldn't be able to differentiate the qi from Zhang Wuji's person and the mist.

He thought for a bit and gave up on using energy sense to find him and ran towards the nearest mist generating spot. He remembered the placement of all nine of them. The central spot he knew to be a flag array but he was sure the other eight were patterns made out of expensive ink otherwise thirty minutes was not possible to achieve all that. Also he was sure that Zhang Wuji's qi was only mixed with the mist from the outer eight and not the central mist generators.

...

The mist didn't rob just Wu Dianshi of his vision, Zhang Wuji was running blind too. He kept counting. A while later he threw another talisman behind him. There was no explosion. He didn't pause and continued running. Soon he reached his destination.

He looked back and sighed 'Plan B it is. That's a lot of effort down the drain. Sigh couldn't you have just chased after me, I had a lot planned. Haah.'

He crouched and started drawing the pattern for the next step. This one was not as simple as the others. Even with expensive ink it took him quite some time to draw the pattern. It looked messy, like a child's drawing. Messiness cuts away the efficiency of the pattern but he was not concerned about that at the moment. As long as it was almost a circle it was enough, as long as it was almost ninety, it was right. It spanned a meter in diameter.

By the time he was done, the complete interior of the eight patterns was filled with dense mist. It was difficult to travel in a straight line. Zhang Wuji had a talisman prepared that would constantly point towards the central position. He took it out, mentally marked his position and thought of the Battle Tower interface to get a piece of animal hide. He drew a pattern formation on it and covered his nose mouth and ears with it.

Done with the preparations, he started the formation on the ground. There were no visible changes. Zhang Wuji resisted the urge to take off the hide and ensure that it was working and dashed off to the next target.

"Huff.. Huff.."

After destroying all the eight patterns Wu Dianshi fell on his butt to take a breather.

'Shit! Should've chased after him. Can't believe I exhausted so much time and energy for this!'

The moment he reached the first pattern, he was met with a blast that almost killed him. There was a thick stack of talismans waiting for him that went off the moment he reached within half a meter of the formation.

From the second pattern onward he was careful enough to keep energy sense and qi shield. After destroying eight patterns, he had less than half of his energy remaining. He was still injured from the first blast.

'Nothing to worry, without these patterns the mist will slowly disperse. Just the one in the center wouldn't be able to keep up with the diffusion. It should clear up soon.'

The mist started to thin. He took a deep breath before getting up to chase after Zhang Wuji.

"Blarghh" With a sudden retching sound he fell on all fours. The black robed illusion was not capable of vomiting otherwise he was sure he would've puked his lungs out. There was a disgusting smell in the air, one he was familiar with. It was that of a tier one herb used in stink bombs and similar traps to disorient the foe.

"FUCKER!!" He quickly put up a qi shield to isolate the air around him. He was still feeling dizzy and nauseated from the smell. He got back up with difficulty and was about to continue his chase when suddenly his legs felt like rubber and he fell straight on his face.

'Wha da he' he couldn't think straight. Following which his qi shield came down. The smell combined with whatever it was that was causing his present condition led his qi flow to disrupt badly. He lost all control and stayed on the ground for a while before with a sudden blast of qi he pushed away everything around him and isolated himself.

The mist, though thin, was quick to fill up the gap created by his sudden outburst. He had set up a thick shield to isolate himself completely.

'What the hell was that?!' He spread his energy sense and carefully scrutinized everything around him. He saw the air around him vibrate at a certain frequency. 'Is that what caused this? What kind of sound is that?' He thought for a moment before shaking the line of thought out of his head 'Whatever it is, I can beat it out of him when I catch that guy.'

He looked around. The mist was thin enough for him to see far in the distance. Zhang Wuji was nowhere to be seen. There was one area that he couldn't see through. The very center where the mist flag array was. The mist there was dense. An area six meters in diameter was hidden from his sight.

'Six meters isn't enough to save you.' He walked towards the mist. When he reached the edge of it, he activated his energy sense. He felt Zhang Wuji's signature everywhere as if he had merged with the mist. 'Shit.' He was now deaf and blind. He couldn't even rely on his dependable energy sense. 'Mixing his qi with the mist? How long was I out for! It should've taken a significant amount of time for him to have accomplished this.'

'What should I do now? I can't walk the whole area! If he has something to keep track of me I'll never catch him. I can turn my qi into a thread and scan the area, but most low stage qi condensation realm cultivators aren't able to do that. It'd be making the test unnecessarily difficult for him. Hmm...

'Oh well, I don't want to lose.' He pointed at the mist with his finger and did a swiping motion. 'There you are!' He vanished from his position and reached deep into the mist and clawed in front of him. With a glow of a talisman he was pushed a distance away. The moment he regained his balance, he pounced forward while sweeping with another qi thread. "Junior brother Zhang, it was nice playing with you, but it seems to be the end of the line for you."

He smiled and clawed again. Another talisman glow, another pounce. "I wonder how many of these you have prepared. But it is futile. Don't waste time and give up. It was a nice fight. I won't forget to praise you in front of the Elders. Let's end it here."

Bang! Bang!..

This time his claw met no resistance and followed through. With a stiff smile stuck on his face Wu Dianshi repeatedly sent qi threads to find his opponent but to no avail.

'What happened? How could he vanish like that! Did he teleport? No there is no way he had the time to build a formation like that. He must be using some method to hide. If I increase the intensity of qi in the thread.. no I am running out of qi. I'd better rest and restore some qi.' He walked out of the dense mist and waited. He kept circling the dense mist every now and then.

'That's enough for now.' He prepared to probe the dense mist one more time when all of a sudden the mist started to surge. It started to rotate and expand. Soon it was mist all around him.

'Fuck!' With the area the mist now covered, there was no way he could find Zhang Wuji anytime soon.

Two hours passed. Suddenly the mist stilled. He felt like he was being eyed by a primordial beast. He could hear his own heart beat. He swallowed a lump of saliva and sighed. Following which he disappeared. Zang Wuji opened his eyes in the room. He was puzzled by the abrupt change only for a moment before he realized what just happened. He won.