Chapter 78

It was now the weekend, and Jiang Mang had just finished his training with his master Jiu in the qi song. He would now start learning about level two formations. When he arrived by his master Zhu's side, she smiled before producing twenty jade slips. She also immediately started her lesson: "Xiao Mang, You know that all formations below level 13 are build upon the three thousand foundation formation diagrams. This means that there an infinite number of possible formations to exist. The most common path for a formation master is to learn formations through formation blueprints. They would also choose a direction to specialize in as a person has limited energy and time. There isn't anything wrong with this path, except that many are eventually unable to advance to formation senior or formation master due to their limited understanding of formations. While becoming a formation grandmaster is almost impossible."

She then paused and looked towards Jiang Mang with a smile before continuing: "There also exists another path, this path is, however, many times harder. I walk this path and managed to succeed and become one of the strongest formation masters in this world only below the grandmasters who are as rare as qilin feathers. This path requires a person to study the essence of formations to create formations through their understanding of formations. Those, who walk this path don't copy others but thread their own formation dao. Xiao Mang, you have the required talent and determination to walk this path."

Jiang Mang responded that he was willing to thread this path on formations. She was happy with his answer and explained how she would teach him formations:

"I will only teach you eighteen formation blueprints of each level, those will be the most basic formations representing each level. They will be examples of the three main and three subtypes of formations powered by the three concepts. You will then learn all the theoretical knowledge about those levels, and you will then be tasked to create formations yourself. I expect you to create 10 000 level two formations. The 10 000 have to include all the three thousand foundation diagrams at least once as its core while being supported with the three different concepts. This will leave you with one thousand formations that have to contain two different foundation diagrams as its core."

She then looked at Jiang Mang, who had started sweating hearing her words. She smiled before continuing: " The easiest way to create a level two formation is to take a level one formation and increase the number of diagrams to ten times the initial amount. These formations are the weakest and most wasteful level two formations and will not be counted for your 10 000 formation creation task."

She had finished her explanation of his training and started lecturing him about the eighteen basic level two formations before letting him study the twenty jade slips of theoretical knowledge. When the lesson had ended, he was capable of engraving the eighteen basic level two formation as flawless formations, while he also understood how they worked and were created.

When he returned to the cave, he discussed with his sisters how they would spend their time training from now on. Jiang Mang had decided to focus his time practicing the soul-changing method and the creation and understanding of formations. He wouldn't practice his new qi song as it was being trained every morning with master Jiu. The two girls would spend their time on formations, soul-changing method, and absorbing spiritual energy. Jiang Mang didn't neglect the absorption of spiritual energy as his absorption rate was many times faster if he absorbed spiritual energy while playing music. He was also reïnforcing his cultivation base daily because of his masters' instructions of not breaking through before a year of training had passed.

When the next day of training ended, he had managed to create his first level two formation. This formation used the unity concept of the wood element to support multiple illusion diagrams, which were the core to create a trapping formation. The formation consisted of one hundred and thirty diagrams and could trap mid-rank saint beasts.

Time passed swiftly in the valley, and his first month of training the new regime had finished. His sisters wouldn't be allowed to accompany his training anymore. They had to practice on their own or with him at night.

Jiang Mang had mastered the first stage of his new qi song and could now transform the sounds produced by his zither into invisible swords made of sound. He had also mastered the soul-changing method and could shape his souls to become ferocious beasts off which a nine-tailed fox was the strongest due to his bloodline. He had also created his first three thousand formations following the unity concept. This happened after two weeks, and he was then taught how to attack with his soul using charm techniques. The best way to attack with soul techniques would be to immobilize your opponent's soul and fuse it with a charm seed, an image, or even a simple thought. The most advanced way would be to shape the soul into threads of strings and slowly fuse your intent into their soul without them noticing it while those strings attach them to the target's soul.

This was, however, not an option for the current Jiang Mang, and he learned two common ways of using a beast soul form to immobilize human souls. One way was forcefully binding the soul with a snake or python beast soul. The other was to infuse your beast soul's claws, tail, or other weapons with the intent that you want to infuse your opponent with and attack them directly. If the target is successfully wounded, he will be infused with that intent without him noticing.

He still hadn't learned how to use lust or other emotions and desires to charm targets. It was because those methods required exceptional soul control, which he had learned this last month.

The two girls had put more time into the charm dao than Jiang Mang, who was exceptionally talented. They had managed to master the first method in the first week and were also taught how to attack souls with charm techniques and the two common methods of using beast souls, which they mastered during the third week. Elder Zhu was impressed with their good work and imparted them with a method to use the desire lust to successfully fuse something in someone's soul.

This method required the user to infuse some of their soul's strength into the lust desire, which was present inside the target's heart. This infused desire would then use the connection between the heart and soul to slowly fuse something into the soul, and if it is discovered it can forcefully change into a beast form and attack the soul directly. The time needed to fuse something inside a person's soul depends on their amount of lust, the difference in soul strength, and dependant on what you want to infuse. Fusing a charm seed will take ten times the time to fuse an image, or personality trait. A thought only takes a tenth of an image's required time.

This method is called lust seed and is known as a medium level charm method that is quite rare, and not many can recognize it. Elder Zhu had also imparted them with the promised jade slip, that detailed a training method and a list of suitable charm methods and techniques. The charm dao is split into charm methods and techniques. Charm techniques are ways to attack and charm the target, while charm methods are applications of the soul used in combination with charm techniques to attack or defend the soul.