ATG: Formation Master c16

“Yuechan, take my little sister and explore the realm together. I will be collecting some items in the meantime,” Cang Long said to his Fairy.

“Sure.” Chu Yuechan slowly nodded as she looked at his little sister. Cang Yue puffed her cheeks. She wanted to explore and stay with her brother at the same time.

“Fine. But next time we will explore together!” The Princess declared to him.

“That’s fine with me.” He smiled as they waited for the realm to open up. He then looked at his followers.

“Split up and collect whatever you can. Make sure you collect plants and herbs with roots so that we can resettle them in the Palace Herbal gardens. 

"As a reward, you can get better pills from us," The prince explained. The trio perked up after hearing the rewards.

“Can we ask for more sessions in the special training formations?” Lan Tian asked. As a winner of the whole tournament, he has a bit more persuasion power.

“Whatever you want.” Cang Long didn’t care what he wanted as an award. It’s even better if he wants more time in formations, as those are infinite resources, unlike pills that are finite.

As the trio gets ready, the space crack opens, and the group begins to enter.

On the other hand, they were greeted by autumn weather. Cang Long realised that the entry point was different, which annoyed him a bit.

“We have 48 hours, so start with your explorations.” With a nod, everyone scattered, leaving a few stragglers.

Seeing the Villa Mistress in the Secret Realm, it was clear that she was here for more than some simple resources.

As he began to fly towards a random direction, he felt that he was being followed.

After a while, he landed and looked at the stalker.

It was the Villa Mistress who was dressed for a fight.

“That armour does not look bad on you, Villa Mistress.” 

“Hmph, too late for flattery, little Prince.” As she said that, she pulled out a powerful-looking sword.

“This was a gift from my father. An Emperor Profound Sword. I doubt you have seen anything like this.” She did a couple of swings, blowing away rocks and even trees in the distance. The power of the blade was considerable.

“Are you intending to kill me, Yufeng?” He asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Wasn’t my original intention. But then you two attacked my husband, humiliated my son and his inheritance.” 

“And all that is your weak-willed husband’s fault. What can I do if he can’t stomach Chu Yuechan being with someone better?”

“Enough talk now, die for me, little prince.” She channelled her Profound Energy and released a powerful blast towards him. But the blast simply smacked into an invisible wall.

“Impressive power, that blade of yours could kill a powerful Throne, possibly an Overlord.” 

Xuanyuan Yufeng looked at him with surprise and a bit of shock.

“You need much more if you want to overcome the automated Dharma Body defences, " he shrugged. Automated Dharma Body defences only have half the power, but he doesn’t need to channel the intent to use them.

It is a natural force field that can protect him from attacks.

“In that case!” She threw small orbs from her storage ring. The orbs formed a symbol before igniting and causing a huge explosion close to Cang Long. To protect herself, she took quite a distance.

The Villa Mistress covered her eyes, but that moment, something coiled around her legs and yanked her up.

“Eeep!” It surprised her as she tried to fly and gain some control over herself.

But it was no use as more of these things coiled around her before she even realised she was chained by these formation chains.

“W-What are these!? Let go of me!”

Cang Long chuckled as he brought her closer. One of the chains squeezed her hand, and she lost her sword.

Instead of falling on the ground, it ended up falling into a space crack.

“I have won, it was no surprise to me. But you forced me to use my Dharma Body, those orbs most likely are your trump card against a decent Overlord, I am right?” He reasoned after seeing her smug look.

She frowned, not believing that these weird techniques were that strong!

The woman should have contacted her uncle and sent some enforcers to destroy this empire before it could take off!

“I failed, so kill me.” 

“So that your father could sense that the imprint on you disappears?” Cang Long smirked before he began to pull her towards a space crack.

“W-What are you planning to do!?” The woman started to feel fear. She could tell that something worse would happen to her!

“I won’t kill you; it’s a waste of resources. I will keep you as a pet, and maybe as a test subject, I can test some formations on you.” He pondered some uses for her.

“I won’t follow your orders! Better kill me!” She began to panic!

“No one cares if you follow or not. I have formations that can rewire you into whatever I want.” He scoffed, listening to him is the least of her worries.

“Y-You!”

Before she could scream and complain from the sheer fear she was feeling, he pulled her into one of his space cracks.

On the other side of the space crack, she saw a white world full of formations and a stone temple in this white void.

‘What is this place!?’

At that moment, more chains rushed at her and coiled her in place.

Her eyes widened, as she didn’t expect so many chains! However, the next thing that truly put fear in her soul was when she saw a gigantic blue being get close to her.

She had seen the Dharma Body before, but it wasn’t this big! No, what she had before her was something bigger than a mountain!

‘I-Is this its real size?’

“Welcome to my inner world. This is the Mind Scape, where I am God. It's where Dharma’s true body form is being stored.”

She heard Cang Long speak from all directions, and it was directly into her mind!

The Villa Mistress tried to look for him, but the next moment she felt someone holding her face as she snapped out and saw inches away from her face!

‘H-How!’

Then, she felt something… her memories began to surface.

Bit by bit, she relived all of them! 

But she knew it wasn’t normal, as Cang Long saw all of it.

“S-Stop this!”

Her private life became an open book to him.

“You don’t realise, do you? I have won. You tried to take my life. I have chosen a different method for you. It's not the easiest path. It’s total and complete subjugation of you.” He said that he learned that Xuanyuan had fallen in love with Ling Yuefeng because he was a ‘handsome stud’ —a very shallow reason.

But it worked for a while.

“Amusing, you never realised that he was a whimp, even barely lasting in bed.” He chuckled as he saw even those memories.

“I am surprised he was able to impregnate you.” Cang Long commented, causing her to blush from embarrassment!

This was worse than death! The woman tried to kill herself. Detonating her Profound Veins, biting her tongue.

Nothing!

“E-Enough! Stop this!”

“No worries, I was able to see all I wanted.” 

Sure enough, her eyes turned blank as she began to forget.

“W-What?”

…

…

…

“What is going on?”

But then something began to happen to her emotions. She got angry, happy, sad… the whole spectrum of emotions washed over her.

She didn’t realise, but Cang Long had just run tests on her. In his mind, he can run countless tests at a rapid pace—it’s at the speed of thought.

Before long, she passed out as her mind broke down.

“Hmm, I guess there is a limit before she breaks down like that.” Cang Long created a special cell for his new test subject before he returned to the real world.

What he found were two storage rings in the place where he pulled the Mistress into his Mindspace.

“I see, I can’t pull in foreign space. Not with my current might...” He guessed that it’s impossible without Sovereign Profound.

He inspected the rings' contents. He was a bit surprised. The woman was wealthy even without the direct support of the Mighty Heavenly Sword Region.

Apart from that, she had several more swords, and they were all at Sky Profound.

Some pills, and other resources… even manuals.

“Wait, this could be Ling Yuefeng’s storage ring.” Cang Long curiously checked out the manuals. To his surprise, he found the entire Heavenly Sword Villa’s arts in one place.

‘I could use these~~~.’ He grinned for a second.

The thing is, not long ago, he figured out that even Profound Arts is a form of formation.

The routines for the arts are stored in the heart, and the routines of Profound Energy are stored in the dantian.

The other part is that Profound Arts are words with meanings, too. The only difference is the intent. 

For a formation, its area of effect, for Profound Arts, it’s the delivery. 

So, following that principle, Cang Long could dissect and improve any and all Profound Arts, making them much stronger.

The only thing they lack is the essence of these moves. The only reason Godly arts are so powerful is not just the profound arts that have considerable depth, but also because they are linked to the power of their Blood Essence.

Blood Essence is what gives density to these moves.

In simple terms. Profound Art formula is the chariot, and the horse that is pulling the chariot is the blood essence.

He can make the chariot, but he needs a horse.

‘And I have an idea how to improve that horse.’

Cang Long decided to create a formation that could refine his blood marrow.

Maybe he could develop a bloodline of his own. That would be cool. He sort of… has, but it’s far too flexible and can be taught, so it's not truly a bloodline.

After checking out his loot, he began to look around the realm. He still needs to figure out where that Emperor Heart Lotus Flower is. 

That thing was in some sort of lake, but it was in wintertime.

‘Maybe in the middle of a lake, an island of some sort.’

He flew around for hours, collecting all sorts of stuff until it became dark.

For nighttime, he found a place to rest. Creating a small formation house that could protect him from outside weather.

Once inside, he pulled out a couple of furniture pieces made from formations.

With all that done, I wondered what to do next. It’s dark outside, so nothing is there.

‘I guess, I fix her up.’

With that in mind, he returned to his mindscape and went to Xuanyuan Yufeng. He pulled her out of her cage and entered her mind.

He has made copies of her mind, just in case he breaks her, like now. So he began to remove all the heavy emotional manipulation that broke her, restoring many of the ‘corrupted’ memories that would cause her a breakdown.

Eventually, she was ready, so with a snap of her fingers, her blank and empty eyes recovered as she slowly moved up and ended up sitting, looking at him.

She grimaced at first, understanding to some degree what had happened to her.

“What is now? What are you going to do to me?” The Villa Mistress knew that she was his toy with no way to escape.

“Hah, I have no idea. I already tested emotion formation on you. They work to a scary degree. All that’s left are other personality ones, I guess.” He stroked his chin, thinking about what to do next.

“Wait for a second… c-could you… Not do it? I c-could serve you another way!” The Mistress scrambled to save herself.

Cang Long smirked for a bit. He already knew all of her tricks; after all, he had seen her life and knew her traits.

By this point, she is so afraid that she will sell herself to save herself. That is after she realised that she can’t end her life.

“Sure, let’s see what you can do.” He motioned with his hand as chains rushed at her, coiling around her neck, glowing and forming into a golden collar.

Xuanyuan Yufeng touched her neck as she was surprised before becoming ashamed. She knew what this was! It’s used on dogs!