Chapter 35: Heaven Earth Formation Diagram

"Only me?"

— Yes

"How long have you been trapped here?" Yuan Yao was no longer anxious or impatient; she found a large stone at the bottom of the lake and sat down.

— I don't remember; it should be several hundred years.

Yuan Yao's expression changed in surprise; she immediately thought of the owner of this secret treasure place, Nie Lie. If Senior Nie Lie had sealed it here, then perhaps his inheritance keys might contain a way to break the seal?

Thinking this, she took out the six green inheritance keys from her storage space and slowly gripped them.

Yuan Yao slowly raised her head, staring at the oval object bound by countless chains, her tone turning calm: "Within today, if I cannot help you break the seal, then I will leave. After I become stronger, I will come again to help you undo the seal."

The "unknown object" immediately expressed its unwillingness upon hearing that.

Yuan Yao said: "You have no right to tell me no; if I want to leave, you can't stop me. Moreover, I only have a few days of lifespan left; I won't waste my time here."

What's more, I don't owe you anything.

As soon as these words were spoken, the arrogance of the "unknown object" gradually faded.

From childhood onward, her ability to perceive things has always been strong.

She knows how to seek advantage and avoid harm.

She is not a fool.

This "unknown object" bears no killing intent toward her; on the contrary, it faintly feels close to her. Moreover, it should be one of Senior Nie Lie's most important secret treasures, otherwise he would not have sealed it with so many saint‑grade law chains and three saint‑grade talismans.

Senior Nie Lie obtained it, yet he then sealed it away.

She guessed that it had not submitted to Senior Nie Lie; and Senior Nie Lie could not "obtain" it, yet he did not want to lose it, so he sealed it away.

"I want to study this inheritance opportunity now; don't disturb me." Yuan Yao said, and she now dare not leave the lake bottom, for she fears that once Xie Yan recovers, he will torment her to the point of wishing for death.

Just thinking of this made Yuan Yao's desire to grow stronger even more intense.

Upon hearing those words, the "unknown object" indeed quieted down.

Yuan Yao lowered her head to look at the six inheritance keys, intuitively picked one, and then poured her own spiritual sense into that selected key.

In an instant——

A blinding white light flashed before her eyes; her spiritual sense felt as if drawn by a powerful force, swiftly passing through a void channel into a vast white expanse.

This space was boundless, with no objects or borders—only pure white.

Suddenly, countless points of light streamed toward her spiritual sense like meteors.

Yuan Yao felt a sharp pain in her sea of consciousness, as if countless fine needles were simultaneously piercing her mind.

Soon, those points of light seemed to be controlled by some force, quickly gathering together to form volume after volume of sword technique manuals. These books swirled in her sea of consciousness, each exuding an ancient and mysterious aura.

Yuan Yao showed slight surprise; her spiritual‑sense body slowly raised a hand, and the instant her fingertip touched one of the technique books, all the books began to tremble violently, as if disturbed swarms of bees.

Immediately afterward, the technique books collided with each other, as if they were fighting.

Yuan Yao stared for a moment, then saw the technique books being knocked down and turning back into points of light.

In the end, only five technique books remained in her sea of consciousness; the rest had turned into points of light, drifting silently around.

Yuan Yao's gaze fell upon the five technique books, which were as follows:

《Heaven Earth Formation Diagram》, which focuses on formations.

《Nirvana Sword Canon>, which focuses on swordsmanship.

《Sun and Moon Holy Record>, which focuses on spellcraft.

《Heavenly Fire Reincarnation Scroll>, which focuses on spellcraft.

《True Scripture of Cultivation>, which focuses on mind methods.

If Yuan Yao's guess is correct, these five books all belong to high‑level techniques.

She had no concept of high‑level techniques, but she knew that the Carefree Sword Method she had learned since childhood was only a mid‑level technique skill.

And this Carefree Sword Method can only be accessed and practiced by inner‑door disciples of the Carefree Sect.

Yuan Yao seemed to think of something, and she murmured involuntarily: "Heaven Earth Formation Diagram…"

And the instant her words fell, the 《Heaven Earth Formation Diagram》 floating in mid‑air flew to her front.

She raised her hand and caught the 《Heaven Earth Formation Diagram》.

Thereafter, she eagerly flipped through it, hoping to find hidden within a formation diagram capable of sealing that "unknown object".

But when she opened the pages with great anticipation, she discovered she could not understand these complex formation diagrams and textual explanations at all.

Her brows furrowed slightly.

She had already turned over a dozen pages, yet she still felt completely bewildered by these formations.

Yuan Yao had no choice but to turn the book back to the first page, deciding to start from the beginning and study the 《Heaven Earth Formation Diagram》 earnestly.

She took a deep breath, calmed her mind, and carefully observed each formation diagram and textual description.

Despite her such concentration, after looking for a while her understanding of these formations remained only superficial.

She couldn't help feeling a bit discouraged, because her master and senior fellow disciples were not formation experts, and she herself had deliberately suppressed her interest in cultivation since childhood, so she had hardly ever come into contact with formation‑related knowledge before.

As for the high‑level formation compass she had previously used, it was actually just a matter of transmitting her own spiritual power into it and performing a few simple spells to trigger a formation barrier; she knew very little about the principles and structure of formations.

Yuan Yao was unwilling to give up; she continued to focus her efforts on studying this formation.

"Gathering Spirit Formation, using spirit stones as guides, set up the formation—heavenly pits, earthly pits, yin pits, yang pits, Qiankun positions, and the reversed trigrams positions…"

Yuan Yao read the book while using the formation diagrams to learn to recognize formation positions and formation eyes.

If anyone else were present, they would surely be shocked by her way of learning formations.

Others first learn basic formation knowledge, then deduce the formation structure; she, however, derives basic formation knowledge from the formation structure.

It is like an ordinary cultivator who makes a dish by following cooking steps, whereas she infers the cooking steps from the finished dish.

At this moment, Yuan Yao does not realize how astonishing and unconventional her method of studying formations is.

As time trickled by, she gradually deduced the basic knowledge of formations and also began to enjoy it.

She wanted to try putting it into practice.

Her consciousness withdrew from the sea of consciousness, she opened her eyes, and her eyes shone with excitement.

And that 'unidentified object' sensed her awakening, but before it could resonate with her, it saw her pull out a dozen or so low-grade spirit stones from her storage space.

「Spirit Gathering Array: the center is the gathering position, the four sides are the condensing positions, the six apertures are the array positions. 」

「Water and Wood elements serve as support……」

Yuan Yao quickly placed the spirit stones, then, following the method marked in the book, she condensed a hand seal of water and wood elements!

「Spirit Gathering Array, activate! 」