Chapter 3667: The Underlying Logic of Formations

"Spirit stone?"

Yun Ruge and Song Ruyu heard these two words, and their expressions became extremely surprised.

Yun Ruge exclaimed: "The Broken Clear Society has long had a bounty task concerning spirit stones; anyone who finds a spirit stone containing spiritual energy and turns it in to the Society's lord will receive a reward, usually pills or cultivation methods, and sometimes even promotion within the Society, but including myself, the vast majority of people have never found one."

Song Ruyu also nodded in agreement: "Yes, in these years within the Broken Clear Society, I have also always wanted to obtain such a spirit stone to exchange for rewards, but let alone obtaining it, I haven't even seen one."

Ye Chen asked curiously: "If one finds a spirit stone, will they turn it in to Wu Feiyan's hands?"

"Yes." Yun Ruge nodded and said: "If found, it must be turned in to one's superior; spirit stones in the Broken Clear Society's material sequence have the highest priority, and the Five Armies' Commander-in-Chief's Office must respond in the shortest time and report to headquarters immediately."

Ye Chen said in surprise: "Wu Feiyan can refine pills herself, so she should not lack spiritual energy; yet even without lacking spiritual energy, she still sets the priority of spirit stones so high—surely spiritual energy must have other uses."

Yun Ruge asked him: "Mr. Ye, besides absorbing the spiritual energy within, what other uses does spirit stone have?"

Ye Chen said: "Its uses are enormous; I understand it as a battery that remains on standby without standby loss, usable in many fields, and its greatest use is to provide energy for formations, just like my Thunderclap Order, which has the formation engraved within the thunder-struck wood, but because the thunder-struck wood itself lacks spiritual energy, each discharge requires me to infuse spiritual energy into the Thunderclap Order, activating its formation to produce heavenly thunder; if I use spirit stone as energy, the Thunderclap Order could theoretically discharge on its own."

Yun Ruge and Song Ruyu both had a sudden realization, but only Lin Wanyi frowned and asked him: "Young Master, if spirit stones are used to discharge the Thunderclap Order, what is the discharge logic of the Thunderclap Order? Will it keep discharging until the spirit stone's spiritual energy is exhausted? Or can it be like computer programming, with special instructions added, such as how often to discharge, and if discharge coordinates are added, could it then strike wherever one wishes?"

Ye Chen nodded and said: "I think formations are the software of the cultivators' world; theoretically, the design of each formation is no different from software development; masters proficient in formation design should be able to implement more complex functions, such as defining a range in an attack formation, or distinguishing friend from foe, and giving it recognition capability; this way, one could define a restricted zone, and once an enemy approaches, the formation could automatically launch an attack."

Lin Wanyi smiled and said: "This might require two formations working together, for example, one formation operating like a radar to continuously detect the environment, and upon detecting an enemy, the attack formation would launch an assault."

Ye Chen said very seriously: "What Miss Lin said is very reasonable; in every field, masters share the same underlying logic; perhaps the world of formations also has its programming logic; once one masters many formations, perhaps one could set up an entire set of formations approaching automation."

Lin Wanyi sighed and said: "To achieve this, one must, like a programmer mastering computer languages, master the language of formations; only then could one write formations with complex functions, just like software—some can communicate, some can watch and listen to audio, some can provide positioning and navigation."

Ye Chen agreed with Lin Wanyi's analogy, nodding and saying: "Miss Lin is correct; formations must also have their development language; if one day one masters this mystery, one will surely benefit endlessly."

Lin Wanyi smiled and said: "Young Master need not rush; surely there will be an opportunity for this in the future, but the timing is not yet ripe."

Ye Chen smiled and nodded; though in his imagination, mastering the development language of formations would certainly be a very interesting and very useful great thing, he was not in a hurry, after all, the underground city had already brought him too many surprises—the spiritual-energy-filled underground city, that storage ring, those teleportation formations that could instantly reach any place in the world—all of these have great uses waiting for him to develop.

Thus, he stood up and said to the three: "Wait for me a moment."

After speaking, he returned to the room; with a thought of his mind, four spirit stones the size of chicken eggs appeared in his palm.

He turned and walked out of the room, came before the three, divided the four spirit stones into two portions, and placed them respectively before Yun Ruge and Song Ruyu, smiling: "Miss Yun, Miss Song, take these four spirit stones; one can be used to absorb spiritual energy, and the other can be kept."

Yun Ruge and Song Ruyu were stunned, eyes wide open.

They had never seen spirit stones before; upon hearing Ye Chen say these were spirit stones, they instinctively felt shocked, and also subconsciously probed them with spiritual energy.

This probing was no problem; both were shaken by the extremely rich spiritual energy within the spirit stones.

Where had they ever seen such top-grade spirit stones? The spiritual energy contained within was far more than that in pills.

In fact, such top-grade spirit stones are inherently far stronger than ordinary pills like the Yuan-Nourishing Pill, or even the Great Yuan-Nourishing Pill, by many times; their only weakness compared to pills is that they cannot be absorbed by the human body as quickly as pills, but the volume of spiritual energy they contain is far greater than that of Yuan-Nourishing Pills.

The two had never in their lives obtained even a low-grade spirit stone; Ye Chen suddenly gave each of them two, which truly made them feel overwhelmed by favor; Yun Ruge even dared not accept them, and she instinctively leaned back, nervously waving her hands repeatedly, saying: "Mr. Ye... this... this is too precious; I cannot accept it..."

Although Song Ruyu longed for these two spirit stones immensely, seeing Yun Ruge's stance, she also hurriedly waved her hands and said: "Mr. Ye, Elder Sister Yun is right; you need these spirit stones more than we do; you should keep them for your own use!"

Ye Chen looked at the two and smiled: "Since I can give them to you, it proves I have already reserved enough for myself; you two need not be so polite; now, at least two months remain until the winter of the Antarctic passes; during these two months, you should use the spirit stones to cultivate in seclusion; with the help of spirit stones, plus the Great Sun Tathagata Hand Seal, you can continuously absorb more spiritual energy and continually purify and strengthen your meridians within; believe that after two months, your strength will have greatly improved."

Yun Ruge felt immense gratitude in her heart, but could not bring herself to make a decision to accept; for a time, she felt torn.

Song Ruyu, being young, regards Yun Ruge as her senior and confidante elder sister, so she follows Yun Ruge's actions; if Yun Ruge accepts, she accepts; if Yun Ruge does not accept, she certainly cannot either.

At this moment, Lin Wanyi smiled and said to the two: "You two need not be so polite with the Young Master; the Young Master can bring you along to learn the Great Sun Tathagata Hand Seal, and two spirit stones are nothing; if you keep refusing, it will seem distant!"