The Path of Immortality: Starts With Creating Water Bear Gu

However, not everyone can arrange a combination formation. Don’t assume that just because there are many formations, it means a combination formation has been created. There’s a deep level of knowledge involved here.

When different formations appear in the same position, they can conflict with each other, and even attack one another, causing an instant collapse.

The more formations combined, the easier it is for flaws to appear.

Formations can be understood as similar to program code from the previous life. The more code there is, the more powerful the functions, and the more complex the functions become. However, with increased complexity, a multitude of vulnerabilities will also arise.

When different formations are combined, they can produce an effect greater than the sum of their parts, complementing each other.

But conflicts and repulsions can also occur, leading to more flaws as more formations are combined.

Perfectly coordinating various formations is no easy task.

Long Xuan’s own power comes from the Five Elements, so his first thought was to develop a large Five Elemental Cycle Formation that could produce an effect greater than the sum of the five elements, which he named the [Five Elements Reversal Formation].

However, how to combine various formations to achieve this effect was something he couldn’t figure out immediately.

The concept of a Five Elemental Cycle is not well established in this world, so he might have to create some original formation diagrams to achieve this functionality.

Speaking of creating original formation diagrams, many ideas immediately surfaced in Long Xuan's mind.

His self-created Five Elements Reversal Formation would include a trap formation, a killing formation, an illusion formation, a maze formation, a chain formation, defensive formations, and auxiliary formations...

This is a complex and enormous combined formation. Long Xuan’s first step was to study the trap formation, which he planned to set up on the outermost layer.

As the name suggests, the trap formation's purpose is to trap those who enter it. If the intruder cannot find the exit, they will be trapped inside until they die, making it ideal for the outermost layer of the formation to avoid accidentally killing allies.

Long Xuan had many ideas regarding trap formations. It is a very interesting type of formation. Those who mistakenly enter a trap formation are akin to being in a vast labyrinth, where finding the exit is extremely difficult.

The more advanced the trap formation, the fewer exits it leaves. The fewer exits there are, the harder it is to escape.

Moreover, the number of exits is something the formation setter can hardly control because an exit is essentially a flaw in the formation. Every formation has flaws, which are difficult for the setter to detect and can only be discovered by those who enter the formation by accident.

Thus, the number of exits in a trap formation entirely depends on the setter's level of mastery.

But there’s one prerequisite: every trap formation will have at least one exit, even if it’s set up by a formation god.

It can also be said that the minimum number of exits in a trap formation is one, not zero.

This is because the formation setter must leave at least one door to allow people to enter the trap. This door naturally becomes the exit. Without a door, no one could even enter the trap formation.

Therefore, every trap formation will have an exit. The primary task for the formation master is to design this exit and to hide it as effectively as possible.

Long Xuan was racking his brains, thinking about how to design the most concealed exit, one that would be so well-hidden that no one could find it. This was truly a world-class challenge.

All formation masters have pondered over this issue, but to this day, no one has managed to design an exit that’s 100% undetectable.

Long Xuan’s first thought was whether he could set up a self-destruct mechanism for the exit, so that the number of exits in the trap formation would be reduced to zero. But he quickly shook his head and dismissed this idea, as setting a self-destruct mechanism would make the formation a one-time use, which was absolutely unacceptable.

He fell into deep thought again, furrowing his brows, racking his brain, killing countless brain cells.

No one knows how long he pondered until suddenly, his eyes lit up, and an idea flashed across his mind.

He had just been thinking about using elements from his previous life to design the trap formation. A formation designed this way would be unparalleled in this world.

A formation that doesn’t exist in this world means no one has ever seen it before. A formation that’s never been seen before would naturally be extremely difficult to break.

The most terrifying thing is always the unknown; this is true for everything.

Once Long Xuan’s thoughts drifted to the world of his previous life, inspiration struck him.

He suddenly thought of the Rubik's Cube from his previous life. A Rubik's Cube has six faces and fifty-four squares. He planned to use barriers to create a giant cube with fifty-four squares, then use illusions to transform each of these squares into different worlds. These fifty-four different worlds could be scrambled like a Rubik's Cube and continuously change positions based on the direction of movement.

With the demon flower as one of the formation's cores, these fifty-four illusionary worlds would be extremely realistic.

The Rubik's Cube has six faces.

The first face's nine squares represent a forest world.

The second face's nine squares represent a magma world.

The third face's nine squares represent an icefield world.

The fourth face's nine squares represent a desert world.

The fifth face's nine squares represent an ocean world.

The sixth face's nine squares represent a swamp world.

Long Xuan's imagination soared as he prepared to hide the exit within the restored Rubik's Cube. A scrambled Rubik's Cube would have no exit.

In other words, the Rubik's Cube formation’s exit would only appear if the six worlds on the Rubik's Cube were restored to the same face. Unless someone could solve the Rubik's Cube, following its solution route to find the exit, they would be trapped forever in this Rubik's Cube labyrinth.

Since the formation core is the demon flower, the illusionary worlds created by the Rubik's Cube formation would be indistinguishable from the real world.

"If you fall into a swamp, you will suffocate and die. If you are lost in the desert for a long time, you will die of thirst. If you enter the icy world without thick clothing, you will freeze to death...

The only way to escape these dangerous worlds is to restore the Rubik's Cube world. But how could an ordinary person possibly restore a Rubik's Cube?

Unless you are a transmigrator who just so happens to know how to solve a Rubik's Cube, this trap is basically unsolvable. No native would even dream of finding the exit gate.

Long Xuan revealed an extremely sinister smile. The life gate he designed was well hidden, wasn't it? I'd like to see who can find it.

If someone actually finds this hidden life gate, then I would truly be impressed.

His current plan was to create a massive Rubik's Cube with the spiritual spring at its center. The surface area of the Rubik's Cube would be the outer trapping formation, while the core area where the spiritual spring is located would be protected by a combination of killing formation, illusion formation, defense formations, and support formations.

The vast spiritual energy provided by the spring would be confined to this area and would not flow out to the outer regions. All the spiritual herbs in his herb garden that could not be easily exposed would also be concentrated in this area.

This area must remain hidden at all costs. No one could enter it, and it must be a hundred times more dangerous than the outer Rubik's Cube formation.

However, the outer Rubik's Cube formation, as a buffer zone, required the creation of fifty-four massive worlds, which would require a large amount of space.

Once the Rubik's Cube formation was set up, it would occupy a huge area, covering a range so large that it would be shocking.

And the larger the area covered by the formation, the more materials it would require. The two are directly proportional. If he truly conceived such a Rubik's Cube array, the materials needed to set it up would be astronomical.

Long Xuan was a bit troubled at the moment, but he decided to go ahead with it to ensure the absolute secrecy of the spiritual spring.

No matter how many resources he had to spend, it would be worth it for the spiritual spring. He believed that with such an unparalleled trap in place, no one could break through the array and discover the spring.

Long Xuan picked up his pen and quickly drafted the outline of the Rubik's Cube formation.

First, he had to name the Rubik's Cube formation and explicitly state that there was only one way gate in the formation, and that the only way out was to restore the Rubik's Cube world.

In this way, his golden finger would directly eliminate any loopholes. Once he successfully created the Rubik's Cube formation diagram, it would undoubtedly be flawless. If it had only one life gate, then it would indeed have only one life gate.

For others, creating an formation without any loopholes is impossible; even the most powerful formation master would leave more than one life gate.

However, with the help of his golden finger, Long Xuan could set up a completely flawless trap, ensuring that there was only one life gate. This was something unimaginable to anyone else.

After quickly drafting the outline of the trap, Long Xuan began to brainstorm other types of arrays. He decided to next conceive of auxiliary formations.

There were simply too many auxiliary formations, such as the no-flight array, gravity array, spirit-gathering array, space teleportation array...

There were far too many.

His first thought was still originality. He was afraid of death, and even though the Five Elements Reversal Array was already safe enough, his first thought was still to improve his escape abilities and add another layer of insurance.

So his ideas started flowing.

He suddenly thought, could he stealthily shave off the dragon beard from the dragon Gu and use it as the base to create an array that could allow instant teleportation to a set coordinate?

That way, if he wanted to go to the market or the Long Clan, he could simply step into the teleportation array and instantly teleport there, saving a lot of time.

This was definitely feasible, as saving time would allow him to spend the saved time on cultivation to become stronger.

In case he encountered an enemy that even the Five Elements Reversal Array couldn't withstand, he could immediately step into the teleportation array for an emergency escape.

This could potentially save his life, so the teleportation array diagram must be researched and developed—it was a mandatory project.

Long Xuan quickly made up his mind and took out another piece of paper to draft the outline of the teleportation array.

After completing the outline of the teleportation array, he began brainstorming other types of arrays. Who knows how much time passed, but by the time the table was covered with an unknown number of sheets of paper, all types of arrays had been designed.

He finally began working on the core of the formation. The core of the formation, without a doubt, was the formation eye, which was one of the three key elements of any formation. To create an original formation, the first problem to solve was the formation eye.

Since it was the Five Elements Reversal Array, possessing five attributes, he would have to design five formation eyes for it.

Having only one formation eye was too risky; if this formation eye were destroyed, even the strongest formation would instantly collapse.

So, according to his understanding of arrays, the more formation eyes an formation had, the more stable and safer it would be. The Five Elements Reversal formation he created should ideally have five formation eyes, each with its own attribute.

The spiritual spring belonged to the water attribute, so naturally, it should be placed in the water attribute formation eye. This formation eye was the most critical, the most important of the five, and must be equipped with the highest level of defense.

The demonic flower's illusionary abilities were too powerful, so not using it as the treasure for the illusion array's formation eye would be a waste.

So, the demonic flower must be one of the five formation eyes, and since it was of the wood attribute, it would be placed in the wood attribute formation eye.

The Divine Ice Flame was considered the strongest artificial fire, with terrifying power beyond imagination, almost comparable to heavenly fire. However, due to realm restrictions, Long Xuan had not yet been able to fully unleash its power.

Such a fearsome flame naturally had to be used as a formation eye. Since fire belonged to the fire attribute, the Divine Ice Flame would be placed in the fire attribute formation eye.

As for the gold and earth attribute formation eyes, he hadn't yet figured out what to use. It wasn't easy to find treasures of the same level as the previous three, so he would have to research that later.

However, even with only three formation eyes, it was more than enough. It wouldn't matter if he couldn't find the other two formation eyes for the time being.

........................................................................

Read extra chapters on >>> patreon.com/SpiritStonetranslation