Torment of Mind Formation
"I understand why you chose the Torment of Mind Formation, and I don't disagree with this choice…but I must remind you, even immortals struggle to endure the sheer agonising torture of this formation." Rui reminded him.
"I know." Yaan stated plainly. "But I need this…I need to temper my mind's resilience and will-power. If I don't become stronger, I really will completely lose myself…"
Rui watched from the side, silently shaking her head to herself.
'You have said that you are worried about losing yourself so many times now, Yaan. Have you not realised that losing oneself is not an instant switch, but a gradual process? You have long since begun to lose yourself, but you choose not to face this truth…'
Yaan stood within a grey circle. This unusual rune was drawn on the floor using a certain demonic squid's ink.
This entire underground room was perfectly cubic, measuring nine by nine by nine feet. The room's walls were made from obsidian, a tough material which was popular due to its properties which allowed it to be crafted into an extremely smooth surface.
This underground room was itself the exterior shell of the formation.
The Torment of Mind Formation combined the ideas of modern formations with the ideas of the ancient formations. There were drawings, or 'runes', drawn on each of the six sides of the room. The drawings were each connected via three nodes, positioned symmetrically apart, but no longer visible due to the formation's completion.
Currently, all that could be seen was the grey circle that Yaan was standing in, and a second, red bowl, placed directly in front of him.
Yaan dropped a handful of cores, from beasts, body temperers, and even astral spirits into the bowl…
This was simply fuel.
The bowl glowed red as it sensed the fuel enter its transparent confines. Then, after ten seconds passed by and nothing else was added to the bowl, a cover slid over the bowl and the innards were liquidated.
A powerful energy soup remained. This energy would be used to power the formation.
Actually, Yaan had only added the equivalent of around half a dozen Rank 5 beast cores. For a powerful formation, this was nothing incredible. This much energy might keep a powerful formation running for a few weeks to a few months, depending on the specific formation and whether or not there were cultivators helping to sustain its activation.
But the activation period of this formation only lasted for a total of 99 seconds. All of the energy extracted into the red bowl would be used up in a short 99 seconds.
When Rui saw the amount of fuel that Yaan added to the bowl, she knew that it would be too much for him to handle.
Far, far too much.
But, it would not endanger his life…so she said nothing. Perhaps this experience would teach him to be more cautious with things he did not understand. Though, given his age and experience at this point, she doubted it.
Yaan remained stock still within the grey circle, waiting, watching as the red energetic fluid in the red bowl finally stopped swirling around. The fuel came to a stop, then without warning, a hatch opened up below the bowl, causing the liquid to plummet down into the entry channel which led into the formation.
It all happened far too fast. From the moment the fuel mixture entered the formation channels, to the moment it circulated around every single channel, filling the formation to the brim and triggering its instant activation, not even one tenth of a second passed by.
The room was now filled with glowing red lines, all with their own function, all leading towards a single, thicker line. This thicker line led towards the rear of the grey circle.
Once those lines lit up, including the channel connecting to the circle he was standing in, Yaan's eyes widened in shock.
The only visual that could be seen from the outside was a faint, upwards drifting of red power from within the grey circle, but that was all. It almost seemed lacklustre…
And yet, within ten seconds, Yaan was struggling to stand. His entire body was shaking violently, threatening to fall down. However, if he did fall, leaving the grey circle, he would lose the major benefits of enduring this formation's activation!
He felt a searing pain in his mind. It was a pain so hot, yet also so cold, that he was left feeling only absolute agony.
None of it was real, it was all in his mind. But that was irrelevant, because a pain which afflicted the mind directly felt as real as any other pain.
Soon enough, a deafening, screaming sound, echoed through Yaan's ears. He felt as if his ears would burst; then in the next moment, he was blinded by a light so bright that his eyes felt as if they were literally melting!
But this description did the pain no justice, because Yaan had endured horrors far worse than just these!
It was as if each of these sensations, a new one of which was being added in with every passing second, was amplified by his very own strength of mind.
And indeed, in this formation, the stronger the mind of the user, the more painful the ordeal!
This also made it a perfectly scaling training formation. As your mind became stronger, the formation became stronger also, it never lost its usefulness, it was powerful for everyone!
Of course, the more fuel placed into the tank, the greater the degree of the amplification of the various agonies.
He was suffocating, struggling to breath…
He was being stabbed, cut, impaled, decapitated…
He was whipped, beaten, bludgeoned, squashed…
He was hungry, thirsty, and gasping for air…
He was in sheer agony. It was a pain stemming from his very bones, from his organs, his blood, his mind! It was as if every single part of his body was screaming at him, telling him, 'something is seriously wrong'!
These sensations did not replace one another, they stacked atop one another. With each new sensation, the pain seemed to be amplified further.
Then, the mental anguish came.
He felt hatred, anger, rage, sadness, regret, guilt, pain, sorrow, despair, hopelessness…
Bloodlust.
When the bloodlust came in, it was as if the other terrible pains were ever so slightly lessened. The effect was not by much, but it was something, some reprieve…
But it left him with an unspeakable desire to kill!
The frustration at having to hold back, the self-loathing at feeling this way in the first place, all of these emotions came crashing forth, piling on with the physical pain. This rising amplification continued until Yaan almost completely collapsed from the total overload due to experiencing 99 different tortures simultaneously.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, it ended. For a while, he remained standing on his feet, until he was truly certain that it was over, before he collapsed forwards and fell face first on the ground.
"Well? Do you understand that you overdid it, yet again?" Rui appeared from the ring and asked.
For a minute, Yaan was silent, too exhausted to reply. Eventually, he managed to roll himself over. With a bitter, pained expression, he turned his tired head to face the unsympathetic demoness.
"No…it still wasn't enough to cover up the slaughterous desires…"
Yaan recovered from the formation's usage, rested, then decided to use it again immediately.
Without hesitation, he placed ten times more energy into the fuel bowl than before.
His previous activation of the formation wasn't useless, it did improve his psyche cultivation…it just wasn't enough to temper his will far enough that he could easily overcome these slaughterous feelings.
And so, he went again.
It was ten times worse right from the beginning. He struggled to stand after two seconds, he was shaking within three, practically convulsing within four, and his eyes rolled back after five.
Ten seconds passed, and at this point, Yaan, who was somehow still standing, started foaming at the mouth.
After 20 seconds, he was making pained gargling noises, as if he was both drowning and direly thirsty at the same time.
As time passed by, his state worsened and worsened.
By the time it reached the end, having undergone the full 99 seconds, Yaan was so pale, so vacant-eyed, that he barely looked human.
Yaan collapsed, then took half a day to properly recover. When he could finally speak again, he uttered a single word:
"Good…"
He felt that finally, he had found a psyche cultivation method torturous enough to temper his mental will power beyond the slaughterous emotions which were continually released by his soul and amplified by his malicious slaughter dao comprehension.
Yaan used this formation once each day. He always activated the formation immediately after slaughtering the 'tributes' brought to him as per his agreement with the Bloody Totem Tribe Leader.
After enduring 15 days of this psychotic routine, Ga Shu returned, and he brought great news - or rather, he brought great gifts!