Chapter 70

The next day, Jiang Mang started his training with master Zhu in the morning. She had, however, changed it a little as instead of wearing beautiful clothes, they had to wear rags and make them look charming. When he had changed and started the training, he was immediately scolded and had to restart. The two girls were in the same situation, and the training lasted until noon. The two girls returned to the cave, while Jiang Mang waited for master Jiu to appear.

When he arrived, he instructed Jiang Mang to summon the common zither he had been given inside the storage artifact. Master Jiu instructed him to play every string a thousand times, which baffled Jiang Mang but he did as instructed. When he started plucking strings, his master started pointing out every deficiency in his movements and had him start over. Jiang Mang tried to correct them, but when night arrived had arrived, he had only reached ten pluckings of the string.

When he returned to his cave, he kept playing that one string for the entire night. The next day, when his training with master Jiu started, he didn't start off making a mistake. This continued for a hundred pluckings until the first mistake was made. Elder Jiu stayed taciturn but saw the obvious improvement and knew that Jiang Mang had practiced during the night.

Jiang Mang was eventually able to complete the first thousand pluckings, but he started making mistakes at the second string again. Elder Jiu had him always start over from the first string. Jiang Mang slowly mastered playing that first string until it became natural and precise. At night, he could play the first thousand pluckings within ten minutes, while his second-string had reached thirty pluckings.

When he returned to his cave he solely practiced the second string's pluckings. On the third day of his new training schedule, he completed the second string and started at the third-string playing errors again.

On the fourth day, he didn't continue his zither lesson, but he trained his voice. He had to sing every note, a thousand times or restart, but this time the two girls accompanied him. He found this exercise easier, due to his exceptional sense of hearing being capable of sensing faults. His master Jiu didn't have to point his faults out as he found them himself. The two girls had it a lot more difficult, but they persevered while elder Jiu pointed out their flaws for them out.

The voice training was similar to his zither training. The training ended at night, but the three inhabitants kept training through the night. They had decided to have Jiang Mang train his voice together with the two girls for two hours a day while pointing out flaws. The rest of the night, he would dedicate to the zither.

On the fifth day, he managed to reach to the sixth string, due to every plucking on different being similar despite being slightly different. He had also become used to the rags after five days of charm training, and they were as charming as his previous robes were.

The next day was time for his medicinal bath and the first lesson on formations. When he finished his medicinal bath and had dressed, he joined his master Zhu outside.

She smiled at her disciple, who had grown immensely over the five weeks he had been with her and her husband. He had lost his temper and reformed his own beliefs about his already high achievements.

While he had reached a high cultivation realm and had high comprehension, which allowed his intents to reach great heights. His foundation was shacky and rushed, which was the reason that she and her husband made him train in such a slow and repeated manner.

They wouldn't let his cultivation breakthrough for the next year, to help solidify his foundation. They were also helping him temper his heart, as cultivation isn't about being the fastest climber but reaching the top of the mountain while building a sturdy stairway. The reason for having him study formations was not only to help him become a formation master but to also distract him from cultivation a bit and slow down his progress as his talent is too high, while his progression is too fast.

She started her first formation lesson by explaining its basics and foundation: " Formation masters use their soul to act as a medium to help infuse engravings with the spiritual energy of heaven and heart. Many different materials can hold differing amounts of spiritual energy, while formations can be formed in three different ways. One is through a formation plate, which is a special metal that can hold a lot of spiritual energy that is engraved with a formation. The second is through laying a formation on the earth, this can only be achieved if you have taken the geography in your consideration when you engraved the formation. You will also need help from some formation flags or other formation markings. These are used to keep the formation stable and direct the flows of spiritual energy. The last is directly using the spiritual energy in the air to instantly form a formation, without engraving lines but using your soul to control all the spiritual energy to form the formation."

She paused after the initial explanation before continuing: "The last method can only be used by formation masters and grandmasters, while the first and second can already be learned by formation apprentices.

There exist three thousand formation diagrams that form the foundation, these formations represent all one great dao. All the other formations are formations that combine these three thousand formations by overlapping and extending diagram engravings. There are thirteen levels to formations, the first is being able to engrave formations that combine ten formation diagrams. The second is engraving formations that combine one hundred formation diagrams, The third is being able to engrave ones that combine one thousand diagrams and the fourth is being able to engrave ones that combine ten thousand or more diagrams. The fifth level is a qualitative jump as formations of this level require the user to combine ten levels one through level four formation to form a new formation. A ninth level formation is another qualitative jump as it combines ten levels five through level eight. The thirteenth level is the grandmaster level and they are capable of creating their foundation level formations to form new level one through level twelve formations, with their foundation level formations representing their dao path."

Jiang Mang now knew the difference between formations and how they were built. Master Zhu continued her explanation: " Formation apprentices can engrave level ones at the early rank and level fours at peak rank, Formation seniors level fives until level eights, and so continued the game. Formation masters aren't restricted by their cultivation level, but their soul as the energy required to engrave level five formations requires a stronger soul than level four formations. This means that most of the time formation seniors are at the king realm and formation masters at the sage realm."