Wizard Formation

After increasing the radius and frequency of the patrols, the security in Wissen Town showed obvious improvement. But Yang Ling did not dare let his guard down. After all, the patrol troops could only deter an average person. They wouldn't be very effective against experts like heaven-ranked assassins.

Yang Ling could still feel his skin crawl whenever he thought back to the veiled assassin's imperceptible movement techniques and instantaneous spells. Even though Yang Ling could summon his Magical Beasts very quickly, he was still too slow to fight an expert killer. If he had been matched up against the heaven-ranked assassin from the start, or if that female assassin Gulania had not bought him some time in her fury, Yang Ling would have died.

After the ingredients had been prepared, Yang Ling decided to build a Wizard Maze Formation on the foundations of the Spirit Gathering Spell Formation. This way, even if his enemies were to successfully avoid the patrol troops and hidden spies, it would be difficult for them to get close to him secretly.

The Wizard Maze Formation, true to its name, was a beginner level illusory formation. Those who barged into its radius without noticing the spell formation would lose their sense of direction and be unable to find their way out. Yang Ling was only a low level Spirit Wizard. If he were to advance to the level of Earth Wizard and gather his Wizard Core, he would be able to implement a killing formation on top of the Maze Formation, significantly boosting the power of formations.

Yang Ling placed Magical Beast Essence Crystals at each point of the trigram. Experimentation had shown that Magical Beast Essence Crystals were on par with the crystals that were normally used to build formations. The effects were more obvious when Essence Crystals of high level Magical Beasts were used. For example, one Essence Crystal of the Nine-headed Snake Monster was much more powerful than a hundred crystals from Twin-headed Deer.

During this period of time, given the substantial rewards that Yang Ling had offered, people had been sending over Blood Essence and Essence Crystals of various Magical Beasts. Even though most of them were either Blood Essences or the Essence Crystals of low level Magical Beasts, their quantity was enough to offset what they lacked in quality. Yang Ling believed that the Maze Formation would become his most effective protection, and that the heaven-ranked assassin would face some trouble dispelling it, even if he were to come after Yang Ling personally.

Sitting cross-legged, Yang Ling circulated the Wizard Power in his body and activated the eight trigram formation he had prepared. With a low hum, the spell formation started to rotate slowly. It released a ring of seven-colored light, just like the Spirit Gathering Spell Formation when it was first activated. His body quickly absorbed the light.

Yang Ling had guessed that the colored light arose because of the difference in energy and internal structures between Magical Beast Essence Crystals and regular crystals. This difference caused bursts of essence energy to well out of these crystals when he activated them using his Wizard Power. Essence Crystals of fire element Magical Beasts would release a red glow, those of earth element Magical Beasts would release a yellow glow, wood element Magical Beasts would release a green glow… After they overlapped with each other, they would form the rarely seen seven-colored glow.

After absorbing the pure energy of the seven-colored glow, Yang Ling silently recited the Wizard Mantra and started to train. He did not notice Alice, who was delivering his meals to him, unintentionally stumbling into the yard where the Maze Formation was just set up.

Taking a few steps forward with the food basket in hand, Alice noticed that the scene before her had changed, and she had suddenly arrived in a foreign place. Giant, sinister trees surrounded her, as if she had mysteriously been transported deep into the Terras Forest.

"Brother Yang, where are you? Brother Yang…"

Caught by surprise, Alice was shaken. She shouted in fear. She did not understand what this place was. She could not comprehend how she had arrived at this mysterious place even though she was walking into Yang Ling's yard.

After shouting for some time, seeing that there was no reaction, Alice relied on her wits and walked backward based on her intuition. But she could not make her way out of the sinister forest no matter how hard she tried. Tired out, Alice felt that the increasingly sinister forest was like a monster that devoured humans. She involuntarily became more and more fearful.

"Brother Yang, Brother Yang…"

A breeze blew past. Alice felt the chill penetrate her, as if some undead spirit was crawling out of the forest. In sudden fear, she clenched her teeth and sprinted, not thinking about anything else. She shouted Yang Ling's name as she ran, her tears welling out like spring water.

Sometime later, the sky turned darker. She could not see her fingers before her. The sinister wind seemed to become stronger, as if some spirit was chasing after her. Thinking back to the many rumors of ghost sightings around Wissen Tower, she could not help but shiver straight from her soul. She grew increasingly nervous as she ran, frequently tripping over the roots protruding out of the ground. She was soon bleeding from her many falls.

Sometime later, just when Alice was about to break down, she suddenly felt that she had encountered a monster that was floating in the air. She screeched in shock. Her legs became limp as she fainted.

"Alice, don't be afraid, it's me!" Seeing Alice pale from the fear, Yang Ling blamed himself for being careless and not notifying the people nearby before he set up the Maze Formation. It was lucky that he had not incorporated the killing formation; otherwise, the outcome would have been disastrous.

After pressing hard on Alice's philtrum, the pitiful lass slowly woke up. Seeing Yang Ling before her, she quickly pounced into his embrace and did not move. "Brother Yang, there's a ghost, there's a ghost…"

"It's alright, it's alright. With your Brother Yang around, no ghosts would dare come out. Don't be afraid!" Seeing Alice still shaken, Yang Ling shook his head with a bitter smile. He first consoled her, then patted her back lightly.

After Yang Ling spent a great deal of effort to activate and deactivate the Maze Formation multiple times in front of Alice, the shaken girl slowly calmed down. She now believed that it was an illusion created by a mysterious spell formation. She did not understand how the Maze Formation worked, but she seemed to understand what it meant after Yang Ling told her that it was a mysterious spell formation.

"Alice, don't be afraid, this is only a spell formation!" Hugging the pitiful Alice, Yang Ling spoke gently as he stroked her hair. He cursed himself for being careless. It was lucky that he had not implemented the killing formation. Otherwise, since Alice did not possess spells or battle energy, she would have died in an instant.

After the hours of torment, Alice's cloak had gone missing. All she was wearing now was a thin blouse, and her perky breasts were faintly visible. Yang Ling unintentionally looked down and almost got a nose bleed. He naturally had a male reaction.

"Brother Yang, I… I brought you food!"

After Yang Ling explained the spell formation, Alice slowly calmed down. Even though she was still young, she knew a little about the differences between males and females. Her face was red with shame after she sensed the difference in Yang Ling's lower body. She shyly freed herself from Yang Ling's embrace.

Brought me food?

Seeing the empty basket in Alice's arms, Yang Ling felt moved. Despite being scared silly, the girl had held onto the basket tightly. Unfortunately, even though the basket was present, the food within had disappeared.

"Oh right. Alice, how's your grandfather? Is he healthy?"

"Yes, he's doing well, and he talks about you often!" Alice replied softly, her face red. She did not dare raise her head to look at Yang Ling. She became very nervous every time she thought about the hardness below Yang Ling's belt.

Seeing how shy the girl had become, Yang Ling felt a little awkward. He didn't know if it was because he hadn't been around many women since he came to this world or if it was because of his massive improvements in Wizard Power, but his lower body now reacted instantly to any stimulus. When he was with Sofia a few days before, he had scared her off unintentionally. Now he was also making the girl before him uncomfortable.

After deliberating for a moment, looking at Alice's skinny shoulders, Yang Ling said with a little pity, "Alice, your grandfather is too lonely living alone. From tomorrow onward, why don't you return home to wait on your grandfather!"

Return home to wait on my grandfather?

Hearing Yang Ling say this, Alice trembled. She quickly looked up and said, with tears welling in her eyes, "Brother Yang, I said that I would wait on you for my whole life. Am I not doing a good job? Why are you chasing me away?"

Without waiting for Yang Ling to answer, Alice shyly continued, "Sister Giana said that I am of age now, and that I can marry. Brother Yang, if you… I…"

What on earth? Hearing Alice say this, then looking at her undeveloped little breasts, Yang Ling let out a bitter smile. Where was this girl's imagination taking her?

"Alice, how could I bear to chase you away? I only want you to be able to take care of your grandfather!" Yang Ling hesitated for a moment, then continued, "Let's do it this way; bring your grandfather to live with us. This way, you need not journey to and fro, and you two can take care of each other!"

"Brother Yang, do you really mean it?" After a moment's surprise, Alice smiled. Yang Ling wondered if all women were natural actors, their moods changing faster than the weather in June.

"Of course. You can ask Murbaqi for a few servants to help you!"

As Alice turned to leave in excitement, Yang Ling shook his head. He told her how to enter and exit the yard, just in case she could not find her way in the next time.