A whole night passed without any gain. Zhao Ruyu quietly slipped out from the rocks and returned to the ruined pavilion. Just then, he heard Liu Xiaolou cry out inside, so he hurried in.

Liu Xiaolou was holding a jade pendant, his face full of regret.

“What’s wrong?”

“Steward Zhao, my apologies. I ruined a piece while carving… ah, don’t be upset. This happens all the time. When we formation masters refine a formation disk, wasting a few jade pendants is nothing unusual. That’s why I asked you to prepare three pieces. I just need a short rest, then I’ll start again.”

“You’d better be quick about it.”

“Yes, yes…”

Once Liu Xiaolou sat cross-legged and closed his eyes, Zhao Ruyu stepped back outside. He circled around Huashou Terrace, then went down to patrol Qingxia Valley for an hour. When he returned, Liu Xiaolou was already carving a fresh jade pendant, so Zhao Ruyu found a hidden spot to wait quietly.

He had reached the peak of Qi Refinement and could no longer cultivate any further. All he could do now was wait for the right chance. If he could obtain a Foundation Establishment Pill from the sect, he might finally cross that threshold, truly enter the path of cultivation, and become an inner disciple.

But the inner sect of the Luofu was never that easy to enter. Someone at the peak of Qi Refinement, like him, was all too common.

So three days passed. Other than delivering a meal to Liu Xiaolou each evening, he never disturbed him. He simply kept watch from a hidden distance, waiting patiently while Liu Xiaolou refined the formation disk. And also to see whether he might take the chance to slip away.

So far, the young formation master had behaved himself. Or perhaps he was just timid. Zhao Ruyu had given him several chances, yet he never tried to run. That, at least, was reassuring.

On the fifth day, Zhao Ruyu crossed Yellow Dragon Ravine, descended Jade Goose Peak from the far side, and made straight for Shangjie Peak in the northwest.

Just as Mount Luofu was divided into Luoshan and Fushan, the Luofu School itself was split into northern and southern branches. Shangjie Peak was the main peak of the southern branch. From the foot of the mountain to the summit, halls and palaces rose layer upon layer among the dark pines and verdant cypresses, solemn and imposing.

Zhao Ruyu stopped halfway up the mountain, in front of the Great Storehouse. “Brother Zhuo,” he asked the steward in charge, “has that batch of spirit materials been checked in yet? Do you have them?”

Steward Zhuo replied, “The second batch on the list has been gathered. But in the third batch, the king lotus seeds and springwater crystals aren’t in the storehouse. Either find them yourself at the market, or wait for me to send a request to have them transferred.”

“How long will it take?” asked Zhao Ruyu.

“Elder Lu already spoke up for you,” Steward Zhuo said, “how could I not give it my all? But the storehouse really doesn’t have them. Look, I’m already drafting the requisition myself. Still, there’s no way to pin down the timing. Especially for those king lotus seeds, you’d have to buy them from Wu and Yue. If you’re lucky it’ll be ten days or half a month. If not, a whole month would be nothing unusual.”

Zhao Ruyu could only clasp his hands in thanks, take the second batch of spirit materials, and leave. When he returned to Jade Goose Peak, he saw Liu Xiaolou by the mouth of the earthfire well, fully absorbed in carving the formation talisman. Zhao Ruyu nodded to himself in secret. This kid really was honest.

Two days later, on his third jade pendant, Liu Xiaolou finally succeeded. He fell flat on his back and instantly drifted into a deep sleep.

It was his first time engraving a killing formation talisman. Without Xing Bujiao’s original formation as a reference, without the Heaven’s Origin, Beginning to End Method and the Vermilion Bright Cave fire, there was no way he could have passed this trial so smoothly. But now that he had, it was done. And from here on, when carving killing array talismans, he would have both experience and confidence.

Seeing how exhausted he was, Zhao Ruyu placed two spirit stones by his side, then turned and went out to continue his patrol.

After resting for two days and restoring himself with the spirit stones Zhao Ruyu had given him, Liu Xiaolou began refining the first batch of spirit materials. Smelting Black-Gold, Mother-Tin, Gengchen Sand, Violet Sulfur, Azure-Green Ore, and Black Salt one by one, he fused them according to the formula into the Formation Mysterious Spiritual Liquid, and used it to rerefine the jade pendant a second time.

The Formation Mysterious, beyond the Covered Array Jewel, was the gateway of Qiongyu, the ruler of nascent life. It linked the spiritual nature of Heaven and Earth, keeping them from being cut off.

Five days later, this step was complete. Liu Xiaolou once again collapsed into deep sleep, this time for three whole days. When he woke, two spirit stones lay at his side, left by Zhao Ruyu. But Zhao Ruyu himself was nowhere to be seen.

Next to the stones was the second batch of spirit materials. These were the “killing” components of the main killing formation. Each had to be refined into spiritual liquid, purified of impurities and concentrated into its core, then infused into the talisman already etched into the jade pendant.

The five liquids had to pass separately through the same narrow talisman line without interfering with one another. An exacting test of a formation master’s skill. Liu Xiaolou poured all his focus into it, until he entered a state of complete absorption.

Half a month later, he was ready to engrave the “Three Wonders” talismans of sun, moon, and stars onto the heaven disk. At the same time, he pressed Zhao Ruyu to gather the third batch of spiritual materials as quickly as possible.

“Steward Zhao, the king lotus seeds and springwater crystals are vital. They can’t be missing. They have to be fused in as I carve, so that the timing stays aligned with the Earth Gate formation.”

“I know. But those two are truly hard to find. I’m doing my best, really…”

“Steward Zhao, this is the Luofu Sect we’re talking about. How could the Luofu Sect not have these? These two spirit materials aren’t rare at all. To be honest, even if I went to look for them myself, I could find them within a month.”

“Anyway, don’t worry. I’ll get them for you within seven days. For now, why don’t you work on something else in the meantime?”

“Ah… how about this? Could you bring me the Pine Resin Essence and my formation disk? I can use these few days to compare them and see if there’s any room for improvement.”

After raising this request, he waited nervously for Zhao Ruyu’s reply. He waited a long time, and just when he thought he was about to face Zhao Ruyu’s anger, Zhao said, “Wait here.”

Before long, Zhao Ruyu came back carrying the same basket Liu Xiaolou had once hauled up the mountain. Everything was still inside: a gourd of miasma, a pouch with a beehive, and in that hive the queen had already laid three new eggs. The few young pupae inside had begun to change color, with faint, blurry shapes forming within.

There were even the fourth set of spirit materials from Liu Xiaolou’s prepared list: tiger whip, deer antler, cinnamon, and other medicinal herbs. This set was meant for making the Bewildering Fragrance Tendons. Zhao Ruyu hadn’t asked a single question and had simply packed them all into the basket.

“This…” Liu Xiaolou was stunned. He hadn’t expected Zhao Ruyu to bring everything. Did Zhao really trust him that much? Wasn’t he worried that Liu Xiaolou might just take everything and run?

Dropping the basket, Zhao Ruyu instructed, “I’ll go look for the spirit materials. For the next few days, take good care of yourself. Weren’t you planning to run some comparisons? Your formation disk is in there too, so go ahead and work with it.”

Leaving the crumbling pavilion, he circled around and returned to the hidden hollow inside the large boulder by the stream. He stayed there on watch for three whole days, then quietly descended the peak and made his way back to the Shangjie Peak of Fushan.

On the southeastern edge of the Shangjie Peak, a delicate courtyard clung to the side of a cliff, almost hanging in midair. Zhao Ruyu came at night, knocked at the gate, and entered. Kneeling on the stone steps in the courtyard, he bowed deeply: “Elder Lu.”

A voice came from inside the house, weathered and heavy with age. “Still nothing?”

“No one has gone up Jade Goose Peak,” replied Zhao Ruyu. “I even gave Li Mu a chance, but he didn’t run.”

After a pause, the voice spoke again: “What matters most is patience.”

Zhao Ruyu bowed again. “Understood.”

Taking his leave of Elder Lu, Zhao Ruyu went on to the main storehouse to press for the spiritual materials. Steward Zhuo said, “Just wait a few more days. The people we sent to Wu and Yue are almost back. Steward Zhao, stop pushing. Even if you keep urging me, I can’t conjure what you want out of thin air.”

Zhao Ruyu sighed. “I know, Brother Zhuo. I hope you’ll understand. I’m just doing my duty.”

Steward Zhuo laughed. “Enough with the sighing, Brother Zhao, you’re giving me a headache! By the way, there’s a rumor going around. They say you brought in a formation master and set him up on Jade Goose Peak to refine a formation disk. What’s going on? Did the Earth Gate Formation up there run into trouble?”

Zhao Ruyu explained, “Trouble might be too strong a word. Just a small hiccup in the operation. That formation master’s not bad; he found the root of the problem. That’s why we need to hurry and refine a new disk to patch the flaw.”

Then, half joking and half complaining, he added, “If Brother Zhuo gave me the spiritual materials a day earlier, I could leave that place a day earlier. Being stuck there for months is unbearable. It’s no different from being locked up in a cave prison! Please, Brother Zhuo, save me. Once I regain my freedom, I’ll repay you handsomely… ha!”

Steward Zhuo chuckled. “Better to keep you penned up on Jade Goose Peak. Without you around these past few months, everyone’s ears have been nice and quiet.”

When Zhao Ruyu returned to Jade Goose Peak, he found Liu Xiaolou once again at the Vermilion Bright Cave fire, refining the formation disk. A sudden worry crossed his mind. Are all formation masters really this straightforward? Does he truly have no thought of running away?