“I’ll set up a formation around the room in order to protect against any of the more violent effects, for those who chose to make attack formations.” Mingtian ducked behind his desk and ‘grabbed—’ really, summoned from his spatial ring— the little quartz formation nodes he’d carved the day before. He’d have used jade, but then people would’ve asked why he like a hundred pounds of jade lying around when he worked as a librarian-sometimes-teacher, which would’ve ended… poorly, he could only imagine.

Even this was kinda stretching it. It was a eight point discrete environmental formation, which compared to the three point discrete formation he’d asked his students to make was… well, it was like comparing a spiritual dinghy to the massive ironclad flying battleships this realm tended to use. And that wasn’t even mentioning that he’d made them, so they were of course more complicated than the average formation at their level.

He placed the nodes at each of the eight points, according to the cycle of the bagua cycles, or the celestial order of transformation, or… well, he couldn’t be bothered to remember all the different names for the supraelemental cycle. Then, of course— mostly for dramatics sake and partially because a real mortal really would need to do so to cast a spell, he stood in the center, made a handseal, and intoned— “heaven and earth revolving, five spirits transforming, return to the pivot! Unwobbling Jade Top Formation: activate!”

A flash of green light burst from the quartz statuettes as a pale shield shimmered into existence for a second before fading out just as quickly— still there, but invisible. He stepped off to the side, grinning as his students looked on with wide eyes. That ought to set the mood nicely…

“First row, form a line. Remember, what your formation does or even how well it does it won’t determine your grade. A failed formation doesn’t mean that you failed the exam.” Which was totally something he’d decided on halfway through the exam, but the students didn’t need to know that. “With that, first in line, give us a brief description of what your formation is supposed to do and then activate it.”

“Um…” the girl hesitated for a moment, then stepped into the formation and turned to face the class, quickly placing three slips of paper on the floor in a triangle. Good shape that, easy shape. “My formation is, uh, I call it the Phoenix Flamethrower Talisman Formation and it makes a fireball.” They understood! Making hilariously bad names for formations was half the fun! She ripped a fourth, far simpler talisman and threw it into the center of the main formation to activate it, then stepped back.

For a second nothing happened. Then, a puff of smoke escaped the center of the formation as the talismans used to make it burned up. The girl blushed furiously and escaped the Jade Top formation before the class could do more than snicker at her misfortune. “Next.” She’d actually done a pretty good job, all things considered— which he was sure some of the others would see when it was their turn.

It went a lot faster than might have been expected, mostly because two out of three formations didn’t even do anything, and the other third tended to malfunction more than anything. It took almost seven students for the first formation he’d been anticipating to come up, a delayed explosion formation strong enough that the kid ran outside of the shield before it went off— and strong enough to cause the formation to activate and block the explosion from punching a hole in the floor. Whoever was in the room downstairs had definitely heard that.

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It was only when they got to the third row that things got really interesting. Guandong went first, with a messy but functional alarm formation— which, he supposed fit her support role rather nicely. Then… it was Xinshi’s turn. The first of the Shedding cultivators, and probably the most anticipated between the two.

He stepped into the formation, probing at its bounds with his spiritual sense as he took center stage. “My formation is the Lightning Torrent formation, which creates a torrent of lightning.” No, really? “Watch.” Then, instead of carefully arranging his talismans like the rest of them, he just threw the three into the air and pulsed his qi forward— and a bolt of incandescent lightning erupted out of nothing, splashing against the Jade Top formation’s shield with a pure chime.

He looked a bit disgruntled that he’d failed to break through the enclosure— which, laughable, but he was theoretically a full step above him, so it was kinda understandable— but he bowed to applause regardless.

It was a clever thing. By filling the air with his qi, he used that medium to connect his three nodes and summon the bolt. Nice.

A few others passed quickly. Urmaphara made a formation to make formations— to carve runes without a technique, which was smart if not flashy. He could tell Lily was interested in that one. Raya tried and failed her ‘one rune spread out over three places’ idea— foolish, and also a far, far higher concept than a simple three point formation— and nobody else managed more than a puff of smoke until it was finally Avyr’s turn. As the other Shedding cultivator in the room, his formation was almost as hotly anticipated as Xinshi’s.

Of course, he was less dramatic about it than the Young Master had been. He attached his three talismans to himself, one for each right foot, then addressed the room. “This is my swiftness formation, which should empower my steps.” He breathed in, then pushed out his qi— far more controlled than Xinshi had— and leapt at the jade barrier with preternatural speed.It was a good formation— relying on wind to hasten himself, and done evenly rather than just on those specific three feet, but Avyr looked unhappy at the end of it as he sailed out of the formation to land silently on the floor almost fifteen feet away from where he’d started. For whatever reason.

Weird.

Then… Lily. His personal most anticipated. She stepped into the formation, then quickly set down three talismans.

Then three more.

Then three more, forming a nine pointed, three-layered array of surpassing complexity compared to the others. “This,” she stated with no dearth of smug pride, “is my Five Elements Transmutation formation, which will, when activated, transmute the air within the center ring to stone.” Oh? That was interesting— he was pretty sure it’d work, but if so, that would be an impressive functionality to fit into a nine-point talisman formation— drawn on mortal paper, with mortal ink no less! He leaned slightly closer as she tore her activating talisman, observing the qi flow between the nodes and spiral in before with a snap of air and a boulder materialized from nothing.

Then it fell to the floor with a cacophonous bang. The students below them definitely heard that one.

It wasn’t as visually impressive as Xinshi’s formation, but… it was good work.

Strangely, Mingtian found himself proud.