Molting the Mortal Coil

When the pillar appeared in the outside world it held up to its name. The massive room was already well lit from dozens of glowing stones embedded in the ceiling, but when the ‘First ray of dawning light’ entered the room it was if the sun had risen. It was as if the darkness was being chased away by the light of dawn. Everything suddenly became brighter, long shadows were cast out in every direction from the pillar. The light that had seemed so blinding in the throne room was now a gradually building illumination that brought a feeling of renewal to all who saw it. The first light of dawn that signified a new day and chased away the night.

The night was the time for spirits and the dark yin things to thrive. The light of day was very yang and the light of dawn was the signal for those dark things to leave. A symbol of their banishment and in this case Sage felt the yin nature of the Twin Ringed Soul Serpent quiver. Physical bodies protected souls from the light of day, but Sage still felt a response and thought his plan truly had merit!

Still conscious that he was currently on a treasure hunt and every moment he wasted was one less benefit, he hurried to put his idea to the test. He had more than one reason for wanting to link to the Twin Ringed Serpent, and it was time to make it happen. Storing away most of the devices he’d brought out earlier, he left only the cauldron and the pillar as he summoned his Qi and gathered his spirit power to help shape the Qi into very specific array symbols. Qi power was like a rushing and flowing river while array symbols required very precise shapes and very exacting amounts of energy. Each line or stroke might have a dozen different variations in Qi concentration and very exacting specifications for shape.

A new Formation Master would usually be taught the Spirit Carver technique, using Qi at the tip of a finger to slowly carve each stroke of each array symbol. Spirit Power would be used to very perfectly control the amount of energy put into the different parts of a stroke, like the brush of a painter making a thicker line by being pressed down harder. As a 4 Star Formation Master Sage was practicing a more advanced technique, Anima Print. Anima Print was far faster than Spirit Carving. Spirit Power was not only used to control the concentration of Qi power but to shape it into the proper lines and strokes in mid-air. An array symbol would be constructed in the air, the Qi power formed and molded into a state of completion before getting stamped down against a surface. It was far faster than Spirit Carver as it formed a full symbol instead of slowly carving every line by hand, at the same time it was many times more difficult, requiring many times more spirit power to perform.

Large dinner plate sized array symbols slowly appeared in mid-air, glowing with the orange campfire color of Sage’s Qi. When each symbol was completed it would slowly print onto the ground, leaving behind glowing carvings on the stone floor of the cavern. For this array, Sage chose to step off the dirt that had invaded the room through the cracks on the walls and used the stone floor of this Meditation Chamber as a canvas for an array formation. The many symbols started to form a shape. In time two huge rings had formed on the ground, one easily three times as large as the other. The small ring ring was made of five different circles of densely packed array symbols while the large ring had over a dozen. Additionally, there was a single line of array symbols forming an even larger circle encompassing the large and small ring.

Sage wiped the sweat from his brow and sat down cross legged to recover his energy. He even took out one of the pills he’d gained from the Alchemy Lab and swallowed it. The Green Revitalizing Pill was a rank 3 pill that helped to rapidly restore the Qi and Spirit Power of the person who consumed it. Normally, he wouldn’t do such a thing like waste pills outside of battle, but Sage was in a hurry. Once his strength had recovered he started the next step of the plan. Moving the Cauldron into the small ring of the array and removing the lid, banishing the flames he’d left inside and using a set of tongs to lift out the Egg. Storing the Cauldron, Sage left the egg there in the center of the smaller ring and poured energy into one layer of the smaller ring formation. This layer created a seal to keep souls from escaping. Next, he moved the Dawn Pillar, a name he thought was much less of a mouthful, over to the larger ring and placed it inside.

So far so good. Now it’s time to give it a go!

Sage took his place outside the larger circle around the two formation rings and admired his handiwork. Gathering his Qi and using his Spirit Power to operate the large formation, Sage poured in his energy. This formation wasn’t something Sage had ever tried before, and couldn’t be considered to be a high rank. Instead he had modified a different formation he’d once seen before to attempt an unorthodox effect. The original formation, ‘Magnifying Wheel’ was intended to concentrate the energy from within the larger ring and pour it into the smaller ring. It was usually used to focus the energy from a large number of weaker natural treasures or resources into a single treasure to boost and nurture it. For example, a pond rich in the energy of the heavens and earth could be focused through the Magnifying Wheel to pour all of its energy into a single Spirit Plant, boosting its potency by many times.

The chances of this working weren’t extremely high, but Sage had found some success with creating his own formations in the past so he was willing to give it a try. It wasn’t like all the formations he was studying had made themselves, they were the result of the hard work of the previous generations of Formation Masters. He had learned many different rules about the combining and function of arrays and had begun to treat them like the syntax of array symbols. It was like learning the proper tenses and punctuation of a language. If you didn’t use them correctly, people might still understand you but it would be far from perfect. The same applied to an array formation, but with far stricter effects. Using them incorrectly could create functioning arrays, but it was the difference between different ranks of Formation Master. It was like trying to compare learned scholars with school children. The children may technically be considered as knowing how to write, but the difference is like that between the heaven and the earth.

The many circles of array symbols began to glow, coming to life and gathering energy. The large ring was the same as the usual Magnifying Wheel, focusing the energy within and using the large outer circle to transfer it to the smaller ring. The small ring on the other hand had been modified. Instead of simply receiving energy, Sage had added a soul sealing shield as well as a little twist to the received energy. He had put in a few arrays that he knew were focused on attacking the soul. The idea being that the energy wouldn’t simply fill the small ring but instead flood towards the souls inside that little Egg.