Alex and Zhou Linfan had to stay on the island until late in the afternoon before they found the opportunity to leave.
The island they went to was far enough from the people according to the formations that the old man had set up around the ocean that let them have a general idea of where everyone was in the ocean.
The old man had apparently also learned about formations while training to be a cook. Becoming a cook was what he wanted to do the most, but he also needed something else to become good at, and he had apparently learned formations too.
While he had never taken tests to show his formation skills, the old man believed that if he did take the tests, he would easily become a Level 8 formation expert.
"The area around the island I stay in is always under surveillance, but anything too far away can't be kept permanently working, so instead I decided to set up several small warning formations in a network instead. If a human or ship flies over it, it lets me know who and how strong, and I can know where they are based on which formation activates."
That was the explanation Zhou Linfan had given Alex when asked about the formations that helped him monitor the ocean.
It apparently spanned thousands and thousands of kilometers wide and had yet only had a few of the formations discovered or destroyed.
The island they were on now was much larger than the other island, so Alex hoped he could find the ingredients he was looking for. Any fruit or roots, any leaves, flowers, even barks with any sort of spirit healing capacity would be of much aid to Alex.
They searched through the entire island and managed to find 3 things that could be considered of some quality and brought them back to the main island again.
Alex ate those ingredients raw. He didn't want to dilute or otherwise destroy what effect it had by needlessly cooking it. In the first place, aside from managing fire to release energy, he didn't know what random heat would do to an ingredient when cooked.
"Are you sure you won't get a stomach ache by eating that raw?" the old man asked him. "I can understand the fruit, but you're even chewing the root. At least let me cook the root, I'm used to cooking them for the elderly in the palace."
"That's alright," Alex said. "My stomach can handle it."
He did make sure to chew it all up thoroughly before swallowing. As he ate what he had gathered, he felt his mind clear up just a little. Yesterday hadn't been this way, so he must have eaten something right today.
He finished eating everything and then made more healing paste using what new ingredients he had found that day. Once he applied it, he laid back down, ready to sleep again.
'How much has my spirit healed in 2 days?' Alex wondered. How was he supposed to even tell that? He needed some sort of metric to help him.
"Senior, do you know of any way I can measure how strong my spirit is?" Alex asked him. "Maybe a formation of some sort?"
"A spirit measuring formation?" the old man asked, thinking for a bit. "I… think I know a blueprint for one. But to make it, we'll need an appropriate metal or alloy. I don't know where I can find that in this place.
"How about carving it on the cave wall instead," Alex said while pointing to the wall. "You can connect it to the formation that is already working on the island."
"That… can work," the old man said. "But making formations on rock is so difficult. You have so much less freedom than a metal. Still, I'll try tomorrow. You want to check how strong your spirit has grown, don't you? I'll make it happen."
"Thank you, senior," Alex said and went to sleep.
When he woke up the next morning, the old man was already working on it.
At some point, before Alex woke up, he had managed to scrape the wall of the cave smooth without any lumps or uneven surfaces. Alex sat and watched as the old man brought out a small carving pen to carve out a complex formation on the wall.
Alex had to look at the formation for nearly 10 minutes after the completion to figure out which of the 6 base formations were being used to form this Saint formation.
When he finally figured it out, he was more than impressed with the overall formation.
"Stand here," the old man called Alex, pointing him to a location. "I didn't have the resources to set up a proper control to this formation. So when testing your spirit, it will slowly ramp up on the spiritual attack it does."
"I'll have you take this bowl full of water on one hand, and if you spill even a drop of water in it, I'll stop the formation immediately," the old man said.
Alex walked up to where the old man had pointed and looked at the formation. He laid out his hand and the old man put the bowl of water on it.
Alex took a deep breath and relaxed his hand just enough so that if he wavered even the slightest bit, his arm wouldn't hold up. He wasn't going to take any chances on his spirit when his life and cultivation depended on it.
He took a deep breath and nodded. "I'm ready!"
He felt ready. The things he ate last night had helped him a lot after all. His mind felt so much fresher like he had finally had a good night of sleep after a long time.
The old man looked at Alex and nodded, activating the formation.
Instantly, Alex felt a wave of mental pain that he was so familiar with. It made him nearly stagger, but he did drop the bowl or the water in it.
He persevered. He was stronger than this. He had felt pain before and he was used to it. This was nothing compared to all that pain. He could handle it even as it grew.
Alex wasn't wrong and he did handle the pain… for all of 2 more seconds before he fainted.
It was late in the afternoon when he woke up with a headache and the old man explained what had happened to him.
"I… fell unconscious?" he asked.
"You lasted for 3 seconds and fell," the old man explained. "The water bowl didn't even have the time to fall when you fainted."
"How… how strong was the attack? Did you find out?" Alex asked.
"I checked after you fainted to see if I had mistakenly made it too strong," the old man said. "From what I sensed, it was strong enough that anyone under the Organ Tempering realm would have fainted."
Alex stared at the old man for a long second. "What? Organ Tempering realm?" he asked with a look of horror. "But that is so low."
The old man shrugged. "Hey! I'm surprised that you're not weaker, considering you're a mortal now," he said. "I think your spirit is strong."
"No," Alex said. "I need to be stronger. I need to find better ingredients to heal my spirit even more. So, when do we leave next?"
