Lin Mu's work wasn't easy and lasted a long time.
Day after day passed by while Lin Mu worked tirelessly. The only time he took a break was when he paused to observe the progress and to rectify any mistakes. But other than that, he had been working non-stop.
If it were any other formation master, they might have just collapsed from the exhaustion. Lin Mu's body cultivation they allowed him to have a stamina that would allow him to work for literally months on end.
Not to mention he was feeling really energetic after the breakthrough.
It as a form of training too, as it allowed Lin Mu to get familiar with his new cultivation base. Regular use of Immortal sense was also allowing Lin Mu to get acclimatized to Immortal Qi itself.
During this time, several other people also paid Lin Mu a visit. This included Elder Niji, Kunzi, and Immortal Taegu.
But no one disturbed him or spoke to him, seeing that he was working. Lanbao also created a temporary isolation barrier around the entire area so as to avoid any sudden sound disturbing Lin Mu.
It wasn't exactly necessary as Lin Mu's focus while using calming heart sutra was peerless, but Lanbao didn't know that. To the mermaid, Lin Mu was working with great dedication and was worth learning from.
'Is this what having a teacher is like?' Lanbao wondered.
Being an artifact spirit meant that she was never taught and all knowledge she had was from the arrays themselves. It was knowledge integrated by the ancestor of the Haima clan, Muxuan.
And later on, when she was born, she hadn't learned from people but rather from books directly. The millions of books in the library of the city had given Lanbao plenty to learn about.
She didn't care what they were about either soaking up all knowledge like a sponge.
Lin Mu didn't know that Lanbao was learning from him either. And it wasn't like he would mind that anyways. To him, this was practice and he was deepening his knowledge of runes as well.
Eventually, ten days passed by and Lin Mu finally carved the final runes on the ground.
~SLASH~
A sword light struck the ground, carving a curved run on it, finishing the array's structure.
~HAAA~
Lin Mu let out a breath feeling slightly tired. This fatigue wasn't physical though, but rather mental. Having to think and compute these many runes was indeed a great challenge and was exhausting.
"At least the formations are done… will have to see how well they integrate though." Lin Mu muttered to himself.
"You did decently." Xukong finally said.
He too had been observing and was satisfied with Lin Mu's work.
"For your first attempt, this is more than enough." Xukong praised.
"Thank you, senior. But I can see that I need a lot more improvement." Lin Mu replied.
"Can you point out the areas where you need to improve?" Xukong questioned, knowing that this awareness was quite important.
"I do senior." Lin Mu nodded his head. "The first point would be that I need a lot more precision with the runes. Even with the sword intent being used to carve and the Immortal sense to guide it, there are still mistakes in it.
They don't appear until after I've carved the rune." He stated.
"Good, good. This is correct." Xukong acknowledged. "You can only improve on this point by practicing more."
"The second point I need improvement is the arrangement of the formations themselves. I felt like they can be further optimized to fit on a smaller area. The current arrangement is too awkward." Lin Mu said next.
"This is correct as well. But improvements of this kind are on a higher level. When you can successfully implement these, you will become an Immortal Formation master." Xukong replied.
Hearing the words Immortal Formation master reminded Lin Mu that his information had been restricted before. Xukong couldn't tell him about this back in the Xiaofan world.
"Oh yeah, senior. Can you now tell me about the official classification of the Formation creation occupation?" Lin Mu questioned.
"Ah yes, it is about time I explained to you in detail." Xukong spoke. "You can say that the formations you've learned before the immortal realm are merely the beginning of it all.
As you know, those who can use spirit Qi to make runes are called as Spirit Formation Apprentices, those who can make entire formations are Spirit Formation Masters, and those who can make complete arrays are called as Spirit Formation Grandmasters.
Above these are the Immortal Formations that utilize Immortal Qi and other immortal materials to make.
At this level formations now have official grades that range from Minor, lesser, great, greater, and grand. The classification of the Immortal formation masters is determined on how many such formations they can utilize to make an array.
An Immortal Formation Apprentice is merely someone who can carve some runes and maybe make a few immortal talismans that fall in the minor and lesser grade.
An Immortal Formation Master is someone who can make an array that utilizes at least three formations at the Great grade and combine to make an array.
An Immortal Formation Grandmaster though is someone who can make an array that utilizes three Grand grade formations to make an array.
The higher you go a formation grade, the more difficult it gets. Right now you are using spirit formations thus you aren't a proper Immortal Formation master, though you can be considered an Immortal Formation Apprentice." Xukong explained in detail.
Lin Mu paid great attention to all the information, memorizing it quickly.
"I see, so to reduce the size of the arrays and rearrange them, I need to reach the Immortal Formation Master level." Lin Mu spoke after internalizing the information.
"Yes, you will need the understanding of that level to successfully implement it. Though since you will be utilizing immortal Qi to power this array, you will be able to comprehend more." Xukong replied.
"I understand senior." Lin Mu felt anticipation for the next step.
What Xukong didn't tell Lin Mu though was the level of difficulty that Lin Mu was practicing with.
The average formation master wouldn't just carve runes onto a raw rock and expect them to be proper. No, they used proper materials such as spirit stone, spirit jade, formation flags, and more as the medium.
And not just that, they also used specialized formation tools to carve these runes and connect the formations. But Lin Mu wasn't doing that.
He was fully relying on himself to accomplish the same.
He didn't use external resources and fully relied on skill.
It wasn't that normal materials couldn't be used to make formations, they could be used. But the difficulty would be a lot higher due to factors such as uneven material composition, inadequate Qi conduction, and just the overall durability.
Only the formation masters that were really poor would usually utilize a method like this to make formations. But even that was only when they had nothing left. Once the formation was made, they could sell it off to get some proper materials.
One could even say that Lin Mu's method of making formations wasn't efficient or proper, but what it provided him was a lot greater. It allowed his skills and proficiency to rise a lot faster than it would with other aids.
'As long as he continues on this path, he'll have fewer difficulties later on.' Xukong thought as he internally smiled.
"Are you done?" Lanbao's voice was heard after a while.
Lin Mu raised a brow and looked up, finding the mermaid floating in the sky.
"Ah yes! I'm done." Lin Mu nodded his head. "I just need to establish a link between the array and the Immortal Qi storage." He added.
"Don't worry about that. It is already prepared." Lanbao replied, confusing Lin Mu.
"It's done? When, how?" Lin Mu asked.
"Elder Niji came by several times but you were busy with the array. So I just asked him to make the linking formations. The human named Kunzi guided Elder Niji and Immortal Taegu to make them." Lanbao replied.
"I see…" Lin Mu didn't worry that the linking formation might be wrong either.
It was a simple formation that most Spirit formation masters should be able to make. Kunzi was even more experienced and could be considered a Spirit formation grandmaster. And now that Elder Niji was at the Immortal realm, learning some formations was also easy for him.
"I'll tell Elder Niji to release the Immortal Qi then," Lanbao spoke seeing that Lin Mu was fine with it.
"Yes, do that. I'll monitor the array for any issues." Lin Mu nodded his head and spread his immortal sense again.
Lanbao closed her eyes and sent a message to Elder Niji.
Back at the Deep Sapphire City, the man looked at the Immortal Qi storage and its screen that was floating on top.
"So it is done… let's see how good Noble Lin Mu's work is."
