130 Stormchaser

The scent of medicinal powders and fragrant herbs assaulted Cha Ming's nostrils, and the floorboards creaked as he walked into Mo Tianshen's laboratory. The man in question was standing at a workbench, pressing out what must have been the hundredth pill pellet of the batch.

"The results of the experiment were interesting," Mo Tianshen said as he pressed the powder. "The medicinal efficacy was only five percent, a far cry from the current ten percent."

Cha Ming didn't bat an eye. He would have been very surprised if so few experiments would produce an optimal result.

"However, these pills could be used five times instead of the original three times for the current version."

"I'm sorry, but I'm a little confused about something," Cha Ming said. "How exactly did you obtain such accurate statistics with only ten of every pill?" It should have been impossible to obtain anything more than a pass or fail, and that was being generous.

"I used an Illusory Pill-Testing Formation supplied by Partner Lu," he said. "This way, it was possible to test the effects roughly a hundred times for every pill. However, the pills slightly degraded in quality with successive repetitions of the trial, something which must be adjusted for when tabulating the data. Besides, what did you expect me to do? Conduct live trials with untested medicine? Animal trials that don't relate to our body chemistry in the slightest?"

Cha Ming did, in fact, consider that the man may have tried these unsavory methods. He just hadn't expected the man to spend so much wealth on a high-level formation to test low-level pills. He had underestimated his dedication.

"Human life is precious," the alchemist said. "Even animal life is, to a lesser extent. It is best to spend more money to avoid such suffering if possible."

"Will we be continuing with experiments, then?" Cha Ming asked.

"Of course," Mo Tianshen said. "However, it won't be easy. This successful research has sparked many new ideas with many element combinations. As such, I've already generated one thousand powder formulas with which we'll need to test ten thousand liquids. At ten samples apiece, I can't see us getting by without at least ten million pill combination tests."

Cha Ming nearly puked blood. How can he be so advanced in some subjects but so backward in others? Hasn't he heard of experimental design? Where am I to find time to practice formations, create talismans, and cultivate? Where will he find time to make me pills?

"It's very important to remember that this work will establish the foundation of an empire—no, the foundation of the continent," Mo Tianshen said. "It could take a decade or so to sort everything out. And that's being optimistic."

Who has a decade to waste on this? Cha Ming thought. More to the point, it's completely unnecessary.

Recalling that he was in the presence of a core-formation cultivator, Cha Ming composed himself before edging his seat forward. "Grandmaster Mo?" Cha Ming asked. "Have you ever heard of designing experiments to reduce experimental effort?"

The grandmaster alchemist paused his mechanical movements. "What's that?"

"Well, let's take this as an example," Cha Ming explained. "Let's say you have one thousand trials. Nine hundred of them simply use various doses of different medicinal ingredients, correct?"

"This is so," Mo Tianshen admitted.

"And with the liquids, could you possibly be thinking of trying out ten or so dosages for each liquid?" Cha Ming pressed.

"Twelve, to be exact," Mo Tianshen replied.

"Now, for all of these, you must have some sort of best guess on what dosages work best," Cha Ming continued. "For example, you must have a low and a high dosage in mind that might obtain optimal effects. In fact, somewhere in the middle of those two doses might be best. Is that right?" The alchemist nodded. "Then I will suggest a different approach to these experiments," Cha Ming continued. "Can you please write down which medicinal ingredients you will be trialing, which liquids, and at what dosage ranges?"

"I can, but certain ingredients interact too strongly," the alchemist said. "That's why it's so important to do so many experiments." He started writing down the list regardless of his argument.

"Don't worry about that," Cha Ming said. "It's not like you're using live subjects to begin with. Besides, the first step is reducing the ten million experiments to one thousand. By using them to evaluate various effects, we'll notice trends. We'll then take the best results and study them in detail. This way, we can get preliminary results in one month and much more detailed results one month later."

He then began creating an optimization plan. He also wrote down his reasoning in terms that could be understood by the senior alchemist. After all, mathematics and statistics weren't unknown in this world; only their practical application was lacking.

Soon enough, the alchemist's eyes brightened as he came to understand the logic behind the method. "Brilliant!" he shouted. "Let's give it a try on my most optimistic variations, then." He immediately summoned a few dozen powders, and his soul force mixed them in midair with great precision. In his excitement, he didn't waste time with the manual press but directly formed pellets. Then he motioned with his hands, drawing out dozens of different liquids. They were mixed in various doses and poured into vials. The man was a quick study, so this new experiment had been designed exactly as it should be.

Seeing that the experiments had all been laid in front of him, Cha Ming got to work. He only used the best guess rune for each mixture. Determining more specific runes would happen later in the process. He spent the entire afternoon like this, painting alchemical runes, and he didn't stop until the initial batch of experiments was completed.

As Cha Ming worked, Mo Tianshen was quite idle, secluding himself to the back and using his alchemical flame and various medicinal ingredients to forge pills for Cha Ming.

Cha Ming slumped down in his chair once he'd completed his work. His qi and mental energy were exhausted due to the exaggerated work pace.

"Good timing," Mo Tianshen said while walking out from the back. "I just finished the first batch of pills. This first bottle contains ten least-grade Pillar Expanding Pills, while the second bottle contains three least-grade Pillar Eruption Pills."

Cha Ming's face twitched a little when he heard the pill's names, but it couldn't be helped. This guy's naming sense is something else. You'd think he was giving me aphrodisiac pills with names like those.

"Take the pills in the first vial one at a time until you reach a bottleneck. When charging through the bottleneck, consume the three Pillar Eruption Pills simultaneously. You need that extra boost since, for some reason, you have three times as much qi as a cultivator should have at your cultivation realm."

"Many thanks," Cha Ming said while receiving the vials.

"No, it is you I must thank," Mo Tianshen said. "You've saved me decades of effort. This is the least I can do."

Cha Ming shook his head. "It's still too early to judge the results. One mustn't be too biased while conducting experiments."

Mo Tianshen snorted. "If one didn't expect results, why would they waste their time on experimenting?"

Cha Ming didn't disagree. He didn't stay long and quickly left the laboratory to cultivate.

***

Cha Ming allowed his mental energy and qi to fully recover before ingesting one of the Pillar Expanding Pills. The pill immediately dissolved upon entering his mouth, feeding concentrated five-element qi and creation and destruction qi into his dantian. The destruction qi didn't harm him; neither did the others, for that matter. They directly bypassed any obstructions and proceeded to their ultimate destination: his qi pillars.

Cha Ming felt his sigil-shaped pillars expand at a noticeable pace. In fact, the first pill alone increased the volume of each of his pillars and their supporting black-and-white grid by twenty percent. He estimated that this one pill had saved him an entire month of arduous cultivation. It had taken him only one hour to fully dissolve its energy.

Seeing such a great effect encouraged Cha Ming, who proceeded to ingest them one after another. With every pill, the effectiveness shrank. The second grew his pillars as much as ninety-nine percent of the first one, then ninety-eight percent, and so on. The last pill only increased the length of his pillars a tiny bit before abruptly stopping as though they had hit a wall.

Cha Ming didn't immediately try to break through. Instead, he cultivated to expand the volume of foundation qi inside the foundation seas surrounding his qi pillars. It didn't take long for the calm qi seas to reach the same heights as the pillars in question, threatening to flood over them at any moment.

It was at this moment that Cha Ming ate the three Pillar Eruption Pills simultaneously. A surge of potent energy rushed into his five pillars. There were also traces of something else—a corroding power that affected the stability of each sigil. Each pillar creaked, ready to burst from the massive influx of energy. It only took one final push from Cha Ming's soul to crack through an invisible barrier, causing the pillars to abruptly expand. As they did, the foundation seas drained to supply the energy needed for the transformation.

The process continued until his seas were completely empty, and the growth abruptly stopped. Cha Ming then spent hours refilling the empty qi reservoirs. As he did, he noticed that not only had the quantity of his qi increased, but the purity had as well. The seas contained foundation qi that was much more viscous than normal.

I always thought the difference between realms in foundation establishment was a matter of accumulation, he thought. It seems that I was wrong.

His breakthrough complete, Cha Ming focused his attention on the next important matter—combat sigils. Formations were generally very complicated, much more so than single-use talismans, but that didn't mean that all formations were this way. Combat formations were a specialized set. They only used sigils for execution, and they were streamlined in such a way that greatly increased personal qi consumption and eliminated other ways of compensating, like supplying energy through spirit stones. They were also considerably weaker than other formations of the same tier, and their rankings were based on their difficulty and their required cultivation realm. He opened one of the many books Lu Tianhao had lent him.

Combat Formations

Introduction

Congratulations on condensing the necessary sigils to practice combat formations. Combat formations are an essential part of a formation master's strength. Not only do they provide unsurpassed flexibility, but when used correctly, they are superior in quality to combat techniques.

Warning: Before proceeding to the next page, it is strongly recommended that you practice condensing formations from first grade through ninth with your condensed sigils. One's foundation is very important. If it takes longer than a single breath for the reader to condense a ninth-grade formation using a single sigil, the remainder of this book will be a waste of time. Combat formations are useless if the user is slain before activating them.

This was the reason behind Lu Tianhao's drills. He had been preparing Cha Ming for combat formations all along. To test his hypothesis, Cha Ming recalled the first-grade blaze formation. A ruby sigil shot out, and using his qi and incandescent force, he expanded it into twelve runes joined by various runic lines. A small blaze took shape above the formation. It was the simplest formation he knew, and it had taken him less than a breath. The uniform nature of the sigil made the formation he conjured stable throughout the process.

Cha Ming felt a sense of nostalgia as he thought of the soul-pearl manifestations once more. He withdrew his qi from the sigil, and the formation collapsed. Nine-tenths of the qi originally used returned to his foundation sea, while one-tenth of it vanished.

What a huge advantage, Cha Ming thought. While it seemed like the formations summoned used a lot of energy, the energy was recycled.

As a test, he summoned the blaze formation again. This time, however, he substituted a few runes and changed some lines, transforming it into a burning formation. Only a little additional qi was required, and it wasn't until he needed to retract the energy that he noticed a ten-percent loss in qi.

The second advantage of sigil formations was very clear—components were interchangeable, so formations were mutable and interchangeable so long as certain rules were followed.

***

A week passed quietly as he tried out different combinations, quickly familiarizing himself with the sigils. At the end of the week, he could easily summon a ninth-grade formation on a whim. He then moved on to combat formations proper. He had his eyes on a lesser-grade combat formation, which was the fusion of two least-grade combat formations.

Ten percent of Cha Ming's creation qi left his body as he used twelve wind-element sigils to form twelve different ninth-grade formations simultaneously. He used his qi to expand connecting lines between the sigils in order to join them into an organic whole. The process was considerably easier than drawing a least-grade talisman, but he still failed on his first attempt, losing thirty percent of the energy he had invested. Still, he didn't despair. Practice made perfect, and he refused to give up until he could summon the combat formation without any problems in less than a breath ten times out of ten.

One day later, he finally completed the Heavenly Cloud Steps combat formation. He summoned it under his Stormchaser Boots, making his feet feel especially light. To test the new technique, he rushed out of his residence and began running in the air and along the walls. His feet didn't touch anything solid, simply walking on the air itself.

Twice as fast as before, he thought. And my ability to walk in the air has greatly improved. I can now walk a hundred feet above any surface. Satisfied, he retracted the formation and resummoned it continuously until he could do it ten times out of ten.

The second combat formation he mastered was the Heavenly Lightning Steps Formation. It was composed of twelve iridescent lightning runes joined in a seemingly haphazard manner. Given his previous experience with the Heavenly Cloud Steps Formation, condensing this least-grade formation didn't take long. He continuously practiced it until mastery. Not only did it boost his movement speed by a half time more than the Heavenly Cloud Steps Formation, but its ability to instantaneously change directions was also much better.

Now comes the difficult part, he thought, calming his breath. He summoned twenty-four sigils at once. It takes wind and lightning to form a storm. Thunder and clouds strike quickly and mightily.

Twelve lightning sigils floated out, forming the framework of Heavenly Lightning Steps, while twelve wind sigils formed the framework for Heavenly Cloud Steps. They meshed together with additional formation lines that completely changed the energy flow.

Sweat beaded on Cha Ming's forehead as he used his strong soul to guide the formation lines. Fifty lines became sixty, and sixty became seventy. Before he knew it, ninety-five lines had been formed. The last lines were the most difficult.

Ninety-six… Ninety-seven… Ninety-eight… Ninety-nine… One hundred!

On his first attempt, the lesser-grade combat formation Stormchaser Steps fell into place beneath his feet. He felt the lightning crackle beneath him and the wind blow around his legs. The Stormchaser Boots pulsed after he summoned the formation, and they instantly transformed into gray clouds that complemented the wind and lightning, as though they were made for each other.

Did Fuxi predict this? Cha Ming wondered.

He ran through the courtyard, his feet bare covered in crackling clouds. His speed was five times what it had been when he first modified the Seven Cloud Steps technique.

Enough to completely outrank Xiao Heilong if I encounter him again, Cha Ming thought.

"Have you had enough fun yet?" a cold voice asked behind him.

Cha Ming looked back at Lu Tianhao's figure. His eyes were red and covered in dark circles.

"What might be the problem?" Cha Ming asked, gulping.

"Oh, I don't know," Lu Tianhao said. "It's just that I like coming to my quarters to catch some sleep every decade or so, and some inconsiderate bastard decided to use the courtyard instead of his training room to practice. Not just that, but he's woken me three times. You wouldn't happen to know where I can find this miscreant, would you?"

Not only had Lu Tianhao exited his chambers, but dozens of other members were glaring at him from below. The oppressive sensation forced him to the ground, where his technique instantly dissipated.

"It won't happen again, I swear," Cha Ming said weakly.

"Damn right it won't!" Lu Tianhao yelled.

The dozens of cultivators all came at him together and beat him black and blue. Despite his bone-forging body cultivation and some newly learned healing formations, it took him an entire day to recover.