Blue Phoenix

by Tinalynge

  Gao Li could not open his mouth and speak, but his eyes showed disdain as he looked at Hui Yue. It was clear that he thought that this battle was over as soon as he managed to get out of this formation.

  Hui Yue instantly summoned forth three hundred seals and started to arrange them in an orderly fashion. It was clear that he was creating a three hundred seal formation.

  Hui Yue continued to weave the seals through one another and pour his soulforce into the seals. He was getting low on soulforce now, but he knew that by now Gao Li should also not have much energy left. If he could make this formation work, then there was a chance of defeating this genius, but if he couldn't then, he would be the one defeated.

  His creation of the formation was flawless. The speed he used to create this three hundred seal formation was so fast and smooth that many people who watched it were in awe with how simple he made it seem.

  No one knew that he had practiced this so many times, that he had formed it time after time to perfect his control over the formation.

  Hui Yue urged his soulforce into the seals and just as the formation roared and completed, Gao Li was freed, and the valkyrie swept down from the sky above.

  No one had seen what it was that was hiding underneath the many seals that Hui Yue had summoned, but they all suddenly felt an increase in temperature. This increase was not similar to when he created the Blazing Tigers. No, this felt like a sun descending upon the stage, and the heat was almost unimaginable.

  Previously when the valkyrie arrived no such occurrence had appeared but now that Hui Yue summoned forth a formation, it was suddenly overwhelming everyone. Was this truly just a three hundred seal formation?

  "This formation... It can’t be?" The weasel from the Heavenly Dragon Gate was stumped for words when he felt the rise in temperature and was completely gobsmacked.

  Pei Bai on the side was smiling widely. He knew exactly which formation this was, and it was not a formation he had found for Hui Yue, it was a formation the young man had managed to find on his own. As for where it had come from, only Huli and Hui Yue knew.

  The truth was that he had traded a lot of storage treasures with the Universe Box for this formation, and the formation was the most outstanding fire formation that the Universe Box had.

  Rumor had it that originally this galaxy had ten suns, all of who were brothers. These ten brothers were all controlled by the Jade Emperor, an Overlord that came after Pangu. They would shine upon the galaxy one at a time. Every morning one sun would travel across the galaxy and shine it’s light onto the worlds beneath.

  Unfortunately, these suns were all young and filled with mischievousness and loved to fool around, so one day, they all appeared in the sky together.

  But, the moment these suns appeared in the sky together, the temperature in the entire galaxy rose drastically. Worlds started to wither and burn, and it was simply impossible for anything to grow.

  These suns were unaware of the consequences of their actions, and they kept playing, even when asked to stop their misdeeds by many experts. The mother of the suns, Goddess Xihe, asked Houyi to get the suns to behave, yet once again they did not listen. As a result Houyi appeared in front of them and shot down nine of the ten suns with his terrifying arrows. Afterwards Houyi was viewed as a hero, and he managed to save all races from damnation.

  These ten suns were exactly the same suns as the formation was created after. The formation was known as the Ten Suns formation. It was not like most formations, and it was very difficult to learn. It was a multi-level formation!

  When one had one hundred seals, it was possible to create one sun. With two hundred seals one could create two suns, and so on.

  Hui Yue had three hundred and nineteen seals and thus was able to form three suns. When he reached the Grandmaster rank, he would be able to form an entire ten suns. At that time, he would be almost impossible to defeat.

  Although these formations were outstanding, and they became more and more powerful the more suns he could create, the thing which made them so shockingly powerful was not just their initial strength but also the four daos of fire that Lan Feng had comprehended and the dao of inferno that Hui Yue had comprehended.

  With five fire daos, the strength of the Ten Sun formation was simply too overwhelming.

  The valkyrie screamed out when she got too close to the three suns that soon displayed themselves on the stage. All three were different sizes, the next always bigger than the previous ones.

  "I heard about this formation in the past," the old weasel said slightly smiling. He truly was shocked to the core; he had never expected that such a killing technique would appear on stage, it truly was no shame to lose to this youngster.

  "When he has managed to control the full formation then he should be able to learn the Goddess Xihe formation."

  "If he can do both the Ten Suns and the Goddess Xihe formations, he should be able to enter the Valley of Light in the East. I heard it is filled with treasures beyond belief. It is an archaic world that has been around since the time when the galaxy was first created!"

  "I heard it is the dream location for anyone who is searching for ancestral treasures, herbs, ores, anything! To become such an astonishing expert, the Celestial Sword Sect truly has benefitted this time!"

  Pei Bai said nothing although the Weasel was standing right next to him, he just smiled. He too felt excited about the prospects of Hui Yue.

  While the two old men were talking, the fight raged on stage. Although the valkyrie was greatly disadvantaged, Gao Li was not willing to give up, and he gave all he had to display his superiority. He made it snow in the hope that the snow would cool down the suns or extinguish them, but as soon as it came close to the three suns that were crowded around Hui Yue all the snow melted and the water instantly evaporated.

  "Tell me, since he understands this formation does he also have access to other primordial formations that should have been long since extinct from our galaxy?" the old weasel almost did not dare ask this question. He understood that the Celestial Sword Sect was not going to share it, but he needed to know if their spot as the number one Formation Master's sect was going to be snatched away by the Celestial Sword Sect.

  "I honestly do not know," Pei Bai answered truthfully. "But if I did, I could not tell you where we got it from nor could I tell you whether or not we have more than the one."

  Pei Bai just smiled as he said this but he also had a slight headache. Hui Yue had given him the formation to learn and practice, but he had still not managed to form more than four suns. He understood that he was many times slower than Hui Yue when it came to formations and that his talent was only mediocre compared to Hui Yue's.

  Hui Yue had continuously protected himself with the three stars, never once launching an attack at Gao Li, and finally, the match ended as the genius no longer had any soulforce. His valkyrie formation slowly turned into mist before dissipating into thin air.

  "I... I lost?" Gao Li's voice was filled with disbelief as he spoke, and everyone was shocked. He was the number one genius of the younger generation when it came to formations. He was a proud son of the heavens yet now he had been beaten.

  The one who beat him was someone he had looked down upon. Someone he had insulted, and he had said that his person had no talent for formations, yet when the truth came out, he was indeed more talented and more outstanding than himself.

  "The winner is Pei Yue!," was something everyone knew, so when the Weasel announced it, no one was shocked. In the end, the one they had all looked down upon was the winner. The one they had all thought was only here to not lose too much face was the highest ranked in the Formation Master's debate.

  Soon the top ten had been decided. The winner got a huge amount of resources and formations that had been pooled together by all participating sects, and Hui Yue was the happy recipient of all these cultivation resources.

  Pei Bai, who had already thought it impossible for Hui Yue to win was simply ecstatic. He
was so thrilled that he did not know what leg to stand on, and his face was flushed with excitement. Even if he did not do great in the older generation's Formation Master's debate, Hui Yue had already gained face for the Celestial Sword Sect.

  The rest of the day went with everyone discussing the benefits they had gained by watching others and stronger experts’ debates.

  Although they had not ranked, they had gained enlightenment and were all feeling extra motivated for continuing their path down the road of formations. They were all certain that formations were the best cultivation method for them, whether it was the Flight of the Valkyrie or the Ten Suns formation both were so magnificent and brilliant that it instantly blinded everyone present. The potential of the first and the second ranked experts at the debate was simply too shocking!

  Chapter 632 - The Older Generation

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  Chapter 632: The Older Generation

  As the first day of the Formation Master's debate came to a close, everyone was shocked and filled with surprise. There had been so many shocking events, and the display of formations far exceeded the formations shown at previous debates.

  Even the elders who were present felt that they had gained enlightenment from watching the younger generation. They had seen the first part of a primordial formation, and they had seen a true killing formation! Even when the Formation Masters fought against each other, they did not usually display their true power as they wished to keep some of their strength hidden.

  As an elder, these debates were all about face, but none of them would truly give them their all because these sects were after all not the same sect.

  This was also why Hui Yue and Gao Li normally would not have displayed such outstanding abilities. While the Flight of the Valkyrie truly was Gao Li’s ace of aces for Hui Yue formations were only a part of his strength. He had plenty of tricks he could use and displaying the Ten Suns formation did not make him less dangerous in a fight.

  Everyone retreated to their own courtyards where they were sat together with disciples of the different sects and their elders.

  Together they all spent time discussing what they had seen. Even the elders would participate in these discussions. They would talk about what they had learned from watching the Formation Master's debate, and everyone would discuss the insights they had gained.

  Gao Li had been silent at first. He was dispirited because of his loss, but after considering it for some time, he came to terms with the result. Who could have imagined that his opponent could use a primordial formation? Such a thing was almost impossible to defend against!

  After slowly coming to terms with his loss and accepting the reality, Gao Li sat down and started to go through everything he had experienced on that stage earlier the day. He relived every one of his moves and every move Hui Yue made, and the more he thought about it, the more he understood that he had been disadvantaged from the start.

  Hui Yue was clearly from the Celestial Sword Sect, but every formation that he used focused on the dao of fire, and this element was the bane of his snow dao. Snow would always melt when in contact with fire.

  His Snow Owls were powerful, and he had more of them, but considering the dao of fire had strengthened the tigers to such an unbelievable state, the amount of Snow Owls he had did not really matter in the end.

  On top of this, Hui Yue also had access to the dao of space which had made his Spacelock formation a true nightmare to deal with.

  Hui Yue had shown him that to be a true genius in the formations arts one needed to be not only skilled at formations, but they also had to have comprehended many daos as well. Formations were powerful, but they could be boosted to immeasurable heights by complementary daos.

  At the same time, Hui Yue had shown Gao Li that he had been too arrogant from the start. He had been relying too much on the fact that he had more seals and could control more formations than Hui Yue, therefore, he thought he would easily win.

  Now he understood that there were many other aspects that played a part when it came to formations. He realized that if he wished to become a true Formation Master then he needed to not just blindly try and learn more seals, he needed to spend time comprehending the dao as well.

  Up until now, he had been satisfied with just the two snow daos that he had comprehended, but now he felt that this was far from sufficient.

  At the start, Gao Li had been depressed and unhappy, but as time went on, he became excited and filled with enthusiasm for cultivating.

  He felt that he had finally found the right path to walk down. He now knew that to be a true master of formations he needed to also comprehend daos.

  Although his pride would not allow for him to say that he was grateful for the defeat, he was certain that because of this defeat, he would become many times more outstanding than he had been. He knew that his combat ability would be many times more frightening later on because of his sudden enlightenment.

  Gao Li was not the only one who came to this conclusion. Others present also suddenly understood how important it was to become a master of the various daos if they wanted to truly overwhelm their opponents.

  Previously, every contestant in the Formation Master's debate had been fully focused on just formations, and thus they had not focused on the dao. Because they had not focused on the dao, they had never realized exactly how useful the dao was to their formation arts.

  It was common knowledge that one could enhance the strength of one's formations with the dao, but it was not before now they truly understood just how much of a difference it could make. Even the elders had been shocked speechless.

  While everyone was busy discussing and thinking about these new ideas, the night slowly passed.

  Be it night or day, the same strange light from the snow continued to glow and illuminate the entire world. The sky was constantly overcast and gray making the only light that illuminated the world the snow.

  Soon it was time for the older generation to debate and all the younger generation was filled with excitement. Everyone had complete faith in their elders and their abilities, and they all looked forward to seeing real Formation Master's fight against one another.

  These were true Formation Masters who controlled a countless amount of seals. Their battles could topple mountains and part the oceans. Their battles were simply so eye catching and grand that the students rarely saw anything like it but now it was possible to finally see the ones they looked up to fight for real.

  Or so they thought.

  It turned out that while the younger generation truly used the debate as a way to duel one another, the older generation did things differently. They would each display a formation, and the opponent would then have to outshine that formation. The starting master would then outdo the previous formation, and they would continue like this until one of them admitted defeat.

  Not only this, but they would also display how many formations they were capable of controlling at the same time and sometimes they would show their rarest formation.

  The only thing they would not display were their killing formations.

  Most of the elders had compressed between eight hundred and nine hundred seals, and they could control around seventy to eighty formations at once.

  There were few a elders that could command around nine hundred seals, but only two elders could use more than nine hundred and fifty seals. These two were the Old Weasel from the Heavenly Dragon Gate and Pei Bai from the Celestial Sword Sect.

  Both of them were capable of controlling ninety-four formations at the same time, and they only had a three seal difference between each other. Pei Bai controlled three seals more than the Old Weasel.

  Just as with the younger generation, it was clearly decided that the winner had to be chosen between these two experts. As for who would win, no one knew as these two experts were truly too close to one another .

  This was not the first time that they faced one another in the Formation Master's debate and neither would it be
the last. They had both been born in the same generation and had fought one another year after year.

  They had always been compared to one another and had from the beginning had a rivalry so strong that they had given up everything in their lives to defeat the other in the formation arts.

  One year one of them would win and the next year another would. Up until now, Pei Bai had won one time less than the Old Weasel, and he hoped to use the Formation Master's debate of this year to even out their score.

  Unlike the last debate, this one took place outside. The elder’s debate was held right next to the pagoda where there was a massive training ground. In the training ground was a stage raised a meter above the ground. Their stage was ten times as big as the one that the younger generation had used, and the formations and inscriptions around it had also been increased tenfold.