Star Gate

Chapter 391: Luring the Snake Out of the Cave (I)

Li Hao quickly cleared up Hong Qing’s confusion. “The formation I’m referring to is the Ten Rings Mountain Seal Formation. It’s a very unique army formation dug up from an ancient ruin. Everyone is to use the same breathing method when it’s in operation. Internal force from martial masters connects with each other and circulates in a loop. There is a formation master for each one.

“Ten people can share the internal force when the formation is operating, or it can all be concentrated on one person—the formation master. Each formation requires ten people to form a closed loop. If there are a hundred people, then the ten formation masters can form another circulatory loop. The formation master of that version can hold the internal force of a hundred people...”

Expressions shifted when people heard the leader’s explanation. An ancient formation! A true ancient formation at that, not one that was meant for support or coordination purposes. This was one that facilitated an exchange of internal force. Being martial masters, the Demon Hunters were no fools and understood what this implied.

“The formation method needs to be kept a secret and cannot be leaked!” Li Hao proclaimed. “The core lies in the breathing method that should be employed at the same time. When it is in play, the attributes of internal force are in alignment and they resonate at the same frequency.

“At that time, a formation made of ten Slayers can absolutely fight a Sunderer. In the same vein, a formation of ten Sunderers stands a chance against a Dominator...

“Defensive abilities are also enhanced when wearing the black armor. If a hundred person formation can be assembled from a group of Sunderers and their internal force is centered on a Dominator, then you’ll definitely be able to challenge someone of a stronger level!”

The caveat was that the center point of the formation was strong enough to withstand so much internal force and could also bring it to bear.

The group’s mouths ran dry as they visualized the impressive sight that Li Hao painted.

“Is there really such an ancient formation?” Liu Long couldn’t help but ask. “Are there any special requirements for it?”

“Of course. We can’t have someone drop the ball and break one of the loops. As long as there’s no purposeful sabotage, the others can quickly reconnect the cycle even if one link is defeated.

“Ten people is the optimal number, but it can be done with nine or even a bit less...”

Liu Long looked meaningfully at Li Hao. Can you really just teach others knowledge like this? You’ll be in a lot of trouble if any word of this gets out. How long have you known the people in the team? Do you really think they’re all loyal to you?

He didn’t understand what Li Hao was doing. Although the young man did this in pursuit of strengthening the team, some of these people came from the Sword Sect and others from the Inspectorate. How many were truly of one mind with Li Hao?

“Leader, is this appropriate?” Hong Qing felt compelled to speak up as well. “There are many of us... and I’m not saying that any of us will purposefully leak this knowledge, but what if someone accidentally mentions it in passing? According to what I know, there is no formation like this that currently exists in Silver Moon, right?

“Even the Silver Moon Guards’ Skyjade Formation doesn’t seem to work like this. It simply enhances battle strength when everyone is working in tandem, but cannot facilitate internal force connecting together...”

“That’s because their formation is a lower level one.” Li Hao nodded. “The Ten Rings Mountain Seal Formation should be a higher level one. As for it leaking to others... I can’t control all of you. If it really is leaked to others, I’ll just conduct an investigation. Whoever I trace the crime to will suffer my wrath. What else can I do if I can’t find them?

“I can’t jealously hoard all the methods to improve and send all of you to your deaths,” the young man laughed. “Not to mention, this is just a formation. Its key effect lies in utilization by a number of people. One person alone won’t be able to do anything with it. Whether we reap more for our efforts or not depends on everyone, not just me alone. I might be stronger than all of you, but I might need your help if I run into trouble and get caught by it.

“The Slayers should digest the blood pearls first while the Sunderers listen to the breathing method that I’m about to teach you. This breathing method is called the Mountain Seal Breathing Method. According to ancient records, it comes from a faction called the Blessed Paradise in the ancient civilization.

“My teacher has another explanation when it comes to this faction, that it might not be the name of a single organization. It could be the overall reference for an entire collection of powers. This name appears in many ancient tombs, but it’s not that important.”

Blessed Paradise!

The group made a note of it, but Li Hao was right, it wasn’t that important. It didn’t matter where the method came from, the ancient civilization was long gone. No one really cared what the specifics of society were back in the day.

Li Hao began teaching the breathing method. It wasn’t too hard. In addition to the breathing methods that they had to learn over the course of their cultivation, martial masters were typically aware of other breathing methods to varying degrees. Li Hao knew a few, as did the other martial masters present.

As the young man taught, some people’s breathing began showing signs of change. From this, their abilities of comprehension and intelligence were readily apparent. For example, being Hong Yitang’s daughter, Hong Qing was truly clever. It took her only a short while to effect change in her breathing method and to show slight differences in the projection of her internal force.

Her internal force was as strong as ever—it didn’t show a change in level of strength. But there seemed to be an additional layer of something else there, brought about by the breathing method.

As soon as Hong Qing grasped the method, so did Hong Hao. Then came Li Heng, then Wu Chao, Liu Yan, and Wang Chao...

The six team captains were the first to succeed, followed shortly by the Sword Sect disciples. The martial masters from the Inspectorate were the slowest of the bunch, a clear indication of the gap between the two groups.

The Inspectorate martial masters all hailed from Silver City’s Inspectorate. Some started studying martial dao late in life, others were self taught and had an odd collection of knowledge. Yet others followed Wang Henggang and Liu Long in training.

Meanwhile, Hong Yitang had personally selected all of the Sword Sect disciples. They learned very quickly, to say nothing of anything else.

Hong Qing curiously tried out the new breathing method and spontaneously connected with Hong Hao. The internal force fused together! Surprised and stunned, her reaction was masked by her visor. Waves of shock roiled in her heart. How was this possible?! Internal force really could come together??

Sword Sect disciples trained the core Earthturner Sword method. They were of the same discipline and practiced the same method. Other than being individually different, everything else about them was the same, but their internal force never showed signs of linking together. How come this breathing method could accomplish the feat?

Hong Qing did not understand.

The talkative Li Heng understood even less and decided to ask, “Leader, we have fellow disciples among us and utilize the same breathing method. How come we don’t see this kind of effect in our own training?”

“I don’t know.”

The group blinked.

“I really don’t know,” Li Hao laughed. “Perhaps the breathing method of a formation is more unique—why else would it be specially labeled as a formation method? There would be no need to label them differently if they were all interchangeable. Everything would be a formation method if being from the same discipline is all it takes.

“Or perhaps the secrets held within are too high level and our level is currently too low to peer into them. Maybe there really are some different characteristics involved with a formation’s breathing method.”

The group nodded, excitement quickly gripping them again. Everyone tried connecting to each other. The breathing method was just one aspect of the formation.

“Aside from the breathing method, the second most important factor of the Ten Rings Mountain Seal Formation is the position you stand in! Your positions must be precise as this formation is suited for jointly attacking existences stronger than oneself and not against those weaker.

“It is apparent from its name that the formation is a sealed loop. We will encircle the enemy and seal them away to the point where they cannot strike back...” Li Hao explained. This was all recorded in the ancient texts, he’d never tried it before himself.

Yuan Shuo had taught him so much old knowledge he’d yet to sift through and understand. The only thing he could do was remember everything, so that he could share it with someone at an appropriate time.

As he spoke of the formation, he was suddenly reminded of his teacher. Yuan Shuo had dug through so many ancient tomes and knew an exceedingly large number of them. But other than the Five Styles, he seemed to have only studied the Incantation of the Blade of Blood. Was it that he was too lazy to use anything else?

“Team captains, remember what I’ve said and explain it again to those who don’t understand.” Li Hao looked at the assembly. “It’s up to you to decide how to determine positions and utilize the formation.”

With that, he ignored the group and looked at the Slayers. They were still digesting the blood pearls, but efficiency was low since there was no sword energy to help them. Not only that, but their conversion rate was low as well.

Almost all of them were peak Slayers, which meant they were nearly guaranteed ascension with a Darkmoon blood pearl. But if their conversion rate was too low, that would make things difficult.

As Li Hao glanced at the cultivating Slayers, he suddenly took out three mysterious power stones. While they’d killed a fair number of people earlier, they’d only obtained one mysterious power stone. Only the metal Sunflare had one, which meant these three had come from Golden Spear. Few were the Sunflares that possessed this level of treasure.

His movement caught many people’s eyes.

“Mysterious power stones?” someone asked in a low voice when they recognized the item.

“Mmhmm, I borrowed them from our ranking officer.” Li Hao nodded. “If we don’t obtain sufficient stones to pay him back, the rest of the black armor will go to the Guards as well. The Sword Sect brought them to us... I’m going to use the Breathing Method of the Five Styles to crush the stones and help you digest the power within the blood pearls. This debt will fall on your heads if we don’t obtain enough mysterious power stones to fill in the hole!”

He crushed the stones, operated the breathing method, and absorbed large currents of energy. He quickly raised a small tide of energy, but that was secondary to his true purpose. Li Hao made use of the disturbance to release a little bit of sword energy and meld it into the other energy. The energy instantly shot toward twenty-nine people.

Those who were having trouble breathing immediately felt a difference when the energy entered their body. The blood energy instantly calmed down!

Joy beamed from their faces as—boom! Someone’s internal force exploded in external projection. The other Sunderers gaped—so this was the Breathing Method of the Five Styles?? It was incredible!

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