Chapter Forty-One: The Defensive Formation

The task required disciples to venture deep into the Tianlong Mountains to hunt Foundation Establishment stage demon elephants and obtain their ivory. Each tusk could be exchanged for five hundred contribution points, equivalent to five hundred spirit stones, making the reward quite generous.

However, the depths of the Tianlong Mountains were fraught with danger. Demon elephants traveled in herds, rarely appearing alone, making it difficult and perilous to hunt a single Foundation Establishment stage demon elephant and acquire its tusk.

The task display also highlighted its level of danger, recommending that only inner sect disciples at the Foundation Establishment stage attempt it.

Though the mission details did not directly mention the Blood Elephant Fruit, Chen Yi gleaned much information about it from the task. The Blood Elephant Fruit typically appeared in areas where demon elephants congregated, and to complete the quest required hunting them within such herds. Thus, Chen Yi learned what he most desired—the location of the demon elephant gathering grounds and news about the Blood Elephant Fruit.

Yet, to learn the exact location of these herds within the Tianlong Mountains, Chen Yi would have to accept the task, as the sect would only provide such information upon accepting it.

As for the need for Foundation Establishment stage strength to complete the task, Chen Yi was not concerned. With his current abilities, he was not weaker than a cultivator at the early Foundation Establishment stage—indeed, he was even stronger.

Chen Yi then took out a small white jade token. One side was engraved with his name, the other with the words "Five Elements Sect." The calligraphy carved into the jade flowed with the elegance of dragons and phoenixes, as if a master calligrapher had etched it personally.

This jade token, inscribed with Chen Yi's name, was his identity token within the Five Elements Sect, serving as proof of his status. It contained all his information, including name, age, cultivation level, and contribution points. The identity token had many functions within the sect.

For example, it allowed disciples to directly accept tasks in the Mission Hall. Every member of the Five Elements Sect had one of these tokens, from outer sect disciples in the Qi Refining stage, inner sect disciples at Foundation Establishment and above, elders at the Nascent Soul stage and higher, to the sect master at the Great Ascension stage. It was universal, with no exceptions. In fact, such tokens were used throughout the cultivation world’s sects.

Other sects had adopted this practice from the Five Elements Sect, for it was here that the identity token was first created—crafted by the sect’s master artifact refiner, Elder Ouyang.

The identity token was one of Elder Ouyang’s remarkable contributions to the Five Elements Sect, and was considered a rare treasure. The sect possessed a supreme-grade spirit artifact master token, while all disciples held sub-tokens. Every piece of information from the sub-tokens was recorded in the master token.

The supreme-grade master token was forged jointly by Elder Ouyang and elders at the Tribulation Crossing stage, for Ouyang’s Nascent Soul cultivation alone would not suffice to refine such an artifact.

Though the supreme artifact was the result of collaboration, Elder Ouyang’s talent could not be denied—for few could work alongside Tribulation Crossing cultivators to forge supreme treasures.

Within the Five Elements Sect, outer sect disciples’ tokens were of mundane quality, inner sect disciples’ tokens were magic artifacts, elders’ were spirit artifacts, and the sect master’s token was the supreme-grade master token.

The identity token could also serve as a magic treasure, with all tokens above mundane grade possessing strong defensive abilities, capable of withstanding a blow from a cultivator one stage higher.

Such defensive power should not be underestimated; in contests, it was a vital advantage. Defensive magic treasures were exceedingly rare in the cultivation world—out of a hundred cultivators, few possessed one, whether a magic or spirit artifact. The reason lay in artifact refiners’ lack of understanding of defensive formations.

Of all formations, defensive ones were the most precious. Among the six great immortal sects, one was called the Heaven-Guarding Sect, where every member, from outer disciples to the sect master, was a formation master of varying levels.

Yet even in the Heaven-Guarding Sect, not every disciple could construct defensive formations, underscoring their rarity. Even formation masters seldom possessed many defensive formations, and for artifact refiners, acquiring them was nearly impossible.

This changed dramatically with Elder Ouyang’s emergence. A master among artifact refiners, Ouyang innovated by combining killing and trapping formations to create new defensive arrays.

His genius lay in first embedding a trapping formation within the artifact embryo, then overlaying it with a killing formation. When attacked, the trap would immobilize, followed by the killing array’s eradication—treating the attack as an adversary, thus forming a new defensive formation.

The advent of this new defensive formation was a major breakthrough in the world of artifact refinement, altering centuries of history. When the Heaven-Guarding Sect learned Elder Ouyang had devised such an array, the entire sect was astonished.

Defensive formations had always been their greatest challenge. As formation masters, their methods differed from ordinary cultivators; although they practiced Qi, their attacks relied on formations.

Formation masters constructed various arrays within themselves, unleashing their full power with a surge of spiritual energy. They could build killing, trapping, and defensive arrays internally.

In battle, they used trapping formations to immobilize foes, killing formations for direct assault, and defensive arrays for protection. Yet, due to the rarity of defensive arrays, they feared close combat most, their defensive power among the weakest of cultivators at the same stage.

Thus, upon hearing of Elder Ouyang’s breakthrough, every formation master in the Heaven-Guarding Sect was both shocked and elated. Their sect master immediately visited the Five Elements Sect to seek Elder Ouyang’s guidance in constructing new defensive arrays, for acquiring more would significantly enhance their sect’s combat strength.