Seeing the flicker of confusion in Su Ming’s eyes, Qingfeng immediately added with a smug expression, “You didn’t know, did you? That ‘Dao Inquiry Stone’ is a rare treasure for testing formation talent! An ordinary disciple who can make it light up three times is qualified to enter Formation Peak’s inner sect. Five times, and they’re a genius. Senior Brother Luo Feng’s ‘nine times’ is unique in nearly a hundred years! Even Uncle Xuanheng was shocked!”

As soon as these words were spoken, the hands of Old Wang, Old Li, and the others in the courtyard, who had been diligently working with their heads down, all paused for a moment.

When they looked again at that solitary, proud figure in the corner, the awe in their eyes had already transformed into reverence.

Unique in a hundred years!

These words struck everyone’s hearts like a heavy hammer.

Only now did they truly understand the terrifyingly prestigious status of this Senior Brother Luo who came daily to “find fault.”

A Peak Master’s personal disciple! The weight of these four words was enough to suffocate any outer sect disciple.

Su Ming understood in his heart. No wonder Luo Feng pursued perfection in formations with an almost obsessive perfectionism.

What he carried on his shoulders was not just his own pride, but the face of the entire Formation Peak.

Inside the Xuantian ring, Lin Yu’s soul thought materialized into a phantom image, currently pointing at Luo Feng and commenting, “Good heavens, so he’s a Crown Prince’s faction member! Disciple, let me tell you, this kind of person is the hardest to deal with, but also the easiest. What they lack isn’t resources, nor cultivation methods, but a unique skill that allows them to ‘forge a new path and stand out’ within their sect! Our set of ‘dimensional reduction strikes’ is practically tailor-made for him!”

Having his background exposed by Qingfeng and Mingyue, Luo Feng’s face flashed with a barely perceptible trace of awkwardness, but he still maintained that cold, proud demeanor, merely letting out a soft “Hmm” from his nose as a response.

Su Ming deeply agreed with his master’s analysis. He was currently focused on a “Quiet Heart Formation” formation plate in his hand.

The core of this formation plate required the composite superposition of the “Quiet” character rune and the “Tranquility” character rune. He had attempted it over a dozen times, but the spiritual energy at the convergence point always produced a slight, disharmonious disturbance, causing the formation’s effectiveness to be greatly diminished.

His brows furrowed tightly, his divine sense sinking into it, repeatedly deducing the flow direction of the spiritual energy circuit, trying to find that one-in-ten-thousand error.

This subtle bottleneck, landing in the eyes of Luo Feng in the corner who had been observing him out of the corner of his eye, was as glaring as a bonfire in the night.

That kind of mistake, in his view, was appallingly crude.

He finally couldn’t hold back.

Luo Feng’s figure flickered, appearing instantly before Su Ming’s desk like a wisp of breeze.

His slender finger pointed without ceremony at the formation plate in Su Ming’s hand, his tone carrying a kind of precise and arrogant certainty that came from a great height.

“Here, at the ‘Li’ position’s circuit, the spiritual energy should arc like a bird circling back, tracing a seven-part arc, not going straight back and forth. This is a fundamental principle stated in the third chapter of ‘The Cloud Reef Formation Treatise.’ You actually don’t know this?”

What he casually cited was a secret transmission from the Formation Peak Master’s lineage, something Su Ming had absolutely no access to.

The courtyard instantly fell silent, everyone’s gaze focused on this scene.

Su Ming raised his head, his eyes showing no shame or annoyance at being corrected. Instead, a flash of keen insight shone within them.

Following Luo Feng’s guidance, he channeled a wisp of spiritual energy into the spot. Sure enough, that sense of stagnation suddenly cleared, and the entire formation emitted a *hum*, radiating a flawless, harmonious, soft glow.

“Thank you for your guidance, Senior Brother,” Su Ming thanked sincerely, then immediately shifted the topic, posing the question he truly cared about. “But this disciple is dull-witted. May I ask, Senior Brother, when you mentioned ‘tracing a seven-part arc,’ how is this ‘seven parts’ quantified? Is there a standard? Is it the ratio of the arc’s curvature to its chord length, or the path length the spiritual energy travels per unit of time?”

“…”

Luo Feng was speechless for the first time.

His handsome face, always bearing an air of solitary pride and confidence, in this moment, displayed an extremely rare blankness mixed with bewilderment and displeasure.

He had been immersed in the path of formations since childhood, proficient in all the “answers” taught by his master. Yet he had never contemplated the “principles” behind these “answers.” If the master said trace a seven-part arc, then it was seven parts. This was as natural and unquestionable as eating or drinking. What need was there for principles? What need was there for standards?

This feeling of being stumped was unfamiliar, making him extremely uncomfortable. Yet deep in his heart, a faint thread of curiosity was stirred, a sense of having touched upon a blind spot in his knowledge.

Inside the Xuantian ring, Lin Yu was already rolling on the floor with laughter.

“It’s happening! It’s happening! Disciple, do you see? He is a walking mountain of gold, piled high with ten thousand years of Cloud Hidden Sect’s formation inheritance! What we need to learn isn’t the ‘answer’ he points out, but the vast ‘knowledge system’ that enables him to point out that answer! The first step is to make friends with him!”

Luo Feng ultimately just snorted coldly, offered no reply, and once again flicked his sleeves and left.

For the next several days, he still came daily to “clock in,” but his attitude completely shifted from the previous provocation and scrutiny to silent observation.

He no longer fixated on Su Ming, but began observing the entire assembly line layout of the Repair Hall. He even secretly took out a recording stone at times, covertly recording the mechanical yet efficient movements of the menial disciples and those flowcharts on the walls that he couldn’t comprehend.

Su Ming’s divine sense was exceptionally sharp;
he had long taken in all of this.

Far from stopping it, he instead gave a meaningful glance to Old Wang, who was checking the materials inventory list in the corner.

Old Wang understood perfectly. Carrying a stack of thick bamboo scrolls, he “accidentally” stumbled as he passed by the stone stool where Luo Feng often sat.

“Ouch!”

A stack of bamboo scrolls scattered across the ground. Among them, a not-very-thick booklet bound with wooden boards just happened to “fall out” under the stone stool. On the booklet’s cover, written clearly, was: *”Illumination Formation Plate” Standard Operating Procedures (Third Edition)*.

Old Wang scrambled to pick up the other bamboo scrolls, repeatedly apologized, and hurried away, as if he hadn’t noticed he’d dropped something at all.

Luo Feng’s gaze was locked onto that booklet under the stone stool, his breathing even hitching slightly. He glanced around, seeing no one paying attention to him. His face struggled for a few breaths, but in the end, he couldn’t resist that fatal temptation.

Pretending to adjust his robes, he silently slipped the booklet into his storage pouch.

For three consecutive days, Luo Feng did not return.

When he appeared again on the fourth day, dark circles under his eyes, his gaze filled with bloodshot threads as if he hadn’t slept for days, he walked straight up to Su Ming, who was instructing a newcomer, and slapped the booklet onto the table with a *thwack*.

Pointing to a diagram in the booklet about “parallel optimization of spiritual energy circuits to improve energy efficiency,” he asked in a tone as cold as possible, yet unable to completely hide a thread of urgency, “This part… how is it explained?”

Su Ming raised his head, looking at that appearance of someone dying of curiosity yet forcing themselves to remain aloof, and chuckled inwardly.

Calmly picking up the booklet, he patiently explained the series and parallel principles of the several basic runes involved, using the simplest, most straightforward numbers and logic.

Su Ming didn’t debate “the Dao” with him, only spoke of “numbers” and “principles.”

In these simple Q&
A sessions, concepts like standardization, efficiency, reproducibility, cost control, yield rate… these cold, rational notions, like spring rain, silently eroded Luo Feng’s inherent, “spiritual” and “aesthetic” concepts of formations.

Inside the Xuantian ring, Lin Yu watched this scene, crossing his legs with satisfaction.

“Heh heh, that’s the power of knowledge, moistening things silently like rain. By the time this kid realizes he’s already starting to think with our logic, he won’t be able to escape!”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep