Formations have been one of the greatest deterrents to powerful solo cultivators since the beginning. I’ve seen insignificant sects taking down powerful cultivators many ranks higher than their leader. Plus, they can do it safely within their formation’s barrier. Only fools rush into a formation they don’t understand.

~Belenus the Sun God

Hours ticked by, and Crow’s focus was so intense that he didn’t notice when Mara went exploring on her own. Instead, he contemplated formation theory based on Celtic Knot Formations. It was a theory that overlapped with regular formations. It stated that all formations had at most thirteen critical points or nodes. Celtic Knots related these points to the Celtic Tree Calendar, which is based on lunar cycles rather than seasonal or fixed days.

Each of thirteen aligned with a type of tree and its associated Ogham rune, which were used in quite a few Scholarly Talents. Each tree type had specific strengths and weaknesses it brought to a formation. Still, the thirteen listed on the calendar and their order were the most potent.

The only part of a Celtic Knot Formation that remained fixed was the Ogham rune for an oak tree—it was the Knot’s core. The other twelve critical points had equal importance. If the nodes had a hierarchy, it would be the core, followed by the other twelve critical points. Last were the supplementary non-critical nodes that could number in the thousands.

Each node had to be created using Ogham runes related to tree types, especially the sacred trees of the Druid Order. This was important because critical nodes required sacred trees to represent them, or something equivalent, like a rare elemental tree. The non-critical nodes could use any tree type, but they all had to be the same type. However, this was the limitation of Knots created by a single cultivator. Using the Drawing the World method required multiple people, so each one could focus on a specific type of wood, allowing it to bypass the single wood type for supplementary nodes. It also made formations of that level highly complex, which only sects, cities, and academies used. The costs to set one up were highly prohibitive.

There were three methods of casting formations, and Druids called them Drawing the Sky, Drawing the Oak, and Drawing the World. Of the three, the simplest was Drawing the Sky because it didn’t require any special tools. The expert just needed to infuse their finger with mana and then trace out the Ogham rune. Once finished, they needed to maintain a mental connection to it and continually supply it with mana. After drawing the runes, the activation was as simple as thinking about it—provided the expert designed it properly. The weakness of this method was that it required constant focus and only allowed for critical nodes. So no supplementary non-critical nodes could support it. Crow didn’t think this was a hard fact because there was evidence in some older tomes that indicates supplementary nodes were possible. Still, it’d need a lot of energy or someone in sync enough with him that they could coordinate.

Drawing the World and Drawing the Oak required the aid of physical items. In theory, it was the same as Drawing the Sky, but on a larger scale. The fundamental difference between Drawing the Oak and Drawing the world was the number of experts needed to cast the formation. Drawing the Oak only required one person, while Drawing the World almost always needed a team.

As far as the physical items, these could be anything, even people. Typically, experts used flags, and the benefits of those flags varied based on the materials used. Celtic Knot Formations used Roots. They were spikes made from the roots of various types of trees and imbued with the Ogham rune that represented that tree. Roots used for the thirteen critical nodes used sacred wood and couldn’t be the same type. To complicate it further, the core Root had to be a rare type of oak. Ironically, it was the only Root Crow managed to create, because an Oaken Treant counted as a rare type of sacred oak. Crow could only sigh in frustration. Using Drawing the Oak with Celtic Knot Formation was currently beyond Crow’s ability because he needed at least two more sacred tree Roots.

The only real blessing was that non-critical nodes could use Roots made with any common tree, provided they were all of the same tree. Etching and imbuing Ogham runes onto the Root should be the most challenging part of the process. However, Crow had Soul Carving, so the thing that would trouble most people actually didn’t impact him at all. The method mention in the books also seemed weaker than Soul Carving, but that was only Crow’s speculation.

Sighing, he looked at the formation in front of him once more. Out of the dozens of formations he broke through over the past year, this one was the most complex. It used seven critical nodes, and he couldn’t access the core at all. The remaining six he organized in his mind so that he visualized them at 12 o’clock, 2 o’clock, 4 o’clock, 6 o’clock, 8 o’clock, and 10 o’clock. Once he found one of the nodes, this method could roughly estimate where the others were. It narrowed down his search and sped up the process by quite a lot. It helped that he could use his Sage’s Mind to take snapshots of the formation and visualize it all.

This formation was crafted using Drawing the Oak, so physical items represented the critical nodes. The issue was he was underground and could only directly access the node in front of him. The node happened to be one of the strongest points in the formation—well, it was most likely planned that way. To get to a weaker node, he’d have to dig it out. With as much rock and debris that littered the corridor, he believed the entire tomb would collapse if he tried that.

There were many ways to get through formations, but if he wanted to loot the area, it significantly reduced his options. The Brute Force strategy essentially caused the formation to implode. While people inside might not die, things like medicinal herbs or pills would turn to dust. It would gain him no benefits. Worse still, for a situation like this, that method could collapse the entire tomb.

Crow personally liked the Surge strategy, which was effective if he couldn’t reach the core. The concept was simple, siphon off the energy of the critical nodes slowly, so he didn’t alert the formation’s core. Once the other critical points were drained, the core would also shrink its capacity to ensure the other critical nodes still had energy. At that exact moment, Crow would send a massive burst of mana through the outer nodes, which would send the mana back to the core. It would overload the core that had already lowered its threshold, forcing the entire formation to shut down. While he liked this strategy best, he didn’t have the cultivation level to pull it off against a formation with seven critical nodes.

After going through his options, he knew there was only one option—Lifting the Veil. There were two ways to pull this strategy off. The first one was the finesse method, which was to use another formation to split the barrier so he could slide inside. This was impossible without Drawing the Oak as it required too much mana. The second was the bubble method, which Crow hated. The concept was simple. He just had to create his own formation barrier that closely resonated with the barrier in front of him. Then forced his barrier against the opposing barrier until, like soap bubbles, they merged, and he popped through.

While the concept was simple, it lacked any kind of style and often hurt the expert. Crow had enough experience that he wouldn’t get severely injured. Still, the mana he used to create his formation would be forcibly absorbed by the other barrier. He winced thinking about his Soul Burn, even if it didn’t bother him anymore; losing that much mana that fast wasn’t pleasant.

His biggest worry was that the formation’s core might have other protocols for intruders. Crow was eighty percent sure that this was a simple barrier formation. Basically, it prevented anything from passing through unless they had a formation key. That included leaving. If Crow was wrong and the formation attacked them when they were inside, it’d be troublesome.

Sighing, Crow backed away and sat down to cultivate so he could restore himself to prime condition.

“How is it?” Mara asked.

“Lifting the Veil, only way through.”

“Is it safe?”

“Can’t claim that with absolute certainty, but I’m confident.”

“Good enough for me. How much time you need?”

“Let me rest for an hour, and then I’ll start. This thing is stronger than the others we’ve faced, so I won’t be able to lift it long. Be ready to go when you see me move.”

“Got it.”

Crow closed his eyes and absorbed mana the Druid way but also used the breathing method. When it came to cultivating, the two styles surprisingly didn’t conflict with each other. Drawing mana into him, he got used to cycling it through his meridians. He’d even wholly mapped out the new meridian pathways mentioned for the third chakra. He didn’t abandon martial cultivation because of incidents like now. The chakras had improved his body tremendously, and forcing his way through a barrier would hurt, but he quickly recovered. The other reason was the third chakra’s focus on the element of fire was a massive boon for him. It was actually the most painless way for him to cultivate, and it felt like he was taking a warm shower.

After the mana or Qi cycled, he’d push it into his Source with no reservation. He had to say that Soul Burn really turned his cultivation on its head. Still, slowly but surely, he developed his own path with Druid cultivation as the primary and the martial method as support.

An hour later, he expelled all the turbid air in his lungs. This was another trick he discovered. By moving the impurities from his body toward his lungs, he could expel it all in one go. It left a horrible taste in his mouth, and he had to carry around a tiny brush and some minty paste, which he used to brush and cleanse his teeth and tongue.

“Alright, I’m ready,” Crow told Mara as he spit out the gritty paste in his mouth. He approached the barrier and stopped about a meter away. Mara crowded close to Crow until her body pressed against him. This wasn’t their first bubble, and they huddled close to keep Crow’s barrier smaller and more precise. The moment Crow moved forward, she reacted instantly.

For this, Crow had to use the Draw the Sky method, so he consumed mana like crazy. Obviously, its efficiency was garbage, but they had broken into enough formations that they learned how to maximize Crow’s efforts. Since he decided to focus on multidimensional formations, especially Celtic Knots, he tried to align his thinking, methods, and strategies with those key concepts in mind.

Crow wasn’t a fool, and he knew that his master, Torcail, was pushing him to learn this stuff because he had a task in mind. Whatever Tor had planned, Crow knew it would be more brutal than the formation he currently faced.

His finger glowed with black fire, and he traced out the Ogham rune for an oak tree. The rune was a line across the bottom and two parallel lines running upward from it. Once it was done, the symbol flared and faded back to its original state.

For the bubble technique, he chose the reed and elder trees. The reed Ogham rune was noted for its emphasis on protection. His finger started at the top right and went down to the left. He repeated that three times until he had three parallel lines at a slant and then drew a horizontal line across the center of those three lines. This was the Ogham rune for the reed. Once it flared up and reverted back to its original state, it rotated around the core rune until it was in the 12 o’clock position or directly in front of Crow.

The elder Ogham run was noted for its emphasis on the mystical and medical properties. Crow liked it because it made his formations slightly more efficient and helped him recover a little faster. It was also easy to draw because it was exactly like the Ogham rune for the reed tree, only it had five slanted lines instead of three. It moved into the 6 o’clock position, so all three runes were in a perfect line.

Crow raised his hand, so the formation rose up, placing the core rune about a meter directly above his head. Once positioned, he forced it to rotate faster and faster. A half breath later, a barrier shimmered into existence. While it took a while to describe, the entire process took thirty seconds from start to finish.

The barrier was roughly three meters wide, barely enough to cover both him and Mara. In its current state, the formation hardly used any of Crow’s Source, but it also wouldn’t stop a punch from a baby. The reason for that was to center himself and stabilize his barrier. Next, the bubble technique required Crow to match resonance. It was like trying to match frequencies between the two, so it didn’t realize Crow’s barrier was invading.

This was the most critical part because the stronger the opposing formation, the more mana he needed to create resonance. The trick was to take it slow because overshooting was more disastrous than under. Breathing deeply, he finally felt it by his third breath.

“Here we go…” Crow muttered. It wasn’t loud, but enough for Mara to hear. “Now!”

Crow rushed forward, and Mara stuck to him like his shadow. The moment the two barriers touch, his mana started pouring out of him like blood out of a punctured artery. Mara was necessary because while his mana was depleting quickly, it sapped him of energy. She grabbed Crow’s waist and continued to rush forward as if using his body to break open a door. It was inelegant, lacked finesse, but it was effective.

Ploomp!

Crow hadn’t expected the sound, and he felt his barrier merge with the other one as they tumbled through the barrier. The window of opportunity between the merge and rushing through was small, but they’d practiced enough that their actions were almost in tandem.

Letting go of his formation, the barrier ripped away all the mana he had poured into it. If it wasn’t for Mara lowering him to the ground, he’d have fallen on his face like a dead tree. It wasn’t that he blacked out, but that he lost so much mana and so quickly that his body entered an exhausted state. The danger was the timing. If they were off by even a second, he could have broken bones or damaged his Source.

“Pfft,” Mara started laughing as she sat down next to him. “Your ‘bubble’ technique is ridiculous. Thinking of two soap bubbles merging makes it seem childish. Takes the mystery away.”

Crow snorted but didn’t move. Behind them, the barrier continued to wobble until it reformed itself and then faded from sight. He decided to start cultivating and convinced his body to continue to do that while he felt himself drifting off to sleep.

At the last minute, he felt the glass from the broken light fixtures above and remembered the lightning. While the formation hadn’t attacked them, it didn’t mean they were out of danger.

“Lily,” Crow mumbled. “Come out.”

Mara looked over when she saw the little fae appear. While she knew of its existence, she’d only seen her once before. She thought the little thing was adorable.

The fae flew over in front of Crow’s face. Since he wasn’t opening his eyes, she tapped him on the nose.

“Find… lightning source,” Crow’s voice faded, and he dropped off to sleep