“Is this your first time drawing a formation?” she asked after a long silence.

Red was confused. “This kind, yes. I practiced with others before… Why are you even asking me? You were spying on me the whole time.”

Aurelia squinted. “Hm, it’s just surprising. When most people write formations, take a lot of breaks to let their body relax, but you did this plate all in one go.”

The woman was, of course, unaware of the kind of advantage the crimson mist provided to him.

“Does that mean the formation is right?” Red asked.

“How would I know? I’m not a specialist in formations, and I only know the bare minimum.”

“But you have seen a lot of formations in your life, right? You should be able to at least tell if I have made any egregious mistakes.”

“Ugh, fine, let me see.”

The woman’s figure disappeared before manifesting in front of Red. She peered over the plate, examining it with a frowning expression.

“You are using a lot of symbols I don’t recognize.” she said. “The overall picture seems right, but I feel like there are a few problems with these connected symbols. Here and here.”

Red examined the areas the woman pointed, but nothing immediately stood out to him.

“What are the exact problems?” he asked.

Aurelia shrugged. “I don’t know for certain. I just feel like when I saw something like this in the past, they were drawn in a slightly different way.”

Red frowned. “That isn’t helpful.”

“I told you I’m not a formation specialist! I can only use comparison to tell you if something is right or wrong!”

The youth sighed, looking down at the symbols. “I will try to rewrite them and you tell me what you think.”

At the very least, the problems Aurelia pointed out were localized, and he wouldn’t need to redraw the entire formation to fix them.

He used the solvent to erase the runes, before redrawing the symbols exactly as he remembered it from his mind. Aurelia watched the entire process intently, correcting him on his mistakes - or at least what she perceived to be mistakes.

“I feel like this line should be a bit more curved.”

“Here, you need to lengthen this.”

After a few minutes of struggle and difficulty comprehending the woman’s feedback, Red felt like he finally recognized the mistake he made and redrew the connecting runes one last time. Then he set his brush aside and looked over at Aurelia.

“How’s this?” he asked.

The woman hesitated. “… It seems fine. I can’t find any mistakes at least.”

“Good.” Red nodded. “Then I will draw the other ones.”

The entire process lasted for more than half an hour. Thankfully, Red’s practice and the help of the crimson mist made it possible for him to draw the formations with minimal mistakes, and with Aurelia’s help, he was able to correct what errors he did commit.

As he continued to draw, his movements became more confident and practiced, as the fear of failure was unable to make him hesitate any longer. That being said, even with the crimson mist’s help, he could still feel his fatigue catching up to him, as both his mind and muscles were drained by all the concentration and precise movements necessary to complete this formation.

By the time the youth completed the central plate, the hardest part of the formation, he felt as if he had undergone a battle as arduous as the one he fought against the ghost in town. He set his brush aside, right by the pile of empty ink bottles, and stared at the completed formation plates as his right arm ached in pain.

Aurelia looked over his work and nodded. “You’ve really done it. That being said, there’s still plenty for you to do.”

“Right…” Red got up and looked around.

Now was the matter of setting up the formation. Technically, this part was easier than drawing the formation itself, and even a normal cultivator could do it if they had the required materials and knew what they were doing. It did not mean, however, that it was easy, as it required precise placement of plates with calculations for distance and angles that could cause the formation to fail if they deviate even by a few centimeters.

Compared to the difficult task of drawing the runes, though, Red welcomed this challenge in particular. With the central plate in the middle of the clearing, the youth started to spread out the other plates, so they stood equidistant from each other and from the center of the formation.

“This one is a bit off.” Aurelia pointed at the air plate, interrupting his work.

The youth wasn’t angry, however, and moved the plate slightly before looking at her.

The woman nodded. “That is good.”

Red, for one, was glad that the woman offered her help without him having to ask. He was starting to get exhausted, and as such lapses in his focus and judgement would become more commonplace. Aurelia, on the other hand, was the ghost of a fourth realm cultivator, and she could catch these mistakes that the youth glossed over.

After the plates were set, came the time to connect them using Spiritual Energy conducive materials. Some formations did not require this step, as the plates merely being close to each other was enough for them to work, yet this Parting Storm formation wasn’t one of those. It required three different types of connective materials, wires of sorts, to conduct the energy between the plates.

For the lightning energy, he needed the copper wire, for the water energy, he needed ocean-fiber thread, and for the wind energy, he needed cloud-sky silk.

After setting aside these materials, he went about his work of connecting them. The formation plates had holes along their edges to tie these wires together, and after Red was done, a complex image of mish-mashing wires of different colors gave rise to the completed Parting Storm formation.

Red took a step back, examining his work. The storm still beat down on him, and he felt cold and exhausted, but at this point, he couldn’t even care.

“It’s done.” Red said.

Aurelia looked at him with a frown. “No, it’s not done. You forgot the most important part.”

The youth sighed. “Right. I need to power the formation now.”

This was the part Red was dreading the most.

“You still haven’t explained to me how you will transmit the energy from the environment to your formation.” Aurelia said.

Technically, this was where the Aspected Spirit Stones would come in. They would be set on top of each formation plate, and in turn be absorbed as energy to power it. Without them, however, this task got much harder, even if there was enough energy in their surroundings.

The woman looked around with skepticism. “You said you would change the formation to absorb energy from the surroundings, but I see no such thing.”

Red shook his head. “Even if I could do that, I don’t have the materials.”

“Then what do you plan to do?”

“I will use my own body to transfer the energy.”

These words made Aurelia go silent.

“… How?” she asked.

“The Rain Dance.” Red said. “The energy it converts inside my body is the same as the one the formation uses. Now, I’m surrounded by this same type of energy, so I should be able to absorb a lot more with much less effort.”

Aurelia scoffed. “I understand that, but how are you going to siphon the energy from your body into the formation? You haven’t opened your Spiritual Sea yet!”

The youth didn’t respond, instead picking up the wires from the ground. “I will hook these into my Spiritual Veins.”

The woman’s eyes widened. “… Do you want to become crippled?”

“It will work. I am sure of it.”

Aurelia shook her head. “I’m not sure where this confidence comes from, but I sure do want to see how you will do it.”

Red wasn’t too sure about the viability of this plan, but he knew that the more he thought about it, the less confident he would get. Before he went ahead, though, he had some other preparations.

He took out his dark sword before tying it to a large spool of copper wire, with the other end tied to the lightning formation plate.

“You still want to try that stupid idea?” Aurelia asked.

“It’s necessary.” Red nodded. “I fear if I don’t do it, the lightning energy will be lacking.”

The problem with his idea about using the Rain Dance to absorb energy was that it still didn’t circumvent the issue Aurelia raised earlier. There would be plenty of wind and water energy around, but not enough lightning energy, and the amount that his technique was able to convert would probably be far from enough for the formation. As such, he would need a good jolt of power to cover that front.

This was where his lightning-attracting idea came.

“You won’t be able to throw the sword that high.” Aurelia shook her head.

Red hesitated. “… I have a plan if I fail.”

The woman frowned. “You want to use that demon just for this? Are you just going to ignore what your elder told you?”

“If he was here, he would understand.” the youth said. “Even if he didn’t, I would still do it anyways.”

Aurelia fell silent, staring at Red with a conflicted expression.

Seeing as she wasn’t going to raise any objections, though, Red set about his plan. The first thing he did was enter a meditative to communicate with the crimson mist. His plan, after all, still relied on its help.

“I need you to connect these wires to my Spiritual Veins.” he said.

The crimson mist shook, seemingly listless. “… Tired.”

“This is the last thing I will ask of you for a long time.” Red said. “But it’s important that you help me right now… I need your help.”

The mist shook again, expressing its agreement. It would help the youth, even if it needed to spend every bit of its recently recovered energy.

Satisfied, Red retracted his expanded awareness. Then, without hesitation, he picked up a knife from his belongings with his right hand, while grabbing the water and wind threads connected to the formation plates with his left one.

After that, he rested the knight against the underside of his left forearm, ready to make a cut. A few seconds later, he felt something pulsate beneath his skin, a strange foreign force that didn’t belong to his body.

It was his signal.

Red pushed the blade down, making a deep cut in his arm. Then he dropped the knife before picking up the white wind thread with his right hand and inserting it into the opening. To anyone looking from the outside, it seemed as if the youth had just shoved some thread into a widening pool of blood in his arm, but he could feel there was more happening than that.

The blood pouring from his arm shook, and Red felt a pull from the wire in his hand. He let the thread go, and the material started to penetrate his arm on its own. An uncomfortable feeling spread through his left limb as the thread parted through vein and flesh to reach the Spiritual Vein deep in his body, but the youth gritted his teeth and endured the pain.

Eventually, the pull seemed to stop, and the wound around his arm closed on its own. There was still plenty of blood smeared in there, but Red could feel the wire pulled taut against his skin, hitting something deep within his flesh that one would have a hard time sensing most of the time.

The wire was attached to his Spiritual Vein.

Aurelia watched this entire scene with a dumbfounded look on her face, but the youth couldn’t pay attention to the woman. He still needed to repeat the process on his right arm, and so he did it.

This time, he used the water thread to connect into his vein, and the sensation was just as painful and unpleasant as the first time, but by the end of it, he succeeded. Now two wires were hooked to each of his arms, the other ends attached to the formation plates, and Red was ready to proceed with his plan.

Through ragged breaths, the youth moved to the center of the formation before starting to execute a familiar set of movements - the Rain Dance. Before he even finished the first set, though, a deluge of Spiritual Energy started to knock against his veins, eager to enter his body.

This stream wasn’t as strong as what Red felt when he consumed a cultivation pill, yet he felt it was far more compatible with his body and easier to wield than the energy from any medicine. He didn’t even need to rotate the stream of energy inside his body for it to be in a suitable condition to open his acupoints.

The difference surprised him to no end.

‘So this is why Aspected Spiritual Energy is so precious.’

Red continued to let the energy accumulate inside his body, and once he felt he couldn’t absorb any more, he moved it towards the veins in his arms. These streams of energy, bloating inside his veins, now seemed to have found an outlet in the wires hooked into his limbs.

The formation, on the other side of the threads, reacted in the presence of this Spiritual Energy. The symbols on their surface started to glow ever so slightly, and the suction Red felt coming from the wires in his arms intensified.

Red eyes opened as he continued to execute the Rain Dance movements. He looked over at Aurelia. “Tell me when it is enough!”

The woman seemed to snap out of a daze and nodded. “It will still take a lot!”

The youth knew as much, so he didn’t complain. Even with all the favorable circumstances, the Rain Dance was still just a vein opening technique, and it would take a lot of effort to absorb enough energy into his body to power the formation. This was not to mention the exhaustion Red felt at this moment, his body acting out of pure reflex more than anything else.

It took almost two full-minutes of this dance, through which the youth felt himself approaching the point of collapse, his movements slowing down by the second. His vision was blurry, his senses fading, but he kept focused on his movements, waiting for the signal Aurelia promised him.

“… ready!”

He could barely hear her muffled word through his collapsing senses. It was ready. The two formations were powered.

Red stopped his dance, falling down to his knees in exhaustion. Still, he knew he couldn’t stop now, so he searched for something he placed at his feet. He grabbed onto something cold and familiar - his dark sword, now attached to hundreds of meters of copper wire.

All he needed now was to throw it towards the sky, but that was when a stark realization hit him.

‘I don’t have the strength.’

The youth wasn’t too sad about this, though. Even if he was at his strongest, Red doubted he could throw a sword hundreds of meters straight up into the sky. As such, only one option was left for him.

His right hand grabbed onto the dark shortsword, while his left one search for the other blade at his hilt. He heard a roar echo in his mind as he drew the longsword from his hilt, accompanied by a surge of strength that pushed away every ounce of exhaustion from his body.

The entire world around him seemed to come into focus at that moment, but Red only had eyes for one thing - the sky above. His muscles tensed, and in a spin to gather momentum, the youth flung the shortsword like an arrow shot against the storm above.

The blade rose and rose, until the air resistance and gravity started to make it lose momentum. Red held his breath as the sword with its wire, seemed to reach its apex hundreds of meters above him.

‘Was it not enough?’

Then, at the next moment, the entire world became white as Red felt himself become momentarily blind. Something struck the sword, and an unstoppable barrage of energy was transmitted from it across the wire into the formation below.

The lightning plate started to glow and, in turn, a change took place in the center of the formation.

Red’s plan had succeeded, and now he was ready to take on the opportunity of a lifetime.