The two of them threw attacks recklessly at each other, causing such an intense storm of energy that the metallized walls and floors were bent out of their previously square shape. The cube-like area had now become more of a flower shape, the walls had split into multiple pieces and their ends were now curled open to allow the excessive forces an easier time in escaping the area. The places where the two of them had been standing were now stretched out and downwards until they were both standing in something similar to a molten metal nest, the force of their strikes causing a huge pile of metal to be built up behind them. Neither of them wanted to be outdone so they had to keep pushing and kicking the metal around behind them to brace themselves again, which tore the arena floor apart in the middle so their constant advancing and sliding turned the whole arena into a mess of twisted metal.

Almost spontaneously they both decided to stop. The arena was still glowing red from heat, ruined by their conflict to such a state that it would need to be rebuilt entirely. The pedestals at the corners that could be used to control the arrays powering the arena were all destroyed already. Sage had thought it was an array that hardened the stone to be similar to metal, but now it seemed more like they transformed it directly into metal, or perhaps something else much more unusual. The formation symbols were hidden and he couldn’t get a good look at what made them tick.

Venerable Surari had an excited look on his face as their confrontation was put on hold. He climbed out of the twisted metal ‘nest’ and clapped his hands together, “You are more impressive than you look, but that still isn’t quite enough.”

Sage was already annoyed by this monk’s act, “You’ve got one more trump card, I get it. Stop pretending that you aren’t just trying to get out of paying what you owe.”

Ignoring his provocation, Surari stuck to his story and walked out of the broken fighting arena to walk towards a new one. Sage was not in the mood to keep playing this game, and it wasn’t just because his Poison Qi had mostly run out. His Jade Mantle was shattered in that competition just now and he was forced to create a new one out of his first dantian. His Poison Dantian was busy producing the poison that was coursing through his veins, the same one that his wife was famous for using. It made his veins bulge out, like blue worms crawling over his skin, boosting his physical strength so he could match the strength of the monk.

Surari probably thought they’d continue to compete with their physical strength, but Sage did not just cultivate in one area. He had many options available. He’d met strength with strength to try and beat the man at his own game. If his greatest reliance was beat head on, it should serve to intimidate the monk into compliance. Unfortunately, Sage could only match the man and now it seemed Surari had another trump card to rely upon.

Seeing his initial plan was a failure, Sage changed tactics. Instead of matching strength to strength, he would pit strength against weakness. While Surari was walking into a new area, four objects appeared beside Sage and flew up into the air. These devices were almost the same size as a coffin, a couple feet wide and with a length similar to a person’s height. Unlike a coffin they were more cylindrical in shape and with a few handles mounted upon them. The front of each device had an opening that was a wide slot. These four devices lifted into the air and spun in place, aiming at the ground in the distance. Then there was a sudden hiss of air and they launched discs out at high speed.

These devices weren’t aiming at Surari or even near him, and none of them carried any hostility, so it was hard for the monk to notice any danger in the action. The discs sliced into the ground, and Surari was confused about what was going on for just a split second too late. He punched the air, aiming toward the devices floating over Sage’s head, but Sage grasped at the air and blocked the wind vortex with an explosion. The four weapons spun upwards and fired another set of four discs, which Surari wanted to strike in flight, but Sage rushed forward and distracted the monk with a barrage of explosive strikes.

Surari pushed him back and sent a wind vortex towards one of the discs that was still in mid-air, but the wind suddenly disappeared. Sage stepped back and smiled at Surari, “It’s too late now. Do you think I’m just a muscle brain like you? Give up your petty resistance and pay your debts.”

The devices in the air were Plate Cannons, those unusual contraptions that used compressed air to launch Formation Plates. Most who fought with Sage had no idea that he’d never bothered to use his greatest card. It was only because Sage felt so threatened by the monk that he brought out this weapon. A Formation Master’s true strength could only be exhibited when they had time to carefully calculate and construct a Formation Array. When forced into combat, they were forced to rely upon a Formation Plate. The array on the plate could extend over a small area around the user, but all the stress that would normally be spread over the size of a building or a city was concentrated on a small plate. Worse yet, because of the small size of a Formation Plate it could usually only support a relatively simple Formation Array. Sage had created the Formation Machine to help get around this limitation, linking together many of the small Formation Plates so that the most suitable simple array for any specific situation could be used instantly.

Since those days, many thousands of years had passed upon the Inner World, and many of the researchers focused on the field of arrays. Sage had always been a highly skilled Formation Master compared to the natives of this world because he had knowledge they were clueless of: mathematics. A proper formation needed to track the wind and the rain, the temperature and the humidity, the position of the stars, the condition of the ground, the slope and composition of the dirt and rocks, the types of plants and trees. They had huge books of knowledge they needed to memorize and then they used all these factors to calculate where to place the nodes of their array and alter the lines and symbols used. The more accurate they were the more powerful and efficient a Formation Array would be. In fact, if they didn’t calculate properly, a Formation Array could easily fail to even form.

Sage turned all these piles of simple and complicated calculations into algebraic equations and graphs. The speed at which he could turn the collected data into a completed array was many times faster than other Formation Masters, and that was before he had a Soul Clone on the Inner World. It was even more exaggerated now, after the invention of the Bio-computer and the Adjutor.

The plates that were shot out from the Plate Cannon were not normal Formation Plates. Instead they were the nodes for a complete Formation Array. Due to the time dilation of the Inner World he only needed a moment to calculate everything needed for an array. Sage’s senses were strong enough that they could watch the speed of something swaying in the wind to determine its speed and direction, measure the humidity and temperature of the air with a breath, and constantly track their position in the world to reference the stars. They had plenty of time to identify the local flora and with a few steps on the ground he could gauge its likely composition. Not only could Sage set up a Formation Array, the Adjutor’s calculation power meant he could custom build a very powerful one in mere moments.

The plates would be custom carved on the Inner World to fit the exact conditions in the local area. It took less than three minutes for 2 days to pass on the Inner World. In less than ten minutes they could have the plates ready for a full Formation Array. The Plate Cannons placed eight plates for the array, four in the ground and four in the sky. With that, the array sprang to life with Sage himself acting as the core. The core was the controller and also the weakness of a Formation Array. Usually it was an object and very well hidden and defended. It could be powered by others to boost the array, or destroyed by enemies to rob the array of most of its strength. If he brought out a core, it would be too obvious and easy to target, so instead he tied it to his own Qi supply. This was a terrible idea for a permanent array, since it would be crippled if he wasn’t there inside it, but suited him perfectly here.