Pierre didn’t press Red further, and led him into the building. The two guards made a military greeting to the captain, who nodded in response before silently walking past them.

The inside of the spacious building was in much worse condition than the outside. Wooden furniture was smashed into smithereens, small craters lined up the stone ground and walls, and it was almost impossible to tell what kind of commerce this might have been in the past. There were two sets of stairs, a destroyed one leading up to a second floor, and another one that seemed to lead to an underground area.

Pierre picked up a lantern from his waist and lit it up, brightening the dark and musty environment. Not that it made any difference to Red, though.

“The formation is downstairs.” Pierre said.

Without waiting for a response, he walked on and went down the stairs.

Red followed behind him, descending about five meters of steps before arriving at what looked to be a large empty. The destruction didn’t seem to have reached this place, but the only thing that remained in this place was an ominous formation towards the back of the room.

Pierre lit up a few other lanterns along the wall before looking at Red. “There were a lot of other things in this room. Symbols, spiritual materials, even a sacrificial altar. We thought it best to take all of it away to be destroyed after we confirmed they weren’t connected to the formation.”

Red nodded. The formation by itself was already dangerous enough. It wasn’t wise to keep other sources of corruption in the room.

He stepped past the guard and examined the wide circular formation. It was even bigger than the Spirit Gathering Formation he built, almost ten meters in diameter, and it occupied most of the space in the extensive cellar. Green formation lines that invoked a sickening feeling within Red connected arcane symbols and materials that emitted no small amount of corruption.

It almost stung his eyes to look at it for too long.

Pierre seemed to notice this. “The corruption is not strong enough to spread, but it’s also not good to remain in contact with it for too long. The number I was given was at most 8 hours a day for a normal cultivator. Anything after that and adverse effects could start to show.”

Red shook his head. “I might need to stay for longer if I want to complete my investigations on time.”

“That is understandable. Leon has told me that he can arrange a cleansing for you after the ordeal is over.”

‘A cleansing?’

That would have been ideal if not for the fact that Red was corrupted with a far stronger demonic energy than the one lingering within the formation. That alone made him resistant to the influence of lesser sources of corruption, meaning he could probably stay near the formation for far longer than 8 hours.

He wouldn’t let Pierre know about that, of course.

“I have some confidence in resisting these effects myself.” Red said. “If it comes down to it, though, I will appreciate the assistance.”

“As you wish.”

The guard took one last look at the room before turning his attention back to Red.

“I can’t remain here, but if you need anything, ask the two guards upstairs for it. They are loyal to me, so your message will reach me directly. Remember, you have three days.”

“I am aware.” Red nodded.

Pierre gave a grunt of affirmation before making his way upstairs with no ceremony. Soon, Red was left alone with the formation and its lingering corruption.

He didn’t immediately relax or set about examining it, though. Instead, he investigated his surroundings with both his vision and spiritual sensitivity. He wanted to make sure there were no spies within the cellar or near it, whether they were human or a magical treasure.

Only after a thorough inspection and finding nothing abnormal did he lower his guard somewhat. As if on cue, Aurelia’s graceful figure manifested out of thin air by his side.

“You need help?” She asked as if reading his mind.

“I have questions.” Red looked back at the formation. “Have you ever met anyone from this Serpent’s World cult, or at least came into contact with their demonic energy?”

Aurelia shook his head. “I can’t say I have. They were always the kind to keep to the shadows, and the demonic cultivators I primarily dealt with were the not-so-subtle types.”

“So you don’t recognize the energy?”

The woman frowned. “Why do you ask?”

“I felt a sense of recognition when I inspected this demonic energy. I don’t know where this feeling comes from, though.”

Red only came across three types of demonic corruption - the one from the crimson being, the one from the lizard, and the one from Domeron’s Slaughter Spirit. He was still unsure if the crimson being and the lizard’s corruption were from two dissimilar sources, but what he did know was that none of them matched with this demonic energy from the formation.

“I can’t come up with an explanation for this, but I feel like I shouldn’t ignore it.” Red said.

Aurelia seemed to ponder his question for a while. “Cultivators have a very keen sensitivity towards these things, so you’re wise to listen to your instincts. I can only imagine two explanations: you might have come across this energy in a dream or vision, or you could have come across it in the past but just didn’t notice it.”

“How could I have come across a source of demonic energy and not have noticed it?”

Red felt like this second option didn’t make sense.

“Technically, these cultists are specialists in illusions, so they could mask their presence.” Aurelia said. “You’re right, though, it’s very unlikely to be the second option, because if that was the case, I would have noticed it as well. It would only make sense if this happened before you met with me.”

‘I hadn’t opened my Spiritual Sea back then. Would I have noticed anything?’

It was still unlikely, but that meant that only one explanation make sense.

“So I might have seen it in a dream?” He asked.

“Indeed. Do you remember anything?”

Red shook his head. “Not at all.”

His dreams were always rather vivid, even when he did not include his visions and trips to the infernal realm. He remembered them very well, so he would recall if he came across such a source of corruption.

Aurelia seemed irritated with his response. “Now, how can you be so sure about that?”

“I have a good recollection of my dreams. I would definitely remember this kind of demonic energy.”

She scoffed. “In that case, that leads us back to the second option, right? Someone or something either fooled me, a powerful cultivator, or they fooled you, a mere Lesser Ring Realm practitioner. Which do you think is more likely?”

Red would like to rebuke her, but he knew she was right. It was much more likely that he made a mistake.

“In any case, it seems like neither of us will recall anything by talking.” He said, moving over to the formation.

Aurelia snorted, but didn’t say anything else.

Red stood over the demonic formation. Unlike his infernal runes, demonic arcane scripture in the cultivation world still relied on the same orthodox symbols. The fundamental difference, however, was that they used demonic materials and fuels to build and power these formations, thus twisting the results according to their will.

Red, however, could already tell at a glance that this was nowhere near as practical as his infernal runes. He sorted through the jumbled mess of information he still hadn’t completely digested regarding the blood inheritance and compared a few runes to a simple energy gathering part of the formation.

He came to a single conclusion.

‘So inneficient.’

What they sought to accomplish with almost a dozen runes and hundreds of connections could have just as easily been accomplished with a couple of his infernal runes and to a better degree. It wasn’t even within the same realm of efficiency.

This conclusion, of course, also brought with it another grim realization to him.

‘My master was right. If my infernal runes were to be leaked to these demonic cultivators, the results would be apocalyptic.’

He had in his hands the key to increasing the power of these evil forces by a significant amount, perhaps even giving them a chance to defeat the orthodox sects and bring about a new demonic invasion. The weight of this wasn’t lost within him.

‘I can’t erase this knowledge from my mind. What I can do, though, is make sure to never use it.’

Red put this troublesome matter to the back of his head, and set about studying the formation.

Like he had been told, this was a rather complex formation. It contained far more symbols and materials than anything he had ever done, and it would take him almost a month to fully construct something this big and complex. He couldn’t imagine how long it took for the cultists to do this in secret.

It would likewise take him a rather long time to sort through the functions of every plate and symbol of this formation. However, Red had an advantage that would expedite this process substantially.

His infernal runes.

He didn’t intend to use them, of course, but they could be used as a basis for comparison. Rather than test the formation bit by bit, he could study the individual parts and symbols, calculate their purpose, and find the matching infernal rune and its information in his mind to extrapolate on the results. This would skip the rather lengthy and dangerous process of testing an unknown demonic formation and let Red calculate everything on paper.

Of course, there was no guarantee this would work. Perhaps the infernal runes wouldn’t be a perfect match for the symbols he saw, and there was no guarantee the knowledge in Red’s mind was complete. Still, it was a more promising research direction than blind testing. Not to mention, Red didn’t necessarily needed to know how the entire formation worked.

‘I just need to know its purpose.’

…

Six hours passed by.

The only sound that could be heard from the cellar was rustling paper and pen writing. The entire ground around the formation was filled with drawing and calculations - a mess that any outsider would have a hard time parsing through. Still, it was all kept in perfect order to Red, who could remember where every piece of paper was in the dozens of piles.

He had made good progress in a short amount of time, and he already had some preliminary results.

For one, he understood why people who came to examine this formation assumed it had failed or not even been activated in the first place. The corrupted spiritual materials used in the formation were almost all spent, and weren’t truly of high quality. This would lead one to believe the formation was activated, but any cultivator could this probably wasn’t the case.

The wires and symbols connecting the formation plates had no sign of wear and tear in specific places, as one would expect to happen when large amounts of Spiritual Energy moved through them. This meant that they weren’t used, and the energy had leaked at specific places in the formation, if it was even activated at all. Maybe the materials were already half-spent in the first place from experimentation and corruption, as these types of demonic items had a hard time sustaining themselves for long.

This was also the explanation Red was leaning towards as he inspected the formation. Most of the runes seemed to point towards some type of summoning that would grant body and energy to a being. This would probably be activated alongside a ritual to summon the soul of a demon into this world to occupy the form made by the formation, which would match its true body most of the time.

This was Red’s initial supposition, and it matched with what he knew about demonic summoning.

However, with his infernal runes, he found some inconsistencies that made no sense.

‘This is too incompetent of a formation.’

Too many symbols and plates were completely unnecessary for this purpose. Other formation experts unfamiliar with summoning might look at it and think nothing of it, as this wasn’t their area of knowledge and they wouldn’t be able to tell the purpose of a lot of symbols without extensive testing. Red, however, had his infernal runes for comparison, and he noticed these matters the further he examined the formation.

Mainly, he noticed one key problem: too much Spiritual Energy. There were too many spirit gathering symbols, more than necessary for the transformation and effects of the inner runes. In fact, he doubted there was even enough energy coming into the system for these gathering symbols to use.

It was the epitome of inefficiency for a formation master, wasting materials and times to draw symbols you do not even need. On one hand, this could be explained by the incompetence of whoever drew this formation, but considering the circumstances of his task, Red thought of other possibilities.

‘Maybe there was more energy coming into this system that I can’t see, and it was then refined and sent to power something else.’

This would be a good explanation, of course, if it wasn’t for the fact there was nothing else in the room as far as Red could see. No hidden compartments, connections, or formations.

It was an issue that made his new theory die quickly.

‘Unless…’

“Do you know if there is a way for a formation to transmit energy over a long distance without any physical connections?” Red asked the empty air by his side.

Aurelia’s figure manifest by him with her arms crossed.

She nodded. “Some materials and runes can achieve such an effect. There were similar formations in my sect, but as far as I know, those kinds of things are something only the most skilled formation masters can do.”

‘A skilled formation master…’

Red didn’t continue the conversation, instead staring around him.

He looked up first.

‘No, it can’t be up. That kind of energy transmission would be noticed from miles away.’

He then looked at the walls.

‘It seems unlikely. It would still be very close to the surface, and there are many other cellars in this city. Someone was bound to notice this kind of energy transmission.’

Then, with the only option left, Red looked down beneath the formation.

‘If I’m right, then this is the only thing that makes sense.’

He waved his hands, and all the papers scattered around the room were shredded by the wind until there was nothing legible in the miniscule pieces that were left. Then, Red walked upstairs, where he met the two guards.

“Call Pierre. I want to dig something.”