Rise of the Wang Clan: Starting with a Portable Farm

Chapter 257: Carving the Array Patterns

The Spiritual Qi at the periphery of Chicken Cage Ridge was not abundant enough; even a Third Rank seed could not grow to Third Rank here. However, its growth rate was still much faster than that of a First Rank seed. Even if it ultimately only grew into a First Rank vine, it could still be used to craft First Rank Magical Artifacts.

Leveraging the terrain, the areas that needed to be blocked by vines were not too extensive.

Wang Hao and the others divided the work, each responsible for a section. It took nearly ten days of effort to nurture a vine wall hundreds of miles long, encircling the entire Chicken Cage Ridge.

In places unsuitable for planting vines, Foundation Establishment cultivators moved earth to build walls, then planted a vine on top of the wall!

The final wall reached a height of four zhang (approx. 40 feet) and was over two zhang (approx. 20 feet) thick. The Iron Thorn Vines had many barbs; for flightless Second Rank Demon Beasts trying to climb over, it would require considerable effort.

Some gaps were left in the southernmost part to allow clan members to pass through.

With the wall in place, the safety of the Qi Refining clan members was basically guaranteed.

Everyone then began to take charge of various construction tasks.

Wang Hao, along with Wang Wuyuan, was responsible for building the formation eyes and setting up the grand formation. Wang Yanzong surveyed the land, planning the spirit fields and Spiritual Qi channels. Wang Longyou was in charge of cave dwellings and architectural planning. Wang Wenyu focused on deciphering the wine recipe, while Wang Wencai was responsible for patrolling the surroundings to ensure safety.

The work Wang Hao and Wang Wuyuan needed to do was not extensive. The Ye family had provided the formation disks, flags, and formation eyes for the grand formation. The two only needed to select suitable locations to place these items and carve appropriate pedestals for them!

Of course, without pedestals, simply placing the formation eyes in suitable locations could still erect the formation, but doing so would reduce its power and make it more easily damaged.

Ideally, these pedestals should also be carved with Second Rank array patterns. Limited by their skill level, the two could only carve First Rank array patterns for now, making do temporarily. Once Wang Wuyuan advanced in the Formation Dao in the future, they could replace them.

Over the years, Wang Hao had learned Spirit Talisman crafting quite well, and artifact refining was also decent. The talisman runes used in talisman crafting and the inscriptions used in artifact refining shared common ground with array patterns!

If they were all broken down, the tiny basic runes were actually the same, only differing in arrangement and combination!

With this foundation, and under Wang Wuyuan’s guidance, Wang Hao felt his understanding of formations had improved significantly. If he were willing, he only needed to go into Secluded Cultivation for a period to fully become a High Grade First Rank Formation Master!

Over ten days later, the two finalized the locations for several formation eyes and also planned which array patterns to carve on the pedestals. The next step was to select suitable spiritual materials to complete the pedestals!

The formation eyes refined by the Ye family were made from a Second Rank spiritual wood called Bathing Fire Wood, so the pedestals were best made from spiritual wood as well, and their attributes must not conflict with the formation eyes or the grand formation.

Wang Hao ultimately chose Yin Purple Pine. He had a relatively large stock of this spiritual wood, allowing for several failures.

Spiritual wood capable of refining puppets had excellent durability and Spiritual Qi conductivity, making it perfectly suitable as pedestals for the grand formation!

A pedestal consisted of thirty-six strips of Yin Purple Pine carved into long rectangular pieces. Each wooden strip needed to be carved with array patterns to connect the earth’s spiritual veins and the formation eye.

The number of array patterns required was dozens to hundreds of times that of talisman crafting or artifact refining, and the time consumption was also long.

Typically, setting up a Second Rank grand formation, even proficiently, required two months. As Wang Hao and his companion were setting up this fixed grand formation for the first time, it took even longer.

Fortunately, their array patterns were carved on spiritual wood, which had a certain error tolerance. A mistake in one spot, unlike a Spirit Talisman that would self-destruct or a Magical Artifact that would be ruined, could be remedied. They only needed to scrape off the incorrectly carved area and re-carve it!

Of course, if mistakes occurred too many times, causing the wooden strip to become uneven, they would need to select a new piece to carve!

With eight formation eyes, plus the central formation disk and the placement for the suppression Spirit Weapon, a total of ten pedestals were needed, meaning three hundred and sixty Yin Purple Pine strips required carving with array patterns.

At the beginning, the two were not proficient, wasting five or six materials a day to produce one qualified pedestal strip.

Later, as they became more skilled, the wasted materials decreased by half, while the output increased more than twofold.

Over two months later, the two finally completed carving all the strips.

The final work was much simpler: assembling these strips into pedestals, placing them securely, then inserting the formation eyes. After connecting them to the spiritual veins, the grand formation could be activated!

After placing the central formation disk, Wang Wuyuan let out a light sigh of relief and smiled, “Fifth Uncle, it’s finally done!”

Wang Hao also nodded with satisfaction, saying, “Wuyuan, your talent in the Formation Dao is much better than mine. You must focus on studying it diligently in the future, striving to break through to the Second Rank. Of course, your cultivation must not fall behind either. Fifth Uncle will definitely help you secure a Foundation Establishment Pill quota!”

Wang Wuyuan’s eyes gleamed. In the Wang family, the usual ways to obtain a Foundation Establishment Pill were through the decennial grand competition or exchanging contribution points. Both were difficult for him to achieve, leaving only the final method: special contribution rewards. This was partly why he had chosen the Formation Dao in the first place.

Now that his wish was fulfilled, he couldn’t help but feel overjoyed and quickly expressed his gratitude: “Thank you, Fifth Uncle!”

Wang Hao waved his hand: “You don’t need to thank me; this is all your own effort. Like your Aunt Wenzhu and others, they also received Foundation Establishment Pill quotas due to special contributions. When Fifth Uncle goes overseas, I will purchase them for all of you together! But before that, you need to cultivate to the ninth layer of Qi Refining and advance your formation skills to Low Grade Second Rank to avoid gossip among the clansmen!”

Wang Wenzhu, Wang Wuxiang, and others had contributed by discovering the Spirit Stone mine and offering Spirit Milk and other items; even exchanging contribution points would have been enough for a Foundation Establishment Pill. However, after the Wang family’s second reform, reward and punishment standards were clarified. Discovering high-value mineral resources like this warranted a Foundation Establishment Pill reward.

Because of this, many clan members began venturing out to explore, similar to when Wang Hao rewarded Wang Wencai with a Foundation Establishment Pill, leading to a surge in learning various Cultivation arts!

“Yes, Wuyuan understands. I will definitely cultivate diligently and study seriously!”

Although it was just a promise, and whether Foundation Establishment Pills could be purchased was uncertain, the Wang family was now a Golden Core power, and times had changed. Wang Wuyuan believed that no matter what, the clan would be able to obtain a Foundation Establishment Pill for him before he turned sixty!

“Alright, let’s go find Great-Uncle Longyou and the others to connect the earth veins and link the grand formation with the spiritual veins!”

Wang Wuyuan nodded in agreement, and the two quickly found Wang Longyou.

Wang Longyou was expanding the cave dwelling in the mountain cave where spiritual wine was stored. He planned to use this as a cellar for aging spiritual wine. The original cave was too small and needed to be enlarged. The mountain was all rock; having Qi Refining disciples do this work would take months and require immense effort. Having completed the overall architectural planning and with nothing else to do, he took action himself! With the spell power of a Foundation Establishment cultivator, expanding the cave dwelling to ten times its original size would only take a few days!

Seeing Wang Hao and the other arrive, Wang Longyou brushed off the dust on his clothes and smiled, “You came just in time. What do you think of this wine cellar?”