Death… And Me

Once again, in the present time, Turin, Saya, and the other Formation Masters heard Lani Turen's confirmation.

"Yes, it does work. It has a long way to go, but it can at least show some of its uses."

"Very well, tell us what the formation's purposes are."

Lani nodded and began his explanation.

"This is my version of the Spiritual Inversion Formation. As you all know, Spiritual Inversion Formations are capable of changing the flow of Spiritual Energy within a certain area. However, mine doesn't only do just that. Sometimes when you use this kind of formation, the flow might not be compatible with the original Spiritual Energy Passages. That being said, my formation can also control the amount of Spiritual Energy to a certain degree."

Lani Turen then activated his formation. Sure enough, it did what he said it could. However...

"The effects are quite meager."

"The time to control the flow is out of sync as well. If no one's controlling it, it will most likely go rampant."

"It's energy consumption is quite costly."

"Not only that, but a Spiritual Inversion Formation isn't something that has a lot of use."

Lani couldn't help but feel dejected at the masters' judgment.

"However, you attempted to improve something the few bothered to work on."

"All formations are important, so you gain some extra credit for the effort."

"I'm looking forward to what this formation of yours will turn out in the future."

Lani's complexion finally improved after hearing that.

"Thank you, masters."

Turin's group then moved onto the next one. There wasn't a score to speak of, so no one could tell if Lani did well or not. It was all based on the Formation Masters' judgment in the end.

"Qruto Harbie, 45th position during the last phase. Let's get straight to the point. Does it work?"

Qruto smiled before nodding.

"Yes."

"Very well, then. Explain."

"This is what I like to call the Dual Energy Formation. As you know, we use multiple Energy Gathering Formations for cultivation. However, once we finish using it, we need to wait for the Spiritual Energy to dissipate around on its own. Depending on the place or the situation, such a natural dissipation might have some downsides. My Dual Energy Formation can do both. Once you finish using it, the formation will use a small part of the remaining Spiritual Energy to spread it in the surroundings again. That way, the area will achieve stability faster."

Qruto quickly turned on the formation after that. Surprisingly, it wasn't a complicated formation, even though it was double-layered. Still, it worked just as Qruto mentioned.

Turin couldn't help but nod as he muttered.

"That's quite convenient."

"Indeed. Suppose you have a medicinal garden close to your Energy Gathering Formation. In that case, it will be good if you can restore the garden's Spiritual Energy Stability faster."

"That is only one of its applications. I'm sure there are a few other ways to use it."

Qruto smiled with a prideful expression as he listened.

"However, the fact that Spiritual Energy was used beforehand won't change."

"Indeed. Even if it can give the rest back to the surroundings, the temporary lack of it will be present nonetheless."

Sure enough, the elders pointed the flaws it had.

Nonetheless, Qruto was still happy with the results. He took all the advice to mind before retreating to wait for the results.

The tests continued one after another. Rean couldn't help but feel entertained with that sight. There were quite a sizable number of ideas he might have some use for even himself in the future. 

"Qia Sasamil, 6th position in the last exam."

Qia immediately stepped forward to explain.

"It works. Of course, I still have a lot to improve on the energy consumption and size, but the general idea is there."

"Alright, tell us what it can do."

As mentioned before, Qia was trying to make a new version of the Multi-Teleport Formation. There was already one in the court, but she wanted to optimize it for documents only, reducing the energy consumption. It would also be a lot smaller, allowing it to be built on someone's desk.

Qia quickly activated the not yet so small formations and began to use them to teleport a bunch of papers around. She even thought about using specific runes where the user could use their energy to know where the document would go. The range was not that wide, no more than a few hundred meters. Still, for a closed office environment, it would be very convenient.

"Very good! Although this kind of thing would only be useful for large companies due to the cost of maintenance, it's still pretty useful."

"I can see that these formations are quite big, but you already know that. If you can really reduce the size of the formation to fit on a desk, then it would be nice."

"However, I find it hard to see it working without the use of Spirit Stones. Having to carry many spirit stones to use the formation every time would be quite a hassle."

As always, they praised the idea and also showed their concerns and complaints. Nonetheless, Qia was very happy with the result. She received way fewer criticisms than she heard from the others. Although she couldn't be sure, she was very confident in finishing in the top ten.

Milo, as mentioned before, made a variation of an offensive formation called the Spiritual Earth Swords Formation. Unfortunately, it didn't work as he intended, showing that he was still far from achieving the results he envisioned. The formation did activate, but it was too chaotic and had problems identifying friends from foes.

Although the Formation Masters did praise his attempt, they spent most of the time talking about the mistakes he made. He couldn't be said to be the worst, but he was most likely close to the bottom of the list.

The tests continued until the masters arrived at Havek.

"Havek Sasamil, 2nd position in the last exam. So, does it work?"

Havek laughed out loud as he replied.

"Hahaha! Who do you think I am? It's obviously working! Behold, the Light Formation!"