The Cannon Fodder Female Supporting Character Captured the Villainous Demon Venerable - Chapter 17

Chapter 17: Super Fierce!

Mo Xun sat on the bed and waited patiently for a while. Once she was sure Yun Wushang had left, she spoke to the system internally: 5 reward points for cultivation talent, 2 saved for later use.

System: “Understood. As per the Host’s request, 5 reward points have been redeemed for Reward 1. All redemptions for Reward 1 have now been made. The Host’s cultivation talent surpasses all cultivators in the same realm. Under the Nascent Soul stage, no one can rival you!”

Mo Xun asked the question internally while picking up the Compendium of Formations.

Unlike the Imperial Sword Art, the Compendium of Formations was not a gift from Yun Wushang but was temporarily loaned to her. She wouldn’t have the opportunity to study it at any time.

However, Mo Xun rarely looked at the Imperial Sword Art anymore, either. After she had read it once, the system memorized all its contents and could guide her cultivation via voice.

She called this “uploading to the cloud.” She wanted to upload the Compendium of Formations as well, so even if Yun Wushang took the book back later, she could review it anytime through the system.

The system’s response was: “Understood, Host. Please open the book in your hands and read through it completely.”

Mo Xun opened the Compendium of Formations.

The path of cultivation has never had a standard answer. There are those who cultivate the sword, those who cultivate magic arts, those who cultivate medicine, and those who cultivate formations.

Formations, like magic arts, are a way to combine Dao and Art, using the power of the Dao of Heaven to solve problems.

The difference is that magic arts can often be performed by merely circulating spiritual energy, while formations require arranging spiritual items according to a specific structure to be maintained.

Halfway through her reading, Mo Xun felt an inspiration and jumped off the bed.

Step one of setting up a formation: Determine the array center.

Mo Xun pointed her sword finger at her bed, setting the array center right in the middle of the bedding.

Step two: Place spiritual items.

Mo Xun took seven spirit stones from her storage pouch and placed them, one at the array center and six circling it.

Step three: Activate spiritual items and clear the array meridians.

Mo Xun raised her hand to form a seal, circulated spiritual energy, and injected it into the spirit stones. The six spirit stones circling the array center connected to each other, finally forming a hexagram that concentrated all the surrounding spiritual energy into the array center.

Step four: Replenish energy and maintain the formation.

Mo Xun placed more spirit stones around the formation to provide energy for the array.

A dense spiritual aura continuously flowed within the formation. Mo Xun’s bed was thus transformed into an excellent place for cultivation.

There was actually one more step: placing a treasure near the array center to protect the formation from being destroyed by external enemies.

But Mo Xun didn’t have any suitable treasures for array suppression yet, and being on the inner sect’s main peak, she had no external enemies to guard against.

Mo Xun sat cross-legged on her sword, letting the sword carry her to hover above the Spirit Gathering Array. She quickly entered meditation, absorbing the surrounding spiritual energy into her body like a hungry person.

After a while, she felt the familiar sense of stagnation in her dantian’s spiritual energy, followed by a sudden surge, multiplying several times as if breaking through some kind of restriction!

The turbulent spiritual power blew open the Compendium of Formations beside her, causing the pages to flip whoosh whoosh from the first page to the last.

System: “Congratulations, Host, you have advanced to the late Golden Core stage!”

System: “It is because the Host is exceptionally gifted; the first attempt at setting up a formation was a great success, leading to highly effective cultivation!”

Mo Xun: Don’t say that. Formations are much easier to understand than cultivation arts. Without your guidance, I wouldn’t know how to even start the Water Moon Sword Art.

System: “That’s not the Host’s fault. The Water Moon Sword Art is the unique secret manual of the Water Moon Immortal Sect. To prevent cultivators from other sects from learning it, it naturally has to be written to be cryptic and difficult to comprehend.”

Mo Xun: So, did you finish memorizing the content of the Compendium of Formations?

System: “Just a little more. Please turn the book to the tenth page from the end, Host.”

Mo Xun complied. After reading the last ten pages and confirming that the system had acquired the full content of the Compendium of Formations, she said to the system: Help me filter out formations that can be set up in the shortest time, require very few spiritual items, but can be highly effective in actual combat.

The system did not disappoint, quickly filtering out the results: “The Damage Reflection Array. Use the palm center as the array core and a spiritual energy mass as the key node. Circulating spiritual energy clockwise allows you to absorb magical attacks from opponents in the same realm. Circulating spiritual energy counter-clockwise allows you to reflect the opponent’s attack back at a slightly weaker intensity. The Host’s current realm is late Golden Core. To counter-attack a magical strike from a late Golden Core grand perfection, you would need to enhance the formation’s strength by improving the quality of the spiritual items. For example, by tightly pressing your palm against your sword blade when initiating the array and using the blade to meet the attack.”

“Spiritual energy mass,” Mo Xun mused.

Did spiritual energy mass mean an energy mass condensed with spiritual energy? Like the water balls she condensed with water spiritual energy.

So a spiritual energy mass can also serve as a spiritual item… No, wait, it’s the opposite. Is it precisely because a spiritual energy mass is difficult to maintain that spiritual items are used as a substitute?

If that was the case, Mo Xun understood.

For instantaneous formations like the “Damage Reflection Array,” she could completely simplify them by using spiritual energy masses instead of spirit stones. While the effect would definitely be inferior to the original, it would be sufficient.

Thinking this, she asked the system: I remember seeing something called the Star Shift Array. Which page is it on?

System: “The Star Shift Array is a teleportation array and requires a large number of high-quality spirit stones…”

Mo Xun: I know. I’ll adjust it. Can’t I just not consume spirit stones?

System: ?

Mo Xun spent half the night researching formations and the other half practicing the Imperial Sword Art.

Hua Baixiang was a single-element wood spiritual root. Water nourishes wood, and metal counters wood. Against her, Mo Xun had to try to restrain her use of water spiritual energy and use the Imperial Sword Art as her main means of attack.

However, trying to master the Imperial Sword Art to the third stage, “Killing Intent into the Sword,” in just half a night was too demanding.

It wasn’t that Mo Xun wasn’t working hard enough, but that she didn’t know how to summon killing intent.

“I’m going to kill you!” she roared, super fiercely!

Mo Xun: Do I have killing intent yet?!

System: “…”

Mo Xun: Say something!

System: “Host, perhaps you should research formations again?”

Mo Xun: Haven’t I researched everything I needed to? As for the rest, there’s not enough time.

System: “Hmm…”

“Heh, I don’t believe this!” Mo Xun changed her attack stance, tried to summon the emotion again, and glared fiercely at the big tree: “Awoo!”

Yun Wushang, who happened to be passing by, stopped and watched her silently: “…”

Mo Xun, whose peripheral vision caught sight of Yun Wushang: “…”

After a moment of awkward silence, Mo Xun swiftly sheathed the sword in her right hand, raised her left hand, and pushed it down, pretending she had just finished a cultivation technique and was adjusting her breathing.

After adjusting, she turned to face Yun Wushang and smiled as if nothing had happened: “Good morning, Junior Sister Yun!”

While she wanted to pretend nothing had happened, Yun Wushang wasn’t willing to pretend she hadn’t seen anything.

“What are you doing?” Yun Wushang asked in a calm tone.

Mo Xun: “I’m cultivating my art…”

Yun Wushang: “I thought someone brought a cat up the mountain on a whim.”

“What cat? I was clearly…” Mo Xun wanted to argue that she was imitating a tiger’s roar, but half-way through, she realized Yun Wushang was teasing her on purpose and quickly stopped.

Yun Wushang’s lips curved slightly, watching her with interest.

Mo Xun coughed lightly, hastily skipping the topic, and asked something else: “You don’t have a match today. Aren’t you going to stay in your room and rest?”

“Someone wanted me to watch her win the championship. I agreed, so I can’t break my promise,” Yun Wushang replied.

“Ah…” Mo Xun felt a pang of guilt.

She had indeed said those words, but only casually. She hadn’t expected Yun Wushang to take it to heart.

“You want to achieve Killing Intent into the Sword?” Yun Wushang suddenly asked.

Since she had guessed it, Mo Xun no longer concealed it and admitted frankly: “Yes, the third stage of the Imperial Sword Art is Killing Intent into the Sword, but I can’t even summon the killing intent, let alone channel it into the sword.”

Yun Wushang was silent for a moment, then asked again: “Do you have someone you want to kill?”

“No,” Mo Xun answered without hesitation.

Although she wasn’t without people she disliked, none reached the point where she wanted to kill them. Furthermore, she came from a society ruled by law, and her education since childhood was that murder is illegal. She wouldn’t consider solving a problem by killing someone unless absolutely necessary.

Yun Wushang was silent for another moment, then changed the question: “What kind of person do you think deserves to be killed?”

Mo Xun thought seriously: “Those who kill or harm others for their own selfish gain.”

Yun Wushang: “Then if I told you that I once cultivated in another Immortal Sect, and a fellow disciple, out of jealousy for my talent, spread rumors about me, which ultimately led to my Master believing the rumors, expelling me from the sect, and severely injuring me, should this person be killed?”

“Yes,” Mo Xun replied instantly with a single word.

Mo Xun didn’t know if Yun Wushang was telling the truth or making it up on the spot, but in her view, anyone who harms others for selfish gain deserves to die.

“Then, regard this tree as that person,” Yun Wushang said, looking at the large tree that Mo Xun had growled fiercely at several times, yet still stood tall and imposing.

Mo Xun looked at the tree.

The person who severely injured Yun Wushang…

Honestly, she didn’t have much connection to the feeling, especially since Yun Wushang was already severely injured when she transmigrated, and she knew the one who injured Yun Wushang was the Heavenly Mountain Immortal Sect, which was considered the righteous faction in the original book.

However, recalling the sight of Yun Wushang, half-naked and covered in wounds, lying on her bed, and imagining someone approaching Yun Wushang in that state, trying to do something to her…

A sharp, chilling aura suddenly swirled up from Mo Xun’s feet, condensing into an invisible sword that quickly swept past the treetop.

A branch snapped and fell to the ground.

Yun Wushang slowly walked over, picked up the branch, and looked down, deep in thought.

Mo Xun watched her figure standing beneath the tree, a trace of melancholy and confusion flashing through her heart.

A moment later, Yun Wushang turned her head to meet her gaze, her lips curving slightly: “See, you can do it, can’t you?”

Mo Xun “Mm”ed.

Everyone except her.