Daily life of a cultivation judge-Chapter 1163 The senior’s ingenious plan

1163: The senior’s ingenious plan

1163: The senior’s ingenious plan

“The formation diagram…” Yang Qing asked probingly.

“Was it something your clan created itself, or was it acquired externally?”

“It was created by our founder first, and then later improved upon by later generations,” Xia Fang explained.

“Your founder was quite a talent,” Yang Qing said, offering genuine praise.

The Xia clan founder’s list of achievements was enough to make him sigh in admiration—especially considering that all of it was accomplished with just a peak-stage core formation realm cultivation base, and a crippled one at that.

I wonder if he created it before he was crippled or after… Yang Qing mused before shaking his head.

Not that it matters.

Regardless of when he did it, the achievement itself is remarkable—just the fact that he managed to create it without stepping into the palace realm is enough to send shockwaves all around.

His admiration for the Xia clan founder’s talent continued to swell.

Chief Song Chuanli’s image couldn’t help but crop up in his mind as he thought of the Xia clan’s founder, given that they had both accomplished the impossible as core formation experts.

Formation diagrams, without a doubt, required deep understanding and talent in formations.

But just as crucially, they demanded a certain level of comprehension of the principles and laws of the Grand Dao.

After all, only by grasping those principles could someone successfully convert a formation blueprint into a cultivation art capable of producing the functionality a formation diagram required.

The level of comprehension and understanding required for those principles and laws matched what palace realm experts had, though not that of a freshly ascended one.

It demanded the depth of someone who had deeply entrenched themselves in the vast unending waters of the Grand Dao.

The understanding of a first-stage palace realm expert, even one who had been at that stage for decades or centuries, would hardly be enough.

Formulating a formation diagram required far greater depth.

Someone with the same foundation as Yang Qing might barely scrape by and create one as a first-stage palace realm cultivator, but even then, it would only be a low-tier blue-grade formation diagram.

And even that wasn’t guaranteed as it would likely take numerous trials and errors before succeeding.

To comfortably produce a low-tier blue-grade formation diagram, they would need to be at the second stage of the palace realm—at least for those with Yang Qing’s level of aptitude.

But what for those with lesser talent?

Based on his understanding of formation diagrams and the immense difficulty in creating them, they would likely need to be at the fourth stage or higher.

And for better odds, they would have to be firmly planted in the middle stages of the palace realm.

That was why he couldn’t help but admire the Xia clan’s founder.

He had accomplished something that would have stumped countless others—including palace realm experts—all while still in the core formation realm.

Very few people could achieve something similar, and one of them was Chief Song Chuanli.

Despite being in the core formation realm, he had accomplished feats that even those far beyond him in cultivation could not.

A core formation realm craftsman capable of creating ascendant-grade artifacts—Yang Qing wasn’t even sure if there was another like him on the entire continent.

I wonder what level he would have reached, Yang Qing mused, thinking of the Xia clan’s founder.

Chief Song Chuanli was already in seclusion, breaking through, and according to Old Fiend Lei’s estimates, the depth of his mastery over the Grand Dao was so profound that when he emerged, he wouldn’t just step into the palace realm; he was likely to leapfrog straight into the domain level.

Yang Qing was inclined to believe it.

Even as a palace realm expert himself, he could still feel a subtle pressure emanating from Song Chuanli which was something he only ever experienced when he was in the company of those stronger than him.

Given their similarities, he couldn’t help but wonder if the Xia clan’s founder would have reached similar heights had his cultivation not been crippled.

Ultimately… Yang Qing let out a somber sigh.

It was a question that would forever remain unanswered.

Who knew how many heaven-defying geniuses, destined to shape an era, had suffered the same fate as the Xia clan’s founder?

They were like buried treasures that never saw the light of day, fading into obscurity, weathering into worthless fragments, and their brilliance forever lost.

This was why Yang Qing firmly believed that the greatest talent one could ever possess was the talent to survive.

Everything else, though important, was secondary.

Only if you lived could you accomplish anything.

Pulling his thoughts back, Yang Qing continued his inquiry.

“Was it at the low tier when he created it and later upgraded to the middle tier, or was it already at the middle tier from the onset?”

“It was low tier,” Xia Fang replied, though she looked like she still had more to add on.

“But it wasn’t that far off from becoming middle tier,” she added.

“It took the clan close to 200 years to make that leap, and even then, those who helped achieve it weren’t as gifted as the founder when it came to formations.

The transition to middle tier happened successfully—and in such a short time—only because of how close it already was to the next stage.

Even then, they relied on the founder’s own notes and ideas to guide the upgrade.

So, technically, it was still the founder’s doing that it reached the middle tier, even though he wasn’t ‘there’ to oversee it,” Xia Fang explained, her tone tinged with admiration.

The Daoist canon their founder had left behind, along with his notes on the formation diagram, played a crucial role in its evolution.

Without either, who knew how long it would have taken the clan to raise its rank?

Yang Qing nodded, sharing in the admiration, before his expression slowly turned somber.

The next part of the story was unlikely to be one of celebration.

Xia Fang took his look as a cue to continue recounting her story.

“The three clans had no idea we possessed the formation diagram.

It was one of the few things our founder kept hidden, even from his disciples, as it was something he had created specifically for his descendants, given that activating the formation plate required our bloodline.

Even after his death, that secrecy was something that continued to endure even within the clan itself.

Only the clan patriarch, the supreme elders, the chosen heir, and the candidates selected to serve as its nodes were aware of it, with those chosen as nodes being sworn to extreme secrecy, keeping the matter hidden even from those closest to them.

Given the level of secrecy around it, and the fact that we have never been pushed to the point that we needed to use it, the three clans, and even the Lai clan, and a greater majority of our own clan members had no idea it existed,” explained Xia Fang.

“The unexpectedness of its presence ended up working in our favor as we managed to gravely injure three of the seven palace realm experts who attacked us and in the process of doing so, forced a stalemate, which also gave us the chance to turtle ourselves in,” she said.

“But even with that victory, because of how off guard we were from the number of palace realm experts that showed, we ended up paying a heavy price to force that stalemate,” Xia Fang said as she took a brief pause.

“We lost no fewer than a thousand clan members before the formation diagram had fully taken effect,” she added as an air of sadness slowly enveloped her.

“After losing three palace realm experts, the three clans put a halt to their plans in part out of fear of the might the formation diagram had shown and partly because their cooperation had been shaken as a consequence of the results created by that diagram,” Xia Fang said, as a sardonic smile warmed her face.

“Of the three palace realm experts who had been left gravely injured, two were from the Chi family, while the last one was from the Ning family, which left the Fan family as the only one to come out of the whole thing unscathed,” said Xia Fang, her eyes gleaming with joy at the misfortune those clans had suffered back then.

The glint in her eyes grew brighter when she imagined the faces they would likely have made during that incident.

Oh, how she wished she had been there to soak it all in.

Just the thought sent a thrill through her heart.

“It was deliberate?” Yang Qing softly asked, pulling Xia Fang from her sadistic reverie.

Blushing slightly in embarrassment, she lowered her gaze and nodded.

“It was a snap decision made by one of the seniors who served as a node at the time.

He felt it was the only move that could buy us time—by creating a rift in the cooperation between the three clans,” Xia Fang said with a look of admiration.

“And that gamble paid off.

The three clans immediately halted their plans for almost twenty years after that, giving our clan some much-needed breathing room,” she added.

“We’ve only managed to endure this long thanks, in part, to the formation diagram our founder left us—and in part, to that senior’s actions,” Xia Fang said softly.

Yang Qing let out a hum of agreement, sighing in respect and admiration for Xia Fang’s senior’s quick thinking.

If he had been in the same position, he doubted he would have made a better decision, especially under the added pressure of the heat of the moment.

The choice of action had been perfect.

By targeting two of the clans while leaving one untouched, suspicion would inevitably fall on the Fan family.

The Ning and Chi families—especially the latter, which had suffered the most casualties—would begin to doubt their supposed ally.

The Fan family would be suspected of colluding with the Xia clan, which would explain why they remained unscathed.

The only way for them to erase that cloud of suspicion hanging over them would be to attack the Xia clan in earnest.

But would they dare to, given what they had seen that formation diagram do?

No, they wouldn’t, especially given the fact that the two clans were unlikely to join in on the action, leaving them to bear the whole brunt of it.

This would leave them hesitant to act, and their inaction would only fuel further suspicion and resentment from the other two clans.

And even if the two clans saw through the Xia clan senior’s plan to sow dissension among them, they would still have no choice but to follow the script for a number of reasons.

For one, even if they suspected it was a ploy, they still wouldn’t be able to completely rule out the possibility that the Fan clan had set them up.

A sliver of doubt would still remain of their possible collusion with the Xia clan to deal with the two families.

Secondly, from a purely selfish and wary perspective, those two clans would likely want the Fan clan to suffer the same damage they had—especially the Chi clan, which had gone from having the most palace realm experts to being tied for the least alongside the Ning clan.

With those factors in play, their attention would be turned against one another, making it unlikely for them to have the presence of mind to go after the Xia clan in the short term.

“An ingenious plan indeed,” Yang Qing muttered.