The next morning, when the early sunlight had just poked through, before it could melt the frost on the kiln's surface, Thuong Sinh had already awakened. He brushed aside the layer of ashes; inside, the pottery items had turned a brick-red color.
He picked up the small pottery pot, lightly tapping its side. A clear, crisp ring echoed, indicating the ceramic structure was very dense and durable. He used stream water to wash away the ash dust, then silently carried a basket into the forest, heading toward yesterday's cliff.
Upon arrival, the Pure Spirit Grass sprout was still quietly emitting a faint white mist amidst the rock crevice. Thuong Sinh did not use an iron shovel; he sat down, circulating internal force into his fingertips. This time, he not only sensed but used his internal force to envelop the entire root system and the block of earth surrounding it.
He mobilized his internal force to cut deep into the fractured stone slab, lifting the entire block of earth and stone containing the roots in the most intact manner. His movements were so gentle that not a single speck of dust fell onto the fragile jade leaves. He placed the root block into the newly fired pottery pot, then scooped some pure stream water from the underground vein to pour in. The moment it touched the new environment, the three leaves of the Pure Spirit Grass vibrated slightly, and the white mist suddenly radiated more densely.
Thuong Sinh cradled the pottery pot in his arms, returning to the wooden house.
When he entered the yard, Lam Thanh Moc was waiting, holding Thuong An. She was immediately attracted by what he held in his hands. A pure, sweet fragrance from the pot spread through the air.
"This smells so wonderful," Lam Thanh Moc exclaimed in astonishment. She was a person with a plant-control ability; she sensed an extremely pure source of vitality within it. "Is this the thing you said would help us sleep well?"
Thuong Sinh nodded, walking straight into the house and placing the pottery pot on a wooden shelf right next to the head of Thuong An's cradle.
Lam Thanh Moc stepped closer, her hand lightly touching the white mist clinging to the rim of the pot; a cool and refreshing sensation spread throughout her body. Thuong An in her arms also began to look around, his black eyes staring fixedly at the tiny sprout shimmering like crystal, his small mouth smacking then grinning widely.
"It is truly miraculous..." she whispered, her eyes looking at Thuong Sinh with deep emotion. "You did all of this, from molding the pot to finding it... just because you worry for the two of us?"
Thuong Sinh did not answer; he only reached out to adjust the pot's position so the sunlight from the window could shine in just right.
"With this, you will also be less tired when caring for the child at night," he said gently.
Right then, Thuong An reached out his tiny hands toward the potted plant. Instead of being fussy, the boy just watched silently; his breathing gradually became deeper and more rhythmic under the influence of the spirit medicine.
Thuong Sinh observed silently; he realized his prediction from the encyclopedia was correct. While in the underground rock crevice, the Pure Spirit Grass's source of spiritual energy was encased by thick rock and the water vein's humidity, preventing the fragrance from dispersing widely. But now, brought out into an open space, its spirituality began to awaken powerfully. The white mist from the three jade leaves no longer just lingered at the pot's rim but began to thread through the wooden door gaps, merging into the forest wind.
Thuong Sinh suddenly frowned. His deep eyes shifted into a chilling deep purple hue in an instant. His spiritual sense showed unusual vibrations from the forest edge, about a few hundred meters from the house.
"Take the child into the inner chamber. Bolt the door."
His voice was deep, no longer possessing the gentleness of minutes ago but carrying a pressure that made the air in the room seem to freeze.
Lam Thanh Moc paused for a moment; she sensed his sudden tension. She asked no more, immediately carrying Thuong An behind the bamboo curtain, her hand clutching the purple jade stone he had given her previously.
Thuong Sinh stepped onto the porch, his hand resting on the hilt of the Marsh-Blood Sword still wrapped in white cloth. He did not draw the sword, just stood there like a stone statue under the twilight.
From the dense thickets, rustling sounds grew louder. A pungent stench of fierce beasts began to hit his nose.
Grrr... rrr...
Three giant dark shadows slowly emerged from the mist. They were Intermediate-level Mutated Wolves, each as large as a small truck, their ash-gray fur standing up like needles, and their fiery red eyes staring fixedly at the wooden house with extreme greed. They were the dominant predators of this area, but normally they always avoided the killing intent lingering around Thuong Sinh's house. Yet today, the pure fragrance of the Pure Spirit Grass had caused their greedy instincts to overcome their fear.
Thuong Sinh looked at the three monsters, his thin lips curling into a cruel curve.
"I have tried to have peace..." he muttered, his footsteps lightly stepping down onto the grass yard. "But you want to disturb my son's sleep."
He did not circulate the "Marsh Blood Corrupting Heart Manual" because he did not want to pollute Lam Thanh Moc's herbal garden with blood poison. He simply released a small portion of his pressure.
Boom—!
An invisible surge of pressure as heavy as a thousand tons erupted from Thuong Sinh, pressing straight down into the ground. The grass carpet beneath his feet did not wither, but the earth seemed to sink down a few inches.
The three Mutated Wolves, which had been baring their teeth intending to lunge, suddenly froze mid-motion. Their four legs trembled; their fiery red eyes full of ferocity were in an instant replaced by absolute terror. In their wild spirituality, the one standing before them was no longer a human, but a god-demon governing life and death.
"Get out, or die."
The four words from Thuong Sinh's mouth were bone-chilling.
One of them, out of extreme craving for the spirit medicine, still tried to let out a roar then lunged forward with momentum. Thuong Sinh did not draw his sword; he only raised a finger, flicking lightly into the air.
Whoosh—!
A surge of Blade Wind so condensed it was nearly invisible pierced through the air. It was so fast the mutated wolf did not have time to close its mouth.
Puk!
A small hole appeared right in the middle of the monster's forehead; no blood splattered, for the heat of the internal force had incinerated the wound instantly. The beast collapsed onto the grass floor, dying on the spot without time to utter even a whimper.
The remaining two witnessed the scene, and all their greed vanished completely. They let out a whimper then turned and fled for their lives into the deep forest, not daring to look back even once.
Thuong Sinh looked at the beast's corpse, sighing softly. He ended up carrying its corpse far away, digging a hole to toss the mutated wolf's body inside.
When he returned home, Lam Thanh Moc was standing at the door, her eyes looking at him full of worry but also partly relieved.
"Is it resolved?"
Thuong Sinh nodded; he removed his Black Star Gloves, wiped his hands dry, then approached the cradle.
"Just a few uninvited guests."
He leaned down to look at Thuong An, seeing the boy was still sleeping deeply, one hand still reaching toward the Pure Spirit Grass pottery pot.
Thuong Sinh looked at the blue board hovering before him; he scanned through the items, pills, weapons, and manuals, then stopped at a new category he had never seen before—he had seen this category since he broke through to Foundation Establishment.
[ Formations ]
Thuong Sinh scanned this category, his purple-black eyes narrowing slightly. The system displayed a series of names from basic to advanced: Spirit-Gathering Formation, Eight-Trigrams Bewildering Soul Formation, Blade-Energy Execution Formation... but his gaze stopped at a formation set named:
[ Spirit-Hiding Ground-Lurking Formation ] Description: A Foundation Establishment level formation, specialized for concealing aura, spiritual power, and life signs. When activated, the formation's range will be covered by an energy filtering layer, making outsiders look in and see only natural mist and trees. Price: 800 accumulated points.
Thuong Sinh looked at his current accumulated points, then back at Thuong An lying in the wooden cradle. The safety of his family was something he would never consider the price of.
He silently willed the purchase; in the air, eight deep black wooden stakes immediately appeared, each about a hand-span long, engraved with strange ancient characters. Along with them was a deep purple jade stone block—this was the Formation Eye.
Thuong Sinh seized them then stepped out to the yard; currently, it was already night. The night in this forest was dead silent without any loud noises, only the sound of wind sweeping through. He began to move.
He did not walk, but used "Phantom Steps". His silhouette blurred, appearing at eight positions around the camp. At each point, Thuong Sinh did not use a hammer; he simply placed the wooden stake against the ground, then used his internal force to forcibly press it down.
Thud... thud...
The wooden stakes pierced through the sturdy tree roots, embedding deep into the earth. He calculated very carefully, utilizing the ancient tree trunks themselves as shielding for the formation points. Finally, Thuong Sinh returned to the porch. He placed the jade Formation Eye block into a crevice of the main wooden pillar right next to the entrance.
Thuong Sinh placed the jade Formation Eye block into position, but he did not act immediately. He stood motionless before the wooden pillar, his brows tightly knitted. Although he had purchased the formation from the system, the knowledge of the Eight Trigrams schematic, the operation of the formation points, or the coordination of the internal force circulation within those black stakes remained a jumbled mess in his head. The system only provided the items; the method of use was like a complex technical drawing he had to decode himself.
He closed his eyes, his spiritual sense penetrating into the jade stone.
"Energy convection principle..." Thuong Sinh analyzed silently from the perspective of a technology student.
He realized this formation operated based on creating a zone of lower spiritual pressure than the surroundings, causing surges of spiritual energy and scents to be sucked back into the formation's center instead of diffusing outward. Those eight wooden stakes played the role of dielectric poles, while his internal force would be the conductor.
He began testing gradually. Thuong Sinh did not use all his power; he only introduced a strand of internal force as thin as a hair, slowly threading it into the Formation Eye.
Zzap.
The jade immediately pushed his internal force back out, stinging his palm. Thuong Sinh snorted coldly; he realized the error: his internal force was too violent, carrying blood poison; if he poured it in like that, it would blow up the entire Formation Eye.
He took a very deep breath, beginning the process of filtering out the killing intent within his internal force, leaving only the purest spiritual power. He used his spiritual sense to guide this surge of energy in a spiral path, mimicking the structure of the lines engraved on the wooden stakes.
This time, the Formation Eye no longer resisted. It slowly radiated a soft purple light, pulsing in rhythm with Thuong Sinh's heartbeat.
Thuong Sinh sensed eight invisible strands of spiritual power being pulled taut from eight positions, connecting to the jade in his hand. He breathed a sigh of relief; it turned out controlling this formation was just like balancing a complex chemical filtration system—one minute error and the entire process would collapse.
He lightly rotated his wrist, circulating internal force according to the formation's laws.
An invisible wave of vibration immediately swept through the space. The wooden stakes buried underground began to vibrate faintly, resonating with the spiritual energy of the surrounding heaven and earth. A transparent energy film, so thin it was almost invisible, slowly covered the wooden house and the small yard.
Lam Thanh Moc inside the house, originally holding the child, suddenly snapped her head up. She felt an absolute stillness descend, as if the entire world outside had been blocked behind a crystal wall.
Thuong Sinh stood on the porch, watching the white mist of the Pure Spirit Grass drifting back inside; only then did his heart completely relax. He stepped into the house, removing his Black Star Gloves which were stained with a bit of earth.
Lam Thanh Moc looked at him with questioning eyes: "What did you just do out there?"
Thuong Sinh looked at Thuong An who was sleeping deeply, replying softly: "I just built a fence."
He did not explain the formation; those terms were too foreign to this modern world. He sat down beside the cradle, watching the boy breathing rhythmically in the pure spiritual energy, feeling that all the effort in research and spending accumulated points was entirely worth it.
The next morning, as the sunlight pierced through the thick mist of the formation to create shimmering beams in the yard, Thuong Sinh decided to do something he had long cherished. He carried Thuong An to the yard, letting the boy sit on a soft animal skin amidst the lush green grass carpet.
He began to circulate a bit of his gentlest internal force, guiding the white mist from the Pure Spirit Grass pot to spread throughout the yard, nourishing the surrounding grass and medicinal plants.
Thuong An sat there, his black eyes staring at the white mist streaks winding around him. The boy suddenly reached out his hands, his mouth babbling his first sounds: "Ba... ba..."
Thuong Sinh paused; he leaned down, lifting his son high.
"Mm, Father is here."
He sensed that inside Thuong An's tiny body, under the nourishment of spiritual energy, the blood vessels were circulating extremely powerfully. It seemed that living in this pure environment was quietly opening up the boy's potential. Thuong Sinh let out a self-deprecating laugh at the thought that just flashed through his mind. He looked at Thuong An's chubby hands trying to grab the sunbeams through the leaves—the boy wasn't even weaned yet, and he was already planning to make him cultivate?
He sat his son against his chest, letting the boy's back press against his chest. At this moment, Thuong Sinh began to circulate internal force in an extremely slow manner. He did not transmit it directly into the boy, but turned himself into a transit station. Pure spiritual energy was sucked in by him, then through the filtration of his body, it radiated around the two of them like a warm cocoon.
Thuong An felt comfortable; the boy rested his head completely against his father's stomach, his eyes drooping then falling fast asleep in the sunny yard.
Lam Thanh Moc came out from the kitchen, carrying a basket of freshly washed wild vegetables. Seeing the father and son cuddled together, she stood by the porch, smiling softly and calling down: "It's really strange, since morning I've been feeling so comfortable, as if the air of the forest out there can no longer seep into our yard." "This morning while watering the medicinal garden, I saw the Ground Ginseng plants looking unusually lush." "Perhaps because of that jade plant you brought back yesterday?"
Thuong Sinh looked toward the medicinal garden. Thanks to the formation keeping the spiritual energy enclosed, plus his occasional secret flicking of a bit of internal force when watering the plants, the medicinal plants which had originally mutated were now evolving in an extremely positive direction. They were no longer rough and toxic like apocalyptic flora, but began to carry a bit of the scent of true spirit herbs.
He nodded slightly in response to her: "Let them grow naturally. When needed, I will select them again." "In the future, no matter what happens, we won't worry about a lack of medicine."
A peaceful noon passed beneath the wooden porch. The crackling of dry wood in the kitchen, the rustling sound of Lam Thanh Moc picking vegetables, and Thuong An's steady breathing. He reached out to gently stroke his son's hair, silently calculating in his heart. Foundation Establishment was accomplished, the formation was set, and the spirit medicine was acquired. Now was the time for him to further consolidate his own strength to prepare for larger variables.