Daily life of a cultivation judge-Chapter 1162 Path of the nodes (2)
1162: Path of the nodes (2)
1162: Path of the nodes (2)
There was also a formation plate within the diagram that acted as the conduit linking the different nodes together, bringing out the full power of the array.
It functioned as the core or “eye” of the formation, helping to distribute or lessen the burden on the nodes.
It took highly skilled formation masters to create a formation diagram, as it required a high level of understanding for them to be able to convert the formation into a cultivation art form.
They not only needed to have a deep understanding of formations, but they also needed to be gifted enough in formulating cultivation arts, which was what made formation diagrams so rare and novel.
A formation master could design over a dozen formation blueprints and successfully lay down just as many arrays—across different environments and under varying conditions—yet still go their entire life without ever creating a single formation diagram.
This was because crafting a formation diagram required more than just a deep understanding of formations; it placed immense demands on a person’s comprehension of the Grand Dao’s laws and principles as a whole.
This was why, for all the formation diagrams Yang Qing had come across, the skill level of their creators was, more often than not, at least that of a top-tier blue-grade formation master.
While there were cases of lower-ranked formation masters managing to create one, they were exceedingly rare, and their success was typically due to their prodigious, almost unnatural talent.
Many of them went on to become major figures in the formation circles across the continent.
One of the Order’s purple-grade formation masters had been one such individual—he had managed to create a formation diagram when he was only a low-tier blue-grade formation master.
While formation diagrams demanded a lot from their creators, that wasn’t the case when it came to serving as a node.
Usually, as long as you had an average aptitude, you’d be fit for the role.
The cultivation arts comprising a formation diagram were typically fragmented into different parts—the number of parts matching the number of nodes needed.
This segmentation served two purposes: first, it reduced the burden on each cultivator functioning as a node, and second, it reduced the difficulty of learning and subsequently mastering the art by breaking it down to digestible forms.
Once someone was chosen to be a node, they could never cultivate any other technique or art except that cultivation art related to the formation diagram.
As such, because of that demanding nature, the difficulty of those arts cannot be too high or challenging, as doing so would subsequently demand a higher talent to master it.
This would mean sacrificing those with higher talents to serve as nodes, which in turn would make that formation diagram more trouble than it was worth.
What made a formation diagram truly worthwhile wasn’t just the power it could exert but also the cost required to unleash that power.
If the cost was equal to or greater than the power exhibited, then the formation diagram would ultimately be considered a failure.
Take a low-tier blue-grade formation diagram, for example.
If serving as one of its nodes required someone with the talent and potential to reach the palace realm, then that formation diagram would be deemed inefficient.
It would be far more beneficial to nurture and cultivate that individual into a palace realm expert rather than sacrifice their potential to serve as a node.
The value that a cultivator could provide upon reaching the palace realm would vastly outweigh the benefits of a low-tier blue-grade formation diagram.
A formation diagram of that tier would only be considered truly valuable if it could be utilized by cultivators whose potential capped at the core formation realm because in such a case you would be using a bunch of core formation experts to reproduce the powers and abilities of an early stage palace realm expert via that formation diagram.
Because of these considerations, it was adopted as common practice that the demands placed on nodes were always to be subject to the formation diagram’s grade.
The required talent had to be lower—with “lower” being relative to the formation’s strength and grade.
The node requirements for a low-tier blue-grade formation diagram had to be cultivators whose potential would cap out at the core formation realm.
Additionally, the formation diagram needed to be fully powered by those in the core formation realm.
For a middle-tier blue-grade formation diagram, the node requirements would be slightly higher, but not drastically so.
It could still be powered by core formation cultivators, though with stricter limitations—perhaps requiring all nodes to be at the peak stage of the core formation realm or close to it.
If absolutely necessary, a quasi-palace realm expert might be included as the highest acceptable threshold for a node.
It was only with a top-tier blue-grade formation diagram that sacrificing palace realm experts as nodes became a consideration.
Even then, the structure had to be carefully managed to ensure the trade-off was worthwhile.
At most, a few palace realm cultivators—perhaps one to three—might be used as nodes, and all chosen nodes would need the talent and potential to reach the palace realm themselves.
However, to maximize the benefits while minimizing costs, the number of nodes in a top-tier blue-grade formation diagram had to be lower than those in the low- and middle-tier versions.
For the first two tiers, it was expected that the number of nodes would be high to compensate for the qualitative gap between palace realm cultivators and the core formation experts serving as nodes.
In such a case one needed the numbers to bridge that gap.
But for a top-tier blue-grade formation diagram, where the nodes themselves were expected to be at the palace realm or have the potential to reach it, the number of nodes had to be significantly lower for the formation diagram to retain its value.
It was only when it came to a gold-grade formation diagram that the number of nodes would significantly spike again, as it required a substantial number of late-stage palace realm experts to power it and reproduce the strength and abilities of a domain-level expert.
For those who became nodes, their cultivation level would forever be capped at the level of the formation diagram.
This could be seen as either an advantage or a disadvantage.
Formation diagrams functioned similarly to artifacts in this regard—once a cultivator became a node, their cultivation path was tied to that formation diagram.
The grade of the formation diagram dictated the highest cultivation realm that cultivator could attain, as their cultivation was nurtured and shaped by the formation diagram itself.
This was similar to those who were bonded to artifacts at birth, where their cultivation path was dictated by the artifact, and their potential growth was bound to its level- though there had been rare exceptions who subverted that expected norm.
Whether this was a good or bad thing depended on perspective.
The downside was that a cultivator’s limit would be predetermined the instant they became a node.
However, the advantage was that since their path was already laid out for them, it made for a much easier and smoother progress, leading to a rapid increase in cultivation levels for those who followed this route.
This feature was what made formation diagrams both attractive and terrifying.
Yang Qing had heard of certain powers exploiting this particular aspect to rapidly produce experts while simultaneously maintaining a supply of formation nodes.
He had read and heard of it being used among kingdoms, empires, and cultivating clans, where strict laws and the notion of serving the greater good could enforce obedience or even compel individuals to become nodes.
Given this, it wasn’t surprising to Yang Qing that the Xia clan had members who were nodes.
Sects, however, were a different story.
No matter how tempting it was to exceed one’s natural potential through a formation diagram, few cultivators were willing to take that plunge, as it meant placing a hard limit on their cultivation journey.
People joined sects to explore the depths of cultivation, and becoming a node would hinder that pursuit.
Because of the inherently individualistic nature of sects, forcing disciples into such roles would risk mutiny and insurrection.
As a result, formation diagrams were rarely used in sects—unless they were of a sufficiently high tier, such as a gold-grade formation diagram.
Anything less, and most cultivators would hesitate to commit.
A formation lineage, huh… Yang Qing murmured, his gaze shining with a strange flicker.
While he wasn’t surprised that the Xia clan had members capable of using one, what did surprise him though was them possessing a formation diagram to begin with, given the high demands of creating one.
For a clan he had only just learned about today, the more he heard, the more intrigued he became.
