The Second Collection - Misty Canyon Chapter 19: Each with Their Own Plans

  Spreading out the gray cloth, Wang Guanlan began to carefully observe the three ancient symbols.

  Among these three ancient symbols, the one that truly caught Wang Guanlan's interest was only one.

  Compared to the other two ancient symbols, this one is relatively simple and allows Wang Guanlan to see a clue, while the other two ancient symbols make Wang Guanlan completely unaware of what valuable things are.

  But this ancient symbol can be discerned, not because it is related to the five elements of yuanqi, but on the contrary, this ancient symbol has nothing to do with the five elements of yuanqi, and is related to another thing that Wang Guanlan recently attaches great importance to.

  That is the way of the soldier.

  Having grasped one of the seven guards of Huā Lí, Wang Guanlan can be said to have mastered this guard, and thus naturally grasped the military book of Huā Lí's guard. However, due to the limitations of his martial arts cultivation, although he has understood some of the subtleties of military strategy through his own array skills, if he were to lead the army against high-ranking warriors, he would still be insufficient in both heart and strength. Not to mention that his martial arts cultivation is low, even if he could concentrate the power of one guard of Huā Lí's guard, it would be difficult for him to push his internal energy cultivation to the seventh layer of Lianqi. Even if he could achieve this, with his current physical strength, there would only be a dead end. The internal energy of hundreds or even thousands of Huā Lí guards could burst his body in the shortest time, like a balloon exploding completely, without any suspense.

  His physical strength was too weak, even if he wore the uniform-level Hu Li Jia Yi, he couldn't withstand that much internal energy, let alone absorb it to enhance his own cultivation.

  So at first, Wang Guanlan did not think of using military law because that was simply self-inflicted humiliation.

  After seeing the ancient symbol for the first time, he felt a sense of familiarity. At first glance, the symbol was a perfect circle. Upon closer inspection, it became apparent that this circle was composed of countless tiny symbols, each about the size of a grain of rice. These symbols were all different shapes and were combined in a specific pattern to form the final shape of the symbol. Similarly, Wang Guanlan also discovered that these rice-grain-sized symbols were also composed of even smaller symbols. It was precisely these extremely small symbols that caught his attention, because they were very similar to the magic arrays of the Taoist soldiers.

  "Although the exterior is somewhat different, the core symbol array is very similar!" Wang Guanlan's gaze was fixed on the center of the symbol. "Both are methods for adding power, but one combines different internal energies, while the other combines different heavenly and earthly primordial energies. It seems that a trip to that valley is necessary, half a month's time will be enough!"

  Her hand lightly stroked the runes on the gray cloth, feeling the subtle and mysterious meaning conveyed from the ancient symbols.

  According to legend, the top-grade ancient talismans can even gather spiritual energy like Daoist artifacts, while mid-grade ancient talismans will have spirituality similar to that of Lingzhi. This ancient talisman has gone through too much time, and its spirituality has gradually dissipated, but the remaining spirituality still allows Wang Guanlan to easily sense the faint joy in this ancient talisman.

  Nor did he know why, but Wang Guanlan felt that the meaning conveyed by this rune was a kind of joy, and his intuition told him that more contact with this ancient rune would be very helpful to his formation skills.

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  "This Wang Guanlan is nothing to be feared!" In the inn, Han Fu leaned back in his chair, swaying gently and narrowing his eyes.

  "No, Han Lao Da, I've thought it through carefully. That kid's formation is quite powerful after all. If I get trapped inside, I'm not sure I can escape!"

  "Yes, and today he's using the Five Elements Formation with five flags made of Zhenqi fabric, each representing a direction. At the City West Drill Grounds, there isn't much Yuanqi that can be mobilized, but the formation's power is already quite impressive... If only..."

  "His power is nothing special, and it's just staying at the boundary of change. Have you noticed that those three guys had an impact on his formation? With their strength, they were able to affect the formation, which means this formation hasn't reached the point where people are helpless!"

  "That's the Leizi family's young master's Thunder Pavilion's firearm, its power is naturally extremely great. I've investigated and that firearm's power is even stronger than our full-strength attack by a lot. The fact that such power only slightly affected his formation shows that this young master's formation is indeed formidable!"

  "This also shows that this kid's formation can be influenced by brute force, the power of firearms is great, but there are many things more powerful than firearms, don't tell us you don't have such a trump card?! Han Fu smiled with a self-satisfied expression, "Do you know what this means? This means that kid has only grasped the most superficial layer of the Five Elements Formation's infinite changes! Although his formation's five elements rotate and interact in a seemingly magical way, each type of power is limited. As long as one isn't blinded by appearances and has strong methods, it's easy to break the formation!"

  "What you said is just the formation under the banner!" Song Kun said, "Don't forget, the day you and he agreed to fight is the Opening of the Plowing Ceremony, half a month from now. He has enough time to set up a more complete formation, not like relying on the banner alone, just a simplified version. Moreover, since that place can produce Phoenix Tail Grass in abundance, it shows that the heaven and earth are full of energy, with sufficient time and abundant energy, the Five Elements Formation will be set up, its power is absolutely incomparable to today's!"

  "I've said it before, his understanding of the Five Elements Formation is still stuck at the level of 'thousand changes and ten thousand transformations', which is not enough to be worried about!" Han Fu laughed.

  "He is just showing off his versatile skills, it doesn't mean he will definitely stay in the state of versatility!"

  "Yes, perhaps he has already entered the second realm, but just hasn't shown it yet!"

  "Is that possible? How old is he? Do you think he's the legendary Array King Zhuge Wuyi?" Han Fu sneered.

  "What Old Han said is right, this Wang Guanlan is only fifteen years old, even the Array King Zhuge Wuyi didn't enter the second level of understanding array methods until he was sixteen, what virtue or ability does Wang Guanlan have to be mentioned in the same breath as Array King Zhuge Wuyi?!"

  "It's reasonable to say that if he can really be compared to Zhuge Wumu, or even surpass him, then we would have lost to him and there would be nothing more to say!"

  "Yes, if we encounter someone like Zhuge Wumu this time, even if we lose, it's still glorious! " Han Fu smiled and said, "Although the possibility is extremely small!"

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  "The possibility of Wang Guanlan passing this level is extremely low, Qingling, have you thought about what will happen on the day of the Grand Harvest Festival after Wang Guanlan fails?!"

  "Nothing will happen, even if Wang Guanlan loses, this engagement ceremony must still go on, it's something that Ning Wangfu and Jingling Lake have already set in stone, no one can change it!"

  "What if he dies?!" Xiū Yuǎn's eyebrows rose, "Don't look at the fact that you've reached an agreement with the Ning Wang Fu now, but when that day comes, those who challenge him won't care about the agreement between Qing Ling Hu and the Ning Wang Fu. They won't hold back!"

  "Except for a limited number of people, everyone else will have misgivings. Even the young strongmen on the hidden list won't ignore the intimidation of the Ning Wangfu. There are only two people who can truly pose a threat to Wang Guanlan's life!"

  "Are you Shenghe Xia Dongyuan?!!"

  "Not bad, one of them is ranked first in the Profound Abyss Ranking, and the other is ranked second. Their identities are not inferior to ours, who have been traveling the world for years. And there's also Seventh Prince, if he has the chance, although his cultivation is only at the seventh layer of Qi Refining, but if he has the chance, he will definitely not show mercy to Wang Guanlan."

  "What do you have to say for yourself?!" Xiu Yan said, "If Wang Guanlan really died at the opening ceremony of Kaicheng, with Ning Wangye's temper, I'm afraid he will destroy all the phoenix tail grass in Man Valley!"

  "Destroy it, maybe, so I'll stop it when the time comes!" Qingling said lightly, "Perhaps that's my chance to break off the engagement!"

  "That's great, but I don't know if the three of them will come!"

  "I'm not sure, if it were just for me, Jun Sheng and Xia Dongyuan wouldn't have made a move, but if Wang Guanlan can defeat enough opponents or his array sparks their interest, they might make a move. As for the Seventh Prince, if he can break out of the capital, then he will definitely come!"

  "Why must Your Highness rush out? Could it be that Your Majesty will stop him?"

  "A prince, a barbarian king's son, although their status is vastly different, but when the two meet, their identity is really too sensitive. Now the Great Qi Dynasty is in a state of peace and harmony, but such sensitive matters can't happen, Your Majesty and the King won't let it happen!"

  "Your Majesty and the Prince are both understanding people!" Xiu Yan sighed softly, sat down beside Qing Ling, "It seems that the final outcome of this plowing ceremony is still difficult to predict!"

  "The possibilities can all be easily inferred, but there are too many variables, and in the end, no one can predict the outcome!"

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  "The final outcome is unpredictable, Guanlan. The only way to face all the challengers in the opening ceremony is also the best solution. What do you need from the Wang family? Don't be polite, just speak up!"

  "Your Majesty, all the necessary things have been transported and will arrive in Yicheng in three days. It is expected that the deployment will take about ten days, and I can still spare two days to get familiar with it!"