Chapter 1207 – Not Today

Sun Fei looked at Zhao Hai with his mouth open, he couldn’t say a word. It took a while before Sun Fei was able to return to clarity. He suddenly exclaimed out loud as he stood up. His two eyes were completely fixed on Zhao Hai. His mouth was moving up and down, mumblin incomprehensible sounds.

Dongfang Yu, who was sitting besides Sun Fei, patted him on the shoulder and then led him back down to take a seat. Then he said, “Little Fei, calm down. Little Hai told you this because he wanted to teach you. But don’t tell it to other people, or else Little Hai will be in trouble.”

Upon hearing Dongfang Yu, Sun Fei completely recovered. He let out a long breath, then he looked at Zhao Hai as he nodded and said, “Rest assured, Brother Hai, I will not tell anyone, even the people from the temple.”

Zhao Hai smiled faintly as he patted Sun Fei on the shoulder. Then he said, “It’s no big deal. In fact, I would announce this discovery sooner or later. This is a huge benefit to the Machine Field’s Mages and Warriors. Presently, there are a lot of magic formations in the Machine Field. If we add them all up, nobody would be able to count them. This caused a problem where we don’t know which formation is compatible with which. And if we add supporting formations to the mix, then things would become more confusing.”

Everyone nodded. Even a Warrior like Xiong Li agreed. In the Machine Field, whether they be Warriors or Mages, they would have some understanding regarding magic formations. After all, the Machine Field relied on formations to support their way of life. It didn’t matter if it was a mech or a battleship, or it was an electric lamp or a computer, all of these things had magic formations inscribed in them. It would be very difficult if one doesn’t know anything about magic formations.

Zhao Hai then said, “Other than me, the only other person that is well-versed in magic formations in Little Fei. Since Little Fei is a fire Mage, I will use a normal 5-layer fire shield. Little Fei, take a look and find out what’s different about my formation.” After he said that, Zhao Hai waved his hand and a 5-layer formation appeared in front of him. And when it appeared, it didn’t absorb any fire element in the surroundings, causing the formation to look like a child’s toy.

Sun Fei was called Fire Saint because of his deep understanding with regards to fire element formations. So there was no need to wonder about his mastery about the 5-layer formation fire shield. Because of this, Zhao Hai showed him this basic magic formation to let him see what’s special about it.

A level 1 fire shield consists of five magic formations; a solidifying formation, a spirit formation, a fire element formation, a reinforcement formation, and a directional formation. The solidifying formation would be next to the reinforcement formation. The first formation would fix the formation into a shield shape while the latter would strengthen its form, making it stronger and defensively better. Meanwhile, the spirit formation had the most important function, which was to connect and help the formation in absorbing the surrounding spiritual qi, allowing the formation to truly materialize. As for the fire element formation, it was there to provide the elemental aspect of the formation.

Naturally, if the fire element formation was changed to say, a water element formation, then the formation would become a water shield. But if this part of the formation was swapped, the formation set wouldn’t be able to be used by fire element mages.

The directional formation had a simpler function. It didn’t facilitate in the energy consumption of the formation nor did it assist in the elemental aspect. Instead, it allowed the shield to be moved around. Otherwise, the fire shield would just stay in place.

However, Zhao Hai’s fire shield was somewhat different. It still had the same four formations; the solidifying formation, the spirit formation, the fire element formation, and the directional formation. What it didn’t have was the reinforcement formation. Instead, what Zhao Hai had was a formation that Sun Fei didn’t recognize.

Zhao Hai pointed at the new magic formation and said, “This magic formation isn’t something that is used by Mages. Instead, it is often seen on defensive formations in battleships. This formation is called the shipscale formation, since this formation can be seen outside the ships and looks like the scales of a fish. It’s main function is to increase the defensive capability of a battleship. This formation is much better compared to the reinforcement formation. It can increase defense by about three points.”

Upon hearing Zhao Hai, Sun Fei couldn’t help but stare. Three point increase in defense? What kind of logic is that? This was almost equivalent to a 7-layer formation set. However, 7-layer formation sets demand more spiritual force from a Mage. Increasing defense while still keeping the spiritual force requirement the same was a godsend to Mages.

Zhao Hai waved his hand and the fire shield immediately started the attract the energy around it. But since Zhao Hai was just demonstrating, the shield was very small, only about the size of his palm.

It was at this time that Sun Fei saw the clear difference in Zhao Hai’s fire shield. Ordinary fire shields used fire to cause an imposing image. However, Sun Fei and other Mages knew that these flames were the exact weakness of the formation.

The burning of these flames dispersed the energy of the formation and thus preventing it from achieving the best defensive effect. Zhao Hai’s shield looked very defensive, but not as imposing.

Zhao Hai’s fire shield just lit up with red light and didn’t emit any flame. This meant that it used most if not all of its energy in defense. This caused the formation to be more defensively effective.

Zhao Hai waved his hand once more as the shield disappeared. Then he said, “A lot of new formations had appeared in the past few years. The reason why people thought that supporting formations couldn’t be used alongside offensive and defensive formations was because past tests showed them that adding supporting formations reduces the power of formation sets. But after so many years of development, whether it be offensive, defensive, or supporting formations, there are now a lot more of them in existence. Take this shipscale formation as an example. It has only been developed in recent years and it is now starting to replace commonly used formations and is even being used by mechs. I believe it’s time for us to revisit the idea of adding supporting formations to our formation sets. This will certainly give us great benefits in the future.”

Sun Fei vigorously nodded, his expression showed that he was moved by Zhao Hai’s words. Then he looked at Zhao Hai and said, “Big Brother Hai, please give me that formation. I want to study it.”

Zhao Hai smiled faintly and said, “Alright, I’ll give it to you. But not now, it’s already late. We still have to go out and play, right Boss Xiong?”

Xiong Li shook his head and said, “Let’s not head out today. Little Hai, I’m more curious about your magic formations. How long has it been since you ascended? How could you know more than Little Fei?”

Zhao Hai had already thought the answer for this, so when he heard Xiong Li he smiled and said, “You might not know, but back in the lower realms, I was already researching magic formations. However, the research of magic formations in the lower realms isn’t as comprehensive as the Machine Field. So after arriving at the Machine Field and learning about magic runes, my magic formation research leveled up.”

Xiong Li nodded, then he looked around them and then said, “Let’s head indoors. We won’t be heading out today. Little Hai, let’s talk more about your magic formations. Have you researched about magic formations in weapons?”

Upon hearing Xiong Li, Zhao Hai knew where the conversation was heading towards, he nodded and said, “I have, as long as it’s about magic formations, I’ve researched it. Boss Xiong, your two sledgehammers have about 70 formations inside them, yes?”

Xiong Li was shocked when he heard Zhao Hai, he immediately replied, “Correct, fantastic. I didn’t expect your research to reach this point. Let’s go inside and talk more about these formations. It would be great if you could improve our weapons.”

Zhao Hai gave a slight nod. For Xiong Li and the others, weapon magic formations are very handy. Like in mechs and battleships, these formations were mostly comprised of supporting formations. The formations inside Warrior weapons all had something to do with offense. The most important role of these formations was to amplify the attacks made by their users.

Because of Zhao Hai’s relationship with Liquid Silver, he was able to conduct research on formations used in weapons. And with Karen and the others as well as the Universal Scanner, Zhao Hai’s understanding of weapon magic formations wasn’t any less than his knowledge about formation sets. Therefore, he was happy to help Xiong Li and the others.

Once everyone had entered Xiong Li’s room, Xiong Li immediately took his chained sledgehammers out and then placed it on the ground before saying, “Little Hai, take a look.”

Zhao Hai nodded, then he squatted and inspected Xiong Li’s hammers. The workmanship of the hammer was very good. The materials used in making it was also well selected. Zhao Hai could see in these hammers how much the Wu Family cares about Xiong Li. He used his spiritual force to inspect the hammers and saw the formations carved inside. These Formations were small and mithril was used as a conductor for spiritual qi. If others inspected Xiong Li’s hammers, then they might think that it was a perfect product. However, in Zhao Hai’s eyes, there were some flaws here and there, ranging from the arrangement of formations to the actual formations used.

Xiong Li and the others were anxiously looking at Zhao Hai. After some time, Zhao Hai got up and then said, “Boss Xiong, the materials used for your hammers are very good, everything is high-grade. Moreover, the way it was forged was skillfully done. However, there is still room for improvement. I can’t do it here. But after we return to the Machine Field, if you trust me, I can help you refine your hammers. I believe that after we are done, your offensive strength would increase from three to five points.”[1]

Upon hearing Zhao Hai, everyone took in a breath of cold air. Increasing offensive strength by three to five points? Wasn’t that an increase of 50%? This figure was too astonishing.

Xiong Li looked at Zhao Hai and said, “Little Hai, are you sure? Do you want me to ask the family to give you the blueprint of the weapon?”

I really don’t know what these ‘points’ are.