Chapter 104
[Method One: Master breaks through directly to the Upper-Tier Ancestor Realm and crushes the seal by force.]
[Method Two: Conventional reverse formation dismantling.]
[Reverse dismantling requires first understanding the seal’s underlying mechanics and principles.]
[This seal carries the Kunpeng King’s blood essence and is built from countless minor seals layered and chained together.]
[It contains 1,001 bewildering formations, 1,001 misdirecting formations, and a further 1,001 standard seals.]
[The bewildering formations disorient the dismantler and break their train of thought.]
[The misdirecting formations lure the dismantler down a false logical path.]
[Since immemorial times, no one has successfully dismantled such a formation by conventional reverse methods.]
[Recommendation: Master should elevate his cultivation to the Upper-Tier Ancestor Realm, then shatter the seal by force.]
[This is currently the most effective and viable approach.]
[Master possesses exceptionally high innate talent and is an Ancestor Realm expert, even so, reverse dismantling this formation is extremely difficult. Probability of success is roughly zero.]
Soren closed the Strategy Encyclopedia.
"What are you guys looking at?" A bright voice came from behind, Celeste tapped her toes against the ground, sprang forward, landed on Soren’s back and locked her arms around his neck.
She giggled and rubbed her cheek against the back of his neck. "So fragrant."
"You smell so good."
"I want to eat you up~"
"Slurp"
Soren had no words.
The woman had no sense of occasion whatsoever, or shame, for that matter.
Bruce sighed inwardly, not one other woman alive would dare behave like that in front of his Master.
It was lucky Celeste had introduced herself the moment she reached Black Dragon Mountain, and that Soren had confirmed who she was.
Otherwise, with Bruce’s temper, an unknown woman jumping onto Soren’s back would have got her skull opened with a hammer.
Because he knew what she was to Soren, he wasn’t about to talk to her the way he used to talk about Victoria, calling her a demoness every other breath.
As Soren’s confidant, Bruce understood Celeste couldn’t be offended, he also wasn’t dropping his guard around her, he had no Strategy Encyclopedia.
No way of knowing what she actually wanted.
"Hm? What’s that?" Celeste lifted her head, curious, and spotted the black box, Soren was about to explain when her eyes lit up.
She hopped off his back and trotted over. "Wow!"
"Good stuff!"
"Why does that faint pulse in the seal pattern look familiar?"
She thought about it in silence, then clapped her hands together with a slap.
"A Kunpeng Beast Clan seal!"
Soren kept his face flat, though inwardly he was surprised, Bruce and Lysara openly gaped.
"Mistress recognizes where this seal comes from?" Bruce asked, leaning in.
Celeste straightened up out of her crouch and put her hands on her narrow waist. "Your name’s Bruce, right?"
"Very sensible of you!"
"Just for calling me Mistress, I’ll explain the seal."
She lectured for the better part of two incense sticks, her explanation lined up almost point for point with the Strategy Encyclopedia.
She really did understand Kunpeng seals.
"Cracking this is a huge hassle."
"Two and a half days minimum!" She tossed it out like estimating a walk to the market.
Two and a half days? Enough to unpick three thousand interlocking layered formations and break a seal left by the Kunpeng King?
"Hm? Why are you all looking at me like that?" Celeste pouted.
"This kind of seal is extremely complicated, two and a half days is my limit!"
"I’ve actually cracked a Kunpeng seal before."
"Well, that one was left by an Emperor Realm expert, it didn’t have three thousand minor formations, only a few hundred."
"So it took me two and a half hours."
"Scale it up for the complexity and the sheer number of formations here, and you get two and a half days."
"You’ve cracked one before?" Soren asked.
"Yeah! My grandfather’s got that treasure trove of old texts, remember? With nothing else to do, I studied this kind of thing." She looked extremely pleased with herself.
"My body was useless back then, my brain’s still sharp."
"You’re confident you can open it?"
Celeste nodded hard, then folded her arms and grinned.
"Hehe."
"Give me a kiss and maybe"
"...this lady can get two and a half days down to two."
Soren had no response to that.
"Come on over."
"Come on!"
"Kiss me"
"Wow, don’t tell me you’re too embarrassed to kiss your own woman?"
He gave her nothing, so Celeste tilted her head and shuffled the distance herself, inch by inch, until her face was pressed to his lips.
"Oh my gosh, you’re so bad, so bad"
"Why did you use your demonic energy to pull me over here?" She squirmed and twisted like a stage actress working two roles at once.
Lysara stared in silence, Bruce stared in silence.
Celeste smiled and let it go.
The shyness dropped off her instantly, she knew what mattered, and even messing around, she knew where the line sat.
"I’ll do my absolute best."
"Find me somewhere quiet where nobody will disturb me, and wait until I come out on my own."
Soren nodded and flicked a finger, an isolated spatial pocket opened up, he told Lysara to take Celeste inside and stand guard at the entrance.
Any movement in there, and she was to reach him by telepathy immediately.
The portal sealed.
Soren stood there a moment, then shook his head, could Celeste actually unravel the Kun-Heaven Box?
Seemed unlikely, if she had that kind of capability, why hadn’t the Strategy Encyclopedia said a single word about it?
He left Bruce behind and went alone to the clan’s main hall.
Four of the Six Paths Form Diagram’s six abilities were his already.
The Hungry Ghost Path and the Asura Path were still dormant, and Soren wanted his combat power higher, his raw strength sat at the peak with nobody worth fighting.
Demonic Form powers were closer to innate demonic techniques though, and they’d let him crush opponents easier and give him something to reach for when a fight turned.
The opponents he’d met so far had only been a little above him in cultivation.
Run into someone genuinely superior one day, and pure strength would struggle to settle it fast.
Soren had no interest in long fights, every fight was best ended by flattening the other party outright.