"What’s the point of dividing everyone into teams?"
In her understanding, war was a straightforward clash—force eting force, strength deciding victory. She knew concepts like formations, positioning, and strategy mattered, but this was the first ti she had heard so much emphasis placed on structured teams rather than sheer numbers.
As the thought lingered, the flap of the red tent stirred.
Xiao Fang stepped out.
"War between mortals and war between cultivators are not the sa," he said calmly, as if he had been listening all along. "Mortals fight on fixed ground. Cultivators fight everywhere—land, sky, water, ravines, cities, even within formation zones. The battlefield has no single shape."
He paused, turning his head slightly in Xun Wei’s direction.
"When too many cultivators clash in one area, chaos becos the real enemy. Techniques overlap. Qi interferes. One misjudged strike can kill an ally just as easily as an enemy."
Xun Wei’s brows knitted as she listened.
"Teams exist to impose order on that chaos," Xiao Fang continued. "A properly ford team has balance—offense, defense, mobility, perception. Enough strength to survive being surrounded, but small enough to move decisively."
He lifted a hand slightly, as if outlining invisible formations in the air.
"In war, survival is not about how strong you are alone," he said evenly. "It’s about whether the people beside you can cover your blind spots when you can’t."
Xun Wei absorbed his words, then glanced at him with quiet admiration. Long before anyone else, Xiao Fang had been her first teacher. Hearing him speak so calmly about things she had once known nothing about—just as he used to—washed over her with a sense of nostalgia and warmth that was difficult to put into words.
Xiao Fang paused when he noticed the faint curve of a smile forming on Xun Wei’s lips.
He reached out and patted her head, asking with an easy, handso smile, "Did you catch all that?"
Xun Wei nodded, her smile widening slightly.
Before either of them could say anything more, a blur rushed in from nowhere.
"Fang, Fang, Fang! Did you finish?!"
Xiao Hei appeared at his side, eyes bright and impatient.
Xiao Fang chuckled. "Mm. Did you miss ?"
"I did!" she said without hesitation. "I’m hungry, and nothing I eat is helping. You need to feed —rember?"
Xiao Fang understood her condition well. Because of the master–pet contract binding them, Xiao Hei required his Qi at regular intervals to sustain herself. It had been so ti since he had fed her—let alone dual cultivated—so her restlessness was hardly surprising.
Still, there was sothing he wanted to try first.
He raised his hands and ford a series of rapid seals.
A formation blood beneath them, lines of light spreading outward with precise symtry. Sothing began to materialize from its center.
’Did he already learn the multi-layered defensive formation?’ Xun Wei thought in disbelief.
It had taken her an entire day to grasp it—and Xiao Fang hadn’t even been in seclusion for more than a few hours.
’No... this is sothing else,’ she realized quickly.
The formation was intricate, far more complex than the one she had learned—but Xiao Fang executed it flawlessly, without the slightest hesitation.
In the next mont, a translucent structure rose from the ground, layer by layer, its outline growing clearer with each breath.
"Woah~" Xiao Hei exclaid as it continued to form.
"This is—"
Xiao Fang’s voice was calm as the final sigils locked into place.
[ Sky Pavilion ]
The pavilion stood tall and imposing. Though its structure was mostly translucent, its elegance and presence were undeniable—an otherworldly construction that shimred softly under the light.
"So cool!" Xiao Hei exclaid, hopping onto it without hesitation.
"It’s... big," Xun Wei said in disbelief as she followed Xiao Fang up the short steps around its periter.
The pavilion spanned roughly ten ters in radius—far more than enough to carry multiple people comfortably.
"Is this what you’ve been working on all this ti?" Xun Wei asked, her eyes still scanning the structure.
"It is," Xiao Fang replied. "I learned it from a 9 stone Earth-Grade soul crystal. It took 3 attempts to learn it."
"You failed twice?" Xun Wei said, surprised.
"I probably would’ve failed a lot more if I didn’t have this," Xiao Fang said, taking out the Phoenix Jade hairpin and offering it back to her.
Part of what Yu Qiuyan had explained was that the difficulty of absorbing a soul crystal didn’t depend solely on its grade, but more critically on the number of soul stones used to fill it.
While an Earth-Grade crystal could generally be absorbed far quicker than a Heavenly-Grade one, an Earth-Grade crystal that needs nine soul stones to fill it would rival the difficulty of a Heavenly-Grade crystal filled with five or six stones.
Xun Wei blinked, montarily caught off guard. Then she asked,
"What about the Multi-Layer Defensive Formation?"
"I’ll learn that another ti," Xiao Fang said calmly. "When I have more ti."
Hearing that, Xun Wei gently pushed his hand back instead of accepting the hairpin.
"Then you can return it to after you’ve learned it."
Xiao Fang paused—then nodded.
"Alright."
He turned toward the distant sound of movent.
"Let’s go," he said. "They’re waiting for us."
Without warning, the Sky Pavilion slowly began to rise.
"F-Fang—we’re moving!" Xun Wei cried out, instinctively grabbing his arm as she felt the ground slip away beneath them.
Two ters.
Three.
Four—
"We’re flying!"
Xiao Hei burst into laughter, racing toward the edge of the pavilion with sparkling eyes.
Xiao Fang kept his hands clasped behind his back, a faint smirk tugging at his lips.
"Xun Wei," he asked calmly, "are you afraid of heights?"
"Who said I was afraid?" she shot back, releasing his arm with a huff. "I was just surprised. It’s not every day you see a pavilion fly."
Xiao Fang chuckled softly and shook his head.
"Sit down," he said. "We’ll be going much higher in a mont."
He took one of the empty seats at the center of the pavilion. After a brief hesitation, Xun Wei followed suit.
"...How much higher?" she asked with a hint of worry in her tone.
Xiao Fang tilted his head upward, a knowing smile on his face.
"Do you see those clouds up there?" he said lightly.
The mont the words left his mouth, Xun Wei’s heart dropped straight into her stomach.
"No—"
Before she could protest, the Sky Pavilion surged upward straight toward the clouds with blistering speed.
A mix of startled screams and exhilarated laughter rang out as the ground vanished beneath them.
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