398 Copying the Chip

Alex and the woman in red robes watched as the formation activated. Suddenly, a gust of air appeared out of nowhere and blew both of their hair.

It was a steady breeze that one would appreciate on a hot summer day.

Alex smiled and said, "It works."

"Good job," the woman said and walked outside.

'This mistress is very weird; what is up with her?' Alex wondered.

"Show me! Show me!" Ying Wu came forward and looked at the formation. The continuous gust of air hit her as well when she came next to it.

"Oh wow! Formations really are such weird stuff," she said with a massive sign in her eyes.

"Are you interested in formations?" Alex asked.

"N-Not really," she answered as she got a bit flustered. "It's not like I can use it even if I was interested."

"How about you try?" Alex said and handed her the talisman with the blueprint to the formation.

Ying Wu took the talisman and was about to place it on her forehead when she stopped and made an uncomfortable smile. "Umm… mortals can't read these can they?" she asked.

Alex realized what he was doing and immediately apologized. He then just gave the formation he had made without the spirit stone attached and made her carve it.

Once he handed the inscription pen, she started.

She carefully carved with her weirdly normal hands that didn't seem to do any work. Her speed was very nonuniform and it looked like she was struggling to carve it properly.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Ughh… Y-Yeah," she said while clearly struggling to do a single stroke properly.

"Umm... You don't have to do it if you can't," Alex said.

"I'm doing it… Ugh, I just didn't realize that carving metal would be so hard," she said. She was struggling, but she didn't want his help.

Alex waited by the side. Thankfully, those plates only cost a gold coin, or he would be crying right now. Eventually, just before the caravan moved, she finished.

"Phew, I did it," she said as she handed him both of the formations back. Alex looked at the formation of his that looked close to pristine, without a single imperfection. And then he looked at hers…. And the most humane way to describe it would be a cheap imitation.

None of the strokes were of correct length neither were they straight. There were dents and scratched all over the strokes too.

The pattern was also not very accurate, but it was close enough.

"C'mon, let's try it," she said.

Alex nodded and pulled out a spirit stone before trying it on her formation. As soon as it was activated, a small gust of air appeared that surprised Alex, however, just as suddenly, it disappeared.

The formation didn't work.

"I'm afraid it wasn't good enough," Alex said.

"What? No way? But I tried so hard," Ying Wu said.

"Yeah, but sometimes hard work is not all are important. You also need skill and luck," Alex said.

Ying Wu pouted and left him alone. Alex shook his head and went back to studying formations.

Unfortunately, he couldn't do a lot this time as the caravan had started moving again, so he couldn't make any more formations at all. On the upside, it seemed that the merchants in the caravan had made a lot of sales in the last 4 hours, so the caravan itself would move at a quicker pace.

Alex remembered the rough map his master has shown him months ago and calculated that it would only take him a little more than 2 days to reach the Scarlet City.

He couldn't practice formations, so he stuck to the theoretical stuff. 'I need to get the chip formation here and try it,' thought.

He took out a talisman and closed his eyes to 'think'. At the same time, he logged out and got the chip from the table. He went back into the capsule and looked at the chip once before logging in.

He started drawing onto the talisman that he saw. Once he made as much as he could remember, he went back out again to look for more.

Logging out and logging back in. He did it nearly a dozen times; each time acting like he was thinking hard and then writing it down.

Finally, after 15 or so minutes, he finished it. He put the talisman on his forehead and checked it once more.

"Yes, it's all here," he thought. "Alright, let's see if I can really not find anything now."

He started learning the chip formation as much as he could. The very first and most surprising thing he noticed that simply blew him away was the number of strokes.

"Holy… that's 145 strokes. Huh? Is this really not a formation?" he thought. 145 was simply too big of a number for it to possibly be a formation that was possible normally.

'However, even though the chances are slim, there could be one with this many strokes. It's symmetrical, has straight strokes, and is carved on a metal plate,' Alex thought.

He started comparing the formation against many other base formations he had just bought, but it was too hard to derive information from a bunch of lines that looked like it could technically make up all the patterns in the world.

'Which ones are real, and which ones are not?' he wondered.

He continued studying the formation as long as he could. From time to time, he tried to make some formations, but unfortunately, the bumpy roads just didn't let that happen.

Alex fell and he still studied formations. Ying Wu made some liquid that she fed her mother and herself ate a very small portion.

She went to sleep next to her mother and was soon asleep. Alex wants a little disappointed that he didn't get to cultivate right now, so he focused on the formations once more.

Just as he was about to study, however, the caravan abruptly stopped, causing many people to be awakened. Then, someone cried out loud.

"BANDITS!!!"