The Paladin in the Abyss

"Let's just drop it, as long as it works," Lancelot said with a dismissive wave of his hand, pretending he didn't care, but he was actually afraid that divine power might reveal something. "Bruto, how many have you made now?"

"Eighty-eight! ... Eighty-nine!" The dwarf answered himself, his voice sounding close to its limit.

"Bruto, if you can still manage to make more than twenty at a time and still have energy, that means the load isn't heavy enough," Lancelot said to the dwarf, then shook his head at Alamir, "You're too light for him."

"Are you coming too?" The elf focused on the dwarf's buttocks, "If you hold me, I can stand on one foot."

"Let's not," Lancelot laughed heartily, stepping towards the door. "I have magic experiments to do."

"Is there a risk of explosion?" The elf asked seriously, "Should we prepare to leave early?"

"Not for now," Lancelot's expression fell, "Come on, have a little faith in me, will you?"

After saying that, he hurried out the door, leaving the dwarf's panting and the elf's laughter behind.

It was evening by then, and the setting sun of the Plains of the Abyss had dyed the entire sky blood red. Perhaps due to the effect of the mysterious green fluid, the flowers in his garden showed no signs of wilting, presenting a somewhat eerie beauty under the twilight.

Lancelot walked around the manor and buried array flags in five inconspicuous corners. Afterwards, he returned to his underground artifact refining chamber and embedded a low-grade frost crystal into a special slot on the array plate. He then lightly tapped it with his finger, activating the spiritual energy contained within with a faint trace of true yuan.

Pale blue dots of light shot out from the frost crystal, following the lines etched on the iron plate, and connecting with the previously laid array flags. Watching the faintly glowing lines on the array plate, Lancelot felt a stir in his heart. If the frost crystal providing the spiritual energy was considered the Dantian, then those lines would be the meridians; the whole structure looked remarkably similar to the 'Concealment Art' cultivation technique.

Could it be that formations were actually a form of cultivation techniques?

Lancelot decided he would pay more attention to this question in his future studies of formations, but for now, what interested him most was confirming whether the 'Qi Hiding Formation' he had set up was truly effective. He excitedly ran out from the basement, all the way to the outside of the manor, then carefully sensed the aura inside the manor.

The results were clear; at this distance, his spirit perception should have been able to clearly sense the number, location, and distance of living beings inside the house. However, at that moment, his spirit perception felt as though there was nothing but empty space in front of him.

Lancelot couldn't help feeling a burst of exhilaration. After an afternoon of tinkering and many failures, he had finally succeeded in setting up the formation. According to the small bamboo slip, he had now entered the path of formation techniques, and it seemed his natural talent for spiritual cultivation wasn't too shabby at all.

Just as he was reveling in his success, a blue and white light suddenly flared beside him, and within a few breaths, Tijana's figure appeared beside him. The Succubus Lord's expression looked quite anxious, and at that moment, she was fully armored with a whip given by Barrend in one hand, and a lantern emitting a silver light in the other.

"What's happened?" Lancelot immediately tensed up, Frostslash was instantly drawn from his Dimensional Bag, "Is there an enemy?"

Tijana did not answer right away. Her eyes glowed with a purple light as she suspiciously scanned Lancelot, as if trying to confirm he hadn't transformed into something else. Then, frowning, she surveyed Hagrid Manor in front of them, seeming puzzled by something. After confirming that everything looked normal, she finally asked Lancelot with suspicion in her voice:

"Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Lancelot pretended to be innocent, but wondered if the Formation he had just activated had alerted the Succubus Lord, "What brought you here all of a sudden?"

"In my perception, Hagrid Manor had suddenly disappeared," Tijana turned her head back towards the interior of the manor. From where they stood, the manor looked decayed, dilapidated, and overgrown with thorns, but that was the result of an illusion cast by the Succubus Lord. "I thought you did something foolish, overlaying two dimensional spaces and then getting tossed into some corner of the Stellar Realm."

"Then what's this lantern for?"

"Navigation," Tijana explained briefly, "to find you and bring you back from the Stellar Realm."

"Hehe, thanks for the concern," Lancelot couldn't help but smile, making a move to hug the Succubus Lord, "Sorry to make you worry..."

"We are outside!" Tijana allowed Lancelot a very brief embrace then pushed him away, annoyed and whispering, "If people knew about our relationship, my enemies would see you as a point of vulnerability. This is not good for you! Don't do this again!"

"Cough, understood," Lancelot made a gesture of invitation, "Shall we go 'inside' then? Perhaps I can explain the strange phenomenon..."

Tijana glared at him then hurriedly walked in, followed by Lancelot down to his secret chamber. Of course, not just her—Bruto, Alamir, and Kalalin were also curious and followed, reasoning that since the Formation would frequently be utilized later, it was simpler to explain it to everyone at once rather than go through it separately later on.

Explaining the function of a Formation was not difficult in a world filled with magic. Many methods could achieve similar effects. However, Tijana was very curious about the principles behind how the Formation worked. Although she herself was a Magician, it was difficult for her to understand the power principles inside another Magician—it was a difference from Mages.

Mages gained their ability to cast spells through learning, research, and training, while Magicians' casting abilities came directly from powers contained within their bloodline, like Alamir's Dragon ancestor, the accidental consumption of a magic spring, or even a dark blessing from an Abyssal Lord or a Demon Archduke (which Tijana could rule out)—any of these could ignite a creature's innate talent for Spellcraft.

"I've never seen this form of magic power before, and I'm sure this isn't the power of Shael's Shadow Demon Web," the Succubus Lord repeatedly studied the iron Array Plate, "How do you come to possess such peculiar knowledge?"

"Err, did I ever tell you how I arrived in the Abyss?" Lancelot felt guilty for misleading Tijana, "I passed through a very special Portal, Kalalin said that it definitely wasn't the normal state of transportation..."

"It sounds like you were exposed to Primordial Magic Power while traversing planes," after listening to Lancelot's story, the Succubus Lord shrugged, "which means this actually comes from a distant land's spell power, how interesting..."