This morning, Su Zimo sported two black eye circles, looking worn out and fatigued with bloodshot eyes – he was in the same state as the spirit tiger.

Under the torment of little crane, it was yet another sleepless night for the man and tiger pair.

Suddenly, Su Zimo spoke, “This can’t go on. We’ve got to think of something.”

The spirit tiger was listless and shrugged its head drowsily.

Counting on the spirit tiger to suppress little crane was way too unrealistic.

It had a normal bloodline and it was a long way before advancing to become a spirit demon.

Even if it could turn into a spirit demon, it had no way of flying and would only be led by the nose by little crane.

Su Zimo’s current methods were not enough to suppress little crane as well.

Neither the man nor crane could injure the other but Su Zimo could not afford this waste of time.

He had considered asking seniors of the sect for help as well. However, given the crane’s status, it wasn’t a guarantee that he would receive any help.

Furthermore, Su Zimo had his ego as well.

Was he going to be defeated by a stupid bird?

After a long silence, he looked at the nearby spirit tiger and said sternly, “I’ll go out for awhile. Don’t follow me. As long as I’m not here, the stupid bird won’t bother you.”

The moment the spirit tiger heard that, it was invigorated and so touched that tears nearly streamed down its cheeks.

If Su Zimo had not left, the spirit tiger was prepared to head out to tide through this predicament as well.

Patting the spirit tiger on the head, Su Zimo left the cave abode and summoned his flying sword, speeding towards Array Peak.

After much thought, he concluded that only an array formation could suppress the stupid bird.

If he could set up a large array formation in front of his cave abode similar to the fog that was protecting the sect, he would be able to get rid of the stupid bird once and for all.

Su Zimo had zero knowledge about formations and he had to learn from scratch.

However, it was better than wasting his time in the cave abode accomplishing nothing at all.

Before long, he arrived at Array Peak.

It was early morning at that time and there weren’t many disciples on Array Peak; most of them were cultivating in their cave abodes.

The Array Peak square would only be filled with more trial disciples come afternoon when it was time for inner sect Array Formation Masters to share their experience.

Similar to talismans and elixirs, formations are divided into nine grades.

Elementary Array Formation Masters are able to lay out and dispel most Grade 1 formations.

Grade 2 formations, Intermediate Array Formation Masters.

Grade 3 formations, Advanced Array Formation Masters.

There were many types of formations but generally, they could be divided into four types – killing, trapping, illusionary and buffing formations.

The Eight Distresses Formation was a type of illusionary formation whereas the fog formation protecting the sect was a combination of a trap on top of an illusionary formation.

In layman terms, the principle behind forming a formation was to make use of different obscure formation patterns while gathering spirit qi to activate various effects.

Unlike the other four peaks, Array Peak had a symbolic structure.

On the west of Array Peak was their spirit arena and beside it stood the Ten Formations Pagoda.

There were 10 floors to the pagoda containing a different formation on every level. Each time a cultivator entered, they would fall into a formation and they could only ascend to the 2nd floor if they managed to dispel it.

Following that logic, only cultivators who pass through the first five formations were qualified to be called Elementary Array Formation Masters.

Su Zimo’s arrival did not cause much of a stir. However, many Array Peak disciples were surprised.

There were only six months left to the year end face-off. Everyone knew that Su Zimo had to work on elixir and weapon refinement alongside preparing for a duel against Feng Haoyu – there was no time at all.

Most disciples present at Array Peak thought that Su Zimo’s appearance to listen in on formations was because the latter had chosen to give up on his duel against Feng Haoyu and scoffed it off.

However, none of them knew that Su Zimo was here because he had no choice.

He naturally hoped that he could spend all his effort on refinement of elixirs, raising his cultivation and working on fighting techniques. However, the appearance of that stupid bird had ruined all his plans.

From that day on, Su Zimo stayed in Array Peak temporarily.

Of course, there was no way Array Peak would provide Su Zimo with a cave abode. He spent his days in the Array Chamber, rarely appearing and delving into books to learn of the various formations.

Starting with the most elementary formations, he learned and dug further, exploring and researching.

There was naturally no way little crane would let Su Zimo off.

However, it was embarrassed to create a ruckus inside Array Chamber where Su Zimo was hiding. Instead, it merely gloated internally. “Hmph, you can’t hide in there forever!”

Su Zimo spent the next period of time on Array Peak.

Not only had he memorized all the Grade 1 formations in Array Chamber, he was now researching on Grade 2 formations.

As little crane was a spirit demon level beast, Su Zimo had to rely on the power of Grade 2 formations to suppress it.

Grade 1 formations could kill, trap or bewitch spirit beasts.

However, spirit demons were way stronger and could break through Grade 1 formations with sheer brute force!

Su Zimo spent less than a month to memorize and comprehend Grade 1 formations.

The reason why he progressed so quickly was because he was putting all of his effort and time into formations.

In the cultivation world, there weren’t many people who would be this extreme.

However, Su Zimo was forced to a corner by little crane and could only use every single moment he had on learning about formations.

Compared to Grade 1 formations, Grade 2 were much more complex.

Su Zimo spent more than two months before he memorized and understood most of the Grade 2 formations.

Three months. He had spent a whole three months in Array Peak.

It was undeniable that Su Zimo was a smart person with a talented endowment. That was something that Die Yue had discovered when he first cultivated The Mystic Classic of the Twelve Demon Kings of the Great Wilderness.

Coupled with the pressure from little crane, Su Zimo’s wholehearted efforts into learning about formations were rewarded handsomely.

There were two floors in the Array Chamber and the 2nd floor was filled with Grade 2 formation manuals with almost nobody around.

Because Su Zimo had spent his later two months on the 2nd floor of Array Chamber, most Array Peak disciples thought that he had left long ago and gradually forgot about him.

This morning, Su Zimo came forth from the Array Chamber.

The sun was a little piercing to his eyes after such a long time.

Standing in front of the Array Chamber, Su Zimo recalled everything he had learnt for the past three months before heading towards the Ten Formations Pagoda.

No matter how much he understood and knew about formations, he had to give it a test.

The Ten Formations Pagoda was the perfect test to determine where Su Zimo was after three months of formation studies.

On the pagoda’s left was Array Peak’s spirit arena. On its right, a tall stele etched with dense lines of words was erected.

The upper portion displayed names, the middle portion displayed the number of floors cleared and the final portion displayed the time taken.

Su Zimo glanced at it casually.

Because it was in the morning, there were no other trial disciples near the Ten Formations Pagoda. There was only an elderly person who was sitting upright with a stoic expression on his face, looking hale and hearty with vigor.