His visit to the marketplace didn’t last long. With the help of Leon’s servants, Red was able to locate all the materials he needed to build the Spirit Gathering Formation. It was impossible to keep such purchases a secret, as most of the materials necessary could only be bought in large stores, so he didn’t bother with being subtle.

He was recognized by his mask, and he heard more than a few whispers about how he had been attacked by a Shadow just the night before. Whatever the case, no one bothered to bring the matter up to his face, and many people even regarded him with some amount of fright.

‘Seems like this is the perk of having a poor reputation.’

Given the choice, Red would always opt to remain in the shadows. If that was no longer an option, however, then he would make use of his infamy to keep others away from him.

A few hours later, the coach dropped him off at his manor. Red inspected the area with this crimson sense, but couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary. He entered the house and closed the door behind him, and a second later, the imp came tumbling out from behind a box with a worried expression.

“M-Master!” He ran up to Red. “What happened?”

“Nothing dire for now.” The youth shook his head.

He went on to explain his encounter with the General of the Guard, as well as the deal he struck with Leon and his companions. Emer was far more familiar with the city and its nobles than him, so Red hoped he could provide more insight into these encounters.

“H-He really did that?” The imp asked in confusion. “He went against the general for you?”

“It seems so.” Red nodded. “I assume this must be a larger political move than I thought.”

“Well, General Winslowe holds quite a bit of sway in the capital. He went against many nobles before when they tried to interfere in his work…”

“You mean to say that it’s strange he gave way to the son of a Duke?”

“D-Duke Northvale is one of the hands of the king, so if the old General was going to give way to anyone, maybe it would be him… But in the past, he was always known to be troublesome to anyone that wasn’t the King himself.”

This made Red go silent in thought.

“I-I don’t mean to presume, though.” The imp shook his head. “The only things I know about the royal court are what’s spread among the common people… My dead brother would have probably known more, though.”

“That doesn’t matter.” Red walked past the imp. “As long as it keeps him from investigating me, I do not care why he gave way.”

The youth then inspected the improvised workshop with narrowed eyes. He went through every piece of material and furniture, comparing them with his mental image before he left the house.

The imp, who was following behind him, seemed to guess at his thoughts. “N-No one came by, Master. I stared at the formation plate the entire time.”

“Good.” Red nodded. “Continue keeping watch. I have work to do.”

With that said, he set down his large bag full of formation materials he had bought from the store. This was not everything he needed to set up the Spirit Gathering Formation, but the rest of it would only be delivered in the next couple of days.

He could have asked Leon to buy this formation for him too, but that wouldn’t satisfy Red. For one, he was building the formation from the book he gained from the inheritance, which meant that the material names and method of building were all somewhat different. It was still an effort to find the contemporary ingredients while visiting the market, but this time around he made a point of comparing his master’s method with the one available on the market, which made figuring out the ingredients a lot easier.

Of course, he could have still just asked Leon to buy him a complete Spirit Gathering formation, but that would defeat the other half of Red’s plan.

That was - practicing Arcane Scripture.

The Spirit Gathering formation was a jump in difficulty for anything Red had done in the past, and it would be an excellent test of his own skills to inscribe it himself. The other complete formations that he had asked from Leon were all less complicated than this, so he could forego of creating them himself.

“Mind explaining your plan to me now?” Aurelia’s figure manifested by his side, staring down at the materials on the ground.

“Since I plan on making this my base of operations, I might as well reinforce it as well as possible.” Red said.

It was a very simple line of thought. The youth couldn’t keep to the shadows at the moment, as he lacked the skills and knowledge of his environment, so his next best course of action would be to protect himself as well as possible. The formations he requested from Leon were all for this purpose - they were trapping and defensive formations to keep intruders out.

Aurelia nodded. “That’s not a bad plan, but if the enemy really wants to get in, those formations alone won’t stop them.”

“It’s fine.” Red said. “They are more of a deterrent than anything.”

The formations were powerful for their level, but they would at most be dangerous for cultivators at the early and middle Lesser Ring Realms. Someone as strong as the assassin that attacked him last night would have no issue just powering through them.

The important thing was, though, that secretly breaking into his manor would become a much harder task for anyone. As such, if they wanted to act against Red, they would need to be much more overt, and considering his potential enemies, it was unlikely they would risk revealing their identity just for that.

“That makes sense, but are you planning on making the Spirit Gathering Formation right now?” Aurelia asked. “You’re still not totally recovered.”

Red sighed. “… I can’t afford to waste time. I need to set the formation up, if only its most basic aspects.”

The truth was that formation skills weren’t what Red needed to prioritize right now. What he lacked was combat strength to deal with enemies like the Shadow, but how could he improve his power so quickly? From the Lesser Ring Realm forward, improvements in both cultivation level and Spiritual Arts became measured in weeks, months, sometimes even years. Even if Red needed strength, results wouldn’t come to him as fast as he needed them.

This was why he still kept to the idea of setting up a proper foundation for improvement rather than rushing into training. The Spirit Gathering Formation was just that - a way to increase the density of Spiritual Energy in his surroundings and speed up both his cultivation and skill training. That would delay the true start of his cultivation, but it would save him time in the long run.

For the rest of the day, Red focused on preparing the materials and measuring the formation. To his surprise, though, as night arrived, someone came knocking at his door.

Red came to greet them, only to find a group of servants and carriages with the Northvales’ colors at his front step.

“The materials Master Viran requested have arrived.” The well-dressed man at his doorstep bowed.

‘Already?’

It hadn’t even been half a day since he made these requests, but Red wasn’t about to complain. The servants carried all the boxes into his living-room turned workshop, not making any comments about the strange state of the house.

A few minutes later, they were gone as if they had never been there in the first place, and Red was left staring at the dozens of wooden crates lined up in his workshop.

“You’re running out of space.” Aurelia said with a grin.

Red frowned. “I thought this place would be big enough.”

“Are you kidding me? Have you ever seen the homes of some cultivators? They’re sometimes even bigger than the estate of that noble brat! Not to mention the homes of crafters like you!”

The youth should have expected as much, considering the amount of materials and ingredients he was now working with, but that wasn’t necessarily his primary concern in the past few weeks.

The imp seemed to notice his predicament, approaching him while holding his hands together. “I-If master would like, I can move some of these boxes upstairs.”

“No. It’s best I keep them in my sight for now.” Red shook his head. “Besides, once the materials are all used up, space won’t be as much of a concern.”

Right now, he was pushing his living spaces to the limit, but it was still manageable.

Since the formations arrived earlier than expected, Red set about placing them around the manor. Thankfully, setting up formations was a much easier task than creating them from scratch, and early the next day, he was done placing the plate in their proper places.

Eight formations total, overlapping and covering every piece of the manor.

After Red was done, he approached the imp who had been watching his work closely, and handed him a bunch of smooth and etched stone tablets.

“Here.” He said. “The controlling plates.”

“M-Master?!” The imp looked at the items in fright. “T-There are so many of them, how could I-”

“This will be your main task since you will never be leaving this manor.” Red cut him off. “I will explain how each formation works for you, and you will familiarize yourself with them. Do you understand?”

Emer nodded under the youth’s piercing gaze. “Y-Yes, master!”

“This controls the trapping formation.” Red pointed at one of the tablets. “If there is an intruder in the house, you can section certain rooms off with it and create a force barrier that will keep them trapped there. The way to activate it is…”

He proceeded to explain how each formation worked to the imp until he was sure every single process was ingrained in the demon’s mind. This took the better part of two hours, since Emer wasn’t a cultivator in the first place, but by the end of it, the demon was actually quite eager to put them to test.

“So this one will cause an explosion?”

Red nodded. “Yes. As a last resort.”

“C-Can I test th-”

“No. Just be sure they will work when the time comes.”

The youth also provided the imp and the formation with enough Spirit Stones from the bounty Leon had granted him to power them for multiple uses. Since these formations weren’t constantly active, their only energy usage was for detecting intruders stepping into their domain. Red made sure to exclude himself, the imp, and the maid who was now in charge of cleaning the workshop from said intruder list, of course.

After the formations were set up, the youth felt a weight being lifted off his back. These weren’t invincible defenses, and they would all crumble against more powerful enemies, but they were layers of protection between Red and those who meant to harm him. Even if they were for naught, they would give him more than enough time to react against any invaders.

This meant that now Red could work and cultivate in a little more peace.

‘Now, to the Spirit Gathering Formation, then.’