Symbol and barrier formations are obviously much more advanced than object formations, because setting up barrier and symbol formations does not require physical objects. The symbols or barriers used in setting up formations come entirely from the one laying them down. Once a formation is established, it does not have as obvious disadvantages as object formations. Among the practitioners of formation, those who can set up barrier or symbol formations have basically achieved a very advanced level of proficiency in formations, with even the worst of them being at the grandmaster level.
After his gaze spread out, Dingyan began searching for the hidden symbols within the formation one by one.
"Now!" Dingyan pointed with his fingers, and a blue light shone on the corner of the table.
Under the blue light, a rune flashed for a moment, then quickly disappeared.
"Too bad..." Dingyan shook his head.
He took out a piece of jade and recorded the previous method.
The profundity of a grandmaster-level formation is extreme. Even if the runes are calculated, they cannot be easily extracted. Moreover, after a failed attempt to break the formation, the position of the runes changes rapidly. To find the hidden runes again, one must recalculate.
An hour later, Dingyan again reached for the runes.
But he failed once more, adding a new entry to the piece of jade.
Time passed minute by minute...
One test after another, one failure after another. Half a day later, the piece of jade in Dingyan's hand was already filled with records of failure. He swept his sleeve and took out another piece of jade, continuing his calculations.
Breaking open a grandmaster-level formation is extremely difficult. With Dingyan’s level of formation skills, he can only keep guessing the methods to break the formation through continuous trials.
A day passed, and Dingyan filled three jade pieces.
Two days passed, and Dingyan added five more pieces of jade filled with records to his hand.
Time passed day by day...
One day...
Two days...
Until Dingyan filled the fifty-sixth piece of jade, he finally stopped his calculations. Opening his eyes, Dingyan slowly extended his right hand, and a blue halo formed on top of his hand. As he raised his hand, the palm facing downward, it brushed over the table from above.
The blue light shimmered, and a trace of breath seeped into the table below.
The tabletop trembled, then suddenly shattered, turning into a stream of air and disappearing. Meanwhile, in his hand, Dingyan held over fifty shimmering runes. These runes were the foundation of the previous table, and after extracting them, the table lost its roots and crumbled on its own.
“So it finally worked...” Holding the runes pulsating in his hand, a faint smile appeared at the corner of Dingyan's mouth. After observing for a while, Dingyan once again took out a piece of jade and made new records. Then he closed his eyes and began calculating once again.
But this time, the calculation speed was clearly faster than before.
Half a day later, the table in front of Dingyan trembled and shattered, turning into a gust of air and disappearing. In his hand, there were over fifty shimmering runes. These runes were the foundation of the previous table, and after extracting them, the table lost its roots and crumbled on its own.
"If I extract these barriers one by one, it will take at least ten years to break this formation..." Dingyan looked at the runes in his hand and didn't show much joy.
It took Dingyan half a month to break a single symbol within the table. If he were to extract them one by one, it would probably take at least ten years to break through this space of heaven and earth.
"I can only try to see if I can extract runes on a large scale." Ding Yan pondered for a moment but still didn't find any feasible method, so he had to try to see if he could extract more runes at once.
Closing his eyes, Ding Yan's mind once again fell into the formation.
The runes contained in space were obviously much more complicated than the ones on the table. After sinking into them, Ding Yan's calculations noticeably slowed down. However, with the increasing difficulty of the runes, Ding Yan's understanding of the formation also deepened.
Originally, only at a beginner level of the formation, his skills continuously improved during the calculations...
As he delved deeper, Ding Yan gradually discovered that the runes in this spatial formation were also divided into several types.
The runes on the table were the simplest type, followed by the runes on the ground, which were more difficult than those on the table but much simpler than the runes constructing the space. The runes contained within the space were the foundation of the formation and the most complex type.
At this point, Ding Yan could easily decipher the first type of rune, and the second type didn't require much effort either. However, he had yet to extract any of the third type of rune.
Moreover, despite attempting to replicate similar runes, Ding Yan had failed. It was clear that deciphering and replicating were two different things, and deciphering was evidently much easier than replicating, similar to the ease of destruction compared to creation.
Half a month later.
Ding Yan, who had been sitting cross-legged all along, suddenly stood up and walked towards the empty space.
As he stepped into the void, a terrifying force of repulsion pressed down on Ding Yan, like the palm of a giant.
Unperturbed, Ding Yan continued forward, stepping once more.
In his eyes, the force pressing down was not the space itself but interconnected runes. These runes were arranged orderly, intertwining and connecting to form a powerful force, attempting to push Ding Yan back to the ground.
Ding Yan, sensing the situation, casually gestured with his right hand, unleashing several hand seals. Although the movement seemed slow, it was actually only a blink of an eye.
After the hand seals hit the runes, the space formed by the runes was forcibly compressed backwards. This situation didn't last long, as an even more terrifying force spread out, and in Ding Yan's eyes, he clearly saw several runes shimmering with purple light.
"The fourth type of rune!" Ding Yan's eyes flashed, and once he memorized the locations of those runes, he swiftly returned to the ground.
Boom!
The immense force of repulsion shattered the hand seals that Ding Yan had cast, and the terrifying power reverberated in the space...
Two days before, Ding Yan had already found a way to extract the third type of rune. However, as his understanding deepened, he quickly realized that there were even more profound runes hidden deep within the space. Today's attempt was to confirm his speculation.
Once again, Ding Yan sat cross-legged on the ground.
In front of him, the three types of runes were laid out according to his memory and arranged in order.
As his understanding of the formation improved, Ding Yan could already use these existing runes to set up a few simple formations. However, to his regret, he had yet to successfully reproduce a rune.