The formation lit up and a brilliant gold illuminated the entire room. James, liz and Faldon all focused on the now activated formation, curious about it's effects. Suddenly, the room began to glow a shade brighter and the mana density in the room skyrocketed.
"What is this…", liz reached out her hand towards a floating golden cloud. Upon coming in contact with it, the golden cloud was absorbed into her hand. She then crumpled down clutching her belly as if she was about to throw up. She appeared to be in extreme pain and had sweat beading on her brow. The next moment, she vomited a fist sized clump of black substance.
"Liz!"
"Senior sister!"
Both James and Faldon reacted immediately, approaching her with concern, seeing her current state. When they saw the black substance, they were both taken aback.
"Those are…impurities?"
Faldon couldn't believe his eyes. He knew Liz wasn't close to a breakthrough in her body cultivation and so was confused where the impurities came from. Then he focused on the increasing number of golden clouds in the room.
'It couldn't be…is James' formation attracting pure heavenly mana? Liz threw up impurities right after absorbing the cloud of golden mana. Could it have integrated with the mana inside her and slightly purified it?'
Faldon needed to know as if this was true, it would be an incredibly big deal. He reached out and absorbed a cloud of mana. Almost immediately, his body was assulted with an indescribable pain making him take the exact same position Liz just had. A couple seconds later, he threw up a clump of black substance as well.
'It's true! I feel my mana has grown very slightly stronger, purer and easier to manipulate…this cannot be spread ir known to anyone outside this room. I fear this disciple of mine has done something only immortals possibly could…if any immortal sect were to hear of this…'
Faldon immediately made the decision to no longer discuss anything to do with James with anyone outside of the Sect leader himself. He knew the significance of being able to purify ones mana, especially to those in higher realms of cultivation. Faldon cleaned himself, waved his hand to destroy the black substance he and Liz had just produced and then stood up.
"James, under no circumstance are you to disclose to anyone that you've created a formation nor that you have the ability to do so. Your Mana Gathering formation seems to have the ability to purify mana. Only some extremely rare natural treasure have this ability and due to their effects, they are almost non-existent these days. I don't have to tell you the value of something like this nor the danger you'd be in if anyone found out. Outside of myself, Liz and the Sect leader, do not speak of any of this to anyone."
Faldon stressed his point multiple times until he was sure that James understood. He was still a kid afterall and children tended to enjoy showing off. James reassured him many times that he would keep it all a secret.
'Is my formation really that crazy?'
James was expecting it to be stronger than a normal level 1 formation, especially with the Tribulation and everything. But he never considered that he'd create something completely out of this world.
Faldon then told Liz that they should both use this opportunity to absorb as much heavenly mana as possible as this was normally a once in a lifetime situation…sometimes not even that. They both then proceeded to repeatedly absorb the mana, throw up a clump of black substance, rest and then repeat. They spent the next 5 days in this painful process but the results spoke for themselves.
Faldon found that his hidden injuries, which had plagued him for years, had completely healed. He also saw a significant improvement to his cultivation, pushing him firmly into level 10 of Nascent Soul realm. He now had strength befitting his Supreme Elder status and could stand shoulder to shoulder with the Sect leader.
Liz had also seen an extreme improvement, being pushed into the Perfected Core Formation realm, only a step away from the Nascent Soul realm.
While their mana had been purified to such an extent, they seemed to have hit a barrier, unable to further purify their mana. They'd been able to achieve around 75% purity but it seemed either the mana they were using for the purification wasn't strong enough to further purify their own or there was some unwritten rule that prevented further purification if a cultivator attempted it after reaching the Foundation Establishment realm. Either way though, both Faldon and Liz were completely astonished with the results and incredibly grateful.
"Now that you both have finished for the time being, what do you think about me creating another one so you'd both be able to use these in your daily practice from now on? Though i'd need master to give me another formation plate haha."
James suggested this since he could tell just how much the formation had helped them both. He'd received so much support growing up under their care that he wanted to start giving back if he could and currently this was the only way he could thing of doing it.
Faldon and Liz were both taken aback and then realized they'd been a bit hasty after noticing the initial gains and had forgotten that James could just make more of such formations.
"Ahem, very well but remember to not give out this formation to anyone else, this is for your well being."
Faldon blushed slightly and handed over another blank formation plate. He was a little embarrassed that he'd been caught up in the heat of the moment and forgot about this option.
James then proceeded to create a new formation and placed it within the formation plate. The familiar scene of it going through a Heavenly Tribulation occurred and afterwards James simply handed it over to Liz. He then gavw the first one he'd created to his master.
"Oh right, before I forget, i've made some improvements to the Mana Gathering chapter of our sect's cultivation technique. I think it'd be useful for you both so i'd like to pass it on to you."
James also took this opportunity to give them both the Mana Gathering chapter of the 'Cloud's Ascent Perfected' cultivation technique. He'd debated on giving them the best one he could but with them not achieving 100% mana purity like him, he doubted if they'd be able to even use it. Also, it never hurt to keep some secrets in a dangerous world like this one.